→ The essence of the Bible, its composition and structure
General characteristics of the Bible
In this article we will briefly look at the essence of the Bible, as well as the composition and structure of the Bible.
The word "bible" comes from Greek and means "books." Apparently, it is no coincidence that the book, which is undoubtedly one of the highest values acquired by humanity, is so simply named. For at least three thousand years, the word “bible” has inspired people, and the circle of those who connect with this source is constantly expanding.
However, there were other times. The Bible was actually banned by the Soviet government, it was not printed and was withdrawn from circulation and libraries, its images and words were carefully crossed out or lost hints of their source, or were simply ridiculed.
Therefore, in our historically Christian country, several generations of people have grown up who do not know the Bible at all or almost not, and have not read it. It should be noted that this is not only religious, but also cultural ignorance, since European culture, especially the culture of the Middle Ages, Renaissance, Modern times, as well as modern culture, cannot be comprehended without knowledge of biblical characters, images, and events. The Bible can be viewed from at least three perspectives:
- First‒ and the main thing ‒ is that it Holy Bible Christian religion. This statement, however, requires some clarification. On the one hand, a significant part of the Bible - the Old Testament - was written in pre-Christian times and is the property of the Jewish tradition. The Holy Scripture of the Jews - the Torah - is actually integral part Bible. And Islam, which arose later than Christianity, widely uses biblical images as one of the sources of the Koran. On the other hand, some denominations of Christianity have different attitudes towards certain parts of the Bible, either excluding the so-called non-canonical books, or preferring the New Testament as a purely Christian revelation. But despite this, it is precisely as Holy Scripture that the Bible has its exclusive meaning, and it is from this point of view that it should be approached in the first place.
- Secondly, The Bible can be perceived as historical source. It, indeed, contains evidence concerning the history of many peoples of the Ancient East from the 2nd millennium BC. before the beginning of a new era. Of course, using the Bible as a historical source requires scientific analysis and verification from other sources, but this should not be perceived as criticism and rejection of Holy history.
- Third‒ The Bible can be seen as important literary or cultural monument. Many biblical texts can be noted for their literary excellence - not to mention the fact that this book has the value of any written monument of antiquity. By the way, in terms of the number of publications and translations into different languages The Bible is far superior to any other work. But, again, this is a consequence of its influence not as a masterpiece of art, but as a Holy phenomenon.
Composition and structure of the Bible
The Bible is enough big book, which has a complex structure and contains many relatively independent books. The main thing is its division into two components - the Old and New Testaments.
- Old Testament- this is a pre-Christian, Jewish Bible (in fact, Jews do not perceive the Bible as a whole - the New Testament, naturally, is not recognized at all, and only the Holy Scripture is considered Torah ‒ Pentateuch of Moses). He was accepted by the Christian Church as component Holy Scripture, and Christianity grew to a large extent on Jewish soil; these books were recognized by Christ and used by him as the Word of God; after all, these books contain many prophecies about the appearance of Christ himself and his mission.
- Part Two - New Testament‒ this is already our own Christian tradition, these are texts related to the life and work of Jesus Christ and his disciples.
There are discrepancies in different translations and editions of the Bible regarding the names of the books and the order in which they are placed. Moreover, there is disagreement about the number of books that make up the Bible. This applies only to the Old Testament and is connected with two circumstances: with the counting system and with the division into the so-called canonical and non-canonical books.
Thus, the Jewish tradition, which some Christian theologians adhered to, numbered 24 or even 22 books, which in modern Christian publications, as a rule, are divided into 39 books (due to the fact that they are presented as two instead of one book of Samuel, Kings, Chronicles, as well as 12 books of minor prophets instead of one, etc.). Another was the grouping of books according to their content in Hebrew Bible (TaNaKha), which consists of Torah (Law), Neviim (Prophets) and Ketuvim (Scriptures).The Christian tradition identifies the following sections of the canon (the canonical composition of the Bible):
- legislative books: The Pentateuch of Moses, that is, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy;
- history books, that is, those that present primarily the Holy History: Joshua, Judges, Ruth, I and II books of Samuel (in Russian translation - 1 and 2 books of Kings), I and II books of Kings (3 and 4 books of Kings, respectively), 1 ta 2 books of Chronicles (or Chronicles), Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther;
- educational poetry books: Job, Psalms, Proverbs (Proverbs of Solomon), Preacher (Ecclesiastes), Song of Songs;
- prophetic books: great prophets - Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and small ones - Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi.
