Cover of the modern 2004 edition of the Russian Orthodox Bible.

The word "Bible" is not found in the sacred books themselves and was first used in relation to the collection of sacred books in the east in the 4th century by John Chrysostom and Epiphanius of Cyprus.

Composition of the Bible

The Bible is made up of many parts that are combined into Old Testament and New Testament.

Old Testament (Tanakh)

The first part of the Bible in Judaism is called the Tanakh; in Christianity, it was called the "Old Testament", in contrast to the "New Testament". The name is also used Jewish bible". This part of the Bible is a collection of books written in Hebrew long before our era and selected as sacred from other literature by the Hebrew scribes. It is the Holy Scripture for all Abrahamic religions - Judaism, Christianity and Islam - however, it is canonized only in the first two named (in Islam, its laws are considered invalid, and besides, distorted).

The Old Testament consists of 39 books, artificially counted in the Jewish tradition as 22, according to the number of letters of the Hebrew alphabet, or 24, according to the number of letters of the Greek alphabet. All 39 books of the Old Testament are divided into three sections in Judaism.

• "Teaching" (Torah) - contains the Pentateuch of Moses:

• "Prophets" (Nevi'im) - contains books:
  • 1st and 2nd Samuel, or 1st and 2nd Samuel ( count as one book)
  • 3rd and 4th Kings, or 1st and 2nd Kings ( count as one book)
  • Twelve minor prophets count as one book)

• "Scriptures" (Ketuvim) - contains books:
  • Ezra and Nehemiah count as one book)
  • 1st and 2nd Chronicles, or Chronicles (Chronicles) ( count as one book)

Combining the Book of Ruth with the Book of Judges into one book, as well as the Lamentations of Jeremiah with the Book of Jeremiah, we get 22 books instead of 24. The ancient Jews considered twenty-two sacred books in their canon, as Josephus testifies. This is the composition and order of the books in the Hebrew Bible.

All these books are also considered canonical in Christianity.

New Testament

The second part of the Christian Bible is the New Testament, a collection of 27 Christian books (including 4 Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, the Epistles of the Apostles, and the book of Revelation of John the Evangelist (Apocalypse)), written in c. n. e. and come down to us in ancient Greek. This part of the Bible is the most important for Christianity, while Judaism does not consider it divinely inspired.

New Testament consists of books belonging to eight divinely inspired writers: Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Peter, Paul, James and Jude.

In the Slavic and Russian Bibles, the books of the New Testament are placed in the following order:

• historical

teaching

• The Epistles of Peter
• The Epistles of John
• Paul's Epistles
  • to the Corinthians
  • to the Thessalonians
  • to Timothy

prophetic

The books of the New Testament are also placed in this order in the most ancient manuscripts - the Alexandrian and Vatican, the Rules of the Apostles, the Rules of the Councils of Laodicea and Carthage, and in many ancient Church Fathers. But such an arrangement of the books of the New Testament cannot be called universal and necessary, in some Bible collections there is a different arrangement of books, and now in the Vulgate and in the editions of the Greek New Testament the Catholic Epistles are placed after the Epistles of the Apostle Paul before the Apocalypse. There were many considerations in the placement of the books, but the timing of the writing of the books was not of great importance, which can be seen most clearly from the placement of the Pauline Epistles. In the order we have indicated, we were guided by considerations regarding the importance of the places or churches to which the messages were sent: first, the letters written to whole churches were placed, and then the letters written to individuals. The exception is the Epistle to the Hebrews, which is in last place, not because of its low importance, but because of the fact that in its authenticity for a long time doubted. Based on chronological considerations, the Epistles of the Apostle Paul can be placed in this order:

• to the Thessalonians
  • 1st
• to the Galatians
• to the Corinthians
  • 1st
• to the Romans
• to Philemon
• to the Philippians
• to Titus
• to Timothy
  • 1st

Deuterocanonical books of the Old Testament

Apocrypha

Jewish scribes, starting from the 4th century. BC e., and the Church Fathers in the II-IV centuries. n. e., selected books in the "Word of God" from a considerable number of manuscripts, writings, monuments. What was not included in the selected canon remained outside the Bible and constitutes apocryphal literature (from the Greek ἀπόκρυφος - hidden), accompanying the Old and New Testaments.

At one time, the leaders of the Hebrew "Great Assembly" (administrative-theological scholarly synclite of the 4th-3rd centuries BC) and subsequent Jewish religious authorities, and in Christianity, the Church Fathers, who formalized it on the initial path, worked hard, cursing, banning as heretical and out of line with the accepted text, and simply destroying books that didn't meet their criteria. Relatively few apocrypha have survived - just over 100 Old Testament and about 100 New Testament. The latest excavations and discoveries in the area of ​​the Dead Sea caves in Israel have especially enriched science. Apocrypha, in particular, help us to understand the ways in which the formation of Christianity took place, from what elements its dogma was formed.

