Home Prayers and spells Read the Old Testament in Russian. Old and New Testament. Brief summary with illustrations

Prayers and spells

Read the Old Testament in Russian. Old and New Testament. Brief summary with illustrations

1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

2 The land was desolate, there was nothing on the earth. Darkness hid the ocean, and the Spirit of God hovered over the waters.

3 And then God said, “Let there be light!” and the light shone.

4 God saw the light and knew it was good. Then God separated the light from the darkness.

5 And He called the light day, and the darkness night. And there was evening, and then there was morning. It was day one.

6 Then God said, “Let there be something to divide the waters in the middle!”

7 And God created the air and divided the water in the middle. Some of the water was above the air, and some was under the air.

8 God called the air heaven. And there was evening, and then there was morning. It was day two.

9 Then God said, “Let the waters under the sky close together so that there may be dry land.” And it was so.

10 God called the dry land earth, and the closed waters he called seas. And God saw that it was good.

11 And then God said: “Let grass, grain, and fruit trees grow on the earth. Fruit trees will bear fruit with seeds, and each plant will produce its own seeds according to what kind of plant it is. Let these plants be on the earth." And it became so.

12 Grass, grain, and trees grew on the ground, bearing fruits and seeds. Each plant produced its own seeds according to what kind of plant it was. And God saw that it was good.

13 And there was evening, and then there was morning. It was day three.

14 Then God said, “Let there be lights in the sky. They will separate the days from the nights, serve for special signs and indicate the times for sacred meetings. And they will also serve to indicate days and years.

15 These lights will be in the sky to give light on the earth.” And it was so.

16 And God created two great lights: one greater light to rule over the day, and another lesser light to rule over the night. God also created the stars

17 And he placed all these lights in the heavens to shine on the earth.

18 He placed these lights in the heavens to rule over day and night and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good.

19 And there was evening, and then there was morning. It was day four.

20 Then God said, “Let the water be filled with a multitude of living creatures, and let birds fly in the air above the earth.”

21 And God created sea monsters, created every living thing that moves in the sea. There are many different animals in the sea, and they were all created by God! God also created all kinds of birds that fly in the sky. And God saw that it was good.

22 God blessed these animals and commanded them to multiply and fill the seas. God commanded the birds on land to produce a great multitude of birds.

23 And there was evening, and then there was morning. It was day five.

24 Then God said: “Let the earth give birth to many living creatures, many different animals, and let there be large animals and small creeping animals of every kind, and let these animals give birth to other animals.” And it was so.

25 And God created all kinds of animals: wild animals, domestic animals, and every small creeping thing. And God saw that it was good.

26 Then God said: “Now let us create man.” Let us create people in our image and likeness. They will have dominion over all the fish in the sea and over all the birds in the sky, they will have dominion over all the large animals and over all the small creatures that crawl on the earth.” .

27 And God created people in His own image and likeness, created men and women, blessed them and said to them:

28 “Have children so that the number of people will multiply. Fill the land and own it. Have dominion over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, have dominion over every living creature that moves on the earth."

29 God said, “I give you all the grain and all the fruit trees that bear fruit with seeds. Grains and fruits will be your food.

30 I also give the animals all green plants. All the animals on earth, all the birds in the sky and all the creeping things on earth will feed on them." And so it was.

31 God looked at everything He had created and saw that it was all very good. And there was evening, and then there was morning. It was day six.

The Bible is the Book of books. Why is the Holy Scripture called this? How is it that the Bible remains one of the most widely read common and sacred texts on the planet? Is the Bible really an inspired text? What place does the Old Testament have in the Bible and why should Christians read it?

What is the Bible?

Holy Scripture, or Bible, is a collection of books written by prophets and apostles like us, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. The word "Bible" is Greek and means "books". The main theme of Holy Scripture is the salvation of mankind by the Messiah, the incarnate Son of the Lord Jesus Christ. IN Old Testament salvation is spoken of in the form of types and prophecies about the Messiah and the Kingdom of God. IN New Testament the very realization of our salvation is set forth through the incarnation, life and teaching of the God-man, sealed by His Death on the Cross and Resurrection. According to the time of their writing, the sacred books are divided into the Old Testament and the New Testament. Of these, the first contain what the Lord revealed to people through the divinely inspired prophets before the coming of the Savior to earth, and the second contains what the Lord Savior Himself and His apostles revealed and taught on earth.

On the inspiration of Holy Scripture

We believe that the prophets and apostles wrote not according to their own human understanding, but according to inspiration from God. He cleansed them, enlightened their minds and revealed secrets inaccessible to natural knowledge, including the future. Therefore their Scriptures are called inspired. “No prophecy was ever made by the will of man, but men of God spoke it, being moved by the Holy Spirit” (2 Pet. 1:21), testifies the holy Apostle Peter. And the Apostle Paul calls the Scriptures inspired by God: “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God” (2 Tim. 3:16). The image of Divine revelation to the prophets can be represented by the example of Moses and Aaron. God gave Moses, who was tongue-tied, his brother Aaron as a mediator. When Moses wondered how he could proclaim the will of God to the people, being tongue-tied, the Lord said: “You” [Moses] “will speak to him” [Aaron] “and put words (My) in his mouth, and I will be in your mouth and at his mouth I will teach you what you should do; and he will speak for you to the people; So he will be your mouth, and you will be his God” (Exodus 4:15-16). Believing in the inspiration of the books of the Bible, it is important to remember that the Bible is the Book of the Church. According to God's plan, people are called to be saved not alone, but in a community led and inhabited by the Lord. This society is called the Church. Historically, the Church is divided into the Old Testament, to which the Jewish people belonged, and the New Testament, to which Orthodox Christians belong. The New Testament Church inherited the spiritual wealth of the Old Testament - the Word of God. The Church has not only preserved the letter of the Word of God, but also has a correct understanding of it. This is due to the fact that the Holy Spirit, who spoke through the prophets and apostles, continues to live in the Church and lead it. Therefore, the Church gives us the right guidance on how to use its written wealth: what is more important and relevant in it, and what has only historical significance and is not applicable in New Testament times.

Brief information about the most important translations of Scripture

1. Greek translation of seventy commentators (Septuagint). The closest to the original text of the Holy Scriptures of the Old Testament is the Alexandrian translation, known as the Greek translation of the seventy interpreters. It was started by the will of the Egyptian king Ptolemy Philadelphus in 271 BC. Wanting to have the sacred books of Jewish law in his library, this inquisitive sovereign ordered his librarian Demetrius to take care of acquiring these books and translating them into the then generally known and most widespread Greek language. From each tribe of Israel, six of the most capable men were chosen and sent to Alexandria with an exact copy of the Hebrew Bible. The translators were stationed on the island of Pharos, near Alexandria, and completed the translation in a short time. Since apostolic times, the Orthodox Church has been using the sacred books of the seventy translations.

2. Latin translation, Vulgate. Until the fourth century AD, there were several Latin translations of the Bible, among which the so-called Old Italian, based on the text of the seventy, was the most popular for its clarity and special closeness to the sacred text. But after Blessed Jerome, one of the most learned Church Fathers of the 4th century, published in 384 his translation of the Holy Scriptures in Latin, based on the Hebrew original, the Western Church little by little began to abandon the ancient Italian translation in favor of Jerome’s translation. In the 16th century, the Council of Trent brought Jerome's translation into general use in the Roman Catholic Church under the name of the Vulgate, which literally means “the translation in common use.”

