What is Holy Scripture. How to read scripture

Opening for reading a book - the holy Gospel - remember that it will decide your eternal fate. According to her we will be judged and, depending on what we were here on earth, in relation to her, we will receive either eternal bliss or eternal punishment. Do not be satisfied with one fruitless reading of the Gospel; try to fulfill his commandments, read his deeds. This is the book of life, and one must read it with life.

When reading, observe moderation. Temperance maintains a constant desire for reading, and satiation with reading produces an aversion to it.

The Spirit has spoken Scripture, and only the Spirit can interpret it. God-inspired men, prophets and apostles wrote it; God-inspired men, the Holy Fathers, interpreted it. Therefore, anyone who wants to acquire a true knowledge of the Holy Scriptures needs to read the Holy Fathers.

Many, all those who madly, arrogantly rejected the Holy Fathers, who approached the Gospel directly, with blind insolence, with an impure mind and heart, fell into disastrous error. They were rejected by the Gospel: it admits only the humble…

The books of the Holy Fathers, in the words of one of them, are like a mirror: looking at them carefully and often, the soul can see all its shortcomings.

Saint Ignatius (Bryanchaninov)

Reading only then will bring the desired benefit ...

When what is read will, to the best of its ability, enter into life, become the rule of life, and not simple, bare, soulless and cold knowledge. What good can it be that a man knows to pray and does not pray; knows that it is necessary to forgive insults - and does not forgive; knows that it is necessary to fast - and does not observe fasts; one must endure - and does not tolerate, etc. Such knowledge, according to the word of the Gospel, will even be a condemnation of a person. Therefore, you need to read with attention and try to live in the spirit of what you read. Of course, we cannot immediately become an executor of everything that is written - gradualness is needed.

It is best, if possible, to receive the blessing of a spiritual father for each reading. In the absence of such an opportunity, one should receive at least a general blessing on the order and choice of books to read.

The elders advise reading and rereading the works of the Holy Fathers... There is no limit to spiritual growth, so rereading has great value. It is better to reread a small number of books with reverence and attention than to read a lot hastily.

Reverend Nikon of Optina

Permanent spiritual chant and the reading of Scripture is the food of the soul, it is its adornment, it is its enclosure. On the contrary, not listening to the Scriptures is hunger and ruin for the soul. If you do not understand something, then accept it by simple faith; for it was God Himself who said it.

Saint John Chrysostom

Before you hear what needs to be done, you must promise that you will do it. One thought, that God speaks, banishes all contradiction and produces complete obedience.

Rev. Isidore Pelusiot

When you read, read with zeal and diligence; stop at each verse with great attention and do not only try to turn the sheets, but, if necessary, do not be lazy and twice, and thrice, and read the verse several times in order to comprehend its power. And when you sit down to read or listen to the reader, first pray to God, saying: “Lord Jesus Christ! Open the ears and eyes of my heart, that I may hear Thy words and understand them, and do Thy will; because I am a stranger on earth; do not hide from me, O Lord, Thy commandments, but open my eyes, and I will understand the wonders manifested by Thy law (Ps. 119:18-19). For I trust in You, my God, that You may enlighten my heart.”

Venerable Ephraim the Syrian

The humble and spiritually active, reading the Divine Scriptures, will refer everything to himself, and not to another.

Reverend Mark the Ascetic

When reading spiritual books, apply more to yourself, and not to others, what is written in them, otherwise, instead of applying a plaster to your ulcers, you impose a harmful poison. Read not for curiosity, but for teaching piety and knowing your weakness, and from this come to humility. Read books with humility, and the Lord will enlighten your hearts.

Venerable Macarius of Optina

First, pray to God to direct your mind to comprehend the Scriptures. What is clear, try to fulfill, and skip the incomprehensible, as the Holy Fathers advise. Holy Scripture must be read not for knowledge, but in order to save one's soul. And the study of the incomprehensible belongs to pride. The Holy Fathers advise reading the Holy Gospel daily; if it is very untimely, at least one conceived yet read. Do not read in such a way that you only read it, but inwardly pray to the Lord to open the eyes of your heart to comprehend the power of the holy gospel of Christ; read carefully, exactly in warehouses. By experience you will know the spiritual power emanating from such reading.

Schiegumen John (Alekseev).

If you only refine your mind from a book, but do not correct your will, then from reading a book you will be even angrier than before, since learned and reasonable fools are the most evil than simple ignoramuses.

Saint Tikhon of Zadonsk

Who is from God, he listens to the words of God. (John 8, 47) No prophecy in Scripture can be solved by oneself (2 Pet. 1, 20). If a wise word is heard by a prudent one, he will praise it and apply it to himself. (Sir. 18, 18). Laying aside every impurity and remnant of wickedness, receive in meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls. Be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. (James 1:21-22)

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 St. John Chrysostom and Epiphanius of Cyprus.

