Bible year of writing. Who wrote the Bible and when - interesting facts

Not all people can answer the question: what is the Bible, although it is the most famous and widespread book on the planet. For some it is a spiritual landmark, for others it is a story that describes several thousand years of the existence and development of mankind.

This article provides answers to frequently asked questions: who invented the Holy Scripture, how many books are in the Bible, how old it is, where it came from, and at the end there will be a link to the text itself.

What is the Bible

The Bible is a collection of writings compiled by different authors. The Holy Scriptures are written in different literary styles, and interpretation comes from these styles. The purpose of the Bible is to bring the words of the Lord to people.

The main topics are:

creation of the world and man;
the fall and expulsion of people from paradise;
life and faith of the ancient Jewish peoples;
the coming of the Messiah to earth;
life and suffering of the Son of God Jesus Christ.

Who wrote the Bible

The Word of God was written by different people and at different times. Its creation was carried out by holy people close to God - apostles and prophets.

Through their hands and minds, the Holy Spirit brought the truth and righteousness of God to people.

How many books are in the Bible

The Holy Scriptures of the Russian Orthodox Church include 77 books. The Old Testament is based on 39 canonical writings and 11 non-canonical ones.

The Word of God, written after the Nativity of Christ, contains 27 sacred books.

What language is the Bible written in?

The first chapters were written in the language of the ancient Jews - Hebrew. The texts compiled during the life of Jesus Christ were written in Aramaic.

For the next few centuries, the Word of God was written in Greek. Seventy interpreters were involved in the translation into Greek from Aramaic. Servants of the Orthodox Church use texts translated by interpreters.

The first Slavic Holy Scripture was translated from Greek and is the first book to appear in Rus'. The translation of the sacred meetings was entrusted to the brothers Cyril and Methodius.

During the reign of Alexander I, biblical texts were translated from Slavic into Russian. Then the Synodal translation appeared, which is also popular in the modern Russian Church.

Why is this the Holy Book of Christians

The Bible is not just a holy book. This is a handwritten source of human spirituality. From the pages of Scripture people draw wisdom sent by God. The Word of God is a guide for Christians in their worldly life.

Through Biblical texts the Lord communicates with people. Helps you find answers to the most difficult questions. The books of the Holy Scriptures reveal the meaning of existence, the secrets of the origin of the world and the definition of man's place in this world.

By reading the Word of God, a person comes to know himself and his actions. Becomes closer to God.

Gospel and Bible - what's the difference

The Holy Scriptures are a collection of books divided into the Old and New Testaments. The Old Testament describes the time from the creation of the world until the coming of Jesus Christ.

The Gospel is the part that makes up the Bible texts. Included in the New Testament portion of Scripture. In the Gospel, the description begins from the birth of the Savior to the Revelation, which he gave to His Apostles.

The Gospel consists of several works written by different authors and tells the story of the life of Jesus Christ and His deeds.

What parts does the Bible consist of?

Biblical texts are divided into canonical and non-canonical parts. Non-canonical ones include those that appeared after the creation of the New Testament.

The structure of the canonical part of Scripture includes:

legislative: Genesis, Exodus, Deuteronomy, Numbers and Leviticus;
historical content: those that describe the events of holy history;
poetic content: Psalms, Proverbs, Song of Songs, Ecclesiastes, Job;
prophetic: writings of great and minor prophets.

Non-canonical texts are also divided into prophetic, historical, poetic and legislative.

Orthodox Bible in Russian - text of the Old and New Testaments

Reading Biblical texts begins with the desire to know God's Word. The clergy advise the laity to begin reading from the pages of the New Testament. After reading the New Testament books, a person will be able to understand the essence of the events described in the Old Testament.

To understand the meaning of what is written, you need to have at hand works that provide a decoding of the Holy Scriptures. An experienced priest or confessor can answer any questions you may have.

The Word of God can provide answers to many questions. Studying Bible texts is an important part of the life of every Christian. Through them, people come to know the grace of the Lord, become better people and move spiritually closer to God.