3. The Slavic translation of the Bible was made according to the text of seventy interpreters by the holy Thessalonica brothers Cyril and Methodius in the middle of the 9th century AD, during their apostolic labors in the Slavic lands. When the Moravian prince Rostislav, dissatisfied with the German missionaries, asked the Byzantine Emperor Michael to send capable teachers of the faith of Christ to Moravia, Emperor Michael sent Saints Cyril and Methodius, who thoroughly knew the Slavic language and even in Greece, began to translate the Holy Scriptures into this language, to this great task.
On the way to the Slavic lands, the holy brothers stopped for some time in Bulgaria, which was also enlightened by them, and here they worked a lot on translating the sacred books. They continued their translation in Moravia, where they arrived around 863. It was completed after the death of Cyril by Methodius in Pannonia, under the patronage of the pious Prince Kotzel, to whom he retired as a result of civil strife that arose in Moravia. With the adoption of Christianity under Saint Prince Vladimir (988), the Slavic Bible, translated by Saints Cyril and Methodius, also came to Rus'.

4. Russian translation. When, over time, the Slavic language began to differ significantly from Russian, reading the Holy Scriptures became difficult for many. As a result, a translation of the books into modern Russian was undertaken. First, by decree of Emperor Alexander I and with the blessing of the Holy Synod, the New Testament was published in 1815 with funds from the Russian Bible Society. Of the Old Testament books, only the Psalter was translated - as the most commonly used book in Orthodox worship. Then, already during the reign of Alexander II, after a new, more accurate edition of the New Testament in 1860, a printed edition of the legal books of the Old Testament appeared in Russian translation in 1868. The following year, the Holy Synod blessed the publication of historical Old Testament books, and in 1872 - teaching books. Meanwhile, Russian translations of individual sacred books of the Old Testament began to be frequently published in spiritual magazines. So the complete edition of the Bible in Russian appeared in 1877. Not everyone supported the appearance of a Russian translation, preferring the Church Slavonic one. St. Tikhon of Zadonsk, Metropolitan Philaret of Moscow, and later St. Theophan the Recluse, St. Patriarch Tikhon and other prominent archpastors of the Russian Orthodox Church spoke in favor of the Russian translation.

5. Other Bible translations. The Bible was first translated into French in 1160 by Peter Wald. The first translation of the Bible into German appeared in 1460. Martin Luther again translated the Bible into German in 1522-1532. The first translation of the Bible into English was made by the Venerable Bede, who lived in the first half of the 8th century. The modern English translation was made under King James in 1603 and published in 1611. In Russia, the Bible was translated into many languages of small nations. Thus, Metropolitan Innocent translated it into the Aleut language, the Kazan Academy - into Tatar and others. The most successful in translating and distributing the Bible in different languages are the British and American Bible Societies. The Bible has now been translated into more than 1,200 languages.
It must also be said that every translation has its advantages and disadvantages. Translations that strive to literally convey the content of the original suffer from ponderousness and difficulty in understanding. On the other hand, translations that strive to convey only the general meaning of the Bible in the most understandable and accessible form often suffer from inaccuracy. The Russian Synodal translation avoids both extremes and combines maximum closeness to the meaning of the original with ease of language.

Old Testament

The Old Testament books were originally written in Hebrew. Later books from the time of the Babylonian captivity already have many Assyrian and Babylonian words and figures of speech. And the books written during Greek rule (non-canonical books) are written in Greek, the Third Book of Ezra is in Latin. The books of the Holy Scriptures came out of the hands of the holy writers in appearance not the same as we see them now. Initially, they were written on parchment or papyrus (which was made from the stems of plants growing in Egypt and Palestine) with a cane (a pointed reed stick) and ink. As a matter of fact, it was not books that were written, but charters on a long parchment or papyrus scroll, which looked like a long ribbon and was wound onto a shaft. Usually scrolls were written on one side. Subsequently, parchment or papyrus tapes, instead of being glued into scroll tapes, began to be sewn into books for ease of use. The text in the ancient scrolls was written in the same large capital letters. Each letter was written separately, but the words were not separated from one another. The whole line was like one word. The reader himself had to divide the line into words and, of course, sometimes did it incorrectly. There were also no punctuation marks or accents in the ancient manuscripts. And in the Hebrew language, vowels were also not written - only consonants.

The division of words in books was introduced in the 5th century by the deacon of the Alexandrian Church Eulalis. Thus, the Bible gradually acquired its modern form. With the modern division of the Bible into chapters and verses, reading the holy books and searching for the right passages in them has become an easy task.

Sacred books in their modern completeness did not appear immediately. The time from Moses (1550 BC) to Samuel (1050 BC) can be called the first period of formation of the Holy Scriptures. The inspired Moses, who wrote down his revelations, laws and narratives, gave the following command to the Levites who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord: “Take this book of the law and lay it on the right hand of the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God” (Deut. 31:26). Subsequent sacred writers continued to attribute their creations to the Pentateuch of Moses with the command to keep them in the same place where it was kept - as if in one book.

Old Testament Scripture contains the following books:

1. Books of the Prophet Moses, or Torah(containing the foundations of the Old Testament faith): Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy.

2. Historical books: Book of Joshua, Book of Judges, Book of Ruth, Books of Kings: First, Second, Third and Fourth, Books of Chronicles: First and Second, First Book of Ezra, Book of Nehemiah, Book of Esther.

3. Educational books(edifying content): Book of Job, Psalms, book of parables of Solomon, Book of Ecclesiastes, Book of Song of Songs.

4. Prophetic books(mainly prophetic content): The Book of the Prophet Isaiah, The Book of the Prophet Jeremiah, The Book of the Prophet Ezekiel, The Book of the Prophet Daniel, The Twelve Books of the “minor” prophets: Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi.

5. In addition to these books of the Old Testament list, the Bible contains nine more books, called "non-canonical": Tobit, Judith, Wisdom of Solomon, Book of Jesus son of Sirach, Second and Third Books of Ezra, three Books of Maccabees. They are called so because they were written after the list (canon) of sacred books was completed. Some modern editions of the Bible do not have these “non-canonical” books, but the Russian Bible does. The above titles of the holy books are taken from the Greek translation of seventy commentators. In the Hebrew Bible and in some modern translations of the Bible, several Old Testament books have different names.

New Testament

Gospels

The word Gospel means “good news,” or “pleasant, joyful, good news.” This name is given to the first four books of the New Testament, which tell about the life and teaching of the incarnate Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ - about everything that He did to establish a righteous life on earth and the salvation of us sinful people.

The time of writing of each of the holy books of the New Testament cannot be determined with absolute accuracy, but it is absolutely certain that they were all written in the second half of the 1st century. The first of the New Testament books were written by the epistles of the holy apostles, caused by the need to strengthen the newly founded Christian communities in the faith; but soon the need arose for a systematic presentation of the earthly life of the Lord Jesus Christ and His teachings. For a number of reasons, we can conclude that the Gospel of Matthew was written earlier than anyone else and no later than 50-60 years. according to R.H. The Gospels of Mark and Luke were written somewhat later, but in any case earlier than the destruction of Jerusalem, that is, before 70 A.D., and the evangelist John the Theologian wrote his Gospel later than everyone else, at the end of the first century, being already in old age , as some suggest, around '96. Somewhat earlier he wrote the Apocalypse. The book of Acts was written shortly after the Gospel of Luke, because, as can be seen from the preface to it, it serves as its continuation.

