Holy Bible. Bible. About Holy Scripture

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1. Scripture and Tradition

Christianity is a revealed religion. In the Orthodox understanding, Divine Revelation includes Holy Scripture and Holy Tradition. Scripture is the entire Bible, that is, all the books of the Old and New Testaments. As for Tradition, this term requires special clarification, since it is used in different meanings. Tradition is often understood as the entire set of written and oral sources with the help of which the Christian faith is passed on from generation to generation. The Apostle Paul says: “Stand fast and hold to the traditions which you were taught either by our word or by our epistle” (2 Thess. 2:15). By “word” here we mean oral Tradition, by “message” - written. Saint Basil the Great attributed to oral Tradition sign of the cross, turning to the east in prayer, the epiclesis of the Eucharist, the rite of consecration of the water of baptism and anointing oil, the threefold immersion of a person at baptism, etc., that is, predominantly liturgical or ritual traditions, transmitted orally and firmly included in church practice. Subsequently, these customs were recorded in writing - in the works of the Church Fathers, in the decrees of the Ecumenical and Local Councils, in liturgical texts. A significant part of what was originally oral Tradition became written Tradition, which continued to coexist with oral Tradition.

If Tradition is understood in the sense of the totality of oral and written sources, then how does it relate to Scripture? Is Scripture something external to Tradition, or is it an integral part of Tradition?

Before answering this question, it should be noted that the problem of the relationship between Scripture and Tradition, although reflected in many Orthodox authors, is not Orthodox in origin. The question of what is more important, Scripture or Tradition, was raised during the controversy between the Reformation and Counter-Reformation in the 16th-17th centuries. The leaders of the Reformation (Luther, Calvin) put forward the principle of “the sufficiency of Scripture,” according to which only Scripture enjoys absolute authority in the Church; As for later doctrinal documents, be they decrees of Councils or the works of the Fathers of the Church, they are authoritative only insofar as they are consistent with the teaching of Scripture. Those dogmatic definitions, liturgical and ritual traditions that were not based on the authority of Scripture could not, according to the leaders of the Reformation, be recognized as legitimate and therefore were subject to abolition. With the Reformation, the process of revision of Church Tradition began, which continues in the depths of Protestantism to this day.

In contrast to the Protestant principle of “sola Scriptura” (Latin for “Scripture alone”), Counter-Reformation theologians emphasized the importance of Tradition, without which, in their opinion, Scripture would have no authority. Luther's opponent at the Leipzig Disputation of 1519 argued that "Scripture is not authentic without the authority of the Church." Opponents of the Reformation pointed out, in particular, that the canon of Holy Scripture was formed precisely by Church Tradition, which determined which books should be included in it and which should not. At the Council of Trent in 1546, the theory of two sources was formulated, according to which Scripture cannot be considered as the only source of Divine Revelation: an equally important source is Tradition, which constitutes a vital addition to Scripture.

Russian Orthodox theologians of the 19th century, speaking about Scripture and Tradition, placed emphasis somewhat differently. They insisted on the primacy of Tradition in relation to Scripture and traced the beginning of Christian Tradition not only to the New Testament Church, but also to the times of the Old Testament. Saint Philaret of Moscow emphasized that the Holy Scripture of the Old Testament began with Moses, but before Moses, the true faith was preserved and spread through Tradition. As for the Holy Scripture of the New Testament, it began with the Evangelist Matthew, but before that “the foundation of dogmas, the teaching of life, the rules of worship, the laws of church government” were in Tradition.

At A.S. Khomyakov, the relationship between Tradition and Scripture is considered in the context of the teaching about the action of the Holy Spirit in the Church. Khomyakov believed that Scripture is preceded by Tradition, and Tradition is preceded by “deed,” by which he understood revealed religion, starting from Adam, Noah, Abraham and other “ancestors and representatives of the Old Testament Church.” The Church of Christ is a continuation of the Old Testament Church: the Spirit of God lived and continues to live in both. This Spirit acts in the Church in a variety of ways - in Scripture, Tradition and in practice. The unity of Scripture and Tradition is comprehended by a person who lives in the Church; Outside the Church it is impossible to comprehend either Scripture, Tradition, or deeds.

In the 20th century, Khomyakov’s thoughts about Tradition were developed by V.N. Lossky. He defined Tradition as “the life of the Holy Spirit in the Church, the life that imparts to each member of the Body of Christ the ability to hear, accept, and know the Truth in its inherent light, and not in the natural light of the human mind.” According to Lossky, life in Tradition is a condition for the correct perception of Scripture, it is nothing more than knowledge of God, communication with God and vision of God, which were inherent in Adam before his expulsion from paradise, the biblical forefathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the seer Moses and the prophets, and then “ eyewitnesses and ministers of the Word" (Luke 1:2) - the apostles and followers of Christ. The unity and continuity of this experience, preserved in the Church right up to the present time, constitutes the essence of Church Tradition. A person outside the Church, even if he studied all the sources of Christian doctrine, will not be able to see its inner core.

Answering the question posed earlier about whether Scripture is something external to Tradition or an integral part of the latter, we must say with all certainty that in the Orthodox understanding Scripture is part of Tradition and is unthinkable outside of Tradition. Therefore, Scripture is by no means self-sufficient and cannot by itself, isolated from church tradition, serve as a criterion of Truth. The books of Holy Scripture were created at different times by different authors, and each of these books reflected the experience of a particular person or group of people, reflecting a certain historical stage in the life of the Church, including the Old Testament period). The primary was experience, and the secondary was its expression in the books of Scripture. It is the Church that gives these books - both the Old and the New Testaments - the unity that they lack when viewed from a purely historical or textual point of view.

The Church considers Scripture to be “inspired by God” (2 Tim. 3:16), not because the books included in it were written by God, but because the Spirit of God inspired their authors, revealed the Truth to them, and held together their scattered writings into a single whole. But in the action of the Holy Spirit there is no violence over the mind, heart and will of man; on the contrary, the Holy Spirit helped man to mobilize his own inner resources to comprehend the key truths of the Christian Revelation. The creative process, the result of which was the creation of a particular book of Holy Scripture, can be represented as a synergy, joint action, collaboration between man and God: a person describes certain events or sets out various aspects of a teaching, and God helps him to understand and adequately express them. The books of the Holy Scriptures were written by people who were not in a state of trance, but in sober memory, and each of the books bears the imprint creative individuality author.

Fidelity to Tradition, life in the Holy Spirit helped the Church to recognize the internal unity of the Old Testament and New Testament books, created by different authors at different times, and from all the diversity of the ancient written monuments to select into the canon of Holy Scripture those books that are held together by this unity, to separate divinely inspired works from non-divinely inspired ones.

2. Scripture in Orthodox Church

In the Orthodox tradition, the Old Testament, the Gospel and the corpus of the Apostolic Epistles are perceived as three parts of an indivisible whole. At the same time, the Gospel is given unconditional preference as a source that brings the living voice of Jesus to Christians, the Old Testament is perceived as prefiguring Christian truths, and the Apostolic Epistles are perceived as an authoritative interpretation of the Gospel belonging to Christ’s closest disciples. In accordance with this understanding, the Hieromartyr Ignatius the God-Bearer in his letter to the Philadelphians says: “Let us resort to the Gospel as to the flesh of Jesus, and to the apostles as to the presbytery of the Church. Let us also love the prophets, for they also proclaimed what pertains to the Gospel, they trusted in Christ and looked for Him and were saved by faith in Him.”

The doctrine of the Gospel as “the flesh of Jesus,” His incarnation in the word, was developed by Origen. Throughout Scripture he sees the “kenosis” (exhaustion) of God the Word incarnating himself in the imperfect forms of human words: “Everything that is recognized as the word of God is the revelation of the Word of God made flesh, which was with God in the beginning (John 1:2) and exhausted Himself.” . Therefore, we recognize the Word of God made man as something human, for the Word in the Scriptures always becomes flesh and dwells among us (John 1:14).”

This explains the fact that in Orthodox worship the Gospel is not only a book to read, but also an object of liturgical worship: the closed Gospel lies on the throne, it is kissed, it is taken out for worship by the faithful. During the episcopal consecration, the revealed Gospel is placed on the head of the person being ordained, and during the sacrament of the Blessing of Unction, the revealed Gospel is placed on the head of the sick person. As an object of liturgical worship, the Gospel is perceived as a symbol of Christ Himself.

In the Orthodox Church, the Gospel is read daily during worship. For liturgical reading, it is divided not into chapters, but into “conceptions.” The four Gospels are read in their entirety in the Church throughout the year, and for each day of the church year there is a specific Gospel beginning, which the believers listen to while standing. On Good Friday, when the Church remembers the suffering and death of the Savior on the cross, a special service is held with the reading of twelve Gospel passages about the passion of Christ. The annual cycle of Gospel readings begins on the night of Holy Easter, when the prologue of the Gospel of John is read. After the Gospel of John, which is read during the Easter period, the readings of the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke begin.

The Acts of the Apostles, conciliar epistles and the epistles of the Apostle Paul are also read in the Church every day and are also read in their entirety throughout the year. The reading of the Acts begins on the night of Holy Easter and continues throughout the Easter period, followed by the conciliar epistles and the epistles of the Apostle Paul.

As for the books of the Old Testament, they are read selectively in the Church. The basis of Orthodox worship is the Psalter, which is read in its entirety during the week, and in Lent - twice a week. During Lent, conceptions from the Books of Genesis and Exodus, the Book of the Prophet Isaiah, and the Book of the Wisdom of Solomon are read daily. On holidays and days of remembrance of especially revered saints, three “proverbs” are supposed to be read - three passages from the books of the Old Testament. On the eve of the great holidays - on the eve of Christmas, Epiphany and Easter - special services are held with the reading of a larger number of proverbs (up to fifteen), which represent a thematic selection from the entire Old Testament relating to the celebrated event.

IN Christian tradition The Old Testament is perceived as a prototype of New Testament realities and is viewed through the prism of the New Testament. This kind of interpretation is called “typological” in science. It began with Christ Himself, who said about the Old Testament: “Search the Scriptures, for through them you think you have eternal life; and they testify of Me” (John 5:39). In accordance with this instruction of Christ, in the Gospels many events from His life are interpreted as the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies. Typological interpretations of the Old Testament are found in the epistles of the Apostle Paul, especially in the Epistle to the Hebrews, where the entire Old Testament history is interpreted in a representative, typological sense. The same tradition is continued in the liturgical texts of the Orthodox Church, filled with allusions to events from the Old Testament, which are interpreted in relation to Christ and the events from His life, as well as to events from the life of the New Testament Church.

According to the teachings of Gregory the Theologian, all dogmatic truths are contained in the Holy Scriptures Christian Church: you just need to be able to recognize them. Nazianzen proposes a method of reading Scripture that can be called “retrospective”: it consists in considering the texts of Scripture based on the subsequent Tradition of the Church, and identifying in them those dogmas that were more fully formulated in a later era. This approach to Scripture is fundamental in the patristic period. In particular, according to Gregory, not only the New Testament, but also the Old Testament texts contain the doctrine of the Holy Trinity.

Thus, the Bible must be read in the light of the dogmatic tradition of the Church. In the 4th century, both Orthodox and Arians resorted to the texts of Scripture to confirm their theological positions. Depending on these settings, different criteria were applied to the same texts and interpreted differently. For Gregory the Theologian, as for other Church Fathers, in particular Irenaeus of Lyons, there is one criterion for the correct approach to Scripture: fidelity to the Tradition of the Church. Only that interpretation of biblical texts is legitimate, Gregory believes, which is based on Church Tradition: any other interpretation is false, since it “robs” the Divine. Outside the context of Tradition, biblical texts lose their dogmatic significance. And vice versa, within Tradition, even those texts that do not directly express dogmatic truths receive new understanding. Christians see in the texts of Scripture what non-Christians do not see; to the Orthodox is revealed what remains hidden from heretics. The mystery of the Trinity for those outside the Church remains under a veil, which is removed only by Christ and only for those who are inside the Church.

If the Old Testament is a prototype of the New Testament, then the New Testament, according to some interpreters, is the shadow of the coming Kingdom of God: “The Law is the shadow of the Gospel, and the Gospel is the image of future blessings,” says Maximus the Confessor. The Monk Maximus borrowed this idea from Origen, as well as the allegorical method of interpreting Scripture, which he widely used. The allegorical method made it possible for Origen and other representatives of the Alexandrian school to consider stories from the Old and New Testaments as prototypes of the spiritual experience of an individual human personality. One of the classic examples of a mystical interpretation of this kind is Origen’s interpretation of the Song of Songs, where the reader goes far beyond the literal meaning and is transported to another reality, and the text itself is perceived only as an image, a symbol of this reality.

After Origen, this type of interpretation became widespread in the Orthodox tradition: we find it, in particular, in Gregory of Nyssa, Macarius of Egypt and Maximus the Confessor. Maximus the Confessor spoke of the interpretation of Holy Scripture as an ascent from the letter to the spirit. The anagogical method of interpreting Scripture (from the Greek anagogê, ascent), like the allegorical method, proceeds from the fact that the mystery of the biblical text is inexhaustible: only the outer outline of Scripture is limited by the framework of the narrative, and “contemplation” (theôria), or the mysterious inner meaning, is unlimited. Everything in Scripture is connected with the inner spiritual life of man, and the letter of Scripture leads to this spiritual meaning.

Typological, allegorical and anagogical interpretation of Scripture also fills the liturgical texts of the Orthodox Church. For example, the Great Canon St. Andrew Kritsky, read during Lent, contains a whole gallery of biblical characters from the Old and New Testaments; in each case, the example of a biblical hero is accompanied by a commentary with reference to the spiritual experience of the person praying or a call to repentance. In this interpretation, the biblical character becomes a prototype of every believer.

If we talk about the Orthodox monastic tradition of interpreting the Holy Scriptures, then first of all it should be noted that the monks had a special attitude towards the Holy Scriptures as a source of religious inspiration: they not only read and interpreted it, but also memorized it. Monks, as a rule, were not interested in the “scientific” exegesis of Scripture: they viewed Scripture as a guide to practical activities and sought to understand it by doing what was written in it. In their writings, the ascetic Holy Fathers insist that everything said in Scripture must be applied to own life: then the hidden meaning of Scripture will become clear.

In the ascetic tradition of the Eastern Church there is the idea that reading the Holy Scriptures is only an auxiliary means on the path of the spiritual life of the ascetic. The statement of the Monk Isaac the Syrian is characteristic: “Until a person accepts the Comforter, he needs the Divine Scriptures... But when the power of the Spirit descends into the spiritual power operating in a person, then instead of the law of the Scriptures, the commandments of the Spirit take root in the heart...” According to the thought of St. Simeon the New Theologian, the need for Scripture disappears when a person meets God face to face.

The above judgments of the Fathers of the Eastern Church by no means deny the need to read the Holy Scriptures and do not diminish the significance of Scripture. Rather, it expresses the traditional Eastern Christian view that the experience of Christ in the Holy Spirit is superior to any verbal expression of this experience, whether in the Holy Scriptures or any other authoritative written source. Christianity is a religion of encountering God, not of bookish knowledge of God, and Christians are by no means “people of the Book,” as they are called in the Koran. Hieromartyr Hilarion (Troitsky) considers it no coincidence that Jesus Christ did not write a single book: the essence of Christianity is not in moral commandments, not in theological teaching, but in the salvation of man by the grace of the Holy Spirit in the Church founded by Christ.

Insisting on the priority of church experience, Orthodoxy rejects those interpretations of Holy Scripture that are not based on the experience of the Church, contradict this experience, or are the fruit of the activity of an autonomous human mind. This is the fundamental difference between Orthodoxy and Protestantism. By proclaiming the principle of “sola Scriptura” and rejecting the Tradition of the Church, Protestants opened up wide scope for arbitrary interpretations of the Holy Scriptures. Orthodoxy claims that outside the Church, outside Tradition, a correct understanding of Scripture is impossible.

In addition to the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, the Tradition of the Orthodox Church includes other written sources, including liturgical texts, orders of the sacraments, decrees of the Ecumenical and Local Councils, the works of the Fathers and teachers of the ancient Church. What is the authority of these texts for an Orthodox Christian?

