In the previous chapters, we saw that the Bible consists of two parts, between which there is a clear difference: the Old Testament (or the Book of the Covenant) contains the history of the creation of the world and the history of the Israeli people to about 4-3 centuries BC, and the New Testament - The biography of Jesus Christ, the history of the first Christian communities and the epistles addressed to them. Both parts of the Bible have their own history of occurrence: the lion's share of the Old Testament is written by Jews - the Old Testament is simultaneously the Holy Book of Jews, and the appearance and transfer of the New Testament are responsible for Christians. In this chapter, we want to explore the question of the new Testament - just as we did in the previous chapter with the Old Testament: how did the components of his books occurred? How were they collected together? What kind of manuscripts of the new covenant we have? Are there any other means to confirm the accuracy of his text? How to attempt to reconstruct the original text and how reliable is our today's new covenant?

In ch. 2 We have already briefly spoke about the initial compilation of the New Testament. Just as in the case of the Old Testament, the originals of the New Testament books (so-called autographs)i did not reach us. This was not possible, as Papyrus, on which they were written, was very short-lived. Fortunately, these autographs were rewritten to new papyrus scrolls after certain intervals, and it went on for almost fourteen centuries. The books of the New Testament were written in the second half of the first century AD. and mostly intended for instruction local churches (like, for example, most of the letters are up. Paul). Some letters were addressed to individual personalities (Messages Timothy and the 2nd and 3rd messages of John), others, on the contrary, are facing a wider range of readers (Jacob messages, Revelation). Some books were written in Jerusalem (James), others in Malaya Asia (John) and in Southeast Europe (Ambassador Ephesians, Philippians and Colossians). The place of writing and destination of these books was most often greatly removed from each other. In addition, there existed only limited option communication and transport links; From this it can be understood that to rewrite the texts of all the books of the New Testament, the first Christian communities needed a significant amount of time. But nevertheless, in these communities, work began on compilationfrom the original of the apostolic messages of a single book. (Problems associated with the exception of authentic (genuine) apostolic messages from non-authentic, i.e. canonical books from apocryphas, we will consider in more detail in chapter 5). Roman bishop of Clementy, who wrote a letter of the Corinthian Church in the 95th year, was not a sign not only with the message of the Apostle Paul Roman Church, but also, at a minimum, with one of his messages to Corinthians (see 1 Clementia 47,1-3) And probably with many others. In addition, at that time, the Roman Church had copies of a number of new taving books.

Similar distribution of these books and reading them out loud was everywhere in the first centuries. Apostle Paul repeatedly commands to read his letters in churches out loud (1 Fez. 5.27; 1 Tim. 4.13), as well as what to do this should be in various churches: "When this message will be read by you, then order that you do It would be read in the Laodician church; and then, which in Lodicia, read both you "(count 4,16). John even visited a special blessing to the revelation reading his book (see Rev. 1,3). This book was facing seven different non-Russian churches (ch. 1,4.11), which should have transferred a book to each other. The walking books on churches and their reading simultaneously meant that the writings of the apostles, being intended for each specific church, had authority for everyone. This explains fast copying and, as we can see this on the example of the messages, the rapid spread of the texts of the New Testament books (see iak. 1,1; Pet. 1,1). Many believe that the Message to Ephesians was originally just such a common message to the churches, because the words "in Ephesus" are not enough in many old manuscripts.

So in the early Christian churches, the first meetings of copies of the New Testament Scriptures appeared. The Apostle Peter probably had a collection of letters of the Apostle Paul and equated them to "other scriptures" (2 Pet 3,15-16). This is a direct indication that such copies have been used in other places. This is also evidenced by the fact that the New Testament authors sometimes mention each other. So, the apostle Paul in 1 Tim. 5,18 quotes the Gospel from Luke (ch. 10.7), calling him "Scripture". Thus, by the end of the first century, the book of the new covenant were not only written, but also widespread in the form of copies. Due to the growing demand, this copying process continued for many centuries, while the invention of typography did not put an end to this tedious work.

The first finds of manuscripts

Currently we have more than 5,000 manuscripts containing the entire Greek New Testament or its parts. But the number of manuscripts found so sharply increased only in lately: Recently, Christians did not have almost one full-fledged ancient text. In the 16-17 centuries, in the era of the appearance of the great Protestant translations of the Bible, not a single manuscript of the olden 11th century, not counting Codex Bezae.(Manuscript donated by the student Calvin Betz in 1581 to the University of Cambridge). Otherwise, autographs were separated from the oldest manuscripts to more than a thousand years of time! Today we can give a clear answer to the question seemed to be unresolved: Did the Bible translators have a reliable text? The answer to this question is unambiguous "yes." You can add here that today we have even more accurate text! For many texts of the new Testament, the time break between the autograph and the copy has decreased to 50 years! This is a great result of three hundred student research - and work continues!

It all started with the fact that the English king of Karl first received as a gift from the Patriarch of Constantinople very old handwritten Bible ("Code"). This manuscript came in 1078 in the hands of Patriarch Alexandrian, hence her name - Codex alexandrinus.She probably was written in the same terrain in the first half of the fourth century. It contains almost the entire Greek Bible (Old and New Testament) and some apocryphas and are written by uncial letters on a very thin calf skin (Vellaume). Only in the 18th century, this valuable manuscript was published completely; But before that, its research was already diligently engaged in English and German scientists who did not lose hope for the detection of even more ancient manuscripts. Although both before and after this event for the publications of the New Testament was used by "Textus receptus" ("Adopted Text", the Greek text of Stephenia 1550 - see ch. 2; The expression itself comes from the preface to the edition of Elzevir 1633), all More and more differing text options. In 1707, John Muller published the Greek New Testament, in which texts of 78 new manuscripts were added to the Stephenian text (see below), as well as a number of ancient translations of the Bible quotation made by the church fathers. All scientists who dared to publish the updated text of the Bible were subjected to cruel persecution, because their actions were considered as a manifestation of a lack of respect for the Bible!

But these researchers defended the great scientist Richard Bentley. One of his students was I. I. Vestein, first published in 1752 the list of immocal and minusful texts in 1752 (see Ch. 2), and the list was ordered alphabetically as it was accepted today (see below). His work was later supplemented by many scientists, until Finally, I. M. A. Scholz did not publish in 1830 the most comprehensive directory containing more than a thousand manuscripts. The overwhelming majority of these manuscripts were written by mincuts (i.e. not later than the 10th century), although some very valuable nonsense manuscripts were also known. Along with Codex Alexandrinus and Codex Bezae, one of the most valuable manuscripts of the New Testament was Codex Vaticanuis. It contains almost all of the Greek Bible and apocryphic books and, as they believed, written between 325 and 350 years. At least until the 15th century, the manuscript was in the library of the Vatican, but the whole was published only in 1889-90. In addition to a short period, when the manuscript together with other trophies of Napoleon was in Paris, Codex Vaticanus did not attract the attention of scientists. When, after the defeat of Napoleon, the manuscript was transported back to Rome, the Vatican authorities completely banned by foreign scientists working on it under the pretext that they themselves are preparing for the publication - but so far nothing has come out of this.

