Who wrote the Bible? Where did she come from?

Priest Afanasy Gumerov, resident of the Sretensky Monastery, answers:

The Bible consists of the sacred books of the Old and New Testaments. These texts were written by inspired writers at the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. They contain Divine revelations about God, the world and our salvation. The authors of biblical texts were holy people - prophets and apostles. Through them, God gradually (as humanity matured spiritually) revealed truths. The greatest of them is about the Savior of the world Jesus Christ. He is the spiritual heart of the Bible. His incarnation, death on the cross for our sins and Resurrection are the main events of all human history. The Old Testament books contain prophecies about this, and the Holy Gospel and other New Testament texts tell about their fulfillment.

The books of the Old Testament as canonical sacred texts were collected into a single corpus in the middle of the 5th century. BC St. righteous men: Ezra, Nehemiah, Malachi and others. The canon of the New Testament holy books was finally determined by the Church in the 4th century.

The Bible is given to all mankind. Reading it must begin with the Gospel, and then turn to the Acts of the Apostles and the Epistles. Only after understanding the New Testament books should one proceed to the Old Testament books. Then the meaning of prophecies, types and symbols will be clear. In order to perceive the Word of God undistorted, it is useful to turn to the interpretations of the holy fathers or researchers based on their heritage.

“It has served us well, this myth of Christ...”

“Everything will be fine!” said God and created the Earth. Then he created the sky and all kinds of creatures in pairs, he also did not forget about vegetation, so that the creatures had something to eat, and, of course, he created man in his own image and likeness, so that there would be someone to dominate and make fun of at his mistakes and violations of the commandments of the Lord ...

Almost each of us is sure that this is what actually happened. What does the supposedly holy book, which is so ingenuously called, assure? "Book", only in Greek. But it was its Greek name that caught on, "Bible", from which in turn came the name of the book repositories - LIBRARIES.

But even here there is a deception, which few or no one pays attention to. Believers are well aware that this Book consists of 77 the lesser books and the two parts of the Old and New Testaments. Does any of us know that hundreds other small books were not included in this big Book only because the church “bosses” - the high priests - the intermediate link, the so-called intermediaries between people and God, decided so among themselves.

Wherein changed several times not only the composition of the books included in the largest Book itself, but also the contents of these smallest books.

I am not going to analyze the Bible once again; before me, many wonderful people read it with feeling, sense and understanding several times, who thought about what was written in the “holy scripture” and presented what they saw in their works, such as “Biblical Truth” "David Naidis, "Funny Bible" and "Funny Gospel" by Leo Texil, "Bible Pictures..." by Dmitry Baida and Elena Lyubimova, " Crusade» Igor Melnik.

Read these books and you will learn about the Bible from a different perspective. Yes, and I am more than sure that believers do not read the Bible, because if they read it, it would be impossible not to notice so many contradictions, inconsistencies, substitution of concepts, deception and lies, not to mention calls for extermination of all the peoples of the Earth, God's chosen people.

And these people themselves were destroyed several times at the root during the selection process, until their god selected a group of perfect zombies who very well assimilated all his commandments and instructions, and, most importantly, strictly followed them, for which they were pardoned with life and continuation sort of, and... new religion.

In this work I would like to draw your attention to the fact that what is not included in the above canonical books, or what hundreds of other sources no less interesting than the “holy” scripture say. So, let's look at the biblical facts and more.

The first skeptic, who pointed out the impossibility of calling Moses the author of the Pentateuch (and this is what Christian and Jewish authorities assure us of), was a certain Persian Jew Khivi Gabalki, who lived in the 9th century. He noticed that in some books Moses talks about himself in the third person. Moreover, sometimes Moses allows himself extremely immodest things: for example, he can characterize himself as the meekest man of all people on earth (book of Numbers) or say: “...Israel never again had a prophet like Moses.”(Deuteronomy).

Further developed the topic Dutch materialist philosopher Benedict Spinoza, who wrote his famous “Theological-Political Treatise” in the 17th century. Spinoza “dug up” so many inconsistencies and outright blunders in the Bible - for example, Moses describes his own funeral - that no amount of inquisition could stop the growing doubts.