The doctrinal definitions of the Ecumenical Councils, which have undergone church reception, enjoy unconditional and indisputable authority. First of all, we are talking about the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed, which is a summary statement of Orthodox dogma, adopted at the First Ecumenical Council (325) and supplemented at the Second Council (381). We are also talking about other dogmatic definitions of the Councils included in the canonical collections of the Orthodox Church. These definitions are not subject to change and are generally binding for all members of the Church. As for the disciplinary rules of the Orthodox Church, their application is determined by the real life of the Church at each historical stage of its development. Some rules established by the Fathers of antiquity are preserved in the Orthodox Church, while others have fallen into disuse. The new codification of canon law is one of the urgent tasks of the Orthodox Church.

The liturgical Tradition of the Church enjoys unconditional authority. In their dogmatic impeccability, the liturgical texts of the Orthodox Church follow the Holy Scriptures and the creeds of the Councils. These texts are not just the creations of eminent theologians and poets, but part of the liturgical experience of many generations of Christians. The authority of liturgical texts in the Orthodox Church is based on the reception to which these texts were subjected for many centuries, when they were read and sung everywhere in Orthodox churches. Over these centuries, everything erroneous and alien that could have crept into them through misunderstanding or oversight was weeded out by Church Tradition itself; all that remained was pure and impeccable theology, clothed in poetic forms church hymns. That is why the Church recognized liturgical texts as the “rule of faith”, as an infallible doctrinal source.

The next most important place in the hierarchy of authorities is occupied by the works of the Church Fathers. Among the patristic heritage, the works of the Fathers of the Ancient Church, especially the Eastern Fathers, who had a decisive influence on the formation of Orthodox dogma, have priority importance for an Orthodox Christian. The opinions of the Western Fathers, consistent with the teachings of the Eastern Church, are organically woven into the Orthodox Tradition, which contains both Eastern and Western theological heritage. The same opinions of Western authors, which are in clear contradiction with the teachings of the Eastern Church, are not authoritative for an Orthodox Christian.

In the works of the Fathers of the Church, it is necessary to distinguish between the temporary and the eternal: on the one hand, that which retains value for centuries and has an immutable significance for the modern Christian, and on the other, that which is the property of history, that was born and died within the context in which This church author lived. For example, many natural scientific views contained in the “Conversations on the Six Days” of Basil the Great and in the “Accurate Exposition of the Orthodox Faith” by John of Damascus are outdated, while the theological understanding of the created cosmos by these authors retains its significance in our time. Another similar example- anthropological views of the Byzantine Fathers, who believed, like everyone else in the Byzantine era, that the human body consists of four elements, that the soul is divided into three parts (reasonable, desirable and irritable). These views, borrowed from ancient anthropology, are now outdated, but much of what the mentioned Fathers said about man, about his soul and body, about passions, about the abilities of the mind and soul has not lost its meaning in our days.

In the patristic writings, in addition, it is necessary to distinguish what was said by their authors on behalf of the Church and what expresses the general Church teaching, from private theological opinions (theologumen). Private opinions should not be cut off to create some simplified “sum of theology”, to derive some “common denominator” of Orthodox dogmatic teaching. At the same time, a private opinion, even if its authority is based on the name of a person recognized by the Church as a Father and teacher, since it is not sanctified by the conciliar reception of church reason, cannot be placed on the same level with opinions that have passed such a reception. A private opinion, as long as it was expressed by the Father of the Church and was not condemned by the council, is within the boundaries of what is permissible and possible, but cannot be considered generally binding for Orthodox believers.

On next place After the patristic writings there are the works of the so-called teachers of the Church - theologians of antiquity, who influenced the formation of church teaching, but for one reason or another were not elevated by the Church to the rank of Fathers (these include, for example, Clement of Alexandria and Tertullian). Their opinions are authoritative insofar as they are consistent with general Church teaching.

Of the apocryphal literature, only those monuments that are prescribed in worship or in hagiographic literature can be considered authoritative. The same apocrypha that were rejected by the church consciousness have no authority for the Orthodox believer.

Worthy of special mention are the works on dogmatic topics that appeared in the 16th-19th centuries and are sometimes called the “symbolic books” of the Orthodox Church, written either against Catholicism or against Protestantism. Such documents include, in particular: the responses of the Patriarch of Constantinople Jeremiah II to Lutheran theologians (1573-1581); Confession of Faith of Metropolitan Macarius Kritopoulos (1625); Orthodox Confession of Metropolitan Peter Mohyla (1642); Confession of Faith of the Patriarch of Jerusalem Dositheos (1672), known in Russia under the name “Epistle of the Eastern Patriarchs”; a series of anti-Catholic and anti-Protestant messages of the Eastern Patriarchs of the XVIII - first half of the 19th century century; Letter of the Eastern Patriarchs to Pope Pius IX (1848); Reply of the Synod of Constantinople to Pope Leo IX (1895). According to Archbishop Vasily (Krivoshein), these works, compiled during a period of strong heterodox influence on Orthodox theology, have secondary authority.

Finally, it is necessary to say about the authority of the works of modern Orthodox theologians on doctrinal issues. The same criterion can be applied to these works as to the writings of the ancient teachers of the Church: they are authoritative to the extent that they correspond to Church Tradition and reflect the patristic way of thinking. Orthodox authors of the 20th century made significant contributions to the work of interpretation various aspects Orthodox Tradition, the development of Orthodox theology and its liberation from alien influences, clarification of the foundations of the Orthodox faith in the face of non-Orthodox Christians. Many works of modern Orthodox theologians have become an integral part of the Orthodox Tradition, adding to the treasury into which, according to Irenaeus of Lyons, the apostles put “everything that relates to the truth,” and which over the centuries has been enriched with more and more new works on theological topics.

Thus, Orthodox Tradition is not limited to any one era, which remains in the past, but is directed forward to eternity and is open to any challenges of time. According to Archpriest Georgy Florovsky, “The Church now has no less authority than in past centuries, for the Holy Spirit lives it no less than in former times”; therefore, one cannot limit the “age of the Fathers” to any time in the past. And the famous modern theologian Bishop Kallistos (Ware) of Diokleia says: “An Orthodox Christian must not only know and quote the Fathers, but be deeply imbued with the patristic spirit and adopt the patristic “way of thinking”... To assert that there can be no more Holy Fathers means to assert that the Holy Spirit has left the Church."

So, the “golden age” begun by Christ, the apostles and the ancient Fathers will continue as long as the Church of Christ stands on earth and as long as the Holy Spirit operates in it.

Orthodoxy Titov Vladimir Eliseevich

"Holy Scripture" and "Sacred Tradition"

Orthodox theologians insist on the divinely inspired nature of their doctrine, convincing their followers that it was given to people by God himself in the form of revelation.

This divine revelation is disseminated and maintained among believers through two sources: “sacred scripture” and “sacred tradition.” Orthodoxy considers the first source of its doctrine to be “holy scripture,” “books written by inspired men - in the Old Testament by the prophets, and in the New Testament by the apostles - and constituting the so-called Bible.”

The second source is “sacred tradition,” by which ideologists of Orthodoxy understand “that when true believers who honor God by word and example pass on to each other and to their ancestors and descendants the teaching of faith (i.e., how to believe), the law of God (how to live), how to perform the sacraments and sacred rites».

What are these divinely inspired sources of the doctrine of Orthodoxy? “Holy Scripture” is the Bible, a collection of books of the Old and New Testaments, recognized by the church as inspired, that is, written by holy men under the inspiration and with the assistance of the spirit of God. It should be noted that Orthodox churches do not consider all parts of the Bible to be inspired or canonical. In the canon of inspired books, Orthodoxy includes 38 books of the Old Testament and all 27 books of the New Testament. In the Old Testament, the following books are considered canonical: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges (along with the book of Ruth), four books of Kings, two books of Chronicles, two books of Ezra, books of Nehemiah, Esther, Job, Psalms , Proverbs of Solomon, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, the book of the prophet Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel and the books of the Twelve Prophets.

The remaining books in the Bible are considered non-canonical by the Orthodox Church (for example, the Book of Wisdom of Jesus son of Sirach, Tobit, Judith, etc.). In addition, there are certain passages in the canonical books that are not recognized as inspired. For example, the prayer of King Manasseh at the end of 2 Chronicles, parts of the book of Esther not indicated by the verse count, the song of the three youths in the 3 chapter of the book of the prophet Daniel, the story of Susanna in the 13th chapter, the story of Bel and the dragon in 14 -chapter of the same book.

It must be said frankly that, from the point of view of an unbiased reader, the canonical and non-canonical books of the Bible differ little from each other in content. Some frivolity of the content of the story of Susanna and the elders cannot in any way be considered an obstacle to its inclusion in the canon, if we bear in mind the great sensuality and eroticism of the famous canonical Song of Songs. The main argument of Christian theologians against the inclusion of certain passages in the biblical canon is not objections to their content, but the fact that they are absent from the Hebrew text of the Bible and appear only in the Septuagint (Greek translation of the “70 Interpreters”) and then in the Vulgate (medieval Latin translation). The Catholic Church and Orthodox churches consider non-canonical passages of the Bible to be beneficial for reading and include them in their editions of the Bible. Protestant churches They adhere only to the canon.

The canon of the New Testament is as follows: four gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John); Acts of the Apostles; seven conciliar epistles (one of James, two of Peter, three of John, one of Judas); fourteen epistles of Paul (Romans, two Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, two Thessalonians, two Timothy, Titus, Philemon, Hebrews); Revelation of John the Theologian.

Biblical scholarly criticism has established that the Old Testament portion of the Bible was created by various authors over several centuries. The most ancient parts of the Old Testament (the song of Deborah from the 5th chapter of the book of Judges, the funeral song of David for the death of Saul and his son Jonathan from the second book of Samuel) go back to the 13th century. BC e. At first they were passed on as oral tradition. The recording of such oral traditions began among the Jews at the turn of the 2nd and 1st millennia BC. e., when they adopted the Phoenician writing. The first prophetic books included in the Bible appeared no earlier than the 8th century. BC e. (books of Hosea, Amos, Micah, First Isaiah). By the 6th century BC e. researchers attributed the books of Judges and Kings only in the middle of the 2nd century. BC e. The Psalter was compiled. And only by the beginning of the 1st century. BC e. The Old Testament part of the Bible was compiled approximately in the same form in which it has reached our time.

Analysis of the Old Testament by many generations of scholars leads to the firm conviction that the “holy spirit” had nothing to do with the creation of the Bible. It is enough to cite the example of the book of Genesis, which opens the famous Pentateuch of Moses. There are two clear sources in this book. The book, included in biblical criticism under the name Yahwist, was compiled by a follower of the god Yahweh, initially the god of the tribe of Judah, and then of all the Jewish tribes united around this tribe. The second book of Elohist was compiled by the followers of the gods Elohim (plural of the god Eloh). These primary sources provide similar, but at the same time differing in significant details, descriptions of the “creation” of the universe, the history of mankind and the Jewish people.

And with regard to the New Testament - the part of the Bible created by Christians - scientific analysis also convinces us that here too we are dealing with a purely earthly document. For example, Christian theologians argue that the New Testament books came into being in the order in which they are listed in the canon of the New Testament (first - the Gospel, last - the Apocalypse). In fact, the order in which the New Testament books appeared is exactly the opposite. And the composition of the canon of the New Testament was approved only in 364 at the Council of Laodicea, that is, more than three centuries after the events that it describes.

And so, in order to elevate an earthly document - the Bible - to the rank of a divine document, Orthodox theologians are trying to support the authority of “sacred scripture” with the authority of “sacred tradition”.

Unlike Protestantism, which rejects the “sacred tradition,” and Catholicism, which adheres to the point of view of the incompleteness of the “sacred scripture,” Orthodoxy recognizes both sources of its doctrine as equal. “Sacred tradition is the same divine revelation, the same word of God, orally transmitted to the church by Jesus Christ, like sacred scripture, with the only difference that it is the word of God, orally transmitted to the church by Jesus Christ and the apostles, and sacred scripture is the word of God , enclosed in books by inspired men and handed down to the church in writing.”

Orthodox theologians believe that comprehension of the “deepest” secrets of “divine revelation” is possible only within the framework of a close combination and mutual agreement of the basic provisions of “sacred scripture” and “sacred tradition.” According to their point of view, “in order for the divine revelation to be preserved more accurately and unchangeably, the Holy Scriptures were given. scripture." And the need for tradition is evident from the fact that a minority of people (only the literate) can use books, but everyone can use tradition.

The main meaning of “sacred tradition,” from the point of view of Orthodox theologians, is that it is necessary for the correct understanding of “sacred scripture,” in which many thoughts are presented concisely and are incomprehensible without explanation. The apostolic disciples and their successors allegedly heard the detailed sermon of the apostles and knew how the apostles themselves understood the meaning of the teaching they set out in writing. Therefore, the interpretation of “sacred scripture” without reference to “sacred tradition,” Orthodox theologians warn believers, can and does lead to a distortion of the truths of faith, to heresy. Tradition, from the point of view of Orthodox theologians, is also necessary for the correct performance of sacraments and rituals in their original establishment, since often in the “holy scripture” there is no exact mention of how to perform them. And the “all-wise” apostles, of course, knew the formulas for performing the sacraments and rituals and reported this to their “grateful descendants” in tradition.

What is the second source of the doctrine of Orthodoxy, the so-called “sacred tradition”? The composition of the “sacred tradition” is diverse and complex; Orthodox theologians themselves count 9 parts in it. These are, firstly, the symbols of faith of the ancients local churches(Jerusalem, Antioch, etc.); secondly, the so-called “apostolic rules”, they were not written by the apostles, but contain, according to Orthodox theologians, the practice of apostolic times, although they were collected together no earlier than the 4th century; thirdly, the definitions of faith and rules of the first seven ecumenical councils and three local ones, the authority of which was recognized by the sixth ecumenical council; fourthly, confessions of faith made by the church fathers (the creeds of Gregory of Neocaesarea, Basil the Great, the presentation of the Orthodox faith by Gregory Palma, etc.); fifthly, the acts of ecumenical and local councils; sixthly, ancient liturgies, many of which, according to the conviction of Orthodox theologians, go back to the apostles; seventh, acts of martyrs; eighth, the works of the fathers and teachers of the church (“Catechetical Sermon” by Gregory of Nyssa, “Theology” by John of Damascus, etc.); ninth, the ancient practice of the church concerning sacred times, places, rites, etc., partly reproduced in writing.

However, further in Christian theology strange things happen with the “sacred tradition”. We have already mentioned that one of the three main trends in Christianity - Protestantism - does not recognize the authority of “sacred tradition” at all. Protestant theologians consider “sacred tradition” to be the creation of church leaders, not the holy spirit. And therefore, from their point of view, it cannot in any way be placed on a par with the Bible. There are also endless disputes about the composition of the “sacred tradition” between representatives of the other two main movements of Christianity - Orthodoxy and Catholicism. The Catholic Church includes in its “sacred tradition” the decisions of all ecumenical councils (after the 7th ecumenical council only the Catholic Church collected such) and the decisions of the popes. The Orthodox churches strongly reject these additions. These disputes between representatives of the main currents of Christianity undermine the authority of the “sacred tradition” and devalue its significance. It is difficult for Orthodox theologians to support the authority of the Bible, the “holy scripture,” with the authority of “sacred tradition.” And then a new justification for the enduring significance of the Bible is put into play: the idea of the inspiration of “holy scripture” is used. Let us also consider this argumentation of Orthodox theologians.

Whether the Orthodox clergy wants it or not, from the theological interpretation of the need for “sacred tradition” it is quite clear that theologians subconsciously feel the insufficiency, inferiority of “sacred scripture,” a source that, according to them, should provide an answer to all the queries of the inquisitive human mind. But even when they involuntarily let it slip, Orthodox theologians highly value “holy scripture” and try to confirm its truth by referring to its divinely revealed, “inspired” character. For theologians, “inspiration” is an undoubted proof of truth. Who, if not God, knows the truth?!

How do Orthodox theologians understand “inspiration”? Various points of view have been expressed on this matter in Christian theology, mainly they can be reduced to three. Some theologians (Athenagoras, Justin Martyr, Tertullian and theologians of the old Protestant school of the 17th century) believed that the authors of biblical books were only organs of the “holy spirit” that inspired them and communicated the “wisdom” of the revelation of God in an ecstatic state, without any participation of their own consciousness and will. According to this view, the responsibility for the biblical texts lies entirely with the “holy spirit,” and since he is a member of the holy trinity, naturally he could not be mistaken, and therefore not only all the legends in the Bible are true, but also every word, every letter.