First edition of the text

Thus, in 1830, scientists have had some very old uncial texts, but along with them used a huge number of significantly younger manuscripts, which almost all contained the same version of the text, called "Byzantine" and known as Textus Receptus. This text, in particular, is based on the Luter's translation of the Bible. A quite a long time passed while scientists finally noticed how many inaccuracies it contains and how many fixes offer old uncial manuscripts. The road of this discovery was punched by three great German scientists: they laid the basis of modern criticism of the text * of the New Testament (see ch. 3). These were I. A. Bengel (his edition was published in 1734), I. S. Zemler (1767) and I. I. Grisbach (three publications in 1774-1805). They conducted a comparison of the available manuscripts, ancient translations and biblical quotes of the church fathers in search of the text options consistent with each other; In the end, the Grisbach divided them all into three groups: (a) Alexandria textsto which at that time, in addition to Codex Vaticanus and Codex Alexandrinus (excluding the Gospel), there was a number of translations and quotes of the fathers of the Eastern Church, (b) Western version of the textincluding Codex Bezae and quotes and translations of fathers Western (Latin) church, and (B) Byzantine text \u003dTextus Receptus (including the Gospel of Codex Alexandrinus and a large number of later manuscripts). This classification was later clarified, but generally used to this day. The idea that some very old uncial texts and antique translations in many items are much closer to the source text than many hundreds of later manuscripts, in 1830 it came across the fierce resistance! However, large changes in biblical text were rewrmed.

The breakthrough began with the publication in 1831 of the Greek New Testament edited by Karl Lakhman, which became a very popular publication in 1842-50. Lahman just refused to Textus Receptus and concentrated on some ancient unzilaces and translations of the fathers of the church. This, of course, was already another extreme, but his pioneering work gave a large impulse to the entire biblical criticism of texts. Another young scientist appeared on the stage, which gathered such a huge number of manuscripts, which nobody had before him: 18 nonsense and six minus-manuscripts; He first published 25 Unatsiels and contributed to the new edition of the eleven other manuscripts, some of which had a great scientific value. This scientist was Konstantin Tyshendorf.(1815-1874). He released at least eight editions of the Greek New Testament, and, besides them, also the gospel, messages and separate manuscripts. We want to briefly report only about some of its most important discoveries. One of them relates to the most sensational for the entire biblical history.

Opening of Tyshendorf.

Immediately after the completion of the study of Theology, Tissendorf at the age of 26 went to Paris. He set the goal of finding the oldest famous Unzials and publish them, knowing that Codex Ephraemi is in Paris. In the 16th century, this fifth century valuable manuscript fell into the hands of the French king. It contains small parts of the old and most of the new covenants. A feature of this manuscript was that she is PalimPsest Rescriptus, i.e. Its initial text was erased, and on top (in the 12th century) a copy of one of the works of the father of the Syrian Church of Ephraim, who lived in the fourth century was written. Until that time, no one could understand the content of the initial inscription appealing on the parchment, but Tyshendorph was able to "show" this text with chemicals and fully decipher it for two years!

Soon, however, it seemed to him little. He suggested that in the hot, dry regions of the Middle East could still be preserved by the ancient monasteries. Here, a long-time Christian could find reliable asylum and, perhaps, hide and the ancient scrolls of the Scriptures. So in 1844, 29-year-old Tyshendorf Riding on a camel, accompanied by four Bedouins, went to Mount Sinai, to the monastery of St. Catharina. This monastery was built in 530 by Emperor Justinian on the spot, where monks lived from the fourth century. Having achieved the location of the monks, Tischendorf began searches in the launched structure in which the monastery library was located. Once he came across a large basket filled with parchments: the librarian explained to him that he had already burned the monks of two large keys of such a "trash." In the basket, Tischendorf discovered 129 pages of the Greek Old Testament, more ancients than all the manuscripts at the time! He managed to get 43 pages with great difficulty, and only because they still were going to burn ...

Nakhodka spurred Tyshendorf, but, as he was looking for, the books from which these sheets were extended (and which, perhaps, also contained the New Testament), he did not find it. In 1853, he once again searched the entire monastery, but this time unsuccessfully. But the mysterious code did not leave him alone, and in 1859 he once again visited the monastery, this time with a letter of recommendatory letter from the Russian king, containing a call for the monarch to his Greek Catholic brothers in faith. But this time the Code remained happiness, while on the last evening, Tischendorf was not invited to a farewell meal to the abbot of the monastery. During the conversation, Tyshendorf showed the abbot of his edition of the Septuagints. In response to this, the Holy Father said that Tyshendorf would be nice to see and an old copy of the Septuaginti, which he himself reads every day. He took off the parchment wrapped in a red handkerchief - and Tyshendorf at first sight, he learned the Codex Sinaticus leaves in it, which he was so long and unsuccessfully sought. It contained not only the other 199 pages of the Old Testament, but also the entire New Testament!

What can test at such a moment the scientist holding a manuscript in the hands of ancient times and the value exceeding all what happened to study in twenty years? Out of joy, Tissendorf spent the entire night behind the copy of the parts of the manuscript. After a long fluctuations, the manuscript was sent to Tyshendorf in Cairo and eventually donated to the Russian king. That in response presented a monastery of 9000 rubles (gold) and a number of high awards. In 1933, the United Kingdom bought this precious manuscript from the USSR for 100,000 pounds of sterling, and at the Christmas of the same year he was sent there, where it is up to this day - to the British Museum in London. So, his dizzying adventures ended with his writing in the middle of the fourth (!) Century. Then Tyshendorf took up the third ancient uncial manuscript - Codex Vaticanus. After some wires, he in 1866 received permission for 14 days, three hours a day, read a manuscript, with a ban on something from it or publish. Nevertheless, Tyshendorf managed to extract important material from the Vatican Code for his new publication of the Greek New Testament. In 1868, the publication of the Vatican Code (New Testament), taken by Vatican scientists, was also published. Thus, scientists have at their disposal have two most important manuscripts of the New Testament, formerly one hundred years older than all used by them until the time of manuscripts.

Now the revision of the generally accepted text of the New Testament was inevitable: the Sinai and Vatican Codes differed from the generally accepted text in many important items, and, in the opinion of all scientists, they were more accurate than Textus receptus. This big work on editing the Bible was carried out in Germany by Tyshendorf (1869-72), and in England, the great Cambridge scientists B. F. Westcott and F. J. A. Khomt (published in 1881).

Great edition of the Bible

This aforementioned work was decisive for the entire biblical criticism of the New Testament. Scientists (Tyschendorf, Westcott and Hort) divided (according to the method of Grisbach) manuscripts into three groups: (a) neutralgroup: This was primarily the Vatican and Sinai Codes, various Mincons, the Nizhne-Egyptian translation (see ch. 2 and below) and the Orien quotes, (b) quite incomprehensible alexandria grouplater added to the group (A), (B) westerngroup: It belongs to Codex Bezae, Starolotin and famous olderization transfers and, above all, almost all quotes of the first fathers of the Church, (d), they quickly postponed as the Grisbach with Lachman. The group (c) they considered a long time, and between groups (a), which they considered the best sample of the text, and (b) there was no serious discrepancies.

Westcott and Hort have been published, finally, all long ago expected Greek text. He was based on the oldest and best manuscripts and relied on a detailed criticism. In addition, the new Test Version (reworked English translation) of the New Testament of 1881 is mostly the most sensational publication of all times: only for the right of possession of the first copies of this publication to 5,000 pounds sterling, one Ohhorord press sold in The first day is a million copies; The streets around the publishing house were twisted by transport intended for the boring member in various places! But at the same time, the wave of criticism was rising, primarily from the unwillingness of the people, to make changes in the words of the most famous and dear book for him. Partially, this criticism was justified, as it turned out in the age of great discoveries, the coming soon after those events. What were the right critics, we will now see.