History of the Bible

page from the Vatican Codex

Writing the Books of the Bible

• Codex Alexandrinus (lat. Codex Alexandrinus), held in the British Museum Library
• Vatican Codex (lat. Codex Vaticanus), kept in Rome
• Codex Sinaiticus (lat. Codex Sinaiticus), stored in Oxford, formerly in the Hermitage

All of them are dated (paleographically, that is, on the basis of the “handwriting style”) of the 4th century BC. n. e. The language of the codices is Greek.

In the 20th century, the Qumran manuscripts, discovered, starting from the year, in a number of caves in the Judean Desert and in Masada, became widely known.

Division into chapters and verses

The ancient Old Testament text was not divided into chapters and verses. But very early (probably after the Babylonian captivity), some divisions appeared for liturgical purposes. The oldest division of the Law into 669 so-called parshas, ​​adapted for public reading, is found in the Talmud; the current division into 50 or 54 slops dates back to the time of the Masorah and is not found in ancient synagogue lists. Also in the Talmud there are already divisions of the prophets into goftars - the final sections, this name was adopted because they were read at the end of the service.

Divisions into chapters of Christian origin and made in the XIII century. or Cardinal Hugon, or Bishop Stephen. In compiling the concordance for the Old Testament, Hugon, for the most convenient indication of places, divided each book of the Bible into several small sections, which he designated with letters of the alphabet. The division now accepted was introduced by the Bishop of Canterbury, Stephen Langton (died in ). In r. he divided the text of the Latin Vulgate into chapters, and this division was transferred to the Hebrew and Greek texts.

Then in the fifteenth century Rabbi Isaac Nathan, in compiling the Hebrew concordance, divided each book into chapters, and this division is still maintained in the Hebrew Bible. The division of poetic books into verses is already given in the very nature of Jewish versification, and therefore very ancient origin; it is found in the Talmud. The New Testament was first divided into verses in the 16th century.

The verses were first numbered by Santes Panino (died in 1992), then, near the city, by Robert Etienne. The current system of chapters and verses first appeared in the 1560 English Bible. The division is not always logical, but it is already too late to refuse it, let alone change anything: for four centuries it has settled in links, comments and alphabetical indexes.

The Bible in the Religions of the World

Judaism

Christianity

If the 27 books of the New Testament are the same for all Christians, then Christians have major differences in their views on the Old Testament.

The fact is that where the Old Testament is quoted in the books of the New Testament, these quotations are most often given according to the Greek translation of the Bible of the 3rd-2nd centuries. BC e., called, thanks to the legend of the 70 translators, the Septuagint (in Greek - seventy), and not according to the Hebrew text adopted in Judaism and called by scientists Masoretic(by the name of the ancient Jewish biblical theologians who organized the sacred manuscripts).

In fact, it was the list of books of the Septuagint, and not the later "cleansed" collection of Masoretes, that became traditional for the Ancient Church as a collection of books of the Old Testament. Therefore, all the Ancient Churches (in particular, the Armenian Apostolic Church) consider all the books of the Bible read by the apostles and Christ himself, including those called “deuterocanonical” in modern biblical studies, to be equally blessed and inspired by God.

The Catholics also, having trusted the Septuagint, accepted these texts into their Vulgate - the early medieval Latin translation of the Bible, canonized by Western ecumenical councils, and equated them with the rest of the canonical texts and books of the Old Testament, recognizing them equally inspired by God. These books are known to them as Deuterocanonical or Deuterocanonical.

The Orthodox include 11 deuterocanonical books and inserts into the rest of the books in the Old Testament, but with the note that they “have come down to us on Greek and are not part of the main canon. They put inserts in canonical books in brackets and stipulate with notes.

Non-canonical book characters

• Archangel Sariel
• Archangel Jerahmiel

Sciences and teachings related to the Bible

see also

• Tanakh - Hebrew Bible

Literature

• Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron: In 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - St. Petersburg: 1890-1907.
• McDowell, Josh. Evidence for the Reliability of the Bible: Reason for Reflection and Basis for Decision: Per. from English. - St. Petersburg: Christian Society "Bible for All", 2003. - 747 p. - ISBN 5-7454-0794-8, ISBN 0-7852-4219-8 (en.)
• Doyel, Leo. Testament of eternity. In Search of Biblical Manuscripts. - St. Petersburg: "Amphora", 2001.
• Nesterova O. E. The theory of the plurality of "meanings" of Holy Scripture in the medieval Christian exegetical tradition // Genres and forms in the written culture of the Middle Ages. - M.: IMLI RAN, 2005. - S. 23-44.
• Kryvelev I. A. Bible book. - M.: Publishing house of socio-economic literature, 1958.

Footnotes and sources

Links

Bible texts and translations

• More than 25 translations of the Bible and its parts and a quick search in all translations. Ability to create hyperlinks to passages in the Bible. Ability to listen to the text of any of the books.
• Literal translation from Greek of some books of the New Testament into Russian
• Review of Russian translations of the Bible (with the ability to download)
• "Your Bible" - Russian Synodal translation with search and comparison of versions (Ukrainian translation by Ivan Ogienko and English King James Version
• Interlinear translation of the Bible from Greek into Russian
• Text of the Old and New Testaments in Russian and Church Slavonic
• Bible on algart.net - online text of the Bible with cross-references, including the complete Bible on one page
• Electronic Bible and Apocrypha - repeatedly verified text of the Synodal Translation
• Superbook - one of the most complete Bible sites with non-trivial, but very powerful navigation

Holy Scripture in Christianity is the Bible. Translated from ancient Greek, it means the word "books". It is made up of books. In total there are 77 of them, most of which, namely 50 books, belong to the Old Testament and 27 books are classified as New Testament.

