The word “Bible” is translated from Greek as “books”. It can be said that this is a small library compiled from 66 separate narratives. For many centuries, she was the most famous in human history, in a sense, is considered a bestseller. Anyone can read this book. But during the Inquisition, it was not accessible 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 books on modern society
At present, there is hardly a person who has not heard anything about a book such as the Bible. Almost everyone knows the contents of the Old Testament. Plots from here very often became the subject of artistic narratives, paintings. The influence of a part of the Bible, which is closer to our time, the New Testament, the contents of which cannot be overestimated, on modern life is quite strong. Consider this book from three perspectives.
The Bible as Scripture
First, before moving on to discussing the Bible, the content of the book, one must take into account the fact that in Christianity it is considered sacred. At the same time, a considerable part of it, namely the Old Testament, was written before our era.
Islam arose later than Christianity, and it also often uses images and plots from the Bible. In fact, this is the source of the Quran.
Also, various Christian trends have different attitudes to 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 ancient Eastern peoples, starting from 2,000 years 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 hyperbolic 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 cultural monument. The fact is that the content of the Bible is of great value as a tradition of antiquity. This is the most frequently translated work in other languages around the world.
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 scripture. There are many predictions about the coming of the Messiah, who 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.
Noncanonical books
Those interested in the brief content of the Bible, Genesis need to know that in addition to recognized reliable narratives, there are also non-canonical books. They came to light after the Old Testament. Christian mentors advise reading them to those who are going to accept this faith. The fact 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 is described how people lived without the law (at that time they were guided only by principles). Then God made an alliance with the Israelites and gave them His decrees. The Old Testament, which translates as “old union,” contains a description of events until the moment when Jesus came to the people. For this reason, the second part is called the New Testament.
If we are talking about the brief content of the Bible, the Old Testament, then this is a work of how God created the world, heaven, 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 bonds of slavery and freed from them. In addition, they made agreements with God. And once He promised them to transfer rich lands in which instead of water in the rivers milk and honey will flow.
Soon there was a merciless struggle with the people who lived on that land. And then, having won, the ancient Jews established their own state here. Centuries later, it was destroyed by its neighbors, and the Israelis were captured. Judging even by the content of the children's Bible, this happened due to Jewish disobedience to God.
But, having punished the people, the Lord made a promise that one day he would save him from the oppressors. In Hebrew, the messenger of God sounds like “Messiah”, and in Greek - “Christ”. It was under that name that He went down in history.
When Christianity already existed, the New Testament was 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 narrative of the activities of the apostles who were disciples of Jesus.
About myths
The Bible is a collection of many ancient stories. They have myths and legends, and narrations of genuine historical events, predictions, and lyrical works. The Old Testament is richest in these things. The Bible has largely been able to influence the development of mankind. Many biblical subjects need to be correctly interpreted.
About the Gospel History
Each book of the New Testament was created in Greek. But this did not mean classical Greek, but the Alexandrian dialect. It was used by the population of the Roman Empire.
In this case, the letter used only capital letters, did not use punctuation marks, did not separate the words 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 spelling words separately. And punctuation came only with the invention of typography, in the 15th century.
The division that is now in the Bible was carried out by Cardinal Hugon in the 13th century. For thousands of years, the Church protected the Holy Scriptures, and she managed to bring these ancient texts to the present day.
In the XVII century, 2 editions of the New Testament appeared at once in one moment, they were printed. It is believed that these texts are "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 came to our days in the original. Initially, the Slavic edition was subjected to Russification throughout history. The translation that is currently in use was made in the 19th century.
Gospel Writing Time
The time of creation of these works was not 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 contain quotes from this book.
The first thing that was written was the work of the apostles. 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 be created later than 50 years of the 1st century. The gospels of Mark and Luke appeared after him, but were also created until the year 70, before the destruction of Jerusalem. Most recently, John the Evangelist wrote down his book; at that time he was already an old man, around 96. His work is known as the Apocalypse. The symbols used in the book of Revelation are creatures that resemble a person, a lion, a calf, and an eagle.
About 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 complement each other, and not one of the books has contradictions in the main points.
In addition, over the course of history, about 50 other scriptures were created that bore the same name, and the authorship of the apostles was also attributed to them. 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 manner of writing, they tell about the same thing. But the Gospel of John contains slightly different information (although this book is also considered canonical), and the presentation is different there. John talks more about the deep meaning of what is happening, while the rest of the evangelists describe external events.
In addition, he gives conversations that are difficult to understand. In the other three Gospels, dialogue is quite simple. John pursued his personal goal - to open the doctrine deeper. Nevertheless, 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.
About the nature of the gospels
The Orthodox doctrine of the sacredness of these works has always sounded the idea that the Holy Spirit did not crowd out the mind and character of each author. For this reason, the differences in the Gospels are largely 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. Matthew was originally from the lineage of Levi, as indicated by Mark and Luke in their Gospels.
The publican was moved by the fact that Christ, despite the contempt of the people, did not disdain him. In particular, the scribes and Pharisees condemned the tax collector, and Matthew quoted them in his Gospel, as they also violated the law.
For the most part, he wrote his book for the Israeli people. According to one theory, his gospel was originally created in Hebrew, and only then translated into Greek. Matthew died a martyrdom in Ethiopia.
Mark
Mark was not one of the twelve apostles. For this reason, he did not accompany Jesus constantly, like Matthew. 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 blanket on a naked body, and he was captured by the guards, but, leaving the blanket, fled naked. Most likely, it was Mark himself.
Subsequently, he became a companion of Peter. Mark was martyred in Alexandria.
At the center of his gospel is the fact that Jesus worked miracles. The author in every possible way emphasizes His greatness and power.
Luke
According to ancient historians, Luke was originally from Antioch. He was a doctor, and was engaged in painting. He was among the 70 disciples of Christ. Very clearly in this Gospel the appearance of the Lord is described to two disciples, and this gives reason to believe that Luke was one of them.
He became the companion of the Apostle Paul. According to the information that has been preserved to this day, Luke also died a martyrdom in Thebes. In the 4th century, Emperor Constantius transferred his relics to Constantinople.
Luke wrote his book at the request of a noble man from Antioch. During the writing, he used the words of eyewitnesses, and the written information about Christ, which at that time already existed.
Luke himself claimed to have carefully checked every record, and his gospel is precisely in the place and time of events, which are set out in a clear chronological order. Obviously, the customer of the Gospel of Luke has never been to Jerusalem. For this reason, the apostle also describes the geography of that locality.
John
John was a disciple of Christ. This was the son of the fisherman Zavedeya and Solomiya. His mother is mentioned among women who served Christ with their property. She followed Jesus everywhere.
John became a constant disciple of Christ after a wonderful catch on Lake Hennisaret. He was present at many of his miracles. At the Last Supper, John "reclined at the bosom of Jesus." He is considered the beloved disciple of Christ.
The apostle wrote his gospel at the request of Christians. They wanted him to complement the three available narratives. John agreed with their content, but decided that it was necessary to supplement them with the speeches of Christ. Which he did, revealing more deeply his essence precisely as the Son of God, and not of man.
Comments of the priests
Commenting on the Bible, 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 go on to the Old Testament.