Old Models for New Princes: Biblical Kingship in Kyivan Rus´

Abstract

During the centuries of its existence, Kyivan Rus´ underwent a progressive adaptation from the Byzantine models of princely power that it initially received to others that were more suitable to the needs demanded by its new international role. In the present article, I argue that more fitting literary models, specifically models for princes, were found in the Hebrew Bible. These biblical models had the clear advantage of tying the sacrality of the ruler to the special status of the people and the land he ruled over, making them the chosen people of God, with the added role they would have in the eschatological narrative of humankind. The increased frequency of references to the Hebrew Bible reveals, to a certain extent, a change in political ideology. I analyze the progressive adaptation of a literary form: the prince’s life, or zhitie, as the form that, in absence of political treatises on the matter, reflects the changes in the political ideology of Kyivan Rus´.