Bibles from whom. Who wrote the bible. Correct Understanding and Interpretation of the Bible

Where did you come from? The Coming of Contemplation 1 When Huineng first met the Fifth Patriarch Chan Hongren, he asked him: - Where did you come from? "From Lingnani," he replied. - Ainnan is a barbarian place in the south. And among the barbarians there is no Buddha! Hongren exclaimed. - Really

11. Where does "Jesus" come from? Where does "Christ" come from? Introduction In the history and content of Christianity, the names "Jesus" and "Christ" are of much greater significance than believers, theologians and scientists realize. In our private opinion, a comprehensive study, illumination and understanding of these names

WHERE "ABILITIES" FROM? Those people (they are relatively few) whom the demons consider capable of serving the purposes of seducing and trapping others human souls, they "endow" with such supernatural abilities as clairvoyance, telepathy, hypnosis, levitation,

Bible(from Greek βιβλία - books) or Holy Bible- a collection of Books (Old and New Testaments), compiled by the Holy Spirit (ie God) through the chosen, sanctified from God people: prophets and apostles. The collection and erection into a single book is accomplished by the Church and for the Church.

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. and .

Orthodox Christians, when talking about the Bible, often use the term "Scripture" (it is always written with a capital letter) or "Holy Scripture" (implying that it is part of the Holy Tradition of the Church, understood in a broad sense).

Composition of the Bible

Bible (Holy Scripture) = Old Testament + New Testament.
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New Testament = Gospel (according to Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) + Epistles of St. Apostles + Apocalypse.
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The books of the Old and New Testaments can conditionally be subdivided into law-positive, historical, teaching and prophetic.
See diagrams: and.

The main theme of the Bible

The Bible is a religious book. main theme 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.

Inspiration of the Bible

All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.()

The Bible was written by more than 40 people who lived in different countries: Babylon, Rome, Greece, Jerusalem ... The authors of the Bible belonged to different social strata (from the shepherd Amos to the kings of David and Solomon), had different educational level(Ap. John was a simple fisherman, Apostle Paul graduated from the Jerusalem Rabbinic Academy).

The unity of the Bible is observed in its integrity from the first page to the last. In their diversity, some texts are confirmed, explained and supplemented by others. In all 77 books of the Bible there is some kind of unartificial, internal consistency. There is only one explanation for this. This Book was written by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit by the people chosen by Him. The Holy Spirit did not dictate the Truth from Heaven, but participated with the author in the creative process of creating the Holy Book, which is why we can notice the individual psychological and literary characteristics of its authors.

Holy Scripture is not an exclusively Divine product, but a product of the Divine-human co-creation. Holy Scripture was compiled as a result of the joint activity of God and people. At the same time, man was not a passive tool, an impersonal instrument of God, but was His co-worker, a partner in His good action. This position is revealed in the dogmatic teaching of the Church about the Scriptures.

Correct Understanding and Interpretation of the Bible

No prophecy in Scripture can be resolved by itself. For prophecy was never uttered by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke it, being moved by the Holy Spirit. ()

While believing in the divine inspiration of the books of the Bible, it is important to remember that the Bible is a book. According to the plan of God, people are called to be saved not alone, but in a society that is led and inhabited by the Lord. This society is called the Church. not only retained the letter of the word of God, but also possessed a correct understanding of it. This is due to the fact that, 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 her written wealth: what is more important and relevant in it, and what has only historical meaning and not applicable in New Testament times.

Let us pay attention, even the apostles, who followed Christ for a long time and listened to His instructions, could not themselves, without His help, comprehend the Holy Scripture in a Christocentric way ().

