The Old Testament is the basis of three religions, which are called Abrahamic: Judaism, Christianity and Islam (Abraham is an important character in the Old Testament). In terms of content, the Old Testament is closest to Judaism, the traditional religion of the Jewish people (Jew is another name for a Jew). Jews consider the Old Testament to be one of the holy books, they call it Tanakh (Jewish Testament), but they consider the Talmud to be their most important book. The Talmud is a huge book, which is a detailed commentary on the Old Testament, its rethinking and, in many ways, reinterpretation.
In addition, the Old Testament is the first part of the Bible - the holy book of all Christians. Christians consider the Old Testament to be an important introduction, background, and explanation to the New Testament, but New Testament they value more.
Muslims believe that Islam is the purest correct option religion of the ancient Jews, which was later distorted into Judaism and Christianity. They do not consider either the Old or the New Testament to be holy books (only the Koran is a holy book), but they recognize most of the Old Testament prophets, they consider Christ one of their important prophets, and the Koran retells many episodes of the Old Testament, but in their own way. Muslims consider Muhammad to be the main and last prophet of God.
All this means that the content of the Old Testament is important for three religions, in to the greatest extent for Christianity, but the Old Testament is not the main holy book of any religion.
Christians believe that the Bible (Old and New Testaments) is a sacred book, that is, a book written by the inspiration and revelation of the Holy Spirit, God himself, which gave humanity some higher, absolute, eternal truths. Every Christian is obliged to believe that everything written in the Bible is the ultimate truth, that there are no errors or contradictions in it (contradictions and errors can only be in the head of the reader). The meaning of the events described can be taken literally and metaphorically. We will consider the Bible from a secular, objective point of view, as a religious, historical, cultural and literary monument of the Ancient World, which greatly influenced the entire European and world culture and art. We will note in the Bible both advantages and disadvantages.
The 39 books of the Old Testament were written from the 12th to the 2nd centuries BC. Apart from religious significance, then, in essence, the Old Testament is the history of the Jewish people, written by the Jews themselves, according to which the Jews are a special people, God’s chosen people, to whom God revealed the truth, called them his people, and concluded an agreement with them, a Covenant. The Jews were the first to worship one God, and gradually all other peoples came too.
It must be said right away that for a modern person reading the Bible is a difficult task. The Bible often does not contain the logic familiar to modern people, many turns of thought, transitions from one topic to another are incomprehensible, many phrases are incomprehensible, there are many references to unknown events, phenomena, people, etc., many repetitions. However, you need to know the main content; you can read the Bible in a summary. For example, there is a website: “Old and New Testaments. Brief summary with illustrations”, where the most famous episodes of the Bible are briefly and clearly presented.
Old Testament. Book of Genesis
The very first and famous book of the Old Testament is “Genesis” - the story of the creation of the world and man, as well as the beginning of the history of the Jewish people. The most significant part The first 9 chapters of the book are essentially Hebrew mythology. Here is the very beginning of the Bible: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and empty, and darkness was over the abyss, and the Spirit of God hovered over the waters. And God said: Let there be light. And there was light. And God saw the light that it was good, and God separated the light from the darkness. And God called the light day and the darkness night.” IN summaries The Bible always adds that before God created the earth, one of them rebelled against God and became the devil. So, the book of Genesis does not describe the creation of angels.
God created the earth, plants, animals and humans. God created man in his own image and likeness. Creation took place over 6 days, and on the seventh day God rested, hence the week.
From the rib of the first man Adam, God created his wife Eve and settled them in Eden, the Garden of Eden (located on earth - somewhere in Mesopotamia), where they lived in absolute bliss, not knowing evil and death. There, God planted an unusual tree, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and warned Adam and Eve that they could not eat its fruit, otherwise they would die. But Eve was seduced by a cunning serpent (not the devil), promising that he and Adam would become as wise as the gods (know good and evil), and she bit off an apple from this tree and gave it to Adam. Adam and Eve were expelled from Paradise because they violated God's commandment. So, as soon as man appeared, he disobeyed God, and the Fall occurred, that same original sin, thanks to which, according to the teachings of the church fathers, human nature itself was corrupted, and all people are sinful from birth. Adam, Eve and all their future descendants were punished by God, expelled from Paradise, they lost immortality, the woman was doomed to give birth to children in pain (they had no children in Paradise), the man was doomed to earn their daily bread by the sweat of their brow, they learned suffering , illness, death, etc. They knew, first of all, evil, but through evil they also knew good, in the sense that they knew the difference between good and evil. This is how humanity arose and began to develop - from sin.
Now let's think about this: the first and main sin of man was independent knowledge. Eve plucked fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, violating the prohibition of God, God forbade knowledge, not anything else, namely knowledge, independent thinking. This is deep meaning: for God and for all religions, the most important thing is that a person simply believes, blindly believes in everything that God or holy books, priests tell him, blindly, that is, without thinking. And this is absolutely true, because as soon as a person begins to think for himself, he inevitably goes beyond the boundaries of religion and commits a sin. This myth is that any religion denies true knowledge. True knowledge is a search for an unknown truth, and for any religion the truth is already known, it is already given in the sacred books, religion always gives ready-made answers that you just need to accept and believe in them. All religious thinkers, of whom there are many, do not discover new truths, but invent more and more proofs of old truths: that God exists, that he is eternal, kind, omnipotent, merciful, fair, that he created everything in the world and man, that man should keep his commandments, etc.
Let's go further through the book of Genesis. After expulsion from Garden of Eden Eve had a son, Cain, then Abel. Cain, who became a farmer, and Abel, who took up cattle breeding, each sacrificed the fruits of their labor to God. God accepted Abel's sacrifice, but Cain's sacrifice did not. “Cain was greatly saddened, and his face fell. And the Lord said to Cain: ... if you do not do good, then sin lies at the door; he attracts you to himself, but you dominate him.” But Cain was offended by Abel, could not restrain himself from sin, and “Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him.” God cursed Cain and doomed him to be an eternal exile and wanderer. Other parts of the Bible (the New Testament letters of the apostles) say that everything happened because Cain was evil from the beginning and did not have true faith. This is how the first murder took place.
Adam and Eve had another son, Seth, and from him and from Cain people multiplied across the earth. One day “the Lord saw that the wickedness of men was great on earth, and that every thought of the thoughts of their hearts was only evil continually; and the Lord repented that he had created man on earth, and was grieved in His heart. And the Lord said, “I will destroy from the face of the earth man whom I have created, from man to beast, and the creeping thing and the bird of the air I will destroy, for I have repented that I made them.” God decided to save only the righteous Noah and his family, he ordered Noah to build an ark - big ship, similar to a box, collect all kinds of creatures there in pairs. Noah did just that. And then it rained continuously for forty days and a global flood occurred, in which all other people died. The ark floated on the waters for about a year, and then the water began to subside and Mount Ararat in Armenia appeared first (apparently this was the most high mountain, known to the ancient Jews). Arriving at Mount Ararat, Noah first released a raven, and then a dove, which brought him an olive leaf (a dove with a green twig later became a symbol of peace), a sign that the flood was over, and only then Noah and his family came to earth and continued human race.
Chapter 11 of Genesis describes famous myth about how the descendants of Noah, who then spoke the same language, became proud and decided to build a tower to heaven, God mixed their languages, that is, suddenly all the builders of the tower spoke different languages, stopped understanding each other and could no longer build the tower. The construction of the tower was later called pandemonium.
Among the descendants of Noah was righteous Abraham, the progenitor of the Jewish people. God often communicated directly with him and one day came to his tent in the form of three angels. This became the subject of Andrei Rublev's famous 15th century Trinity icon.
It was to Abraham that God announced that he was giving him and his descendants (that is, the Jews) Palestine, the territory of modern Israel, for eternal possession. And he himself will be their God. In response, he demanded righteousness and self-loyalty. And this became the main idea of the Old Testament in general: God, who created the world and all people, all nations, suddenly appointed himself the God of one people. And then it is constantly emphasized that God is the God of the Israeli people, and the Jews are the people of God.
One day God commanded Abraham to sacrifice his beloved young son Isaac. Abraham cried, but obeyed, prepared everything for the sacrifice, but when he raised the knife over Isaac. God stopped his hand; it was a test of faith and humility (chapter 22).
During the time of Abraham, God destroyed two Babylonian cities - Sodom and Gomorrah for the sinfulness and depravity of their inhabitants, rain of brimstone and fire rained down on them, the cities and their inhabitants were completely destroyed (chapter 19). Since then, the words Sodom and Gomorrah have become synonymous with sin and depravity.
Among the first Old Testament stories, the story of the righteous, beautiful Joseph, the great-grandson of Abraham (chapters 37-45), whom his brothers, out of envy (he was his father’s favorite), sell into slavery in Egypt, stands out. There the owner's wife falls in love with him, but he refuses to have a relationship with her; she accuses him of an attempt on her honor. He is thrown into prison, there he exhibits prophetic abilities, Joseph unravels the strange dream of the pharaoh, which no one can unravel, and becomes the pharaoh's assistant, predicts an imminent famine, and saves Egypt from famine. There was also a famine in Palestine, and the Jews, fleeing the famine, came to Egypt. Joseph meets his brothers and forgives them. Forgiveness is the main thing in this plot. The story of Joseph has been retold many times in world literature.