Regarding non-canonical books, then they appeared later than other books of the Old Testament and were not included in the Jewish canon or were excluded from it. Christian tradition accepted them, but with some prejudices. They were advised to be read by those who were preparing to join the Christian church, since they are distinguished by their instructive character (however, among them we also find historical and prophetic books).
The Catholic Church considers such books to be deuterocanonical (deuterocanonical), Orthodoxy continues to consider them non-canonical, but the Slavic and Russian Orthodox Bibles print them next to the canonical ones. Protestants, on the contrary, do not print these books in the texts of the Bible, not considering them divinely inspired.
There are 11 of these books: Wisdom (Wisdom of Solomon), Sirach (Wisdom of Jesus son of Sirach), Tobit, Judit, Epistle of Jeremiah, Baruch, 2 and 3 books of Ezra (Catholics consider them apocryphal), three books of Maccabees (Catholics have only two). This also includes passages that are added to some canonical books (for example, chapters 13 and 14 of the book of Daniel). New Testament contains 27 books, which church tradition also divides into groups:
- Towards legislative equals four Gospels(from Greek - Good News) - from Matey (Matthew), from Mark, from Luke, from John (John). The first three Gospels, which are similar in content, are called synoptic; The Gospel of John is very different from them both in content and in character.
- Historical considered a book Acts of the Apostles.
- Educational books consist of 14 epistles of the Apostle Paul and 7 epistles of other apostles.
- Finally, prophetic book The New Testament is Revelation of John the Evangelist (Apocalypse).
Thus, part of the canonical Bible, that is, the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, include 66 books(39 + 27) - this composition is recognized by Protestants; A included in the complete Bible ‒ 77 books(50 + 27) for the Orthodox and 74 (47 + 27) for the Catholics, divided into canonical and not canonical (deuterocanonical) books.
References:
1. Religion: a handbook for students of advanced knowledge / [G. E. Alyaev, O. V. Gorban, V. M. Meshkov et al.; for zag. ed. prof. G. E. Alyaeva]. - Poltava: TOV "ASMI", 2012. - 228 p.
Basic parts of the Bible. The Bible is the holy book of two religions - Judaism and Christianity. This word itself is taken from the ancient Greek language and means “books” (in ancient times, a book was called a papyrus scroll on which a text was placed, approximately equal in volume to a modern book chapter). If we open the modern edition of the Bible, we will see that this thick volume contains several dozen different works, each of which has its own name.
The Bible consists of two parts: the first of which is called the Old Testament, the second - the New Testament. The word “covenant” here means “union” - we are talking about friendship and alliance, which in ancient times God concluded with one of the peoples - the ancient Jews. The Old Testament, that is, the “old union,” Christians called that part of the Bible that describes the events before the coming of Jesus Christ to the people, when the union with God was concluded again. Therefore, the second part of the Bible, which tells about Christ, is called the New Testament.
The Jews recognize the sacred character only of the Old Testament, since they do not consider the New Testament Jesus of Nazareth to be the true Christ, i.e. Messiah, Savior. Of course, they do not use the very name “Old Testament”; for them, God made a covenant with his chosen people once and for all. Therefore, they simply call “their” part of the Bible Scripture. Christians, since their religion arose on the basis of the Hebrew, now called Judaism, consider both parts of the Bible sacred.
What does the Old Testament talk about? The Old Testament tells how God once created heaven and earth, plants and animals, and, finally, people. Then the Bible talks about various events in the life of the ancient Jews: how their ancestors lived in the steppes and deserts, engaged in cattle breeding, how they fell into slavery and were freed from it, how they entered into an alliance with God and He promised to forever give them the land, so rich that milk and honey flowed in the rivers instead of water.
In a bloody and merciless struggle with the peoples who lived on this land, the ancient Jews created their own state. Centuries passed, the kingdom of the Jews was destroyed by stronger neighbors, and they themselves were taken into captivity. All this happened, as the Bible says, because the Jews stopped obeying God, betrayed him and worshiped foreign gods.
However, God, who punished them, promised that over time he would send his messenger to earth who would save the Jewish people and punish their oppressors. In ancient Hebrew, this messenger of God is called the Messiah, and translated into ancient Greek - Christ.
What does the New Testament talk about? The New Testament, created by Christians, tells about the earthly life of Jesus of Nazareth, who is Christ. In addition, this part of the Bible talks about the activities of the communities of the first Christians and contains the messages of the apostles, disciples of Jesus. The New Testament ends with the Revelation of John, which depicts the coming end Sveta.