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 different origins and even different eras. David, for example, was a king, Amos a shepherd, Daniel a statesman; Ezra is a learned scribe, Matthew is a tax collector, publican; Luka 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 is older than the books of Moses.

Because the books of the Bible were written at different times, one would expect them to describe a variety of events from a variety of perspectives. But this is not true at all. Holy Scripture is distinguished by its unity. Does the Bible itself explain this circumstance?

AUTHORS ABOUT THEMSELVES

Bible writers used a variety of literary genres: historical accounts, poetry, prophetic writings, biographies, and epistles. 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 a 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, “No word of God will fail” (Luke 1:37). Let's read what happened to Isaiah when he

God said: “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).

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 of the 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 contact persons. 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 attached great importance to the fact that every person understood that what was proclaimed through them came 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 origin 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 Timothy 3:16).

The word recorded in the books of the Bible is “impressed” or “inspired” by God upon the scribes. The Greek word for this concept in the original 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. The natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God... because they must be judged spiritually” (1 Corinthians 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 of God's mysteries comes down 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 be a prophet of the Lord among you, I will reveal myself to him in a vision, and 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, the general structure of any biblical book, its style, and vocabulary always make it possible to recognize the characteristic features of 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 simpler, more understandable and more clearly 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.

WHAT WAS JESUS ABOUT 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 spoke by the Holy Spirit...” (Mark 12:36). Or another time: “Have you not read what God spoke to you about the resurrection of the dead…” (Matthew 22:31). And then he cited a passage from Exodus, the second book of Moses.

Jesus denounced the theologians - His contemporaries - for their ignorance of either “the Scriptures or the power of God” (Matthew 22:29), convincing that the “Writings of the prophets” must be fulfilled (Matthew 26:56; John 13:18), precisely because the speech in They are not talking about the human word, but about the Word of God.

According to statements belonging to Jesus personally, Scripture testifies about Him, the Deliverer, and therefore it can lead the reader to eternal life: “Search the Scriptures, for through them you think that 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 notes this: “For prophecy was never made by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit” (2 Peter 1:21).

Bible(from Greek βιβλία - books) or Scripture- a collection of Books (Old and New Testaments), compiled by the Holy Spirit (i.e. God) through chosen people sanctified by God: prophets and apostles. The collection and consolidation of books into a single book was accomplished by the Church and for the Church.

The word “Bible” is not found in the sacred books themselves, and was first used in relation to the collection of sacred books in the east in the 4th century by St. And .

Orthodox Christians, speaking about the Bible, often use the term “Scripture” (written with a capital letter) or “Holy Scripture” (implying that it is part of the Holy Tradition of the Church, understood in a broad sense).

Composition of the Bible

Bible (Holy Scripture) = Old Testament + New Testament.
Cm.

New Testament = Gospel (according to Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) + Epistles of St. Apostles + Apocalypse.
Cm. .

The books of the Old and New Testaments can be divided into legal, historical, teaching and prophetic.
See diagrams: and.

The main theme of the Bible

The Bible is a religious book. The main theme of the Bible is the salvation of mankind through the Messiah, the incarnate Son of God Jesus Christ. The Old Testament speaks of salvation in the form of types and prophecies about the Messiah and the Kingdom of God. The New Testament sets forth the very realization of our salvation through the incarnation, life and teaching of the God-man, sealed by His death on the cross and resurrection.

Inspiration of the Bible

All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness.()

The Bible was written by more than 40 people who lived in different countries: Babylon, Rome, Greece, Jerusalem... The authors of the Bible belonged to different social strata (from the shepherd Amos to kings David and Solomon), had different educational levels (the apostle John was a simple fisherman, the apostle .Paul graduated from the Jerusalem Rabbinical Academy).

The unity of the Bible is observed in its integrity from the first page to the last. In their diversity, some texts are confirmed, explained and supplemented by others. There is some kind of unartificial, internal consistency in all 77 books of the Bible. There is only one explanation for this. This Book was written at the inspiration of the Holy Spirit by the people He chose. The Holy Spirit did not dictate the Truth from Heaven, but participated with the author in the creative process of creating the Holy Book, which is why we can notice the individual psychological and literary characteristics of its authors.