Another direction in Christian theology (Origen, Epiphanius, Jerome, Basil the Great, Chrysostom) took a more cautious approach to determining the nature of the “inspiration” of the Bible. Representatives of this school of thought understood inspiration only as illumination and enlightenment emanating from the “holy spirit,” in which the consciousness and personal activity of the authors of biblical books were preserved intact. To the great regret of modern theologians, representatives of this trend did not express “ separate view on the inspiration of the sacred books, whether everything in them is inspired by God.”

And finally, we need to point out the third direction in the interpretation of the question of the “divine inspiration” of “sacred scripture”. When, as a result of the blows of scientific criticism of the Bible, it became clear that a rather small fraction of the truth in the content of the “holy scripture” remained, among theologians who wanted to save the Christian doctrine, a whole school of so-called modernists appeared, who began to limit the “inspiration” of the “holy” books of their general content, without recognizing individual details in the biblical texts.

Orthodox theologians gravitate most toward the second of these three points of view. The first direction in the interpretation of “divine inspiration” seems to them to be somewhat limited, since the authors of biblical books, speaking divine truth, “turn into mechanical tools, into automata, alien to personal understanding and attitude to the truths communicated.” The point, of course, is not that this understanding of “inspiration” is insufficient. It’s just that these days it is already difficult to prove that every word and every letter in the Bible is true; too many contradictions and absurdities have been discovered in the “holy scripture”.

As for the third direction with its extreme conclusions, it seems to Orthodox theologians to be too “revolutionary” and is rejected, since it “breaks the internal necessity, the connection between thought and word, between the subject of revelation and its external presentation and expression.” Orthodox theologians are frightened that such views “little by little reduce all scripture to human works, and its inspiration is recognized as an ignorant, outdated concept.”

Modern Orthodox theologians formulate their attitude to the nature of the “inspiration” of biblical books as follows: “Inspiration consists in the fact that St. The writers, whatever they wrote, wrote according to the direct inspiration and instruction of St. spirit, and received from it both a thought and a word, or an external form of expression (to the extent that it is inextricably linked with the very content of revelation), but without any constraint or violence of their natural abilities.”

However, the absence of any constraint and violence against the natural abilities of earthly authors greatly fails theologians. Reading the Bible can confuse anyone: it is full of contradictions. For example, according to the first chapter of the book of Genesis, man and woman were created by God at the same time, but the second chapter of this book claims that Adam was first molded from clay, and then Eve was created from his rib. It is impossible to understand how long the flood lasted. “The flood continued on the earth for forty days - this is one message in the Bible. “The waters increased on the earth for one hundred and fifty days,” says another verse of the “holy scripture.” Many are familiar with the biblical myth of the fight between David and Goliath. However, the same Bible in another place says: “Then Elchanan the son of Jagar-Orgim of Bethlehem killed Goliath the Gittite.” No less controversial is the New Testament, the part of the Bible that is revered only by Christians. It is enough to give the genealogy of Jesus Christ. According to the Gospel of Matthew, 42 generations passed from the patriarch Abraham to Jesus, and the Gospel of Luke counts 56 generations. Scientific criticism of the Bible shows what a huge number of such contradictions and historical incongruities there are in the so-called “holy scripture”.

How to explain the numerous contradictions of biblical texts, how to explain the irreconcilable contradiction between biblical legends and the achievements of modern natural science? After all, even according to the point of view of modern theologians, “truth is one and objective.” Armed with the above understanding of “divine inspiration,” Orthodox theologians are trying to fight against scientific criticism of the Bible.

It turns out that anything can be explained and justified. To do this, you just need to be sufficiently savvy in theology. It has already been said that, according to the point of view of Orthodoxy, “divine inspiration” when writing biblical books did not in the least hinder the natural abilities of the earthly authors of the “holy scriptures”. “But since human nature is imperfect, the participation of free human activity in the writing of the sacred. books may introduce some imperfections into them. Therefore, the scriptures found in St. do not contradict the inspiration of God. books contain purely human thoughts and feelings, inaccuracies, disagreements, etc. Works of the priest. writers are perfect only to the extent necessary for divine purposes. Where imperfect human knowledge is sufficient for the cause of human salvation, God allowed imperfections to appear. The same can be said about the form in which God is presented. revelation".

This is a very important recognition of Orthodox theologians. We have already seen that when interpreting the need for “sacred tradition,” Orthodox theologians, although unwillingly, spoke about the inferiority of “sacred scripture,” in which supposedly “many thoughts are presented concisely and without explanation.” Here, the theologians themselves clearly and unequivocally speak out about the imperfection of “holy scripture” from the point of view of both the content of individual passages and the form of presentation. True, all these “imperfections” of the Bible are recognized with purely theological caution. Gross chronological errors are called “inaccuracy”, glaring contradictions of biblical texts are called “disagreements”, complete irreconcilability biblical painting the creation of the world with the achievements of modern natural science modestly falls under the heading “and so on.” But in this case we are not interested in the caution of theologians, but in the fact of their recognition of the imperfection of “holy scripture”,

With the help of this understanding of “divine inspiration,” Orthodox theologians try to protect the Bible from the blows of scientific criticism. They understand perfectly well that in our days, when even a more or less educated person against the backdrop of the scientific picture of the world can see many flaws in biblical ideas, it is impossible to save the biblical text in its entirety. But the holy spirit, which “dictated” the biblical legends to the prophets and apostles, must be saved. A deity cannot tell lies. Therefore, Orthodox theologians “found in St. books, purely human thoughts and feelings, inaccuracies, disagreements, etc.,” that is, all kinds of errors, are attributed to the imperfection of the earthly authors of the Bible, to the account of imperfect human nature, which managed to leave its mark even on the “God-inspired” “holy scripture.” Because the responsibility for the imperfections of the “holy scripture” is shifted from the shoulders (so to speak) of the holy spirit to the conscience of the earthly authors of the Bible, the biblical contradictions themselves do not disappear.

Despite the forced recognition of the imperfection of the “holy scripture,” Orthodox theologians still value the significance of the Bible very highly. Biblical books, they say, “are more important than all books for man, as they communicate the will of God, which must be known to please God and save the soul. The Bible is a book of books."

In the second collection of “Theological Works,” published in 1961, a review by candidate of theology E. A. Karmanov appeared on the book of Catholic theologians E. Galbiati and A. Piazza “Difficult Pages of the Bible (Old Testament).” We will dwell on this review when we consider the issues of the relationship between Orthodoxy and science. Now I would like to consider several program provisions of E. A. Karmanov. He is very sympathetic to the rejection of “the literal meaning in favor of the spiritual and symbolic” when interpreting biblical texts. He believes that the contradiction between the two stories about the creation of the world is easily resolved, since the first story is written in a religious and moral sense, and the second in a psychological and didactic sense. Both stories, they say, do not pretend to be an objective presentation of facts; the order of events is not included in the range of the author’s statements. According to the author, the biblical description of the global flood does not at all assert its “universality” and applies only to Palestine, Egypt and neighboring countries. In the famous Babylonian pandemonium, it turns out, one can see “a standard hyperbole like our skyscraper.” In conclusion, the author expresses the conviction that “the correct application of the historical-critical method, a painstaking and comprehensive study of the biblical text without hasty and unfounded conclusions yield excellent results.” But who will determine whether the conclusions are hasty or unhurried, whether they are justified or unfounded? The author of the review found it possible to admit that the narrative of the book of Genesis about the creation of the world does not pretend to be an objective presentation of facts. But what about the contradictions in the gospels - these biographies of Jesus Christ? Perhaps the Gospel texts also do not pretend to be an objective presentation of facts? Perhaps they are only religious and edifying stories? Perhaps there was no immaculate conception of Jesus Christ, his crucifixion, his miraculous resurrection and ascension into heaven? Unpleasant questions for theologians. The path of symbolic interpretation of the Bible is very dangerous for them, but they are forced to step on it, driven by the blows of scientific criticism of the “holy scripture”.

The situation is no better with another source of doctrine - “sacred tradition”. Dogmas, decrees, and canons of ecumenical councils, as we have already seen, were created over hundreds of years by different people in different situations. And here we also encounter interesting facts that refute the theological concept of “divine inspiration” of “sacred tradition.” Let us take, for example, the credo of Orthodoxy, its symbol of faith and the “secret of mysteries” of Christianity - the dogma of the Holy Trinity.

From the book Language and Religion. Lectures on philology and history of religions author Mechkovskaya Nina Borisovna

63. “Talmud”, the Sacred Tradition of Judaism The consequence of the principle of ipse dixit ‘he said it himself’, so organic for communication in the religions of Scripture (see §56), was that the circle of authors of Scripture was initially extremely limited. It included only the highest religious authorities, and

From the book Orthodox Dogmatic Theology author Pomazansky Protopresbyter Michael

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Section II Sacred Tradition 1. Sacred Scripture about Sacred Tradition Sacred Tradition is the general form of preservation and dissemination by the Church of its teachings. Or another formulation - the preservation and dissemination of Divine Revelation. This form itself

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From the book Bibliological Dictionary author Men Alexander

SACRED TRADING AND SACRED SCRIPTURE There are many attempts to give a precise definition of the Holy. P., but none of them is considered exhaustive. The complexity of the task is apparently due to the fact that the concept of the Holy. P. as the Word of God revealed to the Church cannot be

From the book Ladder, or Spiritual Tablets author Climacus John

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From the book Dogmatic Theology author (Kastalsky-Borozdin) Archimandrite Alipiy

IV. SACRED TRADING The concept of “tradition” implies the successive transmission from generation to generation of any knowledge or teaching. The early Church was characterized by a very broad understanding of Sacred Tradition. The Apostle Paul unites all creeds in this concept,

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1. SACRED TRADITION “Under the name of Sacred Tradition we mean that when true believers and those who honor God by word and example pass on to one another, and ancestors to descendants, the teaching of faith, the law of God, sacraments and sacred rites.” The word “tradition” itself (Greek ?????????) means

From the book Saint Theophan the Recluse and his teaching on salvation author Tertyshnikov Georgy

3.6. Why should we observe the Holy Tradition even when we have the Holy Scriptures? The need to keep Tradition even when we possess the Holy Scriptures is due to three reasons. a) Holy Tradition also includes what, in principle, cannot

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From the book 300 words of wisdom author Maksimov Georgy

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The meaning of the concepts “Divine Revelation”, “Sacred Tradition”, “Holy Scripture”, “Bible”, “Old and New Testaments” The purpose of Divine economy, that is, God’s care for His creation, is the salvation of man and his union with the Creator. Certificate

In order to preserve the revelation of God and convey it to descendants, the holy men, having accepted the inspiration from the Lord, wrote it down in books. They were helped to cope with this difficult task by the Holy Spirit, who was invisibly present nearby, showing the right path. The numerous collection of all these books is combined into one common name- Holy Bible. Written by the Spirit of God through chosen people, among whom were kings, prophets, and apostles, it has become sacred since ancient times.

The second name that is used to characterize the Holy Scriptures is the Bible, which is translated from Greek as “books.” This is an accurate interpretation, since the correct understanding here lies precisely in plural. On this occasion, Saint John Chrysostom noted that the Bible is many books that form one single one.

Structure of the Bible

The Holy Scriptures are divided into two parts:

The Old Testament is those books that were written before the appearance of Jesus Christ in the world.
The New Testament was written down by the holy apostles after the coming of the Savior.

The word “covenant” itself is literally translated as “command,” “teaching,” “instruction.” Its symbolic meaning is the creation of an invisible union between God and man. Both of these parts are equivalent and together form a single Holy Scripture.

The Old Testament, representing a more ancient union of God with man, was created immediately after the fall of the ancestors of mankind. Here God gave them a promise that the Savior would come to the world.

The Holy Scripture of the New Testament is based on the fact that the Savior promised by the Lord appeared to the world, taking on human nature, and became in everything like people. Throughout his short life, Jesus Christ showed that she can be free from sin. Having resurrected, he gave people the great grace of renewal and sanctification by the Holy Spirit for the continuation of life in the Kingdom of God.

Structure of the Old and New Testaments. Holy books

They are written in ancient Hebrew. There are 50 of them in total, of which 39 are canonical. However, it should be noted here that, according to the Jewish code of the Holy Scriptures, some groups of books are combined into one. And therefore their number is 22. That is the number of letters in the Hebrew alphabet.

If we organize them according to content, we can distinguish four large groups:

legislative - this includes the five main books that form the basis of the Old Testament;
historical - there are seven of them, and they all tell about the life of the Jews, their religion;
teaching - five books containing the teaching of faith, the most famous is the Psalter;
prophetic - all of them, and there are also five of them, contain a foreshadowing that the Savior will soon come to the world.

Turning to the New Testament sacred sources, it should be noted that there are 27 of them, and all of them are canonical. The Old Testament division into groups given above is not applicable here, since each of them can be assigned to several groups at once, and sometimes to all of them at once.

The New Testament, in addition to the four Gospels, includes the Acts of the Holy Apostles, as well as their Epistles: seven conciliar letters and fourteen from the Apostle Paul. The story ends with the Revelation of John the Theologian, also known as the Apocalypse.

Gospels

The New Testament, as we know, begins with the four Gospels. This word means nothing more than the good news of the salvation of people. It was brought by Jesus Christ himself. It is to him that this high gospel - the Gospel - belongs.

The task of the evangelists was only to convey it, telling about the life of the Son of God Jesus Christ. That is why they say not “the Gospel of Matthew”, but “from Matthew”. It is understood that all of them: Mark, Luke, John and Matthew have one gospel - Jesus Christ.

Gospel of Matthew. The only one written in Aramaic. It was intended to convince the Jews that Jesus was the Messiah they had been waiting for.
Gospel of Mark. Greek is used here for the purpose of conveying the sermon of the Apostle Paul to Christian converts from paganism. Mark focuses on the miracles of Jesus, while emphasizing his power over nature, which the pagans endowed with divine properties.
The Gospel of Luke was also written in Greek for former pagans who had converted to Christianity. This is the most detailed description the life of Jesus, which concerns the events preceding the birth of Christ, born of the Blessed Virgin Mary. According to legend, Luke was personally acquainted with her and became the author of the first icon of the Most Holy Theotokos.
Gospel of John. It is believed that it was written in addition to the previous three. John cites those words and deeds of Jesus that are not mentioned in the previous Gospels.

Inspiration of Holy Scripture

The books that together form the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are called inspired because they were written by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. In other words, we can say that their only and real author is none other than the Lord God himself. It is he who, defining them in a moral and dogmatic sense, enables man to realize God’s plan through creative work.

That is why the Holy Scripture has two components: divine and human. The first contains the Truth revealed by God himself. The second expresses it in the language of people who lived in one of the eras and belonged to a certain culture. Man, who is created in the image and likeness of God, is endowed with the unique opportunity to enter into direct communication with the Creator. God, being all-wise and omnipotent, has all the means to communicate his revelation to people.

About Sacred Tradition

Speaking about the Holy Scriptures, we should not forget about another way of disseminating divine revelation - Holy Tradition. It was through him that the doctrine of faith was transmitted in ancient times. This method of transmission exists to this day, for under Sacred Tradition is conceived the transmission not only of teaching, but also of sacraments, sacred rites, and the Law of God from ancestors who correctly worship God to the same descendants.

In the twentieth century, there was some change in the balance of views on the role of these sources of divine revelation. In this regard, Elder Silouan says that Tradition covers the entire life of the church. Therefore, that very Holy Scripture is one of its forms. The meaning of each of the sources is not opposed here, but is only emphasized special role Legends.

Bible Interpretation

It is obvious that the interpretation of Holy Scripture is a complex matter and not everyone can do it. Acquaintance with a teaching of this level requires special concentration from a person. Because God may not reveal the meaning inherent in a particular chapter.

There are several basic rules to follow when interpreting the provisions of Holy Scripture:

Consider all the events described not in isolation, but in the context of the time when they occurred.
Approach the process with due reverence and humility so that God allows the meaning of the biblical books to be revealed.
Always remember who the author of the Holy Scripture is, and when contradictions arise, interpret it based on the context of the entire message as a whole. Here it will be important to understand that there can be no contradictions in the Bible, since it is complete and its author is the Lord himself.