Bible and myths. Thus, the Bible is a collection of a wide variety of texts that contain myths, legends, stories about real historical events, a kind of prediction of the future, lyrical works of a religious and secular nature. The Old Testament is distinguished by the greatest wealth of mythological subjects. Some of them are given and analyzed below. Since the Bible played a special role in the formation of world civilization, biblical myths, like ancient ones, entered the treasury of universal human culture to a greater extent than, say, Chinese, Japanese or Australian ones. Therefore, many mythological or legendary stories in the Bible need commentary for the modern reader. If it is necessary to clarify or supplement a biblical story, commentary on it is usually given in italics and enclosed in square brackets.
“It has served us well, this myth of Christ...” Pope Leo X, 16th century.
“Everything will be fine!” said God and created the Earth. Then he created the sky and all kinds of creatures in pairs, he also did not forget about vegetation, so that the creatures had something to eat, and, of course, he created man in his own image and likeness, so that there would be someone to dominate and make fun of at his mistakes and violations of the commandments of the Lord ...
Almost each of us is sure that this is what actually happened. What does the supposedly holy book, which is so ingenuously called, assure? "Book", only in Greek. But it was hers that caught on in the rumors Greek name – "Bible", from which in turn came the name of the book repositories - LIBRARIES.
But even here there is a deception, which few or no one pays attention to. Believers are well aware that this Book consists of 77 smaller books and two parts of the Old and. Does any of us know that hundreds other small books were not included in this big Book only because the church “bosses” - the high priests - the intermediate link, the so-called intermediaries between people and God, decided so among themselves. Wherein changed several times not only the composition of the books included in the largest Book itself, but also the contents of these smallest books.
I am not going to analyze the Bible once again; before me, many wonderful people read it with feeling, sense and understanding several times, who thought about what was written in the “holy scripture” and presented what they saw in their works, such as “Biblical Truth” "David Naidis, "Funny Bible" and "Funny Gospel" by Leo Texil, "Bible Pictures..." by Dmitry Baida and Elena Lyubimova, "Crusade" by Igor Melnik. Read these books and you will learn about the Bible from a different perspective. Yes, and I am more than sure that believers do not read the Bible, because if they read it, it would be impossible not to notice so many contradictions, inconsistencies, substitution of concepts, deception and lies, not to mention calls for extermination of all the peoples of the Earth, God's chosen people. And these people themselves were destroyed several times at the root during the selection process, until their god selected a group of perfect zombies who very well assimilated all his commandments and instructions, and, most importantly, strictly followed them, for which they were pardoned with life and continuation sort of, and... new.
In this work, I want to draw your attention to what is not included in the above canonical books, or what hundreds of other sources say, no less interesting than the “holy” scripture. So, let's look at the biblical facts and more.
The first skeptic, who pointed out the impossibility of calling Moses the author of the Pentateuch (and this is what Christian and Jewish authorities assure us of), was a certain Persian Jew Khivi Gabalki, who lived in the 9th century. He noticed that in some books he talks about himself in the third person. Moreover, sometimes Moses allows himself extremely immodest things: for example, he can characterize himself as the meekest man of all people on earth (book of Numbers) or say: “...Israel never again had a prophet like Moses.”(Deuteronomy).
Further developed the topic Dutch materialist philosopher Benedict Spinoza, who wrote his famous “Theological-Political Treatise” in the 17th century. Spinoza “dug up” so many inconsistencies and outright blunders in the Bible - for example, Moses describes his own funeral - that no amount of inquisition could stop the growing doubts.
At the beginning of the 18th century, first the German Lutheran pastor Witter, and then the French physician Jean Astruc made the discovery that it consists of two texts with different primary sources. That is, some events in the Bible are told twice, and in the first version the name of God sounds like Elohim, and in the second - Yahweh. It turned out that virtually all the so-called books of Moses were compiled during the period of the Babylonian captivity of the Jews, i.e. much later, than the rabbis and priests claim, and clearly could not have been written by Moses.
Series of archaeological expeditions including the expedition of the Hebrew University, found no traces of such an epoch-making biblical event as the exodus of the Jewish people from this country in the 14th century BC. Not a single ancient source, be it papyrus or an Assyro-Babylonian cuneiform tablet, ever mentions the presence of Jews in Egyptian captivity at this time. There are references to the later Jesus, but not to Moses!
And Professor Zeev Herzog in the Haaretz newspaper summed up many years of scientific research on the Egyptian issue: “It may be unpleasant for some to hear and difficult to accept, but it is absolutely clear to researchers today that the Jewish people were not enslaved in Egypt and did not wander in the desert...” But the Jewish people were enslaved in Babylonia (modern Iraq) and adopted many legends and traditions from there, later including them in a revised form in the Old Testament. Among them was the legend of the global flood.
