How the Old Testament became a holy book in Russia

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

Upon closer examination, it turns out that the project called "Old Testament" in Russia is not "old" at all. Back in 1825 under Nicholas I, the edition of the Old Testament, translated and printed by the Bible Society, was burned - at the beginning of the 19th century it was not considered a holy book in Russia.

Old Testament - Ancient Hebrew Scripture (Hebrew Bible) … The books of the Old Testament were written in the period from the 13th to the 1st century. BC. It is a common sacred text [of Judaism and Christianity [, part of the Christian Bible.

Christians believe that the Bible has always consisted of the New and Old Testaments. In this they are helped by theologians who prove that the Old Testament is an integral part of Holy Scripture, and both books harmoniously complement each other almost since the time of the Apostles. But this is not the case. At the beginning of the 19th century, the Old Testament was not considered a holy book in Russia..

ROC version

- 982. The Bible was translated by Cyril and Methodius;

- 1499. Gennadiy's Bible appeared (the first two-piece [Bible [containing the Old and New Testaments);

- 1581. Bible of the first printer Ivan Fedorov (Ostrog Bible);

- 1663. Moscow edition of the Russian Bible (is a slightly revised text of the Ostrog Bible);

- 1751. Elizabethan Bible;

- 1876. The synodal translation, which is being disseminated by the ROC today.

The Russian "[Orthodox" Church adheres to this scheme in order to show the logical sequence of the appearance of the Bible in the modern Russian language [. It seems like it turns out that the "Orthodox" [Russian people [had a natural need for a complete Bible, and there was no external influence, external forces that sought to introduce the Old Testament books into the Russian "Orthodox" society as sacred.

Old Testament in Russia

Insofar as the translation of Cyril and Methodius has not survived, and for some reason his traces are not traced in the ancient Russian literature, then the historians of the Church assign the main role in the preparation of the complete Bible to Archbishop Gennady, using his authority so that ordinary people do not have doubts; allegedly under his leadership, for the first time in Russia, the Jewish Bible (Old Testament) and the New Testament were combined under one cover.

Archbishop Gennadybecame famous for his struggle against the "Heresy of the Judaizers", and the church attributes to him the unification of the Old and New Testaments. Those. the fighter himself promotes in Russia the ideological basis of heresy, which he fights against. Paradox? - but it is accepted by the ROC as a reliable historical fact.

* In the Old Testament there is the book of Deuteronomy Isaiah, which contains all the provisions propagated by the "Heresy of the Living".

In Russia at that time there was the New Testament, the Psalter and the Apostle.

There is a version that the Gennady Bible appeared later. For example, in 1551 (that is, 52 years after the appearance of the Gennadiy Bible), the Hundred-Glav Cathedral took place, at which the issue of translations of holy books was considered.

3 books were recognized as sacred: the Gospel, the Psalter and the Apostle … The Old Testament and Gennadiy's Bible are not mentioned, which contradicts the version of the Russian Orthodox Church. If these books already existed, then the participants in the council had to express their opinion on the legality of using them.

In the 16th century, the implementation of the translation of the Old Testament failed.

Ostrog Bible

The Ostrog Bible is a complete copy of the Gennady Bible. According to church historians, Ivan Fedorov decided to publish the Ostrog Bible. But there is very little data on his personality. There is no information how Ivan Fedorov became a deacon? Who initiated, how was the title awarded? How did he study printing, and why was he entrusted with the founding of the first printing house? The question arises - was Ivan Fedorov really the first printer and author of the Ostrog Bible.

It is known that Ivan Fedorov was engaged in the ebb of guns and invented a multi-barrel mortar. The famous man who poured guns and is the inventor of the multi-barrel mortar was credited with publishing the Old Testament in print, linking his biography with Prince Ostrog, hence the name of the Bible - Ostrog. But this does not give authority to Ivan Fedorov. Prince Ostrog took part in the preparation of the Union …

He was married to a Catholic, and the eldest son, Prince Janusz, was baptized according to the Catholic rite

In addition, Ostrozhsky was associated with another publisher of the Old Testament - Francis Skaryna (he lived and worked during the life of Archbishop Gennady), but unlike Gennady, Francis's activities were rather "heretical". At least, it was far from Orthodox traditionalism. Also there is evidence of F. Skaryna's contacts with Jews … It is possible that they could stimulate his interest in the Old Testament texts.