Sacred Scriptures of the World

In addition to the Bible, there are other inspired books that representatives of other religious movements turn to. In the modern world there are more than 400 different religious movements. Let's look at the most famous ones.

Jewish Scripture

We should start with the scripture that is closest in content and origin to the Bible - the Jewish Tanakh. It is believed that the composition of the books here practically corresponds to the Old Testament. However, there is a slight difference in their location. According to the Jewish canon, the Tanakh consists of 24 books, which are divided into three groups. The criterion here is the genre of presentation and the period of writing.

The first is the Torah, or, as it is also called, the Pentateuch of Moses from the Old Testament.

The second is Neviim, translated as “prophets” and includes eight books covering the period from the arrival of the promised land to the Babylonian captivity of the so-called period of prophecy. There is also a certain gradation here. There are early and late prophets, the latter are divided into small and large.

The third is Ketuvim, literally translated as “records.” Here, in fact, the scriptures are contained, including eleven books.

The Koran is the holy book of Muslims

Just like the Bible, it contains revelations that were spoken by the Prophet Muhammad. The source that conveyed them into the mouth of the prophet is Allah himself. All revelations are organized into chapters - suras, which, in turn, are composed of verses - verses. The canonical version of the Koran contains 114 suras. Initially they had no names. Later, due to different forms of transmission of the text, the suras received names, some of them several at once.

The Koran is sacred to Muslims only if it is in Arabic. Translation is used for interpretation. Prayers and rituals are pronounced only in the original language.

In terms of content, the Koran tells stories about Arabia and ancient world. Describes how the Last Judgment and posthumous retribution will take place. It also contains moral and legal standards. It should be noted that the Koran has legal force because it regulates certain branches of Muslim law.

Buddhist Tripitaka

It is a collection of sacred texts that were written down after Shakyamuni Buddha died. The name is noteworthy, which is translated as “three baskets of wisdom.” It corresponds to the division of sacred texts into three chapters.

The first is the Vinaya Pitaka. Here are texts that contain rules governing life in the monastic community of the Sangha. In addition to the edifying aspects, there is also a story about the history of the origin of these norms.

The second, the Sutra Pitaka, contains stories about the life of the Buddha, written down by him personally and sometimes by his followers.

The third - Abhidharma Pitaka - includes the philosophical paradigm of teaching. Here is a systematic presentation of it, based on in-depth scientific analysis. While the first two chapters provide practical insights into how to achieve a state of enlightenment, the third strengthens the theoretical foundation of Buddhism.

The Buddhist religion contains a considerable number of versions of this creed. The most famous of them is the Pali Canon.

Modern translations of the Holy Scriptures

A teaching of such magnitude as the Bible attracts the attention of a huge number of people. Humanity's need for it is undeniable. However, at the same time, there is a danger of inaccurate or deliberately distorted translation. In this case, the authors can promote any of their interests and pursue their own goals.

It should be noted that any translation of the Holy Scriptures existing in the modern world has been subject to criticism. Its validity was confirmed or refuted by the strictest judge - time.

Today, one of these widely discussed Bible translation projects is the New World Scripture. The author of the publication is the religious organization Jehovah's Witnesses. In this version of the presentation of the Holy Scriptures there is much that is new and unusual for admirers, people who truly believe and know it:

some well-known words have disappeared;
new ones appeared that were not in the original;
the authors abuse paraphrase and actively add their own interlinear comments.

Without entering into the controversy created around this work, it should be noted that it can be read, but preferably accompanied by the synodal translation accepted in Russia.

So that the Revelation given by God is unchanging, accurate and can be transmitted from generation to generation ( from generation to generation), the Lord gave people Holy Bible. God revealed Himself and His will through the prophets. He commanded them to write down everything that He proclaimed to the representatives of the chosen people: Now go, write this on their board, and write it in a book so that it remains for the future, forever, forever.(Is 30:8).

The Bible consists of the holy books of the Old and New Testaments, which contain Divine revelation about God, the world and our salvation. Through them, God gradually (as humanity matured spiritually) revealed truths. The greatest of them is about the Savior of the world. Jesus Christ is the spiritual heart of the Bible. His incarnation, death on the cross for our sins and resurrection are the main events of not only Sacred, but world history. Jesus Christ spiritually unites both Testaments. The Old Testament speaks of His expectation, and the New Testament speaks of the fulfillment of this expectation. The Savior said to the Jews: Search the Scriptures, for through them you think you have eternal life; and they testify about Me(John 5:39).

The most important distinctive feature biblical books - historicity. The Lord has communicated saving truths to chosen people for over a thousand years in specific life circumstances. More than fifteen centuries have passed from the epiphanies witnessed by Patriarch Abraham to the revelations given to the last Old Testament prophet Malachi. Among those whom the Lord chose to become witnesses of the Truth were: wise men (Moses), shepherds (Amos), kings (David, Solomon), warriors (Joshua), judges (Samuel), priests (Ezekiel). With such a great variety of personal, historical, geographical, cultural, national and other circumstances and conditions, the amazing unity of all biblical sacred texts. They are completely are consistent with each other and complement each other. All of them are organically woven into the historical fabric of real historical life. A holistic look at the history of biblical revelations reveals to us the paths of Divine Providence with all impressive clarity.

Reading the Bible should begin with the Gospel, then turn to the Acts of the Apostles and the Epistles. And only after understanding the New Testament books should one proceed to the Old Testament. Then the meaning of the prototypes, pre-images and symbols will be clear, containing prophecies about the coming of the Savior into the world, His preaching, atoning death and resurrection.

In order to perceive the word of God undistorted, it is necessary to turn to the interpretations of the works of the holy fathers and Orthodox researchers, based on their heritage.

Inspiration of Holy Scripture

Holy books are usually called inspired. From many places in the Bible it is clear that this main feature is the result influence of the Spirit of God on the human spirit- on the minds and hearts of people chosen and sanctified for special service. At the same time, God preserves and gives the opportunity to manifest individual human characteristics. By studying the books written by Moses, Joshua, David, Solomon, Isaiah and other prophets, it is easy to see their personality traits, character traits, style features. Their human word did not disappear, did not dissolve in the word of God, but quite definitely manifested itself, giving an individual coloring to the sacred texts.

At the same time, the Divine truth was not diminished one iota: All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness.(2 Tim 3:16).

Who wrote the Bible

Its authors were holy people - prophets (Old Testament) and apostles (New Testament). The Lord Himself chose and called them. Contemporaries knew that these were God's people, and therefore their texts were treated as word of God.

There was no need to collect Bible books. These scrolls were kept first in the tabernacle, and then in the Jerusalem temple. Sacred manuscripts were also in the synagogues (houses of prayer of the Jews), which are mentioned in the Holy Gospel.

Canon of Holy Scripture

Word canon translated from Greek - rule, measure, sample. This was the name of the cane that builders used as a measuring stick. Applied to Holy Scripture canonical means correct, true. Therefore, these are books recognized by the Church as the revelation of God.

How did the canon come about? Already during the life of the prophets, believing Jews recognized them as God's messengers. Their books were read, rewritten and passed on from generation to generation. The last inspired men of the Jewish people are Ezra, Nehemiah and Malachi. They lived in the middle of the 5th century BC. Through their works the canon of sacred books was finally formalized. The inspired texts were compiled into a single corpus and divided into sections: Law, Prophets and Scriptures.

This collection of sacred books of the Old Testament was taken New Testament Church. The composition of the canonical books is the same, but they are distributed not into three, but into four sections.

Law(or legal books) contained Divine instructions and determined all aspects of the life of the chosen people - religious, moral, legal. He precisely defined the relationship of man to God and between people. The purpose of the laws was to educate the people in piety and obedience to God. The ultimate goal is to be a teacher to Christ (see: Gal 3:24), that is, to protect the people from the temptations of polytheism and pagan vices and prepare them for the coming of the Savior.

Historical books teach us to see the ways of Divine Providence leading humanity to salvation. They show how the Lord decides the destinies of not only individual nations, but also of every person. The idea that the well-being of the people depends on fidelity to the Law of God runs through all the biblical historical books as a core. Apostasy from God leads to national disasters. The way to get rid of them is repentance and correction of life.

Educational books instruct in faith and provide lessons in spiritual wisdom. They talk about Divine love and benefits, about the immutability of His promises. They teach thanksgiving, fear of God, prayer, fighting sin and repentance. Educational books reveal the meaning and ultimate goal of human life - righteousness and life with God. The psalmist David turns to the Lord: fullness of joy is before You, blessedness is at Your right hand forever (Ps 15:11).

Prophetic books explain the meaning of the Covenant and the law for pleasing God and fulfilling the commandments. The prophets were messengers of the will of God, guardians of true knowledge of God. They heralded the Coming of the coming Savior of the world and the establishment of the eternal Kingdom of God. Prophetic books are a spiritual bridge between the Old and New Testaments. In the Old Testament books, the most important New Testament events were predicted by prophecies, symbols and types. “The New Testament is hidden in the Old, the Old is revealed in the New,” says St. Augustine.

The composition of the Holy Scriptures of the Old Testament established by the Orthodox Church includes fifty books: thirty-nine canonical and eleven non-canonical.

Non-canonical books were written by reverent people, but they did not grasp the meaning of texts created directly by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Created by spiritually experienced people, they are edifying and intended for moral reading. For this reason, the Christian Church from ancient times intended them for the benefit of their children. For example, St. Athanasius the Great (IV century) speaks about this in his 39th Feast Epistle. Having listed the canonical books, he adds: “For greater accuracy, I add that besides these books there are others that are not included in the canon, which, however, were established by the fathers to be read by those who are newly coming and who wish to be instructed in the word of piety, these are: the Wisdom of Solomon, the Wisdom of Sirach, Esther, Judith, Tobias" (Creations. M., 1994. T. 3. P. 372).

All the canonical Old Testament books were written in Hebrew. Only some sections of the books of the prophet Daniel and Ezra, written during and after the Babylonian captivity, were compiled in Aramaic.

All New Testament holy books (four Gospels, the Acts of the Holy Apostles, fourteen Epistles of the Apostle Paul, seven conciliar epistles) were written by the apostles during the 1st century AD. The most recent is the Revelation (Apocalypse) of the Apostle and Evangelist John the Theologian (c. 95-96 ). Our confidence in the Divine origin of the books of the New Testament is based on the words of the Savior. On the eve of His suffering on the cross, He told His disciples that His Father would send the Holy Spirit, Who will teach you everything and remind you of everything that I told you(John 14:26).

Christian communities perceived as the word of God not only the Gospel, but also the Acts of the Holy Apostles and the Epistles. There are direct indications of this in the texts: I received from the Lord Himself what I passed on to you(1 Cor 11:23); We say this to you by the word of the Lord(1 Thessalonians 4:15). Already in apostolic times, the Churches transmitted to each other the messages of the apostles addressed to them (see: Col. 4, 16). Members of the primal Church knew the sacred New Testament texts well. From generation to generation, sacred books were reverently read and carefully preserved.

Already by the middle of the 2nd century, all four of our canonical Gospels were known in all Churches and only they were recognized as Holy Scripture. A Christian writer named Tatian, who lived at that time, made an attempt to combine all four Gospels into a single narrative (he called his work “Diatessaron”, that is, “According to the Four”). However, the Church chose to use all four Gospel texts as they were written by the apostles and evangelists. Hieromartyr Irenaeus of Lyons (2nd century) wrote: “It is impossible for the Gospels to be more or less in number than there are. For since there are four directions of the world in which we live, and four main winds, and since the Church is scattered throughout the whole earth, and the pillar and foundation of the Church is the Gospel and the Spirit of life, then it must have four pillars, spreading incorruption from everywhere and reviving people "(Against heresies. Book 3, chapter 11).

The New Testament holy books were written in Greek. Only the Evangelist Matthew, according to the testimony of the early Church historian Papias of Hierapolis (d. 160 A.D.), recorded the words of his Teacher Jesus Christ on Hebrew, then his work was translated into Greek.

The Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments formed a single book - the Holy Bible, which has been translated into all languages and is the most read book in the world.

Preliminary Information

The Concept of Holy Scripture

The Holy Scripture or Bible is a collection of books written by prophets and apostles, as we believe, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. The Bible is a Greek word meaning "books." This word is written in Greek with the article “ta”, in the plural, i.e. it means: “Books with a certain content.” This certain content is God's revelation to people, given so that people find the way to salvation.

The main theme of Holy Scripture is the salvation of mankind by the Messiah, the incarnate Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. The Old Testament speaks of salvation in the form of types and prophecies about the Messiah and the Kingdom of God. The New Testament sets forth the very realization of our salvation through the incarnation, life and teaching of the God-man, sealed by His death on the cross and resurrection. According to the time of their writing, the sacred books are divided into the Old Testament and the New Testament. Of these, the first contain what the Lord revealed to people through the divinely inspired prophets before the coming of the Savior to earth; and the second is what the Lord Savior Himself and His apostles discovered and taught on earth.

Initially, God, through the prophet Moses, revealed what later constituted the first part of the Bible, the so-called. Torah, i.e. The law consists of five books - the Pentateuch: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. For a long time, it was this Pentateuch that was the Holy Scripture, the word of God for the Old Testament Church. But immediately after the Torah, the Scriptures appeared, supplementing it: the book of Joshua, then the book of Judges, the books of Kings, Chronicles (chronicles). Complements the books of Kings, the books of Ezra and Nehemiah. The books of Ruth, Esther, Judith and Tobit depict individual episodes in the history of the chosen people. Finally, the books of Maccabees complete the history of ancient Israel and bring it to its goal, to the threshold of the coming of Christ.

Thus appears the second section of the Holy Scriptures, which follows the Law and is called the Historical Books. And in the Historical books there are individual poetic creations: songs, prayers, psalms, as well as teachings. In later times, they compiled entire books, the third section of the Bible - Teaching Books. This section includes the books: Job, Psalms, Proverbs of Solomon, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, Wisdom of Solomon, Wisdom of Jesus son of Sirach.

Finally, the works of St. The prophets who acted after the division of the kingdom and the captivity of Babylon made up the fourth section of the Holy Books, the Prophetic Books. This section includes books: prophet. Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations of Jeremiah, Epistle of Jeremiah, prophet. Baruch, Ezekiel, Daniel and 12 minor Prophets, i.e. Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Saphonius, Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi.

This division of the Bible into Legislative, Historical, Doctrinal and Prophetic books was also applied to the New Testament. Legislative are the Gospels, Historical are the Acts of the Apostles, Teaching are the Epistles of Sts. Apostles and the Prophetic Book - Revelation of St. John the Theologian. In addition to this division, the Holy Scriptures of the Old Testament are divided into Canonical and Non-Canonical books.

Why we value Scripture

The Old Testament writings, firstly, are dear to us because they teach us to believe in the One true God and fulfill His commandments and speak about the Savior. Christ Himself points to this: “Search the Scriptures, for through them you think you have eternal life, and they testify of Me,” He said to the Jewish scribes. In the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, the Savior puts into Abraham’s mouth the following words about the rich man’s brothers: “They have Moses and the prophets; let them listen to them.” Moses is the first five books of the Old Testament Bible, and the prophets are 16 latest books. In a conversation with his disciples, the Savior indicated, in addition to those books, also the Psalter: “everything written in the law of Moses, the prophets and psalms about Me must be fulfilled.” After the Last Supper, “having sung, they went to the Mount of Olives,” says the Evangelist Matthew: this indicates the singing of psalms. The words of the Savior and His example are enough for the Church to treat these books with all care - the Mosaic Law, the Prophets and the Psalms, to cherish and learn from them.

In the circle of books recognized by the Jews as sacred, in addition to the Law and the Prophets, there are two more categories of books: a number of teaching books, of which one is named the Psalter, and a number of historical books. The Church accepted the circle of sacred Jewish books in the Greek translation of seventy interpreters, made long before the birth of Christ. The apostles also used this translation, since they wrote their own messages in Greek. This circle also included books of sacred content of Jewish origin, known only in Greek, as they were compiled after the Great Synagogue established an official list of books. The Christian Church annexed them under the name non-canonical. Jews do not use these books in their religious life.