New discoveries

New discoveries were again made on the Sinai Peninsula: two sisters scientists have discovered there in 1892 Codex Syro-Sinaiticus, the Visor Translation (older than Peshito, see ch. 2 and below), a copy of the fifth century made from one of the early translations of the new Testament From the second century. This discovery has supported the "neutral" text, but at the same time, as well as the "Western" version of the text, a little differed from it. The disagreements arising on this basis gradually turned out from the conflict between the "neutral" and "Byzantine" to the conflict between the "neutral" and "western" texts. This discussion also fueled the problem called dieatessaron(\u003d "One of the four", composed with the help of "glue and scissors" by a four-year-old, written by the father of the Tacian church in the second century in Greek and Syrian languages).

In the 19th century, "emerging" ancient Armenian, Latin and Arabic transfers of the commentary of the Church of the Church of Efrema had been added to Diefessary, and fragments of the translation of the very difficulty were found in the 20th century. This very early manuscript showed greater antiquity of the "Western" text, because he had a great influence on the work of St. Ephraim. The continuation of these studies denied the allegations of individual critics, that Tacian used the Gospels that are very different from ours. The fact is that critics adhered to the point of view, according to which today's gospels, if they even existed, with their stories about the wonders and persistent instructions on Christ as the Son of God, in the 160th year could not be an authority. Efrem's comment (whose manuscript with a large part of the Syrian original was found again in 1957), clearly shows that Tacian in the 160th year had the same four gospels, with the same text structure as we, and that they are already at that The time was used so much authority that Tacian did not solve any quotation next to them from any other work (for example, apocryphic gospels or oral traditions)! In addition to that, the gospel was obviously so common and authoritative that already sixty years after writing the Gospel of John, his Syrian translation appeared: it shows Codex Syro-Sinaiticus. The following important discovery was made in Egypt: American artist K. L. Friere in 1906 bought several biblical manuscripts from the Arab merchant Ali-Ibn-Jizis. Among them were the meeting of New Testament fragments, now known as Codex Washingtonianus, or Freerianus. Some of these manuscripts containing the Gospel is the most ancient of the famous (4th century), besides the best. The most important thing in this fragment was that he demonstrated a completely new text structure, which is mutually balanced with neutral / Alexandria and Western texts. Soon other texts with the same structure were opened, subsequently called caesarian.First, the text Map. 5-16 demonstrated a clear similarity with published in 1877 by the results of a study of four minusful texts conducted by Ferrarm and Abbot known as the "Family 13". Secondly, a clear connection between this family was traced (first of all, again in the Gospel of Mark) with the studies of other four minusal texts (families 1), published in 1902 by the Kisolen Lake. Third, prof. Hermann von Zoden drew the attention of scientists in 1906 to the peculiar Late Uncial Text, found in the Corondi Monastery in the Caucasus and is now located in Tbilisi (Georgia). Codex Koridethianus from the ninth century also had a similar structure. In addition, B. X. Striuter in 1924 not only indicated a distinct connection with the Palestinian Syrian translation (see below), but also proved that the great Origen scientist (died in 254), as can be seen from its bible citation After moving from Alexandria to Caesaria, text with the same structure used. Therefore, the group of texts was called "Caesarian" (although later it turned out that Origen, apparently, used this text in Alexandria). It becomes clear from this that antique Georgian and Armenian translations have the same text structure. So at first, the seemingly important family of 13 Ferrara and the abbot rose into a new, independent group of gospel manuscripts! (Meanwhile, it turned out that other fragments of the Gospels of the Washington Code also have well-known text structures: see below).

Papyrus

However, it is time to remember about a number of other significant discoveries, namely, about the finds of biblical Papyri.the times of the first centuries of church history. These findings were found in dry, hot regions of Egypt: here the short-lived papyrus was able to preserve the best. Already in 18-19 centuries, various ancient manuscripts were discovered in Egypt, such as Homerovsky Elijah, but they almost did not pay attention to critics. However, the situation has changed rapidly after the famous critic Sir Frederick Kenon published the text kept in the British Museum of Aristotle's work, before it is known only by name. Suddenly, the eyes of scientists turned to the ancient tombs and dumps of Egypt: to the tombs, because the Egyptians had the habit of putting the deceased various items (among them and scrolls) who used the dead man, hoping that they would help him in the other world, and to Dumps, because the rejected papyrus scrolls were not exposed to moisture in these arid areas, and the sandy winds of the desert defended them from the sun.

In 1897, two young people, Greenfel and Hunt, began to excavate the ancient landfills in the Oksircheus area, not far from the Libyan desert, 15 km east of the Nile. Already soon they were found here and, above all, a little east, in Fayum, many thousands of papyrus, among them - some newly taverny fragments from the third century. The study of these materials soon showed that Egyptian Christians already in those ancient times had mainly the same text that we encounter in the large codes of the fourth-fifth centuries. This is a very important discovery, since some critics arrogantly argued that the church rulers of the Emperor's Emperor Konstantin Great made gross changes to the text of the New Testament. However, countless texts and the transfers of the third and subsequent centuries clearly spoke in favor of the opposite statement - the next attack of critics burst like a soap bubble. Simple Egyptian seasons of the second century, in essence, read the same New Testament as the twentieth century scientists. In addition, the structure of these ancient papyrus texts along with others, obviously, "Alexandrian" origin, often demonstrated typical "Western" features, and none of them were "Byzantine".

These papyrus give an answer to another question: a long time dominated the point of view that the new covenant was written on a special kind of "Speech of the Holy Spirit", because the Greek language of the New Testament was very different from the language of famous classical works of that time. Papyrus, however, showed that the New Testament was written in a spoken language of the first century - on koin-Greek.It was not, as some Fathers of the Church believed, "Specially designed for the New Testament", and the language common in those days on the entire Mediterranean coast, the language of merchants, fishermen, simple people. When scientists got acquainted with this type of papyrus language, they became clearer and many expressions of the New Testament. In addition, the Greek language characteristic of the first century was an additional evidence (in the peak of the opinions of many critics) in favor of the fact that the text was indeed written in the first century AD. So papyrus played a big role in biblical science before "big papyrius bibles" were discovered.

Large papyrius Bibles

Then the Great Opening of 1930 followed, the find, comparable in its value only with the Sinai Code. On the eastern bank of the Nile, opposite Fileumon the old Copt cemetery, several Arabs found a bunch of clay jugs with ancient papyrus. They went through the hands of many merchants while the lion's share did not bought them E. Chester Beatti,famous American collector who lived in England and possessed a large collection of ancient manuscripts. Michigan University also bought a small part of papyrus, another 15 pages went to another place. On November 17, 1931, Sir Frederick Kenon published his opening in the "Time": the detected fragments of manuscripts contain a large number of excerpts from many books of the Bible. The following fragments are preserved from the Greek Old Testament: Genesis (300 AD), numbers and broadcasting (first half of the 2nd century) and partly - Izekheil, Daniel and Esther (first half of the 3rd century). But the greatest value were the fragments of the New Testament: a quarter of copies (cipher P45) of the four Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles (the first half of the 3rd century). After the exchange of manuscripts, their hosts manuscript R46 was added to almost completely surviving Epistle AP. Paul (beginning of the 3rd century), and the Message to the Jews followed immediately for the message to the Romans-designation on the fact that then no one had doubts about authorship. Paul. Finally, the P47 manuscript was discovered among papyrus with the third book of Revelation from the beginning of the third century.

