| The Fourth Gospel speaks of a συνδριον only once (11:47), and there the term seems to refer to an ad hoc council, albeit gathered from among the elite and chaired by the high priest. 9561 The leading players in John " s account at this point are simply Pharisees and chief priests. Because the historical figures behind John " s Pharisees and chief priests were Jerusalem aristocrats, however, some comments about Jerusalem " s municipal aristocracy may be in order. 9562 The comments shed more light on 11:47, but because John " s Passion Narrative invites comparison with those of the Synoptics, we include discussion of the Sanhédrin here. Α συνδριον was a ruling council, equivalent to a βουλ, or a senate. 9563 Cities such as Tiberias had their own ruling senates composed of the leading citizens (Josephus Life 64, 69, 169, 313, 381); such assemblies were distinguishable from the larger citizen assembly (Life 3 00). 9564 Municipal senates consisted of aristocrats the Romans called decuriones, and in the eastern Mediterranean «varied in size from thirty to five hundred members.» 9565 The Jerusalem Sanhédrin was in a sense the municipal aristocracy of Jerusalem; but just as the Roman senate wielded power far beyond Rome because of Romés power, Jerusalem " s Sanhédrin wielded some influence in national affairs, to the degree that Roman prefects and Herodian princes allowed. 9566 The Sanhédrin may well have held seventy-one members, as tradition indicates; 9567 yet if it simply represented a body of ruling elders from the municipal aristocracy, this may have been simply an average figure. It is, in any case, doubtful that all members were expected to be present on all occasions (especially an emergency meeting on the night when people had eaten–or in John " s story world would the next evening eat–the Passover). 9568 The Sanhedrin included the high priest, who according to tradition could break ties. 9569 Again according to tradition, they met in the Chamber of Hewn Stone on the Temple Mount; 9570 otherwise they met close to the Temple Mount (cf. Josephus War 5.144). 9571 Our first-century sources, the NT and Josephus, include Sadducees and other groups in the Sanhedrin, under high-priestly control; later rabbis portray the Sanhedrin as an assembly of rabbis. 9572 The later portrayals should not surprise us; rabbinic portraits of the Sanhédrin include more striking anachronisms than this, depicting leaders of the Sanhedrin in biblical times. 9573 |
| Center to help the victims of destructive religious sects to be set up in Belarus April 22, 2013 Fr. Paul Serdiuk A non-commercial center for the protection of family and personal health is being set up in Belarus. It will give systematic counseling and rehabilitation to the victims of unhealthy forms of religiosity (destructive cults and sectarian distortions of traditional religions) and quasi-religious groups (for example, commercial cults with pyramid marketing), to their families and relatives, reports the pravoslavie.bi website. According to the St. Joseph of Volokolamsk Information and Counseling Center of the Minsk Diocese, 398 organizations connected with new religious movements have been recorded as active in Belorus, of which 101 organizations fit into the sect and cult category. Apart from this, 297 so-called consumer cults are active in the Republic. Only thirteen new religious movements have been officially registered in Belorussia as religious organizations. At the same time, on average, fourteen new religious movements have appeared in the country each year since 1988. These new religious movements distribute 421 periodicals of which 96 are issued in Belarus. Moreover, 258 “healers”, fortune-tellers, psychics, sorcerers, magicians, chiromancers and 28 astrologers advertise their services in the Belarusian media. “The center for the protection of family and personal health which is being set up with the support of its partner, the St. Joseph of Volokolamsk Center, is called on to carry out fully-fledged work connected with counseling cult followers and their relatives on issues of overcoming cult dependency and the consequences of “cult trauma”, says the new project’s coordinator Oleg Nagorny. The approach, which has been developed through private non-commercial counseling in the light of Russian, Ukrainian, European and North American experience, is based on personal counseling”. Here psychological counselors friendly to the center, clerics, and social teachers will give help in solving specific problems of psychological, spiritual and social life for the victims. The center’s counselor on spiritual and theological questions from the Orthodox Church is the Rector of the St. Nicholas of Japan missionary parish church in Minsk, Fr. Paul Serdiuk. This approach gently includes the victim in the system of healing relationships with his or her relatives or a problem group. |