All four Gospels narrate in agreement about the life and teachings of Christ the Savior, about His suffering on the Cross, death and burial, His glorious Resurrection from the dead and Ascension. Mutually complementing and explaining each other, they represent a single whole book that does not have any contradictions or disagreements in the most important and fundamental aspects.

A common symbol for the four Gospels is the mysterious chariot that the prophet Ezekiel saw at the river Chebar (Ezekiel 1:1-28) and which consisted of four creatures resembling a man, a lion, a calf and an eagle. These beings, taken individually, became emblems for the evangelists. Christian art since the 5th century depicts Matthew with a man or, Mark with a lion, Luke with a calf, John with an eagle.

In addition to our four Gospels, in the first centuries up to 50 other writings were known, which also called themselves “gospels” and ascribed apostolic origin to themselves. The Church classified them as “apocryphal” - that is, unreliable, rejected books. These books contain distorted and questionable narratives. Such apocryphal Gospels include the First Gospel of James, The Story of Joseph the Carpenter, The Gospel of Thomas, The Gospel of Nicodemus and others. In them, by the way, for the first time legends relating to the childhood of the Lord Jesus Christ were recorded.

Of the four Gospels, the contents of the first three are from Matthew, Brand And Bows- largely coincides, close to each other both in the narrative material itself and in the form of presentation. The fourth Gospel is from Joanna in this respect, it stands apart, differing significantly from the first three, both in the material presented in it, and in the style and form of presentation itself. In this regard, the first three Gospels are usually called synoptic, from the Greek word “synopsis”, which means “presentation in one general image”. The Synoptic Gospels tell almost exclusively about the activities of the Lord Jesus Christ in Galilee, and the Evangelist John in Judea. Forecasters talk mainly about miracles, parables and external events in the life of the Lord, the Evangelist John discusses its deepest meaning, and cites the Lord’s speeches about sublime objects of faith. Despite all the differences between the Gospels, there are no internal contradictions in them. Thus, the weather forecasters and John complement each other and only in their totality give a complete image of Christ, as he is perceived and preached by the Church.

Gospel of Matthew

Evangelist Matthew, who also bore the name Levi, was one of the 12 apostles of Christ. Before his calling to the apostle, he was a publican, that is, a tax collector, and, as such, of course, he was disliked by his compatriots - the Jews, who despised and hated publicans because they served the unfaithful enslavers of their people and oppressed their people by collecting taxes, and in In their desire for profit, they often took much more than they should. Matthew talks about his calling in the 9th chapter of his Gospel (Matthew 9:9-13), calling himself by the name of Matthew, while the evangelists Mark and Luke, speaking about the same thing, call him Levi. It was customary for Jews to have several names. Touched to the depths of his soul by the mercy of the Lord, who did not disdain him, despite the general contempt for him of the Jews and especially the spiritual leaders of the Jewish people, the scribes and Pharisees, Matthew with all his heart accepted the teaching of Christ and especially deeply understood its superiority over the Pharisees' traditions and views, which bore the stamp of external righteousness, conceit and contempt for sinners. That is why he cites in such detail the Lord's powerful diatribe against
lowlifes and Pharisees - hypocrites, which we find in the 23rd chapter of his Gospel (Matthew 23). It must be assumed that for the same reason he took especially close to his heart the cause of saving his native Jewish people, who by that time were so saturated with false concepts and Pharisaic views, and therefore his Gospel was written primarily for Jews. There is reason to believe that it was originally written in Hebrew and only a little later, perhaps by Matthew himself, translated into Greek.

Having written his Gospel for the Jews, Matthew sets as his main goal to prove to them that Jesus Christ is precisely the Messiah about whom the Old Testament prophets predicted, that the Old Testament revelation, obscured by the scribes and Pharisees, is only understood in Christianity and perceives its perfect meaning. Therefore, he begins his Gospel with the genealogy of Jesus Christ, wanting to show the Jews His descent from David and Abraham, and makes a huge number of references to the Old Testament in order to prove the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies on Him. The purpose of the first Gospel for the Jews is clear from the fact that Matthew, mentioning Jewish customs, does not consider it necessary to explain their meaning and significance, as other evangelists do. Likewise, it leaves without explanation some Aramaic words used in Palestine. Matthew preached in Palestine for a long time. Then he retired to preach in other countries and ended his life as a martyr in Ethiopia.

Gospel of Mark

The Evangelist Mark also bore the name John. He was also a Jew by origin, but was not one of the 12 apostles. Therefore, he could not be a constant companion and listener of the Lord, as Matthew was. He wrote his Gospel from the words and under the guidance of the Apostle Peter. He himself, in all likelihood, was an eyewitness only to the last days of the Lord’s earthly life. Only one Gospel of Mark tells about a young man who, when the Lord was taken into custody in the Garden of Gethsemane, followed Him, wrapped in a veil over his naked body, and the soldiers grabbed him, but he, leaving the veil, ran away naked from them (Mark 14:51-52). In this young man, ancient tradition sees the very author of the second Gospel - Mark. His mother Mary is mentioned in the Book of Acts as one of the wives most devoted to the faith of Christ. In her home in Jerusalem, believers gathered for. Mark subsequently participates in the first journey of the Apostle Paul along with his other companion Barnabas, whose maternal nephew he was. He was with the Apostle Paul in Rome, where the Epistle to the Colossians was written. Further, as can be seen, Mark became a companion and collaborator of the Apostle Peter, which is confirmed by the words of the Apostle Peter himself in his first Council Epistle, where he writes: “The church chosen like you in Babylon, and Mark my son, greets you” (1 Pet. 5:13, here Babylon is probably an allegorical name for Rome).

Icon “St. Mark the Evangelist. First half of the 17th century

Before his departure, the Apostle Paul calls him again, who writes to Timothy: “Take Mark... with you, for I need him for ministry” (2 Tim. 4:11). According to legend, the Apostle Peter appointed Mark the first bishop of the Alexandrian Church, and Mark ended his life as a martyr in Alexandria. According to the testimony of Papias, Bishop of Hierapolis, as well as Justin the Philosopher and Irenaeus of Lyons, Mark wrote his Gospel from the words of the Apostle Peter. Justin even directly calls it “the memorial notes of Peter.” Clement of Alexandria claims that the Gospel of Mark is essentially a recording of the oral sermon of the Apostle Peter, which Mark did at the request of Christians living in Rome. The very content of the Gospel of Mark indicates that it is intended for Gentile Christians. It says very little about the relationship of the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ to the Old Testament and provides very few references to the Old Testament holy books. At the same time, we find Latin words in it, such as speculator and others. Even the Sermon on the Mount, as explaining the superiority of the New Testament Law over the Old Testament, is skipped. But Mark’s main attention is to give in his Gospel a strong, vivid narrative of the miracles of Christ, thereby emphasizing the Royal greatness and omnipotence of the Lord. In his Gospel, Jesus is not the “son of David”, as in Matthew, but the Son of God, Lord and Ruler, King of the Universe.

