Explanatory Bible Lopukhin New Testament. Lopukhin is an explanatory bible of Lopukhin. old testament. being. A Brief History of the Canon of the Holy Books of the New Testament

Vladimir Nosov: Bright Week has passed, but not everyone spent it as well as the time of Great Lent. Many relaxed, and some lost everything they had achieved during the fast and, as it were, were thrown back. How to avoid such a state? Now many are puzzled by this question, because now we are in joy, but at the same time we feel that prayer has disappeared, and we read the word of God little. Father, what do you advise?

O.Oleg Stenyaev: Of course, Easter is the main holiday in the Eastern Christian Orthodox tradition. What is it connected with? When our Lord Jesus Christ died on the cross, as I often explain, His enemies, His friends began to wait to see if God the Father would accept this sacrifice. And when God the Father resurrected His Son in the Holy Spirit, and the Son of God Himself rose from the tomb by the power of the hypostatic Deity, this was evidence that the sacrifice for our sins and crimes was accepted by God. Christ is risen, that is, He is the one, as the apostle Paul writes: "who was delivered for our sins and rose again for our justification." This is the epistle to the Romans (Rom. 4:25). In what sense did He rise for our justification? St. John Chrysostom in his Homilies to the Epistle to the Romans wrote: “Having spoken about our faith, the apostle also speaks about the indescribable love of God of God, to whom he always turns, bringing the cross to the middle. Notice how, having pointed out the cause of death, he turns it into a proof of the resurrection. “What was Christ crucified for?” you ask. Not for your own sin, as seen in His resurrection. If He were a sinner, how would He be resurrected? And if he rose again, it is clear that He was not a sinner. If he was not a sinner, how was he crucified? For others. And if for others, then, without a doubt, he was resurrected. Lest you object: how can we be justified, being guilty of so many sins, the apostle pointed to the One who blotted out all sins, in order to confirm His doctrine of justification both by the faith of Abraham, by which He was justified, and by faith in the saving suffering, by which we freed from sins. Speaking of the death of Christ, he also speaks of the resurrection. Christ died not to subject us to punishment and condemnation, but to do good. After all, He died and rose again just to make us righteous.” And Ambrosiast, a well-known ancient Christian exegete, also wrote in his comments on the Epistle to the Romans: “Those baptized before the sufferings of Christ received only the forgiveness of their sins. After the resurrection, all those baptized before and after were justified by the establishment of faith in the Trinity, having received the Holy Spirit, which is a sign to believers that they are the sons of God. Through the suffering of the Savior, death has been conquered, which previously ruled because of sin, but it no longer dares to rule over those who are justified. And indeed, friends, during the past Lent, many of us, brothers and sisters, labored very well. Some were fasting for the first time in their lives. But there is a serious danger. When breaking the fast, some relax so much that during the Bright Week they lose everything that they achieved during Great Lent. Cyril of Alexandria wrote in his commentary on the Gospel of Matthew: “And this is very fair. For if someone one day, having freed himself from vices, does not come to his senses, then he will fall into something that is more difficult than before. For he had to come to his senses for two reasons: because he had previously suffered and had been delivered from it. There is also a third important reason - the threat of falling into even worse. However, none of the three reasons led any of them to be corrected. The evil spirit lived in them even when they were day laborers in Egypt and, living according to Egyptian customs and laws, were full of all kinds of uncleanness. And when they were delivered by Moses, and received a law as a schoolmaster, calling to the light of true knowledge of God, then the filthy and unclean spirit departed from them. But since they did not believe in Christ, the demon again attacked them, for it found their heart empty and not occupied with any piety, as if swept, and settled in them. After all, just as the Holy Spirit, when he sees that a person’s heart is not occupied by any impurity, settles down, dwells and rests in him, so the unclean spirit loves to dwell in the souls of the lawless.” In Lent, someone really began to visit the temple more intensively. Someone spent the entire fast studying the Holy Scriptures, did not miss reading the morning and evening prayers, read the psalms of King David, read the lines of the Holy Gospel. A festive state is not always a state that can keep us from frivolous acts. The Lord himself spoke through the prophet Isaiah: “Take no more vain gifts: smoking is disgusting to Me; new moon and sabbaths, holiday gatherings I can not endure: lawlessness - and celebration! My soul hates your New Moons and your feasts: they are a burden to Me; It's hard for me to carry them." This is the book of the prophet Isaiah (Isaiah 1:13-14). John Chrysostom in his “Homilies on the book of Genesis” wrote: “Just as there the virtue of the righteous made smoke and stench a fragrance, so here the depravity of those who bring it made even fragrant incense disgusting to smell. So, please, let's try to show a clean disposition in everything. It is the cause of all blessings. The good Lord usually pays attention not so much to our sacrifices as to the inner disposition with which we make them, and, judging by it, either accepts or rejects our sacrifices. So, whether we pray, fast, give alms (because these are our spiritual sacrifices), or do any other spiritual deed, let us do all this from a pure disposition in order to receive a worthy crown for our labors. That is, brothers and sisters, if the holiday turns out to be something hateful for the Lord and even a burden - why is this? This takes place if we do not experience spiritual growth during the celebration, but on the contrary, we relax and lose everything that we have achieved, and we find ourselves even in a worse condition than before the start of the fast or holiday. While there is time for the joyful days of the Bright Week, but they are already passing. But we will celebrate the afterfeast until the Ascension, we will not relax too much. Let us be sober, as the Scripture says: "Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour." And look what Basil the Great wrote, this is a sermon about the rejection of the world: “The fact that the devil roams and prowls all over the earth under heaven, like a mad dog, looking for someone to devour, we learn from what is written about Job” (Job 1, 6 -7). It tells about how the devil goes around the whole earth and peers into every person. Therefore, brothers and sisters, our task is to concentrate all our efforts so that before the holidays, on the holidays, and after the holidays, we remain faithful to Christ and His commandments. Those. we must have the feeling that we are living in the presence of God. This feeling should not leave us in the days of the festive conversation. In the epistle to the Corinthians it is written (2 Corinthians 6:2): “For it is said: in an acceptable time I heard you, and on the day of salvation I helped you. Behold, now is the acceptable time, now is the day of salvation,” i.e. a holiday is a favorable time for correction, but not for relaxation. So it turns out: the time of fasting is the time of correction, the time of church holidays is the time of spiritual exaltation, and not the fall, and the time after the holiday, after the fast is the time of preparation for the next fast. For fasting is a true spring for the human soul, i.e. such a state when we live with the full feeling that we live in the presence of God. And this feeling should not leave us on festive days, as well as on fasting days. Then our holidays will be pleasing to God, and our petitions and prayers in any situation.

Vladimir Nosov: And I would like to add that we will continue to greet with the words: Christ is Risen!

O.Oleg Stenyaev: Truly Risen!

Phone call: Christ is Risen. Servant of God Tatyana from Moscow. I have a question regarding the first conciliar epistle of the Apostle Peter (1 Pet. 5:13): “The Church in Babylon, chosen like you, and Mark, my son, greet you.” Question, my son - what does this mean? Mark was his son? Can you explain?

O.Oleg Stenyaev: The point is that Mark was a spiritual child of the Apostle Peter. Let's remember the message of the Apostle Paul. We know for sure about Paul that Paul was childless. And he wrote a letter to Timothy, and in these letters Paul greets Timothy with the words: "My beloved son Timothy." It means that Paul in relation to Timothy was the spiritual father, and Timothy was the spiritual son of Paul. Mark was not just a spiritual child of the Apostle Peter, he was his secretary, assistant. In the Gospel of Mark there are recorded sermons of the apostle Peter. Because Mark was not a witness to the events that are described in this gospel. There he writes a little about himself. But in general, church historiography establishes that the Gospel of Mark is the recorded sermons of the Apostle Peter. And we, by the way, on the radio "Radonezh" began to study the Gospel of Mark. But due to the holidays, we have suspended for the time being, but if we live, the Lord will allow - next Sunday from 7 to 8 pm, when we have a Bible lecture hall, we will continue the study of this Gospel.

Phone call: Fathers, Christ is Risen. I congratulate you on the holiday. I want to ask you. Please tell me, at home, from what day can you start reading the Psalter for the dead?

O.Oleg Stenyaev: From Radonitsa. On Radonitsa we have a divine service on Monday evening. Because every church day begins at sunset.

Vladimir Nosov: Father Oleg, some holy fathers spoke about the need for a person to pay attention to himself. What it is?