| Romanian Churches Illuminated in Red Draw Attention to Global Persecution of Christians Source: Basilica.ro A number of churches and monasteries of the Târgovitei Archdiocese of the Romanian Orthodox Church drew special attention to the suffering of Christians worldwide on the occasion of Romania’s National Day of Awareness of Violence Against Christians on Monday. The day, officially established last summer, coincides with the feast of the Brâncoveanu Martyrs who were martyred in 1714 in Constantinople for refusing to abandon their Orthodox faith and convert to Islam. “To highlight the significance of the day, but also to make contemporaries aware of the need for a renewed Christian commitment, with the blessing of His Eminence Metropolitan Nifon, the churches and diocesan monasteries linked to the holy Martyr Voivode Constantin Brâncoveanu were illuminated in red, a color symbolizing the blood of martyrs,” reports the Târgovitei Archdiocese . The Romanian Patriarchate’s Basilica News Agency explains that the day was established to inform the public, including young people, about the role of Christianity in the history of Romania and about the nature and extent of Christian persecution that continues to this day. The Agency also cites the Open Doors Christian NGO statistic that an average of 8 Christians worldwide are killed for their faith every single day. Phography courtesy of Arhdiocese of Târgovite Code for blog Since you are here… …we do have a small request. More and more people visit Orthodoxy and the World website. However, resources for editorial are scarce. In comparison to some mass media, we do not make paid subscription. It is our deepest belief that preaching Christ for money is wrong. Having said that, Pravmir provides daily articles from an autonomous news service, weekly wall newspaper for churches, lectorium, photos, videos, hosting and servers. Editors and translators work together towards one goal: to make our four websites possible - Pravmir.ru, Neinvalid.ru, Matrony.ru and Pravmir.com. Therefore our request for help is understandable. For example, 5 euros a month is it a lot or little? A cup of coffee? It is not that much for a family budget, but it is a significant amount for Pravmir. If everyone reading Pravmir could donate 5 euros a month, they would contribute greatly to our ability to spread the word of Christ, Orthodoxy, life " s purpose, family and society. Also by this author Today " s Articles Most viewed articles Functionality is temporarily unavailable. Most popular authors Functionality is temporarily unavailable. © 2008-2024 Pravmir.com |
| “The problem of such declarations is that they often remain at the level of the heads of the Churches, in this case on the level of the Pope of Rome and Patriarch of Constantinople. Whether it affects the lives of ordinary believers depends primarily upon us: the hierarchy and clergy, and not on the average believer. Let us hope that these words will not be empty intentions, but a specific program to address the still existing differences between the Catholic West and the Orthodox East.” Translated from the Russian . Code for blog Since you are here… …we do have a small request. More and more people visit Orthodoxy and the World website. However, resources for editorial are scarce. In comparison to some mass media, we do not make paid subscription. It is our deepest belief that preaching Christ for money is wrong. Having said that, Pravmir provides daily articles from an autonomous news service, weekly wall newspaper for churches, lectorium, photos, videos, hosting and servers. Editors and translators work together towards one goal: to make our four websites possible - Pravmir.ru, Neinvalid.ru, Matrony.ru and Pravmir.com. Therefore our request for help is understandable. For example, 5 euros a month is it a lot or little? A cup of coffee? It is not that much for a family budget, but it is a significant amount for Pravmir. If everyone reading Pravmir could donate 5 euros a month, they would contribute greatly to our ability to spread the word of Christ, Orthodoxy, life " s purpose, family and society. Related articles “Joint statement of Patriarch Kirill and Pope Francis contributed to achieving reconciliation in Syria and thus… “Neither the Pope’s visit to Moscow nor the Patriarch’s visit to Rome is under consideration now,”… “Idolatry is committed, not merely by setting up false gods, but also by setting up false… Today " s Articles Most viewed articles Functionality is temporarily unavailable. Most popular authors Functionality is temporarily unavailable. © 2008-2024 Pravmir.com |
| Could all these observations also have been made twenty years earlier, in the year 588/87 B.C.E., which according to the chronology of the Watch Tower Society’s Bible dictionary Insight on the Scriptures corresponded to Nebuchadnezzar’s thirtyseven th regnal year? 272 The same dictionary (page 456 of Vol. 1, where VAT 4956 is obviously alluded to) acknowledges that “Modern chronologers point out that such a combination of astronomical positions would not be duplicated again in thousands of years.” Let us consider one example. According to this diary, on Nisanu 1 of Nebuchadnezzar’s thirtyseventh year the planet Saturn could be observed “in front of the Swallow,” the “Swallow” (SIM) referring to the southwest part of the constellation of the Fishes (Pisces) of the Zodiac. 273 As Saturn has a revolution of c. 29.5 years, it moves through the whole Zodiac in 29.5 years. This means that it can be observed in each of the twelve constellations of the Zodiac for about 2.5 years on the average. It means also that Saturn could be seen “in front of the Swallow” 29.5 years previous to 568/67 B.C.E., that is, in 597/96 B.C.E, but certainly not 20 years earlier in 588/87 B.C.E., the date the Watch Tower would like to assign for Nebuchadnezzar’s thirtyseven th regnal year. That is simply an astronomical impossibility, even in the case of this one planet. But there are five planets that figure in the diary’s astronomical observations. Add, therefore, the drfferent revolutions of the other four planets, the positions of which are specified several times in the text, along with the positions given for the moon at various times of the year, and it becomes easily understood why such a combination of observations could not be made again in thousands of years. The observations recorded in VAT 4956 must have been made in the year 568/67 B.C.E., because they fit no other situation which occurred either thousands of years before or after that date! VAT 4956, now in the”Vorderasiatisches Abteilung” in the Berlin Museum, gives detail on about 30 positions of the moon and the five then known planets for the 37th year of Nebuchadnezzar (568/67 B.C.E.), establishing that year as the most reliable absolute date in the sixth century B.C.E. – Reproduced from A. J. Sacks & H. Hunger, Astronomical Diaries and Belated Texts from Babylonia, Vol. I (Wien: Verlag dcr osterreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1988), Plate 3. Photo used courtesy of the Vorderasiatisches Museum in Berlin. |
| Archive Пн Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk: Patriarch Bartholomew is not free in his actions 29 October 2018 year 17:24 On October 27, 2018, during ‘The Church and the World’ program aired by Russia-24 TV channel on Saturdays and Sundays, Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, head of the Moscow Patriarchate department for external church relations, answered questions from its host Ekaterina Gracheva. E. Gracheva: Good afternoon! This is ‘The Church and the World’ program in which we talk with the chairman of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate, Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk. Good afternoon, Your Eminence! Metropolitan Hilarion: Good afternoon, Ekaterina! Good afternoon, dear brothers and sisters! E. Gracheva: A few days ago in the Vatican, you met with Pope Francis of Rome. At present, the dialogue between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church appears to be quite developed. What can explain the more frequent contacts with the Roman Catholic Church today? Are those right who say that Western Christians are now closer to us than our brothers from Constantinople? Metropolitan Hilarion: The relations between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church have received a new impetus for development after Patriarch Kirill met with Pope Francis in Havana two and a half years ago. I should say that before that meeting, the contacts were held on a regular basis as well. I would not say that they have become more frequent. During Pope Francis’ pontificate, I met with him 7 times, that is, on average I meet him once a year. Usually it takes place in autumn, also because in autumn the Synod of the Roman Catholic Church holds its meetings to which observers from several Orthodox Churches are invited. For many years now, I have come there as an observer from the Russian Orthodox Church. Usually, I come for one or two days. I am given 10 or 12 minutes to set forth the Russian Church’s point of view on a particular topic, as, indeed, we have a regular students exchange, groups of staffers or priests come to us from the Vatican and we send our staffers or priests to the Vatican. For a third year now, we have held two weeks-long Summer Institutes at the Church Institute for Post-Graduate and Doctorate Studies. On the sidelines of the Synod, I always meet with the Pope. Usually, it is an audience, which lasts for about an hour and allows of discussing issues on the agenda of our bilateral relations. |