How to deal with things that are not mentioned in the Bible

Holy Scripture is part of the Holy Tradition of the Church. The most important, but still a part. There is something in the Tradition of the Church that is not mentioned in Holy Scripture. The saint writes about this in his epistle “On the Holy Spirit” to Amphilochius:

“If we thought of rejecting customs not set forth in Scripture, as having no great strength, then in an inconspicuous way they would distort the most important thing in the Gospel, it would be better to say, they would turn the sermon into an empty name. For example, (let me first remind you of the first and most general), who taught those who put their trust in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ in writing to sign themselves with the sign of the cross? What scripture has taught us to turn towards the east in prayer? Which of the saints left us on a letter the words of invocation when showing the Bread of Thanksgiving and the Cup of Blessing? For we are not satisfied with those words which the Apostle or the Gospel mentioned, but both before and after them we pronounce others as having great power to the celebration of the Sacrament, accepting them from a teaching not set forth in Scripture. Do we bless both the water of Baptism, and the oil of Anointing, and even the one who is baptized according to what rules set forth in Scripture? Is it not according to the mysterious tradition kept in silence? (ch. 27).

So, for true Christians, the "only that which is in Scripture" (Sola Scriptura) argument is obviously untenable. Moreover, the Protestants themselves, who put forward it, could not justify their words, replacing the real Church Tradition with many of their own "traditions".

Time of writing

Bible books written in different time for about 1.5 thousand years - before Christmas and after His birth. The former are called the books of the Old Testament, and the latter the books of the New Testament.

The Bible consists of 77 books; 50 is found in the Old Testament and 27 in the New.
11 (Tobit, Judith, the Wisdom of Solomon, the Wisdom of Jesus the son of Sirach, the Epistle of Jeremiah, Baruch, 2 and 3 books of Ezra, 1, 2 and 3 Maccabees) are not inspired by God and are not included in the canon of the Holy Scriptures of the Old Testament.

Language of the Bible

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 Hebrew). Aramaic), the New Testament - in the Alexandrian dialect of the ancient Greek language - 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 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

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 history of the division of the Bible into chapters and verses

The division of words in the Bible was introduced in the 5th century by the deacon of the Alexandrian church, Eulalius. The modern division into chapters dates back to Cardinal Stephen Langton, who divided the Latin translation of the Bible, Vulgate in 1205. And in 1551, the Genevan printer Robert Stephen introduced the modern division of chapters into verses.

Classification of books of the Bible

The Bible books of the Old and New Testaments are conventionally divided 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.

Bible translations

Greek translation of the seventy interpreters – – was started by the will of the Egyptian king Ptolemy Philadelphus in 271 BC. The Orthodox Church since apostolic times has been using sacred books translated by 70.

Latin translation - Vulgate- was published in 384 by the blessed Jerome. Since 382, ​​the blessed one 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 1546 approved the translation of St. Jerome, and it came into general use in the West.

Slavic translation of the Bible made according to the text of the Septuagint by the holy Thessalonica brothers Cyril and Methodius, in the middle of the 9th century A.D., during their apostolic labors in the Slavic lands.

Ostromir Gospel- the first fully preserved Slavic manuscript book (mid-11th century).

Gennadiev Bible - the first complete handwritten Russian Bible. Compiled in 1499 under the leadership of the Novgorod archbishop. Gennady (until that time, biblical texts were scattered and existed in various collections).

Ostrog Bible - the first complete printed Russian Bible. It was published in 1580 by order of Prince Kons. Ostrogsky, the first printer Ivan Fedorov in Ostrog (the estate of the prince). This Bible is still used by the Old Believers.

Elizabethan Bible - Church Slavonic translation used in the liturgical practice of the church. At the end of 1712, Peter I issued a decree on preparing for the publication of the corrected Bible, but this work was already completed under Elizabeth in 1751.

Synodal translation – the first complete Russian text of the Bible. It was carried out on the initiative of Alexander I and under the leadership of St. . It was published in parts from 1817 to 1876, when the complete Russian text of the Bible was published.
The Elizabethan Bible came entirely from the Septuagint. The synodal translation of the Old Testament was made from the Masoretic text, but taking into account the Septuagint (highlighted in the text in square brackets).

The Bible is a unique book among many other sacred books in the world. It was not written by one person.

The Bible is a book different from all others for many reasons.

1. Written for over 1600 years.
2. Written throughout the life of 60 generations.
3. Written by more than 40 authors from all walks of life, including kings, peasants, philosophers, fishermen, poets, statesmen, scientists, etc.