O.Oleg Stenyaev: Indeed, the Holy Scripture says: “Look into yourself and into the teaching, i.e. in Scripture and Tradition. Do this constantly: for by doing this you will save yourself and those who hear you” (1 Tim. 4:16). Very important words were recorded by St. Ignatius Brianchaninov: “The soul of all exercises about the Lord is attention. Without attention, all these exercises are fruitless, dead. The one who wants to be saved must arrange himself in such a way that he can maintain attention to himself not only in solitude, but even in the very distraction into which he is sometimes drawn against his will by circumstances. Let the fear of God overcome all other sensations on the scales of the heart, then it will be convenient to keep attention to yourself both in the silence of the cell, and among the noise surrounding from all sides. By the way, Father Pavel Florensky wrote that "the main place of church devastation is inattention, not reflection on the cult." And the cult is connected with the religious personality of each of us. It means inattention to one's own religiosity. Indeed, brothers and sisters, we can be considerate of other people. For example, when we communicate with superiors, with respected people, significant people We listen with all possible attention to everything they tell us. We can be attentive to our relatives, friends, to those people who turned to us, for example, for help. But, alas, a person treats himself insufficiently carefully. First of all, we need to focus our attention on those feelings that fill our heart. The holy fathers teach us to immerse our minds in our own hearts and, while considering, control the movements of the senses. As is known, as a result of the fall, the human sensory apparatus suffered in the most terrible way. And Christ said that "from the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies" (Matthew 15:19). Blessed Jerome of Stridon wrote: From the heart, He said, i.e. Christ, evil thoughts come. The soul or beginning of an action is not in the brain, as in Plato, but, according to Christ, in the heart. We need to reject people who believe that thoughts are inspired by the devil, and that they do not come from our own will. The devil can promote and warm up evil thoughts, but he cannot give birth to them. And, unfortunately, the world of feelings sometimes begins to dominate over an attentive attitude towards ourselves, and then we become hostages of our own feelings: if there is a mood - we pray, if there is no mood - we do not pray, or we shorten the prayer rule so that there is no prayer. In such a situation, we must be diligent. The Apostle Paul saw the complexity of such contradictory attention to oneself, or rather inattention, especially in the prayer life. In 1 Corinthians, he describes the problem with the words: “What is to be done?” And he answers this question: “I will pray with the spirit, i.e. heart, feelings. I will pray with my mind. I will sing with the spirit, i.e. heart, feelings. I will also sing with my understanding” (1 Cor. 14-15). So that the world of feelings does not make us hostages of outbursts of our soul. The sensory apparatus of man, as I have already said, is most damaged as a result of the fall. In Scripture, for example, it is said (Gen. 6-5): “And the Lord God saw that the corruption of man on earth was great, and that all the thoughts and thoughts of their hearts were evil at all times.” All thoughts and thoughts are in the heart. The Monk Ephraim the Syrian wrote: “The thoughts of their hearts were evil at all times, because not only at the time, but constantly and in every part, they sinned, neither day nor night did they cease to fulfill their evil thoughts.” And each person, brothers and sisters, must always control the world of their own feelings. This helps us when we delve into ourselves and into the Scriptures, i.e. we conform the inner state of our soul to the words of Divine Revelation. By the way, Ignatius Brianchaninov also wrote about this: “If you have free minutes during the day, use them to read with attention some selected prayers or some selected passages from Scripture and with them again strengthen your spiritual strength, depleted by activity in the midst of a vain world. If these golden minutes do not fall, then one should regret them as the loss of a treasure. What is lost today should not be lost the next day, because our heart conveniently indulges in negligence and forgetfulness, from which gloomy ignorance is born, so disastrous in the cause of God, in the cause of human salvation. It also happens, brothers and sisters, that when a person prays, reads certain prayers, for example, the morning, evening rule, due to inattention to himself, he suddenly loses the sense of the meaning of these prayer readings and sometimes asks himself: “Who am I praying to? Is this a prayer to Jesus Christ or the Mother of God? And the person starts looking at it in the book. In prayer, heartfelt attention, i.e. connection of mind and feeling, should dominate. I already told you once: when our ancestors prayed according to handwritten psalms, the canons had a text in front of them, where there was no division into words. And do not think that it was saving paper or parchment. The matter is quite different. When the text is cut into words in a prayer book, a person can really read them and think about anything. And if we have before us a text written in accordance with an ancient tradition - and this was the custom among the ancient Greeks, and among the Jews, and among the Slavs - then a person cannot read the text and think about anything. If the text is continuous, there is no division into words, only the thought has gone to the side, attention has weakened - as the reading process immediately stops. And by the way, I myself use the modern edition of the Kiev Psalter, which was written in 1397. It is very convenient for me, using the wisdom of the ancients, to control the attentive attitude to the text and to myself, how attentive I am to this text. And when I read the Gospel at home, I also use a similar text. Now these facsimiles are available, anyone can order such a book for themselves or download it on the Internet. Such a practice of presenting material and preserving it testifies to the more than attentive attitude of our ancestors to their own prayer life, to attention to themselves. So that the consciousness does not relax and does not dissipate (Prov. 15, 31): "The ear that is attentive to the teaching of life is among the wise." And one more thing we need to remember. We must be careful about our actions at home and outside the home. Sometimes, by the way, we behave better outside the home than at home. Unfortunately, it often happens that we remember that we are Christians only when we are in the church, during divine services, when we all sing together in chorus, for example, the Creed at the Liturgy or the Our Father prayer. But you can't be a Christian in a choir. Everyone must make their own decision. A believer is called to remain a believer both in the temple and outside the temple, at home and at work, so that everywhere we live with the feeling that we live in the presence of God. About the ancient righteous, such as Enoch, Noah, Abraham, it is said that they walked with God or before God. What does it mean to walk with God or before God? It is to live with the full awareness that you live in the presence of the Creator. It is to live with the thought, as they said in the days of the Lord Jesus Christ, that over you there is a Seeing Eye, a Hearing Ear, and there is a book in which all your deeds are recorded. Therefore, we must be attentive, first of all, to ourselves. And if we do not acquire such spiritual work in our lives, if we treat ourselves lightly, then this will be ruin for others. And on the contrary, if a person treats himself attentively from a religious point of view, then, as the fathers said: "Save yourself, and thousands around you will be saved."

Phone call: Truly Risen. I have a question. I read the book of Ephraim of Philotheus "My Life of Joseph the Hesychast". She impressed me a lot, I wanted to follow some advice. But in one I stumbled. He recommends that the laity use "Frank Tales of a Pilgrim...". And Alexey Ilyich Osipov and St. Ignatius Brianchaninov, to whom he refers - they both categorically reject this book and are very much against these practices.

O.Oleg Stenyaev: I would not recommend that you read this book. And where did you find the link to the Traveler's Tales? The fact is that the laity should read the books of the holy fathers, which were written for people living in the world. Because there is no point for a person living in the world to read instructions for monasticism. Wild bends and distortions can occur here. I have come across such a situation. In my opinion, he told me more than once how one parishioner once called me - I then served in the church "Joy of All Who Sorrow", on Bolshaya Ordynka - and says: "My husband read" The Philokalia, and especially - the chapter on silence. Closed, silent and does not talk to anyone. Not only with his wife, he stopped talking to the children.” I grabbed a volume of Chrysostom with me. I have always loved this author. I come to him and show him where it is written in black and white that the husband has a wife in order to talk with his wife. He times! - me a volume of "Philokalia", pokes his nose at a whole section of sacred silence. I tell him: but this is complete nonsense. You, a family man, suddenly take on the practices of people who have retired from the world, they did not have any families, except for the monastic hostel. Therefore, in such things we must be careful. Lay people are not recommended to read such books. I remember when I was already a seminarian, I turned to my late confessor, Father Dmitry Dudko, to bless me to read the Philokalia. He says, under no circumstances should you read The Philokalia. I say why? Become a Pharisee. Then, only after the advent of many years, I began to read The Philokalia. Over the years, of course, it becomes less dangerous for a person. But especially in the beginning, when they get carried away reading such monastic literature, this is not right.

Vladimir Nosov: Those. this book should not be the first book.

O.Oleg Stenyaev: One must read the writings of the fathers who preached to people living in the world. This is almost all of John Chrysostom, Theophylact of Bulgaria. This is part of the works of Basil the Great, but not all. These are letters for the laity of St. Theophan the Recluse, they are called: "For the laity." A layman here will find more creative food for himself than he will read the "Offering to Monasticism" in the works of Theophan the Recluses and Ignatius Brianchaninov. Therefore, it is very important when we do not just take some food, but food that corresponds to our growth. After all, many of us are babies in Christ. We do not feed the baby with meat, we do not give bloody steaks. The baby is fed milk. Similarly, a person who begins to walk outside of tradition must gradually enter into this world. And study those materials that correspond to his status. Or is it a single person, or family. There is a fundamental difference here.

Vladimir Nosov: And I know a case when, being family people, the brothers went to the monastery on a pilgrimage. There, in earnest, not otherwise than by some temptation, they began to think about the monastic life. It seems to me that the best answer to these thoughts is, as they say: “I went to the monastery - do not think about the family. Created a family - do not think about the monastery.

O.Oleg Stenyaev: Of course, these are incompatible things. In Rus', it was customary for family people to go to a monastery for repentance during fasting. We know that the Russian tsars, both Tsar Ivan the Terrible and Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich the Quietest, walked from Moscow to the Trinity-Sergius Lavra for repentance and spent some time there. There is nothing wrong if an Orthodox family went to Solovki and spent a week or two there in obedience. In fact, the monastic way of life for Russian people is always a kind of standard to which they aspire. But one should not strive for this standard to the detriment of intra-family relations. This will be a kink. Because even Christ said about celibacy: "those who are able to contain, let them contain" i.e. not everyone can accommodate this, and not everyone should strive for monasticism. In general, in such cases it is necessary to ask for a blessing, first of all, parents, if they are religious people. And, of course, the blessing of experienced confessors who know the person.

Vladimir Nosov: Father Oleg, Fomino Sunday has passed. We recalled how Christ, through the doors closed in the body, entered the Zion upper room to the apostles. How is that even possible?

O.Oleg Stenyaev: The point is that the resurrected body of Christ is a glorified body (Phil. 3:21). The Apostle Paul wrote: “He will transform our humble body so that it will be in conformity with His glorious body” i.e. Christ was resurrected from the dead in a glorified body. In a body that has escaped the effects of the physiological world. And He did this for us and for us, so that later on our humble body would be transformed so that it would be in conformity with His glorious body. "It is sown in humiliation, it is raised in glory" (1 Cor. 15). This is the secret to gain fame. If we follow the path of humiliation, we will rise in glory. We will not partake of grace through pride. As it is said: " B God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” And we know how Christ prayed: "My soul is now troubled." And at the same time He prayed: “Father! glorify your name» (John, 12) i.e. in my. These words are like a request for the glory of Sunday. As Christ said: “Seek first the Kingdom of God and its glory. The rest will follow." Augustine the Blessed wrote: "God created the soul of man", i.e. each person. First of all, we have in mind the state of man before the fall: “God created the soul of man with such a strong nature that through the abundance of bliss in it, it is able to impart to the body an abundance of vitality and with the effectiveness of incorruption”, i.e. In our very nature there is a power that overcomes decay. And Gregory the Dialogist, the Pope of Rome, wrote that the body of Christ after the resurrection was revealed in the same nature, i.e. it is like our body, but in a different glory. Augustine also wrote: “The Savior, even after the resurrection, being already in the spiritual, but in the true flesh, took food with the disciples, for such bodies are deprived not of the opportunity, but of the need for food.” Let's remember how Christ spoke about the people who will live in paradise: "In the Kingdom of God they do not marry and are not given in marriage, but they abide like angels." And the holy fathers say: “This is not in the sense that they will become angels, they will be like angels,” but they will no longer marry, marry not because they cannot, but they will not have this need. Because the hierarchy of values ​​for people in that world will be completely different.

Vladimir Nosov: Father, the question still remains. In the glorified, transfigured body, however, we see that there remain ulcers, wounds of crucifixion. Why is it, what is it for? How to explain it?

O.Oleg Stenyaev: Let's analyze the reading of today's Gospel in more detail. “Put your finger here and see my hands; give me your hand and put it in my side and do not be unbelieving, but believing” (John 20:27). In this verse we see that He still has ulcers on His hands and feet. And indeed, this is a topical issue. It was necessary for the body of Christ to be resurrected with all wounds and ulcers. A very interesting commentary was prepared by Beda the Venerable, commenting on what was said in the Gospel of Luke, Luke says: “What did He, Christ keep his ulcers, not because he could not heal them, but in order to always wear them as evidence of his victory” (Luke 24:40 ). Augustine says: “Perhaps in the future kingdom we will see on the bodies of the blessed martyrs the traces of those wounds that they took for the name of Christ, and these wounds will not be an ugliness, but a dignity, a kind of beauty shining in the body, but not the beauty of the body. but virtues. Beda the Venerable writes about Christ: “So that He, showing the traces of His death, could testify to those redeemed by His blood, how merciful this redemption was.” Beda explains why He left these wounds - to testify to His love. And he also writes “So that on the Day of Judgment he could reproach them for their just condemnation,” i.e. for them it is a reminder of the mercy of God, but for others it will be a reproach. Christ died for you and was crucified for you, and you yourself rejected Him and went to hell. Augustine also wrote: "Christ specially preserved His bodily wounds." For he showed them to Thomas, who believed only when he saw them and put his fingers in them, just as he will show his wounds to his enemies, so that the very truth will accuse them, saying: “Behold, the man whom you crucified, behold, the wounds that you have caused, recognize the ribs you pierced, for they were opened by you and for you, but you will not become partakers. Augustine also says: “I believe that the body of the Lord is in heaven just as it was taken up into heaven.” Indeed, we read in the Bible that there is only one intercessor, one mediator between God and people - the man Christ Jesus. Why does Paul emphasize the human aspect of Christ in these words? Because it's about His wounds. For after Christ ascended and sat down at the right hand of God the Father. God the Father looks at every person through the wounds of His Son. And he sees us not just forgiven or pardoned, but justified. Gregory the Dialogist, Pope of Rome, says: “If anything, contrary to the truth preached by Paul, could change in the body of Christ after his resurrection, then the Lord would again return to death after the resurrection. What fool would make such a claim? Unless the one who generally denies the true resurrection of the flesh. The thought of Gregory the Dialogist is that if they had not seen these wounds, someone might have a doubt: is this Christ, Whom we saw crucified, Whom they hit in the ribs with a Roman spear? And some fantasies about Christ could appear. Because we know: when in such a form, with wounds, He appeared to people - some could not contain it in their hearts to the end.

