The word "bible" is translated from Greek as "books". We can say that this is a small library, collected from 66 separate narratives. For many centuries, it was the most famous in human history, in a sense it is considered a bestseller. Anyone can read this book. But during the time of the Inquisition, it was inaccessible to many, and not every ordinary person had the opportunity to read the Bible. The summary of the book, which will be provided in the article, reveals the true value of the events recorded in it.
The influence of the book on modern society
At the present time, there is hardly a person who has not heard anything about a book like the Bible. Almost everyone knows the contents of the Old Testament. Plots from here very often became a topic for artistic narratives, paintings. The influence of the part of the Bible closer to our time - the New Testament, the content of which cannot be overestimated, is quite strong on modern life. Consider this book from three perspectives.
The Bible as Holy Scripture
First, before moving on todiscussion of the Bible, the content of the book, must take into account the fact that in Christianity it is considered sacred. At the same time, a large part of it, namely the Old Testament, was written before our era.
Muslim originated later than Christianity, and it also often uses images and plots from the Bible. In fact, this is the source of the Qur'an.
Also, different Christian denominations have different attitudes towards the composition and content of the Bible. Some of them consider only the New Testament sacred.
The Bible as a historical source
As archaeological research has shown, the content of the Bible is reliable, many events really happened in reality. It contains a lot of information about the history of the ancient Eastern peoples, starting from 2000 BC. We must not forget that this book was written by people of antiquity, and many of the events described in it, which are now explained by science, are presented hyperbolically and from the point of view of a person of those times.
The Bible as a literary monument
It is important to note that this book is a real monument of culture. The thing is that the content of the Bible is of great value as a tradition of antiquity. It is the most translated work worldwide.
Composition and structure
This work is considered voluminous: the content of the Bible includes several separate books. The work is mainly divided into the Old and New Testaments. The first part is pre-Christian descriptions. She was accepted in Christianity as a sacredScriptures. There are many predictions here about the coming of the Messiah, which is Jesus.
The New Testament is a text describing the life of Jesus Christ directly with his apostles. Different publications may have a different order of transmission of these stories. The number of books included in the Bible also fluctuates.
Non-canonical books
Those who are interested in the summary of the Bible, Genesis need to know that in addition to the recognized authentic narratives, there are also non-canonical books. They came into existence after the Old Testament. Christian mentors advise reading them, too, to those who are going to accept this faith. The point is that non-canonical books are often instructive.
Summary
If we talk about the brief content of the Bible, then first of all it is divided into two parts, but each of them has its own ordered structure. For example, after describing the stages of creation (in the book of Genesis), it tells how people lived without having a law (at that time they were guided only by principles). Further, God made an alliance with the Israelites and gave them his decrees. The Old Testament, which translates as "the old union", contains a description of events before the moment when Jesus came to people. For this reason, the second part is called the New Testament.
If we are talking about the summary of the Bible, the Old Testament, then this is a work about how God created the world, sky, plants, animals, people. It describes the life of the distant ancestors of modern mankind - they lived in the desert, in the steppe,raised cattle, fell into the bonds of slavery and were freed from them. In addition, they made agreements with God. And one day He promised them rich lands where instead of water, milk and honey would flow in the rivers.
Soon there was a merciless struggle with the people living on that land. And then, having won, the ancient Jews set up their own state here. Centuries later, it turned out to be destroyed by its neighbors, and the Israelis were taken into captivity. Judging even by the content of the children's Bible, this happened because of the disobedience of the Jews to God.
But after punishing the people, Vladyka promised that one day he would save them from their oppressors. In Hebrew, the messenger of God sounds like "Messiah", and in Greek - "Christ". It was under this name that He entered history.
When Christianity already existed, the New Testament was being created. Here the main figure is Jesus of Nazareth - Christ. In addition, a significant part of the book is devoted to stories about the deeds of Christian communities. There is a story about the activities of the apostles, who were the disciples of Jesus.
About myths
The Bible is a collection of many ancient stories. They contain myths, legends, and stories about true historical events, predictions, and lyrical compositions. The Old Testament is richest in these things. The Bible has greatly influenced the development of mankind. Many biblical stories need to be interpreted correctly.
About the history of the gospel
Each book of the New Testament was written in Greek. But at the same time there wasnot the classical Greek language, but the Alexandrian dialect. It was he who was used by the population of the Roman Empire.
At the same time, only capital letters were used in the letter, punctuation marks were not used, and words were not separated from each other. It is noteworthy that small print began to be included in the text only in the 9th century. The same applies to the separate spelling of words. And punctuation marks came only with the invention of printing, in the 15th century.
The division that is in the Bible now was carried out by Cardinal Hugon in the XIII century. The Church has preserved the Holy Scriptures for thousands of years, and it has managed to bring these ancient texts to our days.
In the 17th century, 2 editions of the New Testament arose at once, they were printed. These texts are considered to be "pure" and original Greek. In the second half of the 9th century, the New Testament was translated by Cyril and Methodius into the Slavic language (Bulgarian-Macedonian dialect). It is noteworthy that this copy has survived to this day in the original. Initially, the Slavic edition was subjected to Russification throughout history. The translation currently used was made in the 19th century.