Josephus Flavius Vespasian, the famous Jewish historian and military leader, who allegedly lived in the 1st century AD, in his book “On the Antiquity of the Jewish People,” which was first published only in 1544, moreover, on Greek, sets the number of books of the so-called Old Testament at 22 units and says which books are not disputed, because they have been handed down from ancient times. He speaks of them in the following words:
“We don’t have a thousand books that disagree with each other and don’t refute one another; there are only twenty-two books that cover the entire past and are rightly considered Divine. Of these, five belong to Moses. They contain laws and legends about the generations of people who lived before his death - this is a period of almost three thousand years. The events from the death of Moses to the death of Artaxerxes, who reigned after Xerxes, were described in thirteen books by the prophets who lived after Moses, contemporaries of what was happening. The remaining books contain hymns to God and instructions to people on how to live. Everything that happened from Artaxerxes to our time is described, but these books do not deserve the same faith as the above-mentioned ones, because their authors were not in strict succession with the prophets. How we treat our books is evident in practice: so many centuries have passed, and no one dared to add anything to them, or take anything away, or rearrange anything; Jews have an innate belief in this teaching as Divine: it should be held firmly, and if necessary, then die for it with joy ... "
— We Orthodox Christians are often reproached for not reading the Bible as often as, for example, Protestants do. How fair are such accusations?
— Orthodox Church recognizes two sources of knowledge of God - Holy Scripture and Holy Tradition. Moreover, the first is an integral part of the second. After all, initially the sermons of the holy apostles were delivered and transmitted orally. Sacred Tradition includes not only Holy Scripture, but also liturgical texts, decrees of Ecumenical Councils, iconography and a number of other sources that occupy important place in the life of the Church. And everything that is said in the Holy Scriptures is also in the Tradition of the Church.
Since ancient times, the life of a Christian has been inextricably linked with biblical texts. And in the 16th century, when the so-called “Reformation” arose, the situation changed. Protestants abandoned the Holy Tradition of the Church and limited themselves to only studying the Holy Scriptures. And therefore, a special kind of piety appeared among them - reading and studying biblical texts. Once again I want to emphasize: from the point of view of the Orthodox Church, Holy Tradition includes the entire scope of church life, including the Holy Scriptures. Moreover, even if someone does not read the Word of God, but regularly attends the temple, he hears that the entire service is permeated with biblical quotations. Thus, if a person lives a church life, then he is in the atmosphere of the Bible.
— How many books are included in the Holy Scriptures? What is the difference between the Orthodox Bible and the Protestant Bible?
— The Holy Scriptures are a collection of books, different books according to the time of their writing, and by authorship, and by content, and by style. They are divided into two parts: the Old Testament and the New Testament. There are 77 books in the Orthodox Bible, and 66 in the Protestant Bible.
—What causes this discrepancy?
— The fact is that in the Orthodox Bible, more precisely in the Holy Scripture of the Old Testament, in addition to 39 canonical books, there are 11 more non-canonical books: Tobit, Judith, Wisdom of Solomon, Wisdom of Jesus, son of Sirach, Epistle of Jeremiah, Baruch, the second and third books of Ezra, three books of Maccabees. In the “Long Christian Catechism” of St. Philaret of Moscow it is said that the division of books into canonical and non-canonical is caused by the absence of the latter (11 books) in Jewish primary sources and their presence only in Greek, i.e. in the Septuagint (translation of 70 interpreters). In turn, Protestants, starting with M. Luther, abandoned non-canonical books, mistakenly assigning them the status of “apocryphal”. As for the 27 books of the New Testament, they are recognized by both Orthodox and Protestants. It's about about the Christian part of the Bible, written after the Nativity of Christ: the New Testament books testify to the earthly life of the Lord Jesus Christ and the first decades of the existence of the Church. These include the four Gospels, the book of the Acts of the Apostles, the epistles of the apostles (seven - conciliar and 14 - of the Apostle Paul), as well as the Revelation of John the Theologian (Apocalypse).
— How to study the Bible correctly? Is it worth starting knowledge from the first pages of Genesis?
— The main thing is to have a sincere desire to learn the Word of God. It's better to start with the New Testament. Experienced pastors recommend getting acquainted with the Bible through the Gospel of Mark (that is, not in the order in which they are presented). It is the shortest, written in simple and accessible language. Having read the Gospels of Matthew, Luke and John, we move on to the book of Acts, the Apostolic Epistles and the Apocalypse (the most complex and most mysterious book in the entire Bible). And only after this can you begin to read the Old Testament books. Only after reading the New Testament, it is easier to understand the meaning of the Old. After all, it was not for nothing that the Apostle Paul said that the Old Testament legislation was a teacher to Christ (see: Gal. 3: 24): it leads a person, as if a child by the hand, to let him truly understand what happened during the Incarnation, What in principle is the incarnation of God for a person...