Phone call: Hello, dear father Oleg and dear presenter. Happy holiday to you. Father Oleg, what is your opinion? Should I read Ferrara's Life of Jesus Christ? This is the first question. Second question. Our Jesus Christ was a Jew. Why is this nation so disliked for a long time? Can you explain please.

O.Oleg Stenyaev: If we talk about Christians, then Christians are ambivalent about Jews. The Apostle Paul in his epistle to the Romans writes that they, i.e. Jews, Jews, of course, first of all, are enemies in relation to the gospel. But for the sake of the fathers - Abraham, Isaac Jacob, beloved of God. This is what the apostle Paul wrote. And we must adhere to this duality. If someone says that they are enemies of the Gospel - you have not said everything, add that for the sake of Abraham, Isaac Jacob they are beloved of God. And if they say that they are beloved of God for the sake of the fathers - add, enemies of the gospel of the holy Gospel. And this duality persists among Christians. Therefore, we never build an attitude towards the Jewish nation, towards the Jews only from a position of hostility. Because our dual attitude will also interfere with love for them, for the sake of the fathers, as the Apostle Paul writes, i.e. for Abraham, Isaac, Jacob. If we talk about Ferrara's book, it went through church censorship. It was printed quite openly. Of course, there were questions to this Anglican, as far as I remember, author. But in general, the historical background of this book is quite interesting. And there were several editions of this book before the revolution and in the post-revolutionary period, i.e. close to us. It is a reference book for many. But when we read non-Orthodox authors, we should pay more attention not to their exegesis, because there may be questions here, but to how they present historical realities to us. For example, there is such an author William Barclay. He is a Baptist by religion, but he is a major Christian historian. And many authors who describe the earthly life of Christ refer to Barclay as a modern Christian historian. Which, taking into account both the Qumran finds and those archaeological discoveries that have been made over the past decades, reveals the historical context of the Gospel events. And there is nothing wrong with that we turn to these authors. Suffice it to recall that in the ancient Church the writings of Jewish authors also enjoyed great authority among the Orthodox. First of all, this is Josephus Flavius, he was preserved in the ancient Slavic rewritten manuscripts. And in ancient Greek manuscripts that were copied in the monasteries on Mount Athos. And another Jewish author who has always been recognized by Christians for some kind of authority is Philo of Alexandria. For example, Blessed Jerome of Stridon, a well-known Christian exegete, very often quotes Philo of Alexandria. And we can find something similar in other authors, already Christian, the fathers of the Church, who refer to both Josephus Flavius ​​and Philo of Alexandria. Suffice it to recall that in the New Testament the Apostle Paul refers to pagan poets and even quotes lines from their poems. And if we recall the dialogues of Christ, when He was arguing with the scribes and Pharisees. He quite often quotes statements from the school of Shamai, and sometimes from the school of Galel. And these quotes are heard by all experts. One can clearly understand why Christ used just such phrases, and why they then fell silent, because they were ready to argue with Him, but were not ready to argue with their authorities, which for them were, of course, authorities. Therefore, a person of the Christian Orthodox tradition can read authors who did not enter this tradition, but who in their writings, through the use of the fathers, through their quotations, became part of this tradition.

Phone call: Vasily, Moscow. Thank God that we have such preachers as you, father, Dimitri Smirnov, Andrey Tkachev. God bless you all the best. Father, tell me, please, how do you feel about Lopukhin's "Explanatory Bible"? Is it worth reading or not?

O.Oleg Stenyaev: I think it's worth it. Because this is the official interpretation, the sensible Orthodox Bible. Before the revolution, there was strict censorship of all such writings. And all this was read repeatedly, then approval was given or not given. The Orthodox explanatory Bible was published even in Pravoslavnoye Obozreniye. It was the official printed organ, so the status is quite high. In the Lopukhin Bible, we find references to a variety of authors, including Catholic and Protestant ones. There are references to the texts of the Talmud, but as historical texts, from a historical point of view, from a civilizational point of view. There are references to the Midrash. But all this, first of all, is built on the basis of patristic exegesis. Therefore, it is very important to study this, especially the phenological analysis of different biblical words. In the interpretations of Lopukhin's successors, this is taken very seriously. But for beginners, Ambrose of Optina recommended reading commentaries on the Gospel of Blessed Theophylact. I have repeatedly spoken about this on the radio "Radonezh". Why did Ambrose of Optina give his blessing to start with Theophylact? Because Theophylact does not leave in historical issues. He does not delve into the philological analysis of words. He very briefly gives the exegesis of the holy fathers preceding him, and in an abbreviated form. Basically, he reproduces the point of view of St. John Chrysostom. But if Chrysostom allows himself during the conversation to go away from main theme, set out entire pages on the topic of the day, then Theophylact is very short and clear. Therefore, whoever wants to start studying the word of God, start with the blessed Theophylact. His interpretations on the Gospel, first of all, and on the book "Apostle". And if you want to make a more serious analysis - historical, philological - of course, this is the official publication "Explanatory Orthodox Bible" in 12 volumes. She left before the revolution. It is now available in several different editions.

Vladimir Nosov: Father, perhaps, in conclusion, let us return to the question with which we began? Because there is a certain cooling off after the holiday, dissatisfaction with oneself during fasting, a feeling of missed opportunities during fasting. You know, there is such an understanding that Great Lent is a miniature of all life.

O.Oleg Stenyaev: It must be said bluntly that those who fast, they spend the fast well, as a rule. But on the Bright Week, some fall into such moral, moral zigzags! Here, let's all stop the over-celebration. The feasts of God then remain God's when they promote spiritual growth. And when we perceive any religious holiday as an indulgence for sin, this is wrong. We have time from Easter to Ascension. Therefore, let's stay sober, in sanity, let's not relax too much. And let us use this time for spiritual development and joy. God does not accept the fulfillment of the commandments if they are not combined with the joy of fun. It says so in the book of Deuteronomy.

Title: Explanatory Bible. Old Testament and New Testament

About the book “Explanatory Bible. Old Testament and New Testament" Alexander Lopukhin

"Explanatory Bible. The Old Testament and the New Testament is a twelve-volume work by the Russian Orthodox writer, biblical scholar, theologian, translator, researcher, and interpreter of the Holy Scriptures Alexander Lopukhin. Written in an easy and accessible way, this book explains the miracles recorded in the Bible and ties them to historical events. To date, the work has been reprinted more than 20 times.

The author of the book was born in the family of a priest. After graduating from the seminary, Alexander Lopukhin became a student at the St. Petersburg Theological Academy. For two years he was a psalmist at the church of the Russian embassy in New York. Then he returned to his homeland, defended his dissertation and took up teaching and literary activities.

Critics note that each work of the writer is of both literary and scientific value. So, in the book “Explanatory Bible. Old Testament and New Testament” is an incredibly deep understanding of biblical history. The writer proves that the stories about the creation of man, the fall into sin, the flood, the confusion of languages ​​have a real historical basis. This book provides many explanations of life, realities, traditions of the time when the Bible was created. They help to understand the depth and meaning of Biblical Scripture.

In addition, the creator of the work sought to explain certain events of biblical history from scientific positions, that is, with an eye to the data of modern (i.e. pre-revolutionary) biology, physics, geology, archeology, history and other sciences to the author. However, it is worth remembering that, first of all, this book acts as a kind of spiritual edification to the reader, and references to the sciences serve only to confirm the authenticity of the stories presented in the Bible.

The author himself noted that this book is intended for a wide range of readers. After all, he believed that biblical history would be the best "teacher" for every sane person. The work was created in order to clarify especially incomprehensible places in the Bible, as well as to avoid "false interpretation".

Please note that in the book of Alexander Lopukhin “Explanatory Bible. Old Testament and New Testament” you will find wonderful engravings by Gustave Dore, an unsurpassed master of his craft, whose works adorn many ancient works on history and religion.

On our site about books lifeinbooks.net you can download for free without registration or read online book"Explanatory Bible. Old Testament and New Testament” Alexander Lopukhin in epub, fb2, txt, rtf, pdf formats for iPad, iPhone, Android and Kindle. The book will give you a lot of pleasant moments and a real pleasure to read. You can buy the full version from our partner. Also, here you will find last news from the literary world, learn the biography of your favorite authors. For novice writers, there is a separate section with useful tips and tricks, interesting articles, thanks to which you can try your hand at writing.

All these terms, i.e. both the word “covenant” itself and its combination with the adjectives “old” and “new” are taken from the Bible itself, in which, in addition to their general meaning, they also have a special one, in which we also use them, speaking of well-known bible books.

The word "covenant" (Heb. - Berit, Greek - διαθήκη, Latin - testamentum) in the language of Holy Scripture and biblical usage primarily means a known decree, condition, law, on which the two contracting parties converge, and from here already - this very treaty or union, as well as those external signs that served as his certificate, a staple, as it were, a seal (testamentum). And since the sacred books, which described this covenant or union of God with man, were, of course, one of the best means his certificates and fixing in the people's memory, then the name "covenant" was also transferred to them very early. It already existed in the era of Moses, as can be seen from the book of Exodus (), where the record of the Sinai legislation read by Moses to the Jewish people is called the book of the covenant (“sefer hubberit”). Similar expressions, denoting not only the Sinai legislation, but the entire Mosaic Pentateuch, are also found in subsequent Old Testament books (; ; ). The Old Testament also owns the first, still prophetic indication of, namely, in the famous prophecy of Jeremiah: "Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah" ().

Division of the New Testament books by content

The historical books are the four Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, and the book of the Acts of the Apostles. The Gospels give us a historical picture of the life of our Lord Jesus Christ, while the book of the Acts of the Apostles gives us a historical picture of the life and work of the apostles, who spread Christ's message throughout the world.

Teaching books are the Apostolic Epistles, which are letters written by the apostles to different Churches. In these letters, the apostles clarify various perplexities regarding the Christian faith and life that arose in the Churches, denounce the readers of the Epistles in various disorders they allow, convince them to stand firm in the Christian faith devoted to them, and expose the false teachers who disturbed the peace of the primordial Church. In a word, the apostles appear in their Epistles as teachers of the flock of Christ entrusted to their care, being, moreover, often the founders of those Churches to which they address. The latter takes place in relation to almost all the Epistles of the Apostle Paul.

There is only one prophetic book in the New Testament - the Apocalypse of the Apostle John the Theologian. Here are various visions and revelations that this apostle was honored with and in which the future fate of the Church of Christ before her glorification, i.e., is foreshadowed. before the opening of the kingdom of glory on earth.

