Chapter 4 Spreading Liberation Ideas

1564-66), who followed Makarii in Moscow and signed one of the earliest copies. Research on the oldest manuscript, which was recently found in Tomsk, as well as internal evidence have led to an array of opinions whereby the 'Book of Degrees' is dated to either the mid-1550s or the early 1560s. Some contend that the text only stabilized under metropolitan Filip (1566-68), while the late Edward Keenan put it in a different context, that it took its final shape during the rule of Boris Godunov, the regent and authority behind Tsar Fedor Ivanovich, in the years after Ivan IV's death in 1584. 3 However, intra-textual evidence on dating the 'Book of Degrees' requires more attention than it has been given so far. As will be shown below, it contains many of the details of the Biblical Exodus inscribed in the murals of the Golden Hall throne-and anterooms of Ivan IV, and adds slavery-related details to the sources copied. However, it barely mentions Joseph, whose extensive slave career from sale and incarceration to the very top of Egyptian society fills two walls in Fedor Ivanovich's and Boris Godunov's newly painted throne room, the Palace of Facets. 4 These diverging foci align with the majority of attempts to date the 'Book of Degrees' within the years immediately after the fall of Kazan.