IN early XVIII century, first the German Lutheran pastor Witter, and then the French doctor Jean Astruc made the discovery that Old Testament consists of two texts having different primary sources. That is, some events in the Bible are told twice, and in the first version the name of God sounds like Elohim, and in the second - Yahweh. It turned out that virtually all the so-called books of Moses were compiled during the period of the Babylonian captivity of the Jews, i.e. much later, than the rabbis and priests claim, and clearly could not have been written by Moses.

Series of archaeological expeditions to Egypt, including the expedition of the Hebrew University, did not find any traces of such an epoch-making biblical event as the exodus of the Jewish people from this country in the 14th century BC. Not a single ancient source, be it papyrus or an Assyro-Babylonian cuneiform tablet, ever mentions the presence of Jews in Egyptian captivity at this time. There are references to the later Jesus, but not to Moses!

And Professor Zeev Herzog in the Haaretz newspaper summed up many years of scientific research on the Egyptian issue: “It may be unpleasant for some to hear and difficult to accept, but it is absolutely clear to researchers today that the Jewish people were not enslaved in Egypt and did not wander in the desert...” But the Jewish people were enslaved in Babylonia (modern Iraq) and adopted many legends and traditions from there, later including them in a revised form in the Old Testament. Among them was the legend of the global flood.

Josephus Flavius ​​Vespasian, the famous Jewish historian and military leader, who allegedly lived in the 1st century AD, in his book “On the Antiquity of the Jewish People,” which was first published only in 1544, moreover, on Greek, sets the number of books of the so-called Old Testament at 22 units and says which books are not disputed among the Jews, because they have been handed down from ancient times. He speaks of them in the following words:

“We don’t have a thousand books that disagree with each other and don’t refute one another; there are only twenty-two books that cover the entire past and are rightly considered Divine. Of these, five belong to Moses. They contain laws and legends about the generations of people who lived before his death - this is a period of almost three thousand years. The events from the death of Moses to the death of Artaxerxes, who reigned in Persia after Xerxes, were described in thirteen books by the prophets who lived after Moses, contemporaries of what was happening. The remaining books contain hymns to God and instructions to people on how to live. Everything that happened from Artaxerxes to our time is described, but these books do not deserve the same faith as the above-mentioned ones, because their authors were not in strict succession with the prophets. How we treat our books is evident in practice: so many centuries have passed, and no one dared to add anything to them, or take anything away, or rearrange anything; Jews have an innate belief in this teaching as Divine: it should be held firmly, and if necessary, then die for it with joy ... "

The Bible as we know it consists of 77 books, of which 50 books are the Old Testament and 27 are the New. But, as you can see for yourself, back in the Middle Ages, only 22 books were recognized as part of the so-called Old Testament. Only 22 books! And these days, the old part of the Bible has swollen almost 2.5 times. And it was inflated by books containing a fictitious past for the Jews, a past that they did not have; a past stolen from other nations and appropriated by the Jews. By the way, the name of the people - Jews - carries their essence and means “cutting out the UD”, which is circumcision. And UD is the ancient name of the male genital organ, which also has meaning in words such as fishing rod, fishing rod, satisfaction.

The evolution of the Bible as a single book lasted several centuries, and this is confirmed by the churchmen themselves in their internal books, written for the clergy, and not for the flock. And this church struggle continues to this day, despite the fact that the Jerusalem Council of 1672 issued a “Definition”: “We believe that this Divine and Sacred Scripture was communicated by God, and therefore we must believe it without any reasoning, not as anyone wants, but as the Catholic Church has interpreted and transmitted it.”.

In '85 Apostolic Rule, 60th rule of the Laodicean Council, 33rd (24) rule of the Carthage Council and in the 39th canonical letter of St. Athanasius, in the canons of St. Gregory the Theologian and Amphilochius of Iconium provide lists of the sacred books of the Old and New Testaments. And these lists do not completely coincide. Thus, in the 85th Apostolic Canon, in addition to the canonical Old Testament books, non-canonical books are also named: 3 books of the Maccabees, the book of Jesus son of Sirach, and between the New Testament books - two epistles of Clement of Rome and 8 books of the Apostolic Constitutions, but the Apocalypse is not mentioned. There is no mention of the Apocalypse in the 60th rule of the Laodicean Council, in the poetic catalog of the Holy Books of St. Gregory the Theologian.