Since the subject of the content of the Gospels is the life and teachings of the very Founder of our faith - the Lord Jesus Christ, and since, undoubtedly, in the Gospel we have the basis for all our faith and life, it is customary to call the four Gospels books law-positive. This name shows that the Gospels have the same meaning for Christians as the Law of Moses - the Pentateuch had for the Jews.

A Brief History of the Canon of the Holy Books of the New Testament

The word "canon" (κανών) originally meant "cane", and then began to be used to denote what should serve as a rule, a model of life (;). The Fathers of the Church and the Councils used this term to designate a collection of sacred inspired writings. Therefore, the canon of the New Testament is a collection of sacred inspired books of the New Testament in its present form.

What guided the first, accepting this or that sacred New Testament book into the canon? First of all, the so-called historical legend. They investigated whether this or that book was actually received directly from an apostle or a collaborator of the apostle, and, after a rigorous study, they included this book in the list of inspired books. But at the same time, attention was also paid to whether the teaching contained in the book under consideration, firstly, with the teaching of the entire Church and, secondly, with the teaching of the apostle whose name this book bore on itself. This is the so-called dogmatic tradition. And it never happened that, once recognizing a book as canonical, it subsequently changed its view of it and excluded it from the canon. If individual fathers and teachers of the Church even after that still recognized some New Testament writings as unauthentic, then this was only their private view, which should not be confused with the voice of the Church. In the same way, it has never happened that the Church did not first accept a book into the canon, and then included it. If there are no references to some canonical books in the writings of the apostolic men (for example, to the Epistle of Jude), then this is due to the fact that the apostolic men had no reason to quote these books.

The order of the New Testament books in the canon

The New Testament books found their place in the canon according to their importance and the time of their final recognition. In the first place, of course, were the four Gospels, followed by the book of the Acts of the Apostles; The Apocalypse formed the conclusion of the canon. But in some codices, some books do not occupy the place they occupy with us now. Thus, in the Codex Sinaiticus, the book of the Acts of the Apostles comes after the Epistles of the Apostle Paul. Until the 4th century the Greek Church placed the Catholic Epistles after the Epistles of the Apostle Paul. The very name "cathedral" was originally used only by the 1st Epistle of Peter and the 1st Epistle of John, and only from the time of Eusebius of Caesarea (4th century) did this name begin to be applied to all seven Epistles. Since the time of Athanasius of Alexandria (mid-fourth century), the Catholic Epistles have taken their present place in the Greek Church. Meanwhile, in the West they were still placed after the Epistles of the Apostle Paul. Even the Apocalypse in some codices is earlier than the Epistles of the Apostle Paul and even earlier than the book of Acts. In particular, the Gospels go in different codices in a different order. So, some, undoubtedly putting the apostles in the first place, place the Gospels in this order: Matthew, John, Mark and Luke, or, giving special dignity to the Gospel of John, they put it in the first place. Others put the Gospel of Mark last, as the shortest. Of the Epistles of the Apostle Paul, originally the first place in the canon was occupied by two to the Corinthians, and the last to the Romans (a fragment of Muratorius and Tertullian). Since the time of Eusebius, the Epistle to the Romans has occupied the first place, both in its volume and in the importance of the Church to which it is written, indeed, deserving of this place. In the arrangement of the four private Epistles (1 Tim.; 2 Tim.; Tit.; Philp.), apparently, they were guided by their volume, approximately the same. The Epistle to the Hebrews in the East was placed 14th, and in the West - 10th in the series of Epistles of the Apostle Paul. It is clear that the Western Church has put the Epistles of the Apostle Peter in the first place among the Catholic Epistles. The Eastern Church, putting the Epistle of James in the first place, was probably guided by the listing of the apostles by the Apostle Paul ().

History of the New Testament Canon since the Reformation

During the Middle Ages, the canon remained indisputable, especially since the books of the New Testament were read relatively little by private individuals, and only certain chapters or sections were read from them during divine services. The common people were more interested in reading the stories of the lives of the saints, and the Catholic even looked with some suspicion at the interest that certain societies, such as the Waldensians, showed in reading the Bible, sometimes even forbidding the reading of the Bible in the vernacular. But at the end of the Middle Ages, humanism renewed doubts about the writings of the New Testament, which were the subject of controversy in the first centuries. The Reformation began to raise its voice even more strongly against certain New Testament writings. Luther, in his translation of the New Testament (1522), in the prefaces to the New Testament books, expressed his view of their dignity. Thus, in his opinion, the Epistle to the Hebrews was not written by an apostle, as well as the Epistle of James. Nor does he recognize the authenticity of the Apocalypse and the Epistle of the Apostle Jude. Luther's disciples went even further in the strictness with which they treated various New Testament writings and even began to directly single out "apocryphal" writings from the New Testament canon: until the beginning of the 17th century, 2 Peter, 2 and 3 were not even considered canonical in Lutheran bibles. -e of John, Jude and the Apocalypse. Only later did this distinction between scriptures disappear and the ancient New Testament canon was restored. At the end XVII century However, writings of a critical nature about the New Testament canon appeared, in which objections were raised against the authenticity of many New Testament books. The rationalists of the 18th century (Zemler, Michaelis, Eichgorm) wrote in the same spirit, and in the 19th century. Schleiermacher expressed doubts about the authenticity of some of the Pauline Epistles, De Wette rejected the authenticity of five of them, and F.X. Baur recognized only the four main Epistles of the Apostle Paul and the Apocalypse from the entire New Testament as truly apostolic.

Thus, in the West, in Protestantism, they again came to the same place that the Christian Church experienced in the first centuries, when some books were recognized as genuine apostolic works, others were controversial. It was already established that it was only a collection of literary works of early Christianity. At the same time, the followers of F.X. Bauer - B. Bauer, Loman and Steck - no longer found it possible to recognize any of the New Testament books as truly apostolic works ... But the best minds of Protestantism saw the depth of the abyss into which the Baur school, or Tübingen, carried Protestantism, and opposed its provisions with strong objections. Thus, Ritschl refuted the main thesis of the Tübingen school about the development of early Christianity from the struggle between Petrinism and Peacockism, and Harnack proved that the New Testament books should be regarded as truly apostolic works. Scientists B. Weiss, Gode and T. Tsang did even more to restore the significance of the New Testament books in the view of Protestants. “Thanks to these theologians,” says Barth, “no one can now take away from the New Testament the advantage that in it, and only in it, we have messages about Jesus and about the revelation of God in him” (“Introduction”, 1908, p. 400). Barth finds that at the present time, when such confusion reigns in the minds, it is especially important for Protestantism to have a "canon" as a guide given from God for faith and life, "and," he concludes, "we have it in the New Testament" (There same).

Indeed, the New Testament canon is of great, one might say, incomparable significance for the Christian Church. In it we find, first of all, such scriptures that present in its relation to the Jewish people (the Gospel of Matthew, the Epistle of the Apostle James and the Epistle to the Hebrews), to the pagan world (1st and 2nd to the Thessalonians, 1st to the Corinthians ). Further, we have in the New Testament canon writings that aim to eliminate the dangers that threatened Christianity from the Jewish understanding of Christianity (Epistle to the Galatians), from the Jewish legalistic asceticism (Epistle to the Colossians), from the side of the pagan desire to understand religious society as a private circle in which one can live apart from church society (Ephesians). The Epistle to the Romans indicates the worldwide purpose of Christianity, while the book of Acts indicates how this appointment was realized in history. In a word, the books of the New Testament canon give us a complete picture of the primordial Church, depict life and its tasks from all sides. If, as a test, we wanted to take away from the canon of the New Testament any book, for example, the Epistle to the Romans or the Galatians, we would thereby cause significant harm to the whole. It is clear that the Holy Spirit led the Church in the gradual establishment of the composition of the canon, so that the Church introduced into it truly apostolic works, which in their existence were caused by the most essential needs of the Church.

What language are the holy books of the New Testament written in?

Throughout the Roman Empire, during the time of the Lord Jesus Christ and the apostles, Greek was the dominant language, it was understood everywhere and it was spoken almost everywhere. It is clear that the writings of the New Testament, which were intended by the Providence of God for distribution to all churches, also appeared in Greek, although almost all of their writers, with the exception of St. Luke, were Jews. This is also evidenced by some internal signs of these writings: a play on words possible only in Greek, a free, independent attitude to the translation of the Seventy, when Old Testament passages are cited - all this undoubtedly indicates that they are written in Greek and are intended for readers. who know Greek.

However, the Greek language in which the books of the New Testament are written is not the classical Greek language in which the Greek writers of the heyday of Greek literature wrote. This so-called κοινὴ διάλεκτος , i.e. close to the Old Attic dialect, but not too different from other dialects. In addition, it included many Arameisms and other alien words. Finally, special New Testament concepts were introduced into this language, for the expression of which, however, old Greek words were used, which received a special new meaning through this (for example, the word χάρις - "pleasantness", in the sacred New Testament language began to mean "grace"). For more details, see the article by prof. S.I. Sobolevsky " Κοινὴ διάλεκτος ”, placed in the Orthodox Theological Encyclopedia, vol. 10.

New Testament text

All the originals of the New Testament books perished, but copies (ἀντίγραφα ) had long been taken from them. Most often, the Gospels were written off and least often - the Apocalypse. They wrote with reed (κάλαμος ) and ink (μέλαν ) and more - in the first centuries - on papyrus, so that the right side of each papyrus leaf was glued to the left side of the next sheet. From here, a strip of greater or lesser length was obtained, which was then rolled onto a rolling pin. This is how a scroll appeared (τόμος ), which was kept in a special box (φαινόλης ). Since reading these strips, written only on the front side, was inconvenient and the material was fragile, from the 3rd century New Testament books began to be copied on leather or parchment. Since parchment was expensive, many used the old manuscripts on parchment that they had, erasing and scraping out what was written on them and placing some other work here. This is how palimpsests were formed. Paper came into use only in the 8th century.

The words in the manuscripts of the New Testament were written without stress, without breaths, without punctuation marks and, moreover, with abbreviations (for example, IC instead of Ἰησοῦς, RNB instead of πνεῦμα), so it was very difficult to read these manuscripts. Letters in the first six centuries were used only in capital letters (uncial manuscripts from "ounce" - inch). From the 7th, and some say, from the 9th century, manuscripts of ordinary cursive writing appeared. Then the letters decreased, but abbreviations became more frequent. On the other hand, accents and breaths were added. There are 130 first manuscripts, and the last (according to von Soden) - 3700. In addition, there are so-called lectionaries containing either gospel or apostolic readings for use in worship (evangelaries and praxapostles). There are about 1300 of them, and the oldest of them date back in their origin to the VI century.