It can be stated that in Ukraine in the mid-70s of the 15th century, in fact, when work began on the Ostrog Bible, there were already almost all Old Testament books have been translated into Russian or Old Church Slavonic. It is significant that these lists were in the possession of the princes of Ostrog. Obviously, they should be considered the forerunners of the Ostrog Bible..

Thus, in the south-west of Russia [a lot of work was done to prepare the Russian-language text of the Old Testament for distribution in Russia, to which the Russian pioneer printer Ivan Fedorov allegedly had a hand.

Moscow Bible

Further in Russia there was a split in the church (1650-1660s) under Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich [. The result of the reforms was the split of Christians into two groups: those who believed the Tsar and Patriarch Nikon and followed them, and those who continued to adhere to the old doctrine.

For what purpose was it necessary to compare Slavic books with GreekMoreover, Nikon himself did not know the Greek language. It is clear that Nikon did not make this decision on his own. He had such an associate, Arseny the Greek, who did a lot to destroy the Slavic books and stood up for new translations.

A schism was provoked, and while Christians destroyed each other for this or that ritual, published the Moscow Bible in 1663, which repeated Ostrozhskaya, with clarification according to the Hebrew and Greek texts.

The Old Testament (Hebrew Bible) was added to the New Testament, while The New Testament was modified so that it was perceived as a "continuation" or "superstructure" of the Old Testament.

Library of Congress Director John Billington:

[… Both sides considered the cathedral of 1666-1667. "Jewish gathering", and in an official decree the council accused its opponents of being victims of "false Jewish words" … It was rumored everywhere that state power had been given to "accursed Jewish rulers", and the Tsar entered into a pernicious "Western" marriage, intoxicated by the love potions of doctors -the Jews ".

Taking advantage of the confusion, they smuggled the "two-pronged" Bible

However, it was not possible to resolve all issues once and for all. Although the Moscow Bible appeared, it was not accepted by society. The people doubted the correctness of the new books (more precisely, they despised and blasphemed) and perceived their introduction as attempted enslavement of the country(this is the level of understanding of global politics by our ancestors!). The churches still used the Slavic versions of the New Testament, the Apostle and the Psalter.

Elizabethan Bible

The Elizabethan Bible is a copy of the Moscow Bible, with a correction according to the Vulgate (Latin translation of the Bible). After the invasion of Napoleon, in 1812, the Bible Society was created, which began to distribute the Elizabethan Bible.

However, soon Bible Society Was Banned.

The spread of the Bible with the Old Testament was opposed by Nicholas I.

It is known that in 1825 translated and printed by the Bible Society Old Testament edition was burnedat the brick factories of the Nevsky Lavra. There were no more attempts to translate, let alone publish the Old Testament, during the thirty-year reign of Emperor Nicholas I.

Synodal translation

The translation of the books of the Old Testament was renewed in 1856 during the reign of Alexander II. But it took another 20 years of struggle for the publication of the complete Bible in Russian in 1876 in one volume, on the title page of which was: "With the blessing of the Holy Synod." This text was named “ Synodal translation », « Synodal Bible ”And is being republished to this day with the blessing of the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia.

The Holy Synod, which gave its blessing for the distribution in Russia of a synodal translation of the Bible containing two artificially linked books under one cover, actually signed a verdict for its [state , which is confirmed by all subsequent events, including the current state of Russia.

One of the main roles in the translation of the Old Testament was played by Daniel Abramovich Khvolson and Vasily Andreevich Levison, a rabbi from Germany who converted to Orthodoxy in 1839. In 1882, a Russian translation of the Hebrew Bible was published, commissioned by the British Bible Society by W. Levison and D. Khvolson.

One can imagine what forces were interested in giving the Old Testament the status of a "Holy Book", because they managed to process the members of the Holy Synod and convince them of the need to add the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) to the New Testament … Someone was striving so strongly for this goal that they even sacrificed two rabbis who converted from Judaism to "Orthodoxy", but only formally, but in reality they continued their Jewish activities. By the way, the Jewish electronic encyclopedia speaks positively of them, and not as traitors.

[A source [