Athanasius the Great said this about the Apocalypse: “The Revelation of John is now ranked among the Holy Books, and many call it inauthentic.”. In the list of canonical Old Testament books by St. Athanasius does not mention Esther, which he, along with the Wisdom of Solomon, the Wisdom of Jesus son of Sirach, Judith and the book of Tobit, as well as “The Shepherd of Hermas” and “The Apostolic Doctrine”, ranks among the books “appointed by the Fathers for reading to newcomers and those wishing to make themselves known in the word of piety "

In Rule 33 (24) of the Council of Carthage it is proposed next list canonical bible books: “The canonical scriptures are these: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, four books of Kings; Chronicles two, Job, Psalms, Solomon books four. There are twelve prophetic books, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Tobias, Judith, Esther, Ezra two books. New Testament: four Gospels, one book of the Acts of the Apostles, fourteen Epistles of Paul, two of Peter the Apostle, three of John the Apostle, one book of James the Apostle, one book of Jude the Apostle. The Apocalypse of John is one book."

Strangely in English translation The Bible of 1568, the so-called "Bishops" Bible, only two books of Kings are mentioned. And this Bible itself consists of 73 books instead 77 as currently approved.

Only in XIII century, the biblical books were divided into chapters, and only in XVI century the chapters were divided into verses. In addition, before forming the biblical canon, the churchmen went through more than one heap of primary sources - small books, selecting the “correct” texts, which they subsequently compiled big book- The Bible. It is from their submission that we can judge things for a long time days gone by described in the Old and New Testaments. Therefore it turns out that Bible, which many may have read, was formed as a single book, only in the 18th century! And only a few Russian translations of it have reached us, the most famous of which is the Synodal translation.

From Valery Erchak’s book “The Word and Deed of Ivan the Terrible,” we became aware of the first mentions of the Bible in Rus', and these turned out to be just psalters: “In Rus', only lists of the books of the New Testament and the Psalter were recognized ( oldest list- Galich Gospel, 1144). Full text The Bible was first translated only in 1499 on the initiative of the Novgorod Archbishop Gennady Gonozov or Gonzov (1484-1504, Chudov Monastery of the Moscow Kremlin), who undertook this work in connection with the heresy of the Judaizers. In Rus', various service books were used. For example, the Gospel-aprakos existed in two varieties: the full aprakos includes the entire gospel text, the short one includes only the Gospel of John, the rest of the gospels amount to no more than 30-40% of the text. The Gospel of John was read in full. In modern liturgical practice, the Gospel of John ch. 8, verse 44, one does not read about the genealogy of the Jewish family...”

Why is the Bible called the Synodal Bible and why is it the most popular?

It's simple. It turns out that only synod The Russian Orthodox Church is a council of the highest church hierarchs, has the right at its discretion INTERPRET texts of the Bible, edit them as they please, introduce or remove any books from the Bible, approve biographies of supposedly holy church men, and much more.

So who wrote this supposedly holy book and what is sacred in it?

Only in Russian there are the following translations of the Bible: Gennady's Bible (XV century), Ostrog Bible (XVI century), Elizabethan Bible (XVIII century), translation of the Bible by Archimandrite Macarius, Synodal translation Bible (XIX century), and in 2011 the latest version of the Bible was published - the Bible in a modern Russian translation. That text of the Russian Bible, which is known to all of us, and which is called the synodal, first came out of print only in 1876 year. And this happened almost three centuries later, after the appearance of the original Church Slavonic Bible. And these, let me remind you, are only Russian translations of the Bible, and there are at least 6 known translations among them.

But the Bible has been translated into all languages ​​of the world and in different eras. And, thanks to this, the translators have inherited, and almost identical texts of the Bible still reflect some points differently. And where they forgot to erase, for example, prohibited references to the area or descriptions of the weather, or names or names of attractions, the original texts remained there, which shed the light of truth on what happened in those not so ancient times in general. And they help a thinking person put together the scattered pieces of the mosaic into a single and complete picture in order to get a more or less complete picture of our past.