— What if the reader does not understand some episodes of the Bible? What to do in this case? Who should I contact?
— It is advisable to have books on hand that explain the Holy Scriptures. We can recommend the works of Blessed Theophylact of Bulgaria. His explanations are short, but very accessible and deeply ecclesiastical, reflecting the Tradition of the Church. The conversations of St. John Chrysostom on the Gospels and Apostolic Epistles are also classic. If any questions arise, it would be a good idea to consult with an experienced priest. It is necessary to understand that reading the Holy Scriptures is part of a spiritual achievement. And it is very important to pray, to cleanse your soul. Indeed, even in the Old Testament it was said: wisdom will not enter an evil soul and will not dwell in a body enslaved to sin, for the Holy Spirit of wisdom will withdraw from wickedness and turn away from foolish speculations, and will be ashamed of the approaching unrighteousness (Wisdom 1: 4-5) .
- So, you need to prepare for reading the Holy Scriptures in a special way?
— Experienced elders in monasteries gave the novice a rule: before studying the Holy Scriptures, you first need to familiarize yourself with the works of the holy fathers. Bible readings are not just studying the Word of God, they are like prayer. In general, I would recommend reading the Bible in the morning, after the prayer rule. I think it’s easy to set aside 15-20 minutes to read one or two chapters from the Gospel, the Apostolic Epistles. This way you can get a spiritual charge for the whole day. Very often, in this way, answers to serious questions that life poses to a person appear.
— Sometimes the following situation happens: you read it, understand what it’s about, but it doesn’t suit you because you don’t agree with what’s written...
— According to Tertullian (one of the church writers of antiquity), our soul is Christian by nature. Thus, biblical truths were given to man from the very beginning; they are embedded in his nature, his consciousness. We sometimes call this conscience, that is, it is not something new that is unusual for human nature. The main tenets of the Holy Scriptures are the voice of God, sounding in the nature of each of us. Therefore, you need, first of all, to pay attention to your life: is everything in it consistent with the commandments of God? If a person does not want to listen to the voice of God, then what other voice does he need? Who will he listen to?
— Saint Philaret was once asked: how can one believe that the prophet Jonah was swallowed by a whale with a very narrow throat? In response, he said: “If it were written in the Holy Scriptures that it was not a whale that swallowed Jonah, but Jonah a whale, I would believe that too.” Of course, today such statements can be perceived with sarcasm. In this regard, the question arises: why does the Church trust the Holy Scripture so much? After all, the biblical books were written by people...
— The main difference between the Bible and other books is revelation. This is not just the creativity of some outstanding person. Through the prophets and apostles on accessible language the voice of God Himself is reproduced. If the Creator addresses us, then how should we react to this? Hence such attention and such trust in the Holy Scriptures.
— In what language were the biblical books written? How their translation influenced modern perception sacred texts?
— Most of the Old Testament books are written in Hebrew. Some of them survive only in Aramaic. The already mentioned non-canonical books have reached us exclusively in Greek: for example, Judith, Tobit, Baruch and the Maccabees. The third book of Ezra is known to us in its entirety only in Latin. As for the New Testament, it was mainly written in Greek - in the Koine dialect. Some biblical scholars believe that the Gospel of Matthew was written in Hebrew, but no primary sources have reached us (there are only translations). Of course, it would be better to read and study biblical books based on primary sources and originals. But this has been the case since ancient times: all books of Holy Scripture were translated. And therefore, for the most part, people are familiar with the Holy Scriptures translated into their native language.
— It would be interesting to know: what language did Jesus Christ speak?
— Many people believe that Christ used Aramaic. However, when talking about the original Gospel of Matthew, most biblical scholars point to Hebrew as the language of the Old Testament books. Disputes on this topic continue to this day.
— According to Bible societies, back in 2008, the Bible was translated in whole or in part into 2,500 languages. Some scientists believe that there are 3 thousand languages in the world, others point to 6 thousand. It is very difficult to define the criterion: what is a language and what is a dialect. But we can say with absolute certainty: all people living in different parts globe, can read the Bible in whole or in part on their native language.
— Which language is preferable for us: Russian, Ukrainian or Church Slavonic?