According to the Bible account, the age of the Holy Scripture itself is about 5.5 thousand years, and its transformation in the form of a literary work is at least 2 thousand years old. Even though the Bible was written in different languages and several dozen Saints, it retained its internal logical sequence and compositional completeness.

The history of the more ancient part of the Bible, called the Old Testament, for two thousand years prepared the human race for the coming of Christ, while the narrative of the New Testament is dedicated to the earthly life of Jesus Christ and all his closest associates and followers.

All biblical books of the Old Testament can be divided into four epochal parts.

The first part is devoted to the Law of God, presented in the form of ten Commandments, and transmitted to the human race through the prophet Moses. Every Christian, by the will of God, must live according to these Commandments.

The second part is historical. It fully reveals all the events, episodes and facts that occurred in 1300 BC.

The third part of the Holy Scriptures is made up of "instructive" books, they are characterized by a moral and instructive character. The main goal of this part is not a rigid definition of the rules of life and faith, as in the books of Moses, but a gentle and encouraging disposition of the human race towards a righteous way of life. "Teacher's Books" help a person learn to live in prosperity and peace of mind in accordance with the Will of God and with His blessing.

The fourth part includes books of a prophetic nature. These books teach us that the future of the entire human race is not a matter of chance, but depends on the way of life and faith of each person. Prophetic books not only reveal the future to us, but also appeal to our own conscience. This part of the Old Testament cannot be neglected, for it is necessary for each of us to gain firmness in our striving to accept the newly primordial purity of our soul.

The New Testament, which is the second and later part of the Holy Scriptures, tells about earthly life and the teachings of Jesus Christ.

The books that serve as the basis of the Old Testament include, first of all, the books of the Four Gospels - the gospels from Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, carrying the good news of the coming into the world of the earthly Redeemer Divine for the salvation of the whole human race.

All subsequent New Testament books (except the last) were called "Apostle". They tell about the Holy Apostles, about their great deeds and about the instructions to the Christian people. The last, closing the general cycle of writings of the New Testament, is a prophetic book called "Apocalypse". This book speaks of prophecies related to the fate of all mankind, the world and the Church of Christ.

Compared with the Old Testament, the New Testament has a more strict moral and edifying character, because in the books of the New Testament not only the sinful deeds of a person are condemned, but even the very thoughts about them. A Christian must not only live piously, in accordance with all the Commandments of God, but also eradicate in himself the evil that lives inside every person. Only by overcoming it, a person will be able to conquer death itself.

The New Testament books speak of the main thing in the Christian doctrine - the great resurrection of Jesus Christ, who overcame death and opened the gates to eternal life for all mankind.

The Old Testament and the New Testament are one and inseparable parts of the entire Holy Scripture. The Old Testament books are evidence of how God gave man a promise about the coming to earth of the Divine Savior of all, and the New Testament writings embody the proof that God kept His word before mankind and gave him His Only Begotten Son for the salvation of the entire human race.

The Meaning of the Bible.

The Bible has been translated into the largest number of existing languages ​​and is the most widespread book in the whole world, for our Creator has expressed the will to reveal Himself and bring His Word to every person on earth.

The Bible is the source of God's revelations, through it God gives humanity the opportunity to know the true truth about the universe, about the past and future of each of us.

Why did God give the Bible? He brought it to us as a gift so that we could improve, do good deeds, walk along life path not by touch, but in a firm awareness of the grace of one's deeds and one's true purpose. It is the Bible that shows us our path, it illuminates it and predicts it.

The only true purpose of the Bible is the reunification of man with the Lord God, the restoration of His image in each person and the correction of all the internal properties of man according to the original plan of God. Everything that we learn from the Bible, everything that we seek and find in the books of Holy Scripture, helps us achieve this goal.

Orthodoxy Titov Vladimir Eliseevich

"Holy Scripture" and "Holy Tradition"

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

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

The second source is “sacred tradition”, by which the ideologists of Orthodoxy understand, “when true believers who honor God by word and example pass one to another 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 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 by God, 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 her book of Ruth), four books of Kings, two books of Chronicles, two books of Ezra, books of Nehemiah, Esther, Job, Psalter , Proverbs of Solomon, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel and the Twelve Prophets.

The rest of the books placed in the Bible are considered non-canonical by Orthodox churches (for example, the book of the Wisdom of Jesus the son of Sirach, Tobit, Judith, etc.). In addition, there are separate places in the canonical books that are not recognized as inspired by God. For example, the prayer of King Manasseh at the end of 2 Chronicles, parts of the book of Esther that are not marked with verses, the song of the three youths in the 3rd chapter of the book of the prophet Daniel, the story of Susanna in the 13th chapter, the story of the Wil and the dragon in 14 th chapter of the same book.