Gospel of Luke

The ancient historian Eusebius of Caesarea says that Luke came from Antioch, and therefore it is generally accepted that Luke was, by origin, a pagan or a so-called “proselyte,” that is, a pagan, prince

revealed Judaism. By occupation he was a doctor, as can be seen from the Epistle of the Apostle Paul to the Colossians. Church Tradition adds to this that he was also a painter. From the fact that his Gospel contains the Lord’s instructions to the 70 disciples, set out in great detail, it is concluded that he belonged to the 70 disciples of Christ.
There is information that after the death of the Apostle Paul, the Evangelist Luke preached and accepted

Evangelist Luke

martyrdom in Achaia. His holy relics under Emperor Constantius (in the middle of the 4th century) were transferred from there to Constantinople along with the relics of the Apostle Andrew the First-Called. As can be seen from the very preface of the third Gospel, Luke wrote it at the request of one noble man, the “venerable” Theophilus, who lived in Antioch, for whom he then wrote the Book of the Acts of the Apostles, which serves as a continuation of the gospel narrative (see Luke 1:1 -4; Acts 1:1-2). At the same time, he used not only the accounts of eyewitnesses of the Lord’s ministry, but also some written records about the life and teachings of the Lord that already existed at that time. According to his own words, these written records were subjected to the most careful study, and therefore his Gospel is particularly accurate in determining the time and place of events and strict chronological sequence.

The Gospel of Luke was clearly influenced by the Apostle Paul, whose companion and collaborator was the Evangelist Luke. As the “apostle of the Gentiles,” Paul tried most of all to reveal the great truth that the Messiah - Christ - came to earth not only for the Jews, but also for the pagans, and that He is the Savior of the whole world, of all people. In connection with this main idea, which the third Gospel clearly carries throughout its narrative, the genealogy of Jesus Christ is brought to the ancestor of all humanity, Adam, and to God Himself, in order to emphasize His significance for the entire human race (see Luke 3:23-38 ).

The time and place of writing of the Gospel of Luke can be determined based on the consideration that it was written earlier than the Book of Acts of the Apostles, which constitutes, as it were, its continuation (see Acts 1:1). The book of Acts ends with a description of the two-year stay of the Apostle Paul in Rome (see Acts 28:30). This was around 63 A.D. Consequently, the Gospel of Luke was written no later than this time and, presumably, in Rome.

Gospel of John

The Evangelist John the Theologian was a beloved disciple of Christ. He was the son of the Galilean fisherman Zebedee and Solomiah. Zavedei was, apparently, a wealthy man, since he had workers, and was apparently not an insignificant member of Jewish society, for his son John had an acquaintance with the high priest. His mother Solomiya is mentioned among the wives who served the Lord with their property. The Evangelist John was first a disciple of John the Baptist. Having heard his testimony about Christ as the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, he and Andrew immediately followed Christ (see John 1:35-40). He became a constant disciple of the Lord, however, a little later, after a miraculous catch of fish on Lake Gennesaret (Galilee), when the Lord Himself called him along with his brother Jacob. Together with Peter and his brother James, he was honored with special closeness to the Lord. Yes, being with Him in the most important and solemn moments of His earthly life. This love of the Lord for him was also reflected in the fact that the Lord, hanging on the Cross, entrusted His Most Pure Mother to him, saying to him: “Behold your Mother!” (see John 19:27).

John traveled to Jerusalem through Samaria (see Luke 9:54). For this, he and his brother Jacob received from the Lord the nickname “Boanerges,” which means “sons of Thunder.” From the time of the destruction of Jerusalem, the city of Ephesus in Asia Minor became the place of life and activity of John. During the reign of Emperor Domitian, he was sent into exile on the island of Patmos, where he wrote the Apocalypse (see Rev. 1:9). Returned from this exile to Ephesus, he wrote his Gospel there and died of his own death (the only one of the apostles), according to a very mysterious legend, at a very old age, being about 105 years old, during the reign of Emperor Trajan. As tradition says, the fourth Gospel was written by John at the request of the Ephesian Christians. They brought him the first three Gospels and asked him to supplement them with the speeches of the Lord, which he had heard from Him.

A distinctive feature of the Gospel of John is clearly expressed in the name that was given to it in ancient times. Unlike the first three Gospels, it was primarily called the spiritual Gospel. The Gospel of John begins with an exposition of the doctrine of the Divinity of Jesus Christ, and then contains a whole series of the most sublime speeches of the Lord, in which His Divine dignity and the deepest sacraments of faith are revealed, such as, for example, a conversation with Nicodemus about being born again by water and the spirit and about the sacrament redemption (John 3:1-21), a conversation with a Samaritan woman about living water and about worshiping God in spirit and truth (John 4:6-42), a conversation about the bread that came down from heaven and about the sacrament of communion (John 6 :22-58), a conversation about the good shepherd (John 10:11-30) and, especially remarkable in its content, the farewell conversation with the disciples at the Last Supper (John 13-16) with the final wondrous, so-called “high priestly prayer” of the Lord (John 17). John penetrated deeply into the sublime mystery of Christian love - and no one, like him in his Gospel and in his three Council Epistles, revealed so fully, deeply and convincingly the Christian teaching about the two main commandments of the Law of God - about love for God and about love to your neighbor. Therefore, he is also called the apostle of love.

Book of Acts and Council Epistles

As the composition of Christian communities spread and increased in different parts of the vast Roman Empire, naturally, Christians arose questions of a religious, moral and practical nature. The apostles, not always having the opportunity to personally examine these issues on the spot, responded to them in their letters and messages. Therefore, while the Gospels contain the foundations of the Christian faith, the apostolic epistles reveal some aspects of Christ's teaching in more detail and show its practical application. Thanks to the apostolic epistles, we have living evidence of how the apostles taught and how the first Christian communities were formed and lived.

Book of Acts is a direct continuation of the Gospel. The purpose of its author is to describe the events that occurred after the ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ and to give an outline of the initial structure of the Church of Christ. This book tells in particular detail about the missionary labors of the apostles Peter and Paul. Saint John Chrysostom, in his conversation about the Book of Acts, explains its great significance for Christianity, confirming the truth of the Gospel teaching with facts from the life of the apostles: “This book contains primarily evidence of the resurrection.” That is why on Easter night, before the glorification of the resurrection of Christ begins, chapters from the Book of Acts are read in Orthodox churches. For the same reason, this book is read in its entirety during the period from Easter to Pentecost during daily liturgies.

The Book of Acts narrates the events from the Ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ to the arrival of the Apostle Paul in Rome and covers a period of time of about 30 years. Chapters 1-12 tell about the activities of the Apostle Peter among the Jews of Palestine; Chapters 13-28 are about the activities of the Apostle Paul among the pagans and the spread of the teachings of Christ beyond the borders of Palestine. The narrative of the book ends with an indication that the Apostle Paul lived in Rome for two years and preached the teachings of Christ there without restraint (Acts 28:30-31).

Council messages

The name “Conciliar” refers to seven epistles written by the apostles: one by James, two by Peter, three by John the Theologian, and one by Judas (not Iscariot). As part of the books of the New Testament of the Orthodox edition, they are placed immediately after the Book of Acts. They were called cathedral by the Church in early times. “Soborny” is “district” in the sense that they are addressed not to individuals, but to all Christian communities in general. The entire composition of the Council Epistles was named by this name for the first time by the historian Eusebius (beginning of the 4th century AD). The Council Epistles differ from the epistles of the Apostle Paul in that they contain more general basic doctrinal instructions, while the content of the Apostle Paul is adapted to the circumstances of those local Churches to which he addresses, and has a more special character.