— Main criterion— The Bible should be understandable. Traditionally, Church Slavonic is used during divine services in the Church. Unfortunately, in secondary school it is not studied. Therefore, many biblical expressions require explanation. This, by the way, applies not only to our era. This problem also arose in the 19th century. At the same time, a translation of the Holy Scriptures into Russian appeared - the Synodal Translation of the Bible. It has stood the test of time and had a huge impact on the development of the Russian language in particular and Russian culture in general. Therefore, for Russian-speaking parishioners, I would recommend using it for home reading. As for Ukrainian-speaking parishioners, the situation here is a little more complicated. The fact is that the attempt at the first complete translation of the Bible into Ukrainian language was undertaken by Panteleimon Kulish in the 60s of the XIX century. He was joined by Ivan Nechuy-Levitsky. The translation was completed by Ivan Pulyuy (after Kulish’s death). Their work was published in 1903 by the Bible Society. In the 20th century the most authoritative were the translations of Ivan Ogienko and Ivan Khomenko. Currently, many people are attempting to translate the entire Bible or parts of it. There are both positive experiences and difficult, controversial issues. So, it would probably be incorrect to recommend any specific text of the Ukrainian translation. Now the Ukrainian Orthodox Church is translating the Four Gospels. I hope that this will be a successful translation both for home reading and for liturgical services (in those parishes where Ukrainian is used).
— In some parishes, during the service, a biblical passage is read in their native language (after reading in Church Slavonic)...
— This tradition is typical not only for ours, but also for many foreign parishes, where there are believers from different countries. In such situations, liturgical passages from the Holy Scriptures are repeated in native languages. After all, spiritual food must be given to a person in a form in which it can bring spiritual benefit.
— From time to time, information appears in the media about some new biblical book that was allegedly previously lost or kept secret. It necessarily reveals some “sacred” moments that contradict Christianity. How to treat such sources?
— In the last two centuries, many ancient manuscripts have been discovered, which has made it possible to coordinate the view on the study of the biblical text. First of all, this concerns the Qumran manuscripts discovered in the Dead Sea area (in the Qumran caves). Many manuscripts were found there - both biblical and gnostic (that is, texts that distort Christian teaching). It is possible that many manuscripts of a Gnostic nature will be found in the future. It should be recalled that even during the 2nd and 3rd centuries. The Church fought against the heresy of Gnosticism. And in our time, when we are witnessing a craze for the occult, these texts appear under the guise of some kind of sensation.
— By what criteria can one determine a positive result from regular reading of the Holy Scriptures? By the number of memorized quotes?
— We read the Word of God not for memorization. Although there are situations, for example in seminaries, when exactly this task is set. Biblical texts are important for spiritual life in order to feel the breath of God Himself. In this way, we become familiar with the grace-filled gifts that exist in the Church, we learn about the commandments, thanks to which we become better, and draw closer to the Lord. Therefore, studying the Bible is the most important part of our spiritual ascent, spiritual life. With regular reading, many passages are gradually memorized without special memorization.
To the question “what is the Bible” there are two equivalent answers. For people of faith, these are, first of all, the words of God, written down and conveyed to the rest of humanity. For scientists, historians and cultural experts, atheists or adherents of other religious movements, the Bible is precisely a book. Literary work, created by people and for people. It is in this fundamental difference that lies the fundamental dissimilarity in the work of theologians and scientists with the text of the Bible.
What is the Bible
Before discussing the secret meanings hidden in the text, or discussing the secondary nature of the mythological subjects used in it, it is necessary to clarify what the Bible is. The fact is that even representatives of different Christian denominations put different meanings into this concept. And Jehovah's Witnesses or Judaists, when speaking about the Bible, mean a book whose contents differ by more than half from the Orthodox or Catholic canon.
In ancient Greek, byblos means “book.” And the “bible” - plural, derived from this word. Therefore, the literal answer to the question of what the Bible is is “many books.” Indeed, the canonical text of any Book of Life consists of dozens of books.
Old Testament
The Jewish Bible consists of 39 texts. They coincide with the books of the Old Testament, which are very familiar to all Christians. These texts were created by various authors between the 13th and 1st centuries. BC e. Although, of course, in reality much more such religious works were written than 39. But only these books were chosen by the ancient Indian sages from a huge number of other religious texts and considered worthy of canonization.
All these books were written in Hebrew and have been preserved in this form to this day, not a single word in them has been changed. It is with them that any translation of the Bible is checked to eliminate distortions or inaccuracies. The only thing that can be discussed regarding the coincidence or discrepancy of the texts of these books and the Old Testament is the original semantic content of the Hebrew words. What exactly did the ancient Jews mean when they said “heaven”, “earth”, “god”? Is the earth like a planet or like dry land? Is the sky like space, the universe, or like a blue dome above your heads? Or maybe it's just air? These are the questions that interest translators from ancient Hebrew. Often, such a difference in interpretation causes the meaning of the text to fundamentally change.