It must be said directly that, from the point of view of an unprejudiced reader, the canonical and non-canonical books of the Bible differ little from each other in content. Some frivolity in the content of the story about Susanna and the elders can in no way be considered an obstacle to its inclusion in the canon, if we keep 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 that they are absent from the Hebrew text of the Bible and appear only in the Septuagint (Greek translation of "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 spiritual reading and include them in their editions of the Bible. Protestant churches adhere only to the canon.

The canon of the New Testament is as follows: four gospels, (from Matthew, from Mark, from Luke, from John); Acts of the Apostles; seven epistles (one James, two Peters, three Johns, one Judas); fourteen letters of Paul (to the Romans, two to the Corinthians, to the Galatians, to the Ephesians, to the Philippians, to the Colossians, two to the Thessalonians, two to Timothy, to Titus, to Philemon, to the Jews); Revelation of John the Evangelist.

Biblical scientific criticism has established that the Old Testament part 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 on the death of Saul and his son Jonathan from the second book of Kings) date back to the 13th century. BC e. At first they were transmitted as an oral tradition. Recording of such oral traditions began among the Jews at the turn of the 2nd and 1st millennium BC. e., when they adopted the Phoenician script. The first prophetic books included in the Bible did not appear until the 8th century. BC e. (books of Hosea, Amos, Micah, First Isaiah). By the VI century. BC e. researchers attributed the books of Judges and Kings, only in the middle of the II 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 come down to our time.

The analysis of the Old Testament, done by many generations of researchers, leads to the firm conviction that the "holy spirit" had nothing to do with the creation of the Bible. It suffices to cite as an example the book of Genesis, which opens the famous Pentateuch of Moses. There are two primary sources in this book. The book, included in biblical criticism under the name Yahvist, was compiled by a follower of the god Yahweh, originally the god of the tribe of Judah, and then of all the Jewish tribes united around this tribe. The second book of the Elohist was compiled by the followers of the gods Elohim (plural for the god Eloh). These primary sources give similar, but at the same time differing in essential 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 we are dealing here with a purely earthly document. For example, Christian theologians claim that the New Testament books came into being in the order in which they are listed in the New Testament canon (Gospel first, Apocalypse last). In fact, the order of appearance of the New Testament books is just the opposite. And the composition of the canon of the New Testament was approved only in 364 at the Laodicean Council, that is, more than three centuries after the events that it describes.

And in order to elevate the earthly document - the Bible to the rank of a divine document, Orthodox theologians are trying to reinforce the authority of "sacred scripture" with the authority of "sacred tradition".

Unlike Protestantism, which rejects "holy tradition", and Catholicism, which adheres to the point of view of the incompleteness of "holy scripture", Orthodoxy recognizes both sources of its doctrine as equal. “Holy tradition is the same divine revelation, the same word of God, orally transmitted to the church by Jesus Christ, as is 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. written in books by inspired men and handed over to the church in writing.

Orthodox theologians believe that the comprehension of the "deepest" mysteries of "divine revelation" is possible only within the framework of a close combination, mutual agreement of the main 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 unchanged, the holy. scripture." And the need for tradition is evident, if only from the fact that only a minority of people (only the literate) can use books, while 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 incomprehensible without explanation. The apostolic disciples and their successors allegedly heard the detailed preaching of the apostles and knew how the apostles themselves understood the meaning of the teaching they set forth in writing. Therefore, the interpretation of "holy Scripture" without referring to "holy 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 the sacraments and rites in their original establishment, since often there is no exact mention in the "holy scripture" 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 the “grateful descendants” in the 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 creeds of the most ancient 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 creeds and rules of the first seven ecumenical councils and three local councils, the authority of which was recognized by the sixth ecumenical council; fourthly, the confessions of faith made by the fathers of the church (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, of which many, according to Orthodox theologians, go back to the apostles; seventh, the acts of the martyrs; eighthly, the creations of the fathers and teachers of the church ("The Announcement" 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, later 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 work of church leaders, not of the holy spirit. And therefore, from their point of view, it can in no way be put on a par with the Bible. Endless disputes about the composition of the "sacred tradition" are also going on between representatives of the other two main currents of Christianity - Orthodoxy and Catholicism. The Catholic Church includes in the "sacred tradition" the decision of all ecumenical councils (after the 7th ecumenical council, only the Catholic Church collected such councils) and the decisions of the popes. The Orthodox Churches strongly reject these additions. These disputes among 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 back up the authority of the Bible, "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. Consider this argument of Orthodox theologians.

Whether the Orthodox clergy wish it or not, it is quite clear from the theological interpretation of the need for “sacred tradition” that theologians subconsciously feel the insufficiency, the inferiority of the “holy scripture”, the source, which, according to them, should give an answer to all the inquiries of the inquisitive human mind. But even involuntarily speaking, Orthodox theologians highly value "Holy Scripture" and try to confirm its truth by referring to its divinely revealed, "God-inspired" character. For theologians, "inspiration" is an undeniable proof of the truth. Who, if not God, knows the truth?!