Book 2 "Exodus"(chapters 1-21).
The Jews lived in Egypt for a long time, and the new pharaoh turned them all into slaves, exhausted them with hard work, and God decided to save his people and lead them out of Egypt to Palestine; God’s chosen man, Moses, had to do this. Everything concerning Moses is told in great detail, for he main character Old Testament, the main prophet through whom God communicated with the people. God appeared to Moses and announced to him his calling through a burning but not consumed bush (Burning Bush). And then we can say that God continuously communicates with Moses, telling him exactly what to do, God gives him the ability to work miracles (from that moment on, all the Jewish prophets, including Christ, worked miracles). Moses goes to Pharaoh himself and announces that the Egyptians must release the Jews, for this is the desire of God, and to prove that he speaks on behalf of God, Moses turns the rod into a snake, and the snake into a rod, then 10 Egyptian plagues begin, 10 miracles , with the help of which God forced Pharaoh to release the Jews: the transformation of river water into blood, the invasion of toads, midges, flies, locusts, the darkness of Egypt, tangible, diseases. Then hail destroyed the entire harvest, then a baby died in every Egyptian house. And only then did Pharaoh let the Jews go. On the night before the start of the campaign in Palestine, Moses established the holiday of Passover, deliverance, which from that time on was celebrated annually.
When the Jews went out on a campaign, Pharaoh again did not keep his word and sent cavalry after them. With God's help, Moses led the Jews out of Egypt. When they approached the Red Sea, with a wave of the hand of Moses, the waters of the sea parted, and the Jews walked along the bottom of the sea, and the Egyptian cavalry was drowned. And then on the other side of the Red Sea on Mount Sinai, with thunder and lightning, God handed Moses the law of God for the people of Israel, the Ten Commandments (chapter 20):
1. I am the Lord your God; (...) May you have no other gods before Me.
2. Do not make for yourself an idol or any image of anything in the sky above, or on the earth below, or in the water under the earth. Do not worship them or serve them.
3. Do not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.
4. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Work six days and do all your work; and the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God: on it you shall not do any work.
5. Honor your father and your mother, so that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.
6. Thou shalt not kill.
7. Do not commit adultery.
8. Don't steal.
9. Do not bear false witness against your neighbor.
10. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house; You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor’s (do not envy).
Three commandments are especially famous: 6, 7, 8. But we must keep in mind that they are not of an absolute universal nature. Prohibitions apply only to fellow tribesmen (or allies). But it is possible and even necessary to kill enemies, representatives of friends of their peoples, pagans. Nevertheless, commandments 5 - 10 formed the basis of Christian, and then secular, pan-European morality. They were not completely original in relation to other moral codes Ancient world(Egyptian, Babylonian). They simply became more famous due to the fact that Christians recognized the Old Testament as a holy book.
So, the Jews accepted these 10 commandments of God, vowed to observe them, in response, God promised to help them in everything, to give them possession of Palestine, the land where milk and honey flow. Thus a covenant (agreement) was concluded between God and the Jews.
The basic judicial principle of the Hebrew court, the principle of punishing criminals - the principle of equal retribution: an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, etc., became famous. That is, if someone knocks out an eye or a tooth, then he also needs to knock out an eye or tooth. If anyone kills anyone, he himself deserves death. The God of the Old Testament is cruel but fair, he constantly punishes (or scares) by killing sinners, criminals, etc.
On Mount Sinai, Moses received stone tablets from God on which the basic commandments were written; they were kept in a sacred box, the Ark of the Covenant, the main shrine of the Israeli people.
But very soon the Jews began to violate the commandments of God, they made themselves a statue of the Golden Calf and began to worship it like pagans. God punished the Jews by dooming them to wander in the desert for forty years before getting to the promised land, Palestine, promised by God. This is where the book of Exodus ends.
Conquest of Palestine.
An interesting episode is described in chapters 24 and 31 of book 4 “Numbers”: when the Jews passed by the territory of the Midianites, a pagan people, many Jews took Midianites as wives and became pagans. God commanded to fight with the Midianites and destroy them. And so they did. All the men were killed, the women and children were taken prisoner. Having learned about this, Moses became angry that God’s command was not fully fulfilled, and ordered all the boys and women to be killed, the girls were left alive.
Book 5 of Deuteronomy describes how Moses died and repeated all the commandments to the Jews. Just before his death, he predicted that the Jews would abandon God and his commandments, for this they would be enslaved by other nations and scattered throughout the world, they would be deprived of their homeland for a long time, but then they would still return to God and return to their homeland. Surprisingly, that’s exactly how it happened. Since the 6th century. BC Israel was constantly under the rule of conquerors; several times Jews were purposefully destroyed and expelled from Palestine (especially in the 7th century AD). Jews moved to Europe and America and there they retained their nationality, religion and dream of returning to their homeland. This dream came true in 1948, when, by decision of the UN, the State of Israel was created, which still exists today. The dream came true, I think, because this is the underlying idea of their holy book.
The next 6 “Book of Joshua” tells how after the death of Moses, the Jews conquered Palestine, inhabited, of course, by other peoples, pagan, wicked, diligently following the direct instructions of God, they sought to completely destroy the population of the city, or the entire people, and then They fought with neighboring pagan peoples for a very long time. For example, how they took the first city of the Canaanites, Jericho, surrounded by high walls. Six days is all Jewish army walked around the walls of Jericho, ahead of the priests carrying Holy Ark Covenant, and on the seventh day they all shouted loudly at once, and the walls collapsed on their own, they rushed at the townspeople and killed everyone (chapter 6). Another time, the Israelites did not have enough day to deal with the enemy army, Joshua prayed to God for the sun to stop in the sky. “And the sun stood still, and the moon stood still, while the people took revenge on their enemies. (...) And there was no such day, neither before nor after that, on which the Lord would listen to the voice of man. For the Lord fought for Israel” (Joshua 10). Then in the medieval French poem “The Song of Roland” the same thing will be described.
What is it? This is real ancient holy war, war on the direct orders of God, war with infidels, pagans. Just as the Crusaders perceived their war with the Arabs as sacred, just as Muslims perceive their jihad.
Let's think about it. The fact that the ancient Jews waged their wars cruelly is not surprising or unusual; for the Ancient World it was the norm. The fact that they wrote this down in their holy book is also understandable. The surprising thing is that Christians accepted such a book as their holy book. What does it mean that for modern Christians it should be the norm to destroy another people just because they believe in other gods? And if there were ancient Greeks on the way of the Jews, would they also have to be destroyed? After all, there are no and cannot be any contradictions or errors in the Bible. After all, God is timeless, he is eternal and absolute, like all his actions and commands, he is one both in the Old and New Testaments, and now.
And one more thing. Here we see the 10 commandments in action. God gave the commandment: Thou shalt not kill, and then immediately gave the order to kill whole people, because these people believed in the wrong gods. That is, the 10 commandments are far from absolute.
Kings David and Solomon
Having settled in Palestine, the Jews continued to fight almost continuously with their neighbors - with with varying success, all military failures were explained by the fact that the Jews had forgotten God. The Philistines especially caused a lot of trouble, as they repeatedly defeated and conquered the Jews.
Only the king was able to finally defeat the Philistines David, the most successful, positive among the kings of Israel. His life is described in the first book of Samuel. His first feat is described very vividly. Before the next battle, a warrior emerged from the ranks of the Philistines enormous growth(2 m 80 cm) Goliath challenged any of the Jews to a duel. Young David, who was a shepherd and came to visit his brothers, came out to meet him. Goliath was well armed and began to laugh at David, who only had a sling that shot stones.
Sculpture by Michelangelo
David said to Goliath: “You come against me with sword and spear and shield, but I come against you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, which you have defied; Now the Lord will deliver you into my hand, and I will kill you, and take off your head, and will give [your corpse and] the corpses of the army of the Philistines to the birds of the air and to the beasts of the earth, and all the earth will know that there is a God in Israel. and this entire crowd will know that the Lord does not save with sword and spear, for this is the Lord’s war, and He will deliver you into our hands” (1 Sam. 17). David threw a stone right at Goliath's forehead, he fell, David ran up, took Goliath's sword and cut off his head. The Philistines fled, and the Israelites pursued them. Then David became a king, very successful, conquered all the remaining neighboring nations, under him Jerusalem became the capital of Israel, under him Israel became large powerful state. In addition, David became famous as a poet and musician; he composed songs and performed them himself. He composed 150 psalms - songs praising God, collected in the book of Psalms, which is also included in the Old Testament. In the 2nd book of Samuel, chapter 22, there is a song of King David, written shortly before his death.
“The waves of death have overwhelmed me, and the streams of iniquity have terrified me; The chains of hell have encircled me, and the snares of death have entangled me.
But in my distress I called on the Lord and cried out to my God, and He heard my voice from His palace, and my cry arrived to His ears.
The earth shook and shook, the foundations of the heavens trembled and moved, for [the Lord] was angry.
Smoke arose from His wrath, and from His mouth a consuming fire; burning coals fell from Him.
He bowed the heavens and came down; and darkness is under His feet; and he mounted the Cherubim, and flew, and was carried away on the wings of the wind; and covered Himself with darkness, thickening the waters of the clouds of heaven; from the brilliance, the coals of fire flared up before Him.