Moreover, Holy Scripture is dear to us because it contains the foundations of our faith. Thousands of years separate us from the time when the holy books of the Bible were written, so it is not easy for a modern reader to be transported to the atmosphere of that time. However, when becoming familiar with the era, with the task of the prophets and with the peculiarities of the language of the Bible, the reader begins to better understand its spiritual richness. The internal connection between the Old Testament and New Testament books becomes obvious to him. At the same time, the reader of the Bible begins to see in the religious and moral issues that concern him and modern society not new, specific problems of, say, the 21st century, but the original conflicts between good and evil, between faith and unbelief, which have always been inherent in human society .

The historical pages of the Bible are still dear to us because they not only truthfully present the events of the past, but put them in the correct religious perspective. In this respect, no other secular ancient or modern book can compare with the Bible. And this is because the assessment of the events described in the Bible was given not by man, but by God. Thus, in the light of God's word, the mistakes or correct solutions to the moral problems of past generations can serve as guidance for solving contemporary personal and social problems. Getting acquainted with the content and meaning of the sacred books, the reader gradually begins to love the Holy Scriptures, finding, during repeated readings, more and more new pearls of Divine wisdom.

By accepting the Old Testament Holy Scripture, the Church showed that it is the heir of the extinct Old Testament Church: not the national side of Judaism, but the religious content of the Old Testament. In this inheritance one thing has eternal value, and the other has faded away and has significance only as a remembrance and edification, such as, for example, the statutes about the tabernacle, about sacrifices and the instructions for the daily life of the Jew. Therefore, the Church disposes of the Old Testament inheritance completely independently, in accordance with its more complete and higher worldview than that of the Jews.

Of course, a long distance of centuries separates us from the time of writing the books of the Old Testament, especially its first books. And it is no longer easy for us to be transported to that structure of the soul and to that environment in which these divinely inspired books were created and which are presented in these books themselves. From here arise the perplexities that confuse the thought of modern man. These perplexities arise especially often when there is a desire to reconcile the scientific views of our time with the simplicity of biblical ideas about the world. General questions also arise about how consistent the Old Testament views are with the New Testament worldview. And they ask: why the Old Testament? Isn't the teaching of the New Testament and the Scriptures of the New Testament enough?

As for the enemies of Christianity, it has long been the case that attacks against Christianity begin with attacks on the Old Testament. Those who have gone through a period of religious doubt and perhaps religious denial indicate that the first stumbling block to their faith was thrown at them from this area.

For a believer, or for someone “seeking” to find it, the Holy Scripture is a science for life: not only for a young student, but also for the greatest theologian, not only for a layman and a novice, but also for the highest spiritual rank and a wise elder. The Lord commands the leader of the Israelite people, Joshua: “Do not let this book of the Law depart from your mouth, but study in it day and night” (Isa. 1:8). The Apostle Paul writes to his disciple Timothy: “From childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise unto salvation” (2 Tim. 3:15).

Why should you know the Old Testament?

“Church hymns and readings reveal to us two series of events: the Old Testament, as a prototype, as a shadow, and the New Testament, as an image, truth, acquisition. In worship there are constant comparisons of the Old and New Testaments: Adam - and Christ, Eve - and the Mother of God . There is an earthly paradise - here is a heavenly paradise. Through a woman is sin, through a Virgin is salvation. Eating the fruit to death is the communion of the Holy Gifts to life. There is a forbidden tree, here is the saving Cross. There it is said: you will die by death, - here: today you will be with Me in paradise. There is a flattering serpent - here Gabriel is the evangelist. There it is said to the wife: you will be in sorrow - here it is said to the women at the tomb: rejoice. The parallel is drawn throughout the two Testaments. Salvation from the flood in the ark - salvation in the Church. Three strangers in Abraham - and the gospel truth of the Holy Trinity. The Sacrifice of Isaac - and the death of the Savior on the cross. The ladder seen in a dream by Jacob - and the Mother of God, the ladder of the descent of the Son of God to earth. The sale of Joseph by his brothers - and the betrayal of Christ by Judas. Slavery in Egypt and the spiritual slavery of humanity to the devil. Exit from Egypt - and salvation in Christ. Crossing the sea is baptism. The unburnt bush is the ever-virginity of the Mother of God. Saturday Sunday. The rite of circumcision is the sacrament of Baptism. Manna - and the New Testament Lord's Supper. The Law of Moses - and the Law of the Gospel. Sinai and the Sermon on the Mount. The Tabernacle and the New Testament Church. Ark of the Covenant - and the Mother of God. The serpent on the shaft is the nailing of sin to the cross by Christ. Aaron's rod flourished - rebirth in Christ. Such comparisons can be continued further.

New Testament understanding, expressed in chants, deepens the meaning of Old Testament events. By what force did Moses divide the sea? - With the sign of the Cross: “Moses drew the Cross directly with the rod of the Red Cross.” Who led the Jews through the Red Sea? - Christ: “The horse and rider in the Red Sea... Christ shook, but saved Israel.” What was a prototype of what was the restoration of the continuous flow of the sea after the passage of Israel? - A prototype of the incorruptible purity of the Mother of God: “In the Red Sea, the image of the Unartificed Bride was sometimes painted...”

In the first and fifth weeks of Lent, we gather in church for the penitential, touching canon of St. Andrey Kritsky. A long chain of examples of righteousness and examples of falls pass before us from the beginning of the Old Testament to its end, then being replaced by New Testament examples. But only by knowing sacred history can we fully understand the content of the canon and be enriched by its edifications.

This is why knowledge of biblical history is not just for adults; Using lessons from the Old Testament, we prepare our children for conscious participation and understanding of divine services. But other reasons are even more important. In the speeches of the Savior and in the writings of the Apostles there are many references to persons, events and texts from the Old Testament: Moses, Elijah, Jonah, and the testimony of the prophets. Isaiah, etc.

The Old Testament gives reasons why humanity needed salvation through the coming of the Son of God.

Let us not lose sight of direct moral edification. As Ap writes. Paul: “And what more can I say? I do not have enough time to tell about Gideon, about Barak, about Samson and Jephthah, about David, Samuel and (other) prophets, who by faith conquered kingdoms, did righteousness, received promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, strengthened themselves from weakness, were strong in war, drove away the regiments of strangers... Those of whom the whole world was not worthy wandered through deserts and mountains, through caves and gorges of the earth" (Heb. 11:32 -38). We also use these edifications. The Church constantly places the image of the three youths in the cave of Babylon before our thoughts.”

Under the leadership of the Church

“In the Church, everything is in its place, everything has its correct illumination. This also applies to the Old Testament Scriptures. We know by heart the Ten Commandments of the Sinai legislation, but we understand them much deeper than the Jews understood them, because they are illuminated and deepened for us by the Mount preaching of the Savior. In the Mosaic legislation there are many moral and ritual laws, but among them there is such a sublime call: “Love your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and love your sincere one as yourself” - Only through the Gospel did they shine for us with their full brilliance. Neither the tabernacle nor the temple of Solomon exists anymore: but we study their structure because many symbols of the New Testament are contained in their institutions. Readings from the prophets are offered in the temple not in order to know fate peoples surrounding Palestine, but because these readings contain prophecies about Christ and the events of the Gospel.

But it so happened that in the 16th century a huge branch of Christianity abandoned the leadership of Church Tradition, all the wealth of the ancient Church, leaving only the sacred as the source and guide of faith. Scripture - the Bible in its two parts, the Old and New Testaments. This is what Protestantism did. Let us give him his due: he was fired up with a thirst for the living word of God, he fell in love with the Bible. But it did not take into account the fact that the sacred Letters were collected by the Church and belong to it in its historical apostolic succession. It did not take into account that just as the faith of the Church is illuminated by the Bible, so in turn the Bible is illuminated by the faith of the Church. One requires the other and relies on each other. Protestants devoted themselves with all hope to the study of Holy Scripture alone, hoping that, following exactly its path, they would see this path so clear that there would no longer be any reason for difference of opinion in the faith. The Bible, consisting of three-quarters of the Old Testament, became a reference book. They examined it to the smallest detail, checked it against the Hebrew texts, however, at the same time they began to lose the relationship between the values of the Old and New Testaments. It appeared to them as two equal sources of one faith, mutually complementing one another, as two equal sides of it. Some groups of Protestantism have developed the view that, with the quantitative predominance of the books of the Old Testament, it occupies first place in importance. This is how the Judaizing sects appeared. They began to place the Old Testament faith in the One God above the monotheism of the New Testament with its revealed truth about the One God in the Holy Trinity; the commandments of the Sinai legislation are more important than the teaching of the Gospel; Saturdays are more important than Sundays.

Others, even if they did not follow the path of the Judaizers, were unable to distinguish the very spirit of the Old Testament from the spirit of the New, the spirit of slavery from the spirit of sonship, the spirit of law from the spirit of freedom. Under the impression of certain passages of the Old Testament Scriptures, they abandoned the comprehensive fullness of worship of God that is confessed in the Christian Church. They rejected external forms of spiritual-physical worship, and in particular destroyed the symbol of Christianity - the cross and other sacred images. By this they prompted themselves to condemn the Apostle: “How can you, abhorring idols, blaspheme?” (Rom. 2:22).

Still others, confused either by the simplicity of the narration of ancient legends, or by the harsh nature of antiquity, especially manifested in wars, by Jewish nationalism or other features of the pre-Christian era, began to be critical of these legends, and then of the Bible itself in its entirety.

Just as one cannot eat bread alone without water, although bread is the most essential thing for the body, so one cannot eat only the Holy Scriptures without the grace-filled irrigation given by the life of the Church. Protestant theological faculties, designed to be the guardians of Christianity and its sources while working on the study of the Bible, have been set on edge in a manner of speaking. They became interested in critical analysis of the texts of the Old and New Testaments and gradually ceased to feel their spiritual power and began to approach the sacred books as ordinary documents of antiquity, with the techniques of 19th century positivism. Some of these theologians began to compete with each other in coming up with theories about the origin of certain books, contrary to the sacred tradition of antiquity. To explain the facts of foreseeing future events in the sacred books, they began to attribute the very writing of these books to later times (to the time of these events themselves). This method led to the undermining of the authority of Holy Scripture and the Christian faith. True, the simple Protestant community of believers ignored and still partially ignores this so-called biblical criticism. But since the pastors went through theological school, they themselves often found themselves being conductors of critical thought in their communities. The period of biblical criticism waned, but this vacillation led to the loss of dogmatic faith in large quantities sect. They began to recognize only the moral teaching of the Gospel, forgetting that it is inseparable from dogmatic teaching.

But it often happens that even good beginnings have their shadow sides.

So, a big deal in the area Christian culture There was a translation of the Bible into all modern languages. Protestantism accomplished this task to a great extent. However, in the languages of our time it is more difficult to feel the breath of deep antiquity; not everyone can understand and appreciate the simplicity of biblical stories. It is not for nothing that Jews strictly protect the Hebrew language of the Scriptures, avoiding the printed Bible for prayer and reading in synagogues, using parchment copies of the Old Testament.

The Bible has been distributed in millions of copies all over the globe, but has the reverent attitude towards it among the masses of people diminished? This refers to the inner workings of Christianity.

But then new circumstances came from outside. The Bible found itself face to face with the scientific research of geology, paleontology, and archeology. From underground emerged an almost unknown world of the past, defined in modern science hundreds of thousands of years old. The enemies of religion have not failed to use scientific data as a weapon against the Bible. They put her on the court platform, speaking in the words of Pilate: “Don’t you hear how many people are testifying against you?”

Under these conditions, we must believe in the holiness of the Bible, its truth, its value, its exceptional greatness as a book of books, the true book of humanity. Our job is to protect ourselves from embarrassment. The writings of the Old Testament come into contact with modern theories of science. Therefore, let us look into the Old Testament Scriptures according to their essence. As for science, objective, impartial, genuine science will itself, in its conclusions, be a witness to the truth of the Bible. Father John of Kronstadt instructs: “When you doubt the truth of any person or event described in the Holy Scripture, then remember that all “God-inspired Scripture,” as the Apostle says, means it is true, and there are no fictitious persons or fables in it and fairy tales, although there are parables, and not their own legends, where everyone sees that we're talking about inlet The entire word of God is one truth, complete, indivisible, and if you recognize one legend, saying, word as a lie, then you sin against the truth of all Holy Scripture, and its original truth is God himself.”

(Protopresbyter M. Pomazansky).

Inspiration of Scripture

The main feature of the Bible that distinguishes it from all others literary works, giving her unquestioned authority is her divine inspiration. By it is meant that supernatural, divine illumination, which, without suppressing the natural powers of man, raised them to the highest perfection, protected them from mistakes, communicated revelations, in a word, guided the entire course of their work, thanks to which the latter was not a simple product of man, but, as it were, the work of God himself. This is the fundamental truth of our faith, leading us to recognize the books of the Bible as inspired by God. The apostle Paul first used this term when he said: “all Scripture is given by inspiration of God” (2 Tim. 3:16). “No prophecy was ever made by the will of man,” testifies the holy Apostle Peter, “but holy men of God spoke it, being moved by the Holy Spirit” (2 Peter 1:21).

In the Slavic and Russian languages, we usually define Scripture with the word “sacred,” which means having grace in itself, reflecting the spirit of the Holy Spirit. Only the word “holy” is always attached to the Gospels, and before reading it we are called to pray for a worthy hearing of it: “And we pray that we may be worthy to hear the holy Gospel of the Lord God.” We must listen to it while standing: “Forgive (standing) let us hear the Holy Gospel” reading. When reading the Old Testament scriptures (proverbs) and even psalms, if they are not read as prayers, but for edification, such as kathismas at Matins, the Church allows sitting. Ap.'s words Paul's "star differs from star in glory" applies to the sacred books. All Scriptures are inspired by God, but the subject of their speech elevates some of them above others: there are the Jews and the Old Testament law, here - in the New Testament - the Savior Christ and His Divine teaching.

What constitutes the inspiration of Scripture? - The sacred writers were under guidance, which at the highest moments turns into insight and even direct revelation of God. “I had the revelation of the Lord” - we read from the prophets and the app. Paul, and John (in the Apocalypse). But with all this, writers use the usual means of knowledge. For information about the past they turn to oral tradition. “What we have heard and known, and what our fathers have told us, we will not hide from their children, declaring to a future generation the glory of the Lord and His power...” “God, we have heard with our ears, and our fathers have told us the work that You did in the days of old" (Ps. 43:1; 78:2-3). Ap. Luke, who was not one of the 12 disciples of Christ, describes the gospel events “after carefully examining everything first” (Luke 1:3). Then, sacred writers use written documents, lists of people and family lineages, government reports with various instructions. In the historical books of the Old Testament there are references to sources, such as in the books of Kings and Chronicles: “the rest of Ahaziah... is written in the chronicle of the kings of Israel,” “the rest of Jotham... in the chronicle of the kings of Judah.” Authentic documents are also provided: the first book of Ezra contains a number of verbatim orders and reports related to the restoration of the Jerusalem temple.

The sacred writers did not possess omniscience, which belongs to God alone. But these writers were saints. “The children of Israel could not look at the face of Moses because of the glory of his face” (2 Cor. 3:7). This holiness of the writers, purity of mind, purity of heart, consciousness of the heights and responsibility in fulfilling their calling was expressed directly in their writings: in the truth of their thoughts, in the truth of their words, in a clear distinction between the true and the false. Under inspiration from above, they began their recordings and performed them. At certain moments, their spirit was illuminated by the highest gracious revelations and mysterious insight into the past, like the prophet Moses in the book of Genesis, or into the future, like the later prophets and apostles of Christ. It was like seeing through a fog or through a veil. “Now we see through a dark glass, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know, even as I am known” (1 Cor. 13:15).

Whether attention is paid to the past or to the future, there is no reckoning of time in this insight - the prophets see "far as near." That is why the evangelists depict two future events: the destruction of Jerusalem and the end of the world, predicted by the Lord, in such a way that they both almost merge into one future perspective. “It is not your business to know the times or seasons which the Father has appointed in His authority,” said the Lord (Acts 1:7).

Divine inspiration belongs not only to Holy Scripture, but also to Holy Tradition. The Church recognizes them as equal sources of faith, for the tradition that expresses the voice of the entire Church is also the voice of the Holy Spirit living in the Church. All our worship is also inspired by God, as it is sung in one of the prayers: “We will worthily honor the witnesses of truth and the preachers of piety in inspired songs.” The Liturgy of the Holy Mysteries, called by the high name “Divine Liturgy,” is especially divinely inspired.

(Protopresbyter M. Pomazansky).