How do Orthodox theologians understand "inspiration"? On this subject, various points of view have been expressed in Christian theology, and they can basically be reduced to three. Some theologians (Athenagoras, Justin Martyr, Tertullian and the 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 God’s revelation in an ecstatic state, without any participation of their own consciousness and will. According to this view, the “holy spirit” is fully responsible for the biblical texts, and since he is a member of the holy trinity, then, naturally, he could not be mistaken, and therefore not only all legends are true in the Bible, but every word, every letter.

Another trend in Christian theology (Origen, Epiphanius, Jerome, Basil the Great, Chrysostom) was more cautious in defining the nature of the "inspiration" of the Bible. Representatives of this trend 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 "a separate view on the inspiration of the sacred books, whether everything in them is inspired by God."

And, finally, it is necessary to point out the third direction in the interpretation of the question of the "inspiration" of "sacred writings". When, as a result of the blows of scientific criticism of the Bible, it became clear that quite a bit of truth remained in the content of the "holy Scriptures", among theologians who wanted to save the Christian dogma, a whole school of so-called modernists appeared, who began to limit the "inspiration" of the "sacred" books of their general content, without recognizing individual details in biblical texts.

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

As for the third direction with its extreme conclusions, it seems to Orthodox theologians too "revolutionary" and is rejected, because 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, obsolete concept.”

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

However, the absence of any restraint and violence against the natural abilities of earthly authors greatly disappoints theologians. Reading the Bible can be confusing for anyone: it is full of contradictions. For example, according to the first chapter of the book of Genesis, a man and a woman were created by God at the same time, while the second chapter of this book states 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 - such is one message of the Bible. “The waters were strong on the earth for a hundred and fifty days,” says another verse of the “holy scripture.” Many are familiar with the biblical myth of the struggle between David and Goliath. However, the same Bible in another place says: "Then killed Elhanan, the son of Jagare-Orgim of Bethlehem, Goliath the Githite." 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 has 56 generations. Scientific criticism of the Bible shows how many such contradictions and historical inconsistencies exist in the so-called "Holy Scripture."

How to explain the numerous contradictions of biblical texts, how to explain the irreconcilable contradiction of biblical legends and achievements 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 "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, "God's inspiration" in the writing of biblical books did not in the least constrain the natural abilities of the earthly authors of "Holy Scripture." “But since human nature is imperfect, the participation of free human activity in the writing of St. books may introduce some imperfections in them. Therefore, the writings found in St. books, purely human thoughts and feelings, inaccuracies, disagreements, and so on. Works of St. writers are only as perfect as is necessary for divine purposes. Where imperfect human knowledge is sufficient for the cause of human salvation, God allowed imperfections to manifest themselves. The same can be said about the form in which the god is presented. revelation".

This is a very important confession of Orthodox theologians. We have already seen that when interpreting the need for “sacred tradition”, Orthodox theologians, although unwillingly, let slip about the inferiority of “holy scripture”, in which supposedly “many thoughts are presented concisely and without explanation.” Here, the theologians themselves speak clearly and unequivocally about the imperfection of the "Holy Scripture" from the point of view and content. individual places, and forms of presentation. True, all these "imperfections" of the Bible are recognized with purely theological caution. The grossest chronological errors are called "inaccuracies", the screaming contradictions of biblical texts are called "disagreements", the complete irreconcilability of the biblical picture of the creation of the world with the achievements of modern natural science is modestly referred to as "etc." But in this case, we are not interested in the caution of theologians, but in the fact that they recognize the imperfection of the "Holy Scripture",

With this understanding of "inspiration" Orthodox theologians try to protect the Bible from the blows of scholarly criticism. They are well aware that in our days, when even a more or less educated person against the background scientific picture many flaws in biblical ideas are visible in the world, it is impossible to save the biblical text in its entirety. But the holy spirit, which "dictated" biblical legends to the prophets and apostles, must be saved. A god cannot speak the truth. Therefore, Orthodox theologians “who meet in St. In 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 imperfect human nature, which managed to leave its imprint even on the “God-inspired” “Holy Scripture”. From the fact that 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", the significance of the Bible by Orthodox theologians is still highly valued. Bible books, they say, “are more important than all books for a person, as they communicate the will of God, which must be known in order 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 of the candidate of theology E. A. Karmanov appeared on the book of the Catholic theologians E. Galbiati and A. Piazza "Difficult Pages of the Bible (Old Testament)". We will dwell on this review when we consider 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 sense in favor of the spiritual and symbolic" in the interpretation of biblical texts. He believes that the contradiction between the two stories about the creation of the world is easily removed, since the first story is written in a religious and moral sense, and the second in a psychological and didactic one. Both stories, they say, do not pretend to be an objective presentation of facts, the order of events is not included in the circle of the author's statements. According to the author, the biblical description of the global flood does not at all assert its "universality" and refers only to Palestine, Egypt and their neighboring countries. In the famous Babylonian pandemonium, it turns out, you can see "a standard hyperbole like our skyscraper." In conclusion, the author expresses his conviction that " correct application historical-critical method, painstaking and comprehensive study of the biblical text without hasty and unfounded conclusions give excellent results. But who will determine whether the conclusions are hasty or unhurried, whether they are justified or unjustified? The author of the review considered 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 the facts. But what about the contradictions in the gospels, these biographies of Jesus Christ? Perhaps the gospel texts also do not claim to be an objective presentation of facts? Perhaps they are only religious and didactic stories? Perhaps there was no immaculate conception of Jesus Christ, his crucifixion, his miraculous resurrection and ascension to heaven? Unpleasant questions for theologians. The path of the 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 dogma - "sacred tradition". The dogmas, decrees, 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 meet interesting facts refuting the theological concept of "inspiration" of "sacred tradition". Take, for example, the creed of Orthodoxy, its creed and the "secret of mysteries" of Christianity - the dogma of the Holy Trinity.