Recently, I came across a book by Erich von Däniken "Aliens from outer space. New finds and discoveries", which consists of individual articles by different authors on the topic of the cosmic origin of humanity. One of the articles in this book is called "The Original Biblical Texts" by Walter-Jörg Langbein. I would like to quote some of the facts he found to you, since they reveal a lot about the so-called truth of biblical texts. In addition, these conclusions are in excellent agreement with the other facts about the Bible given above. So, Langbein wrote that the biblical texts are filled with errors, which for some reason believers do not pay any attention to:

“The “original” biblical texts available today are filled with thousands and thousands of easily detectable and well-known errors. The most famous "original" text, Codex Sinaiticus(Code Sinaiticus), contains at least 16,000 corrections, the “authorship” of which belongs to seven different proofreaders. Some passages were changed three times and replaced by a fourth "original" text. The theologian Friedrich Delitzsch, compiler of a Hebrew dictionary, found in this “original” text only errors scribe about 3000…»

I have highlighted the most important things. And these facts are simply impressive! It is not surprising that they are carefully hidden from everyone, not only religious fanatics, but even sensible people who are looking for the truth and want to figure out for themselves the issue of creating the Bible.

Professor Robert Kehl from Zurich wrote about the issue of falsifications in ancient biblical texts: “It happened quite often that the same passage was “corrected” by one proofreader in one sense, and “transported” by another in the opposite sense, depending on what dogmatic views were held in the corresponding school ... "

“Without exception, all of the “original” biblical texts existing today are copies of copies, and those, presumably, in turn, are copies of copies. Neither copy is the same as any other. There are over 80,000 (!) discrepancies. From copy to copy, the elements were perceived differently by empathetic scribes and remade in the spirit of the times. With such a mass of falsifications and contradictions, to continue to talk about the “word of the Lord”, every time picking up the Bible, means bordering on schizophrenia ... "

I cannot but agree with Langbein, and, having a lot of other evidence for this, I absolutely confirm his conclusions.

But here is the fact of when and where the famous evangelists Matthew, Mark, Luke and John wrote their new testaments. Famous English writer Charles Dickens wrote a book in the 19th century called "Child's History of England". This is translated into Russian as “History of England for young (children).” This interesting book was published in the mid-19th century in London. And it tells about English rulers whom young Englishmen should have known well. This book says in black and white that during the coronation of Princess Elizabeth I, four evangelists and a certain Saint Paul were prisoners in England and received freedom under an amnesty.

In 2005, this book was published in Russia. I will give a small fragment from it (chapter XXXI): “...The coronation went off magnificently, and the next day one of the courtiers, according to custom, submitted a petition to Elizabeth for the release of several prisoners and among them four evangelists: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, as well as St. Paul, who for some time were forced to express themselves in such a strange language that people have completely forgotten how to understand. But the queen replied that it was better to first find out from the saints themselves whether they wanted freedom, and then a grandiose public discussion was scheduled in Westminster Abbey - a kind of religious tournament - with the participation of some of the most prominent champions of both faiths (by other faith we mean , most likely Protestant).

As you understand, everything sensible people We quickly realized that only understandable words should be repeated and read. In this regard, it was decided to carry out church service accessible to everyone English language, and other laws and regulations were passed that revived the most important cause of the Reformation. However, Catholic bishops and adherents of the Roman Church were not persecuted, and the royal ministers showed prudence and mercy...”

Written testimony of Charles Dickens (he wrote this book for his children, and whom he clearly had no intention of deceiving), that Evangelists lived in the 16th century, published about 150 years ago in England, cannot be discarded so easily. This automatically follows the irrefutable conclusion that New Testament The Bible was written, at the earliest, in the 16th century! And it immediately becomes clear that this so-called Christian religion is based on a big lie! That “good news” - this is how the word “gospel” is translated from Greek - is nothing more than cynical fiction, and there is nothing good in them.

But that's not all. The description of the construction of the walls of Jerusalem, given in the book of Nehemiah, in all respects coincides with the description of the construction of the Moscow Kremlin (according to Nosovsky and Fomenko), which was carried out... also in the 16th century. What happens then is that not only the New Testament, but also the Old Testament, i.e. the whole Bible, was written in recent times - in the 16th century!

The facts I have given will certainly be enough for any thinking person to start digging and looking for confirmation himself, to add up his own integrity of understanding of what is happening. But even this will not be enough for false skeptics. No matter how much information you give them, you still won’t convince them of anything! For in terms of their level of knowledge they are at the level of small children, because believe mindlessly- much easier than know! Therefore, you need to speak to children in their children's language.