But the inspiration of the authors of the sacred books did not destroy their personal, natural characteristics. God does not suppress human free will. As can be seen from the words of the Apostle Paul: “And the spirits of the prophets are obedient to the prophets” (1 Cor. 14:32). That is why in the content of St. books, especially in their presentation, style, language, character of images and expressions, we observe significant differences between individual books of Holy Scripture, depending on individual, psychological and peculiar literary features their authors.

The image of Divine revelation to the prophets can be represented by the example of Moses and Aaron. God gave Moses, who was tongue-tied, his brother Aaron as a mediator. When Moses wondered how he could proclaim the will of God to the people, being tongue-tied, the Lord said: “You (Moses) will speak to him (Aaron) and put words (Mine) into his mouth, and I will be in your mouth and in his mouth and I will teach you what you should do, and he will speak in your place to the people. So he will be your mouth, and you will be his God" (Exodus 4:15-16).

Subject to constant persecution for his prophecies, Jeremiah one day decided to stop preaching altogether. But he could not resist God for long, because the prophetic gift “was in his heart like a burning fire, locked up in his bones, and he grew weary of holding it” (Jer. 20:8-9).

Believing in the inspiration of the books of the Bible, it is important to remember that the Bible is the book of the Church. According to God's plan, people are called to be saved not alone, but in a community led and inhabited by the Lord. This society is called the Church. Historically, the Church is divided into the Old Testament, to which the Jewish people belonged, and the New Testament, to which Orthodox Christians belong. The New Testament Church inherited the spiritual wealth of the Old Testament - the word of God. The Church has not only preserved the letter of the word of God, but also has a correct understanding of it. This is due to the fact that the Holy Spirit, who spoke through the prophets and apostles, continues to live in the Church and lead it. Therefore, the Church gives us the right guidance on how to use its written wealth: what is more important and relevant in it, and what has only historical significance and is not applicable in New Testament times.

History of the Holy Books

The holy books did not immediately appear in their modern completeness. The time from Moses (1550 BC) to Samuel (1050 BC) can be called the first period of the formation of St. Scriptures. The inspired Moses, who wrote down his revelations, laws and narratives, gave the following command to the Levites who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord: “Take this book of the law and put it on the right side of the ark of the Lord your God” (Deut. 31:26). Subsequent sacred writers continued to attribute their creations to the Pentateuch of Moses with the command to keep them in the same place where it was kept - as if in one book. So, about Joshua we read that he “wrote his words” “in the book of the law of God,” that is, in the book of Moses (Isa. 24:26). In the same way, it is said about Samuel, a prophet and judge who lived at the beginning of the royal period, that he “explained to the people the rights of the kingdom, and wrote it in a book (obviously already known to everyone and existing before him), and laid it before the Lord,” i.e. on the side of the ark of the covenant of the Lord, where the Pentateuch was kept (1 Sam. 10:25).

During the time from Samuel to the Babylonian captivity (589 BC), the elders of the Israeli people and the prophets were the collectors and keepers of the sacred Old Testament books. The latter, as the main authors of Jewish writing, are very often mentioned in the books of Chronicles. One must also bear in mind the remarkable testimony of the Jewish historian Josephus about the custom of the ancient Jews to revise the existing texts of the Holy Scriptures after any troubled circumstances (for example, prolonged wars). It was sometimes like a new edition of the ancient divine Scriptures, which was allowed to be published, however, only by God-inspired people - prophets who remembered ancient events and wrote the history of their people with the greatest accuracy. Worthy of note is the ancient tradition of the Jews that the pious king Hezekiah (710 BC), with selected elders, published the book of the prophet Isaiah, the Proverbs of Solomon, the Song of Songs and Ecclesiastes.

The time from the Babylonian captivity to the time of the Great Synagogue under Ezra and Nehemiah (400 BC) is the period of the final completion of the Old Testament list of Holy Books (canon). The main work in this great matter belongs to the priest Ezra, this sacred teacher of the law of the God of heaven (Ezra 7:12). With the assistance of the scientist Nehemiah, the creator of an extensive library, who collected “tales about kings, prophets, about David and letters from kings about sacred offerings” (2 Mac. 2:13), Ezra carefully revised and published in one composition all the divinely inspired writings that had come before him and included in this composition both the book of Nehemiah and the book with his own name. At that time, the prophets Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi, who were still alive, were, without a doubt, collaborators of Ezra and their works, of course at the same time, were included in the list of books collected by Ezra. From the time of Ezra, divinely inspired prophets ceased to appear among the Jewish people, and books published after this time are no longer included in the list of sacred books. So, for example, the book of Jesus son of Sirach, also written in Hebrew, with all its ecclesiastical dignity, was no longer included in the sacred canon.

The antiquity of the sacred Old Testament books is evident from their very contents. The books of Moses tell so vividly about the life of a man of those distant times, so vividly depict patriarchal life, and so correspond to the ancient traditions of those peoples that the reader naturally comes to the idea of the closeness of the author himself to the times about which he narrates.

According to experts in the Hebrew language, the very syllable of the books of Moses bears the stamp of extreme antiquity: the months of the year do not yet have their own names, but are simply called first, second, third, etc. for months, and even the books themselves are called simply by their initial words without special names, for example. BERESHIT ("in the beginning" - book of Genesis), VE ELLE SHEMOTH ("and these are the names" - book of Exodus), etc., as if to prove that there were no other books yet, to differ from which would require special names. The same correspondence with the spirit and character of ancient times and peoples is also noticed among other sacred writers who lived after Moses.

By the time of Christ the Savior, the Hebrew language in which the Law was written was already a dead language. The Jewish population of Palestine spoke a language common to the Semitic tribes - Aramaic. Christ also spoke this language. Those few words of Christ that the evangelists quote literally: “talifa kumi; abba; Eloi, Eloi, lamma sabachvani” - all these are Aramaic words. When, after the Jewish War, the existence of small communities of Judeo-Christians ceased, then the Holy Scriptures in Hebrew completely disappeared from the Christian environment. It was the will of God that, having rejected Him and betrayed its purpose, the Jewish community turned out to be the only custodian of the Holy Scriptures in the original language, and, contrary to its will, became a witness that everything that the Church of Christ says regarding the ancient prophecies about Christ the Savior and God’s preparation of people for acceptance of the Son of God is not invented by Christians, but is a genuine, multifaceted truth.

A very important feature of the holy books of the Bible, which determines the varying degrees of their authority, is the canonical nature of some books and the non-canonical nature of others. To find out the origin of this difference, it is necessary to touch upon the very history of the formation of the Bible. We have already had occasion to notice that the Bible includes sacred books written in different eras and by different authors. To this we must now add that, along with genuine, divinely inspired books, inauthentic or non-divinely inspired books also appeared in different eras, to which, however, their authors tried to give the appearance of authentic and divinely inspired ones. Especially many such works appeared in the first centuries of Christianity, on the basis of Ebionism and Gnosticism, such as the “First Gospel of James”, “Gospel of Thomas”, “Apocalypse of St. Peter”, “Apocalypse of Paul”, etc. Consequently, there was a need for an authoritative voice that I would clearly determine which of these books are truly true and inspired by God, which are only edifying and useful (not being inspired by God), and which are downright harmful and counterfeit. Such guidance was given to all believers by the Christian Church itself in its list of so-called canonical books.

The Greek word kanon, like the Semitic kane, originally means a reed stick, or in general, any straight stick, and hence, in a figurative sense, everything that serves to straighten, correct other things, for example. "carpenter's plumb line", or the so-called "rule". In a more abstract sense, the word kanon received the meaning of “rule, norm, pattern”, with which meaning it is found, by the way, in the Ap. Paul: “To those who walk according to this rule (kanon), peace and mercy be upon them, and on the Israel of God” (Gal. 6:16). Based on this, the term kanon and the adjective kanonikos derived from it began to be applied quite early to those sacred books in which, according to the tradition of the Church, they saw the expression of the true rule of faith, its example. Already Irenaeus of Lyon says that we have “the canon of truth - the words of God.” And St. Athanasius of Alexandria defines “canonical” books as those that serve as a source of salvation, in which alone the teaching of piety is indicated. The final distinction between canonical and non-canonical books dates back to the time of St. John Chrysostom, bl. Jerome and Augustine. Since that time, the epithet “canonical” has been applied to those sacred books of the Bible that are recognized by the entire Church as inspired by God, containing rules and models of faith, in contrast to books that are “non-canonical,” that is, although edifying and useful, ( for which they are placed in the Bible), but not inspired and “apocryphal (apokrifos - hidden, secret), completely rejected by the Church and therefore not included in the Bible. Thus, we should look at the sign of the “canonicity” of famous books as a voice Church Tradition, confirming the inspired origin of the books of Holy Scripture. Consequently, in the Bible itself, not all of its books have same value and authority: some (canonical) are inspired by God, containing the true word of God, others (non-canonical) are only edifying and useful, but are not alien to the personal, not always infallible opinions of their authors. This difference must be kept in mind when reading the Bible, for a correct assessment and appropriate attitude towards the books included in its composition.

The question of "non-canonical" books

(Bishop Nathanael Lvov)

The question of the canon, that is, which of the pious writings can be considered truly inspired by God and be placed along with the Torah, occupied the Old Testament Church during the last centuries before the Nativity of Christ. But the Old Testament Church did not establish a canon, although it did all the preparatory work. The book of 2 Maccabees marks one stage of this preparatory work when it says that Nehemiah, “compiling a library, collected the tales of the kings and the prophets and of David and the letters of the kings” (2:13). The establishment of the canon of the most sacred books was prepared to an even greater extent by the selection of books for translation by 70 interpreters, solemnly carried out collectively by the Old Testament Church.

Both events could with some right be considered the establishment of a canon if we had a list of books that the righteous Nehemiah collected as sacred or that God’s chosen interpreters chose for translation. But we do not have an exact list for either event.

The division between recognized and unrecognized, canonical and non-canonical was established by the Jewish community only after the rejection of Christ the Savior by the leaders of the Jewish people, after the destruction of Jerusalem, on the verge of the 1st and 2nd centuries after the birth of Christ, by a meeting of Jewish rabbis in Mt. Jamnia in Palestine. Among the rabbis, the most prominent were Rabbis Akiba and Gamaliel the Younger. They established a list of 39 books, which they artificially reduced into 24 books, combining them into one: the books of Kings, the books of Ezra and Nehemiah and 12 books of the minor prophets, according to the number of letters of the Hebrew alphabet. This list was accepted by the Jewish community and introduced into all synagogues. It is the “canon” according to which the books of the Old Testament are called canonical or non-canonical.

Of course, this canon, established by the Jewish community, which rejected Christ the Savior and therefore ceased to be the Old Testament Church, having lost all right to God’s inheritance, which is the Holy Scripture, such a canon cannot be binding for the Church of Christ.

Nevertheless, the Church took into account the Jewish canon, for example, the list of holy books established by the Local Holy Council of Laodicea was clearly compiled under the influence of the Jamnian list. This list does not include the Maccabees, Tobit, Judith, Wisdom of Solomon, or the third book of Ezra. However, this list does not completely coincide with the list of the Jewish canon, since the list of the Laodicean Council includes the book of the prophet Baruch, the letter of Jeremiah and the 2nd book of Ezra, excluded by the Jewish canon (in the New Testament, the Laodicean Council did not include the Revelation of St. John the Theologian in the canon) .

But in the life of the Church, the Laodicean canon did not receive predominant importance. When determining its sacred books, the Church is guided to a much greater extent by the 85th Apostolic Canon and the Epistle of Athanasius the Great, which includes 50 books in the Bible in the Old Testament and 27 books in the New Testament. This wider choice was influenced by the composition of the books translated by 70 interpreters (Septuagint). However, the Church did not obey this choice unconditionally, including in its list books that appeared later than the translation of the 70, such as the Books of Maccabees and the book of Jesus son of Sirach.

The fact that the Church accepted the so-called “non-canonical” books into its life is evidenced by the fact that in divine services they are used in exactly the same way as the canonical ones, and, for example, the book of the Wisdom of Solomon, rejected by the Jewish canon, is the most widely read of the Old Testament for worship services.

The 11th chapter of the book of the Wisdom of Solomon speaks so prophetically clearly about the sufferings of Christ, as no other place in the Old Testament can be, except for the prophet Isaiah. Is this the reason why the rabbis gathered at Jamnia rejected this book?

Christ the Savior in the Sermon on the Mount cites, although without references, words from the book of Tobit (cf. Tob. 4:15 with Matthew 7:12 and Luke 4:31, Tob. 4:16 with Luke 14:13), from the book of the son of Sirach (cf. 28:2 with Matthew 6:14 and Mark 2:25), from the book of the Wisdom of Solomon (cf. 3:7 with Matthew 13:43). The Apostle John in Revelation takes both the words and images of the book of Tobit (cf. Rev. 21:11-24 with Tob. 13:11-18). The Apostle Paul in his letters to the Romans (1:21), to the Corinthians (1 Cor. 1:20-27; 2:78), to Timothy (1 Tim. 1:15) has words from the book of the prophet. Varucha. At ap. James has many common phrases with the book of Jesus son of Sirach. Epistle to the Hebrews Paul and the book of the Wisdom of Solomon are so close to each other that some moderately negative critics considered them to be the work of the same author.

All the countless hosts of Christian martyrs of the first centuries were inspired to feat by the most holy example of the Maccabean martyrs, about whom the 2nd book of Maccabees narrates.

Metropolitan Anthony quite accurately defines: “The Holy Books of the Old Testament are divided into canonical, which are recognized by both Christians and Jews, and non-canonical, which are recognized only by Christians, but the Jews have lost them” (Experience of the Christian Catechism, p. 16).

All this indisputably testifies to the high authority and divine inspiration of the holy books of the Bible, incorrectly, or rather, ambiguously called non-canonical.

We dwelled on this issue in detail because Protestantism, obediently following the Jewish canon, rejects all books rejected by the Jews.

Original Form and Language of Scripture

Language of the Holy Books

The Old Testament books were originally written in Hebrew. Later books from the time of the Babylonian captivity already have many Assyrian and Babylonian words and figures of speech. And the books written during Greek rule (non-canonical books) are written in Greek, while the 3rd book of Ezra is in Latin.

Most of the Old Testament is written in Hebrew. Chapters 2-8 of the book of the prophet are written in Aramaic in the Old Testament. Daniel, 4-8 chapters of the first book of Ezra and the book of Wisdom of Jesus son of Sirach.

In the Old Testament, the 2nd and 3rd books of Maccabees and the entire New Testament, except the Gospel of Matthew, were written in Greek. In addition, both the Gospel of Matthew and all the books of the Old Testament, not recognized by the Jewish canon, were preserved only in Greek, and were lost in the Hebrew or Aramaic original.

The first translation of the Holy Scriptures known to us was the translation of all the books of the Old Testament from Hebrew into Greek, completed by the so-called 70 (more precisely 72) interpreters in the 3rd century BC.

Demetrius Phalareus, a learned nobleman of the Hellenistic Egyptian king Ptolemy Philadelphus, set out to collect in the capital of his sovereign all the then existing books in the whole world. Judea at this time (284-247 BC) was subordinate to the Egyptian kings, and Ptolemy Philadelphus ordered the Jews to send all the books they had to the Library of Alexandria, attaching a Greek translation from them. Probably none of his contemporaries understood that this, typical of bibliophiles, the desire of the king and his nobles to compile the most complete collection of books would be so important for the spiritual life of mankind.

The Jewish high priests took this task with extreme seriousness and responsibility. Despite the fact that by this time, in fact, the entire Jewish people had concentrated in one tribe of Judah and the Jews could have boldly taken upon themselves to fulfill the wishes of the Egyptian king, however, they quite rightly and sacredly wished that all of Israel would take part in such a task, The spiritual leaders of the Jewish people established fasting and intense prayer throughout the entire people and called on all 12 tribes to elect 6 translators from each tribe so that they would jointly translate the Holy Scripture. Scripture in Greek, the most widely spoken language at that time.

This translation, which was thus the fruit of the conciliar feat of the Old Testament Church, received the name Septuagint, i.e. Seventy, and became for Orthodox Christians the most authoritative presentation of the Holy Scriptures. Scriptures of the Old Testament.