You can imagine how important this discovery was. In addition to pastoral and common messages, fragments of all New Testament books were found, and the age of written evidence of the Greek text of the Bible (more precisely, its individual parts) was shifted from 4th to the beginning of the 2nd century AD. In addition, the structures of the P45 manuscript were completely unlike the "Alexandria" or "Western" (even less "Byzantine"), and the structure of the Gospel of Mark was typically "Caesarian". P46 and R47 closer to "Alexandrian" manuscripts. By the way, the flock stream was not limited to Chester Bitty Papyrus. Very interesting was the discovery of a small fragment containing texts from Joan. 18.31-33.37 and 38 and dated 125-130, i.e. Only 30-35 years later after (as it is believed) John wrote his gospel! If we think that the gospel for such a short (at that time) has time to achieve Egypt, we will be able to understand the importance of this find (known as the name called papyrus John Rylends117-38 or P52) To confirm the dates for writing the Gospels and the fight against various and speculative statements of biblical critics (according to their allegations, the Gospel of John should have been written in 160-170.). From the last finds of papyrouse in the first place should be mentioned Bodmer papyrus.In 1956, the library. Koliny near Geneva bought a papyrus with the Gospel of John (P66), dating from about 200th. Another papyrus (P75) contained fragments of the Gospels from Luke and John, and on one (P72) were the messages of Peter and Judas. Both papyrus dated about 200th, while a much more young P74 (6-7 century) contained the book of Acts of the Apostles and the General (Cathedral) Messages. These numerous findings made the old arrangement of texts (based on the structure of the manuscripts of the 4th and subsequent centuries) as well-consuming and demanded a new critical analysis of all ancient sources. These results are already used (though, not in all) new editions of the Greek New Testament (which, unfortunately, there are elements of the opinions of the Bible critics, Wed. Ch. 7 and 8).

The central figure in these new surveys was Kurt Aland,previously worked (along with Ervin Neslatle) by the editor of the famous publishing house "Nestle". Now he was busy in cooperation with other scientists to prepare a completely new edition. Alaland - Director of the New Testament Text Research Institute (part of the University of Germany) and has a catalog of all the newly available handwritten testimonies of the New Testament: Lists of Dinner Papyrins, hundreds of Unziels, thousands of minus and other text sources (see below), of which the vast Most are available at the Institute in the form of microfilms! All texts are equipped with a specific code: papyrus-lutera r and number, uncial texts - a Jewish, Latin or Greek capital letter or a number starting from scratch, mincar - a normal number.

Essential manuscripts

Now we can briefly summarize the most important manuscripts, and now we have the opportunity to name and instances that have not mentioned.

1. Open list papyrusrenovated - the oldest P52, Chester Bitti papyrus (P45-47) and Bodmers' papyrus (P45-47, the second-third century).

2. Behind them are the most important manuscripts: big unzialon Parchment and Vellaume (calf skin), general number About three hundred dated 4-9 centuries. These are primarily Codex Sinaiti-Cus (C, or Greek. Kappa), Jewish (X), Alexandrinus (A), Vatica- Nus (B), EPHRAEMI (C), Bezae, or Cantabrigiensis (Cambridge) (e), Washingtonianus, or Freerianus (Sh), and Koridethianus (H). Here we could still add Codex Claramontanus (Clermontsky) (D2), adjacent to (e) and, like him, containing both Greek and Latin texts; It almost completely contains all the messages of the AP. Paul (including the post to Heb.).

3. Mincaldating from 9-15th centuries and therefore represent a significantly less value for research. They are represented by approximately 2650 manuscripts and over 2000 lesters (see below). The most valuable H 33 ("Queen of Mincovy") from the 9-10th century, containing, except for the revelation, the entire New Testament and the "Alexandrian" group, next, H 81 (11th century), besides, containing very well The text of the book of the Affostals Acts. We have already reported on the "Caesarian" group, including other, a family of 1 (manuscript-minuscles, starting from the number 1 and some of the 12-14 centuries) and a family of 13 (twelve minus, starting with a manuscript of 13, from 11- 15th centuries). As mentioned earlier, most minusle refers to the so-called "Byzantine" group.

4. Of great importance are the ancient translations of the new bee, called also versions(i.e. direct translations from the text of the original). From Syrian versions (reduction of Sira.) First of all, it is primarily ancient (contain Codex Sinaiticus and Codex Syro-Curetonianus, 200 g.), Diatho Tacitania (approx. 170), peshito (411, see ch. 2) and later: Bishops of Philoksia (508), Thomas Porn Garkel (\u003d Hercules) (616) and the Palestinian Syrian version (first half of the 5th century).

Among the Latin versions are distinguished by Eneldo (LT) and Vulgate (see ch. 2). From Starolithin versions to us reached us as an African (primarily Codex Bobiensis (K) of the 400th year, obviously copied from the manuscript of the second century, there are no letters in it m.and e)so European: Codex Vercellensis (code A, 360th year) and Codex Veronesis (b). The latter forms the foundation of Vulgate Jerome, which has come down to us, in particular, in the form of precious Codices Palatinus (fifth century), amiatinus and cavensis. In the future, these versions are confirmed 8000 (!) Other texts.

Coptic versions of language dialects used in them are divided into Sahid (SAH) and later Bohayrs (BOH) (Lower and Upper Egyptian dialects); The latter are predominantly represented by the Gospel of John Bodmer Papyrus. Along with them, they should mention Ethiopian (EF), Armenian (AR), Georgian (GR) and Gott (Goth) version (see ch. 2).

5. Already repeatedly we pointed to the value of the quotation of the first church fathers.They are important because their age is much higher than that of the oldest codes, but they are not always reliable: first, because the fathers of the church often quoted approximately (by heart) or outlined the text in their own words (paraphrassed), secondly, because What these works, like biblical texts, were affected by the mechanism of their transfer. That their works are nevertheless very important, it becomes clear from the fact that in the writings of the first century AD. 14 of the 27 New Testament Books and Messages (Pseudo-Varnava and Clemention Roman) are quoted and that about 150 years quoted poems from already 24 books (among others, Ignatius, Polycarp and Hermes). Later, the fathers of the church quoted not only all the books, but also almost all the poems of the New Testament! Only at Irion (IR), Justinia Martiros (martyr), Clemens Alexandria (Clem-Alex), Cyprian (Kip), Turrtullian (Ter), Hippolyte and Origen (OR) (everyone lived until the 4th century) we find from 30 up to 40 thousand quotes. From later theologians, we can add Athanasius's names (AF), Kirill of Jerusalem (Cyr-Ier), Eusevia (Eve), Jerome and Augustine, each of which quotes almost all the New Testament Books.

6. Other witnesses, which remained without attention, is the so-called leads:books containing particularly selected quotes and intended for worship. Most of these lesions were written between the 7th and 12th centuries, but some surviving fragments are dated 4-6 centuries. They played a particularly important role in explaining some of the disputed places of the New Testament (MAP. 16.9-20 and John. 7.5-8.11).