Catholic Bible
When answering the question: “What is the Bible?”, a Christian, unlike a Judaist, is more likely to remember the New Testament. This is precisely the deep contradiction between two religions, originating from a single source. Jews, unlike Christians, do not consider Jesus to be the messiah and, therefore, do not include his teachings among the canonical texts.
There are some other differences that give rise to different understandings of the same points in the Bible. Catholics, creating their own list of canonized texts, used not the Hebrew originals, but their translation into Greek - the so-called Septuagint. This is how the Vulgate was created. At the same time, the Septuagint did not coincide in everything with the original tests, and after translation into Latin, the number of discrepancies increased significantly. Later, the Catholic Church repeatedly edited the Vulgate, checking it with Hebrew manuscripts. Bible translations have become more and more accurate, but work is still underway, and discussions about the appropriateness of using certain sources do not stop.
Orthodoxy and Protestantism
Another problem with the Septuagint is that it includes points that are not confirmed by the original Hebrew sources. That is why other Christian denominations classified such sections of the “translation of the seventy elders” as undoubtedly spiritually useful, but not sacred, and do not consider them canonical.
Protestants, editing the text of the Bible, abandoned fragments of the text that did not have confirmation in the form of Hebrew texts. The Russian Bible, or rather the Orthodox Bible, gives the reader the opportunity to become familiar with such controversial details of the Holy Scriptures. But next to these fragments there is always a clarification warning about their non-canonical nature. Typically these include notes or highlighting text with square brackets.
How ancient theologians studied the Bible
Biblical interpretation has always been one of the cornerstones of theological study. The book, given to humanity by God, was supposed to hide more than it actually seems. Therefore, the sages and priests used many methods to discover the secret meaning hidden between the lines of the Holy Scriptures. As Stanislaw Lem wrote, you can find a secret code hidden in the text, but you cannot prove that it is not there. One of the countless decryption systems will provide a meaningful result even in the case where the author did not use any secret code. This is how the most innocent and easy-to-understand book can be “solved.” The Bible is no exception in this regard.
The most ancient attempts to find the secret meaning of the Holy Scriptures were made in Judea. Midrash Interpretation is an oral section of the Torah that deals exclusively with the interpretation of the books of the Old Testament. The principles underlying such research seem rather strange to contemporaries:
- Giving exceptional meaning to insignificant details.
- Analysis of words or text fragments outside the semantic context in which they were used.
- Combining texts that are different in meaning and content into one logical segment based only on the fact that they contain similar words or phrases.
The first attempts to search for hidden meaning
Thus, theologians counted letters or their numerical values in words and, finding coincidences, made conclusions about the identity of meaning in different passages of text. Examples of such research now seem naive and very far-fetched. So, the name of one of Abraham's servants is Eliezer. In Hebrew transcription, this word corresponded to the number 318. Abraham also had 318 slaves, and therefore, according to ancient researchers, the value of Eliezer as a servant corresponded to the value of all three hundred and eighteen slaves.
Naturally, being carried away by such studies, it is easy to lose sight of the literal, basic Testaments of the Bible, to neglect them as too obvious. Thus, the Song of Songs is interpreted as an allegorical love of the church for Jesus in the interpretation of Christians or love for Yahweh and his chosen people in the interpretation of Jews. At the same time, the literal meaning of this literary masterpiece - the glorification of the love of a man and a woman as the highest sacrament of life - is completely ignored by the clergy. It's too simple and therefore uninteresting. The essence of the Bible, the true content of its texts cannot be so simple and primitive.
Such allegorical searches are characteristic of apocalyptic interpretations. Ancient researchers following these trends also looked for hidden meaning in the simplest texts. But they focused on the predictions encrypted in the text of the Bible.
Reasons for the emergence of the allegorical method of interpretation
One of the reasons for the popularity of this method lies in the variability of cultural and moral norms. The Holy Scriptures are an ancient book. The Bible, in the eyes of the Jews and Greeks, already contained fragments that seemed to them immoral and unworthy of the divine text. To come to terms with this discrepancy, these sections were assigned a hidden meaning that had nothing to do with the actual one. Moreover, it was believed that the higher the level of dedication of the interpreter, the less similarity the result of his research will have with the source text.
Alas, each researcher found something different there, and there was no unanimity among Bible researchers on the issue of allegorical interpretations. And the degree of abstraction of such research exceeded the boundaries of reason.
