• 1 Ss. Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje

The Konikovo Gospel (KG), The Kulakia Gospel (KuG) and The Boboščica Gospel (BG) are among the first known translations of the New Testament in Macedonian vernacular dating from the 19th century. They are all written in Greek alphabet. In this article we present the most specific examples demonstrating a stylization tendency towards a wider dialectal base and/or towards a more elevated style. The most important conclusion is that of all the analysed gospels the most stylized text is the oldest among them, the KG (1852), especially its second hand. The stylization steps are less common for the KuG (1860) and even less for the BG (1880). It is possible to say that the texts analyzed in this paper, together with the other translations of the New Testament in Macedonian vernacular from the 18th and the 19th centuries, open, more or less, a clear path towards the formation of one Biblical language, leading to the translations of the Bible in contemporary Macedonian standard language in 1976, 2003 and 2007.