Epistle of the Apostle James

This message was intended for the Jews: “the twelve tribes that were scattered,” which did not exclude the Jews living in Palestine. The time and place of the message are not indicated. Apparently, the message was written by him shortly before his death, probably in 55-60. The place of writing is probably Jerusalem, where the apostle lived constantly. The reason for writing was the sorrows that the Jews suffered from dispersion from the pagans and, in particular, from their unbelieving brothers. The trials were so great that many began to lose heart and waver in faith. Some grumbled at external disasters and at God Himself, but still saw their salvation in their descent from Abraham. They looked at prayer incorrectly, did not underestimate the importance of good deeds, but willingly became teachers of others. At the same time, the rich exalted themselves over the poor, and brotherly love cooled. All this prompted Jacob to give them the moral healing they needed in the form of a message.

Epistles of the Apostle Peter

First Council Epistle The Apostle Peter is addressed to “the strangers scattered in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia” - the provinces of Asia Minor. By “newcomers” we must understand mainly the believing Jews, as well as the pagans who were part of the Christian communities. These communities were founded by the Apostle Paul. The reason for writing the letter was the desire of the Apostle Peter to “strengthen his brothers” (see Luke 22:32) when troubles arose in these communities and persecutions that befell them from the enemies of the Cross of Christ. Internal enemies also appeared among Christians in the form of false teachers. Taking advantage of the absence of the Apostle Paul, they began to distort his teaching about Christian freedom and patronize all moral laxity (see 1 Pet. 2:16; Pet. 1:9; 2, 1). The purpose of this letter of Peter is to encourage, console and confirm the Christians of Asia Minor in the faith, as the Apostle Peter himself pointed out: “I wrote this briefly to you through Silvanus, your faithful brother, as I think, to assure you, comforting and testifying, that this is true. the grace of God in which you stand” (1 Pet. 5:12).

Second Council Epistle written to the same Christians of Asia Minor. In this letter, the Apostle Peter with particular force warns believers against depraved false teachers. These false teachings are similar to those denounced by the Apostle Paul in his letters to Timothy and Titus, as well as by the Apostle Jude in his Council Epistle.

There is no reliable information about the purpose of the Second Council Epistle, except for what is contained in the message itself. It is unknown who the “chosen lady” and her children were. It is only clear that they were Christians (there is an interpretation that the “Lady” is the Church, and the “children” are Christians). As for the time and place of writing this epistle, one can think that it was written at the same time as the first one, and in the same Ephesus. The Second Epistle of John has only one chapter. In it the apostle expresses his joy that the children of the chosen lady walk in the truth, promises to visit her, and emphatically exhorts them not to have any fellowship with false teachers.

Third Council Epistle: addressed to Gaius or Kai. Who it was is not known exactly. From the apostolic writings and from Church Tradition it is known that this name was borne by several persons (see Acts 19:29; Acts 20:4; Rom. 16:23; 1 Cor. 1:14, etc.), but to whom It is impossible to determine whether it was from them or to whom else this message was written. Apparently, this Guy did not hold any hierarchical position, but was simply a pious Christian, a stranger. Regarding the time and place of writing of the third letter, it can be assumed that: both of these letters were written at approximately the same time, all in the same city of Ephesus, where the Apostle John spent the last years of his earthly life. This message also consists of only one chapter. In it, the apostle praises Gaius for his virtuous life, firmness in faith and “walking in the truth,” and especially for his virtue of welcoming strangers in relation to the preachers of the Word of God, condemns the power-hungry Diotrephes, reports some news and sends greetings.

Epistle of the Apostle Jude

The writer of this letter calls himself “Judas, the servant of Jesus Christ, the brother of James.” From this we can conclude that this is one person with the Apostle Jude from among the twelve, who was called Jacob, as well as Levway (not to be confused with Levi) and Thaddeus (see Matt. 10:3; Mark 3:18; Luke 6: 16; Acts 1:13; John 14:22). He was the son of Joseph the Betrothed from his first wife and the brother of Joseph's children - Jacob, later Bishop of Jerusalem, nicknamed the Righteous, Josiah and Simon, later also Bishop of Jerusalem. According to legend, his first name was Judas, he received the name Thaddeus after being baptized by John the Baptist, and he received the name Levveya after joining the ranks of the 12 apostles, perhaps to distinguish him from his namesake Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor. Tradition says about the apostolic ministry of Judas after the Ascension of the Lord that he preached first in Judea, Galilee, Samaria and Coming, and then in Arabia, Syria and Mesopotamia, Persia and Armenia, in which he died a martyr, crucified on the cross and pierced by arrows. The reasons for writing the letter, as can be seen from verse 3, were Jude’s concern “for the general salvation of souls” and concern about the strengthening of false teachings (Jude 1:3). Saint Jude directly says that he writes because wicked people have crept into the society of Christians, turning Christian freedom into an excuse for debauchery. These are, undoubtedly, false Gnostic teachers who encouraged debauchery under the guise of “mortifying” sinful flesh and considered the world not the creation of God, but the product of lower forces hostile to Him. These are the same Simonians and Nicolaitans whom the Evangelist John denounces in chapters 2 and 3 of the Apocalypse. The purpose of the message is to warn Christians against being carried away by these false teachings that flatter sensuality. The Epistle is intended for all Christians in general, but from its content it is clear that it was intended for a certain circle of people into which false teachers found access. It can be reliably assumed that this letter was originally addressed to the same Churches of Asia Minor to which the Apostle Peter later wrote.

Epistles of the Apostle Paul

Of all the New Testament sacred writers, the Apostle Paul worked most hard in presenting Christian teaching, writing 14 epistles. Due to the importance of their content, they are rightly called the “second Gospel” and have always attracted the attention of both philosophical thinkers and ordinary believers. The apostles themselves did not ignore these edifying creations of their “beloved brother”, younger in time of conversion to Christ, but equal to them in the spirit of teaching and grace-filled gifts (see 2 Pet. 3:15-16). Constituting a necessary and important addition to the gospel teaching, the letters of the Apostle Paul should be the subject of the most careful and diligent study of every person seeking to gain a deeper understanding of the Christian faith. These messages are distinguished by a special height of religious thought, reflecting the extensive scholarship and knowledge of the Old Testament Scripture of the Apostle Paul, as well as his deep understanding of the New Testament teaching of Christ. Sometimes not finding the necessary words in modern Greek, the Apostle Paul was sometimes forced to create his own word combinations to express his thoughts, which later came into wide use among Christian writers. Such phrases include: “to be raised from the dead,” “to be buried in Christ,” “to put on Christ,” “to put off the old man,” “to be saved by the washing of rebirth,” “the law of the spirit of life,” etc.

