| John Anthony McGuckin Resurrection THEODORE G. STYLIANOPOULOS Belief in resurrection, and specifically resurrection from the dead, is a distinct biblical teaching that derives from Judaism and finds its full significance in the person and life of Jesus of Nazareth, historically proclaimed to have died, been buried, and risen from the dead. Much more so than in Judaism, resurrection is absolutely central to Christianity ( 1Cor. 15.12–19 ), especially Eastern Christianity, because the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ constitute the foundational saving events, and the core of the gospel, which lie behind the birth and character of the church, the New Testament, and Christian theology and spirituality. While resurrection is chiefly tied to the resurrection of Jesus and to the hope of the resurrection of the dead at his glorious return, the term also carries diverse metaphorical meanings such as the historical restoration of a people, life after death, immortality of the soul, and even an experience of spiritual renewal in this present life. In ancient paganism the theme of resurrection was connected not to a historical person or historical event, but rather to mythological deities such as Isis and Osiris whose cult celebrated the annual rebirth of nature and the power of fertility, a phenomenon that scholarship has widely judged to be entirely different from the Christian understanding in origin, scope, and meaning. In the Old Testament the focus was on this present order of life, the main arena of God’s blessings and chastisements. Existence after death was viewed as virtual nonexistence, called Hades, a “land of forgetfulness,” a place of shades ( Ps. 88.10–12; 87.11–13 LXX), having no contact with the living and cut off from God himself ( Ps. 6.5; 6.6 LXX). Exceptionally, some righteous persons such as Enoch ( Gen. 5.24 ) and Elijah (2 Kings 2.11) escaped death not by resurrection but by direct transfer to heaven. In other rare cases, Elijah and Elishah revived dead children to ordinary life as apparent acts of healing (1 Kings 17.21–22; 2 Kings 4.34–5). Texts such as Hosea 6.1–3 and Ezekiel 37.1–14 look to the resurgence and restoration of Israel in space and time, although also easily seen by Christian interpreters as prophecies of the final resurrection of the dead. A singular text such as Isaiah 26.19 that foresees a resurrection of the dead is as rare as it is peripheral to classic Old Testament teaching. Regular belief in a future resurrection of the dead, especially of the righteous as reward for their persecution and martyrdom, developed among Jews after 200 bce and is attested notably in Daniel 12.1–3 and 2Maccabees 7.9, 22–9. By the time of Jesus, among other divergent views of the afterlife, this doctrine was firmly established among the Pharisees (in contrast to the Sadducees, Mk. 12.18 ) and subsequently became a key teaching of mainstream Christianity. |
| Hosea: The Prophet of Mercy Today, October 17/30, the Orthodox Church commemorates the memory of the Prophet Hosea from the Old Testament, who lived very long ago, in the eighth century before Christ. Together with his elder contemporary Amos, Hosea preached in the northern Kingdom of Israel not long before his death in 722 B.C. These first prophets from the great constellation of so-called “writing prophets” revealed an entirely new degree of knowledge of God. We can find Hosea’s preaching and instruction in the first part of the Bible, the Old Testament, in the book bearing his name. The main theme of the book is that of love and the true knowledge of God (cf. Hosea 6:6; Matthew 9:13). Fr. Alexander Men, the outstanding Russian theologian, quite accurately called Hosea “the prophet of God’s exacting love.” Hosea was the first to reveal to us that God is not simply an awesome and chastening Judge, as had been previously thought (and as many continue to think), but above all a Father full of mercy. This same quality of mercy is also required of us; God does not accept the prayer of evil people, of slanderers and intriguers who boast of their imagined right belief. The Prophet Hosea expressed that which is most important in relation to God and man, and it was using his words that Jesus Christ addressed His contemporaries and all of us: But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice (Matthew 9:13). It is mercy to those around us, people of all nationalities and confessions, which the Almighty wants of us. Without this, going to church, putting up heaps of candles, making bows, and even beating our heads against the ground are of no use. The Pharisees and hypocrites, whom Christ severely condemned, did all this. Unfortunately, there are quite a few of these among Christians. The Prophet Hosea compels us once again to evaluate critically our path and our spiritual condition. 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. |