From the book Language and Religion. Lectures on Philology and the History of Religions author Mechkovskaya Nina Borisovna

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

From the book Orthodox Dogmatic Theology author Anointed Protopresbyter Michael

Sacred Tradition Sacred Tradition in the original exact sense of the word is a tradition coming from the ancient Church of apostolic times: it was called in the 2nd and 3rd centuries. "Apostolic Tradition." It must be borne in mind that the ancient Church carefully guarded against

From the book Dogmatic Theology author Davydenkov Oleg

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

From the book Orthodoxy author Titov Vladimir Eliseevich

“Holy Scripture” and “Holy Tradition” Orthodox theologians insist on the divinely inspired nature of their doctrine, convince their followers that it is given to people by the Lord God himself in the form of a revelation. This divine revelation is spreading and

From the book Catholicism author Rashkova Raisa Timofeevna

Holy Scripture and Holy Tradition Catholicism, as one of the directions in Christianity, finally took shape only after the separation of the Western and Eastern churches in 1054. Therefore, in its dogma and doctrine there are both common with Orthodoxy (and then with Protestantism),

From the book Bibliological Dictionary the author Men Alexander

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

From the book Ladder, or Spiritual Tablets author Ladder John

Holy Scripture Unceasing teaching in the daytime in the word of God serves to turn away sleepy bad dreams. It is more by labors, and not by naked words, that the Divine must be learned. .Hearing the stories about the exploits of the holy fathers and their teaching excites the soul to jealousy

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

IV. SACRED TRADITION The concept of "tradition" means the successive transmission from generation to generation of any knowledge or teaching. The early church had a very broad understanding Holy Tradition. The Apostle Paul unites in this concept all the doctrine,

From the book Catechism. Introduction to dogmatic theology. Lecture course. author Davydenkov Oleg

1. SACRED TRADITION "Under the name of Sacred Tradition is meant when those who truly believe and honor God by word and example pass on one to another, and ancestors to descendants, the teaching of faith, the law of God, the sacraments and sacred rites." The very word "tradition" (Greek ?????????) means

From the book of St. Theophan the Recluse and his teaching on salvation author Tertyshnikov Georgy

3.6. Why should Sacred Tradition be observed even when we have Sacred Scripture? The need to keep Tradition even when we have Holy Scripture is due to three reasons. a) Sacred Tradition also includes that which, in principle, cannot

From the book of teaching author Kavsokalivit Porfiry

Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition, Creations of the Holy Fathers In the Old Testament, God sent prophets to earth to whom He communicated His will, and the prophets, moved by the Holy Spirit, interpreted and communicated to people the law of God, “prepainting the redemption that was to be” and

From Fundamentals of the Art of Holiness, Volume 1 author Barnabas Bishop

Sacred Scripture Everything has as its basis the eternal book - the Holy Scripture. The source of monastic life is Holy Scripture, the Gospel. What does the Old Testament say? Get out of your country, from your kindred and from your father's house and go to the land that I will show you ... (Gen. 12, 1). And

From the book 300 words of wisdom author Maksimov Georgy

A. Holy Scripture. If Holy Scripture, or, as it is very often called, the Bible, as a source of knowledge of God has such an indisputable significance for us, then first of all the question arises: what is it in essence? What is the Bible? A few words about

From the book Fundamentals of Orthodoxy author Nikulina Elena Nikolaevna

B. Holy Tradition* the Living God,

From the author's book

Sacred Tradition 63. “If anyone wants to protect himself from deceit and remain sound in faith, he must protect his faith, firstly, by the authority of Holy Scripture, and secondly, by the Tradition of the Church. But perhaps someone will ask: is the canon of Scripture perfect and sufficient?

From the author's book

The meaning of the concepts "Divine Revelation", "Holy Tradition", "Holy Scripture", "Bible", "Old and New Testament" Testimony

Our knowledge of God is strengthened most of all by considering the whole environment around us and the wisely arranged nature. Even more God reveals himself in Divine revelation, which is given to us in Holy Scripture and Holy Tradition.

The Holy Scriptures are books written by the Prophets and Apostles with the help of the Holy Spirit of God, revealing to them the mysteries of the future. These books are called the Bible.

The Bible is a historical collection of books that spans - by Bible reckoning - an age of about five and a half thousand years. How literary work it has been gathering for about two thousand years.

It is divided by volume into two unequal parts: a large one - the ancient one, that is, the Old Testament, and a later one - the New Testament.