Among them:

Moses, political figure who received an excellent education in Egypt,
Peter the fisherman
Amos the shepherd
Joshua, military commander.
Nehemiah, butler,
Daniel, Prime Minister,
Luca, doctor
Solomon, king
Matthew the tax collector
Paul, rabbi.

4. Written in a variety of places:

Moses in the wilderness
Jeremiah in prison
Daniel - on the hillside and in the palace,
Pavel - in prison,
Luke - while traveling,
John on the island of Patmos
by other authors - during the hostilities.

5. Written under different circumstances:

David in times of war, Solomon in times of peace.

6. Written in different moods:

Some wrote it full of joy, others - being in grief and despair.

7. Written on three continents:

In Asia, Africa and Europe.

8. Written in three languages:

Hebrew - the language of the Old Testament.

In 2 Kings. 18:26-28 it is called "the language of Judah".

At Is. 19:18 - "the language of Canaan."

Aramaic the language was the common dialect of the Near East until the time of Alexander the Great (6th-4th centuries BC).

Greek, the language of the New Testament, was international language at the time of Christ.

9. ThemeThe Bible includes hundreds of topics often causing controversy and controversy.

I once watched one of the many non-fiction films that expose faith in Scripture. It was called "Who Wrote the Bible", produced by the Air Force. Apparently, according to the plan of the creators, he was supposed to hit me in the heart - here, simple-minded Christians believe that Moses wrote the entire Pentateuch, and British scientists have shown that this is clearly not the case! So believe after this Bible! This is a fairly common line of persuasion and is worth looking at in more detail.

The technique that is used in this kind of films, books and articles is innumerable - this is a "straw scarecrow". Instead of a real opponent, a convenient opponent is created, instead of a real discussion - a demonstrative beating of ignorant Christians by British scientists who proved it. The authors offer as a "Christian position" what could be called "naive fundamentalism" - the belief that, for example, that the entire Pentateuch was written personally by Moses - then they triumphantly show that this is not so, and the text was formed over a long time, with the participation of many people, and reflects a number of events in the history of ancient Israel. “But I thought it was the word of God,” the presenter pretends to be surprised.

Of course, we should exercise restraint in relation to statements that are made with reference to "scientists". Whenever in documentary you are told that "scientists believe that", the authors miss one important word - "some". Among researchers of the Old Testament, there is a very wide range of opinions, moreover, there is a fundamental difference in approaches - the "minimalists" believe that all the statements of the Bible should be considered unhistorical until their historicity is confirmed by some extra-biblical sources, based on a kind of "presumption guilt" of the biblical text, "maximalists" consider historical everything that is not refuted external sources, recognizing the "presumption of innocence" for the biblical authors. As a rule, the opinions of experts are more or less plausible guesses that can turn out to be true - or can be refuted, as has happened many times in history.

But in fact, the fact that the Pentateuch was written by many people over a long time, I learned during my conversion, and not from British scientists, but from believers whose books were devoted to this issue - and for whom the Bible, of course, was the word of God.

The argument that the authors of the film (and not only them) are trying to build for us - "The Bible was formed over a long time, its texts were created, united and edited by many people, therefore, the Bible is not the word of God" - is simply erroneous. This is a logical fallacy, which is called non sequitur (literally, "shouldn't be") in logic textbooks. One does not follow from the other.

But was it Biblical from the very beginning? The Biblical picture of Revelation is different - God does not drop texts from heaven, and does not even dictate them to secretaries.

God enters into communication with living people - Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, David, and other Prophets. God creates a community of believers and enters into a Covenant with it - these people become His people, and He becomes their God. God reveals Himself through events in the history of this people; as God himself says about himself in the First Commandment: "I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage"(Exodus 20:2) Not “God who parachuted text to you”, but “God who made a covenant with you and revealed His mercy and His judgment in the events of your history”.

God acts in history, in everything that happens, His plan unfolds. It is so in the life of nations; it is so especially in the life of His chosen people, and it is so even in the life of individual people- as the psalmist says, “Your eyes have seen my fetus; in your book are written all the days appointed for me, when not one of them was yet ”(Ps. 139:16)

"Naive fundamentalism" proceeds from the fact that history develops somehow independently of God, and He only from time to time discards the next portions of Revelation; for the Bible, however, God always acts in history - and directs everything that happens to his goals.