In addition to the text, manuscripts usually contain introductions and afterwords with indications of the writer, time and place of writing the book. To get acquainted with the content of the book in manuscripts divided into chapters (κεφάλαια ), these chapters are preceded by the designations of the content of each chapter (τίτλα , αργυμεντα ). The chapters are divided into parts (ὑποδιαιρέσεις) or sections, and these last into verses (κῶλα, στίχοι). According to the number of verses, the size of the book and its selling price were determined. This processing of the text is usually attributed to Bishop Euphalia of Sardinia (7th century), but in fact all these divisions took place much earlier. For interpretative purposes, Ammonius (3rd century) added parallel passages from other Gospels to the text of the Gospel of Matthew. Eusebius of Caesarea (4th century) compiled ten canons or parallel tables, on the first of which the designations of sections from the Gospel, common to all four evangelists, were placed, on the second - designations (by numbers) - common to three, etc. to the tenth, where the stories contained in only one evangelist are indicated. In the text of the Gospel, it was marked with a red number to which canon this or that section belongs. Our present division of the text into chapters was done first by the Englishman Stephen Langton (in the thirteenth century), and the division into verses by Robert Stephen (in the sixteenth century).

Since the 18th century uncial manuscripts began to be designated capital letters Latin alphabet, and italics - numbers. The most important uncial manuscripts are as follows:

N - Codex Sinaiticus, found by Tischendorf in 1856 in the Sinai Monastery of St. Catherine. It contains the whole, together with the epistle of Barnabas and a significant part of the "Shepherd" of Hermas, as well as the canons of Eusebius. It shows the proofreading of seven different hands. It was written in the 4th or 5th century. Kept in the St. Petersburg Public Library (now kept in the British Museum. – Note. ed.). Photographs were taken from it.

A - Alexandria, located in London. The New Testament is placed here, not in its entirety, along with the 1st and part of the 2nd epistle of Clement of Rome. Written in the 5th century in Egypt or Palestine.

B - Vatican, which concludes with the 14th verse of the 9th chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews. It was probably written by someone close to Athanasius of Alexandria in the 4th century. Stored in Rome.

S - Efremov. This is a palimpsest, so named because the treatise of Ephraim the Syrian was subsequently written on the biblical text. It contains only passages from the New Testament. Its origin is Egyptian, dates back to the 5th century. Stored in Paris.

A list of other manuscripts of later origin can be seen in the 8th edition of Tischendorf's New Testament.

Translations and quotations

Together with the Greek manuscripts of the New Testament, translations of the sacred books of the New Testament, which began to appear already in the 2nd century, are very important as sources for establishing the text of the New Testament. The first place among them belongs to the Syriac translations, both in their antiquity and in their language, which approaches the Aramaic dialect spoken by Christ and the apostles. It is believed that Tatian's Diatessaron (circa 175) was the first Syriac translation of the New Testament. Then comes the Syro-Sinai codex (SS), discovered in 1892 in Sinai by Mrs. A. Lewis. Also important is the second-century translation known as the Peshitta (simple) translation; however, some scholars attribute it to the 5th century and recognize it as the work of the Bishop of Edessa Rabbula (411-435). Of great importance are also Egyptian translations (Said, Fayum, Bohair), Ethiopian, Armenian, Gothic and Old Latin, subsequently corrected by Blessed Jerome and recognized as self-reliant in the Catholic Church (Vulgate).

Of no small importance for the establishment of the text are quotations from the New Testament, which are available from the ancient fathers and teachers of the Church and church writers. The collection of these quotes (texts) was published by T. Tsan.

The Slavic translation of the New Testament from the Greek text was made by the holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Cyril and Methodius in the second half of the 9th century and, together with Christianity, passed to us in Russia under the holy noble prince Vladimir. Of the copies of this translation that we have preserved, the Ostromir Gospel, written in the middle of the 11th century for the mayor of Ostromir, is especially remarkable. Then in the XIV century. Saint Alexis, Metropolitan of Moscow, translated the sacred books of the New Testament while Saint Alexis was in Constantinople. This translation is stored in the Moscow Synodal Library and in the 90s of the XIX century. published in phototype. In 1499, together with all the biblical books, it was corrected and published by Metropolitan Gennady of Novgorod. Separately, the entire New Testament was first printed in Slavic in Vilna in 1623. Then, like other biblical books, it was corrected in Moscow at the synodal printing house and, finally, it was published together with the Old Testament under Empress Elizabeth in 1751. First of all, in 1819, the Gospel was translated into Russian, and the New Testament appeared in full in Russian in 1822, in 1860 it was published in a corrected form. In addition to the synodal translation into Russian, there are also Russian translations of the New Testament published in London and Vienna. In Russia, their use is prohibited.

The fate of the New Testament text

b) the teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ, preached by Himself and His apostles about Him as the King of this Kingdom, the Messiah and the Son of God (),

c) all the New Testament or Christian teaching in general, first of all, the narrative of the events from the life of Christ, the most important (), and then the explanation of the meaning of these events ().

d) Being actually the news of what he did for our salvation and good, the Gospel at the same time calls people to repentance, faith and change of their sinful life for the better (; ).

e) Finally, the word "Gospel" is sometimes used to refer to the very process of preaching the Christian doctrine ().

Sometimes the designation and content of it is attached to the word "Gospel". There are, for example, phrases: the gospel of the kingdom (), i.e. joyful news of the Kingdom of God, the gospel of peace (), i.e. about the world, the gospel of salvation (), i.e. about salvation, etc. Sometimes the genitive case following the word "Gospel" means the originator or source of the good news (; ; ) or the person of the preacher ().

For quite a long time, stories about the life of the Lord Jesus Christ were transmitted only orally. The Lord Himself left no record of His words and deeds. In the same way, the 12 apostles were not born writers: they were "people unlearned and simple"(), although literate. Among the Christians of the apostolic age there were also very few "wise according to the flesh, strong" and "noble" (), and for the majority of believers, oral stories about Christ were much more important than written ones. Thus, the apostles and preachers or evangelists “transmitted” (παραδιδόναι ) stories about the deeds and speeches of Christ, while the believers “received” (παραλαμβάνειν ), but, of course, not mechanically, only by memory, as can be said about the students of rabbinic schools, but whole soul, as if something living and giving life. But soon this period of oral tradition was to end. On the one hand, Christians must have felt the need for a written presentation of the Gospel in their disputes with the Jews, who, as you know, denied the reality of the miracles of Christ and even claimed that Christ did not declare Himself the Messiah. It was necessary to show the Jews that Christians have authentic stories about Christ of those persons who were either among His apostles, or who were in close communion with eyewitnesses of Christ's deeds. On the other hand, the need for a written presentation of the history of Christ began to be felt because the generation of the first disciples was gradually dying out and the ranks of direct witnesses of the miracles of Christ were thinning out. Therefore, it was necessary to fix in writing individual sayings of the Lord and His whole speeches, as well as the stories about Him of the apostles. It was then that separate records of what was reported in the oral tradition about Christ began to appear here and there. The most meticulously recorded words Christ's, which contained the rules of Christian life, and were much more free to transfer various events from the life of Christ, retaining only their general impression. Thus, one thing in these records, due to its originality, was transmitted everywhere in the same way, while the other was modified. These initial notes did not think about the completeness of the narrative. Even our Gospels, as can be seen from the conclusion of the Gospel of John (), did not intend to report all the words and deeds of Christ. This is evident, among other things, from what is not included in them, for example, such a saying of Christ: “It is more blessed to give than to receive”(). The evangelist Luke reports such records, saying that many before him had already begun to compose narratives about the life of Christ, but that they did not have the proper fullness and that therefore they did not give sufficient "confirmation" in the faith ().

Evidently, our canonical gospels arose from the same motives. The period of their appearance can be determined at about thirty years - from 60 to 90 (the last was the Gospel of John). The first three gospels are commonly referred to in biblical scholarship synoptic, because they depict the life of Christ in such a way that their three narratives can be easily viewed in one and combined into one whole narrative ( weather forecasters- from Greek - looking together). They began to be called gospels each separately, perhaps as early as the end of the 1st century, but from church writing we have information that such a name was given to the entire composition of the gospels only in the second half of the 2nd century. As for the names: “The Gospel of Matthew”, “The Gospel of Mark”, etc., then these very ancient names from Greek should be translated as follows: “The Gospel according to Matthew”, “The Gospel according to Mark” ( κατὰ Ματθαῖον, κατὰ Μᾶρκον ). By this I wanted to say that in all the Gospels lies single the Christian gospel of Christ the Savior, but according to the images of different writers: one image belongs to Matthew, the other to Mark, etc.

four gospel

As for the differences observed among weather forecasters, there are quite a few of them. Others are reported only by two evangelists, others even by one. So, only Matthew and Luke cite the conversation on the mount of the Lord Jesus Christ, tell the story of the birth and the first years of Christ's life. One Luke speaks of the birth of John the Baptist. Other things one evangelist conveys in a more abbreviated form than another, or in a different connection than another. The details of the events in each Gospel are different, as well as the expressions.

This phenomenon of similarity and difference in the Synoptic Gospels has long attracted the attention of interpreters of Scripture, and various assumptions have long been put forward to explain this fact. A more correct opinion seems to be that our three evangelists enjoyed a common oral source for his account of the life of Christ. At that time, evangelists or preachers about Christ went everywhere with a sermon and repeated in different places in more or less extensive form what was considered necessary to offer those who entered into. In this way a well-known definite type was formed oral gospel, and this is the type we have in writing in our synoptic gospels. Of course, at the same time, depending on the goal that this or that evangelist had, his gospel took on some special features, only characteristic of his work. At the same time, one cannot rule out the possibility that an older gospel might have been known to the evangelist who wrote later. At the same time, the difference between synoptics should be explained by the different goals that each of them had in mind when writing his Gospel.

As we have already said, the synoptic gospels are very different from the gospel of John the Theologian. Thus they depict almost exclusively the activity of Christ in Galilee, while the apostle John depicts mainly the sojourn of Christ in Judea. In regard to content, the synoptic gospels also differ considerably from the gospel of John. They give, so to speak, an image of more outer life, deeds and teachings of Christ and from the speeches of Christ only those that were accessible to the understanding of the whole people are cited. John, on the other hand, omits a lot of Christ's activity, for example, he cites only six miracles of Christ, but those speeches and miracles that he cites have a special deep meaning and the extreme importance of the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Finally, while the synoptics portray Christ primarily as the founder of the kingdom of God and therefore direct their readers' attention to the kingdom he founded, John draws our attention to the central point of this kingdom, from which life flows along the peripheries of the kingdom, i.e. on the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, whom John depicts as the Only Begotten Son of God and as the Light for all mankind. That is why the ancient interpreters called the Gospel of John predominantly spiritual (πνευματικόν) in contrast to synoptic ones, as depicting a predominantly human side in the person of Christ ( εὐαγγέλιον σωματικόν ), i.e. bodily gospel.

However, it must be said that the weather forecasters also have passages that indicate that just as the weather forecasters knew the activity of Christ in Judea (;), so John has indications of the continuous activity of Christ in Galilee. In the same way, the weather forecasters convey such sayings of Christ, which testify to His divine dignity (), and John, for his part, also in places depicts Christ as true man(etc.; etc.). Therefore, one cannot speak of any contradiction between the synoptics and John in the depiction of the face and deed of Christ.