Holy Scripture is not exclusively a Divine product, but a product of Divine-human co-creation. The Holy Scriptures were compiled as a result of the joint activity of God and people. At the same time, man was not a passive instrument, an impersonal instrument of God, but was His co-worker, a participant in His good action. This position is revealed in the dogmatic teaching of the Church on the Scriptures.

Correct Understanding and Interpretation of the Bible

No prophecy in Scripture can be resolved by itself. For prophecy was never uttered by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke it, being moved by the Holy Spirit. ()

While believing in the inspiration of the books of the Bible, it is important to remember that the Bible is a book. 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. not only has she preserved the letter of the word of God, but she also has a correct understanding of it. This is due to the fact that, 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.

Let us pay attention that even the apostles, who followed Christ for a long time and listened to His instructions, could not themselves, without His help, Christ-centeredly understand the Holy Scripture ().

Time of writing

Biblical books were written at different times over about 1.5 thousand years - before Christmas and after His Birth. The first are called the books of the Old Testament, and the second are called the books of the New Testament.

The Bible consists of 77 books; 50 are found in the Old Testament and 27 in the New.
11 (Tobit, Judith, Wisdom of Solomon, Wisdom of Jesus son of Sirach, Epistle of Jeremiah, Baruch, 2 and 3 books of Ezra, 1, 2 and 3 Maccabees) are not inspired and are not included in the canon of Holy Scripture of the Old Testament.

Bible language

The books of the Old Testament were written in Hebrew (with the exception of some parts of the books of Daniel and Ezra, written in Aramaic), the New Testament was written in the Alexandrian dialect of ancient Greek - Koine.

Initially, biblical books were written on parchment or papyrus with a sharpened reed stick and ink. The scroll looked like a long ribbon and was wound onto a shaft.
The text in the ancient scrolls was written in 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. There were also no punctuation marks, no aspirations, or accents in the ancient manuscripts. And in the Hebrew language, vowels were also not written, but only consonants.

Biblical canon

Both Testaments were first brought into canonical form at local councils in the 4th century: the Council of Hippo in 393. and the Council of Carthage 397

History of the Bible's division into chapters and verses

The division of words in the Bible was introduced in the 5th century by the deacon of the Alexandrian Church Eulalis. The modern division into chapters dates back to Cardinal Stephen Langton, who divided the Latin translation of the Bible, Vulgate, in 1205. And in 1551, the Genevan printer Robert Stephen introduced the modern division of chapters into verses.

Classification of books of the Bible

The biblical books of the Old and New Testaments are classified into Legislative, Historical, Doctrinal and Prophetic. For example, in the New Testament, the Gospels are Legislative, the Acts of the Apostles are Historical, and the Epistles of Sts are Teaching. Apostles and the Prophetic book - Revelation of St. John the Theologian.

Bible translations

Greek translation of seventy interpreters – – was started by the will of the Egyptian king Ptolemy Philadelphus in 271 BC. Since Apostolic times, the Orthodox Church has been using 70 translated sacred books.

Latin translation - Vulgate- was promulgated in 384 by Blessed Jerome. Since 382, the blessed one translated the Bible from Greek into Latin; at the beginning of his work he used the Greek Septuagypt, but soon switched to using the Hebrew text directly. This translation became known as the Vulgate - Editio Vulgata (vulgatus means “widespread, well-known”). The Council of Trent in 1546 approved the translation of St. Jerome, and it came into general use in the West.

Slavic translation of the Bible made according to the text of the Septuagint by the saints of Thessalonica brothers Cyril and Methodius, in the middle of the 9th century A.D., during their apostolic labors in the Slavic lands.

Ostromir Gospel- the first fully preserved Slavic manuscript book (mid-11th century).

Gennady Bible – the first complete handwritten Russian Bible. Compiled in 1499 under the leadership of the Novgorod archbishop. Gennady (until that time, biblical texts were scattered and existed in various collections).

