The question of what the Bible is cannot be answered briefly. In the 3rd century BC. King Ptolemy of Egypt wanted to have a Greek translation of the Bible in the Alexandrian library. But the 72 translators sent from Judea did not know what to translate. And they explained it with the following fact. There are several levels of text in the Hebrew text of the Bible. First, words are read, then certain letters are counted: each 7, then each 10, each 50. And a new text is obtained, which serves as an interpretation of the previous one. Ptolemy ordered that just the main text be translated. So the Septuagint was born - a translation of the Old Testament books into ancient Greek. But that's just the story of the Bible. And if you look from a worldly point of view, then the question of what the Bible is has a direct answer: the Bible is a collection of books that are divided into 2 parts: the Old Testament and the New Testament.
The Old Testament texts written before the coming of Christ can bedivided into four groups:
- law books;
- historical books;
- teaching books;
- prophetic books.
The books of laws (the law in Hebrew is Torah) are otherwise called the Pentateuch of Moses, and they consist of the following books:
- Being - tells about the creation of the world and man, about the omnipotence of God, his wisdom and great love, the manifestation of which was the creation of man in his own image and likeness. Genesis describes the greatest tragedy - the fall of man and his expulsion from paradise.
- Exodus - talks about the resettlement of Jews from Egypt. The heart of this book is the greatest event, the Sinai revelation. This is the story of how Moses received the 10 commandments from God.
- Leviticus is a book about the Old Testament clergy.
- Numbers - tells about the number of tribes of Israel, and also continues the description of the wanderings of the Jews in the wilderness.
- Deuteronomy - Moses repeating the commandments to the new generation born during the Exodus.
To summarize, in the books of the law, God taught the people the law of righteousness to prepare them to accept the law of love that Christ would bring.
History books include:
- The Book of Joshua - talks about the conquest of the promised land.
- Judges of Israel - covers the period from the conquest of Canaan to the emergence of royal power. For at that time the Jews had the only theocratic state in the world.
- Ruth is an addition to the previous book, with an emphasis on the biography of simplepeople.
- Kings (1-4) – describes the historical gap between the reign of King Saul and the destruction of the first temple by Nebuchadnezzar.
- Chronicles - addition to the previous book.
- 1st book of Ezra - contains a detailed description of the return of the Jews from the Babylonian captivity, as well as the construction of the 2nd temple.
- The Book of Nehemiah - complements the previous book and reveals the details of the spiritual revival of the Jewish people.
- Esther - this book tells about the origins of the Jewish holiday of Purim.
The general outline of these books makes it possible to understand the Creator's providence in the events of history and the active participation of God in people's lives. From His philanthropy, the Lord seeks to correct the sinful nature of man, turn him away from serving idols and turn him to himself.
Instructive books - texts are instructive in their essence. They teach a person how to relate to the events of everyday life, without losing sight of God and his commandments:
- The Book of Job - describes the life of the great Old Testament righteous Job.
- The Books of Solomon - give us a poetic prototype of the church as the bride of Christ.
- The Ps alter is a special part of the Old Testament texts. In the old days in Russia, they learned the alphabet from it. This is an invaluable source of prayer, and every worship service is filled with prayers from this book. But most importantly, the Ps alter is replete with vivid prophecies about Christ.
Prophetic books are the books of the four great prophets: Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Daniel. And also twelveother minor prophets. Almost all the most important prophecies were somehow connected with the birth of Jesus Christ.
Additionally, non-canonical texts should be mentioned. They are considered as such because they are not preserved in the Hebrew original. Among them are the Wisdom of Jesus the son of Sirach, the Book of the Wisdom of Solomon, Tobit and some others. These books are not included in the Canon, but are included in the Septuagint as useful and instructive. Of course, the division into groups is conditional. There are many historical facts in the prophetic books, and there are prophecies in the historical books.
That part of the Holy Scriptures that was written after the birth of Christ is called the New Testament and is entirely devoted to one key theme and one exceptional person - Jesus Christ, who is both perfect goodness and perfect novelty in the history of mankind. We can say that the New Testament is one great book, which, in turn, consists of 27 books. Of course, judging not by volume, but by degree of importance. The basis of the New Testament texts are 4 Gospels:
- from Matthew;
- from Mark;
- from Luke;
- from John.
Gospel in Greek means "good news". And this message was brought by Christ himself, and this message is Christ. The Gospel speaks of the divine origin of Christ, his miraculous birth from a virgin, extraordinary wisdom, suffering on the cross, death, his glorious resurrection and ascension to heaven. In relation to the rest of the New Testament books, the Gospel is a book of basictrue.
The Acts of the Holy Apostles can be attributed to the historical books of the New Testament. This book tells about the life of the first Christian communities, apostolic sermons. Also included in the New Testament texts are 21 epistles of St. Apostles. They are a statement of the basic truths of the Christian faith.
Among all the New Testament books there is one special one - the Apocalypse. This Greek word means "revelation." From this book we learn about the future fate of the church and the world, about the hard struggle of the church against all the fiends, about the end of history, the triumph of Jesus Christ and the victory of the lamb of God over the powers of darkness.
This is what the Orthodox Bible consists of and how it is interpreted. But this does not give a definitive answer to the question of what the Bible is. According to the Apostle Paul, if a person reads the Bible and does not believe in Christ, then his mind is blinded, and a veil lies on his mind. Until now, Jews, reading the Bible, understand only the words, but not the meaning of the Holy Scripture itself. It should be clarified that by the Jews, Paul meant people who do not believe in Christ as the son of God.
About 200 years ago, St. Seraphim of Sarov answered the question about what the Bible is like this: The Bible is a book inspired by God, reading which you can talk with God. If you read the Old Testament, then you are talking to God, and if you are reading the Gospel, then the Lord is talking to you. If a person reads the entire Bible with attention, the Lord will not leave this feat and will reward this ascetic with the gift of understanding.
So many years have passed, but no one has denied the words of the saintold man. Could it be?
