What is the Bible?

The Bible is translated from Greek as "book." In the generally accepted vocabulary, the Bible refers to the collection of holy books of Christians, consisting of the Old and New Testaments. The first part of the Bible is taken from Judaism and is also called "Jewish."

Instruction manual

The first part of the Bible is the Old Testament, a collection of scriptures that, in addition to Christianity, is considered sacred in Judaism (where it is called Tanah) and Islam (called Taurat). The Old Testament was drawn up over the course of eleven centuries (BC, that is, before the birth of Christ) and was written partially in Hebrew, partially in Aramaic. It includes 39 books, including the Torah (Pentateuch) of Moses, the Revelations of the Prophets, and Scripture (the most popular of which is the poetry Song of King Solomon).

The second part of the Bible is the New Testament, compiled by Christians and not recognized by the Jews for the Holy Scriptures, since Judaism does not recognize Jesus Christ (Isa) as the Messiah and son of God. Islam also recognizes the New Testament only partially, calling Jesus one of the prophets of Allah, and not the anointed of God. In Christianity, the New Testament is considered a fundamental part of the Bible. It contains the biographies of Christ (the Gospel), compiled by his disciples, the apostles Matthew, Mark, Luke, John. Following are the Acts of the Apostles, Epistles (to the Corinthians, Filipinos, Galatians, Colossians, Jews and so on). The New Testament completes the Revelation (Apocalypse) of John the Theologian, who is considered the prophecy of the end of the world before the second coming of the Messiah.

In the thirteenth century, all 66 books of the Bible were divided into chapters by the bishop of Canterbury, and chapters into verses. To date, there are more than two thousand translations of the Bible into different languages in the world. Of course, with such an abundance of texts, disagreements in translations are inevitable. Therefore, the Russian Orthodox Church for a long time considered the Synodal translation of 1876 canonical. In 1998, a new, restorative translation was made on the basis of the Synodal Edition and the Greek Bible. The first translation of the Holy Scriptures undertaken in Russia is considered to be the translation of the brothers Cyril and Methodius, East Slavic missionaries, authors of the Cyrillic alphabet. Later, the translator and the publication of the Bible for the Russian-speaking population worked as a printer Ivan Fedorov, as well as masters at the court of Peter the Great and Elizabeth Petrovna.

For Christians, one of the most important parts of the Bible is the Sermon on the Mount of Jesus Christ, which was included in the Gospel of Matthew. It is in this sermon that the main Christian prayer “Our Father” sounds, the ten commandments of the Moses, which he received on the Mount Sinai from the Lord, are interpreted. It also mentions the sayings of Christ, which became the basis of Christianity: "Do not judge, let us not be judged, " "Pray for your enemies, " "If you were hit on the right cheek, substitute the left." According to the Gospel, Jesus delivered the Sermon on the Mount after he performed the miraculous healing of the sick.