And if any of the respected readers has more information on this issue, and someone has something to complement and expand on the facts I have collected, I will be grateful if you share your knowledge! These materials will also be useful for future book, the materials from which were taken to write this article. My e-mail address: [email protected]

Alexander Novak

The Bible consists of two parts: the Old Testament and the New Testament. The Old Testament is three times larger in volume than the New Testament, and it was written before Christ, more precisely, before the prophet Malachi, who lived in the 5th century. BC

The New Testament was written during the time of the apostles, therefore, in the 1st century A.D. Both parts are organically connected with each other. The Old Testament without the New would be incomplete, and the New Testament without the Old would be incomprehensible.

If you look at the list of contents (each Testament has its own list), you can easily notice that both books are a collection of separate works. There are three groups of books: historical, instructive and prophetic.

Most of the sixty-six books bear the names of their compilers - thirty great men of various origins and even different eras. David, for example, was a king, Amos a shepherd, Daniel statesman; Ezra is a scholar-scribe, Matthew is a tax collector, publican, Luke is a doctor, Peter is a fisherman. Moses wrote his books around 1500 BC, John wrote Revelation around 100 AD. During this period (1600 years) other books were written. Theologians believe, for example, that the book of Job older than books Moses.

Since the books of the Bible were written in different times, one might assume that they describe a wide variety of events from the very different points vision. But this is not true at all. Holy Scripture is distinguished by its unity. Does the Bible itself explain this circumstance?

Authors about themselves

The Bible writers used a variety of literary genres: historical descriptions, poetry, prophetic writings, biographies and messages. But no matter what genre the work is written, it is devoted to the same questions: who is God? What is a person like? What does God say to man?

If the authors of the Bible wrote down exclusively their thoughts about the “supreme Being,” it, while remaining, of course, an interesting book, would be deprived of its special meaning. It could easily be placed in bookcase on the same shelf with similar works of the human spirit. But the writers of the Bible always emphasize that they are not conveying their thoughts, they are only recording what God showed and told them!

As an example, let's take the book of Isaiah, which has already been discussed. Undoubtedly, the prophet wrote down what he received from God, which, in particular, is confirmed by the frequent repetition of the following turns of phrase: “The word that was in the vision to Isaiah the son of Amoz...” (2, 1); “And the Lord said...” (3, 16); “And the Lord said to me...” (8, 1). In chapter 6, Isaiah describes how he was called to serve as a prophet: he saw the throne of God, and God spoke to him. “And I heard the voice of the Lord saying...” (6, 8).

Can God talk to man? Undoubtedly, otherwise He would not be God! The Bible says: “With God no word will fail” (Luke 1:37). Let's read what happened to Isaiah when God spoke to him: “And I said: Woe is me! I'm dead! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people also of unclean lips, and mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.” (6, 5).

Isaiah could not bear the presence of a holy God because of the sin that separated God and men. Only when the guilt was removed from him was he able to perceive what God was saying and showing him: “And he touched my mouth, and said: behold, this has touched your mouth, and your iniquity is taken away from you, and your sin is cleansed.” (6, 7).

Sin separated man and the Creator with a deep abyss. By himself, man could never step over it and approach God again. Man would not have known about Him if God Himself had not overcome this gap and given man the opportunity to know Him through Jesus Christ. When the Son of God Christ came to us, God Himself came to us. Our guilt was atoned for by the sacrifice of Christ on the cross, and through atonement our fellowship with God became possible again.

It is not surprising that the New Testament is dedicated to Jesus Christ and what He did for us, while the expectation of the Deliverer is the main idea Old Testament. In his images, prophecies and promises he points to Christ. Deliverance through Him runs like a red thread throughout the entire Bible.

The essence of God is not accessible to us as something material, but the Creator can always communicate Himself to people, give them a revelation about Himself, and “reveal” what is “hidden.” Prophets are God-called “personal contacts.” Isaiah begins his book with the words: “The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw...” (Isaiah 1.1). The compilers of the biblical books gave great importance so that every person understands: what is proclaimed through them comes from God! This is the basis on which we are convinced that the Bible is the Words of God.

What is suggestion or inspiration?

We find an important indication of the origins of the Bible in the second letter of the Apostle Paul to his disciple Timothy. Speaking about the meaning of "Holy Scripture",

Paul explains: “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness.” (2 Tim. 3.16).