7. We still call stratum(clay shards). They were writing the material of the poor (for example, a copy of a four-year-old twenty clay strokes was found, the 7th century AD; about 1,700 crawdled). And finally, another group of written documents form ancient inscriptions on the walls, swords, coins and monuments.

If we now divide the most important manuscripts (written evidence) in the four above-mentioned groups (and the term "neutral" used to characterize the text structure has long been supplanted by the name "Alexandria"), we can draw up a chart of them (see the application at the end of the chapter). At the same time, we list the textures of the texts in the order of increasing their value and each time we call the Unzial first, then minus, after them - the version, and at the end - quotes of the church fathers.

Principles of biblical critics

The reader probably has already received some obstruction of the work, called criticism of textBible, and was convinced of the reliability of the texts of the New Testament. There are people who condescendingly laughing over these works and arguing about the following: "There are approximately 200 thousand options for Greek text, so how can you generally raise the question of the reliability of our today's text of the New Testament?" In fact, the situation is so that 95% of these 200 thousand options can be immediately discarded, as they do not represent any scientific value in this regard and are confirmed so much by other written sources that no critic will decide to argue about their compliance with the text. Original. In the study of the remaining ten thousand options for manuscripts, it turns out that in 95% of cases, disagreements are caused by non-semantic discrepancies of texts, but the peculiarities of the preparation of words, grammar and the procedure for following words in proposals. For example, if the same word was grammatically incorrectly written in 1000 manuscripts, then all of them are examined as 1000 different text options. From the remaining drops of 5% (about 500 manuscripts), only about 50 are more than 50, and here in most cases - on the basis of available written sources - it is possible to reconstruct the correct text with a very large degree of accuracy. Today there is no doubt that 99% of the words of our new covenant are exactly the original, while little significant disputes are conducted around 0.1% of words. None of the fundamental Christian tricks is based on any dubious translation of the Bible, and never once the editorial board has caused any changes to at least one of these facilities.

Thus, we can be absolutely confident that, despite some completely minor details, we have the very biblical text that was once written by its authors. In addition, the number of Greek manuscripts (about 5000) and ancient translations (about 5000) and ancient translations (about 9000) are so large that almost no doubt is that the correct version of each of the controversial text details is contained at least in one of these manuscripts. Such an approval cannot be done for any other literary work of antiquity! In all other ancient works, there are many places, in which another person's intervention is clearly visible, but it is impossible to restore the text of the original due to the lack of other options for manuscripts of this work. In such cases, the critic can only assume or guess the correct sound of the initial text and then try to explain the cause of the error. But it's surprising that in the New Testament there is not a single place in which the initial text would have to restore in this way. Although before or another reading certain seats sometimes happened purely "intuitive choice", but over time they were all confirmed by the found manuscripts.

Errors lying into the texts of manuscripts were mainly caused by the inattention of the correspondence, but sometimes the corrections were made and deliberately. Errors by inattentivewere (along with the descriptions) caused by the failures of the visual perception (the absence, duplication or movement of letters in words), auditory perception (incorrectly wrinkled word - in the event of a record for dictation), memory (eg, replacing the word synonym or the effect of a certain quote) and Addition of own judgments: Sometimes inattention in the text, comments were added to the text due to the assumptions of the correspondence, which they relate to the text. Maybe John. 5.36 and 4, Acts. 8.37 and 1 Ioan. 5.7 refer to this category; However, it may be that these verses were intentionally added to the text as instructive. So we switched to the group intentional corrections.This includes the corrections of the words and grammatical forms themselves, as well as the theological "amendments" of the text, which are found everywhere in leaks and sometimes inserted into text, such as, for example, in the glorification of God in the prayer "Our Father" (Wed Matt. 6,13 ). Moreover, it would be possible to name the corrections taken to match the parallel places of the Gospels, which were generally amended by the goodholders of the correspondence, which missed the text. So, for example, in Joan. 19.14 The numerical "sixth" (hour) was sometimes replaced by the "third".

As we have already seen, to restore the initial version of the text of critics, we tried to divide all existing manuscripts into groups on the structure of their text. Then the comparison was carried out inside the groups, and in the end, the prototype was revealed, which corresponds to the original text.

It has already turned out that for these studies, not all texts have the same value, each of them is ordered in accordance with the peculiarities of its external and internal structure. Externalsigns are the age of the text structure, its geographical area of \u200b\u200bdistribution (the wide distribution of its structural type makes the manuscript of more valuable). TO internalsigns include the features of the letter and speech of the correspondence and the author. As for the correspondencers, they proceed from the assumption that they rather reworked the hard-readable text in the easily readable, short, saturated words were replaced by simpler and long, ripped speech - smooth. As for the authors, the researchers are trying to imagine their position, the image of thoughts, are trying to assume that they could write, being in a particular situation, while the connections of phrases (context), a common tone, harmony and a common text background are considered. It is quite clear that such marchings can be applied only at a certain framework and at the same time a lot depends on the configuration and representations of the criticism itself. However, as a whole, it is safe to proceed from the fact that the researcher will use the following series of criterion: (1) rather more ancient than the late version of reading, (2) rather complex option, the more simple, (3) rather a shorter form than longer, (4) the form of reading explaining the maximum number of text variants (5) is preferable to the most common (geographical) option, (6) rather option, vocabulary And the turnover of whose speech is most consistent with the author, (7) the version of reading, from which there is no dogmatic prejudice of the correspondence.

conclusions

Summarizing, we can say that the accuracy of the Greek New Testament is really extremely high. Now we know that we have, in principle, the same text that was used by Egyptian peasants, Syrian merchants and Latin monks - members of the Apostolic Church. This was closed by his mouth with all the critics argued that the text of the New Testament was inaccurate or even was not even updated in later times. And the first Protestants that have made monumental biblical transfers have a very accurate text. We can even prove it. But the work on Greek texts still boils - primarily due to the large number of finds made. These studies will undoubtedly add a lot of interesting details to what we have said. But the "ordinary" reader of the Bible can already be fully confident that the Bible he holds in his hands - a miracle: the miracle came from the deep ancient times of the Old and New Testaments.

part of the Bible containing a description of the life of Jesus Christ, his sermons. Consists of 27 books: Four Gospels, Acts of Apostles, 21 Messages of the Apostles, Revelation of John the Bogosla (Apocalypse).