Much later (apparently, around the 1st century BC for the Old Testament part of the Holy Scriptures and around the beginning of the 2nd century BC for the New Testament part) a translation of the Holy Scriptures into Syriac appeared, the so-called . Peshitta, which in all important respects agrees with the Septuagint translation. For the Syriac Church and for the Eastern churches associated with the Syriac Church, the Peshitta is as authoritative as the Septuagint is for us, and in the Western Church the translation made by Blessed Jerome, the so-called. The Vulgate (which in Latin means exactly the same as Peshitta in Aramaic - “simple”), was considered more authoritative than the Hebrew original. This may seem strange, but we will try to clarify it.

By the time of Christ the Savior, the Hebrew language, in which the Law and most other books of the Old Testament were written, was already a dead language. The Jewish population of Palestine spoke a language then common to the Semitic tribes of Western Asia - Aramaic. Christ the Savior also spoke this language. Those few words of Christ that the holy evangelists cite in a literal translation: “talifah cumi” (Mark 5:41), “abba” in the Lord’s address to God the Father (Mark 5:41), the dying cry of the Lord on the cross “Eloi , Eloi, lamma sabachthani" (Mark 15:34) are Aramaic words (in the Gospel of Matthew the words “Eloi, Eloi” - My God, My God - are given in the Hebrew form “Either, Or”, but the second half of the phrase in both Gospels are given in Aramaic).

When, during the 1st and 2nd centuries, after the storms of the Jewish War and the Bar Kochba revolt, the existence of the Judeo-Christian communities ceased to exist, then the Holy Scriptures in the Hebrew language disappeared from the Christian environment. It turned out to be the will of God that the Jewish community, which rejected Him and thereby betrayed its main purpose, received a different purpose, finding itself the only custodian of the Holy Scriptures in the original language and, contrary to its will, became a witness that everything that the Church of Christ says regarding ancient prophecies and prototypes about Christ the Savior and about God's Fatherly preparation of people to receive the Son of God, was not invented by Christians, but is the genuine truth.

When, after many centuries of divided existence in different and, moreover, warring circles to death, in the Greek and Aramaic translations of St. The Scriptures and in translations from Greek and Aramaic on the one hand and the Hebrew original on the other hand, when they were all compared, it turned out that in all important things, with rare exceptions, they are identical. This agreement is evidence of how carefully the sacred text of the Divine words was preserved, how gloriously humanity justified God’s trust in entrusting the absolute Truth to the care of weak and limited human powers.

But if the texts coincide so much in all important things, then why does the Greek translation still remain more authoritative for Orthodox Christians, and not the Hebrew original? - Because by God’s grace it has been preserved in the Church of Christ since apostolic times.

Targums and other ancient translations

In addition to the ancient translations of Scripture, there are also more or less free translations of it into Aramaic, the so-called. targums, i.e. interpretation.

When the Hebrew language fell out of use among the Jews and Aramaic took its place, the rabbis had to use it to interpret Scripture in the synagogues. But they did not want to completely abandon the precious heritage of the fathers - the original of God's Law - and therefore, instead of a direct translation, they introduced explanatory interpretations in Aramaic. These interpretations are called targums.

The most ancient and famous of the targums is the Babylonian targum on all Holy Scripture, compiled in the 1st century BC. a certain Rabbi Onkelos, and the Jerusalem Targum - a somewhat later one, attributed to Yoathan ben Uziel, compiled only from the Torah. There are also other, later targums. Although both of the oldest of them appeared before the Massoretic reform, the text interpreted by them almost coincides with the Massoretic, firstly, because the Targums came from the same rabbinical environment from which the Massorites came, and secondly, because the text of the Targums (which came down to us only in later copies) was processed by the Massorets.

In this regard, the Samaritan Targum, which was compiled in the 10th-11th centuries, is very important, but which takes as its basis for interpretation not the Massoretic, but the pre-Massoretic Jewish text, which largely coincides with the text of the Septuagint.

Initial view of the Holy Books

The books of Holy Scripture came from the hands of sacred writers according to appearance not as we see them now. They were originally written on parchment or papyrus (the stems of plants native to Egypt and Israel) with a cane (a pointed reed stick) and ink. As a matter of fact, it was not books that were written, but charters on a long parchment or papyrus scroll, which looked like a long ribbon and was wound onto a shaft. Scrolls were usually written on one side. Subsequently, parchment or papyrus tapes, instead of being glued into scroll tapes, began to be sewn into books for ease of use.

The text in the ancient scrolls was written in the same large in capital letters. Each letter was written separately, but the words were not separated from one another. The whole line was like one word. The reader himself had to divide the line into words and, of course, sometimes did it incorrectly. There were also no punctuation marks, no aspirations, or accents in the ancient manuscripts. And in the ancient Hebrew language, vowels were also not written, but only consonants.

The division into chapters was made in the 13th century AD, in the edition of the Latin Vulgate. It was accepted not only by all Christian peoples, but even by the Jews themselves for the Jewish text of the Old Testament. The division of the biblical text into verses, according to some Bible researchers, for sacred books written in poetic meters (for example, psalms) began in the Old Testament church. But all the holy books of the Old Testament were divided into verses after the Nativity of Christ by Jewish scholars - the Masoretes (in the 6th century). The division of the New Testament text into verses appeared at a relatively late time in the half of the 16th century. In 1551, the Parisian printer Robert Stephan published the New Testament with divisions into verses, and in 1555 - the entire Bible.

The numbering of biblical verses also belongs to him. Among Christians in the 3rd-5th centuries, it was customary to divide the New Testament books into excavations, chapters and types, i.e. sections read for divine services on certain days of the year. These departments were not the same in different churches.

The liturgical division of New Testament Scripture into beginnings, currently accepted in the Orthodox Church, is attributed to Saint John of Damascus.

List of Old Testament Books

The books of the prophet Moses or the Torah (containing the foundations of the Old Testament faith): Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy.

Historical books: the book of Joshua, the book of Judges, the book of Ruth, the books of Kings: 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th, the books of Chronicles: 1st and 2nd, the first book of Ezra, the book of Nehemiah, Second Book of Esther.

Educational (edifying content): the book of Job, the Psalter, the book of Solomon's parables, the book of Ecclesiastes, the book of Song of Songs.

Prophetic (books of predominantly prophetic content): the book of the prophet Isaiah, the book of the prophet Jeremiah, the book of the prophet Ezekiel, the book of the prophet Daniel, the Twelve books of the minor prophets: Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi.

In addition to these books of the Old Testament list, the Greek, Russian and some other translations of the Bible contain the following so-called “non-canonical” books. Among them: the book of Tobit, Judith, the Wisdom of Solomon, the book of Jesus son of Sirach, the Second and Third Book of Ezra, the three Maccabees books. As already mentioned, they are so called because they were written after the list (canon) of sacred books was completed. Some modern editions of the Bible do not have these “non-canonical” books, but the Russian Bible does have them. The above names of the holy books are taken from the Greek translation of 70 interpreters. In the Hebrew Bible and in some modern translations of the Bible, several Old Testament books have different names.

So, the Bible is the voice of the Holy Spirit, but the Divine voice sounded through human intermediaries and by human means. Therefore, the Bible is a book that also has its own earthly history. She did not appear immediately. It was written by many people over a long period in several languages in different countries.

An Orthodox Christian can never “contradict the Bible” in anything, small or large, or consider even one word to be outdated, no longer valid, or false, as Protestant and other “critics”, enemies of God’s word, assure us . “Heaven and earth pass by, but the words of God do not pass by” (Matthew 24:35) and “it is sooner that heaven and earth pass away than one tittle of the Law disappears” (Luke 16:17), as the Lord said.

Summary of Scripture Translations

Greek translation of the seventy interpreters (Septuagint). The closest to the original text of the Scriptures of the Old Testament is the Alexandrian translation, known as the Greek translation of the seventy interpreters. It was started by the will of the Egyptian king Ptolemy Philadelphus in 271 BC. Wanting to have the sacred books of Jewish law in his library, this inquisitive sovereign ordered his librarian Demetrius to take care of acquiring these books and translating them into the Greek language, generally known at that time. Six of the most capable people were chosen from each Israelite tribe and sent to Alexandria with an exact copy of the Hebrew Bible. The translators were placed on the island of Pharos, near Alexandria, and completed the translation in a short time. Since apostolic times, the Orthodox Church has been using 70 translated sacred books.

Latin translation, Vulgate. Before the fourth century AD there were several Latin translations Bibles, among which the so-called ancient Italian, made from the text of the 70s, enjoyed the greatest popularity for their clarity and special closeness to the sacred text. But after Blessed. Jerome, one of the most learned Church Fathers of the 4th century, published in 384 his translation of the Holy Scriptures in Latin, made by him from the Hebrew original, the Western Church little by little began to abandon the ancient Italian translation in favor of Jerome's translation. In the 19th century, the Council of Trent Jerome's translation was introduced into general use in the Roman Catholic Church under the name Vulgate, which literally means “commonly used translation.”

The Slavic translation of the Bible was made according to the text of 70 interpreters by the saints of Thessalonica brothers Cyril and Methodius, in the middle of the 9th century AD, during their apostolic labors in the Slavic lands. When the Moravian prince Rostislav, dissatisfied with the German missionaries, asked the Greek Emperor Michael to send capable teachers of the faith of Christ to Moravia, imp. Michael sent Sts. to this great task. Cyril and Methodius, who thoroughly knew Slavic language, and even in Greece they began to translate the Divine Scripture into this language. On the way to the Slavic lands, St. the brothers stopped for some time in Bulgaria, which was also enlightened by them, and here they worked a lot on the translation of St. books. They continued their translation in Moravia, where they arrived around 863. It was finished after the death of St. Cyril St. Methodius in Panonia, under the patronage of the pious Prince Kocel, to whom he retired as a result of civil strife that arose in Moravia. With the adoption of Christianity under St. Prince Vladimir (988), the Slavic Bible, translated by St. Cyril and Methodius.

Russian translation. When, over time, the Slavic language began to differ significantly from Russian, for many, reading St. Scripture has become difficult. As a result, a translation of St. books into modern Russian. First, by order of the Emperor. Alexander the First and with the blessing of the Holy Synod, the New Testament was published in 1815 with funds from the Russian Bible Society. Of the Old Testament books, only the Psalter was translated, as the book most commonly used in Orthodox worship. Then, already during the reign of Alexander II, after a new, more accurate edition of the New Testament in 1860, a printed edition of the legal books of the Old Testament appeared in Russian translation in 1868. The following year, the Holy Synod blessed the publication of historical Old Testament books, and in 1872 - teachers. Meanwhile, Russian translations of individual sacred books of the Old Testament often began to be published in spiritual magazines; so we finally saw the complete edition of the Bible in Russian in 1877. Not everyone sympathized with the appearance of the Russian translation, preferring the Church Slavonic one. St. spoke out for the Russian translation. Tikhon of Zadonsk, Metropolitan Philaret of Moscow, later - Bishop. Theophan the Recluse, Patriarch Tikhon and other outstanding archpastors of the Russian Church.

Other Bible translations. The Bible was first translated into French in 1160 by Peter Wald. The first translation of the Bible into German appeared in 1460. Martin Luther again translated the Bible into German in 1522-32. The first translation of the Bible into English was made by Bede the Venerable, who lived in the first half of the 8th century. The modern English translation was made under King James in 1603 and published in 1611. In Russia, the Bible was translated into many native languages. So, Metropolitan Innocent translated it into the Aleut language, the Kazan Academy - into Tatar, and into others. The most successful in translating and distributing the Bible in different languages are the British and American Bible Societies. The Bible has now been translated into more than 1,200 languages.

At the end of this note about translations, it must be said that every translation has its advantages and disadvantages. Translations that strive to literally convey the content of the original suffer from ponderousness and difficulty in understanding. On the other hand, translations that strive to convey only the general meaning of the Bible in the most understandable and accessible form often suffer from inaccuracy. The Russian Synodal translation avoids both extremes and combines maximum closeness to the meaning of the original with ease of language.

Scripture and Worship

(Bishop Nathanael Lvov)

During the daily divine service in the Orthodox Church, as is known, the process of completing the entire work of saving people is repeated in basic terms: Vespers begins with the remembrance of the creation of the world, then recalls the fall of people, speaks of the repentance of Adam and Eve, the giving of the Sinai Law, ending with the prayer of Simeon the God-Receiver. Matins depicts the state of Old Testament humanity before the Coming of Christ the Savior into the world, depicts the sorrow, hope, and expectation of the people of that time, speaks of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Nativity of the Lord. The Liturgy reveals the entire life of Christ the Savior from the Bethlehem manger to Golgotha, the Resurrection and Ascension, through symbols and reminders introducing us to reality, because in Holy Communion we receive not a symbol, but actually His very Body, His very Blood, that very Body, that The very Blood that He taught at the Last Supper in the Upper Room of Zion, that very Body, that very Blood that suffered on Golgotha, rose from the grave and ascended to heaven.

Repetition in Divine services, at least in the briefest outline, of the entire process of preparing humanity to accept the Lord is necessary because both processes - the historical and the liturgical - have essentially the same goal: both here and there a weak, infirm, inert, carnal person is needed prepare for the greatest and most terrible thing: for a meeting with Christ - the Son of God - and for union with Him. The goal is the same, and the object is the same - a person. Therefore, the path must be the same.

IN historical process the preparation of people to accept the Son of God is closely connected with the Holy Scriptures, not only because this process is set out in Scripture, but also because it was Scripture, from the moment of its appearance, that most of all prepared the souls of people for spiritual growth, which made them capable of meeting Christ. According to church tradition, the Most Holy Virgin Mary, at the moment of the Archangel’s gospel, was reading the book of the prophet Isaiah; in any case, thanks to knowledge of Isain’s prophecy, She could understand and accept the Gospel. John the Baptist preached in fulfillment of the Scriptures and with the words of the Scriptures. His testimony, “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world,” which gave the Lord the first apostles, could only be understood by them in the light of Scripture.

Naturally, from the very beginning the process of individual preparation of each individual person to receive the Son of God, i.e. Divine service turned out to be closely connected with the same instrument of God with which humanity was historically prepared for the same thing, i.e. with Holy Scripture.

The very act of the entry of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ into the world in the Sacrament of Transubstantiation is a very brief act, how brief it was when it was first performed by Christ Himself in the Upper Room of Zion at the Last Supper. But the preparation for it, for this act, was everything sacred, everything good in the entire previous history of mankind.

The Last Supper is brief, and its repetition in the Divine Liturgy is brief, but the Christian consciousness understands that this most important act in the universe cannot be approached without worthy appropriate preparation, for the Lord says in Scripture: “Cursed is everyone who does the work of God with negligence” and “Who eats and drinks [Communion] unworthily, he eats and drinks condemnation to himself, not considering the Body of the Lord" (1 Cor. 11:29).

The worthy preparation for the reception of the Son of God in the historical process was mainly the Holy Scripture. It is the same, i.e. careful, reverent reading of it can be a corresponding preparation for the acceptance of the Son of God in the liturgical process.

This is why, and not just out of imitation of the synagogue, as is often interpreted, from the very beginning of Christian history the Holy Scriptures occupied such a comprehensive place in the preparation of Christians for the Sacrament of the Eucharist and for the communion of St. The Mysteries of Christ, i.e. in the Divine Service.

In the original Church, in the very first years of its existence, in Jerusalem, when the Church consisted primarily of Jewish Christians, the reading and singing of the Holy Scriptures was performed in the sacred language of the Old Testament Church, in the language of ancient Hebrew, although to the people who then spoke Aramaic , the ancient Hebrew language was almost incomprehensible. To clarify the Holy Scriptures, its text was interpreted in Aramaic. These interpretations were called targums. In Christianity, targums mean interpretations of the Old Testament in the sense of its fulfillment and completion in the New Testament.

These interpretations of the Old Testament were carried out by the holy apostles themselves and were for the primitive Church a replacement for the Holy Scriptures of the New Testament, which, as such, did not yet exist.

Thus, despite the absence of the books of the New Testament in the original Church, in essence, Christian worship from the very beginning consisted of hearing and learning from the Divine verbs of both Testaments. And the interpretation by the holy apostles of the Old Testament Scriptures - the Law, the Prophets and the Psalms, was the most important part of the preparatory work for St. Eucharist worship.

Examples of such Christian interpretations of the Old Testament are the sermons of the apostle preserved in the Acts of the Apostles. Peter and the First Martyr Stephen.

