Gospel New Testament in Russian. Gospel - what is it? How to correctly interpret this word

21. What is Holy Scripture? Sacred Scripture is a collection of sacred books that are part of the Bible, which are written by inspiration from the Holy Spirit by the prophets (Old Testament) and the disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ, the holy apostles (New Testament). is a Greek word meaning "books" download bible ). 21.2. What are the Old and New Testaments? The Bible is divided into the Old and New Testaments. All the time from the creation of the world to the coming of the Savior to earth is called the Old Testament, that is, the ancient (old) agreement or union of God with people, according to which God prepared people to receive the promised Savior. People had to remember the promise (promise) of God, believe and expect the coming of Christ.

The fulfillment of this promise - the coming to earth of the Savior - the Only Begotten Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, is called the New Testament, since Jesus Christ, having appeared on earth, having conquered sin and death, concluded a new alliance or agreement with people, according to which everyone can again receive the lost blessedness is eternal life with God through the Holy Church founded by Him on earth.

21.3. How did the first books of the Old Testament appear?

– The books of the Old Testament were written for more than a thousand years before the birth of Christ in Hebrew. Initially, God gave Moses only the first part of the Bible, the so-called Torah, that is, the Law contained in five books - the Pentateuch. These books are: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. For a long time, only this, that is, the Pentateuch-Torah, was the Holy Scripture, the word of God for the Old Testament Church. Following the Law, a second section of Holy Scripture appeared, called the Historical Books. These are the books: Joshua, Judges, Kings, Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Ruth, Esther, Judith, Tobit, Maccabees. In later times, the third section of the Bible, the Teaching Books, was compiled. This department includes: the book of Job, the Psalter, the Proverbs of Solomon, Ecclesiastes, the Song of Songs, the Wisdom of Solomon, the Wisdom of Jesus the son of Sirach. Finally, the works of the holy prophets made up the fourth section of the Holy Books - the Prophetic books. This section includes: the book of the prophet Isaiah, the prophet Jeremiah, the Lamentations of Jeremiah, the Epistle of Jeremiah, the book of the prophet Baruch, the book of the prophet Ezekiel, the book of the prophet Daniel and 12 minor prophets.

21.4. What does the division of the books of the Bible into canonical and non-canonical mean?

- in editions of the Bible, he places several non-canonical books in the Old Testament: 1st, 2nd and 3rd Maccabees, 2nd and 3rd Esdras, Tobit, Baruch, Judith, the book of the Wisdom of Solomon, the book of the Wisdom of Jesus, son Sirakhova. The formal sign that distinguishes non-canonical books from canonical ones is the language in which these books have come down to us. All the canonical books of the Old Testament have been preserved in Hebrew, while the non-canonical books have come down to us in Greek, with the exception of the 3rd book of Ezra, which has been preserved in a Latin translation.

In the III century. BC most of the books of the Old Testament were translated from Hebrew into Greek at the request of the Egyptian king Philadelphus Ptolemy. According to tradition, the translation was made by seventy Jewish interpreters, so the Greek translation of the Old Testament was called the Septuagian. The Orthodox Church assigns no less authority to the Greek text of the Old Testament than to the Hebrew text. Using the Old Testament books, the Church relies equally on the Hebrew and Greek texts. In each case, preference is given to the text that is more consistent with church teaching.

The New Testament holy books are all canonical.

21.5. How should the non-canonical books of the Bible be understood?

– Non-canonical books are recommended by the Church for edifying reading and enjoy great religious and moral authority. That the so-called non-canonical books the Church has accepted into her life is evidenced by the fact that they are used in divine services in exactly the same way as canonical ones, and, for example, the book of the Wisdom of Solomon is the most read from the Old Testament during divine services.

The Russian Orthodox Bible, like the Slavic one, contains all 39 canonical and 11 non-canonical books of the Old Testament. Protestants and all Western preachers use only the canonical Bible.

21.6. What is contained in the books of the New Testament and why was it written?

– The holy books of the New Testament were written by the holy apostles with the aim of depicting the salvation of people accomplished by the incarnated Son of God – our Lord Jesus Christ. In accordance with this high goal, they tell about the greatest event of the incarnation of the Son of God, about His earthly life, about the teaching that He preached, about the miracles that He worked, about His redemptive sufferings and death on the Cross, about the glorious Resurrection from the dead and Ascension to heaven, about the initial period of the spread of Christ's faith through the holy apostles, they explain to us the teaching of Christ in its manifold application to life and warn us about the final destinies of the world and mankind.