Reliability of the Gospels

Although criticism has long been expressed against the reliability of the Gospels, and in Lately these attacks of criticism were especially intensified (the theory of myths, especially the theory of Drews, who does not at all recognize the existence of Christ), but all the objections of criticism are so insignificant that they are shattered at the slightest collision with Christian apologetics. Here, however, we will not cite the objections of negative criticism and analyze these objections: this will be done when interpreting the text of the Gospels itself. We will only speak about the main general grounds on which we recognize the Gospels as completely reliable documents. This is, firstly, the existence of the tradition of eyewitnesses, of whom many survived until the era when our Gospels appeared. Why should we refuse to trust these sources of our gospels? Could they have made up everything that is in our gospels? No, all the Gospels are purely historical. Secondly, it is incomprehensible why the Christian consciousness would want - so the mythical theory asserts - to crown the head of a simple rabbi Jesus with the crown of the Messiah and the Son of God? Why, for example, is it not said about the Baptist that he performed miracles? Obviously because he did not create them. And from this it follows that if Christ is said to be the Great Wonderworker, then it means that He really was like that. And why would it be possible to deny the authenticity of the miracles of Christ, since the highest miracle - His Resurrection - is witnessed like no other event in ancient history (see)?

Bibliography of Foreign Works on the Four Gospels

Bengel J. Al. Gnomon Novi Testamentï in quo ex nativa verborum VI simplicitas, profunditas, concinnitas, salubritas sensuum coelestium indicatur. Berolini, 1860.

Blass, Gram. Blass F. Grammatik des neutestamentlichen Griechisch. Göttingen, 1911.

Westcott – The New Testament in Original Greek the text rev. by Brooke Foss Westcott. New York, 1882.

B. Weiss – Weiss B. Die Evangelien des Markus und Lukas. Göttingen, 1901.

Yog. Weiss (1907) - Die Schriften des Neuen Testaments, von Otto Baumgarten; Wilhelm Bousset. Hrsg. von Johannes Weis_s, Bd. 1: Die drei alteren Evangelien. Die Apostelgeschichte, Matthaeus Apostolus; Marcus Evangelista; Lucas Evangelista. . 2. Aufl. Göttingen, 1907.

Godet - Godet F. Commentar zu dem Evangelium des Johannes. Hanover, 1903.

De Wette – De Wette W.M.L. Kurze Erklärung des Evangeliums Matthäi / Kurzgefasstes exegetisches Handbuch zum Neuen Testament, Band 1, Teil 1. Leipzig, 1857.

Keil (1879) - Keil C.F. Commentar über die Evangelien des Markus und Lukas. Leipzig, 1879.

Keil (1881) - Keil C.F. Commentar über das Evangelium des Johannes. Leipzig, 1881.

Klostermann A. Das Markusevangelium nach seinem Quellenwerthe für die evangelische Geschichte. Göttingen, 1867.

Cornelius a Lapide - Cornelius a Lapide. In SS Matthaeum et Marcum / Commentaria in scripturam sacram, t. 15. Parisiis, 1857.

Lagrange M.-J. Études bibliques: Evangile selon St. Marc. Paris, 1911.

Lange J.P. Das Evangelium nach Matthäus. Bielefeld, 1861.

Loisy (1903) - Loisy A.F. Le quatrième evangile. Paris, 1903.

Loisy (1907-1908) - Loisy A.F. Les evangeles synoptiques, 1–2. : Ceffonds, pres Montier-en-Der, 1907-1908.

Luthardt - Luthardt Ch.E. Das johanneische Evangelium nach seiner Eigenthümlichkeit geschildert und erklärt. Nürnberg, 1876.

Meyer (1864) - Meyer H.A.W. Kritisch exegetisches Commentar über das Neue Testament, Abteilung 1, Hälfte 1: Handbuch über das Evangelium des Matthäus. Göttingen, 1864.

Meyer (1885) – Kritisch-exegetischer Commentar über das Neue Testament hrsg. von Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer, Abteilung 1, Hälfte 2: Bernhard Weiss B. Kritisch exegetisches Handbuch über die Evangelien des Markus und Lukas. Göttingen, 1885. Meyer (1902) - Meyer H.A.W. Das Johannes Evangelium 9. Auflage, bearbeitet von B. Weiss. Göttingen, 1902.

Merckx (1902) - Merx A. Erläuterung: Matthaeus / Die vier kanonischen Evangelien nach ihrem ältesten bekannten Texte, Teil 2, Hälfte 1. Berlin, 1902.

Merckx (1905) - Merx A. Erläuterung: Markus und Lukas / Die vier kanonischen Evangelien nach ihrem ältesten bekannten Texte. Teil 2, Hälfte 2. Berlin, 1905.

Morison J. A practical commentary on the Gospel according to St. Morison Matthew. London, 1902.

Stanton – Stanton V.H. The Synoptic Gospels / The Gospels as historical documents, Part 2. Cambridge, 1903. Toluk (1856) - Tholuck A. Die Bergpredigt. Gotha, 1856.

Tolyuk (1857) - Tholuck A. Commentar zum Evangelium Johannis. Gotha, 1857.

Heitmüller - see Jog. Weiss (1907).

Holtzmann (1901) - Holtzmann H.J. Die Synoptiker. Tubingen, 1901.

Holtzmann (1908) - Holtzmann H.J. Evangelium, Briefe und Offenbarung des Johannes / Hand-Commentar zum Neuen Testament bearbeitet von H. J. Holtzmann, R. A. Lipsius, etc. bd. 4. Freiburg im Breisgau, 1908.

Zahn (1905) - Zahn Th. Das Evangelium des Matthäus / Commentar zum Neuen Testament, Teil 1. Leipzig, 1905.

Zahn (1908) - Zahn Th. Das Evangelium des Johannes ausgelegt / Commentar zum Neuen Testament, Teil 4. Leipzig, 1908.

Schanz (1881) - Schanz P. Commentar über das Evangelium des heiligen Marcus. Freiburg im Breisgau, 1881.

Schanz (1885) - Schanz P. Commentar über das Evangelium des heiligen Johannes. Tubingen, 1885.

Schlatter – Schlatter A. Das Evangelium des Johannes: ausgelegt fur Bibelleser. Stuttgart, 1903.

Schürer, Geschichte - Schürer E., Geschichte des jüdischen Volkes im Zeitalter Jesu Christi. bd. 1–4. Leipzig, 1901-1911.

Edersheim (1901) - Edersheim A. The life and times of Jesus the Messiah. 2 Vols. London, 1901.

Ellen – Allen W.C. A critical and exegetical commentary of the Gospel according to st. Matthew. Edinburgh, 1907.

Alford - Alford N. The Greek Testament in four volumes, vol. 1. London, 1863. The Church, with such respect for the apostles, and, in particular, for the apostle Paul, could completely lose any of the apostolic works.

According to some Protestant theologians, the New Testament canon is something accidental. Some writings, even non-apostolic ones, were simply lucky enough to get into the canon, because for some reason they came into use during worship. And the canon itself, according to the majority of Protestant theologians, is nothing more than a simple catalog or list of books used in worship. On the contrary, Orthodox theologians see in the canon nothing more than the composition of the sacred New Testament books, already recognized at that time, devoted to the apostolic to subsequent generations of Christians. These books, according to Orthodox theologians, were not known to all Churches, perhaps because they had either a too private purpose (for example, the 2nd and 3rd Epistles of the Apostle John), or too general (The Epistle to the Hebrews), so that it was not known to which Church to turn for information regarding the name of the author of this or that epistle. But there is no doubt that these were books that truly belonged to those persons whose names they bore on themselves. The Church did not accidentally accept them into the canon, but quite deliberately, giving them the meaning that they actually had.

The Jews had the word "ganuz", corresponding in meaning to the word "apocryphal" (from ἀποκρύπτειν - "to hide") and was used in the synagogue to designate such books that should not have been used in worship. However, this term did not contain any censure. But later, when the Gnostics and other heretics began to boast that they had "hidden" books, which allegedly contained the true apostolic teaching, which the apostles did not want to make available to the crowd, who collected the canon, already reacted with condemnation to these "hidden" books and began to look at them as "false, heretical, fake" (decree of Pope Gelasius). Currently, 7 apocryphal gospels are known, of which 6 supplement the story of the origin, birth and childhood of Jesus Christ with different decorations, and the seventh - the story of His condemnation. The oldest and most remarkable of them is the First Gospel of James, the brother of the Lord, then come: the Greek Gospel of Thomas, the Greek Gospel of Nicodemus, the Arabic story of Joseph the woodworker, the Arabic Gospel of the childhood of the Savior and, finally, the Latin Gospel of the birth of Christ from St. Mary and the story of the birth of the Lord by Mary and the childhood of the Savior. These Apocryphal Gospels were translated into Russian by Prot. P.A. Preobrazhensky. In addition, some fragmentary apocryphal stories about the life of Christ are known (for example, Pilate's letter to Tiberius about Christ).

In ancient times, it should be noted, in addition to the apocryphal, there were also non-canonical Gospels that have not survived to our time. They, in all likelihood, contained in themselves the same thing that is contained in our canonical Gospels, from which they took information. These were: the Gospel of the Jews - in all likelihood, the corrupted Gospel of Matthew, the Gospel of Peter, the apostolic memoirs of Justin the Martyr, the Tatian Gospel in four ("Diatessaron" - a set of Gospels), the Gospel of Marcion - a distorted Gospel of Luke.

Of the recently discovered stories about the life and teachings of Christ, "Λόγια", or the words of Christ, deserves attention - a passage found in Egypt. This passage contains brief sayings of Christ with a brief initial formula: "Jesus speaks." This is a fragment of the deepest antiquity. From the history of the apostles, the recently discovered "Teaching of the Twelve Apostles" deserves attention, the existence of which was already known to ancient church writers and which has now been translated into Russian. In 1886, 34 verses of the Apocalypse of Peter, which was known to St. Clement of Alexandria, were found.

It is also necessary to mention the various "acts" of the apostles, for example, Peter, John, Thomas, and others, where information about the preaching work of these apostles was reported. These works undoubtedly belong to the category of so-called "pseudo-epigraphs", i.e. to the category of fakes. However, these "deeds" were highly respected among ordinary pious Christians and were very common. Some of them, after a certain alteration, entered the so-called "Acts of the Saints", processed by the Bollandists, and from there they were transferred by St. Demetrius of Rostov to our Lives of the Saints (Fourth Menaion). This can be said about the life and preaching work of the Apostle Thomas.

In this edition, the reader is offered a unique book: "Explanatory Bible" (interpretation of the Bible), published under the editorship of prof. Alexander Pavlovich Lopukhin (1852-1904), which is the only work of its kind ever made available to the Russian reader.

splash humanities, which was the result of targeted measures to develop public education in Russia, undertaken during the reign of Emperor Nicholas I, began to bear abundant fruit already from the second half of the 19th century. The flourishing of all spheres of humanitarian knowledge, especially historical science, gave Russia a whole galaxy of venerable scientists: S.M. Solovyov, V.G. Vasilevsky, S.A. Gedeonova, N.F. Kapterev and many others. Theological science did not lag behind either. Systematic efforts made to raise educational level graduates of the Theological Academies and expressed in the deep assimilation by the latter of church history, comparative theology, biblical studies, Latin, ancient Greek and Hebrew languages, was not slow to affect the rapid growth of Russian church science, which was becoming more and more independent, which was expressed at that stage primarily in the ability Russian scientists to critically comprehend the achievements of Western European, primarily German, theological and ecclesiastical science, which was also experiencing an unprecedented rise.