The history of the Old Testament prepared people for the coming of Christ for about two thousand years. The New Testament covers the earthly period of the life of the God-Man Jesus Christ and his closest followers. For us Christians, of course, the history of the New Testament is more important.

The subject matter of the biblical books is very diverse. At the beginning, it is devoted to the historical past from the point of view of the philosophy of history and Theology, the origin of the world, and the creation of man. This is what the oldest part of the Bible is devoted to.

The Bible books are divided into four parts. The first of them speaks of the law left by God to the people through the prophet Moses. These commandments are dedicated to the rules of life and faith.

The second part is historical, it describes all the events that have taken place over 1100 years - up to the 2nd century. ad.

The third part of the books are moral and instructive. They are based on instructive stories from the life of people famous for certain deeds or a special way of thinking and behavior.

There are books of very high poetic, lyrical content - for example, the Psalter, the Song of Songs. Of particular interest is the Psalter. This is a book of the history of the soul inner life human spanning range internal states from spiritual takeoff to deep despair due to this or that wrong act.

It should be noted that of all the Old Testament books, the Psalter was the main one for the formation of our Russian worldview. This book was educational - in the pre-Petrine era, all Russian children learned to read and write from it.

The fourth part of the books are prophetic books. Prophetic texts are not just reading, but revelation - very important for the life of each of us, since our inner world is always on the move, striving to achieve pristine beauty human soul.

The story about the earthly life of the Lord Jesus Christ and the essence of his teaching is contained in the second part of the Bible - the New Testament. The New Testament consists of 27 books. These are, first of all, the four Gospels - a story about the life and three and a half years of the preaching of the Lord Jesus Christ. Then - books that tell about His disciples - the books of the Acts of the Apostles, as well as the books of His disciples themselves - the Epistles of the Apostles, and, finally, the book of the Apocalypse, which tells about the final fate of the world.

The moral law contained in the New Testament is stricter than that of the Old Testament. Here not only sinful deeds are condemned, but also thoughts. The goal of every person is to eradicate evil in himself. Having conquered evil, man conquers death.

The main thing in the Christian doctrine is the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, who conquered death and opened the way for all mankind to eternal life. It is this joyful sense of liberation that pervades the New Testament narratives. The very word "Gospel" is translated from Greek as "good news".

The Old Testament is the ancient union of God with man, in which God promised people a Divine Savior and for many centuries prepared them to receive Him.

The New Testament consists in the fact that God really gave people a Divine Savior, in the person of His Only Begotten Son, who descended from heaven and became incarnate from the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, and suffered and was crucified for us, buried and Risen on the third day according to Scripture.

The sources of Christian doctrine are: Holy Tradition and Holy Scripture.

Holy Tradition

Holy Tradition literally means successive transmission, inheritance, as well as the very mechanism of transmission from one person to another, from one generation of people to another.
Sacred Tradition is the original way of spreading knowledge about God, which preceded the Holy Scriptures. From the creation of the world to the activities of the prophet Moses, there were no sacred books, the doctrine of God, faith was transmitted orally, by tradition, that is, by word and example from ancestors to descendants. Jesus Christ conveyed His divine teaching to His disciples by word (sermon) and by the example of His life. Thus, Sacred Tradition is understood to mean that which, by word and example, truly believing people pass on to each other, ancestors pass on to their descendants: the teaching of faith, the law of God, the Sacraments and sacred rites. All true believers successively constitute the Church, which is the guardian of Holy Tradition.
Holy Tradition is spiritual experience Church of Christ, the work of the Holy Spirit in the Church. It is fixed in the decrees of the Ecumenical Councils, the dogmatic and moral teaching of the Church, expressed in the unanimous opinion of the holy fathers and teachers of the Church, exists as a given in the form of the foundations of the liturgical, canonical structure of Church life (rites, fasts, holidays, rites, etc.).