The Lord thundered from heaven. And the sources of the sea were opened, the foundations of the universe were exposed from the terrible voice of the Lord, from the breath of the spirit of His wrath.
He stretched out hand from on high and took me, and brought me out of many waters; He delivered me from my strong enemy, from those who hated me and were stronger than me.
They rose up against me in the day of my calamity; but the Lord was a support for me and brought me to a spacious place and delivered me, for He is well pleased with me.
The Lord rewarded me according to my righteousness, He rewarded me according to the purity of my hands.
For I kept the ways of the Lord and was not unholy before my God, for all His commandments were before me, and I did not depart from His statutes, and I was blameless before Him, and I was careful not to sin.
And the Lord rewarded me according to my righteousness, according to my purity in His sight.
You save oppressed people and humiliate the arrogant with Your gaze.
You, Lord, are my lamp; The Lord enlightens my darkness.
With You I defeat the army; with my God I climb the wall.
God! “His way is blameless, the word of the Lord is pure, He is a shield to all who trust in Him.”
The six-pointed blue star on the flag of modern Israel is called the Star of David (in honor of King David).
After David reigned Solomon, who is known for his wisdom. He built an unusually large and luxurious Jerusalem Temple, which became the center of the Jewish religion, its main shrine. Solomon became very rich and became famous throughout the world for his intelligence and wealth. However, towards the end of his life, Solomon relaxed, “And he had seven hundred wives and three hundred concubines; and his wives corrupted his heart,” many of them were pagans, they persuaded him to worship pagan gods.
After Solomon, a period of decline begins. The single kingdom splits into two parts: the kingdoms of Israel and Judah. The Jews increasingly abandoned their faith in one God and returned to paganism, falling into sin and debauchery, for which they were continually conquered by their powerful neighbors: Assyria, Babylon.
At the beginning of the 6th century BC. A catastrophe occurred, the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar, suppressing the uprising of the Jews, completely destroyed Jerusalem and the Jerusalem Temple, and drove the Jews into slavery in Babylon. But after 50 years, the Kingdom of Babylon was conquered by the Persians, and the Persian king Cyrus the Great allowed the Jews to return to Israel and restore Jerusalem and the Jerusalem Temple. And the Jews restored their state and religion - as part of the Persian Empire at the end of the 6th century BC. The chronology of the Old Testament ends in the middle of the 5th century BC. - book of Nehemiah.
Prophets
During the period of decline, God sent the Jews many prophets, God's chosen people, through whose mouth God himself spoke, who called for a return to the true faith, exposed the sins of kings and ordinary Israelis, predicted the future, etc. The activities of the prophets are described in the books of the prophets (except Elijah).
One of the most famous prophets is the prophet Elijah(his life is recounted in 3 and 4 Kings). Elijah lived in the forest for a long time and he O the Rons brought food. Then Elijah arranged a competition with the pagan priests to see who could light a sacrificial fire only with the help of prayer. 450 priests danced around the altar all day, praying to their god Baal, but the fire did not light up. Elijah ordered to pour 4 buckets of water on the firewood and said one short prayer, and God lit a fire on his sacrifice, and all the people recognized the power of God. And then Elijah stabbed all the priests (chap. 18, 1 Kings). And then God took Elijah to heaven, “a chariot of fire and horses of fire appeared, (...) and Elijah rushed into heaven in a whirlwind” (2 Ch., 2 Kings). Orthodox peasants especially revered the prophet Elijah as the lord of thunder and rain; when thunder roars, this means Elijah is riding his fiery chariot across the sky.
In the book of the prophet Isaiah describes how God gave Isaiah a prophetic mission.
“I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the whole temple. They stood around Him Seraphim; each of them has six wings.
And I said: Woe is me! I'm dead! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people also of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. Then one of the Seraphim flew to me, and in his hand burning coal which he took with tongs from the altar, and touched my lips and he said, Behold, this has touched your mouth, and your iniquity is taken away from you, and your sin is cleansed.
And I heard the voice of the Lord saying: Go and tell this people: You will hear with your ears and will not understand, and with your eyes you will see and will not see. For the heart of this people is hardened, and they will not turn so that I may heal them” (chapter 6).
Based on this description and some others, Pushkin wrote his poem “The Prophet,” where he created a generalized image of the Old Testament prophet.
We are tormented by spiritual thirst,
In the dark desert I dragged myself, -
AND six-winged seraph
He appeared to me at a crossroads.
With fingers as light as a dream
He touched my eyes.
The prophetic eyes have opened,
Like a frightened eagle.
He touched my ears,
And they were filled with noise and ringing:
And I heard the sky tremble,
And the heavenly flight of angels,
And the reptile of the sea underwater,
And the valley of the vine is vegetated.
And he came to my lips,
And my sinner tore out my tongue,
And idle and crafty,
And the sting of the wise snake
My frozen lips
He put it with his bloody right hand.
And he cut my chest with a sword,
And he took out my trembling heart,
AND coal burning with fire,
I pushed the hole into my chest.
I lay like a corpse in the desert,
And God’s voice called to me:
“Rise up, prophet, and see and listen,
Be fulfilled by my will,
And, bypassing the seas and lands,
Burn the hearts of people with the verb."
Isaiah also predicted the coming of Christ: the Virgin will give birth to a Son, who will suffer for the iniquities of people and take upon themselves their sins. This is the most accurate prediction about Christ in the Old Testament.
All the prophets, with their denunciations of sins, aroused hatred among people and kings; they were persecuted, beaten, and sometimes killed. Isaiah was subjected to painful execution, it was cut with a wooden saw.
One of the most dramatic, tragic books is the book of Jeremiah, which describes the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians. Famous prophet Daniel, who lived in Babylon at the court of King Nebuchadnezzar, but retained faith in one God, three young men, friends of Daniel, because they did not worship the golden idol of Babylon, were thrown into the oven, but did not burn, an angel flew to them and saved them from the flames in the very middle of the oven, and this made a great impression on the king. Daniel himself unraveled the king’s dreams, which no one could unravel, and predicted his illness and death. After Nebuchadnezzar there was King Belshazzar, who threw a luxurious feast and praised the gods of Babylon, but suddenly a huge hand appeared in the air, writing fiery words on the wall: mene, tekel, peres (or fares). Their meaning was explained only by Daniel: The king will lose his kingdom, it will be conquered by the Persians. That same night, Babylon was captured by the Persians and Belshazzar was killed. Daniel became an advisor to the kings of Persia.
Interesting prophet Jonah, who, because he did not want to fulfill the will of God, was thrown from the ship into the sea, and was swallowed by a whale, inside the whale he repented and prayed to God, and three days later he came out of the whale alive, and fulfilled the will of God, went to preach the word of God in the Syrian city of Nineveh, and all the inhabitants repented of their sins, and the city remained intact.
The books of the prophets are numerous (there are 17 of them) and very monotonous in content. However, it is worth noting this: no people exalted themselves as much as the Jews, but no people scolded and denounced themselves so much and purposefully. Half of the content of the Old Testament is the denunciation of the sinfulness of the people of Israel, bringing disasters upon their own heads with their sins.
For example, in the book of the prophet Hosea, the land of Israel, the people of Israel, who have departed from God, are compared to a harlot who repeatedly gave herself to many men, gave herself up to be conquered by other nations with her sins.
“Hear the word of the Lord, O children of Israel; for the Lord has judgment with the inhabitants of this land, because there is neither truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God on earth. Swearing and deceit, murder and theft, and adultery have become extremely widespread, and bloodshed follows bloodshed. For this reason this land will mourn, and all who live on it will faint, including the beasts of the field and the birds of the air, even the fish of the sea will perish.”
“And whatever happens to the people, so does it to the priest; And I will punish him according to his ways, and reward him according to his deeds. They will eat and not be satisfied; They will fornicate and not multiply; for they have abandoned the service of the Lord. Fornication, wine and drink took possession of their hearts.”
“They do not think in their hearts that I remember all their crimes; now their deeds surround them; they are before Me. With their villainy they amuse the king and with their deceptions the princes. They all burn with adultery, like an oven lit by a baker. Israel rejected what was good; the enemy will pursue him.
Since they sowed the wind, they will also reap the whirlwind: he will have no standing grain; grain will not yield flour; and if she does, strangers will swallow it. Israel is swallowed up; now they will be among the nations like a worthless vessel” (Book of Hosea, chapters 4-8).
Books of Wisdom.
In the middle of the Old Testament, before the books of the prophets, books are placed that are not related to the history of the Jewish people: the books of wisdom.