Our own, still unsurpassed in their level, Russian theologians did not fail to appear. The names of the historians of the Church of the Right Reverend ep. Porfiry (Uspensky), V.V. Bolotova, A.P. Lebedeva, A.A. Spassky, A.P. Dyakonov, biblical scholars F.G. Eleonsky, N.A. Eleonsky, A.I. Pokrovsky, Archbishop Platon (Rozhdestvensky), A.A. Olesnitsky, I.G. Troitsky, G.K. Vlastova, P.A. Jungerov and many others still make up the golden fund of Russian theology and ecclesiastical science, and it is not their fault that such a brilliant development of Russian ecclesiastical science was interrupted on the rise ...

Among the names of prominent Russian researchers of Biblical texts, one of the first places is occupied by the name of Alexander Pavlovich Lopukhin. The son of a priest of the Saratov diocese, Alexander Pavlovich was born on October 1, 1852 in the village of Mityakino. He received his initial education at the Saratov Theological School and the Saratov Theological Seminary.

In 1874, he entered the St. Petersburg Theological Academy, with which he did not interrupt until the end of his life. At the Academy, Lopukhin devotes himself entirely to the study of ecclesiastical sciences (primarily biblical studies) and languages, both ancient and new, while avoiding the temptations of the then fashionable nihilism. The vast majority of those written by A.P. Lopukhin during his life of major works devoted to biblical studies and interpretation of the texts of the Bible. Yes, its original scientific interests became, while still a student, the Pentateuch of Moses and the Prophetic books of the Old Testament. His first work, “On the Old Testament Prophets,” published in the “Church Herald” in 1875, is devoted to the latter. The Pentateuch became the subject of his Ph.D. thesis “On the Civil Laws of Moses” (ed. state laws of Moses” with the appendix of the treatise “The Judgment of Jesus Christ, considered from a legal point of view” [St. Petersburg, 1882]). While still a student, A.P. Lopukhin published in the St. Petersburg theological journal "Church Bulletin" more than a hundred scientific, journalistic and literary-critical articles on various issues.

After graduating from the Academy in 1878, Lopukhin became an employee of the Church Herald, but on June 1, 1879, as he was fluent in English (a phenomenon not so common among the then educated public), he was appointed psalmist of the Russian missionary church in New York. It should be said that already earlier Lopukhin had a genuine interest in the life and structure of the United States of America, inspired in his adolescence by reading fascinating books by Mine Reed and Fenimore Cooper. “Travel Notes of a Russian Psalm Reader” written by Alexander Pavlovich, as well as remarks on various issues of church and social life in exotic and then little-known Russian America, were regularly published in the “Church Herald”, with which Lopukhin did not break ties. In parallel with this, he contributed to the American Orthodox magazine The Oriental Church Magazine, published by the Russian Church in New York.

During his two years in America, Lopukhin prepared his master's thesis on the church situation in the North American United States, entitled "Roman Catholicism in North America", after successfully defending which he received on October 5, 1881 at the St. Petersburg Academy degree master of theology.

After spending another year in America after the defense, on October 30, 1882, Lopukhin received the post of secretary of the council and board of the St. The result of his stay in America and observation of her religious life A.P. Lopukhin failed in the books “Life overseas. Essays on religious, socio-economic and political life in the United States of America” and “Religion in America” (St. Petersburg, 1882), in which he sought to acquaint Russian readers with the peculiarities of American life and tried to analyze the religious and economic situation in the United States. A few years later, Alexander Pavlovich devoted public lectures of 1886 to this topic, published first in Christian Reading, and then in a separate book (Overseas West in Religious and Moral Relations. St. Petersburg, 1887). These works show a moderately calm, but generally benevolent attitude of Alexander Pavlovich to overseas life at the end of the 19th century.

In 1883, at the Academy, Associate Professor A.P. Lopukhin received the chair of comparative theology, and after the abolition of it in connection with the adoption of the new charter of the Academy in 1884, the chair of ancient civil history, which he headed until his death, lecturing on general civil history. In 1890, Lopukhin, as the head of the department, received the title of extraordinary professor from the Holy Synod.

Life in multi-confessional America made A.P. Lopukhin was a supporter of the rapprochement of different faiths, but did not make him an ecumenist in the modern sense of the word. By rapprochement, he understood the rejection of the heterodox from the errors that separated them from universal Orthodoxy, and their reunification with it. Thus, Professor Lopukhin highly welcomed the desire of the Anglicans to communicate and reunite with the Orthodox, actively participated in interviews with the Old Catholics and rejoiced at the unification of the Nestorians of Urmia with Orthodoxy (see his "Nestorians or Syro-Chaldeans". St. Petersburg, 1898; "Conversion of the Syro-Chaldean Nestorians into the womb Orthodox Church". SPb., 1898; "Catholicos of the East and his people" // Christian reading. 1898). He also saw some positive dynamics in the development of the American Episcopal Church, which showed genuine interest in the structure of the Russian Orthodox Church and undertook some transformations in the Orthodox spirit.

Being an unshakable supporter of the idea of ​​religious enlightenment and the development of ecclesiastical science connected with it, A.P. Lopukhin devoted a lot of time both to public lectures and to the preparation for publication of numerous books designed to acquaint the reader with the interpretation of the Bible and latest achievements biblical science, as well as to contribute to his spiritual enlightenment. To this end, he translated the works of major Western biblical scholars, and also compiled his own compositions. So, im been transferred from in English many works of the Anglican theologian F.V. Farrara: The Life of Jesus Christ, The Life and Labors of the Apostle Paul, The Life and Labors of the Apostle John, The Life and Labors of the Holy Fathers and Doctors of the Church, The First Days of Christianity, The Power of Darkness in the Realm of Light, released published in 1886-1887. edited and with comments by Lopukhin himself, sometimes giving Farrar's writings even greater depth and literary brilliance than in the original. In addition to Farrar's works, Lopukhin also translated from Latin writings of Thomas of Kempis "Meditation on the life, suffering and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ" (St. Petersburg, 1899).

It is impossible not to note the fact that Alexander Pavlovich carefully edited the Western writings he published, often shortening places that did not correspond to the teachings of the Orthodox Church. It should be noted that such interference in the text, although it is unacceptable in the modern approach to publication, as a rule, did not prejudice the growth of scientific awareness of the Orthodox reader, since A.P. Lopukhin, having a deep and independent knowledge of theology, biblical studies, church and civil history, had a great talent for finding and weeding out those concepts of foreign authors that Western science itself later recognized as erroneous.

Even now such outstanding works of A.P. Lopukhin, as the three-volume “Biblical History in the Light of the Latest Research and Discoveries” (St. Petersburg, 1895), as well as the two-volume “Guide to the Biblical History of the Old and New Testament” - works that served as a prelude to what he started, but completed after his death to the main work - the "Explanatory Bible". (The most extensive interpretation of the Bible at the moment).

Being an excellent historian who had a taste not only for biblical, but also for world history, Lopukhin closely followed research in the field of Assyro-Babylonian antiquities, especially those aspects that were directly related to biblical history (see his "Babylonian king Ammurabi's Truth and His Newly Discovered Legislation in Comparison with Moiseev's Legislation". St. Petersburg, 1904). Alexander Pavlovich devoted his doctoral dissertation to this issue, but his premature death prevented him from completing it.

A.P. occupied a very significant place in the life. Lopukhin and church publishing. He wrote hundreds of articles on various issues of faith, church affairs, theological science and public life, published in almost all prominent church publications, such as "Church Herald", "Christian Reading", "Wanderer", "Orthodox Review" , "Church Gazette", of which he edited the first two (since 1892 and 1893, respectively), and in the third he acted as editor-publisher from 1899. In addition, he wrote many articles on historical, church and biblical topics in the Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron. There was not a single more or less major event in the contemporary church life of Russia and the world, to which A.P. Lopukhin did not respond with his publication.

The biggest accomplishment of A.P. Lopukhin in the field of church education was his "Public Theological Library", published as an appendix to the journal "The Stranger", which he became the owner of and to which he devoted himself entirely from 1903, leaving the post of the joint editorial office of the academic journals "Church Herald" and " Christian Reading. In order to popularize the journal A.P. Lopukhin undertook the publication of supplements that were sent to subscribers as bonuses. A series of these appendices included "The Life and Works of the Holy Fathers and Doctors of the Church", Farrar's writings translated by A.P. Lopukhin, "History of the Christian Church in the 19th century", "The Resurrection of Christ as the greatest and most reliable of miracles", "Symphony on the Old and New Testament". As part of this library, Lopukhin began publishing a complete Russian translation of the works of St. John Chrysostom in ten volumes, laid the foundation for the publication of the Orthodox Theological Encyclopedia, as well as the Explanatory Bible.

The beginning of the publication of the "Explanatory Bible" was announced in the October issue of the "Wanderer" for 1903. In the annotation of the forthcoming edition, in particular, it was said that when starting this edition, the editors believe that it is meeting the most urgent and urgent needs of our clergy and the whole society. Every year the Bible is spreading more and more both in society and among the clergy, and the time is not far off when it will become a reference book in every pious home. To give the pastors of the Church, as well as all lovers of reading the Word of God in general, a guide to the correct understanding of the Bible, justification and defense of the truth from its distortion by false teachers, as well as a guide to the understanding of many obscure places in it - this is the purpose of this publication. The Explanatory Bible, therefore, is by no means a strictly scientific publication, because the authors' desire for spiritual edification of readers, as well as the desire to reinforce the authenticity of the Bible with reference to positive science data, comes to the fore in it. The ratio of the scientific and spiritual-educational approach, as well as the level of comments differ from book to book, because a large number of authors, different in their scientific level and vision of the problem, participated in writing them.

Regrettably, Alexander Pavlovich Lopukhin was able to catch the publication of only the first volume of the multi-volume edition of the commented Bible he had conceived. An early death carried him away in his prime creative forces On August 22, 1904, the rector of the St. Petersburg Theological Academy, Bishop Sergius (Stragorodsky), the future Patriarch of All Rus', led the funeral service for the late professor and state adviser. Alexander Pavlovich Lopukhin was buried at the Nikolsky cemetery of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra.

The death of A.P. Lopukhin caused a great resonance in the country. His death in 1904 was responded with obituaries by the journals Strannik, Tserkovny Vestnik, Istoricheskiy Vestnik, the newspapers Government Bulletin (No. 194), Birzhevye Vedomosti (No. 431), Tiflis Listok (No. 208) , "Vilensky Vestnik" (No. 373), "Odessa News" (No. 6402), "Moskovskie Vedomosti" (No. 235) and "News of the Day" (No. 7625).

You did not live in vain in the world:

For faith, light and knowledge

You put a lot of strength

Labor, love and talent.

You honestly made your way,

Serving the fatherland and faith,

I didn’t bury talent in the ground,

Fulfilled the duty in a legal measure.

Standing vigilantly,

Keeping the people from false prophets,

And he affirmed faith in his neighbors,

Avoiding vices.

And the seeds won't die

Into the hearts brought by you.

You are the names of patriots

Multiplied in Rus' by himself.