The Bible books were written at different times - before the birth of Christ and after His birth. The former are called the books of the Old Testament, and the latter are the books of the New Testament. The Bible books are called Holy Scripture and are part of the Holy Tradition of the Church.

The books of the Old Testament were written in Hebrew (with the exception of some parts of the books of Daniel and Ezra, which were written in Aramaic), New Testament- in the Alexandrian dialect, ancient Greek- koine.

The original books of the Bible were written on parchment or papyrus with a pointed reed stick and ink. The scroll looked like a long ribbon and was wound around a shaft.

The text in the ancient scrolls was written in large 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. There were also no punctuation marks, no aspirations, no stresses in the ancient manuscripts. And in the Hebrew language, vowels were also not written, but only consonants.

Bible canon

The Bible consists of 66 books; 39 is found in the Old Testament and 27 in the New. The books of the Old Testament are artificially counted as 22, according to the number of letters of the Hebrew alphabet, or 24, according to the number of letters of the Greek alphabet (for this reason, some of the books are combined).

In addition, the Old Testament includes 11 so-called deuterocanonical books (see), which the Church does not put on an equal footing with the canonical ones, but recognizes them as edifying and useful.

The composition of the books of the Bible (Biblical Canon) evolved gradually. The books of the Old Testament were created over a considerable period of time: from the XIII century. BC e. until the 4th c. BC e. It is believed that the canonical books of the Old Testament were collected together by the scribe Ezra, who lived around 450 BC. e.

Both Testaments were first reduced to canonical form at local councils in the 4th century: the Council of Hippo in 393 and the Council of Carthage in 397.

The division of words in the Bible was introduced in the century by the deacon of the Church of Alexandria Eulalius. The modern division into chapters dates back to Cardinal Stephen Langton, who divided the Latin translation of the Bible, the Vulgate, in the year. In the year, the Genevan printer Robert Stephen introduced modern division chapters on poetry.

The main theme of the Bible is the salvation of mankind by the Messiah, the incarnated Son of God 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.

The Bible books of the Old and New Testaments are classified into Legislative, Historical, Teaching and Prophetic. For example, in the New Testament, the Gospels are Legislative, the Acts of the Apostles are Historical, and the Epistles of Sts. Apostles and the Prophetic Book - Revelation of St. John the Evangelist.

The main feature of the Bible, which distinguishes it from all other literary works, giving it unquestioned authority, is its inspiration, which, nevertheless, did not suppress the free will and personality of the authors. That is why we observe significant differences between individual books of the Bible, depending on the individual, psychological and peculiar literary characteristics of their authors.

While believing in the divine inspiration of the books of the Bible, it is important to remember that the Bible is the book of the Church. according to plan God's people are called to be saved not alone, but in a society which the Lord guides and dwells in. This society is called the Church. The Church has not only preserved the letter of the word of God, but also possesses 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 guide it. Therefore, the Church gives us correct guidance on how to use her written wealth: what is more important and relevant in it, and what has only historical significance and is not applicable in New Testament times. The self-sufficiency of Scripture ("Sola Scriptura") declared by the Protestants gives rise to many conflicting interpretations of the Bible, depriving the sacred texts of their true meaning.

Bible translations

The Septuagint, a Greek translation of seventy interpreters, was begun at the behest of the Egyptian king Ptolemy Philadelphus in 271 BC. Orthodox Church since the apostolic time he has been using the sacred books according to the translation of 70.

The Vulgate is a Latin translation, published in 384 by the blessed Jerome. From 382 Blessed Jerome of Stridon translated the Bible from Greek into Latin; at the beginning of his work, he used the Greek Septuagint, but soon switched to using the Hebrew text directly. This translation became known as the Vulgate - Editio Vulgata (vulgatus means "widespread, well-known"). The Council of Trent in the city approved the translation of St. Jerome, and it came into general use in the West.

The Slavic translation of the Bible was made according to the text of 70 interpreters by the holy Thessalonica brothers Cyril and Methodius, in the middle of the century AD, during their apostolic labors in the Slavic lands.

Bible. encyclopedic Dictionary Brockhaus and Efron (material used in part)

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. As literary work it has been gathering for about two thousand years.

It is divided by volume into two unequal parts: large - ancient, that is Old Testament, and later - 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, was buried and Risen on the third day according to the Scriptures.

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

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.

The 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 indicated by us, 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 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 figures of the ancient Hebrew "Great Assembly" (administrative-theological scholars of the synclite of the 4th-3rd centuries BC) and subsequent Jewish religious authorities, and in Christianity, the Fathers of the Church, 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. When 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 the 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 to be equally blessed and inspired by God, including those called “deuterocanonical” in modern biblical studies.

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 in 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

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.