The first of these books, the most famous " Book of Job" This is one of the most unusual, bright, philosophically meaningful books of the Bible. Job was known as an ideal righteous man, and a dispute broke out between God and Satan about him. Satan began to claim that Job’s righteousness is not selfish, and for his righteousness God gives him prosperity in business and family. In fact, Job and people in general do not have selfless love for God. The question is posed acutely: what is the basis of human morality - selfless commitment moral principles, truth, goodness, etc. or just hope for a very tangible reward from God? And so God experiments with his pet. He deprives him of his support, deprives him of well-being: his herds, numerous servants, children perish, Job became poor and childless. “Then Job stood up and tore his outer garment, shaved his head, and fell to the ground and bowed down and said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked will I return.” The Lord gave, the Lord also took away; Blessed be the name of the Lord!” The experiment continues. Satan, with God's permission, sends a terrible disease to Job - leprosy; his entire body is covered with rotting, fetid sores. And here Job’s long, sorrowful cry begins, complaining about his misfortune and hinting at the injustice of his fate. “Oh, that my cries would be correctly weighed, and that my suffering would be put on the scales along with them! It would surely pull over the sand of the seas! That is why my words are furious. For the arrows of the Almighty are within me; my spirit drinks their poison; the horrors of God have taken up arms against me.” Job simply asks questions, he does not understand why he was given this suffering, which ancient people perceived as punishment, why he was punished, why a person suffers in general. "What is the light given for? to a man whose path is closed, and whom God has surrounded with darkness?
The Book of Job is structured as a dialogue between Job and his friends who came to comfort him. They convince him not to ask unnecessary questions, just to believe in the justice of God, the justice of everything that happens in the world, in any case, it is not for a small weak person to blame the almighty God for anything.
But Job does not directly accuse God of injustice. He continues to believe in his power, kindness, justice. But on the other hand, he quite persistently pursues the idea that not everything in this world is arranged fairly. And who is responsible for this if not God? - he asks a question.
“The earth has been given into the hands of the wicked; He covers the faces of her judges. If not He, then who?” “Why do the lawless live, reach old age, and are strong in strength? Their houses are safe from fear, and there is no rod of God upon them.” “One dies in the fullness of his strength, completely calm and peaceful. And the other dies with a sad soul, having not tasted good. And they will lie together in the dust, and the worm will cover them.” Job draws attention to the injustices being done to the poor. “The orphans’ donkey is taken away; the poor are pushed off the road, all the degraded lands are forced to hide. Here they are How wild donkeys in the desert go out to do their work, rising early to hunt for prey; naked people spend the night without cover and without clothing in the cold; they get wet from the mountain rains and, having no shelter, huddle against the rock.” “In the city people groan, and the soul of those who are being killed cries out, and God does not forbid it.”
The matter is aggravated by the fact that in the Old Testament there is no concept of the next world, life after death. A person should receive a reward during his lifetime. God controls man's earthly life. Therefore, if a person suffers innocently during life, then this contradicts the idea of God’s justice.
All these questions that Job asks remain unanswered. At the very end, one of Job’s friends pronounces a long monologue praising the great God, whose deeds are incomprehensible to man, so great and grandiose that man has no choice but to simply come to terms with his incomprehensible will. “Behold, God is great, and we cannot know Him; the number of His years is unsearchable. He collects drops of water; they rain in abundance: they drop from the clouds and pour out abundantly on people. Who can also comprehend the stretch of the clouds, the crackling of His tent? Behold, He spreads His light over it and covers the bottom of the sea. He hides the lightning in His hands and commands whom it will strike. Listen, listen to His voice and the thunder that comes from His mouth. It reverberates under the whole sky, and its brilliance reaches to the ends of the earth. A voice thunders behind him; He thunders with the voice of His majesty.”
Then a thunderstorm begins and God himself, as it were, picks up this monologue, turning to Job with a series of rhetorical questions, from which the conclusion follows about the insignificance of Job, who dared to doubt God, who is great and powerful, for he created nature, with all its miracles. “Who is this one who darkens Providence with words without meaning? Now gird up your loins like a man: I will ask you, and you explain to Me: where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?”
God begins to list the things he has created. It is interesting that God points to the hippopotamus and leviathan (whale) as the crown of his creation: “Can you pull out leviathan with a fish and grab his tongue with a rope? Fiery sparks jump out of his mouth; smoke comes out of his nostrils, like from a boiling pot or cauldron. His breath heats the coals, and flames come out of his mouth. Power dwells on his neck, and terror runs before him. The fleshy parts of his body are firmly united with each other and do not tremble. When he rises, the strongmen are in fear, completely lost in horror. The sword that touches him will not stand, neither the spear, nor the javelin, nor the armor. He considers iron to be straw, copper to be rotten wood. There is no one like him on earth; he was created fearless; looks at everything lofty with courage; he is king over all the sons of pride.”
Job, embarrassed by God’s speech, said: “I know that you can do anything, (...) I spoke about things that I did not understand, about things that were wonderful to me, which I did not know; therefore I renounce and repent in dust and ashes.” Even though Job admitted his mistake, God reproached not him, but his friends, because they did not speak as true about God as Job did. Apparently, Job surpasses his friends with a sharper sense of justice, truth, and a more sensitive conscience.
Because Job doubted the justice of God and the world, but did not renounce his faith in God, God rewards him. Job was given back everything that had been taken away: his family and wealth. And twice as much.
The book of Job says that life is much more complicated than was commonly thought; the principle of direct and simple retribution does not apply in it. For every sin there is no punishment, for every virtue a person does not always receive a reward. Sometimes there is no justice in the world at all. The world created and governed by God is more complex and mysterious. Man cannot comprehend the complex justice of God; he must humble himself and accept the world as it is. There is no other way out. Job grasped this complexity of the world, but his friends did not.
The book was reflected in subsequent literature. At the beginning of Goethe’s famous tragedy “Faust” (late 18th century), a very similar dispute between God and Satan over man is described. One of Dostoevsky’s main novels, “The Brothers Karamazov,” develops the problematic of the “book of Job” - a protest against the injustice of the world. And finally, Leonid Andreev, a Russian writer of the early 20th century, repeats the plot of the biblical book in the story “The Life of Vasily of Fivey,” his most vivid, passionate and terrible work. Dostoevsky turned out to be closest to the spirit of the book of Job.
The book " Ecclesiastes"(from Greek preacher, 4th century BC). - This is the most interesting, most modern part of the Old Testament (it is not as long as all the others). Although the book is written in the name of King Solomon, it is of later origin. In bright, poetic lines Ancient skeptical wisdom is presented. A skeptic is a person who doubts everything and does not look at life very joyfully. Eclesiastes (an unknown preacher) doubts that there is meaning in the world. Earthly life is a meaningless vanity in which essentially nothing changes from century to century.
“Vanity of vanities, and all is vanity.
The race goes, and the race comes, but the Earth remains forever.
The sun rises, and the sun sets, and hastens to its place,
To rise there again;
It runs south and circles north, the wind circles as it runs,
And the wind returns to normal;
All the rivers flow into the sea, but the sea does not overflow,
What was, is what will be, and what has happened, will happen,
And there is nothing new under the sun.
Sometimes they will say about something: look, this is news!
And it already existed in the centuries that passed before us.”
“For all is vanity and catching the wind.”
Neither wealth, nor power, nor knowledge, nor wisdom provide true happiness, satisfaction, or a sense of meaning.
To be wise is an empty languor,
For from much wisdom there is much sorrow,
And he who increases knowledge increases sorrow."
Because a person cannot understand everything that happens in life. “When I turned my heart to comprehend wisdom and to survey the works that are done on earth, then I saw all the works of God and [found] that man cannot comprehend the works that are done under the sun.”
Everything loses its meaning from contact with death. Everyone is doomed to death, both smart and stupid, both good and evil.
“And I hated life,
because things have become disgusting to me,
which are made under the sun;
for all is vanity and vexation of spirit!”
There is no justice in life.
“And I turned and saw all kinds of oppression that are happening under the sun: and behold, the tears of the oppressed, but they had no comforter; and in the hand of those who oppress them is power, but they have no comforter.”
“There is also such a vanity on earth: the righteous suffer what the deeds of the wicked deserved, and the wicked suffer what the deeds of the righteous deserved.”
There is no justice in life, but there is an unshakable law - the law of repulsion from monotony, striving for the opposite. Life is varied, one thing gives way to another, the opposite. This law is expressed in Ecclesiastes like this.
“For everything there is an hour, and a time for every task under heaven:
Time to be born and time to die,
A time to kill and a time to heal
Time to cry and time to laugh
A time to scatter stones and a time to gather stones,
A time to hug and a time to avoid hugs
A time to love and a time to hate
A time for war and a time for peace."
All these opposite phenomena: war and peace, love and hatred, crying and laughter, murder and healing, death and birth are equal parts of the complex harmony of life. We must accept everything in due time. A very important thought - in life, good and evil, positive and negative, continuously replace each other, after evil there will be good, but after good there will be evil again, and so on endlessly.
General summary of Ecclesiastes. Living is better than being dead. Having fun is better than crying. Doing good is better than doing evil. Keeping the commandments is better than sinning.
“I learned that there is nothing better for them than to have fun and do good in their lives.
And if a person eats and drinks and sees good in all his work, then this is a gift from God.”
“[So] go, eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with joy in your heart, since God is pleased with your deeds.
In days of prosperity, take advantage of the good, and in days of misfortune, reflect: God did both so that man could not say anything against Him.”
The book ends with a thought common to the entire Old Testament: “Fear God and keep His commandments, because this is everything for man; For God will bring every work into judgment.”
Both the book of Job and Ecclesiastes contain contradictory content. They begin with doubts about the justice of God and the rationality of his creation, but then these doubts simply dissolve in the need to simply believe in God. Other books of wisdom more clearly prove the wisdom and justice of God.