Book of Revelation, or Apocalypse

The Apocalypse (or translated from Greek - Revelation) of John the Theologian is the only prophetic book of the New Testament. It predicts the future destinies of mankind, the end of the world and the beginning of a new eternal life and therefore, naturally, is placed at the end of the Holy Scriptures. The Apocalypse is a mysterious and difficult book to understand, but at the same time, it is the mysterious nature of this book that attracts the attention of both believing Christians and simply inquisitive thinkers trying to unravel the meaning and significance of the visions described in it. There are a huge number of books about the Apocalypse, among which there are many nonsense works, this especially applies to modern sectarian literature. Despite the difficulty of understanding this book, the spiritually enlightened fathers and teachers of the Church have always treated it with great reverence as inspired by God. Thus, Dionysius of Alexandria writes: “The darkness of this book does not prevent one from being surprised by it. And if I don’t understand everything about it, it’s only because of my inability. I cannot be a judge of the truths contained in it, and measure them by the poverty of my mind; Guided more by faith than by reason, I find them only beyond my understanding.” Blessed Jerome speaks in the same way about the Apocalypse: “It contains as many secrets as words. But what am I saying? Any praise for this book would be beneath its dignity.” The Apocalypse is not read during the divine service because in ancient times the reading of the Holy Scriptures during the divine service was always accompanied by its explanation, and the Apocalypse is very difficult to explain (however, in the Typikon there is an indication of the reading of the Apocalypse as an edifying reading at a certain period of the year).
About the author of the Apocalypse
The author of the Apocalypse calls himself John (see Rev. 1:1-9; Rev. 22:8). According to the general opinion of the holy fathers of the Church, this was the Apostle John, the beloved disciple of Christ, who received the distinctive name “Theologian” for the height of his teaching about God the Word. His authorship is confirmed both by data in the Apocalypse itself and by many other internal and external signs. The Gospel and three Council Epistles also belong to the inspired pen of the Apostle John the Theologian. The author of the Apocalypse says that he was on the island of Patmos for the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ (Rev. 1:9). From church history it is known that of the apostles, only John the Theologian was imprisoned on this island. Proof of the authorship of the Apocalypse of the Apostle John the Theologian is the similarity of this book with his Gospel and epistles, not only in spirit, but also in style, and especially in some characteristic expressions. An ancient legend dates the writing of the Apocalypse to the end of the 1st century. So, for example, Irenaeus writes: “The Apocalypse appeared shortly before this and almost in our time, at the end of the reign of Domitian.” The purpose of writing the Apocalypse is to depict the upcoming struggle of the Church with the forces of evil; show the methods by which the devil, with the assistance of his servants, fights against good and truth; provide guidance to believers on how to overcome temptation; depict the death of the enemies of the Church and the final victory of Christ over evil.

Horsemen of the Apocalypse

The Apostle John in the Apocalypse reveals common methods of deception, and also shows the sure way to avoid them in order to be faithful to Christ until death. Likewise, the Judgment of God, which the Apocalypse repeatedly speaks of, is both the Last Judgment of God and all the private judgments of God over individual countries and people. This includes the judgment of all mankind under Noah, and the trial of the ancient cities of Sodom and Gomorrah under Abraham, and the trial of Egypt under Moses, and the double trial of Judea (six centuries before the birth of Christ and again in the seventies of our era), and the trial of ancient Nineveh, Babylon, the Roman Empire, Byzantium and, relatively recently, Russia). The reasons that caused God's righteous punishment were always the same: people's unbelief and lawlessness. A certain transtemporality or timelessness is noticeable in the Apocalypse. It follows from the fact that the Apostle John contemplated the destinies of mankind not from an earthly, but from a heavenly perspective, where the Spirit of God led him. In an ideal world, the flow of time stops at the Throne of the Most High and the present, past and future appear before the spiritual gaze at the same time. Obviously, this is why the author of the Apocalypse describes some future events as past, and past ones as present. For example, the war of Angels in Heaven and the overthrow of the devil from there - events that happened even before the creation of the world, are described by the Apostle John as happening at the dawn of Christianity (Rev. 12). The resurrection of the martyrs and their reign in Heaven, which covers the entire New Testament era, is placed by him after the trial of the Antichrist and the false prophet (Rev. 20 ch.). Thus, the viewer does not narrate the chronological sequence of events, but reveals the essence of that great war of evil with good, which goes on simultaneously on several fronts and captures both the material and the angelic world.

From the book of Bishop Alexander (Mileant)

Bible Facts:

Methuselah is the main long-liver in the Bible. He lived for almost a thousand years and died at the age of 969.

More than forty people worked on the texts of Scripture, many of whom did not even know each other. However, there are no obvious contradictions or inconsistencies in the Bible.

From a literary point of view, the Sermon on the Mount, written in the Bible, is a perfect text.

The Bible was the first machine-printed book in Germany in 1450.

The Bible contains prophecies that were fulfilled hundreds of years later.

The Bible is published in tens of thousands of copies every year.

Luther's translation of the Bible into German marked the beginning of Protestantism.

The Bible took 1600 years to write. No other book in the world has undergone such long and meticulous work.

The Bible was divided into chapters and verses by the Bishop of Canterbury, Stephen Langton.

It takes 49 hours of continuous reading to read the entire Bible.

In the 7th century, an English publisher published a Bible with a monstrous typo. One of the Commandments looked like this: “Thou shalt commit adultery.” Almost the entire circulation was liquidated.

The Bible is one of the most commented and quoted books in the world.

Andrey Desnitsky. Bible and archeology

Conversations with the priest. Getting Started with Bible Study

Conversations with the priest. Bible Study with Children

The Bible (“book, composition”) is a collection of sacred texts of Christians, consisting of many parts, combined into the Old Testament and the New Testament. The Bible has a clear division: before and after the birth of Jesus Christ. Before birth it is the Old Testament, after birth it is the New Testament. The New Testament is called the Gospel.

The Bible is a book containing the sacred writings of the Jewish and Christian religions. The Hebrew Bible, a collection of ancient Hebrew sacred texts, is also included in the Christian Bible, forming its first part - the Old Testament. Both Christians and Jews consider it to be a record of the agreement (covenant) made by God with man and revealed to Moses on Mount Sinai. Christians believe that Jesus Christ announced a new Covenant, which is the fulfillment of the Covenant given in Revelation to Moses, but at the same time replaces it. Therefore, the books that tell about the activities of Jesus and his disciples are called the New Testament. The New Testament constitutes the second part of the Christian Bible.

The word "bible" is of ancient Greek origin. In the language of the ancient Greeks, “byblos” meant “books”. In our time, we use this word to call one specific book, consisting of several dozen separate religious works. The Bible is a book of over a thousand pages. The Bible consists of two parts: the Old Testament and the New Testament.
The Old Testament, which tells about God's participation in the life of the Jewish people before the coming of Jesus Christ.
The New Testament, giving information about the life and teachings of Christ in all His truth and beauty. God, through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, granted salvation to people - this is the main teaching of Christianity. Although only the first four books of the New Testament deal directly with the life of Jesus, each of the 27 books in its own way seeks to interpret the meaning of Jesus or show how his teachings apply to the lives of believers.
Gospel (Greek - “good news”) - a biography of Jesus Christ; books revered as sacred in Christianity that tell of the divine nature of Jesus Christ, his birth, life, miracles, death, resurrection and ascension. The Gospels are part of the books of the New Testament.

Bible. New Testament. Gospel.

Bible. Old Testament.

The texts of the Books of the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments presented on this site are taken from the Synodal translation.