Gospel Writing Time
The time of creation of these works has not been precisely determined. But there is no doubt that they were created at the beginning of the 1st century. The thing is that the writings of 107 and 150 contain references to the New Testament, they have quotes from this book.
The works of the apostles were written first. This was necessary to establish the faith of the new Christian communities. It was possible to establish for certain that the Gospel of Matthew was the earliest, it could not have been created later than 50 years of the 1st century. The Gospels of Mark and Luke came after him, but were also written before 70 AD, before the destruction of Jerusalem. Later than all, John the Theologian wrote down his book, at that time he was already an old man, around the year 96. His work is known as the Apocalypse. The symbols used in the book of Revelation are creatures that resemble a man, a lion, a calf, and an eagle.
On the Meaning of the Gospels
All books in this series describe the life and teachings of Christ. It contains the story of his suffering, death, burial and resurrection. They serve as complements to each other, and none of the books contradict each other in major points.
Besides this, about 50 other writings were created throughout history, which bore the same name, they were also credited with the authorship of the apostles. However, the Church rejected them. They had dubious stories. These included the "Gospel of Thomas", "The Gospel of Nicodemus" and a number of other similar works.
Gospel Relationship
Of all the officially recognized gospels, three - from Matthew, Mark and Luke, are close to each other. They have a similar style of writing, they tell about the same thing. But the Gospel of John contains somewhat different information (although this book is also considered canonical), and the form of presentation there is different. John talks more about the deeper meaning of what is happening, while the rest of the evangelists describe external events.
BesidesThis, he leads quite difficult to understand the conversation. In the other three Gospels, the dialogues are quite simple. John was pursuing his personal goal of revealing the doctrine more deeply. However, each of these books has its own characteristics. And it is the totality of information described from different points of view that creates an accurate and detailed portrait of Christ.
On the nature of the Gospels
In the Orthodox teaching about the sacredness of these works, the idea has always sounded that the Holy Spirit did not oppress the mind and character of each author. For this reason, in many respects the differences between the Gospels are due to the individual traits of each author. In addition, they were written in different environments and conditions. In order to more accurately interpret each gospel, it makes sense to understand the characteristic differences of each author.
Matthew
Matthew was one of the twelve apostles of Christ. Until that moment, he was known as a tax collector. Few people loved him. By origin, Matthew was from the lineage of Levi, as indicated by Mark and Luke in their Gospels.
The publican was touched by the fact that Christ, despite the contempt of the people, did not disdain them. The tax collector in particular was reproved by the scribes and Pharisees, and Matthew denounces them in his gospel because they also broke the law.
For the most part he wrote his book for the people of Israel. According to one theory, his gospel was originally written in Hebrew, and only then translated into Greek. Matthew was martyred in Ethiopia.
Mark
Mark was not one of the twelve apostles. Byfor this reason he did not accompany Jesus constantly, as Matthew did. He wrote his work from the words and with the direct participation of the Apostle Peter. He himself saw Christ only a couple of days before his death. And only in the Gospel of Mark's authorship is there a case when a young man who followed Christ, when he was arrested, was wrapped in a veil over his naked body, and he was seized by the guards, but, leaving the veil, fled naked. Most likely, it was Mark himself.
Later he became Peter's companion. Mark was martyred in Alexandria.
At the center of his gospel is the fact that Jesus performed miracles. The author in every possible way emphasizes His greatness, His power.
Luka
According to ancient historians, Luke was from Antioch. He was a doctor and was also a painter. He was among the 70 disciples of Christ. Very vividly in this Gospel, the appearance of the Lord to two disciples is described, and this gives reason to believe that Luke was one of them.
He became the companion of the Apostle Paul. According to information that has survived to this day, Luke also died a martyr's death in Thebes. Emperor Constantius transferred his relics to Constantinople in the 4th century.
Luke wrote his book at the request of a nobleman from Antioch. In the course of writing, he used both the words of eyewitnesses and written information about Christ, which at that time already existed.
Luke himself claimed to have carefully checked each entry, and his gospel is accurate in the places and times of events, which are set out in a clear chronological order. It's obvious thatthe customer of the Gospel of Luke had never been to Jerusalem. For this reason, the apostle describes the geography of that area.
John
John was a disciple of Christ. He was the son of the fisherman Zebedee and Solomiya. His mother is mentioned among the women who served Christ with their property. She followed Jesus everywhere.
John became a constant disciple of Christ after a miraculous catch on Lake Gennesaret. He was present at many of his miracles. At the Last Supper, John "lay at the breast of Jesus." He is considered a favorite disciple of Christ.
The apostle wrote his gospel at the request of Christians. They wanted him to complete the existing three narratives. John agreed with their content, but decided that it was necessary to supplement them with the words of Christ. Which he did, revealing deeper his essence precisely as the Son of God, and not as a man.
Priests' comments
Commenting on the Bible, the priests point out that it can be interpreted in completely different ways. This explains the abundance of versions around the world, teachings based on it. It is recommended to read it starting from the New Testament. It is important to stock up on a sincere desire to know these books. And only after the four Gospels does it make sense to move on to the Old Testament.