This means, in particular, that the process of forming a sacred text can be different, and, naturally, it develops in history (where else can it develop). At the same time, it invariably takes place God's plan- to give us the Bible exactly in the form in which He wants it.

Another feature of biblical revelation is that it is through the people of God. Here we should pay attention to a certain feature of the English-language controversy around the Bible - which gets to us in translated films and books. It implies an extremely Protestant view of the relationship between Scripture and the people of God - Scripture is primary, the people of God are created by Scripture, these are people who accept the Bible as Divine Revelation, believe it, and try to live according to it.

For the Orthodox (as well as for the Catholics), the people of God is primary - first God creates the Old Testament Israel, and within Israel the familiar texts of the Old Testament arise, then God creates the Church, and the Church creates the New Testament. When the holy Apostle Paul writes his epistles, there is, of course, no established text of the New Testament yet - but the Church, to which he addresses, already exists, she already celebrates the Eucharist, the Lord already adds to her those who are being saved.

The text is created by a community of the faithful, people with whom God abides at all turns of their historical fate. The Holy Spirit works through all the faithful who contributed to the creation of the Bible, no matter how many.

At the same time, the action of the Holy Spirit does not destroy the personalities of the clergy - who remain people of their era, use the images of their culture and speak their own language. Unlike "automatic writing" and other occult practices in which fallen spirits use people as tools, God always communicates with people as free individuals. The Holy Spirit carefully guides people to the truth without destroying or suppressing their individuality.

Therefore, for us there is nothing frightening in the fact that the Bible was written by people - well, of course, it directly says "Holy men of God, being moved by the Holy Spirit" (2 Pet. 1:21), neither in the fact that there were more priests than indicated in the list of Old Testament books, nor in the fact that, apparently, a number of Old Testament texts took on their current form gradually. Such was God's purpose, such were the means He chose to give us His word.

On the announcement - a view of Qumran - a place where hundreds of biblical manuscripts were found in the middle of the twentieth century. Photo source wikipedia.org

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Why is the Bible the most famous book in human history? What makes it unique, different from all other books? What is its real value?

The Bible is the Book through which God Himself is revealed to mankind, it is the Word of God.

God Himself gave this Book to people. In it He revealed His Divine essence to man. The Bible answers such eternal questions as: the origin of the universe and man, the meaning of life, what awaits a person after death, what makes a person truly happy, etc.

They say how once the famous English physicist Michael Faraday was sitting at his desk and reading the Bible. His friend came in and saw that Faraday was sitting with his head in his hands. Frightened friend asked: What's the matter with you, Michael? Are you feeling bad? Oh no, - answered Faraday, - I am amazed why people in many ways important issues prefer to wander in the unknown, when God gave them such a wonderful book of Revelation?!

How did the Bible appear, did God really write its words with his own hand?

Of course not. The text of the Bible was written by about 40 different people over a period of about 1600 years. But what these people wrote did not come from themselves, but from the One who gave them the right words for this, inspired them. Here is what the Bible says about her:

For prophecy was never uttered by the will of man, but it was uttered by the holy men of God, being moved by the Holy Spirit. (2 Peter 1:21)
All Scripture is inspired by God. (2 Tim. 3:16)

In other words, God is the inspirer, Author, of the Bible. This is clearly seen when you realize that the Bible was written in perfect different people who lived in different centuries and even millennia, had the most varied education and social status, came from different nationalities and cultural traditions - and, nevertheless, there are no contradictions between what they wrote. On the contrary, they only complement each other, contributing to a more deep understanding essence of the truths set forth in the Bible.

This remarkable phenomenon of the perfect integrity and unity of the Holy Scriptures baffled even the most vehement opponents of the Bible in Soviet time. As the famous once wrote German philosopher Immanuel Kant:

By its content, the Bible itself bears witness to its divine origin. The existence of the Bible as a book is of the greatest benefit to all people.