Prayer before reading the Holy Gospel

(prayer after the 11th kathisma)

Shine in our hearts, O Master of Mankind, the imperishable light of Your God-understanding, and open our mental eyes, in Your Gospel sermons, understanding, put in us the fear of Your blessed commandments, so that carnal lusts, all straightened, we will go through spiritual life, all of which is for Your good pleasure. both wise and active. For You are the enlightenment of our souls and bodies, O Christ God, and we send up glory to You, with Your Originless Father, and Your Most Holy and Good, and Your Life-giving Spirit, now and ever, and unto ages of ages, Amen.

“There are three ways to read a book,” writes one wise man, “you can read it in order to subject it to critical evaluation; you can read it, looking for pleasure in it for your feelings and imagination, and, finally, you can read it with your conscience. The first read to judge, the second to have fun, the third to improve. The Gospel, which has no equal among books, must first be read only with a simple mind and conscience. Read this way, it will make your conscience tremble on every page before goodness, before high, beautiful morality.”

“When reading the Gospel,” the bishop inspires. Ignatius (Brianchaninov), - do not seek pleasure, do not seek delight, do not seek brilliant thoughts: seek to see the infallibly holy Truth.
Do not be content with one fruitless reading of the Gospel; try to fulfill his commandments, read his deeds. This is the book of life, and you must read it with your life.

Rule regarding reading the Word of God

The reader of the book must do the following:
1) You should not read many sheets and pages, because someone who has read a lot cannot understand everything and keep it in memory.
2) It is not enough to read and think a lot about what is read, for this way what is read is better understood and deepened in memory, and our mind is enlightened.
3) See what is clear or unclear from what you read in the book. When you understand what you're reading, it's good; and when you don’t understand, leave it and continue reading. What is unclear will either be clarified by the next reading, or by repeating another reading, with God’s help, it will become clearer.
4) What the book teaches you to avoid, what it teaches you to seek and do, try to do it in action. Avoid evil and do good.
5) When you only sharpen your mind from a book, but do not correct your will, then from reading the book you will become worse than you were; learned and intelligent fools are more evil than simple ignoramuses.
6) Remember that it is better to love in a Christian way than to have a high understanding; It’s better to live beautifully than to say loudly: “reason boasts, but love creates.”
7) Whatever you yourself learn with God’s help, lovingly teach it to others on occasion, so that the seed sown grows and produces fruit.”

The sacred book of the Christian religion, a record of God's revelations to man received over many millennia. This is a book of divine instructions. It gives us peace in grief, solutions to life's problems, conviction of sin, and the spiritual maturity needed to overcome our worries.

The Bible cannot be called one book. It is a whole collection of books, a library, written under the guidance of God by people who lived in different centuries. The Bible contains history, philosophy, and science. It also includes poetry and drama, biographical information and prophecy. Reading the Bible Gives Us Inspiration It's no surprise that the Bible, in whole or in part, has been translated into more than 1,200 languages. Every year, more copies of the Bible are sold worldwide than any other book.

The Bible truthfully answers questions that have troubled people from time immemorial: “How did man appear?”; "What happens to people after death?"; "Why are we here on earth?"; "Can we know the meaning and meaning of life?" Only the Bible reveals the truth about God, shows the way to eternal life, and explains the eternal problems of sin and suffering.

The Bible is divided into two parts: the Old Testament, which tells about God's participation in the life of the Jewish people before the coming of Jesus Christ, and the New Testament, which gives information about the life and teachings of Christ in all His truth and beauty.

(Greek - “good news”) - the biography of Jesus Christ; books revered as sacred in Christianity that tell of the divine nature of Jesus Christ, his birth, life, miracles, death, resurrection and ascension.

The translation of the Bible into Russian was begun by the Russian Bible Society by the Highest order of the Sovereign Emperor Alexander I in 1816, resumed by the Highest permission of the Sovereign Emperor Alexander II in 1858, completed and published with the blessing of the Holy Synod in 1876. This edition contains the text Synodal translation of 1876, re-verified with the Hebrew text of the Old Testament and the Greek text of the New Testament.

The commentary on the Old and New Testaments and the appendix "The Holy Land in the Time of Our Lord Jesus Christ" are reprinted from the Bible published by the Brussels publishing house "Life with God" (1989).

Download Bible and Gospel

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Download the Bible and Gospel in format:

1 The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God,
2 As it is written in the prophets: Behold, I send My angel before You, who will prepare Your way before You.
3 The voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.
4 John appeared, baptizing in the wilderness and preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins....

1 Genealogy of Jesus Christ, Son of David, Son of Abraham.
2 Abraham begat Isaac; Isaac gave birth to Jacob; Jacob begat Judah and his brothers;
3 Judah begat Perez and Zehra by Tamar; Perez begat Hezrom; Hezrom begat Aram;
4 Aram begot Abinadab; Amminadab begat Nahshon; Nahshon begat Salmon;...

As many have already begun to compose narratives about events that are completely known between us,
as those who from the very beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the Word conveyed to us,
then I decided, after a thorough examination of everything from the beginning, to describe to you in order, venerable Theophilus,
so that you may know the solid foundation of the doctrine in which you have been instructed....

Evangelist Luke

Introduction to the Books of the New Testament

The Scriptures of the New Testament were written in Greek, with the exception of the Gospel of Matthew, which, according to tradition, was written in Hebrew or Aramaic. But since this Hebrew text has not survived, the Greek text is considered the original for the Gospel of Matthew. Thus, only the Greek text of the New Testament is the original, and numerous editions in various modern languages around the world are translations from the Greek original. The Greek language in which the New Testament was written was no longer the classical ancient Greek language and was not, as previously thought, special New Testament language. It is a spoken, everyday language of the 1st century. according to R. X., spread throughout the world and known in science under the name “common dialect,” yet both the style and turns of speech, and the way of thinking of the sacred writers of the New Testament reveal Hebrew or Aramaic influence.

The original text of the New Testament has reached us in a large number of ancient manuscripts, more or less complete, numbering about 5000 (from the 2nd to the 16th centuries). Until recent years, the most ancient of them did not go back further than the 4th century. according to R. X. But recently many fragments of ancient manuscripts of the New Testament on papyrus (III and even II centuries) have been discovered. For example, Bodmer's manuscripts: John, Luke, 1 and 2 Pet, Jude - were found and published in the early years of the 20th century. In addition to Greek manuscripts, we have ancient translations or versions in Latin, Syriac, Coptic and other languages (Vetus Itala, Peshitto, Vulgata, etc.), of which the most ancient existed already from the 2nd century to A.D.

Finally, numerous quotes from the Church Fathers have been preserved in Greek and other languages in such quantities that if the text of the New Testament were lost and all the ancient manuscripts were destroyed, then experts could restore this text from quotes from the works of the Holy Fathers. All this abundant material makes it possible to check and clarify the text of the New Testament and classify its various forms (so-called textual criticism). Compared with any ancient author (Homer, Euripides, Aeschylus, Sophocles, Cornelius Nepos, Julius Caesar, Horace, Virgil, etc.), our modern - printed - Greek text of the New Testament is in an exceptionally favorable position. Both in terms of the number of manuscripts and the short period of time. separating the oldest of them from the original, and in the number of translations, and in their antiquity, and in the seriousness and volume of critical work carried out on the text, it surpasses all other texts (for details, see: “Hidden Treasures and New Life,” archaeological discoveries and the Gospel , Bruges, 1959, pp. 34 ff.).

The text of the New Testament as a whole is recorded completely irrefutably.