The word recorded in the books of the Bible is “impressed” or “inspired” by God upon the scribes. This concept denotes Greek word in the original it sounds like “theopneustos,” that is, literally, “divinely inspired.” In Latin it is translated as “inspired by God” (inspirare - inhale, blow). Therefore, the ability of God's called people to write down His word is called "inspiration."

How, in what way does such “inspiration” descend on a person? In the First Epistle to the Corinthians, reflecting on whether he was proclaiming his own, human wisdom or the word of God, the Apostle Paul writes: “But God has revealed these things to us by His Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God. For which man knows what is in a man except the spirit of man that dwells in him? Likewise, no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. But we did not receive the spirit of this world, but the Spirit from God, so that we might know what was given to us from God, which we proclaim not in words taught by human wisdom, but in words taught by the Holy Spirit, comparing spiritual with spiritual. Soulful man does not accept what is from the Spirit of God... because this must be judged spiritually.” (1 Cor. 2:10-14).

The Spirit of God connects God with people, exerting a very direct influence on the human spirit. It is the Holy Spirit who resolves the problem of communication, “communication,” by giving man mutual understanding between himself and God.

Through revelation, prophets learn from God what no man can know on his own. Comprehension God's secrets descends to people in a dream or during a “vision”. Both “vision” and the Latin “vision” are etymologically related to the verb “to see,” also meaning a supernatural “vision” - one in which the prophet is in a different state, in a different reality.

“And he said: Hear my words: if there is a prophet of the Lord among you, then I will reveal myself to him in a vision, I will speak to him in a dream.” (Numbers 12:6).

By revelation God reveals His truth, and by inspiration He gives those who are called the ability to write it down intelligibly. However, not all prophets who received revelations wrote biblical books (eg, Elijah, Elisha). And vice versa - in the Bible there are works of men who did not experience direct revelations, but were inspired by God, such as the physician Luke, who left us the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles. Luke had a chance to learn a lot from the apostles and experience it himself. While writing the text, he was guided by the Spirit of God. The evangelists Matthew and Mark also did not have “visions,” but were eyewitnesses of the acts of Jesus.

Among Christians, unfortunately, there are very different ideas about “inspiration.” Apologists of one point of view believe that an “illuminated” person is capable of only partially participating in the writing of the Bible. Others advocate the theory of “literal inspiration,” according to which every word of the Bible is written in the original as it was inspired by God.

When the Spirit of God inspired the prophets and apostles to write books, He by no means turned them into an instrument devoid of will and did not dictate to them word by word.

“The writers of the Bible were precisely the writers of God, and not by His pen... It was not the words of the Bible that were inspired, but the men who composed it. Inspiration does not appear in a person's words or expressions, but in the person himself, filled with thoughts under the influence of the Holy Spirit." (E. White).

God and man acted together in writing the Bible. The Spirit of God controlled the spirit of the writers, but not their pen. After all, general construction any biblical book, and its style, and lexicon always allow you to recognize characteristics the writer, his personality. They can even manifest themselves in some shortcoming of the writer, for example, in a drawn-out style of narration that makes it difficult to perceive.

The Bible is not written in some divine, “superhuman” language. Conveying what God entrusted to them, people wrote it, inevitably preserving the originality of their style. It would be insolence to reproach God for not wanting to convey His Word to us in a simpler, clearer and more visual way than those inspired by Him did.

Inspiration is not just a doctrinal topic. The believing reader can see for himself that the thoughts contained in the Bible are inspired by the Spirit of God! He is given the opportunity to turn in prayer to the true Author, to God Himself. Simply the Spirit of God speaks to us through the written word.

How did Jesus view the Bible?

Jesus lived, taught, and defended himself using the Bible. He, who always remained independent of the opinions of others, constantly and with special respect spoke of what people recorded in the Holy Scriptures. To Him it was the Word of God, inspired by the Holy Spirit.

For example, Jesus, quoting a verse from one of David’s Psalms, said: “For David himself said by the Holy Spirit...” (Mark 12:36). Or another time: “Have you not read about the resurrection of the dead, which was spoken to you by God...” (Matthew 22:31). And then he cited a passage from Exodus, the second book of Moses.

