На вопрос о том, что такое Библия, ответить briefly impossible. In the 3rd century BC. king of Egypt Ptolemy wanted to have a Greek translation of the Bible in the library of Alexandria. But the interpreter sent from Judea did not know what to translate. And they explained it with the following fact. In the Hebrew text of the Bible there are several levels of text. First, words are read, then certain letters are counted: each 7, then each 10, each 50. And a new text is obtained, which serves as an interpretation to the previous one. Ptolemy ordered to translate just the main text. Thus, the Septuagint was born - the translation of the Old Testament books into the Ancient Greek language. But this is only the history of the Bible. And if you look from the worldly point of view, then the question of what the Bible is, has a direct answer: The Bible is a collection of books that are divided into 2 parts: the Old Testament and the New Testament.
- books of laws;
- historical books;
- books are instructive;
- books are prophetic.
The books of the laws (the law in Hebrew - "torah") are called the Pentateuch of Moses in another way, and they consist of the following books:
- Genesis - tells us about the creation of the world and man,about the omnipotence of God, his wisdom and great love, the manifestation of which was the creation of man in his image and likeness. Genesis describes the greatest tragedy - the fall of man and his expulsion from paradise.
- Exodus - tells about the migration of Jews from Egypt. The heart of this book is the greatest event - the Sinai revelation. This is a narrative of how Moses received the Ten Commandments from God.
- Leviticus is a book about the Old Testament clergy.
- Numbers - tells about the number of tribes of Israel, and also continues the description of the wanderings of Jews in the desert.
- Deuteronomy is the repetition of Moses' commandments to a new generation that was born during the exodus.
To summarize, let us say that in the books of the law God taught people the law of truth in order to prepare them for the adoption of the law of love that Christ will bring.
Historical books include:
- The book of Joshua tells of the conquest of the promised land.
- Judges of Israel - covers the period from the conquest of Canaan until the appearance of royal power. For at that time the Jews had the only theocratic state in the world.
- Ruth is an addition to the previous book, with an emphasis on the biography of ordinary people.
- The Book of Kings (1-4) describes the historical gap between the reign of King Saul and the destruction of the first temple by Nebuchadnezzar.
- Chronicles is an addition to the previous book.
- The first book of Ezra - contains a detailed description of the return of Jews from the Babylonian captivity, as well as the construction of the 2nd temple.
- The book of Nehemiah complements the previous book and reveals the details of the spiritual revival of the Jewish people.
- Esther - this book narrates about the origins of the appearance of the Jewish Purim holiday.
Teaching books - inherently texts are edifying. They teach a person how to treat the events of everyday life without losing sight of God and his commandments:
- The book of Job describes the life of the great Old Testament righteous Job.
- Solomon's books give us a poetic prototype of the church as the bride of Christ.
- The Psalter is a special part of the Old Testament texts.In the old days in Russia, she learned the ABCs. This is an invaluable source of prayer, and every Divine Service is saturated with prayers from this book. But most importantly, the Psalter is full of vivid prophecies about Christ.
Prophetic books are the books of the four greatprophets: Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel. And also the twelve other small prophets. Almost all the most important prophecies were somehow connected with the birth of Jesus Christ.
In addition, mention should be made of non-canonicaltexts. They are regarded as such because they are not preserved in the Hebrew script. Among them is the Wisdom of Jesus the son of Sirach, the Book of Wisdom of Solomon, Tobit and some others. These books are not included in the Canon, but are included in the Septuagint as useful and edifying. Of course, the division into groups is conditional. There are many historical facts in prophetic books, and in historical books there are prophecies.
That part of the Holy Scripture that waswritten after the birth of Christ, is called the New Testament and is entirely devoted to one key topic and one exceptional person - Jesus Christ, who is both perfect kindness and perfect novelty in the history of mankind. We can say that the New Testament is a great book, which, in turn, consists of 27 books. Of course, judging not by volume, but by the degree of importance. The basis of the New Testament texts is 4 Gospels:
- from Matthew;
- from Mark;
- from Luke;
- from John.
The Gospel in Greek"Good News." And this message was brought by Christ himself, and this message is Christ. The Gospel speaks of the divine origin of Christ, his marvelous Christmas from a virgin, extraordinary wisdom, cross-suffering, death, his glorious resurrection and ascension to heaven. In relation to the rest of the New Testament books, the Gospel is a book of basic truths.
The acts of the holy Apostles can be attributed tohistorical books of the New Testament. This book tells about the life of the first Christian communities, apostolic sermons. Also, 21 epistles of St. The apostles They are a statement of the fundamental truths of Christian dogma.
Among all the New Testament books there is one special- Apocalypse. This Greek word means revelation. From this book we learn about the future fate of the church and the world, about the difficult struggle of the church against all the fiends of hell, about the end of history, the triumph of Jesus Christ and the victory of the lamb of God over the forces of darkness.
About 200 years ago, St. Seraphim of Sarovapproximately as answered the question about what the Bible is: the Bible - there is a book inspired, reading which you can talk with God. If you read the Old Testament, then you talk to God, and if you read the Gospel, then the Lord talks to you. If a person reads the entire Bible with attention, the Lord will not abandon this feat and reward this ascetic with the gift of understanding.
So many years have passed, but no one has refuted the words of the holy elder. Maybe it is?