Excellent definition

Incomplete definition ↓

NEW TESTAMENT

It is the most outstanding monument of early Christian literature, who made the second part of the Bible. The union of the Holy Books under the title of the Old Testament and the New Testament is attributed to the Apostle Paul (I. AD), the founder of the Christian community in the city of Corinth, the zealous preacher of the new faith in Greece, Macedonia, in Cyprus, in Malaya Asia, who has taken martyrdom for her Death (according to legend, was beheaded). In the New Testament formulated the main provisions of Christianity, which were developed throughout the I - IV centuries. And they were finally approved at the Laodician Cathedral in 364. The full canon of the Old and New Testaments, which had 66 books (39 Books of the Old Testament and 27 Books of the New Testament), was established by the Church Worker and theologian Afanasim Alexandria. Not only the ideas of the Old Testament, but also the religious doctrine of Philone Alexandrian, who considered Logos as an analogue of being and an intermediary between God and Man, as well as the philosophy of Stoicism (initial provisional provision, the highest divine power, managing the fate of people and The world) and neoplatonism (ideas about the identity of thinking and being as the emanation of "one", about the immortality of the soul, about beauty and harmony as evidence of the divine origin of the world). New Testament Canon includes four gospels (from Matthew, from Mark, from Luke and from John), "Acts of the Holy Apostles" (Greek. Apostolos - "Ambassador, Messenger"; books of Paul, Peter, Andrei, John and Pseudocliment, talking about wonders Createn by the apostles after the Descent of St. Spirit), seven Cathedral Persons of the Apostles: James (one), Peter (two), John (three), Judah (one) and fourteen messages of the Apostle Paul. Completes the new covenant "Revelation" ("Apocalypse" from Greek. "Disclosure, manifestation") John the Bogosla (68 AD), the main themes of which are the second coming of Jesus Christ, his victory over Satan and a terrible court. The gospel (Greek. "Joyful, good news") from Matthew (Levi), according to the Old Trejunkeeper legend, it was written by a student of Christ, the collector of the filters (Mytarem) in Kapernahum, probably in 60-300. This is the most extensive of the canonical gospels, telling about the pedigree Jesus Christ (Christ - the Greek translation of the Aramaist "Anointed", which corresponded to the Hebrew "Messiah"), the descendant of Tsar David, about the flight of Mary in Egypt, about the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem, his baptism and temptation In the desert, about the first students (Simoneepetra and his brother Andrei), sermons and wonderful acts of Jesus, about his solemn entrance to Jerusalem, Easter dinner (secret evening) with their 12 students (apostles), the communion of bread and wine. Then the betrayal of Judas, the arrest of Jesus "high-priests with elders and scribes and all Sanhedrin", which took him to the Roman procurator of Pontae Pilat, who let go of Wererava, and "Jesus, Biv, betrayed on the crucifix." The story ends with the crucifixion and death of Jesus, his burial and resurrection. The main idea of \u200b\u200bthe gospel is that the messianic aspirations of the Old Testament about the Savior found in Jesus. The gospel of Mark, one of the satellites of the Apostle Paul, and then translator and the scribe of the Apostle Peter, was written allegedly approx. 60 - 06 GG. in Rome. It begins with the Baptism of Jesus John the Baptist in Jordan, his temptations in the desert of Satan, calling them the first four apostles (Simonpeter, Andrei, James, John), the wonders that he performs as a servant of God who fulfills God's will (expulsion of Legion demons, resurrection The daughter of Jair, the healing of a woman who suffered from a disease of 12 years, blind in Wethsaid, a saturation of 5000 "five breads and two fish", walking on water, etc.). The Gospel contains the predictions of Christ about the destruction of Jerusalem and about their death, the description of the "Supper of the Lord", the betrayal of Judas, crucifixes, burials, resurrection and meetings of students with the Risen Jesus. A distinctive feature of the gospel of Luke (approx. 60 - 00) addressed to the educated Greek Theophilus is the author's desire, a satellite of the Apostle Paul in missionary trips, to associate the events of the Holy History with the world and submit Jesus as a perfect Bohell. It opens with predictions "in the days of Herod, Tsar Jewish" about the birth of John the Baptist and Jesus, who came to the world to bring rejected to God. Compared to other authors of Luke pays more attention to the history of Mary, the birth of Jesus, the phenomenon of the angel to the shepherds, the events in Galilee (in the synagogue in Nazaret, from where Jesus was kicked out, and in Kapernahum, where he expelled demons and healed patients), descriptions of visiting Jerusalem, vocation Jesus twelve students (Simonpeter, Andrei, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Foma, Jacob "Alfeyev", Simon Zilot, "Juda Idaklev and Judas Iskariot"), which he "named apostles", gave them "power and power Cancel demons and heal diseases. " In the gospel of John (approx. 85 - 50), Jesus is glorified as an eternal Logos ("In the beginning there was a word, and the word was God, and the word was God ... The word became a man and lived among us"), like light, truth, love , "Good shepherd", "Bread, who came from heaven." The symbolism is designed to identify and emphasize the fullness of the mission of Jesus Christ, who became clear to his disciples only after the descent of St. Spirit. The evangelist saw his main goal in the fact that people "believed that Jesus is Christ, the Son of God, and, believing, had a life in his name." Centrally The new Testament is the image of a preacher from Galilee, the founder of one of the three world religions called him by name, - Jesus Christ (epithets: "Son of God", "Savior", "Redeemer", "Pantokrator", "Great Bitch", "King of Kings " and etc.). Archangel Gabriel predicted the Virgin Mary, engaged with a carpenter Joseph, the birth of a baby, immaculately conceived by the action of St. Spirit. During the census of the population, Joseph and Maria went to the Palestinian city Bethlehem to sign up at the place of residence of a kind. According to the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus was born in the reign of Herod's I Great (37 or 40 - 4 BC) in Bethlehem. After eight days, the baby subjected to rite circumcision and registered on God's instructions by Jesus; On the fortieth day, he was brought to the Jerusalem Temple to dedicated to God. During the beating of babies, arranged by order of Tsar Herod, Joseph and Maria run with Jesus to Egypt. At the thirty-year age, Jesus was baptized in the Jordan River by John the Baptist, then retired to the desert, where forty days crashed by the Devil. After return, he called on the first students and began to preach the God-stroke, given over the teachings in Cana, the place of the first miracle, performed by Jesus, Capernaum and other cities on the shores of Gennisret Lake. Violating prohibitions of Judaism, Jesus healed on Saturday, communicated with the rejected sins, rushed to them, resurrected from the dead, taught people "as power having, and not as scribes and Pharisees," which caused the indignation of Jewish rabbis. In the days before Easter, Jesus solemnly drove in Jerusalem, where the crowd welcomed him with ritual exclamations. In Sanhedrin, a trial of Jesus was held as a challenger on the role of the king. One of his students - Judas Israariot - betrayed his teacher. Jesus was arrested and led to the Roman governor of Judea Pontius Pilat (26 - 66) for the approval of the sentence of the Sanhedrin - Beach and crucifixion on the cross. On the third day after death, Jesus Christ was risen from the dead, and on a fortieth day, he was ascended from the Eleon Mountain on the sky in the presence of eleven students. For centuries, the image of Jesus Christ, the "most great religious genius in the whole history of mankind" (E. Renan), and the associated New Testament plots, legends and motives were widely used in art and literature.

The value of this part of the Holy Scriptures, historical and spiritual, does not depend on the volume, since its influence on life and history is immeasurably. She describes the dawn of the day, the sunset of which began in eager. Christ from the prophecies of the Old Testament becomes a historical person in the Gospels, an example of spiritual experience in the messages and extommunicaded in glory in revelation. (W. Grey Skroggi)

I. Name "New Testament"

Before immersed in the deep sea of \u200b\u200bstudying the New Testament (NZ) or even relatively small study of a specific book, it would be useful in briefly emphasize some of the basic facts about the Holy Book, which is called the "New Testament".

The words "covenant" and "Agreement", "Treaty" are a translation of the same Greek word (Diath), and when reading one or two places from Scripture in Hebrew it is difficult to say which transfers better. In the title of Scripture Christians, the word "agreement", or "contract" is definitely preferable, because the book proclaims the pact, the alliance, or the contract of God with its people.

This book is called the New Testament (or Treaty) into opposition to the dilapidation (or more old).