Ostroh Bible – the first complete printed Russian Bible. It was published in 1580 by order of Prince Cons. Ostrozhsky, pioneer printer Ivan Fedorov in Ostrog (the prince's estate). This Bible is still used by Old Believers.

Elizabethan Bible – Church Slavonic translation used in the liturgical practice of the church. At the end of 1712, Peter I issued a decree on preparations for the publication of the revised Bible, but this work was completed under Elizabeth in 1751.

Synodal translation – the first complete Russian text of the Bible. Implemented on the initiative of Alexander I and under the leadership of St. . It was published in parts from 1817 to 1876, when the complete Russian text of the Bible was published.
The Elizabethan Bible came entirely from the Septuagint. The Synodal translation of the Old Testament was made from the Masoretic text, but taking into account the Septuagint (highlighted in square brackets in the text).

Classmates

History of the Bible

In this article we will briefly look at the history of writing the Bible, as well as the history of biblical translations. As already mentioned in the article, the Bible developed gradually. The books of the Old Testament alone appeared for more than a thousand years. In the world and in science there are both church-religious, so scientific-historical concept concerning the history of the Bible as a book and the authorship of its individual books. There are fundamental differences between these concepts. However, they themselves are not unanimous in resolving many issues - especially when it comes to scientific research. Therefore, let us briefly consider the main points of these approaches regarding the history of the Old and then the New Testament.

History of the Old Testament

Religious tradition (both Jewish and Christian) recognizes as the authors of most books of the Old Testament those people whose names are contained in the text or title or preserved in tradition. The problem of the origin of the Old Testament and dating is solved in a similar way. Thus, the first five books are considered to have been written down by divine inspiration by the prophet Moses himself, who lived around the 15th century. BC (The book of Job is also attributed to his pen).

The author of the book of Joshua was Joshua himself, the successor of Moses. The Book of Judges and two books of Samuel are associated with the name of the prophet Samuel (circa 11th century BC). Most of the Psalms were written by King David (1st half of the 10th century BC), and books such as Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs (as well as Wisdom) are associated with the name of his son, King Solomon (10th century BC . e.). Thus, all the books of the prophets are designated by the names of their authors, who lived approximately in the 8th-5th centuries. BC e.

This approach to this problem was almost beyond doubt for many centuries. Only in the 19th century. historians began to criticize the seemingly irrefutable statements of theologians. Based on a critical analysis of the text of the Bible itself, as well as other historical sources, scientists have come to the conclusion that, firstly, some of the main books of the Bible were not compiled all at once, but gradually, from relatively independent parts; secondly, that they were compiled later than their authors, known by tradition, lived. Thus, the thesis about the authorship of Moses was actually rejected (in general, they tried to give this person an exclusively legendary character).

The Pentateuch, according to historians, was composed of several separate works that appeared around the 10th-7th centuries. BC e. (the oldest passages date back to the 13th century BC), and its final acceptance and consecration is associated with the activities of the scribe Ezra in the middle of the 5th century. BC e.

The authorship of the prophets is generally recognized in books bearing their name (only the book of Isaiah is believed to consist of works by two or three authors). The books of Judges and Kings date back to the 7th-6th centuries. BC e., and the Chronicles and Ezra - to the 4th century. BC

The authorship of Solomon is recognized for at least part of his Proverbs, but the Preacher (Ecclesiastes) is considered a much later work - around the 3rd century. BC At the same time, apparently, non-canonical books were also written, probably the book of Daniel, and the final arrangement of the Psalms was also made.

It should be borne in mind that books in those days were copied and not printed, so errors could not be excluded, and differences in the texts also arose, sometimes very significant. In 1947, many manuscripts dating back to the 3rd century were found in the Qumran caves near the Dead Sea. BC - I century AD Among them were certain parts of the books of the Old Testament, which are somewhat different from those now known. This confirms the fact that there was no single text yet. In fact, these are the oldest known manuscripts of the Old Testament.