| Growing Orthodox Presence in Timor-Leste Photo by Irene Archos Timor Leste, is a small country of 1.2 million occupying half the island of Timor. While Timor West is predominantly Muslim and has made headlines in recent years for the aggressive attacks on its Christian minority population, Timor Leste is predominantly Catholic. This is due to its history of colonization under the Portuguese. In fact, it has only recently gained independence from Portugal 1975 and even more recently 2002 from Indonesia, which still governs a large part of its borders. In the last couple of years, however, the Catholic population of Timor Leste has experienced a great awakening for Orthodoxy. Since 2017, thousands have converted to Russian Orthodoxy. Father Fotie, an ordained ROCOR priest from Jordanville who shepherds a tiny parish in upstate New York, has been instrumental in bringing many Timor Leste Catholics into the fold. He has thus far made two missionary attempts, each time chrismating a couple of hundred to the faith. This is unexpected in a country that has been historically 90% Catholic. Father Fotie attributes the conversions to the “might power of Grace in the Orthodox Church as the one true faith.” Father Kirill Shkarbul, a Russian Orthodox priest serving in Taiwan, began the Orthodox Mission in Timor Leste only three years ago. Over his several visits he was able to chrismate 160 faithful. It was he who invited Father Fotie to help with the effort. “ Our hope,” explains Father Fotie, “was that a sufficient nucleus could be gathered there to form the work into a mission under the Russian Orthodox Church.” Father Fotie’s most recent trip occurred in February of this year, just before the break of the COVID pandemic. The missionary work in Timor Leste had begun under the blessing of Metropolitan Hilarion. This opportunity arose as a result of Father Kirill Shkarbul’s initial invitation to officiate for the Blessed Nativity service on January 7 th . From February 2019, Father Kirill visited Timor-Leste a total of four times with each visit lasting on average between 14 to 20 days. When he was not there, he sent four different lay missionaries to the island for follow-up work. |
| On purely stylistic grounds I believe this Gospel must be judged to be a literary unity. Whatever the slight variations from the average in word-count in certain passages, I accept the view that the whole is the work of a single hand, including the prologue and the epilogue. The attempt to isolate sources on literary grounds cannot be said to have succeeded. «It looks as though,» to quote Professor Pierson Parker, «if the author of the Fourth Gospel used documentary sources, he wrote them all himself.» 946 Berg, who finally concludes that different hands wrote different pieces of the Farewell Discourses, nevertheless concurs that those examining any text should start with the unity of their text as a working premise, altering this position only in light of clear evidence to the contrary. 947 Unpersuaded that the Fourth Gospel provides clear evidence of its sources, this commentary will proceed on the assumption of its unity in its present form. Conclusion regarding Authorship Scholars commonly concur at least that the beloved disciple is the reliable source of much of the tradition recorded in the Fourth Gospe1. 948 Beyond this, however, scholars dispute to what degree the finished Gospel reflects this reliable tradition. It is somewhat surprising, then, to discover the degree to which internal and external evidence appear to favor John son of Zebedee as the Fourth Gospels author. Although he undoubtedly used a scribe or scribes, probably members of his own circle of disciples, who may have exercised some liberty, one may therefore attribute the Gospel as a whole to an eyewitness. The eyewitness has clearly taken liberties in the telling of the story, probably developed over years of sermonic use; but a strong case can be made for Johannine authorship and therefore that the Gospel contains substantial reminiscences, as well as theological interpretations, of Jesus. If, because of the Gospels slow acceptance in «orthodox» circles, we attribute it to a Johannine school rather than to the apostle himself (my second choice), we may still argue that the oral tradition the work incorporates depends on John " s own witness. |