This Psalter- a collection of psalms of King David. Psalms are lyrical appeals of a person to God, various prayers, religious hymns - glorification of God. The Psalms of David are still used in Christian worship today. Here, for example, is Psalm 114.
“I rejoice that the Lord heard my voice, my prayer; He has inclined His ear to me, and therefore I will call upon Him all my days. Mortal diseases have seized me, hellish torments have befallen me; I encountered cramped conditions and sorrow. Then I called on the name of the Lord: Lord! deliver my soul. The Lord is merciful and righteous and our God is merciful. The Lord protects the simple-minded: I was exhausted, and He helped me. Return, my soul, to your rest, for the Lord has blessed you. You have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, and my feet from stumbling. I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living.”
There is little logic in the psalms; emotions come first. Many times the psalms of David were translated into verse by later poets. For example, Derzhavin’s famous poem “To Rulers and Judges” is an arrangement of Psalm 81.
« Proverbs of Solomon"- a collection of teachings, unlike the usual understanding of the word parable, in the parables of Solomon there is no plot story. These are teachings without a story. Basically, Solomon in them sings of the wisdom that lies in the fear of the Lord. Solomon often repeats this idea: in order to live well and calmly, you need to obey the commandments of God in everything. Here are some quotes.
“Walk in the way of the good and keep in the paths of the righteous, for the righteous will live on the earth, and the blameless will remain in it; and the wicked will be destroyed from the earth, and the treacherous will be rooted out from it” (2). The concept of rewards and punishments is very characteristic of the Old Testament. The punishment is death and the reward is life. Then we will compare how Christ in the New Testament proposes to reward the righteous and punish the wicked.
And that's enough famous quote. “Do not reject the punishment of the Lord, my son; for whom the Lord loves, he punishes and he takes pleasure in him as a father treats his son” (3). This idea is consistent with the meaning of the book of Job, but contradicts general idea ancient Jews about punishments.
In addition, the books of wisdom are accompanied by the very famous “ Song of Songs"(4th century BC). For a long time It was believed that its author was King Solomon. In fact, this is a cycle of folk wedding songs, arranged by a certain educated person. “Song of Songs” became famous for its open emotionality, vivid imagery (and even some eroticism) of the love feelings expressed in it. “Put me like a seal on your heart, like a ring on your hand: for love is strong as death; fierce, like hell, jealousy; her arrows are arrows of fire; she has a very strong flame. Big waters they cannot extinguish love, and the rivers will not flood it. If anyone were to give all the wealth of his house for love, he would be rejected with contempt.” Many expressions of the song have entered world literature. For example, “Strong as Death” is the title of Maupassant’s novel. In the Song itself there are hints of a certain plot. Based on it, the Russian writer Kuprin wrote wonderful story“Shulamith” is about the love of the great King Solomon and the simple peasant woman Shulamith.
The idea of the Messiah.
One of the important ideas of the Old Testament, which served as a transition to the New Testament, was the prediction of many prophets about the coming of the Messiah. The Messiah is the anointed one, the deliverer, the future king of the Jewish people, the King of the Jews, who will lead the Jews to liberation and prosperity, to moral ideal. Through the Jews, the Messiah will spread the ideal of righteousness to the whole world. Then there will be peace and quiet throughout the world, there will be no war, for “all nations will beat their swords into plowshares” - plows (book of Isaiah) - the Kingdom of the Messiah will come. Religious Jews are still waiting for the Messiah. Christians consider Christ the Messiah (Christ in Greek is the Messiah). Christians interpret all prophecies about the Messiah in the Old Testament in their own direction, Jews - in their own.
The Western Wall is a remnant of the wall of the Jerusalem Temple.
New Testament.
General information.
"New Testament" - second great book Hebrew literature was written in the second half of the 1st - first half of the 2nd century. AD The New Testament is a direct continuation of the Old. Written in the same style, there is ideological and religious continuity and connection (in the text of the New Testament there are many references to the Old Testament).
The “New Testament” is much smaller than the Old Testament and can be roughly divided into two parts. Part 1. Main - a description of the life of Jesus Christ, recorded in the 4 Gospels (gospel - good news). Part 2 Additional - Acts of the Apostles (description of the activities of the apostles, disciples of Christ, after his death), the Epistles of the Apostles and the Revelation of John the Theologian (Apocalypse).
So, part 1 - the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, John. All of them are apostles, disciples, describing the life of their teacher (but not all of them were disciples of Christ during his life, for example, Mark joined the apostles after Christ’s ascension to heaven). The four gospels are four versions of the life of Christ. In many ways they repeat each other, there are episodes that are not in some gospels, but they are in others, that is, they complement each other. At some points they contradict each other. I recommend reading the Gospel of Matthew, it most fully reflects the teachings of Christ. Most fully described last days Christ in John. The Gospel of Mark is the shortest and simplest. The Gospel of Luke contains many famous parables.
Let's start with the fact that Christians have a special, complex idea of God. For Christians, God is one, but three faces, hypostases, manifestations: God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. Jesus Christ is, according to Christian teaching, the God-man (combined both essences), at the same time God, the son of God and man.
As an introduction, let us cite the famous beginning of the fourth Gospel of John, which is sometimes taken to be the beginning of the entire Bible. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. It was in the beginning with God. Everything came into being through Him, and without Him nothing came into being that came into being. In Him was life, and life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness does not overcome it.” Light is Christ.
The Teachings of Christ - expressed in his speeches. In the teachings of Christ, two most important semantic blocks can be distinguished.
1 semantic block is best represented in the famous Sermon on the Mount - the Gospel of Matthew (chapters 5 - 7). “You have heard that it was said: Love your neighbor and hate your enemy” (Christ comments on the Old Testament). But I say to you: love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who use you and persecute you.”
“You have heard that it was said: an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. But I tell you: do not resist evil. But whoever strikes you on your right cheek, turn the other to him too».
Christ went against the basic principle of the ancient pre-Christian world: the principle of hatred of enemies and the principle of revenge. For ancient people, hating enemies and taking revenge on them was normal, it was human. This thought runs through everything ancient literature, through the entire Old Testament. Christ was the first to say: love everyone, including your enemies, expose your cheeks to blows, forgive evil. This is what Christ said about forgiveness: “Judge not, lest ye be judged.” “If you forgive people their sins, your Heavenly Father will also forgive you.” “In everything that you want people to do to you, do so to them.”
The meaning of Christ’s preaching is that the true strength of a person is not to respond with evil to evil in order to satisfy one’s pride with revenge, but to humble one’s evil and smile in response to anger directed at us. We must not respond with evil to evil, but extinguish evil, stop this endless chain of evil on ourselves.
Christ repeatedly says that before you pray to God for something, you need to make peace with your enemies and forgive them, and only then will God fulfill your request.
The example of forgiveness was set by Christ himself. The Gospel of John tells how a woman caught in adultery was brought to Jesus. According to the law of the Old Testament, she had to be stoned. And he said: “He who is without sin among you, be the first to throw a stone at her.” No one abandoned (John 8).
Here is the famous beginning of the Sermon on the Mount: “Blessed are the poor in spirit (that is, the humble, aware of their spiritual poverty), for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy. Blessed pure in heart, for they will see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.” From this it follows that the main quality of a person is kindness, humility, victory over pride.
In the Gospel of John there is a story about how Jesus, shortly before his death, suddenly began to wash the feet of his disciples: “You call Me Teacher and Lord, and you say it correctly, for that is exactly what I am. So, if I, the Lord and Teacher, washed your feet, then you should wash each other’s feet. For I have given you an example, that you also should do the same as I have done to you” (John 13). This is an example of humility.
2 semantic block. In comparison with the Old Testament, Christ places much more emphasis on the mystical, supernatural side of faith in God. In the Gospel of Matthew, this is how the meaning of Christ’s preaching is briefly described: “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.” The Kingdom of Heaven, or the Kingdom of God, or eternal life is paradise, where after the Second Coming of Christ, the End of the World and the Last Judgment, the righteous, the good, those who kept the commandments, and accepted the teachings of Christ will go. Sinners who rejected Christ, the evil ones, will go to fiery Gehenna, eternal flame, eternal torment, that is, to hell. Christ speaks about this very often. For example, in chapters 24 and 25 of the Gospel of Matthew, he spoke in detail about his second coming and the End of the World.
“When the Son of Man comes in His glory and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory, and all nations will be gathered before Him; and will separate one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats; and He will put the sheep on His right hand, and the goats on His left. Then the King will say to those who right side His: Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was hungry, and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger and you accepted Me; I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me. Then the righteous will answer Him: Lord! We didn't do this to you. And the King will answer them, “Truly I say to you, just as you did it to one of the least of these brothers of Mine, you did it to Me.” Then he will tell those who left side: Depart from Me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels: for I was hungry, and you did not give Me anything to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me no drink; I was a stranger, and they did not accept Me; I was naked, and they did not clothe Me; sick and in prison, and they did not visit Me. Then they too will answer Him: Lord! We didn't see you in need. Then he will answer them, “Truly I say to you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.” And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into everlasting life” (Matthew 25).