21.7. What is called the gospel?

– The first four New Testament books (the holy gospel of Matthew, Mark, Luke, John) are called the “Four Gospels” or simply the “Gospel” because they contain the good news (the word “Gospel” in Greek means “good” or “good news”, which is why it is translated into Russian by the word “gospel”) about the coming into the world of the Divine Redeemer promised by God to the forefathers and about the great work of salvation of mankind accomplished by Him.

All other books of the New Testament are often combined under the title "Apostle", because they contain a narrative of the deeds of the holy apostles and a presentation of their instructions to the first Christians.

21.8. Why are the four evangelists sometimes depicted as animals?

- Ancient Christian writers compared the Four Gospels with a river, which, coming out of Eden to irrigate the paradise planted by God, was divided into four rivers flowing through countries abounding in all kinds of jewels. An even more traditional symbol for the four Gospels is the mysterious chariot that the prophet Ezekiel saw at the river Chebar (1:1-28) and which consisted of four creatures - a man, a lion, a calf and an eagle. These creatures, each separately, became the symbols of the evangelists. Christian art, starting from the 5th century, depicts St. Matthew with a man or an angel, St. Mark - with a lion, St. Luke - with a calf, St. John - with an eagle.

21.9. What do these creatures symbolically signify, in the form of which the four evangelists are depicted?

– A man became a symbol of the Evangelist Matthew because in his Gospel he especially emphasizes the human origin of the Lord Jesus Christ from David and Abraham; the evangelist Mark is a lion, for he brings out in particular the royal omnipotence of the Lord; the evangelist Luke is a calf (a calf as a sacrificial animal), for he primarily speaks of Christ as a great High Priest who offered Himself as a sacrifice for the sins of the world; John the Evangelist is an eagle, since he soars high in the sky, like an eagle, “above the clouds of human weakness”, in the words of Blessed Augustine, with the special loftiness of his thoughts and even the very majesty of his style.

21.10. Which gospel is better to buy?

– The Church recognizes only those Gospels that were written by the Apostles, and which, from the very moment of their writing, began to be distributed throughout church communities and read during liturgical meetings. There are four of them - from Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. From the very beginning, these Gospels had universal circulation and unquestioned authority in the Church. From the end of the 1st century, a specific heresy appeared in the church environment - Gnosticism, a relative of modern theosophy and occultism. In order to give the texts preaching Gnostic views a certain authority, heretics began to inscribe them with the names of the Apostles - Thomas, Philip, etc. But the Church did not accept these "gospels". The logic of selection was based on two things: 1) these “gospels” preached a completely different teaching, different from the teachings of Christ and the Apostles, and 2) these “gospels” were “pushed” into the Church “from the side”, they were not known to all church communities of all times , as was the case with the four canonical gospels; therefore they did not express the faith of the Universal Church of Christ.

21.11. From what can one see the powerful effect of Christian teaching?

– At least from the fact that the twelve apostles, who were poor and uneducated people before meeting the Savior, by this teaching conquered and brought to Christ the strong, wise and rich, kings and kingdoms.

21.12. When the Church offers the teaching of Holy Scripture to people who do not know it, what evidence does she present that this is the true word of God?

– Over the centuries, the human race has not been able to create something more exalted than the Gospel teaching about God and man, about the meaning of human life, about love for God and people, about humility, about prayer for enemies, and so on. This teaching penetrates so sublimely and deeply into human nature, raises it to such a height, to such a god-like perfection, that it is absolutely impossible to admit that the disciples of Christ could create it.

It is also obvious that Christ Himself, if He were just a man, could not have created such a doctrine. Only God could give such a wonderful, holy, Divine teaching, elevating a person to such a spiritual height, which many saints of the Christian world have reached.

A practical guide to parish counseling. St. Petersburg 2009.

The Bible is divided into two parts of sacred texts - the Holy Scriptures of the Old Testament (50 books) and the Holy Scriptures of the New Testament (27 books). The Bible has a clear division: before and after the birth of Jesus Christ. Before birth - this is the Old Testament, after birth - the New Testament.

The Bible is a book containing the sacred writings of the Jewish and Christian religions. Christians believe that Jesus Christ announced a new covenant, which is the fulfillment of the Covenant given in Revelation to Moses, but at the same time replaces it. Therefore, the books that tell about the activities of Jesus and his disciples are called the New Testament.