The death of the scientist, fortunately, did not lead to the termination of his main publishing projects. The publication of the "Orthodox Theological Encyclopedia", continued after the death of Lopukhin by Professor N.N. Glubokovsky (from the fifth volume), only the revolution prevented them from seeing their end. The publication reached the twelfth volume, containing articles starting with the letter "K".

Continued by the successors of A.P. Lopukhin, the edition of the "Explanatory Bible" was completed in 1913. Within ten years, twelve volumes were published, consistently offering the reader comments and interpretation of biblical texts on all the books of the Old and New Testaments.

Alexander Pavlovich himself managed to prepare only a commentary on the Pentateuch of Moses, which compiled the first volume of the Explanatory Bible. Starting with the historical books of the Old Testament of the Bible (the books of Joshua, Judges, Ruth, the books of Kings), outstanding Russian biblical scholars, professor of the Kiev Theological Academy, priest Alexander Alexandrovich Glagolev (book of Ruth, 3 and 4 books of Kings, 2 book of Chronicles, book of Tobit) , Psalter, the book of Proverbs of Solomon, the Song of Songs, the books of the prophets Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, the book of the Acts of the Apostles, the Epistle of James, 1 and 2 of the Epistle of Peter, 1-3 of the Epistle of John the Evangelist, the Epistle of the Apostle Jude), professor of the St. Petersburg Theological Academy of Sciences Fedor Gerasimovich of Olives (Book of Joshua), Professor of the Kazan Theological Academy Vasily Ivanovich Protopopov (1 and 2 Kings), Professor of the St. Petersburg Theological Academy Ivan Gavrilovich Troitsky (Book of Judges), Professor Archimandrite (later Bishop) Joseph (Book of Judith, book of Esther, 1-3 books of Maccabees), master of theology priest Alexander Vasilyevich Petrovsky (1 book of Chronicles, book of Job, book of Prophet Daniel), Professor of the Kiev Theological Academy Vladimir Petrovich Rybinsky (1 and 2 books of Ezra, the book of Nehemiah, the books of the prophets Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Micah), Professor Vasily Nikanorovich Myshtsyn (the book of Ecclesiastes), Professor of the Moscow Academy Alexander Ivanovich Pokrovsky ( the book of the Wisdom of Jesus, the son of Sirakh, the book of the prophet Isaiah), Professor of the Kiev Theological Academy Mikhail Nikolaevich Skaballanovich (the book of the prophet Ezekiel), teacher of the Moscow Theological Seminary Nikolai Petrovich Rozanov (the book of the prophet Jeremiah, Lamentation of Jeremiah, the Message of Jeremiah, the books of the prophets Baruch and Malachi , Mark, Luke, and John, Paul's Epistle to the Romans, 1 and 2 Paul's Epistle to the Corinthians, Epistle to the Galatians, Epistle to the Ephesians, Epistle to the Philippians, Epistle to the Colossians, 1 and 2 Paul's Epistle to Timothy, Epistle to Titus, Epistle to Philemon), teacher of the St. Petersburg Seminary Pavel Smaragdovich Tychinin (the book of the Wisdom of Solomon, the book of the prophet Jonah), priest Dmitry Ro Christmas (book of the prophet Zechariah), N. Abolensky (3rd book of Ezra), priest Michael of Thebes (Gospel of Matthew), K.N. Faminsky (1 and 2 letters of Paul to the Thessalonians), Archpriest Nikolai Orlov (Epistle to the Hebrews, Revelation of John the Theologian).

In 1988, the second, reprint, edition of A.P.'s "Explanatory Bible" was published in Stockholm. Lopukhin, dedicated to the celebration of the millennium of Christianity in Rus'. This interpretation of the Bible was aimed at re-acquainting the broad readership of the Soviet Union with the pinnacle achievement of the domestic biblical-historical science of the pre-revolutionary period. The publishers did not set themselves the goal of making any changes to the text of the comments, limiting themselves to changing the format of the publication - for example, all twelve volumes of the original edition were placed in three volumes using extra thin paper, preserving the old pagination.

The publishing house "Dar", starting in 2005 to republish this classic work, the interpretation of the Loluhin Bible, sought to offer it to the reader in a new, more convenient and corrected form. To this end, commentaries on a particular passage of Scripture follow immediately after the biblical text (in the original they are placed at the bottom of the page in small, unreadable type). In an effort to preserve the original text in all its originality, the editors eliminated only obvious flaws and typos, in in large numbers found in the original edition and reproduced in the 1988 Stockholm edition. Latin words and expressions, which are found in a large number of comments in the text, since, unfortunately, the number of errors in them initially exceeded any allowable measure. At the same time, in the new edition, it was decided to refuse to give the Hebrew words in their original spelling and use Cyrillic transcription, as accurately as possible conveying the sound of the words of the Hebrew language.

Moreover, an attempt was made to verify the numerous (about 50,000) references to various places of the Holy Scriptures encountered in the course of the commentary, and to correct the inaccuracies of the first edition of the Lopukhin Explanatory Bible (the number of which turned out to be very significant).

Thus, the interpretation of the Lopukhin Bible in the new edition is a much more reliable work than the previous two and is one of the best to date.

Along with this, another drawback inherent in the original edition was largely eliminated: negligence in citing the research works of foreign and domestic scientists. In the vast majority of cases, when using the original editions of the Explanatory Bible, it is not easy for the reader to find out which particular work the compiler of the commentary is citing, often limiting himself to mentioning the name of this or that scientist without indicating the exact title of the work, the place and year of its publication, as well as the pages cited. Unfortunately, this shortcoming turned out to be inherent in the work of A.P. Lopukhin that its complete elimination turned out to be technically impossible. However, even from this point of view, the new edition will offer the reader much more reliable and accurate material: full output data of domestic and foreign works used by the compilers of individual comments of the Explanatory Bible are given, as well as (if possible) works are identified, the names of which are not mentioned in comment texts. Modern geographical names presented in a new edition in a modern form.

An extraordinary movement is currently taking place in historical science, precisely thanks to those amazing discoveries that are being made in the forgotten ashes of the historical life of the ancient peoples of the East. Since that happy hour, when historians, not limited to a pen, took up spades and shovels and began to dig up the debris of the ruins in the valleys of the Nile, Tigris and Euphrates, as well as in other countries of the historical East, a whole world of new historical knowledge: the pale and lean pages of the history of ancient peoples were extremely animated and expanded, even the existence of new, hitherto completely unknown peoples and monarchies was discovered, knowledge of which shed New World for the whole fate of ancient mankind. But these extraordinary discoveries took on even more significance because they were in close relation to biblical history, and not only shed much new light into it, clarifying its often darkest pages, but also provided an almost miraculous confirmation of many biblical events and facts. which hitherto could be criticized with impunity by skepticism. This circumstance extremely revived interest in biblical history, which has ceased to be a dry specialty of theologians, and now attracts the attention of both secular learned historians and the entire educated society of all civilized peoples. This interest is also noticeable in our country; but, unfortunately, in our country he has not yet gone beyond the narrow confines of the circle of specialists, and for our society, in fact, there is literally no such book in the public domain that could serve as a guide or introduction to this deeply interesting and highly instructive field of knowledge. The satisfaction of this, in our opinion, urgent need, is partly what this book has in mind.

In its main parts, it was compiled several years ago and was intended only as a summary for our personal study in the field of biblical-historical knowledge, which is in contact with our specialty (“History of the Ancient World”). But the consciousness of the deep need indicated above prompted us to process this summary in such a way that it could satisfy this need in the slightest degree, precisely by giving a coherent and lively course of biblical history with the introduction of the main features from the inexhaustible wealth of the latest biblical historical research. It is clear that within the framework that was outlined for this manual, the aforementioned studies could not find an independent place in it, and we really limited ourselves to only introducing some features from them; but we hope that readers will notice their presence at every more or less important biblical historical event, and see for themselves how much light latest discoveries shed in the field of history and how much fresh interest they give to the most well-known facts and events.

We intend our "guide" for reading in general, but we would especially like it to find access to the milieu of student youth. It is our deep conviction that biblical history can become an inexhaustible source of moral and higher historical education for any person more or less capable of a serious mental life. Every history is an educator of the mind and heart and a teacher of wisdom; but the biblical story in this respect stands above all other stories, because its subject is central points spiritual life of mankind, and in it the deepest laws of world-historical development are revealed. It can most clearly show that in the history of peoples there is nothing accidental and arbitrary, that any attempt to "make history" is senseless and harmful, because everything awaits and demands the "fulfillment of times", which can neither be brought nearer nor put off. At the same time, it presents a series of deep life experiences of the greatest characters, who, by their virtues and no less by their vices, widely open the door to the very depths of a person’s spiritual life and thereby teach the deepest lessons for anyone with a sufficiently lively moral sense to perceive such amazing experiences. Our “guide”, of course, has no pretensions to presenting biblical history from this particular side: understanding this side in it presupposes a preliminary acquaintance with the rudiments of biblical historical knowledge, and it is precisely these rudiments that we offer in our book, in the hope that it can serve as a guide to penetration into a deeper field of knowledge.

In a short time, a similar “Guide to the Biblical History of the New Testament” will follow.

The world, considered in its external beauty and internal harmony, is a marvelous creation, amazing by the harmony of its parts and the wonderful variety of its forms. In all its immensity, it moves correctly like a majestic clock wound by a great and skillful master. And just as when looking at a watch, the thought of the master who made and started it involuntarily appears, so when considering the world in its correct and harmonious movement, the mind involuntarily comes to the thought of that Culprit to whom it owes its existence and wondrous dispensation. That the world is not eternal and has its own beginning is clearly proved, first of all, by the common belief of the peoples, among whom the most ancient tradition about the beginning of all things is preserved. Then the study of the course of the historical life of mankind, especially its most ancient peoples, shows that she herself historical life has a very limited extent and soon passes into the prehistoric era, which constitutes the childhood of the human race, which in turn necessarily presupposes a birth or beginning. The course of development of the sciences and arts also points to the same, which again leads us to the primitive state when they only began. Finally, the latest sciences (geology and paleontology), through the study of the layers of the earth's crust and the remains contained in them, irrefutably and clearly prove that Earth gradually formed in its surface, and there was a time when there was absolutely no life on it, and he himself was in a state of formless matter. Thus, the beginning of the world is undoubted, even if in the form of a formless, primitive substance, from which all its forms gradually formed. But where did this primitive substance itself come from? This question has long occupied human thought, but it was powerless to resolve it without higher help, and in the pagan world the greatest sages and founders of religions were unable to rise above the idea that this primitive substance existed from eternity, and from it God created something. or arranged the world, being thus only the creator or organizer of the world, but not in the proper sense its Creator. Then the Divine Revelation, contained in the books of Holy Scripture, came to the aid of the human mind, and it simply and clearly proclaimed great secret being, to comprehend which wise men of all times and peoples have vainly striven. This mystery is revealed on the first page of the book of Genesis, which begins the Biblical history of the world and mankind.

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth,” says the writer of Genesis, St. prophet Moses. These few words express the immensely deep truth that everything that exists in heaven and on earth, and therefore also primitive matter, has its beginning, and everything was created by God, who alone is eternal and existed in pre-temporal existence, and, moreover, was created from nothing, as the very verb means bara used to express the word "created". God is the only Creator of the universe, and without Him nothing could have happened.