The New Testament consists of 27 books. The publishers have divided them into 260 chapters of unequal length for ease of reference and citation. This division is not present in the original text. The modern division into chapters in the New Testament, as in the whole Bible, has often been attributed to the Dominican Cardinal Hugo (1263), who worked it out while composing a symphony to the Latin Vulgate, but it is now thought with greater reason that the division goes back to the Archbishop of Canterbury, Stephen Langton, who died in 1228. As for the division into verses, now accepted in all editions of the New Testament, it goes back to the publisher of the Greek New Testament text, Robert Stephen, and was introduced by him into his edition in 1551.

The sacred books of the New Testament are usually divided into legal (Four Gospels), historical (Acts of the Apostles), teaching (seven conciliar epistles and fourteen epistles of the Apostle Paul) and prophetic: Apocalypse, or Revelation of St. John the Theologian (see Long Catechism of Metropolitan Philateer)

However, modern experts consider this distribution to be outdated: in fact, all the books of the New Testament are both legal and historical teaching, and prophecy is not only in the Apocalypse. New Testament scholarship pays great attention to the precise establishment of the chronology of the Gospels and other New Testament events. Scientific chronology allows the reader to trace with sufficient accuracy through the New Testament the life and ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ, the apostles and the primitive Church (see Appendices).

The books of the New Testament can be distributed as follows.

Three so-called synoptic Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke and separately, the fourth is the Gospel of John. New Testament scholarship devotes much attention to the study of the relationships of the first three Gospels and their relation to the Gospel of John (synoptic problem).
The Book of the Acts of the Apostles and the Epistles of the Apostle Paul ("Corpus Paulinum"), which are usually divided into:
- Early Epistles: 1 and 2 Thessalonians;
- Greater Epistles: Galatians, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Romans;
- Messages from bonds, that is, written from Rome, where St. Paul was in prison: to the Philippians, to the Colossians, to the Ephesians, to Philimoi;
- Pastoral Epistles: 1 to Timothy, to Titus, 2 to Timothy;
- Epistle to the Hebrews;
Council Epistles ("Corpus Catholicum")
Revelation of John the Theologian. (Sometimes in the New Testament they distinguish “Corpus Joannicum”, i.e. everything that Apostle John wrote for the comparative study of his Gospel in connection with his epistles and Rev.)

Four Gospels

The word "gospel" in Greek means "good news." This is what our Lord Jesus Christ Himself called his teaching (Matthew 24:14; 26:13; Mark 1:15; 13:10; 19:; 16:15). Therefore, for us, the “gospel” is inextricably linked with Him: it is the “good news” of the salvation given to the world through the incarnate Son of God. Christ and His apostles preached the gospel without writing it down. By the mid-1st century, this preaching was established by the Church in a strong oral tradition. The Eastern custom of memorizing sayings, stories, and even large texts helped Christians of the apostolic era accurately preserve the unrecorded First Gospel. After the 50s, when eyewitnesses of Christ's earthly ministry began to pass away one after another, the need arose to write down the gospel (Luke 1:1). Thus, the “gospel” came to mean the narrative of the Savior’s teaching recorded by the apostles. It was read at prayer meetings and in preparing people for baptism.
The most important Christian centers of the 1st century. (Jerusalem, Antioch, Rome, Ephesus, etc.) had their own Gospels. Of these, only four (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John) are recognized by the Church as inspired, that is, written under the direct influence of the Holy Spirit. They are called “from Matthew”, “from Mark”, etc. (the Greek kata corresponds to the Russian “according to Matthew”, “according to Mark”, etc.), for the life and teachings of Christ are set out in these books by these four sacred writers. Their gospels were not compiled into one book, which made it possible to see the gospel story from different points of view. In the II century. St. Irenaeus of Lyons calls the evangelists by name and points to their gospels as the only canonical ones (Against heresies, 2, 28, 2). Contemporary of St. Irenaeus Tatian made the first attempt to create a single gospel narrative, composed of various texts from the four gospels, the Diatessaron, i.e., the “gospel of the four.”
The apostles did not set out to create a historical work in the modern sense of the word. They sought to spread the teachings of Jesus Christ, helped people to believe in Him, to correctly understand and fulfill His commandments. The testimonies of the evangelists do not coincide in all details, which proves their independence from each other: the testimonies of eyewitnesses always have an individual coloring. The Holy Spirit does not certify the accuracy of the details of the facts described in the gospel, but the spiritual meaning contained in them.
The minor contradictions found in the presentation of the evangelists are explained by the fact that God gave the sacred writers complete freedom in conveying certain specific facts in relation to different categories of listeners, which further emphasizes the unity of meaning and orientation of all four gospels.

Books of the New Testament

Gospel of Matthew
Gospel of Mark
Gospel of Luke
Gospel of John

Acts of the Holy Apostles

Council Epistles

Epistle of James
First Epistle of Peter
Second Epistle of Peter
First Epistle of John
Second Epistle of John
Third Epistle of John
Epistle of Jude

Epistles of the Apostle Paul

Epistle to the Romans
First Epistle to the Corinthians
Second Epistle to the Corinthians
Epistle to the Galatians
Epistle to the Ephesians
Epistle to the Philippians
Epistle to the Colossians
First Epistle to the Thessalonians
Second Epistle to the Thessalonians
First Epistle to Timothy
Second Epistle to Timothy
Epistle to Titus
Epistle to Philemon
Hebrews

Revelation of John the Evangelist

Bible. Gospel. New Testament. Download the Bible. Download the Gospel of: Luke, Mark, Matthew, John. Revelation of John the Theologian (Apocalypse). Act of the Apostles. Letter of the Apostles. Download in format: fb2, doc, docx, pdf, lit, isilo.pdb, rb

How to Study the Bible

These tips will help you make your Bible study more fruitful.

Read the Bible daily, in a quiet and peaceful place where no one will disturb you. Daily reading, even if you do not read that much each day, is more beneficial than any occasional reading. You can start with 15 minutes a day and then gradually increase the time allotted for Bible reading
Set a goal for yourself to know God better and to achieve a deep love for God in your communication with Him. God speaks to us through His Word, and we speak to Him in prayers.
Start reading the Bible with prayer. Ask God to reveal Himself and His will to you. Confess to Him the sins that may hinder your approach to God.
Take short notes as you read the Bible Write your notes in a notebook or keep a spiritual journal to record your thoughts and inner experiences
Read slowly one chapter, or maybe two or three chapters. You can read just one paragraph, but be sure to reread at least once everything you read before in one sitting.
As a rule, it is very useful to provide written answers to the following questions when understanding the true meaning of a particular chapter or paragraph: a What is the main idea of the text you read? What is its meaning?
Which verse of the text expresses the main idea? (Such “key verses” should be memorized by reading them aloud several times. Knowing the verses by heart will allow you to reflect on important spiritual truths throughout the day, when, for example, you are standing in line or riding public transport, etc. Is there in the text you read a command that I must obey? Is there a promise that I can claim to fulfill? d How will I benefit from accepting the truth expressed in the text? e. How should I use this truth in my own life, in accordance with the will of God? ( Avoid general and vague statements Try to be clear and specific as possible In your notebook, write how and when you will use the teaching of a particular paragraph or chapter in your life)
End your classes with prayer Ask God to give you inner spiritual strength to draw closer to Him on this day Continue to talk to God throughout the day His presence will help you be strong in any situation