Later, when pagan Christians began to predominate in the Church, the Holy Scriptures of the Old Testament began to be read and explained in Greek, then generally understood throughout the known world. Soon the books of the New Testament appeared, first the epistles of the apostles, then the Gospels and other apostolic works, also written in Greek.

In this case, a providentially important circumstance was that the Apostolic Church did not need to worry about creating a translation of the Old Testament into the new sacred language of the Church - Greek.

This translation, by the Providence of God, was already prepared in advance by the inspired feat of the Old Testament Church, which created such a translation of all the sacred books of the Old Testament from Hebrew into Greek. This translation is called the translation of the 70 or in Latin - the Septuagint.

Levels of Understanding

The meaning of Holy Scripture, that is, those thoughts that sacred writers, inspired by the Holy Spirit, expressed in writing, is expressed in two ways, directly through words and indirectly - through persons, things, events and actions described by words. There are two main types of meaning of Holy Scripture: In the first case, the meaning is verbal or literal, and in the second, the meaning is objective or mysterious, spiritual.

Literal meaning

Sacred writers, expressing their thoughts in words, use these latter sometimes in their own literal meaning, sometimes in an improper, figurative meaning.

For example, the word “hand”, according to public usage, means a certain member of the human body. But when the psalmist prayed to the Lord “send down Your hand from on high” (Ps. 143:7), he uses the word “hand” here in a figurative meaning, in the sense of general help and protection from the Lord, thus transferring the original meaning of the word on a spiritual, higher, intelligible subject.

In accordance with such uses of words, the literal meaning of Holy Scripture is divided into two types - the strictly literal and the improper or literal-figurative sense. So, for example, Gen. 7:18 the word "water" is used in its proper, literal sense, and in Ps. 18:2 - figuratively, in the sense of sorrows and disasters, or in Isa. 8:7 - in the sense of a hostile army. In general, Scripture uses words in a figurative sense when speaking about higher, spiritual objects, for example, about God, His properties, actions, etc.

Mysterious meaning

Since persons, things, actions, events described to convey the mysterious meaning are taken by sacred writers from different areas, placed in unequal relationships with each other and with the expressed concepts, the mysterious meaning of Scripture is divided into the following types: prototype, parable, apologist, vision and symbol.

A prototype is this type of mysterious meaning of Scripture when sacred writers communicate concepts about some higher objects through church-historical persons, things, events and actions. So, for example, Old Testament writers, narrating about various events of the Old Testament Church, very often reveal through them individual events of the New Testament Church.

In this case, the prototype is a pre-image contained in the persons, events, things and actions of the Old Testament of what relates to the New Testament, which was to be fulfilled in Christ the Savior and the Church founded by Him. So, for example, Melchizedek king of Salem and priest of the Most High God, according to chapter 14. Book of Genesis went out to meet Abraham, brought him bread and wine and blessed the patriarch, and Abraham, for his part, presented Melchizedek with a tithe of the spoils. Everything that Scripture tells in this case is a real church-historical fact.

But besides this, the narrative of the 14th chapter of Genesis also has a deep, mysteriously transformative meaning in relation to New Testament times. The historical figure of Melchizedek, according to the explanation of the Apostle Paul (Heb. 7), prefigured Jesus Christ: the actions of blessing and offering tithes did not indicate the superiority of the New Testament priesthood over the Old Testament: the objects brought out by Melchizedek - bread and wine, according to the explanation of the Church Fathers, pointed to the New Testament sacrament of the Eucharist . The passage of the Israelites through the Black Sea (Ex. 14) in addition to its historical significance, according to the instructions of the Apostle (1 Cor. 10:1-2), prefigured New Testament baptism, and the sea itself contained, according to the explanation of the Church, the image of the Unworn Bride - the Virgin Mary. The Old Testament Passover lamb (Exodus 12) prefigured the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world - Christ the Savior. According to the Apostle (Heb. 10:1), the entire Old Testament was a type, a shadow of the coming Old Testament blessings.

When sacred writers, in order to clarify certain thoughts, use for this purpose persons and events, although non-historical, but quite possible, usually borrowed from everyday reality - in this case, the mysterious meaning of Scripture is called tributary or simply a parable. Such, for example, are all the parables of the Savior.

In the apologist, human actions are attributed to animals and inanimate objects, human actions that are impossible for them in reality, actions that are impossible for them in reality - to visually depict some truth and to enhance the edifying impression. This is the apologist in Su. 9:8-15 - about the trees choosing a king for themselves, or an apologist from the prophet Ezekiel - about two eagles (17:1-10), also an apologist for Joash the king of Israel (2 Kings 14:8-10-2; Par. 25 :18-19) about thorns and cedars.

There are also some extraordinary types of Divine Revelation in Scripture. So often the prophets, patriarchs and other chosen men, sometimes in a conscientious state, sometimes in dreams, were honored to contemplate certain events, images and phenomena with a mysterious meaning, pointing to a future event. These mysterious images and phenomena are called visions. Such are, for example, the visions of Abraham when God entered into a covenant with him (Gen. 15:1-17), Jacob’s vision of the mysterious staircase (Gen. 28:10-17), the vision of the prophet Ezekiel (27) of a field with human bones, etc.

The mysterious meaning of Scripture is called a symbol when the thoughts of Scripture are revealed through special external actions that, at the command of God, were performed to His chosen ones. So the prophet Isaiah, at the command of the Lord, walks naked and barefoot for three years as a sign of future disasters for the Egyptians and Ethiopians, when the Assyrian king takes them into captivity naked and barefoot (Is. 20). The prophet Jeremiah, in the presence of the elders, broke a new earthen vessel to commemorate the destruction coming to Jerusalem (Jeremiah 19).

Methods of explanation borrowed

a) from Holy Scripture itself

Firstly, therefore, one should consider the interpretations of various passages of Scripture by the sacred writers themselves: there are especially many such interpretations of the Old Testament in the books of the New Testament. For example, to the question - why did the Old Testament law allow divorces in different cases? The Savior answered the Pharisees: “Moses, because of your hardness of heart, allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so” (Matthew 19:8). Here is a direct interpretation of the spirit of the Mosaic legislation, given in relation to the moral state of Old Testament man. Explanations of the ancient prophecies of the Old Testament prototypes in the books of the New Testament are very numerous. For example, we can point to Matt. 1:22-23; Is. 7:14; Matt. 2:17-18; Jer. 31:15; And he. 19:33-35; Ref. 12:10; Acts 2:25-36; Ps. 15:8-10.

Another equally important way is to demolish parallel or similar passages of Scripture. Thus, the word “anointing,” used by the Apostle Paul without any explanation (2 Cor. 1:21), is repeated by the Apostle John in the sense of the outpouring of the grace-filled gifts of the Holy Spirit (1 John 2:20). Thus, regarding the literal and proper meaning of the Savior’s words about eating His flesh and blood (John 6:56), the Apostle Paul leaves no doubt when he says that those who eat the bread and drink the cup of the Lord unworthily are guilty of the body and blood of the Lord (1 Cor. 11:27).

The third way is to study the composition or context of speech, i.e. an explanation of known passages of Scripture in connection with preceding and following words and thoughts directly related to the passage being explained.

The fourth way is to understand the various historical circumstances of the writing of a particular book - information about the writer, the purpose, reason, time and place of writing it. Knowing the purpose of writing the Epistle to the Romans by the Apostle Paul: to refute the false opinion of the Jews about their superior position in the Christian Church, we understand why the Apostle so often and persistently repeats about justification by faith alone in Jesus Christ without the works of the Jewish law. Bearing also in mind that the Apostle James wrote his epistle regarding the misunderstood teaching of the Apostle Paul about justification by faith, one can understand why he teaches with particular force in his epistle about the necessity for salvation of works of piety, and not of faith alone.

b) From various auxiliary sources

Auxiliary sources of explanation of the Holy Scriptures include:

Knowledge of the languages in which the sacred books are written - mainly Hebrew and Greek, for in many cases the only means of understanding the true meaning of one or another place in Scripture is to clarify its meaning by the word formation of the original text. For example, in Prov. 8:22 the saying “The Lord created me...” is more accurately translated from the Hebrew original: “The Lord acquired (acquired) me...” in the sense of “gave birth.” In Gen. 3:15 the Slavic expression about the seed of the woman, that it will “guard” the head of the serpent, is more accurately and clearly translated from the Hebrew so that it will “erase” the head of the serpent.

Comparison of different translations of the Holy Scriptures. Knowledge of ancient geography, and mainly the geography of the Holy Land, as well as chronology (dates of events), in order to have a clear knowledge of the sequential continuity of historical events set forth in the Holy Books, as well as for a clear representation of the places where these events took place. This also includes archaeological information about the morals, customs and rituals of the Jewish people.

The mood of the soul when reading the word of God

We must begin to read the Holy Scriptures with reverence and a willingness to accept the teachings contained in them as Divine Revelation. There should be no room for doubts or the desire to find shortcomings and contradictions in Scripture.

There must be sincere faith in the truth, importance and salvific value of what is being read, since this is the word of God, transmitted through the mediation of holy men through inspiration from the Holy Spirit.

Reverence is inseparable from special spiritual fear and joy. These feelings should be kindled in oneself when reading the word of God, remembering the words of the Psalmist (Ps. 119:161-162). According to the saying of the Wise One, “wisdom will not enter into an evil soul” (Wisdom 1:4). Therefore, to successfully study the word of God, integrity of heart and holiness of life are necessary. Therefore, in the prayer read before the beginning of the teaching, we ask: “cleanse us from all filth.”

Remembering our weakness in everything, we must know that without God’s help, knowledge of His word is impossible.

Harmony of two revelations

Some topics addressed in the Bible are also areas of scientific study. Often, when comparing those with others, confusion and even, as it were, contradictions arise. In fact, there are no contradictions.

The fact is that the Lord reveals himself to man in two ways: directly through the spiritual illumination of the human soul and through nature, which by its structure testifies to the wisdom, goodness and omnipotence of its Creator. Since the Source of these revelations - internal and external - is one, the contents of these revelations must mutually complement each other and under no circumstances can they be in conflict. Therefore, it must be recognized that between pure science, based on the facts of the study of nature, and Holy Scripture - this written witness of spiritual illumination - there must be complete agreement in everything relating to the knowledge of God and His works. If throughout history sometimes sharp conflicts arose between representatives of science and religion (mainly of the Catholic faith), then upon careful acquaintance with the causes of these conflicts, one can easily be convinced that they arose out of pure misunderstanding. The fact is that religion and science have their own individual goals and their own methodology, and therefore they can only partially touch on some fundamental issues, but cannot completely coincide.

“Conflicts” between science and religion arise when, for example, representatives of science express arbitrary and unfounded judgments about God, about the root cause of the appearance of the world and life, about the ultimate goal of human existence, etc. These judgments of scientists have no support in the facts of science themselves, but are built on superficial and hasty generalizations that are completely unscientific. Likewise, conflicts between science and religion arise when representatives of a religion want to derive the laws of nature from their understanding of religious principles. For example, the Roman Inquisition condemned Galileo's teaching about the rotation of the earth around the sun. It seemed to her that since God created everything for the sake of man, then the earth should be at the center of the universe, and everything should revolve around it. This, of course, is a completely arbitrary conclusion, not based on the Bible, because being at the center of Divine care has nothing in common with the geometric center of the physical world (which may not even exist). Atheists at the end of the last century and at the beginning of this century ironized the Bible's story that God originally created light. They ridiculed the believers: “Where could there be light when its source, the sun, did not yet exist!” But today's science has moved far from such a childish, naive idea of light. According to the teachings of modern physics, both light and matter are different states of energy and can exist and transform into each other, regardless of stellar bodies. Fortunately, such conflicts between science and religion naturally disappear when the fervor of controversy is replaced by deeper study of the issue.

Not all people have a healthy harmony of faith and reason. Some people blindly believe in human reason and are ready to agree with any theory, the most hasty and untested, for example: about the appearance of the world and life on earth, regardless of what the Holy Scripture says about this. Others suspect people of science of dishonesty and malicious intent and are afraid to become acquainted with the positive discoveries of science in the fields of paleontology, biology and anthropology, so as not to shake their faith in the truth of the Holy Scriptures.

However, if we adhere to the following provisions, then we should never have serious conflicts between faith and reason:

Both Scripture and nature are true and mutually confirming witnesses of God and His works.

Man is a limited being, who does not fully understand either the secrets of nature or the depth of the truths of Holy Scripture to the fullest extent.

What seems contradictory at a given time can be explained when a person will understand better what nature and the Word of God tell him.

At the same time, one must be able to distinguish the exact data of science from the assumptions and conclusions of scientists. Facts are always facts, but scientific theories, built on them, often completely change when new data appears. Likewise, one must distinguish the direct testimony of Holy Scripture from its interpretation. People understand the Holy Scriptures to the best of their spiritual and intellectual development and the existing stock of knowledge. Therefore, one cannot demand from interpreters of the Holy Scriptures complete infallibility in matters related to both religion and science.

The Holy Scripture devotes only the first two chapters of the book of Genesis to the topic of the origin of the world and the appearance of man on earth. It must be said that in all of world literature, not a single book has been read with greater interest than this divinely inspired book. On the other hand, it seems that no book has been subjected to such cruel and undeserved criticism as the book of Genesis. Therefore, in a number of subsequent articles I would like to say something in defense of both this sacred book itself and the content of its first chapters. The upcoming articles are expected to touch upon the following topics: about the inspiration of the Holy Scriptures, about the author and circumstances of writing the book of Genesis, about the days of creation, about man as a representative of two worlds, about spiritual qualities primitive man, about the religion of primitive people, about the reasons for unbelief, etc.

Dead Sea Scrolls

A. A. Oporin

Over the years, critics have not only rejected the reality of the historical events described in the Bible, but have also questioned the authenticity of the books of Scripture themselves. They argued that the books of the Bible were not written by the people whose names appear in the titles, that their writing did not coincide with biblical dating, that all prophecies were written retroactively, and that the books of the Bible were replete with a huge number of later insertions; finally, that the modern text of the Bible differs sharply from that which was many hundreds of years ago. Even some theologians and believers began to agree with this. But the true children of God, remembering the words of Christ: “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed” (John 20:29), always believed in the truthfulness of Scripture, although they had no material evidence. But the time has come when such evidence appeared, and today scientists no longer question the fidelity, truth and immutability of the Bible.

Qumran community

One summer day in 1947, a Bedouin boy, Muhammad ed-Dhib, was tending a herd and accidentally discovered ancient leather scrolls in one of the caves. This cave was located 2 kilometers from the northwestern coast of the Dead Sea, in the town of Qumran. These few leather scrolls, sold for next to nothing by a little shepherd, were the impetus for excavations that were truly sensational.

Systematic excavations began in 1949 and continued until 1967 under the leadership of R. De Vaux. During them, an entire settlement was dug up, which died in the first century AD. This settlement belonged to the Jewish sect of the Essenes (translated as doctors, healers). Along with the Pharisees and Sadducees, the Essenes represented one of the directions of Judaism. They settled as a community in remote places, trying to have almost no contact with the outside world. They had common property, they did not have wives, believing that by doing so they would connect themselves with the sinful world. True, the presence of women and children in the community was not categorically prohibited. The Essenes strictly observed the letter of the law, which, according to them, was the only way to save a person. The founder of the teaching was a teacher of righteousness who lived in the second century BC, who at one time diverged from the religious circles of Israel and established his own community in a monastic manner.

During the Jewish War, the community died, but managed to hide their scrolls in hidden places, where they lay until 1947. It was these scrolls that created a kind of explosion in the scientific world. The Essenes were actively engaged in studying and rewriting the Holy Scriptures, as well as compiling various commentaries on its individual books. The fact is that before this discovery, the oldest original of Scripture dated back to the 10th century AD, which gave rise to critics to argue that in the thousand years that have passed since the fall of the Kingdom of Judah, the text has changed dramatically. But the discovery at Qumran silenced even the most ardent opponents of the Bible. Hundreds of texts from all the books of the Old Testament except the book of Esther were found in eleven caves. When conducting a comparative analysis of them with the modern text of the Bible, it turned out that they are completely identical. For a thousand years, not a single letter of Scripture has changed. In addition, the authorship of the books of the Bible that appear in their titles was proven. Even many passages and chronologies of the New Testament have been confirmed, such as the dating of the Apostle Paul's letter to the Colossians and the Gospel of John.

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