Thus, the story of Abraham traveling to Palestine was understood by one of the interpreters as an allegory of the sage’s renunciation of the sensory perception of the world. And his subsequent marriage to Sarah, in his opinion, was a symbol of the comprehension of true, out-of-body wisdom, entering into a sacred union with her.
Jesus also interpreted the Bible
Interpreting the Bible is not just for clergy. Jesus also used the text of the Old Testament in his sermons, drawing his own conclusions from it. That is, in essence, he interpreted the Holy Scripture that existed before him. He turned to the examples of Cain and Abel, Isaac, David, Jacob and used them in an absolutely literal sense. He categorically rejected the complex, casuistic method of searching hidden meaning, believing the Word of God to be independent and not requiring additional text processing.
At the same time, the Pharisees never reproached Jesus for his unusual interpretation of the Testament, unheard of at that time, although they had enough complaints on other points. They were surprised, disagreed, but did not condemn. Apparently, the religious doctrine of the ancient Jews assumed significant freedom of thought in this matter. Everyone had the right to their own opinion.
St. Augustine's position
Subsequently, the overly pretentious interpretation of the Bible was abandoned. The first to convincingly prove its uselessness and even harmfulness for theology was St. Augustine. He believed that when analyzing the Testaments of the Bible, one should in no case be divorced from the historical and cultural context. The basis for studying God-given texts should be, first of all, their literal meaning, and it is this that serves as the basis for building any logical construction.
The interpreter of the Bible, in addition to Latin, must know Hebrew, Ancient Greek, geography and other subjects necessary for understanding the realities of the text. Although Augustine believed that the Bible had a hidden, allegorical meaning, he especially warned about the danger of bringing the personality of the researcher into such studies.
And although St. Augustine himself often deviated from these rules, they all played a huge role in determining the further direction of Bible study.
New trends of the Reformation
The theologians of the Reformation times fully shared the opinion of St. Augustine about the inadmissibility of false interpretations that contradict the text of the book. But they went even further. Both Martin Luther and Calvin believed that biblical texts should be understood primarily literally. They did not share the position catholic church, who believed that the Word of God is extremely difficult to understand and requires explanations from a professional interpreter, that is, a priest. Protestants believed that God was wise enough to give people the knowledge that they were able to accept and understand. Thus, the Church of the Reformation abandoned the monopoly on truth that had existed for many centuries. The New Bible was written not in Latin, but in a language close and accessible to readers, with the simplification of some overly outdated phrases and replacing them with more modern word forms.
Modern students of the Holy Scriptures have gone even further. They not only do not deny the role of the human author in writing the text, but also consider it to be leading. Even under the assumption of divine inspiration, Scripture was created by people. That is, any knowledge given by the Almighty passed through the prism personal experience and perception, and this could not but leave its mark on the text of the Bible.
Research by scientists
Scientists, studying the Holy Scriptures, Special attention focus mainly on historical and cultural realities. The language of the Bible, the factual accuracy of the events described, the authorship of individual books - all this constitutes a separate and very interesting area of study of the work.
Thus, speaking about the miracle of resurrection, one cannot ignore the fact that the motif of a dying and reborn deity was extremely widespread at that time. Osiris, Persephone, Mithra in the south and east, Balder in the north. It is no coincidence that Easter coincides with the active spring awakening of nature. And its date is conditional, it does not coincide with the real date of Christ’s death, but is calculated according to lunar cycle. For a culturologist, the element of interpenetration of religious motives different cultures obvious.
Historians easily interpret some apocalyptic stories, pointing to real prototypes of mysterious descriptions. So, the Babylonian harlot sitting on a seven-headed beast is Rome, and for the Jew this analogy was obvious. The Seven Hills were already a stable association back then. And the further description confirms this assumption. Seven fallen kings - seven Caesars who had died at the time of writing the text, one existing - Galba, who was ruling at that time, and the future ruler - a contender for the title, who was just leading active fighting, seeking the throne.
Many miraculous predictions after a detailed study of the Bible turn out to be not predictions at all, but descriptions of events that have already occurred - simply because this fragment of text was written much earlier than thought. Thus, the prophecy about the successive succession of the Babylonian, Persian, Greek and then Roman empires, a detailed description of the events taking place in Palestine over many centuries, after careful research by historians turned out to be... chronicles. This text was written in the 2nd century. BC e., and its author only wanted to talk about events that he considered extremely important, and did not prophesy.
Such research may deprive the Bible of some of its supernatural flair, but it undoubtedly confirms its historical accuracy.