These stories about the other world, on the one hand, should frighten sinners, on the other hand, should give comfort to those who have a bad life on earth - the poor, the sick, the wretched, the unfortunate, etc. They are given hope that they will be blissful in the next world. In general, Christ affirms that everything earthly, material, everything that is essential for this world is all secondary, temporary (because in the next world this will not happen), and the spiritual, moral is paramount, eternal (in the next world this is precisely the main thing ). “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven” (by righteous living). “What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul? For the Son of Man will come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then He will reward everyone according to his deeds.” To be kind, righteous and poor is much more correct and better than to be prosperous and rich. A righteous person cannot be rich at all. “If... you want to enter eternal life, keep the commandments (...): do not kill; Thou shalt not commit adultery; don't steal; do not bear false witness; honor your father and mother; love your neighbor as yourself. If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor; and you will have treasure in heaven.” “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God” (Matthew 19).
“Whoever exalts himself (on earth) will be humbled (in the next world), and whoever humbles himself will be exalted” (Matthew 23).
“Woe to you, rich people! for you have already received your consolation. Woe to you who are now satiated! for you will hunger. Woe to you who laugh now! for you will mourn and lament. Woe to you when all people speak well of you! For this is what their fathers did to the false prophets” (Luke 6).
Parables of Christ. Christ loved to explain his teachings with parables. Proverbs - short stories, which have an expansive and most often symbolic meaning. The most famous parable of the prodigal son(Luke 15). The youngest son begged his father for his share of the inheritance, went to the city with it, and there he squandered the estate, living dissolutely. He became a beggar, took a job herding pigs, and went hungry. He came back to his father, repented and his father forgave him and arranged a feast in his honor. The elder brother, his father’s hard-working assistant, was offended that no one was throwing feasts in his honor, but his father told him: “You are always with me, that’s all.” mine is yours, and in this you had to rejoice and be glad, that your brother was dead and came to life, he was lost and was found.” Father is God, the loving father of all people. The Prodigal Son is sinful man who, if he repents, will be forgiven by God.
Rembrandt "Return of the Prodigal Son" (1669)
Also not so famous, but very important Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus (Luke 16). There lived a rich man who feasted every day; at his gate lay the poor and sick Lazarus, eating crumbs from the rich man’s table. After death, Lazarus went to heaven, and the rich man went to hell. In hell the rich man was told: “Remember that you have already received your good things in your life, and Lazarus received your evil things; now he is consoled here, and you suffer.” There is a clear hint here that the rich man would not have ended up in hell if he had given part of his wealth to Lazarus. For in the same Gospel from Luke it is said: “Give to everyone who asks you, and do not ask him back from the one who took what you have” (Luke 6).
Contradictions in teaching.
Preaching love and forgiveness, Christ is extremely harsh towards sinners. He constantly scares his listeners with fiery hell, that is, hell. Moreover, in the same Sermon on the Mount, Christ toughens the guilt and punishment in comparison with the law of Moses: fiery hell threatens not only the one who killed, but also who was simply angry with his brother, not only the one who committed adultery, but also who looked at the woman with lust, who divorced his wife, who married a divorcee.
“If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and throw it away from you, for it is better for you that one of your members perish rather than your whole body being cast into hell” (Matthew 5). Although in another place Christ called on everyone to forgive a woman caught in adultery.
Severity towards sinners simply psychologically does not fit with the preaching of love, forgiveness, mercy, etc., since all people are sinners.
Christ also demands that his people love him more than their loved ones; he brings discord into families and does not hide it.
“Do not think that I came to bring peace to earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword, for I came to divide a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a man’s enemies are his own household. Whoever loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and whoever loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me” (Matthew 10).
He forbade one of his students to bury his father. “Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead” (Matthew 8). It is clear that he called those who do not believe in him dead, but in this case Christ encroaches on the most fundamental, ancient universal rules of life. The son must bury his father, no matter what kind of father he was.
He also owns the words: “Whoever is not with me is against me” (Matthew 12) (though there is also a direct opposite words: “Whoever is not against you is for you,” Mark 9). All these words are aimed at provoking conflicts, rather than smoothing them out.
Christ’s demand to forgive and love his enemies, on the one hand, is good, but on the other hand, it completely abolishes the principle of justice. And that's bad. What will happen if everyone always forgives all misdeeds and crimes?
For example, the parable about the owner of the vineyard who hired workers is very typical in this sense. He hired many workers for one day, but some at the beginning of the day, others in the middle, and others at the end of the day. Everyone worked different hours, but received the same amount. The workers who worked more began to be indignant, the owner answered them: “Don’t I have the power to do what I want? Or is your eye envious because I am kind? So they will last ones first and the first last, for many are called, but few are chosen” (Matthew 20). Of course, this means that it doesn’t matter when a person turned to faith, the main thing is that he converted, everyone will receive the Kingdom of Heaven. Perhaps this is true regarding the Kingdom of Heaven, but the plot of the parable itself raises questions precisely because it abolishes the principle of fair remuneration for work. If we apply this principle in practice, then any enterprise will quickly go bankrupt, because people will simply stop working effectively, since everyone always gets the same pay.
Another interesting episode.
“When they came to the people, a man came up to Him and, kneeling before Him, said: Lord! have mercy on my son; He goes berserk on new moons and suffers greatly; I brought him to Your disciples, and they could not heal him. Jesus said, Bring him here to Me. And Jesus rebuked him, and the demon came out of him; and the boy was healed at that hour. Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why couldn’t we drive him out?” Jesus said to them: Because of your unbelief; For truly I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed and say to this mountain, “Move from here to there,” and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you” (Matthew 17).
This means that even the disciples of Christ, who were with him for a long time, who saw his miracles, did not have faith in him even as small as a mustard seed and therefore could not themselves heal the demoniac. What then should we demand from modern people, what kind of faith?
These are the oddities and contradictions that are quite common for this kind of text. From these contradictions grew the entire history of European, Christian civilization: between war and peace.
Life of Christ. He was born from God (the Holy Spirit) and the earthly woman the Virgin Mary as a result of an immaculate conception; in general, Jews and Christians have ordinary conception, carnal relations between a man and a woman, childbirth - all these are unclean processes (women who have given birth are not allowed to enter the church).
Christ was born in a den - a cave for cattle, since by the time of his birth the Virgin Mary and her husband Joseph were forced from the city where they lived, Nazareth, to come to Bethlehem for a census (which was organized by the Romans, since Israel by that time was conquered by the Romans). At this time, the Christmas star rose in the sky.
Until the age of 30, Christ lived as an ordinary person: Mary’s husband, Joseph, was a carpenter, and Christ helped him, that is, he was a carpenter. Then he was baptized in the Jordan River by John the Baptist (He is also John the Baptist - who announced to people about the imminent coming of the Savior), the Spirit of God descended on Christ and he began to preach his teaching.
Christ not only preached, but also performed miracles as the son of God. He cured any of the most hopeless diseases (mainly those who believed that he was the son of God), cast out demons from those possessed by demons, turned water into wine, pacified a storm, walked on water, fed five thousand people with five loaves of bread and two fish, raised the dead (Lazarus, for example, who was dead for 4 days).
Related information.
Authorship of the Bible has several aspects and interpretations. Jewish and Christian believers believe that wrote the Bible the Lord God himself or the “holy spirit”, however to a socialite need to know who wrote the Bible and when, while understanding that it was written, of course, by people. Biblical texts have several authors, if only because the earliest book of the Old Testament (Genesis) dates back to the tenth century BC, and the latest book New Testament- to the second century AD. The Bible consists of two collections of works: the Old and New Testaments. The Old Testament was written on ancient Hebrew. The new one is in Greek.
In ancient times, Bible students held the traditional (religious) view of authorship of the Old Testament: It was believed to have been written by Moses, except for the last lines added later. But in early middle ages Historians had doubts about this hypothesis: analysis of the text showed that Moses could not be its author. This is how the documentary hypothesis emerged that what people wrote the Old Testament. According to this hypothesis, the Old Testament had four authors, who are conventionally called: Yahwist, Elohist, Priests and Editor. The picture below shows who is hypothesized to have written the various parts of the Pentateuch:
The books of the Pentateuch were merged together from two different manuscripts after the unification of the Northern (Israel) and Southern (Judah) kingdoms in the 8th century BC. Thus the manuscripts of the Yahwist (Judah, c. 950 BC) were supplemented by the manuscripts of the Elohist (Israel, c. 850 BC), and in some places the text was edited to suit both sides.
Fifth book The Pentateuch was written the so-called Deuteronomist - the author of the 7th-6th centuries BC, to whom authorship is also attributed early books Prophets - Joshua, Judges, Samuel and Kings. During the Babylonian captivity of the Jews, the books of the Kings were written, as well as the books of the Prophets Ezra and Nehemiah. The author is considered to be the Babylonian Chronicler. These parts of the Old Testament were written in 450-435 BC. The remaining parts of the Old Testament were written by various authors in V-I centuries B.C.
The New Testament was written from 80 to 180 AD by early Christian preachers based on the collection of sayings of Jesus (known as the "Q Document"). The lyrics are written in Greek. Most of the texts attributed to Matthew, Mark, Luke and John written by anonymous authors, while the books of the Epistles of the Apostle Paul for the most part really written by the apostle Pavel.