History of the New Testament

The New Testament has a shorter history, but there are blind spots here too. Church tradition undoubtedly accepts the authorship of those people whose names are indicated in the books themselves (the author of the book Acts of the Apostles, according to tradition, is considered to be the evangelist Luke). Since all these authors were apostles or their disciples, that is, contemporaries or close descendants of Christ, the books of the New Testament date back to the 1st century. n. e.

It is believed that the sequence of writing the Gospels coincides with their traditional placement, that is, the Gospel of Matey (Matthew) appeared first about 8 years after the Ascension of Christ, the last was the Gospel of John (John), who wrote it at the end of his life, where- then at the turn of the 2nd century. The letters of the apostles date back mainly to the 50s and 60s.

Attempts by historical criticism to question the authorship of some of the evangelists (notably John) and the dating of the books have been largely unconvincing. The assertion that these works appeared later is based on the fact that references to the Gospel appear only from the middle of the 2nd century.

The last works are considered to be the Acts of the Apostles (the authorship of Luke is actually rejected), as well as some epistles, and the first chronologically is the Apocalypse, the date of creation of which is believed to be encoded in its text (this is approximately 68-69). Thus, there is a tendency to push back the appearance of biblical books to a later time and thereby diminish their importance. But often the question of whether these books were written is simply replaced by the question of their inclusion in the canon.

Really, The canon of the New Testament was compiled gradually. There were other books that were, or could have been, included in this canon and have been partially preserved to this day. The fact that many undertook to compose a story about Christ is recalled, in particular, by the Evangelist Luke (Luke 1:1). A number of such gospels are known - Peter, Philip, Thomas, Jude, the so-called Gospels of the Jews and the Truth, and in addition, books such as the Teaching of the Twelve Apostles (Didache), the Shepherd of Hermas, the Apocalypse of Peter, the Epistles of Clement and Barnabas, etc. Some of these books were eventually accepted by the church as Holy Tradition, and some were discarded and became apocrypha (from Greek απόκρυφα - secret, hidden).

The compilation of the New Testament canon was largely associated with the formation of church organization and the struggle against the first heresies and disagreements among Christian communities. Around 180 St. Irenaeus already confidently asserts the priority of the four canonical Gospels. Document from the end of the 2nd century. (the so-called “Canon of Muratori”) contains a list of books of the New Testament, which is still different from the modern one (the epistle of the Apostle Paul to the Hebrews, the epistle of James and John, the second epistle of Peter are missing, but there is the Apocalypse of Peter).

In the 3rd century. in fact, there were several canons. Only with the transformation of Christianity into the state religion was this issue resolved. The Church Council in Lao-Dicea (363) approved a canon of 26 books (without the Revelation of John), and Council of Carthage 419 - finally adopted a canon of 27 books. Later, some more stories appeared concerning the biographies of Jesus, Mary, Joseph and which were also considered useful, but not sacred (the gospel of childhood, Jacob's stories about the birth and dormition of Mary, the Gospel of Nicodemus). The canon of the New Testament has not changed.

The oldest found text of the New Testament, written on papyrus, dates back to the year 66.

History of Bible translations

The original Jewish texts of the TaNakh are published, as a rule, in separate parts (Torah, Prophets, Scriptures). Complete modern editions of the Masoretic (Hebrew) Biblia Hebraica are of a purely scientific nature.

The Christian Bible is based on a translation of the Greek that was made in Egypt during the time of King Ptolemy II (3rd century BC), presumably for Jews who lived outside Israel and began to forget their native language. According to legend, this translation was made by 70 or 72 elders, which is where its name comes from - Septuagint (Latin septuaginta - seventy), and, according to legend, they worked separately, and when they compared their translations, the coincidence was literal.

It was this translation of the Old Testament with the New Testament in Greek attached to it that was ultimately accepted by Christianity as Holy Scripture (although later attempts were and are being made to verify and correct it from the Hebrew original). Based on it at the end of the 4th century. Blessed Jerome made a Latin translation (the so-called Vulgata - “folk”), which became the foundation of all Catholic publications.