Gospel (Greek - "good news") - the biography of Jesus Christ; books revered as sacred in Christianity that tell about the divine nature of Jesus Christ, his birth, life, miracles, death, resurrection and ascension. The gospel is part of the books of the New Testament.

Prayer before reading the Holy Gospel.

(prayer after the 11th kathisma)

Shine in our hearts, O Lord of mankind, your imperishable light of God's understanding, and open our mental eyes, in your Gospel preaching understanding, put in us the fear of your blessed commandments, but carnal lusts, all right, we will go through spiritual life, all even to your pleasing and wise and active. You are the enlightenment of our souls and bodies, Christ God, and we send glory to You, with Your Father without beginning, and the Most Holy and Good, and Your Life-giving Spirit, now and forever, and forever and ever, amen.

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

When reading the Gospel, - inspires Bishop. Ignatius (Bryanchaninov), - do not look for pleasure, do not look for delights, do not look for brilliant thoughts: look to see the infallibly holy Truth. Do not be satisfied with one fruitless reading of the Gospel; try to fulfill his commandments, read his deeds. This is the book of life, and one must read it with life.

Rule regarding the reading of the Word of God.

The reader of the book must do the following:
1) He should not read many sheets and pages, because he who has read a lot cannot comprehend everything and keep it in memory.
2) It is not enough to read and to reason a lot about what is read, because in this way what is read is better understood and deepened in memory, and our mind is enlightened.
3) See what is clear or incomprehensible from what is read in the book. When you understand what you are reading, it's good; and when you don't understand, leave it and read on. What is incomprehensible will either be clarified by the next reading, or by another repeated reading, with the help of God, it will become clear.
4) What the book teaches to evade, what it teaches to seek and do, about that try to fulfill it by the very deed. Avoid evil and do good.
5) When you only sharpen your mind from a book, but do not correct your will, then from reading a book you will be worse than you were; more evil are learned and reasonable fools than simple ignoramuses.
6) Remember that it is better to love in a Christian way than to understand highly; it is better to live redly than to say redly: "the mind swells, but love creates."
7) Whatever you yourself learn with the help of God, teach it to others lovingly as the occasion arises, so that the seed sown may grow and bear fruit.”

Bible: New Testament, Gospel.

The New Testament is the second part of the Christian Bible and is called the Gospel. New Testament, a collection of 27 Christian books (including 4 Gospels, Acts of the Apostles, 21 epistles of the Apostles and the book of Revelation of John the Theologian (Apocalypse)), written in the 1st century. n. e. and come down to us in ancient Greek. The New Testament, which gives information about the life and teachings of Christ in all His truth. God, through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, gave people salvation - this is the main teaching of Christianity. While only the first four books of the New Testament deal directly with the life of Jesus, each of the 27 books seeks in its own way to interpret the meaning of Jesus or show how his teachings apply to the lives of believers. The New Testament consists of books belonging to eight divinely inspired writers: Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Peter, Paul, James, and Jude.

The well-known Serbian researcher of canon law, Bishop Nikodim (Milash), wrote in his interpretation of the 19th canon of the VI Ecumenical Council the following: “St. Scripture is the word of God, revealing to people the will of God…” And St. Ignatius (Brianchaninov) said:

“…Read the Gospel with extreme reverence and attention. Consider nothing in it unimportant, unworthy of consideration. Every iota of it emits a ray of life. The neglect of life is death.

One author wrote about the Small Entrance to the Liturgy: “The Gospel is here a symbol of Christ. The Lord appeared into the world bodily, with his own eyes. He goes out to preach, to His earthly ministry, and is here among us. A terrible and majestic action is being performed - God is visibly tangible among us. From this spectacle, the holy angels of heaven freeze in reverent awe. And you, man, taste this great mystery and bow your head before it.

Based on the foregoing, one must understand that the Holy Gospel is the main book of mankind, in which life is contained for people. It contains divine truths that lead us to salvation. And it itself is the source of life - the word, filled with truly the power and wisdom of the Lord.

The gospel is the voice of Christ himself. In a symbolic and spiritual sense, when reading the Gospel, the Savior speaks to us. It is as if we are transported in time to the flourishing Galilean plains and become eyewitnesses of the incarnated God the Word. And He speaks not only universally and timelessly, in general, but specifically to each of us. The gospel is not just a book. This is life for us, this is the spring of living water and the source of life. It is both the Law of God, given to mankind for salvation, and the Mystery of this salvation being accomplished. When reading the Gospel, the human soul unites with God and resurrects in Him.