Jesus denounced the theologians—His contemporaries—of ignorance of either “the Scriptures or the power of God” (Matt. 22:29), convincing that the “Writings of the Prophets” must be fulfilled (Matt. 26:56; John 13:18), precisely because that they are not talking about human words, but about the Word of God.

According to statements belonging to Jesus personally, Scripture testifies to Him, the Deliverer, and therefore it can lead the reader to eternal life: “Search the Scriptures, for through them you think you have eternal life; and they testify of Me.” (John 5:39).

The fact that writers who lived at different times unanimously predicted the coming of Christ most convincingly proves the Divine origin of the Bible. The Apostle Peter also notices this: “For prophecy was never made by the will of man, but the saints spoke it men of God, being moved by the Holy Spirit." (2. Peter 1:21).

Therefore, we, together with Christ and the apostles, confess what the Holy Spirit tells us through the word of the Bible. (Heb. 3:7).

Where did the Bible come from?

The word “Bible” translated from ancient Greek means “books” (cf. the word “library”), so it is not one book, but a whole collection of books. They were written by men, Christians believe, inspired by the Holy Spirit. And then other people saved and rewrote these books, because no original is eternal, and determined which of the books would be included in the Holy Scriptures.

The biblical authors lived in different countries at different times and spoke different languages– Hebrew and Aramaic (Old Testament) and ancient Greek (New Testament). But the point is not only about language in the strictly linguistic sense of the word; the language of culture is no less important. If the Bible originated in Japan, on its pages we would find cherry blossoms and samurai swords, and if in Australia, then boomerangs and kangaroos.

People also called the Bible the Bible. The book can become Holy Scripture only in a community of believers who recognize its authority, determine its canon (exact composition), interpret it and, finally, preserve it. Christians believe that all this happened under the influence of the same Holy Spirit who prompted the authors of the biblical books to write. In the same way, we still need the Spirit today to truly understand what is written. But the Spirit does not abolish human individuality and freedom; rather, on the contrary, it allows it to reveal itself in full. And this means that the Evangelist Mark wrote completely differently than John, the prophet Isaiah - not like the prophet Jeremiah. To understand what they said, you need to take into account the personal characteristics of each of them, and what unites them.

In those days there was neither a printing press nor the Internet, and books were copied by hand, usually on a very short-lived material - papyrus. It’s hard to believe, but even in the time of the apostles, such book details as are familiar today, such as a table of contents, notes, punctuation, or even spaces between words, did not exist. The Jews, however, made spaces between words, but they did not indicate most vowels in writing. The famous phrase “to execute cannot be pardoned” is a minor difficulty compared to the questions that may arise when interpreting the biblical text.

Therefore, biblical manuscripts are far from identical - in fact, anyone who has ever copied notes knows that there are no two completely identical manuscripts in the world. The originals did not reach us, and distortions and discrepancies inevitably crept into copies from copies, and sometimes the meaning of old words was forgotten, and then a careful copyist, trying to correct the absurdities or inaccuracies of the text lying in front of him, took it even further from the original.

But then, perhaps, there is no single Bible at all, but only many manuscripts, similar in some ways and different from each other in some ways? This is, perhaps, what would have happened in the end if there had not been a community of believers who consider this collection of books their Holy Scripture, carefully pass it on from generation to generation, and are engaged in its interpretation and study. That is, the Bible is, first of all, a book born in the Church, although everyone can read and try to understand it, regardless of their beliefs and religion.

Among the thousands of biblical manuscripts that have reached us, no two are exactly alike, but one can only be surprised that there are none in which we would find some fundamentally different teachings - for example, that heaven and earth were not created by One God or that this God allowed killing , stealing and perjury. Although the Greek version of the book of Esther is a third longer than the Hebrew one, and in this full version we see a lot of additional details, but it's exactly the same story.

So what is the Bible?