The Bible was the first book published by pioneer J. Gutenberg in Germany in 1462. Until recently, the Catholic Church did not allow translations into national languages, but this idea was embodied by Protestants - in particular, the first translation into German, printed by M., played a huge role. Luther in 1534

History of Bible translation into Russian. In the 9th century. Cyril and Methodius translated the Septuagint into the Slavic (Old Bulgarian, later called Church Slavonic) language. The Orthodox Church of Kievan Rus (the famous Ostromir Gospel of the 11th century) was already built on this translation.

A complete updated Slavic translation was made in 1499 by the bishop. Gennady Novgorodsky. Much work was carried out on the initiative of Prince K. Ostrogsky to prepare the first printed Church Slavonic edition in Ukraine, which was carried out by Ivan Fedorovich (Ostrog Bible 1581). This work was used in the Moscow edition of 1663. During the time of Empress Elizabeth in 1751, a slightly updated text was published, which is still preserved (the Elizabethan Bible).

The first Russian (actually Belarusian) translation of the Bible was published by Francis Skorina in 1517-1525. in Prague and Vilna. The first Russian edition of the Gospels appeared in 1818, and the complete Russian (the so-called Synodal , i.e. approved by the Holy Synod) Bible translation published in 1876

History of Bible translation into Ukrainian. The first partial translations into Ukrainian date back to the 16th century. (handwritten Peresopnytsia Gospel , 1561; Krekhovsky Apostle etc.). In the 19th century Some biblical texts are translated by G. Kvitka, M. Shashkevich, M. Maksimovich, I. Franko, P. Morachevsky. The Ukrainian translation of the entire Bible, made by P. Kulish with the participation of I. Pulyuy and I. Nechuy-Levitsky, was published in 1903 with funds from the English Bible Society. This translation has been improved by Prof. I. Ogienko (1962). A new translation based on scientific and critical editions of the primary sources was made in Rome by the Catholic priest I. Khomenko (“Roman Bible”, 1963). However, scientific and translation work on the text of the Bible does not stop today.

We invite you to watch a video on the topic of the article:

"Documentary film about the history of the writing of the Bible"

Used literature:

1. Religion: a handbook for students of advanced knowledge / [G. E. Alyaev, O. V. Gorban, V. M. Meshkov et al.; for zag. ed. prof. G. E. Alyaeva]. - Poltava: TOV "ASMI", 2012. - 228 p.

Alexander Novak

“It has served us well, this myth of Christ...” Pope Leo X, 16th century.

“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. At the same time 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" by 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 want to draw your attention to what is not included in the above canonical books, or what hundreds of other sources say, no less interesting than the “holy” scripture. 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.

At the beginning of the 18th century, first the German Lutheran pastor Witter, and then the French physician Jean Astruc, made the discovery that the Old Testament consists of two texts with 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 supposedly lived in the 1st century AD, in his book “On the Antiquity of the Jewish People,” which was first published only in 1544, moreover, in Greek, establishes the number books of the so-called Old Testament in the amount of 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 the 85th Apostolic Canon, the 60th Canon of the Laodicean Council, the 33rd (24) Canon of the Carthage Council and in the 39th Canonical Epistle 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 "

The 33rd (24th) rule of the Council of Carthage offers the following list of canonical biblical books: “The canonical scriptures are these: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, Kings four books; 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 the English translation of 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 later formed a large book - the Bible. It is from their input that we can judge the deeds of bygone days, 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 hymnals: “In Rus', only lists of the books of the New Testament and the Psalter were recognized (the oldest list is the Galich Gospel, 1144). The full text of 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 of the Bible (XIX century), and in 2011 the latest version was published Bibles - The Bible in 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, to which for some reason believers do not pay any attention:

“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 “corrected” 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, all sensible people quickly realized that only understandable words should be repeated and read. In this regard, it was decided to conduct church services in English, accessible to all, and other laws and regulations were adopted 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 the New Testament of 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 the future book, the materials from which were taken to write this article. My email address: