| In the New Testament, Christ not only provides the correct interpretation of the Bible, He also allows the believers themselves to be directly enlightened by the Holy Spirit and to be themselves “the letter from Christ. … written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone, but on tablets of human hearts” ( 2Cor 3.3 ). Thus is fulfilled the prediction of the old covenant that in the time of the Messiah “they all shall be taught of God” by direct divine inspiration and instruction ( Jn 6.45 , Is 54.13 , Ezek 36.26 , Jer 31.31 , Joel 2.28 , Mic 4.2 , et al.). It is only within the living Tradition of the Church under the direct inspiration of Christ’s Spirit that the proper interpretation of the Bible can be made. Old Testament Law The first part of the Bible is called the Torah, which means the Law. It is also called the Pentateuch which means the five books. These books are also called the Books of Moses. They include Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. The events described in these books, from the calling of Abraham to the death of Moses, probably took place sometime in the second millennium before Christ (2000–1200 BC). The Book of Genesis contains the pre-history of the people of Israel. It begins with the story of the creation of the world, the fall of Adam and Eve and the subsequent, quite sinful, history of the children of Adam. It then tells of God’s call and promise of salvation to Abraham, and the story of Isaac and Jacob, whom God named Israel, ending with the settlement of the twelve tribes of Israel-the families of the twelve sons of Jacob-in Egypt, during the time of Joseph’s favor with the Egyptian Pharaoh. In traditional Church language, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are called the patriarchs. The Book of Exodus relates the deliverance of the people of Israel by Moses from the slavery in Egypt to which they were subjected after the death of Joseph. It tells of the revelation of God to Moses of His divine name of Yahweh-I AM WHO I AM (3.14). It gives the account of the passover and the exodus, and the journey of the Israelites, led by God, through the desert. Also, in this book is the narrative of God’s gift of the Ten Commandments to Moses on Mount Sinai, and the other laws which God gave to Moses concerning the moral and ritual conduct of His People. |
| Of the excavations carried out in order to build the Edicule around the empty Tomb: For now it is not to be seen, since the outer cave was cut away at that time for the sake of the present adornment. For before the decoration of the sepulchre by the royal munificence, there was a cave in the front of the rock. But where is the rock that had in it the cave? Does it lie near the middle of the city, or near the walls and the outskirts? And whether is it within the ancient walls, or within the outer walls which were built afterwards? He says then in the Canticles: in a cave of the rock, close to the outer wall. (Book 14, Chapter 9) Of the Cross at Golgotha: He was truly crucified for our sins. For if thou wouldest deny it, the place refutes thee visibly, this blessed Golgotha, in which we are now assembled for the sake of Him who was here crucified; and the whole world has since been filled with pieces of the wood of the Cross. (Book 4, Chapter 10) On the Baptismal rite in the Constantinian Church: After these things, ye were led to the holy pool of Divine Baptism, as Christ was carried from the Cross to the Sepulchre which is before our eyes. And each of you was asked, whether he believed in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, and ye made that saving confession, and descended three times into the water, and ascended again; here also hinting by a symbol at the three days burial of Christ. (Book 20, Chapter 4) Egeria , Peregrinatio Aetheriae , 381-384 AD The most famous of the journals of ancient pilgrimages to the Holy Land was the work of a noble woman from Galicia, a province in Spain. The narrative not only recounts details of the voyage she undertook and the sites she visited but also provides a precious source of information on the liturgy followed by the Church of Jerusalem in the 4th century. But on the seventh day, that is on the Lord " s Day, the whole multitude assembles before cockcrow, in as great numbers as the place can hold, as at Easter, in the basilica which is near the Anastasis, but outside the doors, where lights are hanging for the purpose. |
| The Old Testament The Old Testament scripture begins with the five books of the Law called the Pentateuch, which means the five books; also called the Torah, which means the Law. Sometimes these books are also called the Books of Moses since they are centered on the exodus and the Mosaic laws. In the Old Testament there are also books of the history of Israel; books called the Wisdom books such as the Psalms, Proverbs, and the Book of Job; and books of the prophecies which carry the names of the Old Testament prophets. A prophet is one who speaks the Word of God by direct divine inspiration. Only secondarily does the word prophet mean one who foretells the future. The Orthodox Church also numbers among the genuine books of the Old Testament the so-called apocryphal books, meaning literally the secret or hidden writings. Other Christians put these books in a secondary place or reject completely their being of divine inspiration. The New Testament The center of the New Testament part of the Bible is the four gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, who are called the four evangelists, which means those who wrote the gospels. Gospel in Greek is evangelion which means the “glad tidings” or the “good news.” In the New Testament scripture there is also the book of the Acts of the Apostles, written by Saint Luke. There are fourteen letters called the epistles (which simply means letters) of the Apostle Paul, though perhaps some, such as the Letter to the Hebrews, were not written directly by him. Three letters are also ascribed to the apostle John; two to the apostle Peter; and one each to the apostles James and Jude. Finally there is the Book of Revelation, also called the Apocalypse, which is ascribed to Saint John as well. For the Orthodox, the Bible is the main written source of divine doctrine since God Himself inspired its writing by His Holy Spirit (see 2Tim 3.16 and 2Pet 1.20 ). This is the doctrine of the inspiration of the Bible, namely that men inspired by God wrote the words which are truly their own human words-all words are human!-but which nevertheless may be called all together the Word of God. Thus, the Bible is the Word of God in written form because it contains not merely the thoughts and experiences of men, but the very self-revelation of God. |
| This is why we are once more faced with the need to hymn the triumph of Orthodoxy, the triumph of ascetic experience as the experience of studying, trying to learn and doing God’s Will. Looking back from our present age, which has gradually risen to all sorts of achievements, to distant centuries, the third century (if we begin with St Antony the Great), the fourth, the fifth, the eighth, the fourteenth (St Gregory of Sinai), looking back to these distant centuries from our ‘great progress’, alas!, we have to admit that we are beggars. We are offered the gift of great riches and from these great riches we take, not only in practice, but even as a matter of study, in terms of book knowledge, an extremely small amount. It is not a question, for example, of reading St John’s book ‘The Ladder’ as an ordinary piece of reading which provides information. The sense of addressing ourselves to ‘The Ladder’, as with any other ascetic literature, is all about reading it through the prism of our life, through the personal experience of our hearts. We have to go through all the rungs of the ladder with heartfelt feeling, but in life we stop only on the first rungs, but at least we do that thoroughly. Alas! Hardly anyone stops and so we have to accept a well-deserved reproach. But that reproach is only half the truth. The whole truth (and in our hearts we know that it is so) is in fact that the ascetic riches of Orthodox knowledge are our riches. Let the world weep, but we shall not weep such tears of shame, we shall weep with the blessed tears of repentance and heartfelt emotion, because the ascetic experience of the great fathers of ancient times teaches us these sentiments. Let the world weep because it not only does not know the beauty of ascetic life, but does not even want to know it! I remember reading a conversation in the book about Elder Silouan. Some Non-Orthodox, probably a Catholic, was astonished that Orthodox monks read books which in the West only academic specialists read, and the monks get through dozens of them. To our great joy we can say that today, amid the ocean of Orthodox books that has unfurled, our new Russian Orthodox people, who have returned, perhaps not in great numbers, but they have still returned, to the Church, throw themselves greedily at ascetic literature first of all. Nothing is read with such absorbing interest as ascetic books, books written by ancient fathers and by spiritual writers closer to us in time. Thus it would seem that of nineteenth century authors the most read today are St Ignatius (Brianchaninov), St Theophan the Recluse and St John of Kronstadt, compilations of the ascetic experience of the ancient fathers. And it may be that in just our small church there are more people who read St Ignatius and ‘The Ladder’ than in all Catholic and Protestant Europe. Is this not the Triumph of Orthodoxy! |
| 107 . Let us, then, investigate what we read in the Old Testament concerning the kinds of trumpets, considering that those festivals which were enjoined on the Jews by the Law are the shadow of joys above and of heavenly festivals. For here is the shadow, there the truth. Let us endeavour to attain to the truth by means of the shadow. Of which truth the figure is expressed in this manner, where we read that the Lord said to Moses: “Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, shall be a rest unto you, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, it shall be called holy unto you. Ye shall not do any servile work, and ye shall kindle a whole burnt-offering unto the Lord.” 1628 And in the Book of Numbers: “The Lord spake unto Moses, saying: Make thee two trumpets of beaten work, of silver shalt thou make them, and they shall be to thee for calling the assembly and for the journeying of the camp. And thou shalt blow with them, and all the congregation shall be gathered together at the door of the tabernacle of witness. But if thou blow with one trumpet, all the princes and leaders of Israel shall come to thee; and ye shall blow a signal with the trumpet the first time, and they shall move the camp forward, and place it on the east. And ye shall blow a signal with the trumpet the second time, and they shall move the camp forward, and place it towards Libanus. And ye shall blow a signal with the trumpet the third time, and they shall move the camp forward, which shall be placed towards the north [Boream]. And ye shall blow a signal with the trumpet the fourth time, and they shall move the camp forward, which shall be placed towards the north [Aquilonem]. They shall blow a signal with the trumpet when they move forward. And when ye shall gather together the assembly, blow with the trumpet, but not the signal. And the sons of Aaron, the priests, shall blow with the trumpets, and it shall be for you a statute for ever throughout your generations. But if ye shall go out to war into your own land, against the adversaries who resist you, ye shall sound a signal with the trumpets and ye shall be remembered before the Lord, and have deliverance from your dead. Also in the days of your gladness, and on your feast days, and on your new moons, ye shall blow with the trumpets, and at your whole burnt sacrifices and at your peace-offerings, and it shall be for you for your memorial before the Lord, saith the Lord.” 1629 1630 ] the W.S.W. wind. So, too, Boream perhaps should be mare [παρθλασσαν]. In ch. 115, St. Ambrose in explaining the third trumpet speaks of the sea. The third and fourth trumpets are not mentioned except in the Septuagint, and it may be noticed that St. Ambrose changes the description of the positions of the camps [παρεμβλλουσαι], consttuta, into a direction, constituentur. |
| And no Greek is an old man. For you have no learning that is hoary with age. Democritus appropriated the Babylonian ethic discourses, for he is said to have combined with his own compositions a translation of the column of Acicarus. And you may find the distinction notified by him when he writes, Thus says Democritus. About himself, too, where, pluming himself on his erudition, he says, I have roamed over the most ground of any man of my time, investigating the most remote parts. I have seen the most skies and lands, and I have heard of learned men in very great numbers. And in composition no one has surpassed me; in demonstration, not even those among the Egyptians who are called Arpenodaptæ, with all of whom I lived in exile up to eighty years. For he went to Babylon, and Persis, and Egypt, to learn from the Magi and the priests. Zoroaster the Magus, Pythagoras showed to be a Persian. Of the secret books of this man, those who follow the heresy of Prodicus boast to be in possession. Alexander, in his book On the Pythagorean Symbols, relates that Pythagoras was a pupil of Nazaratus the Assyrian (some think that he is Ezekiel; but he is not, as will afterwards be shown), and will have it that, in addition to these, Pythagoras was a hearer of the Galatæ and the Brahmins. Clearchus the Peripatetic says that he knew a Jew who associated with Aristotle. Heraclitus says that, not humanly, but rather by God " s aid, the Sibyl spoke. They say, accordingly, that at Delphi a stone was shown beside the oracle, on which, it is said, sat the first Sibyl, who came from Helicon, and had been reared by the Muses. But some say that she came from Milea, being the daughter of Lamia of Sidon. And Serapion, in his epic verses, says that the Sibyl, even when dead, ceased not from divination. And he writes that, what proceeded from her into the air after her death, was what gave oracular utterances in voices and omens; and on her body being changed into earth, and the grass as natural growing out of it, whatever beasts happening to be in that place fed on it exhibited to men an accurate knowledge of futurity by their entrails. He thinks also, that the face seen in the moon is her soul. So much for the Sibyl. |
| Having reached this point, we must mention these things by the way; since the discourse has turned on the seventh and the eighth. For the eighth may possibly turn out to be properly the seventh, and the seventh manifestly the sixth, and the latter properly the Sabbath, and the seventh a day of work. For the creation of the world was concluded in six days. For the motion of the sun from solstice to solstice is completed in six months – in the course of which, at one time the leaves fall, and at another plants bud and seeds come to maturity. And they say that the embryo is perfected exactly in the sixth month, that is, in one hundred and eighty days in addition to the two and a half, as Polybus the physician relates in his book On the Eighth Month, and Aristotle the philosopher in his book On Nature. Hence the Pythagoreans, as I think, reckon six the perfect number, from the creation of the world, according to the prophet, and call it Meseuthys and Marriage, from its being the middle of the even numbers, that is, of ten and two. For it is manifestly at an equal distance from both. And as marriage generates from male and female, so six is generated from the odd number three, which is called the masculine number, and the even number two, which is considered the feminine. For twice three are six. Such, again, is the number of the most general motions, according to which all origination takes place – up, down, to the right, to the left, forward, backward. Rightly, then, they reckon the number seven motherless and childless, interpreting the Sabbath, and figuratively expressing the nature of the rest, in which they neither marry nor are given in marriage any more. Luke 20:35 For neither by taking from one number and adding to another of those within ten is seven produced; nor when added to any number within the ten does it make up any of them. And they called eight a cube, counting the fixed sphere along with the seven revolving ones, by which is produced the great year, as a kind of period of recompense of what has been promised. |
| Hundreds of Christian Fighters Battle to Defend Biblical Syrian Town From ISIS Source: The Christian Post November 11, 2015 A general view shows a church in the Assyrian village of Abu Tina, which was recently captured by Islamic State fighters, February 25, 2015. Kurdish militia pressed an offensive against Islamic State in northeast Syria on Wednesday, cutting one of its supply lines from Iraq, as fears mounted for dozens of Christians abducted by the hardline group. The Assyrian Christians were taken from villages near the town of Tel Tamr, some 20 km (12 miles) to the northwest of the city of Hasaka. There has been no word on their fate. There have been conflicting reports on where the Christians had been taken. Hundreds of Christian fighters from across Syria have united to defend a biblical Syrian Christian town from being conquered by the Islamic State terrorist organization, the head of the Syriac Orthodox church has said. As IS militants continue to push west toward the Syrian capital of Damascus, the jihadi group began an offensive in the ancient Assyrian heartlands on Oct. 31. Although IS has already captured the town of Maheen, Christians are coming from all over the country to prevent IS from conquering the town of Sadad , which lies about 4 miles from Maheen. Sadad, which is referred to in the book of Numbers and the book of Ezekiel as " Zedad, " is seen as a strategic town that lies on a highway that connects Damascus and the town of Homs. The al-Qaeda-linked al-Nusra Front conquered the town in 2013. Although the town was recaptured by the Syrian army a week later, it was not before IS murdered as many as 46 Syriac Christians there. But now that IS has attacked Sadaad for over a week, Mor Ignatius Aphrem Karim II, the leader of the Syriac Orthodox church, told Newsweek that over 500 Christian fighters have been battling to keep IS militants from entering the town. Karim, who traveled from the Damascus to Sadad to help increase the morale of the Syriac fighters, explained that over 200 christian fighters have traveled quite some distance to defend the ancient town. |
| Incursion of Islamist Militias in the Christian City of Sadad Sadad, Syria, October 23, 2013 UN Photo/Eric Kanalstein The Christian city of Sadad, situated in a strategic area along the road that joins Homs to Damascus, has been since yesterday at the center of the battle between the army of Assad and rebel militias hegemonized by Islamist groups. The assault of Sadad by rebel militias took place on Monday afternoon, October 21. According to local sources, also re-launched by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, based in London, the raid took place in a similar way to that suffered a month ago in the historic Christian village of Maalula. Several hundred men distributed among the elements of the brigades al-Faruk and Islamists of the al-Nusra Front and the Islamic State of Iraq and the East entered in Sadad from three directions, with thirty military vehicles, targeting initially the city hospital and seizing government buildings. On Tuesday, the army began a counteroffensive, intervening in support of the local police forces. Meanwhile, some of the 15 thousand inhabitants-- mostly Orthodox Christians and Catholics of the Syro rite-- began their exodus in the direction of the artery link between Damascus and Homs, which is 15 kilometers. The biblical city of Sadad, cited in the Book of Numbers and the Book of Ezekiel, is 95 kilometers from Damascus and sixty from Homs. The city is home to two churches dedicated to St. Sergius and St. Theodore, famous for their frescoes. Aleteia 28 октября 2013 г. ... Смотри также Комментарии Мы в соцсетях Подпишитесь на нашу рассылку |
| It has a «spiritual» meaning. It concerns the day of judgment. In every way it is parallel to the Quranic usage. In their book, Genesis One and The Origin of the Earth, Neuman and Eckelmann write, «An elaborate word study of the Hebrew yom («day») is not necessary to show that it is used rather like our English word «day». Often it means a period of activity during which the sun is up, roughly twelve hours long, depending on the season ( Genesis 1:5; 1 :14a). At other times it represents a day-night pair, a 24 hour day ( Genesis 1 :14b; Numbers 3:13). Less frequently it is used for longer periods of time ( Genesis 2:4 ; Ecclesiastes 12:3).» 32 Why did Dr. Bucaille omit these last mentioned verses? Genesis 2:4 which follows the six days of creative work and the seventh day of rest mentioned in Chapter one reads, «These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created. In the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens.» Here the word « day » is used to include the whole seven days of creation. In Ecclesiastes 12:3 the writer says, «In the day when the keepers of the house shall tremble, and the strong men shall bow themselves, and the grinders cease because they are few, and those that look out of the windows be darkened» This verse is an allegory. In a modern paraphrased translation it reads, «For there will come a day when your limbs will tremble with age and your strong legs will become weak, etc.» It is using the word «day» for the period of old age. Dr. Bucaillés idea that the Arabic «yaum» could stand for a period of time is not new. St. Augustine suggested a similar idea for the Hebrew «yom» in the 4th century saying that the creation days are so great, so majestic, so profound that we cannot consider them as mere sun-divided days, but as God-divided days. They are creative days, not solar days, and so he calls them natures, growths, «dies ineffabiles». The book Modern Science and Christian Faith 33 , published in 1948, proposed that the six days of creation were long periods or ages of time, and the idea was called the «day-age theory». |
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