From the book Myth or Reality. Historical and Scientific Arguments for the Bible author Yunak Dmitry Onisimovich

10. Where did the light come from on the first three days of creation, if the Bible tells us that the lights were created only on the fourth day? How could there be “evening and morning” during the first three days? The Lord Creator illuminated the Earth with His presence. Light also came from the throne of God. On

From the book Christ Our High Priest author White Elena

The Bible and the Bible alone William Miller possessed a tremendous intellect, developed through his diligent study and reflection, and having merged with the Source of Wisdom, he was also endowed with heavenly wisdom. He was an impeccably honest man, fully deserving of respect and

From the book Collection author Chistyakov Georgy Petrovich

Where does this anger come from? Orthodox religiosity today includes, as some almost integral component, the struggle against Catholics and Protestants, exposing them as enemies of our faith and Russia, as well as a complete rejection of ecumenism and, in general, any

From the book Questions for a Priest author Shulyak Sergey

11. Who wrote the Bible? Where did she come from? Question: Who wrote the Bible? Where did it come from? Answers priest Afanasy Gumerov, monk Sretensky Monastery:The Bible consists of the holy books of the Old and New Testaments. These texts were written by inspired writers according to

From the book Indians North America[Life, religion, culture] author White John Manchip

Where did they come from? What are the origins of the American Indians and how did their ancestors come to the American continent? The answer to these questions is very important for understanding the life of the American Indians during the cultural heyday of their civilization. In order to understand today's

From the book Handbook on Theology. SDA Bible Commentary Volume 12 author Seventh Day Adventist Church

A. The Bible and the Bible Alone The fundamental principle that Scripture sets forth about itself is that the Bible alone (sola scriptura) is the final standard of truth. The classic text that reflects this basic premise is Isa. 8:20: “Contact

From the book 1115 questions to a priest author section of the website OrthodoxyRu

Who wrote the Bible? Where did she come from? Priest Afanasy Gumerov, resident of Sretensky Monastery. The Bible consists of the sacred books of the Old and New Testaments. These texts were written by inspired writers at the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. They contain Divine

From the book Hasidic traditions by Buber Martin

WHERE? They say that one disciple of the Gaon* from Vilna had his dead father appear in his dreams every night and ask him to leave his faith and become a Christian. Since Vilna was far from the place where he lived, and Mezhrich was close, the Gaon’s student decided to seek advice and help

From the book "Who Was Born on Christmas" author Lyubimova Elena

From the book The Sacrament of Life author (Mamontov) Archimandrite Victor

WHERE DOES EVIL COME FROM? One of the most essential questions that arises before a person when he begins to comprehend his existence in the world, his life, is contact with evil. When encountering evil, a person asks two questions: where does evil come from in the world, and how to relate to evil? Very often

From the book On the Paths to the Living God author Chistyakov Georgy

Where does this anger come from? Orthodox religiosity today includes, as some almost integral component, the struggle against Catholics and Protestants, exposing them as enemies of our faith and Russia, as well as a complete rejection of ecumenism and, in general, any

From the book The Explanatory Bible. Volume 10 author Lopukhin Alexander

25. Then some of the Jerusalemites said, “Isn’t this the one whom they are seeking to kill?” 26. Behold, He speaks openly, and they say nothing to Him: have not the rulers been convinced that He is truly the Christ? 27. But we know Him where He comes from; When Christ comes, no one will know where He comes from. Words

From the book The Best Zen Parables [Ordinary stories about extraordinary people] author Maslov Alexey Alexandrovich

14. Jesus answered and said to them, “If I testify of Myself, My testimony is true; because I know where I came from and where I am going; but you do not know where I come from and where I am going. To the objection of the Pharisees, Christ answers, firstly, that He can testify of Himself, as

From the book God. Religion. Priests. Believers and atheists author Duluman Evgraf Kalenevich

Where did you come from? The Coming of Contemplation 1 When Huineng first met the Fifth Patriarch Chan Hongren, he asked him: “Where did you come from?” “From Linnan,” he answered. - Ainnan is a barbaric place in the south. And among the barbarians there is no Buddha! - Hongren exclaimed. - Really?

From the book About an Ancient Fear. Who and how do sorcerers “spoil” author Igumen N.

11. Where does "Jesus" come from? Where does "Christ" come from? IntroductionIn the history and content of Christianity, the names “Jesus” and “Christ” have much higher value than believers, theologians and scientists realize. In our private opinion, comprehensive study, illumination and understanding of these names

From the author's book

WHERE DOES THE “ABILITY” COME FROM? Those people (there are relatively few of them) whom demons consider capable of serving the purposes of seducing and entrapping others human souls, they “endow” such supernatural abilities as clairvoyance, telepathy, hypnosis, levitation,