Both covers are bewildered and therefore useful for all Christians. But naturally, that a person who believes in Christ is more likely to turn to the part of the Bible, which in a special way talks about the Lord, his church and what life he expects from his students.

Augustine perfectly expressed the relationship of the Old and New Testament: "The new covenant is hidden in the wind; Old - opens in new. "

II. Canon New Testament

The word "canon" (gr. Kanon) means "rule" (according to which something is measured or estimated). Canon NZ consists of a collection of brainstorming books. How can we know that only these books should enter the canon or that each of the twenty-seven NZ books should be in it? If, starting from an early time, there were other Christian messages and books (also heretical), how can we be sure that these are true?

It is often mentioned that the church cathedral was the canonical list at the end of the 300s. ad. In fact, these books were canonical immediately after writing them. Pupils, God's people whom he gave insights, from the very beginning recognized the Scripture with violent, such as Peter - Pavl's Messages (2 Pet. 3,15-16). Nevertheless, in some churches about individual books (for example, the messages of Judah, 2 and 3 John) a dispute was conducted for some time.

Usually, if the book is written by the apostle, such as Matthew, Peter, John or Paul, or any of the Apostolic Circle - Mark, Luka, the doubt in her canonism did not arise.

The cathedral, officially recognizing the canon, in fact only confirmed what was taken many-many years ago. The cathedral was not a brandlord list of books, but a list of brain-affairs books.

The sacred author of the NZ is the Holy Spirit. He inspired Matthew, Mark, Luka, John, Paul, James, Peter, Judas and an anonymous author of the Epistle to the Jews (see "Introduction" to the Epistle to the Jews) to writing. The best and most correct way to understand how the books of the New Testament arose is "double authorship". NZ is not partially human and partly God's book; It is at the same time completely human and completely God. The divine author held the author-man from any mistakes and inaccuracies. The result is infallible, or flawless, the book of original manuscripts.

The essence of the written word is easier to understand, referring to the similar entity of the word of the living - our Lord Jesus Christ. It is not partially a man and partly by God (as the characters of the Greek myths), but completely man and completely God at the same time. Divine makes it impossible for his human essence to commit any sin.

IV. Writing time

Unlike the Old Testament, which was written by almost a millennium (1400 - 400 years. BC), NZ was written in just half a century (50 - 100 years. AD).

The existing procedure of NZ books is best suited for the church of all time. NZ begins with the description of the life of Christ, then tells about the church and eventually reveals the future of the church and the world. Nevertheless, books are not located in the order in which they were written.

They were written in connection with the emerging need.

The first books were "letters to young churches," as the Piellips messages calls. In the middle of the first century, Christianity were probably written by the messages of Jacob, to Galatians and the Fassalonians.

The following written time is the Gospel: first Matthew or Mark, then Luke and Finally John. The latter was written by Revelation, perhaps somewhere at the end of the first century AD.

V. Content

Historical Books: Gospel, Acts

Messages: Pavla messages, Cathedral messages

Apocalyptic: Revelation.

Christians who have learned these books, will be "to any kind of good cause". We pray that BKC greatly helped many believers in this.

Vi. Language

NH written in a spoken language (which was called Koin, or "simple Greek language"). In the first century he was the second, almost universal language, as well known and widespread as English today.

As far as warm and colorful Hebrew style was perfectly approached prophecies, poetry and narration Pz, the same Greek was provided for as a wonderful means of expression for NZ. Greek language spread far due to the conquests of Alexander the Great, and his soldiers simplified and popularized this language among the population.

Accuracy of the times of verbs, cases, vocabulary and other details greek Make it ideal for reporting important doctrinal truths contained in the messages, especially in the Message to the Romans.

Not being an elitar literary language, Greek Koin is not also "street", or the language of the Greek poor. Some parts of the NZ - Messages to Jews, Jacob, 2 Peter - approach the samples of high literature. In separate parts of the From Luke reaches almost classics, and even Paul with times writes a wonderful style (for example, 1 Cor. 13, 15 ch.).

VII. Transfer

All translations of the new covenant are distributed into four main types.

1. Very accurate

"New translation" J.N. Darby (1871), "English Revised Edition" (ERV, 1881) and its American version "American Standard Version" (ASV, 1901) are too literal. This makes them useful for study, but weak for use during sermons, reading out loud and memorization. Many Christians will never give up the majestity and beauty of the "version of the King Jacob" (KJV) for these translations.

2. Fully equivalent

Transfers that are fairly accurate and closely related to Jewish or Greek originals, as far as English allowed, but allowing the more free translation where the style and idioms require this, include the "Version of the King James," Revised Standard Version "(RSV) , "New American Standard Bible" (NASB) and "New Version of the King Jacob" (NKJV). Unfortunately, while the translation of the New Testament in RSV is generally reliable, it is adjacent to the translation of the Old Testament, in which many Messianic prophecies are fell.

This dangerous feature is observed in our days even among the most famous theologians. BKC advantageously use New version King Jacob, "as a viable option that is between a beautiful, but outdated translation of the Jacob's king and the language of our days (without the use of outdated grammatical forms).

This version retains many poems and words excluded from most modern Bible translations.

3. Almost equivalent

This type of translation is freer than the fully equivalent translation, sometimes the retelling is used in it - the method is reasonable until the reader begins to understand this. This group includes "Moofatta Translation", "New English Bible" (NEB), "New International Version" (NIV) and "Jerusalem Bible". An attempt was made to remake the whole thoughts with the help of the structures that John and Paul could use, write them today on english language. This technique could be useful if she used carefully.

4. Retelling

The retelling conveys the text of the thought for the thought, although it often takes the free addition of material. Since it is removed from the original text in the selection of words, there is always a danger of too free translation. For example, the "Living Bible", being a preaching, uses such translation solutions that, at best, are controversial.

Retelling J. B. Phillips (he calls his translation) Made very well from a literary point of view. But he also conveys in his own words what, in his opinion, I meant Peter and Paul in their tongue.

For comparison, it would be nice to have a Bible, at least of three groups. Nevertheless, we believe that the fully equivalent translation of the Bible is the safest for its detailed study, which is represented in BCC.

The new covenant is part of the Bible, the most important book for all Christians. More precisely, a collection of 27 books that read every believer. To tell about what the new covenant is, it is worth explaining to the beginning of the word covenant, which in this case is interpreted as a contract. The contract is submitted to us by a legal term, but the covenant, concluded with God - something else. It is the way and the order of life that the Lord presented to us and the instructions of a loving parent who wishes to us eternal life. The Bible consists of a dilapidated covenant, which tells us that it was before the coming of the Messiah and the New Testament - a contract concluded with us.

The Lord loved the people so much that he sent his son to save us from death. The main thing in Christianity is Christ. Taking his sacrifice, we comply with the "rules" of this contract.

History

The gospel was written by the apostles, each of whom talks about events since the birth of the baby Jesus before his ascension. In the New Testament there are also the messages that the apostles kept people when they went to teach all the nations, as the Lord spoke. In the New Testament there are also prophecies about the coming terrible court.

The history of writing the Gospel is the testimony of the truth of the words that were written there. When Jesus was crucified, his disciples were suppressed. The Mesia was waiting for great conquests, and not death on the cross. It is difficult to imagine that after these terrifying events, the disciples of Christ would have taken to preach, would be happy to take the martyrdom for the Savior, if they did not make sure that he defeated death and did not appear in the flesh after Crucifixion.