| Christian institutions in Gaza include the Latin Church, the Greek Orthodox Church, the Near East Council of Churches, the Ahli Arab Hospital, the Myrrh Bearers Society and the Orthodox Council of Churches. Most of the Christians in Gaza are middle-aged adults due to the population " s low birth and death rates and share most of the social characteristics of the general population because they live in similar circumstances, under blockade and coping with the generally poor economic situation. Gaza " s Christian community is regarded as a " corner stone " in the fabric of the Palestinian community, according to the report, and like the Muslim majority aspires to build an independent Palestinian state. The decrease in the number of Christians is mainly related to the prevailing circumstances in the Gaza strip, the report says. Many who stay said they did so " for religious reasons " , for " national pride " and for family. The average household income was per month but 33.6 percent reported no salary or source of income. Two of the women surveyed were married for the first time at the age of 14, however these marriages took place more than 20 years ago. The findings show that the majority of the Christian population in Gaza is Greek Orthodox, totaling 1,170 or 89.1 percent, followed by Latin (totaling 9.3 percent), Coptic (0.8 percent), Baptist (0.5 percent), and Anglicans (0.2 percent). " As an integral part of the greater Palestinian community in Gaza, Christians continue to suffer from the absence of security, a prevailing poor economic situation due to the seven-year blockade, and the repercussions of Palestinian internal division which affects all aspects of life in Gaza. Like all Gazans, upholding aspirations of freedom and building an independent Palestinian state is the way forward, " the report says. " The population of the Gaza Strip has for many years lived through harsh conditions collectively, from the Israeli occupation, its siege, and armed attacks on the Gaza Strip which is detrimental to the stability of Gaza and which continues to prevent planning and development by both the government and civil society. " Combined with the high population density, it warns that conditions in Gaza " may further nourish an extremism which does not differentiate between race and religion. " |
| About Pages Проекты «Правмира» Raising Orthodox Children to Orthodox Adulthood The Daily Website on How to be an Orthodox Christian Today Twitter Telegram Parler RSS Donate Navigation What’s in the Stars? A Close Look at Astrology Millions of people apparently not only consult their horoscope daily, but base their day " s activities on what the stars supposedly tell them to do. They eagerly test all the events of a day and deceive themselves into believing that things turned out just the way the horoscope said. Many claim it is only an innocent pastime, and others see nothing in it contradictory to religion. Archbishop Dmitri of Dallas and the South 29 January 2009 Source: Orthodox Research Institute (…For at it they who worshipped the stars, were taught by a star to adore Thee, the Sun of righteousness, and to know Thee the Orient from on high…”) (The Christmas Troparion) The average person today likes to think of himself as a product of the scientific age. He often flatters himself with the thought that he is superior to his ancestors, not standing in awe of the natural world, having no fear of the unknown, and being free from superstition. He is reluctant to believe anything that cannot be proven logically or scientifically and rejects what he often refers to as “myth” in religion: man’s creation from nothing, his fall, the promise and the coming of the Savior, salvation and life in the world to come. Twentieth-century man has been described as man “come of age”, too sophisticated and knowledgeable to accept these things as literally true, and he takes this description of himself very seriously. He doubts that the Supreme Being, whoever He may be, could have any interest inn or plan for man and the rest of creation. For the advocates of twentieth-centuryism, man is entirely on his own and has to work out his own destiny and the meaning of his existence. In rather glaring contradiction to all this theorizing and self-satisfaction of modern man and his exaggerated ideas about himself, stands one unquestionable fact: …man is as superstitious (today) as at any time in recent centuries. There are more “psychics” and “mediums”, more “seers of the future,” more “fortune tellers,” now than at any time in recent centuries. Hundreds of cheap publications, usually available not only in newspaper and magazine stores, but even in the super-markets, carry the “predictions” of self-styled “clairvoyants,” tales of the supernatural, accounts of communication with the dead and experiences with demonology. |
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