It is no coincidence that the word "evangelios" is translated from Greek as "good news." This means that by the grace of the Holy Spirit a new message-truth has opened up in the world: God came to Earth to save mankind, and “God became Man so that man could become God,” as St. Athanasius of Alexandria said in the 4th century. The Lord reconciled with the man, He healed him again and opened the way to the Kingdom of Heaven for him.

And reading or listening to the Gospel, we get on this heavenly vertical road and go along it to paradise. That's what the gospel is.

Therefore, it is very important to read the New Testament every day. On the advice of the Holy Fathers, we need to include the reading of the Holy Gospel and the "Apostle" (the Acts of the Holy Apostles, the Epistles of the Apostles and the fourteen Epistles of the Holy Primate Apostle Paul) in our cell (home) prayer rule. The following sequence is usually recommended: two chapters of the "Apostle" (some read one chapter) and one chapter of the Gospel per day.

In my opinion, based on personal experience, I would like to say that it is more convenient to read the Holy Scriptures in order, that is, from the first chapters to the last, and then return. Then a person will form a complete picture of the gospel narrative, a sense and understanding of its continuity, cause-and-effect relationships.

It is also necessary that reading the Gospel should not be like reading fiction like “leg by leg, sitting comfortably in an armchair.” Still, it should be a prayerful home liturgical act.

Archpriest Seraphim Slobodskoy in his book "The Law of God" recommends reading the Holy Scriptures while standing, crossing once before reading and three after.

There are special prayers said before and after the reading of the New Testament.

“Rise in our hearts, O Lord of mankind, your imperishable light of theology, and open our eyes mentally, in your gospel sermons understanding, put fear in us and your blessed commandments, so that carnal lusts are all right, we will go through spiritual life, all, even to pleasing Yours is both wise and active. You are the enlightenment of our souls and bodies, Christ God, and we send glory to You, with Your Father without beginning and the All-Holy, and the Good, and Your Life-giving Spirit, now and forever, and forever and ever. Amen". It is secretly read by the priest during the Divine Liturgy before the reading of the Holy Gospel. It is also placed after the 11th kathisma of the Psalter.

Prayer of St. John Chrysostom: “Lord Jesus Christ, open my ears of heart to hear Your word, and understand and do Your will, as I am a stranger on earth: do not hide Your commandments from me, but open my eyes, that I may understand miracles from Your law; tell me thy unknown and secret wisdom. I trust in You, my God, that I enlighten the mind and meaning with the light of Your mind, not only written of honor, but I also create, so that I don’t read my life and words as a sin, but in renewal, and enlightenment, and in the shrine, and in salvation of the soul, and for the inheritance of eternal life. As if You enlighten those who lie in darkness, and from You there is every good gift and every gift is perfect. Amen".

The prayer of St. Ignatius (Bryanchaninov), read before and after reading the Holy Scriptures: “Save, Lord, and have mercy on Your servants (names) with the words of the Divine Gospel, which are about the salvation of Your servant. The thorns of all their sins have fallen, Lord, and may Thy grace dwell in them, burning, cleansing, sanctifying the whole person in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen".

Regarding the latter, I will add that it is also read with the addition of a chapter from the Holy Gospel in some kind of sorrow or trouble. I have found from my own experience that it helps a lot. And the merciful Lord delivers from all sorts of circumstances and troubles. Some fathers recommend reading this prayer with the gospel chapter every day.

These are "Conversations on the Gospel of Matthew" by St. John Chrysostom; interpretation of the Gospel of the blessed Theophylact of Bulgaria; "Interpretation of the Gospel" by B. I. Gladkov, highly appreciated by the holy righteous John of Kronstadt; the works of Archbishop Averky (Taushev), Metropolitan Veniamin (Pushkar), the Explanatory Bible of the Old and New Testaments by Alexander Lopukhin, and other works.
Let us fall, brothers and sisters, with hearts “hungry and thirsty for righteousness,” to the pure, life-giving spring of Holy Scripture. Without it, the soul is doomed to decay and spiritual death. With him, she blossoms, like a paradise flower, filled with verbal life-giving moisture, worthy of the Kingdom of Heaven.

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

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

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

Bible. New Testament. Gospel.

Bible. Old Testament.