Holy Bible

Holy Scripture, or the Bible, is a collection of books written by the prophets and apostles under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. The word Bible comes from the Greek word for books (in plural), which in turn is from byblos, meaning papyrus. The name Sacred, or Divine, Scripture is taken from the Sacred Scripture itself. The Apostle Paul wrote to his disciple Timothy: “You know the sacred scriptures from childhood” (1 Tim. 3:15).
Sacred Scripture is included in Sacred Tradition, is a part of it.
The distinguishing feature of the books of Holy Scripture is their inspiration (2 Tim. 3:16), that is, the only true author of these books is God Himself.
Holy Scripture has two sides - Divine and human. The divine side consists in the fact that the Holy Scripture contains the Divinely Revealed Truth. The human side is that this Truth is expressed in the language of people of a certain era, who belonged to a certain culture.
Biblical books originally arose within the framework of Holy Tradition and only then became part of the Holy Scriptures. The list of books that the Church recognizes as inspired by God is called a canon, from the Greek "rule, norm", and the inclusion of a text in the generally accepted canon is called canonization. Formally, the canon of the Holy Books took shape in the 4th century. The canonization of the text is based on the testimonies of authoritative theologians and Church Fathers.
Depending on the time of writing, the books of Holy Scripture are divided into parts: books written before the birth of Christ are called the Books of the Old Testament, books written after the birth of Christ are the books of the New Testament.
The Hebrew word "covenant" means "covenant, covenant" (covenant, union of God with people). In Greek, this word was translated as diatheke, which means testament (Divine teaching, bequeathed by God).
The canon of the Old Testament was formed on the basis of the Greek translation of the sacred books of Judaism - the Septuagint. It also included some books originally written in Greek.
The Jewish canon itself (Tanakh) did not include some of the books that were included in the Septuagint, and, of course, it does not include books written in Greek.
During the 16th century Reformation Martin Luther considered only books translated from Hebrew to be inspired by God. All the Protestant churches followed Luther in this matter. Thus, the Protestant canon of the Old Testament, which consists of 39 books, coincides with the Hebrew Bible, while the Orthodox and Catholic canons, which differ slightly from each other, also include books translated from Greek and written in Greek.
The Orthodox canon of the Old Testament includes 50 books. At the same time, the Catholic Church does not recognize any differences in status between the Hebrew and Greek books of the Old Testament.
V Orthodox Church Greek books of the Old Testament have the status of non-canonical, but are included in all editions of the Old Testament and in fact their status differs little from books translated from Hebrew.
The main content lines of the Old Testament - God promises people the Savior of the world and for many centuries prepares them for His acceptance through the commandments, prophecies and types of the Messiah (Greek Savior). The main theme of the New Testament is the coming into the world of the God-Man, Jesus Christ, who gave people the New Testament (new union, contract), accomplished the salvation of the human race through the incarnation, life, teaching, sealed by His death on the Cross and Resurrection.
The total number of Old Testament books of Holy Scripture is 39. According to their content, they are divided into four areas: law-positive, historical, teaching and prophetic.
Law-positive books (Pentateuch): Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy (they tell about the creation of the world and man, about the fall, about God's promise of the Savior of the world, about the life of people in ancient times, contain mainly an exposition of the law given by God through the prophet Moses) .
Historical books: Book of Joshua, Book of Judges, Book of Ruth, Books of Kings: First, Second, Third and Fourth, Books of Chronicles: First and Second, First Book of Ezra, Book of Nehemiah, Book of Esther (contain the history of religion and life of the Jewish people who preserved faith in the true God, the Creator).
Teacher books: Book of Job, Psalter, Book of Proverbs of Solomon, Book of Ecclesiastes, Book of Song of Songs (contain information about faith).
Prophetic books: 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 ( contain prophecies or predictions about the future, mainly about the Savior, Jesus Christ).
In addition to the above Old Testament books, there are non-canonical books in the Bible (written after the list of sacred books - the canon) was completed: Tobit, Judith, the Wisdom of Solomon, the Book of Jesus, the son of Sirach, the Second and Third Books of Ezra, three Maccabean Books.
The New Testament consists of 27 works written in Greek during the first hundred years of Christianity. The earliest of them were probably written in the late 1940s. 1st century, and the latest - at the beginning of the 2nd century.
The four Gospels open the New Testament - Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. As a result of scientific study of the Gospel in the last two centuries, researchers have come to the conclusion that the Gospel of Mark (c. 70) is the earliest.
The authors of the Gospel of Matthew and Luke used the text of Mark and another source that has not come down to us - a collection of the sayings of Jesus. These Gospels were written independently of each other in the late 80s. 1st century The Gospel of John goes back to a different tradition and dates from the very end of the 1st century.
The Gospels are followed by the Acts of the Apostles, then the Epistles of the Apostles, which instructed the addressees in matters of faith: 14 Epistles, the author of which is considered the Apostle Paul, as well as the Epistles of other apostles: James, 1, 2, 3 John, 1 and 2 Peter, Jude.
The New Testament corpus is completed by the Revelation of John the Theologian, better known by the Greek name of the Apocalypse, where the end of the world is described in the language of allegories and symbols.
In terms of content, like the Old Testament books, the books of the Holy Scriptures of the New Testament (27 - all canonical) are divided into law-positive, historical, teaching and prophetic.
The four gospels belong to the hospitable books: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. The Greek word gospel euaggelion means good news, joyful news (the basic principles of the New Testament are outlined: about the coming of the Savior into the world, about His earthly life, death on the cross, resurrection, ascension, divine teaching and miracles).
The historical book is the Book of the Acts of the Holy Apostles (written by the Evangelist Luke, it testifies to the descent of the Holy Spirit on the apostles, to the spread of the Church of Christ).
To educational books (reveal important questions Christian doctrine and life) include: Seven epistles (letters to all Christians): one of the apostle James, two apostles of Peter, three apostles of the evangelist John and one of the apostle Jude (James). Fourteen Epistles of the Apostle Paul: to the Romans, two to the Corinthians, to the Galatians, to the Ephesians, to the Philippians, to the Colossians, two to the Thessalonians, two to Timothy, Bishop of Ephesus, to Titus, Bishop of Crete, to Philemon, and to the Jews.
The prophetic book containing mysterious visions and revelations about the future of the Church and the Second Coming of the Savior to earth is the Apocalypse, or the Revelation of John the Theologian.