• historical
• tutorials
• prophetic.

Historical books are the four Gospels and the book of Acts of Apostolic:

• Gospel from Matthew,
• Gospel from Mark,
• Gospel from Luke
• Gospel from John
• the book of Acts of Apostolic.

Teaching books are the epistles of the apostolic, representing letters written by the apostles to different churches. The prophetic book in the New Testament is the apocalypse of the AP. John the Bogosla, where the prophetically foresees the fate of the Church of Christ to the second coming of Jesus Christ.

Books of the New Testament

1. Matthew Holy Gospel (or: gospel),
2. From the brand of the Holy Gospel (or: gospel),
3. From Luke Holy Gospel (or: gospel),
4. From John the Holy Gospel (or: gospel),
5. Acts of the Holy Apostles,
6. Cathedral Message of St. Apostle James,
7. First cathedral Message sv. Apostle Peter,
8. Second Cathedral Message of St. Apostle Peter,
9. The first Cathedral Message of St. Apostle John the Bogosla
10. Second Cathedral Message of St. Apostle John the Bogosla
11. The third Cathedral Message of St. Apostle John the Bogosla
12. Cathedral Message of St. Apostle Juda,
13. Message to the Romans of St. Apostle Paul,
14. The first message to the Corinthians of St. Apostle Paul,
15. Second Message to Corinthians of St. Apostle Paul,
16. Message to the Galatians of St. Apostle Paul,
17. Message to Ephesians St. Apostle Paul,
18. Message to the Philippians of St. Apostle Paul,
19. Message to colossians of St. Apostle Paul,
20. The first Message to Solunanam (or: Thessalonians) St. Apostle Paul,
21. The second message to Solunan (or: Thessalonians) St. Apostle Paul,
22. The first message to Timothy St. Apostle Paul,
23. Second Message to Timothy St. Apostle Paul,
24. Message to the title of St. Apostle Paul,
25. Message to Filimon Sv. Apostle Paul,
26. Message to the Jews of St. Apostle Paul,
27. Apocalypse, or revelation of St. John the Bogoslov.

Christianity at the moment is the most common religion in the world. According to international statistics, the number of its adherents exceeds two billion people, that is, about a third of the entire population globe. It is not surprising that this religion gave the world the most concentrated and famous book - the Bible. Christians in the number of copies and sales heads Top bestsellers. For now, one and a half thousand years.

Bible composition

Not everyone knows that the word "Bible" is just a multiple form of the Greek word "Vivlos", which means "book." Thus, we are not talking about a single work, but about the collection of texts belonging to different authors and written in different epochs. Extreme temporal thresholds are estimated as follows: from the XIV century. BC e. by II century n. e.

The Bible consists of two main parts, which in Christian terminology are called the Old Testament and the New Testament. Among the adherents of the Church, the latter prevails in their meaning.

Old Testament

The first and largest part of the Christian Scripture was formed long before the Book of the Old Testament are also called the Jewish Bible, as they have a sacred character in Judaism. Of course, for them the adjective "Old" in relation to their writings is categorically unacceptable. Tanahs (as it is called in their medium) is eternal, unchanged and universal.

This collection is made of four (according to the Christian classification) parts that carry the following names:

1. Network books.
2. History books.
3. Teaching books.
4. Prophetic books.

Each of these sections contains a certain number of texts, and in different branches of Christianity there may be miscellaneous number. Some of the Books of the Old Testament can also be combined or dismemberd between themselves and within themselves. The main option is the edition consisting of 39 names of various texts. The most important part of Tanah is the so-called Torah, which consists of the first five books. Religious tradition argues that its author is the prophet Moses. The Old Testament was finally formed in about the middle of the first millennium BC. er, and in our era, accepted as a sacred document in all branches of Christianity, except for most Gnostic schools and the Church of Markion.

New Testament

As for the New Testament, he is a collection of works born in the depths of the emerging Christianity. It consists of 27 books, the most important of which are the first four texts called the Gospels. The latter are the lives of Jesus Christ. The rest of the books are the letters of the apostles, the book of Acts, telling about the first years of the life of the Church, and the prophetic book of Revelation.

A Christian Canon has been formed in this form to the fourth century. Prior to that, among various groups, Christians were common, and even revered as sacred, and many other texts. But a number of church councils and bishop definitions legitimized only these books, everyone else recognizing false and offensive to God. After that, the "wrong" texts have become massively destroyed.

The process of unification canon was initiated by a group of theologians who opposed the teachings of Presbytera Marcion. The latter for the first time in the history of the church proclaimed the Canon of Sacred Texts, dropping almost all the books of the Old and New Testament (in the modern edition) in a small exception. In order to neutralize the preaching of his opponent, the authoritatives of the church formally legalized and sacramentalized a more traditional set of scriptures.

Nevertheless, in different Old Testaments and the New Testament have various variants of text codification. There are also some books that are accepted in one tradition, but rejected into another.

The doctrine of the Bible bravery

The very essence of sacred texts in Christianity is revealed in the doctrine of the foulness. The Bible is the Old Testament - it is important for believers, because those are sure that God himself led the hand of writers of sacred works, and the words of Scriptures literally - the Divine Revelation, which he reports to the world, Church and every person personally. This confidence is that the Bible is the letter of the Lord, faithful to every person, encourages Christians to constantly study it and look for hidden meanings.

Apocrypha

During the development and formation of the Canon of the Bible, many books that initially entered it, later turned out to be "overboard" church orthodoxia. This fate has suffered such works, such as "Shepherd Erma" and "Didakhi". Many different gospels and apostolic messages were declared false and heretical only for the fact that they did not fit into the new theological trends of the orthodox church. All these texts are combined by the general term "apocrypha", which means, on the one hand, "false", and on the other - "secret" Scriptures. But finally, the traces of disagreeable texts failed to finally - in the canonical works there are allusions and hiding quotes from them. For example, it is likely that lost, and in the 20th century, the re-open Gospel from Thomas served as one of the original sources for the sayings of Christ in the canonical gospels. And the generally accepted Judah (not Israariot) directly contains quotes with reference to the apocryphic book of the Prophet Enoch, arguing its prophetic dignity and authenticity.

Old Testament and the New Testament - the unity and difference of two canons

So, we found out that the Bible consists of two collection of books of different authors and times. And although Christian theology considers the Old Testament and the New Testament as one whole, interpreting them across each other and establishing hidden allusions, predictions, prototypes and typological links, not everything in the Christian community is inclined to such an equal assessment of two canons. Markion is not on scratch rejected the Old Testament. Among his lost labor had the so-called "antithesis", where he opposed the teachings of Tanah, the teaching of Christ. The fruit of such distinction was the doctrine of two gods - Jewish evil and capricious demiurge and all-bad God-father, who preached Christ.

Indeed, the images of God in these two covenants differ significantly. In the Old Testament, it is represented as a vengeful, strict, hard lord is not without racial prejudices, as they would have expressed today. In the New Testament, on the contrary, God is more tolerance, mercy and in general prefers to forgive than punish. However, it is a somewhat simplified scheme, and if you wish, you can find the opposite arguments with respect to both texts. Historically, however, it happened that the churches that do not recognize the authority of the Old Testament, ceased to exist, and today christian world It is represented in this regard to only one tradition, except for various reconstructed groups of non-unicnate and neomarquionites.