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

Prayer before reading the Holy Gospel

(prayer after the 11th kathisma)

“When reading the Gospel,” inspires Bishop. Ignatius (Bryanchaninov), - do not look for pleasure, do not look for delights, do not look for brilliant thoughts: look to see the infallibly holy Truth.
Do not be satisfied with one fruitless reading of the Gospel; try to fulfill his commandments, read his deeds. This is the book of life, and one must read it with life.

The Rule Regarding Reading the Word of God

Bible- this book, which became the basis of several world religions, such as Christianity, Islam and Judaism. Scripture passages have been translated into 2,062 languages, representing 95 percent of the world's languages, with 337 languages that can be read in their entirety.

The Bible has influenced the way of life and worldview of people from all continents. And it doesn't matter whether you believe in God or not, but as an educated person, you should know what a book is, on the texts of which the laws of morality and philanthropy are based.

The word Bible itself is translated from ancient Greek as “books” and is a collection of texts by different authors written in different languages and at different times with the assistance of the Spirit of God and at His suggestion. These writings formed the basis of the dogma of many religions and are mostly considered canonical. More:

Word " gospel' means 'gospel'. The gospel texts describe the life of Jesus Christ on earth, his deeds and teachings, His crucifixion and resurrection. The gospel is part of the Bible, or rather the New Testament.

Structure

The Bible consists of the Old Testament and the New Testament. The Old Testament includes 50 scriptures, of which only 38 are recognized by the Orthodox Church as divinely inspired, that is, canonical. Among the twenty-seven books of the New Testament are four Gospels, 21 Apostolic Epistles and the Acts of the Holy Apostles.

The gospel consists of four canonical texts, with the gospel of Mark, Matthew and Luke called synoptic, and the fourth gospel of John was written somewhat later and is fundamentally different from the others, but there is an assumption that it was based on an even more ancient text.

Writing language

The Bible was written by different people for more than 1600 years, and, therefore, it combines texts in different languages. The Old Testament is predominantly written in Hebrew, but there are also writings in Aramaic. The New Testament was written primarily in ancient Greek.

The gospel is written in Greek. However, one should not confuse that Greek not only with the modern language, but also with the one in which the best works of antiquity were written. This language was close to the ancient Attic dialect and was called the "Koine dialect".

Time of writing

In fact, today it is difficult to define not only a decade, but also a century of writing the Holy Books.

So the earliest gospel manuscripts date back to the second or third centuries CE, but there is evidence that the evangelists whose names appear under the texts lived in the first century. There is no evidence that the manuscripts were written at this time, except for a few quotations in texts dating from the end of the first - the beginning of the second centuries.

With the Bible, the question is simpler. It is believed that the Old Testament was written in the period from 1513 BC to 443 BC, and the New Testament from 41 AD to 98 AD. Thus, it took not only one year or a decade, but more than one and a half thousand years to write this great book.

Authorship

A believer, without hesitation, will answer that "The Bible is the word of God." It turns out that the author is the Lord God himself. Then where in the composition of the Bible, say, the Wisdom of Solomon or the Book of Job? It turns out the author is not alone? It is assumed that the Bible was written by ordinary people: philosophers, tillers, soldiers and shepherds, doctors and even kings. But these people had a special divine inspiration. They did not express their own thoughts, but simply held a pencil in their hands, while the Lord moved their hand. And yet, each text has its own style of writing, it is felt that they belong to different people. Undoubtedly, they can be called authors, but still they had God himself as co-authors.

The authorship of the Gospel for a long time no one doubted. It was believed that the texts were written by four Evangelists, whose names are known to everyone: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. In fact, it is impossible to name them with full certainty as their authors. It is only known for certain that all the actions described in these texts did not take place with the personal testimony of the evangelists. Most likely, this is a collection of the so-called "oral art", told by people whose names will forever remain a mystery. This is not the final point of view. Research in this area is ongoing, but today many clergy have chosen to still tell the parishioners that the gospel was written by unknown authors.

Differences between the Bible and the Gospel

The gospel is an integral part of the Bible, refers to the texts of the New Testament.
The Bible is an earlier writing, begun in the 15th century BC and stretching over 1600 years.
The gospel describes only the life of Jesus Christ on earth and His ascension to heaven, the Bible also tells about the creation of the world, about the participation of the Lord God in the life of the Jews, teaches us to take responsibility for each of our actions, etc.
The Bible includes texts in different languages. The gospel is written in ancient Greek.
The authors of the Bible are considered to be divinely inspired ordinary people, the authorship of the Gospel is controversial, although not so long ago it was attributed to four evangelists: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. More:

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