Who wrote the Bible? The question, which at first glance seems absurd, actually has a very clear answer. The author of the holy book is God himself. And the people who recorded his messages here on earth are only his “co-authors.” It is clear that such an answer is only suitable for a believer. But even if you accept it, many questions still remain. Of course, the easiest way is to consider that the Pentateuch of Moses was written down by Moses, the Book of Isaiah - prophet Isaiah, Song of Solomon - King Solomon, and so on. But the Bible is a book that has been read for several thousand years, examining every word and every sign literally under a microscope. During this time, a lot of questions and contradictions have accumulated, complicating the literal understanding of the biblical text. And here faith has nothing to do with it - science comes into play.
Books of Ezra
The books that make up the Christian Old Testament and the Jewish Tanakh were created approximately from the 13th century BC. They visited religious communities in different lists and different options. There was no unanimity among Jewish theologians - what some thought sacred text, others could easily declare it apocryphal. Such disorganization greatly harmed the monotheism that appeared not so long ago. Many, unable to understand the intricacies and intricate interpretations of the books of the Tanakh, preferred to return to the old and familiar paganism, devoid of such problems.
This greatly worried the Jewish priests. The man who undertook to restore order to the Jewish Holy Scriptures was the high priest Ezra, who lived in the 5th century BC. He, in fact, can be called the “father” of Judaism. And for Christians he is the “father” of the Old Testament. Ezra collected the books, determined which edition should be considered correct, and began to introduce the law sent from above among the Jewish people, in word and deed.
However, some books of the Old Testament were written after the death of Ezra, in the period from the 5th century BC to the 1st century after the birth of Christ. First of all, these are the so-called Maccabees books. They are classified as the “historical books” of the Bible, since they tell not so much about relationships with God, but about the history of the Jewish people. However, they are still recognized as sacred.
True, the same problems arose with them as with ancient books: which text should be considered divinely inspired, and which should be considered simply a priest’s reflections on history? The Jews understood these questions only towards the end of the 1st century. At a meeting of the Sanhedrin, held in the city of Yavne after the Roman army destroyed the main shrine of Judaism - the Temple of Jerusalem, the Jewish canon was officially approved. The Tanakh is 22 (according to another account - 24) books: the Pentateuch of Moses (Torah), the Books of the Prophets (Neviim) and the writings of the sages of Israel, as well as prayer poetry (Ketuvim).
List of books of the Bible
In the 1st century there arose new religion- Christianity, which inherited from Judaism not only the Old Testament (as the books of the Tanakh began to be called, as opposed to the New Testament left to people by Jesus Christ), but also all the problems associated with it. It was not so easy to figure out what was worth transferring from the old faith to the new, and what was better left in the past. Moreover, the early Christians became acquainted with most biblical books in Greek. And not in Hebrew, in which they were originally written. This introduced a certain amount of distortion and misunderstanding due to the peculiarities of the translation.
While Christians existed in the form of independent, scattered and, as a rule, secret communities, there was no talk of any canon. Each deacon or elder himself determined which books to read to his flock. Moreover, the words of Jesus interested them much more than the Jewish heritage. Christians finally gathered to understand the Old Testament only in the 7th century, after they had resolved the most difficult internal church disputes and decided on the most important theological concepts.
At the Council of Trullo, held in 692, the hierarchs eastern churches(who would later become Orthodox) agreed to recognize as sacred 39 canonical books (that is, those that were recognized by the Jews) and 11 non-canonical ones (from those that were approved by the Sanhedrin various reasons were rejected). This list of 50 Old Testament books is valid in traditional Orthodoxy to this day.
However, the Bishop of Rome (who several centuries later would become the head of the Catholic Church) refused to sign the decision of the Trullo Council. The fact is that among the conciliar decisions there were many that condemned some customs accepted by the Western Church, but rejected by the Eastern. Such, for example, as the celibacy of priests or some rules of fasting. By refusing to sign the decisions of the council, the head of the Roman church also refused the approved list of books of the Old Testament. So Catholics had to live without a canon right up to the 16th century. Only in 1546, at the Council of Trent, a list was approved, which included 46 Old Testament books. By the way, among the Eastern churches the agreement also did not last long. Many of them later revised the canon adopted by the Trullo Council. And today, many of them have a list of books of the Old Testament that is very different from what was accepted then. For example, the Ethiopian Orthodox Church The canon includes 54 books.
In parallel with the Catholics, the Protestants who appeared in the 16th century also thought about the canon of the Old Testament. In an effort to cleanse Christianity of all unnecessary things, the reformers also approached the Jewish heritage very critically. The followers of Martin Luther decided that only those books that were preserved in the original language should be recognized as canonical. Those that reached them only in Greek translations can only claim the status of apocrypha. Therefore, there are only 39 books in the Protestant Old Testament.
As for the New Testament, the followers of Jesus Christ agreed on it in a much more organized manner. It includes 27 books that are recognized by almost all Christian denominations, with extremely rare exceptions. These are the four Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, the 21 Epistles of the Apostles and the Revelation of John the Theologian. So it turns out that in Orthodox Bible you will find 77 books, in the Catholic one - 73, and in the Protestant one - 66.
Who wrote the Old Testament
Having dealt with the composition of the Holy Scriptures, let us return to the question of authorship. This problem is associated primarily with the Pentateuch (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy), which contains the main postulates of faith in One God. Including the Ten Commandments, on which Jewish, and after it Christian, morality was built. For a long time, the fact that these books were written personally by the prophet Moses was not questioned. The only deviation from this interpretation, which was allowed by the strict Jewish high priests, was that the last eight verses of Deuteronomy, which tell about the death of Moses, were written by Joshua. Some Pharisees, however, insisted that these lines were written by Moses himself, to whom a revelation was sent about how he would end his days.
But the longer and more carefully the Jewish and Christian scribes read the Pentateuch, the more obvious the contradictions in it became. For example, in the list of kings who ruled the Edomite people, those who lived after Moses are also mentioned. This can also be attributed to revelation. But that’s why some plots (and such important ones as the creation of the world or the construction Noah's Ark) are told twice in the Pentateuch, and with obvious discrepancies, it is already more difficult to explain.
Yet the fear of being accused of blasphemy was too strong. Only in the 18th century did the Frenchman Jean Astruc and the German Johann Eichhorn put forward the version that the Pentateuch was two primary sources mixed together. They proposed to distinguish them by the name of God. In some cases he is called Yahweh, in others - Elohim. Accordingly, the sources were named Yahwist and Elohist. In the 19th century, their theory was developed, suggesting that there were even more primary sources. Modern biblical scholarship believes that the Pentateuch is based on at least four sources. A similar story happened with the books of the prophets Isaiah and Ezekiel. And a textual analysis of the Song of Solomon showed that it was most likely written in the 3rd century BC. That is, 700 years later than the times when he lived historical king Solomon.
Who wrote the New Testament
Over time, scholars of the New Testament have accumulated no fewer questions. The more carefully they read the lines of the canonical Gospels, the more often they wondered: was this really written by the apostles, the companions of Jesus? After all, in none of the gospel texts (with the exception of the Gospel of John) there is any indication of the identity of the author. So, maybe we are only dealing with retellings written down by those who studied with the apostles and wanted to preserve their stories for posterity?
The version that Mark, Matthew and Luke are not the real authors of the Gospels was also first expressed in the 18th century. The peculiarities of the language in which these texts were written prompted many theologians to believe that they could not have been created earlier than the second half of the 1st century. Modern biblical scholars generally agree that the Gospels were written by anonymous authors who had at their disposal the stories of the apostles themselves (or their closest disciples), as well as some text that has not reached us, which scholars call “Source O.” This source was not a gospel story, but rather something like a collection of sayings of Jesus, most likely recorded by direct listeners of his sermons.
According to the general opinion of Bible scholars, the Gospel of Mark was written first. This happened approximately in the 60-70s. Then, on its basis, the Gospels of Matthew (70-90s) and Luke (80-100s) were created. This is why the texts of these three narratives are so close. The Gospel of John was apparently created in the years 80-95 and was written separately from everyone else. In addition, the author of the Gospel of Luke most likely wrote the Acts of the Apostles.
It is interesting that the Catholic Church fully agrees with this scientific interpretation of the authorship of the New Testament and does not consider it blasphemous at all. On the Second Vatican Council, which met from 1962 to 1965, Western theologians officially decided to abandon the formulation: “ God's Church has always maintained and maintains that the authors of the Gospels are those whose names are named in the canon of sacred books, namely: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.” Instead of names, “holy authors” were written.
Recognize the problem of authorship and Orthodox theologians, emphasizing that this cannot in any way cast doubt on the very content of the Gospels. Today the Bible is respected as a repository of wisdom and historical source people of any kind religious views and beliefs. And the question about the real personalities of God’s “co-authors” does not in the least detract from this respect. We are unlikely to ever know their names. But at least we can pay tribute to their great work.