| In the Prophet Hosea, we find this definition of God: “I am God, and not man.” If God, Who has reason and will, as is clearly reflected in the Bible (3 Kings Kings] 3:28; Job 12:13, 16; Proverbs 3:19-20; Sirach 1:1, 5; 15:18, 42:21; Esaias [Isaiah] 11:2; 28:29; Luke 11:49; Romans 11:33; 14:26; 1 Corinthians 1: 21, 24; 2:7. Will of God: Psalm 106 11; Wisdom 6:4; Mark 3:35; Luke 7:30; Acts 20:27; 1 Peter 2:15; 3:17; 4:2, 19; 1 John 2:17; Romans 1:10; 8:27; 12:2; 1 Corinthians 1:1; 2 Corinthians 8:5; Ephesians 5:17; 6:6; 1 Thessalonians 4:3; 5:18; Hebrews 10:36; Revelation 17:17), is not man, this means that He is a being of another order, located by His nature beyond our world. He, as philosophers and theologians say, is transcendent with respect to the world. This transcendence – that is, God’s natural distinction from the physical world – is described in the Bible by the word “Spirit.” “God is a spirit” (John 4:24. Cf., Genesis 1:2; 6:3; 41:38; Exodus 15:10; 31:3. Numbers 11:29; 23:6; 24:2; Judges 3:10; 6:34; 11:29; 13:25; 14:6, 19; 15:14; 1 Kings Samuel] 10:6, 10; 11:6; 16:13; 19:20, 23; 2 Kings Samuel] 23:2; 3 Kings Kings] 18:12; 1 Paralipomena Chronicles] 15:1; 2 Paralipomena Chronicles] 15:1; 20: 14; 24:20; Neemias [Nehemiah] 9:20; Judith 16:14; Job 4:9; 26: 13; 33:4; Psalms 32 50 103 138 142 Wisdom of Solomon 1:7; 9:17; 12:1; Esaias [Isaiah] 11:2; 32:15; 34:16; 42:1; 44:3; 48:16; 61:1; 63:10–14. Ezekiel 11:1, 5; Aggeus [Haggai] 2:5; Zacharias 4:6; 7:12; 2 Esdras 6:37; Matthew 1:20; 3:16; 4:1; 10:20; 12:31–32; 28:19. Mark 1:10, 12; 3:29; 13:11; Luke 1:35, 67; 2:26; 3:22; 4:1, 18; 11:13; 12:10, 12; John 1:32–33; 3:5–6, 8, 34; 6:63; 7:39; 14:17, 26; 15:26; 16:13; 20:22; Acts 1:2, 5, 8, 16; 2:4, 17–18, 33, 38; 5:3, 9; 7:51; 8:29; 9:31; 10:19; 11:12, 28; 13:2, 4; 15:28; 16:6–7; 19:6; 20:22–23, 28; 21:11; 28:25. 1 Peter 1:2, 11–12, 22; 5:5; 8:9, 11, 14–16, 23, 26–27; 11:8; 14:17; 15:13, 16, 19, 30; 1 Corinthians 2:10–14; 3:16; 6:11, 19; 12: 3–4, 8–11, 13; 15:45; 2 Corinthians 1:22; 3:3, 17–18; 5:5; Galatians 3:5, 14; 4: 6; Ephesians 1:13, 17; 2:18. 22; 3:5, 16; 4:30; 5:9; Philippians 1:19; 1 Thessalonians 1:5–6; 4:8; 2 Thessalonians 2:8, 13; 1 Timothy 3:16; 4:1; 2 Timomhy 1:14; Titus 3:5; Hebrews 2:4; 3:7; 6:4; 9:8, 14; 10:15, 29; Revelation 2:7, 11, 17, 29; 3:6, 13, 22; 14:13; 22:17). |
| On The Septuagint In The New Testament These are principle examples of why the Septuagint Old Testament is the ‘official’ Old Testament of the Orthodox Church (that and the fact that the Masoretic text didn’t even exist until 1,000 a.d.). Enjoy! Of the approximately 300 Old Testament quotes in the New Testament, approximately 2/3 of them came from the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Old Testament) which included the so-called ‘deuterocanonical’ books which Protestants, following Martin Luther, later removed. This is additional evidence that Jesus and the apostles viewed the Septuagint Old Testament as the Old Testament. Here are some examples: Matt. 1:23/Isaiah 7:14 – behold, a “virgin” shall conceive. Hebrew – behold, a “young woman” shall conceive. Matt. 3:3; Mark 1:3; John 1:23/Isaiah 40:3 – make “His paths straight.” Hebrew – make “level in the desert a highway.” Matt. 9:13; 12:7/Hosea 6:6 – I desire “mercy” and not sacrifice. Hebrew – I desire “goodness” and not sacrifice. Matt. 12:21/Isaiah 42:4 – in His name will the Gentiles hope (or trust). Hebrew – the isles shall wait for his law. Matt. 13:15/Isaiah 6:10 – heart grown dull; eyes have closed; to heal. Hebrew - heart is fat; ears are heavy; eyes are shut; be healed. Matt. 15:9; Mark 7:7/Isaiah 29:13 – teaching as doctrines the precepts of men. Hebrew – a commandment of men (not doctrines). Matt. 21:16/Psalm 8:2 – out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou has “perfect praise.” Hebrew – thou has “established strength.” Mark 7:6-8 – Jesus quotes Isaiah 29:13 from the Septuagint – “This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the precepts of men.” Luke 3:5-6/Isaiah 40:4-5 – crooked be made straight, rough ways smooth, shall see salvation. Hebrew – omits these phrases. Luke 4:18/Isaiah 61:1 – and recovering of sight to the blind. Hebrew – the opening of prison to them that are bound. Luke 4:18/Isaiah 58:6 – to set at liberty those that are oppressed (or bruised). Hebrew – to let the oppressed go free. |
| file/Getty Images There are certain erroneous or distorted beliefs that are widespread among the faithful. In this brief note, I am concerned with the one that starts out from the basis of the Bible to erroneously state that the face of God in the Old Testament is not the same as in the New Testament. Some believe that God in the Old Testament is only a god of war, cruelty, violence and racism, while in the New Testament, He is only a god of love, forgiveness, mercy and kindness. This erroneous belief is the result either out of ignorance of the Old Testament, its interpretation and its structure or under the influence of misconceptions similar to the approach of those critics of the Bible who attack it for reasons too numerous to refute here. In each case, the approach to the bible is wrong because it is not a theological approach to a religious book. Many also arrive at erroneous conclusions because they do not understand the essence of inspiration in Christianity or because they take a merely historical approach to the Bible. In Christianity, divine inspiration has taken place over the course of a long pedagogical relationship of about eighteen and a half centuries. God inspired humankind with what He wanted to say through the historical events that they experienced, speaking to them in their language and according to their understanding, gradually bringing them toward Him. The Bible is not a book of history, even though it uses history to speak theology. By way of example and not exclusively, I will cite some verses of the Old Testament where God’s face appears merciful, loving and forgiving: “ And the Lord passed before him and proclaimed, ‘The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin… " ” (Exodus 34:6-7, see also Numbers 14:18, Deuteronomy 4:31, Psalm 86:5 and 108:4, Joel 2:13). God says, “ I drew them with gentle cords, w ith bands of love… I will not execute the fierceness of My anger… For I am God, and not man, the Holy One in your midst; and I will not come with terror” (Hosea 11:4 and 9). |