- “Old Testament”, also known as the “Hebrew Bible” (Tanakh), general Scripture Judaism and Christianity. This article examines its presentation in the Christian tradition. For the approach of the Jewish tradition, see the article “Tanakh” Bible ... Wikipedia
OLD TESTAMENT, part of the Bible... Modern encyclopedia
See Art. Bible... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary
See the Bible... Brockhaus Biblical Encyclopedia
TESTAMENT, a, m. (high). Instruction, advice to followers, descendants. Live according to the behests of our fathers. Great covenants. Ozhegov's explanatory dictionary. S.I. Ozhegov, N.Yu. Shvedova. 1949 1992 … Ozhegov's Explanatory Dictionary
Part of the Bible, a set of Jewish holy books. The name Old Testament was given to these books by Christian churchmen, in contrast to the New Testament, which consists of works written by the ideologists of Christianity. Jewish theologians call the Old... ... Religious terms
Noun, number of synonyms: 1 tanakh (1) ASIS Dictionary of Synonyms. V.N. Trishin. 2013… Dictionary of synonyms
Old Testament- OLD TESTAMENT, part of the Bible. ... Illustrated Encyclopedic Dictionary
OLD TESTAMENT- [Greek παλαιὰ διαθήκη], the name of the first part of Christ. The Bible, approved by the Church in the status of Holy Scripture and inspired text (see Inspiration). The OT is a collection of books adopted from the Hebrew tradition. Bible. Special role … Orthodox Encyclopedia
A biblical term that has a double meaning: 1) firstly, it refers to the agreement that God entered into with various representatives ancient humanity in order to preserve through them true faith among the spread everywhere... ... Encyclopedic Dictionary F.A. Brockhaus and I.A. Ephron
Books
- The Old Testament and Its Enduring Significance in the Christian Church, A.A. Glagolev. This book will be produced in accordance with your order using Print-on-Demand technology. Alexander Alexandrovich Glagolev [Glagolev A. A.] - archpriest, clergyman of the Russian ...
- Book of Joshua. Old Testament. Translation from Hebrew, Old Testament. The book of Joshua is the sixth book of the Bible. The previous books (the Pentateuch) tell how God made a Treaty with the Israelites, according to which He takes them under His protection and...
Preliminary information
Holy Scripture, or Bible, is called a collection of books written by prophets and apostles, as we believe, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Word " Bible" - Greek, means - " books». The main topic Holy Scripture is the salvation of mankind through the Messiah, the incarnate Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. IN Old Testament salvation is spoken of in the form of types and prophecies about the Messiah and the Kingdom of God. IN New Testament the very realization of our salvation is set forth through the incarnation, life and teaching of the God-man, sealed by His Death on the Cross and Resurrection. According to the time of their writing, the sacred books are divided into the Old Testament and the New Testament. Of these, the first contain what the Lord revealed to people through the divinely inspired prophets before the coming of the Savior to earth, and the second contains what the Lord Savior Himself and His apostles revealed and taught on earth.
The Original Form and Language of the Holy Scriptures
The Old Testament books were originally written in Hebrew. Later books from the time of the Babylonian captivity already have many Assyrian and Babylonian words and figures of speech. And the books written during Greek rule (non-canonical books) are written in Greek, the Third Book of Ezra is in Latin. The books of the Holy Scriptures came from the hands of the holy writers appearance not as we see them now. Initially, they were written on parchment or papyrus (which was made from the stems of plants growing in Egypt and Palestine) with a cane (a pointed reed stick) and ink. As a matter of fact, it was not books that were written, but charters on a long parchment or papyrus scroll, which looked like a long ribbon and was wound onto a shaft. Usually scrolls were written on one side. Subsequently, parchment or papyrus tapes, instead of being glued into scroll tapes, began to be sewn into books for ease of use. The text in the ancient scrolls was written in the same large in capital letters. Each letter was written separately, but the words were not separated from one another. The whole line was like one word. The reader himself had to divide the line into words and, of course, sometimes did it incorrectly. There were also no punctuation marks or accents in the ancient manuscripts. And in the Hebrew language, vowels were also not written - only consonants.
The division of words in books was introduced in the 5th century by the deacon of the Alexandrian Church Eulalis. Thus, gradually the Bible acquired its modern look. With the modern division of the Bible into chapters and verses, reading the holy books and searching for the right passages in them has become an easy task.
The history of the Old Testament books
Sacred books in their modern completeness did not appear immediately. The time from Moses (1550 BC) to Samuel (1050 BC) can be called the first period of formation of the Holy Scriptures. The inspired Moses, who wrote down his revelations, laws and narratives, gave the following command to the Levites who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord: take this book of the law and place it at the right hand of the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God(Deut. 31:26).
Subsequent sacred writers continued to attribute their creations to the Pentateuch of Moses with the command to keep them in the same place where it was kept - as if in one book. Thus, we read about Joshua that he wrote down the words their in the book of God's law(Josh. 24, 26), i.e. in the book of Moses. Likewise, Samuel, a prophet and judge who lived at the beginning of the royal period, is said to have outlined... to the people the rights of the kingdom, and wrote in a book(obviously already known to everyone and existing before him), and laid it before the Lord(1 Kings 10:25), i.e. on the side of the ark of the covenant of the Lord, where the Pentateuch was kept. During the time from Samuel to the Babylonian captivity (589 BC), the elders of the Israeli people and the prophets were the collectors and keepers of the sacred Old Testament books. The latter are often mentioned as the main authors of Jewish writing in the Books of Chronicles. One must also bear in mind the remarkable testimony of the Jewish historian Josephus about the custom of the ancient Jews to revise the existing texts of the Holy Scriptures after any troubled circumstances (for example, prolonged wars). It was sometimes like a new edition of the ancient Divine Scriptures, the publication of which was allowed, however, only by God-inspired people - prophets who remembered ancient events and wrote the history of their people with the greatest accuracy. Worth noting is the ancient tradition of the Jews that the pious king Hezekiah (710 BC), with selected elders, published the Book of the Prophet Isaiah, the Proverbs of Solomon, the Song of Songs and Ecclesiastes.
The time from the Babylonian captivity to the time of the Great Synagogue under Ezra and Nehemiah (400 BC) is the period of the final completion of the Old Testament list of holy books (canon). The main work in this great work belongs to the priest Ezra, this holy teacher of the law of the Heavenly God (see 1 Ezra 1:12). With the assistance of the scholar Nehemiah, the creator of an extensive library, who collected stories about kings and prophets and about David and letters from kings about sacred offerings(2 Mac. 2:13), Ezra carefully revised and published in one composition all the divinely inspired writings that had come before him and included in this composition both the Book of Nehemiah and the Book with its own name. The prophets Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi, who were still alive at that time, were undoubtedly Ezra’s collaborators, and their works at the same time were included in the list of books collected by Ezra.
From the time of Ezra, divinely inspired prophets ceased to appear among the Jewish people, and books published after this time are no longer included in the list of sacred books. So, for example, the Book of Jesus, son of Sirach, also written in Hebrew, with all its ecclesiastical dignity, was no longer included in the sacred canon.
The antiquity of the sacred Old Testament books is evident from their very contents. The books of Moses so vividly narrate the life of a person in those distant times, so vividly depict patriarchal life, and so correspond to the ancient traditions of those peoples, that the reader naturally comes to the idea of the proximity of the author himself to the times about which he narrates. According to experts in the Hebrew language, the very style of the books of Moses bears the stamp of extreme antiquity. There are no months of the year yet proper names, but are simply called first, second, third, etc. and the books themselves are simply called in their own initial words without special names. For example, bereshit(“in the beginning” – Book of Genesis), ve elle shemot(“and these are the names” - Book of Exodus), etc., as if to prove that there were no other books yet, to distinguish them from which special names would be required. The same correspondence with the spirit and character of ancient times and peoples is also noticed among other sacred writers who lived after Moses.
The Old Testament Holy Scripture contains the following books:
1. The books of the prophet Moses, or Torah (containing the foundations of the Old Testament faith): Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy.
2. Historical books: Book of Joshua, Book of Judges, Book of Ruth, Books of Kings: First, Second, Third and Fourth, Books of Chronicles: First and Second, First Book of Ezra, Book of Nehemiah, Book of Esther.
3. Educational books (edifying content): Book of Job, Psalms, book of parables of Solomon, Book of Ecclesiastes, Book of Song of Songs.
4. Prophetic books (mainly prophetic content): The Book of the Prophet Isaiah, The Book of the Prophet Jeremiah, The Book of the Prophet Ezekiel, The Book of the Prophet Daniel, The Twelve Books of the “minor” prophets: Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah , Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi.
5. In addition to these books of the Old Testament list, the Bible contains the following nine books, called “non-canonical”: Tobit, Judith, Wisdom of Solomon, the Book of Jesus son of Sirach, the Second and Third Books of Ezra, the three Books of Maccabees. They are called so because they were written after the list (canon) of sacred books was completed. Some modern editions of the Bible do not have these “non-canonical” books, but the Russian Bible does have them. The above names of the holy books are taken from the Greek translation of seventy commentators. In the Hebrew Bible and in some modern translations of the Bible, several Old Testament books have different names.
(Note: In the Catholic Church, all of the above books are canonical. Among Lutherans, non-canonical books are not included in the Bible codex.
In addition, some passages in canonical books are considered non-canonical. This is the prayer of King Manasiah at the end of “2nd Book.” Chronicles”, parts of “Bk. Esther”, not indicated by the count of verses, the last psalm of the “Psalter”, the song of the three youths in “Bk. the prophet Daniel”, the story of Susanna in the same book, the story of Bel and the dragon in the same book.)
The Old Testament: Answers from the Priests