| Is the Current Drought God’s Punishment? Photo by Ilya Varlamov God does not only act historically; He also rules the nature which He created. This thought runs throughout Holy Scripture. Psalm 103 is a magnificent hymn to God Who created all things in His wisdom, and Who continues to care not only for man, but for His other creations as well: He watereth the mountains from His chambers; the earth shall be satisfied with the fruit of Thy works. He causeth the grass to grow for the cattle, and green herb for the service of men. To bring forth bread out the earth (Ps. 103:14–15). People of Biblical times always looked at rain as an expression of Divine mercy: And I will make them and the places round about my hill a blessing; and I will cause the shower to come down in his season; there shall be showers of blessing (Ezek. 34:26). The Psalmist praises God’s mercy, for He sent rain even while the Jews were wandering in the desert: A rain freely given shall Thou ordain, O God, for thine inheritance; yea, it became weak, but Thou shalt restore it (Ps. 67:10). Also through the Prophet Moses did the Lord reveal to the chosen people that their prosperity depends upon their faithfulness to God, and upon their fulfillment of the commandments which He gave to people. If they stray from their fulfillment of the commandments and worship idols, then The LORD's wrath be kindled against you, and he shut up the heaven, that there be no rain, and that the land yield not her fruit (Deut. 11:17). On the other hand, the Lord God sends people fruit-giving rain for their pious life: If ye walk in my statutes, and keep my commandments, and do them; Then I will give you rain in due season, and the land shall yield her increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit (Lev. 26:3–4). Referring to the significance of moisture for the earth, the Prophet Hosea says of the Lord: Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the LORD: his going forth is prepared as the morning; and he shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth (Hos. 6:3). After a dry summer beginning in mid-May until the second half of October, a rainy period begins in Palestine. The most fruitful rains were the early (October–November) and the late (February–early March) rains, which are often cited in Holy Scripture (see Jer. 5:24; Jac. 5:7). The late, spring rains were especially needed for a fruitful harvest. Thanks to these rains, the reservoirs were filled from which crops were irrigated during the dry summer months. |
| It is exactly the same with the words of Maximus and Symeon. The image of Christ as the Bridegroom and the Church—both men and women—as His bride was ingrained in the culture in which these Fathers wrote. The notion that homosexual acts were sinful was similarly ingrained, and these two Holy Fathers assumed that none of their hearers would assume otherwise simply because they used nuptial images from Christ’s parables of the wedding banquet and from the Song of Solomon to illustrate their points. Sanfilippo insists on putting these images to a use that the Fathers would have emphatically repudiated, since they, along with the rest of the Church, could “fixate on” and read such Scriptures as Genesis 19, Leviticus 18:22, Romans 1:26-27, and 1 Corinthians 6:9-10. There are other exegetical errors as well, such as investing Maximus’ ο πιστευων with an emphatically male significance. In fact, the masculine here simply indicates the universal, just as the Scriptural αδελφοι/ adelphoi /“brothers” in Philippians 1:14 simply meant Christians, regardless of gender, and not just male Christians. Anyone of my vintage knows that. The old Anglican “prayer for all conditions of men” was offered for all people , not just for all males. But such ineptitude pales beside Sanfilippo’s major error, which is to sexualize practically everything. To a hammer everything looks like a nail, and to Sanfilippo everything in Scripture and the Fathers looks homosexual. How else to account for his extraordinary misreading of the Fathers and of the Scriptures? His analysis of the prophetic parable in Hosea 2:14f is a case in point. He writes, that in this text God “lures an eponymously male bride named Israel into the desert to seduce him/her”. Such a conclusion is breathtakingly perverse: in this passage, the people are spoken of as exclusively feminine throughout, and the name “Israel” is in fact not even mentioned. It is the same with Sanfilippo’s conclusions derived from St. Paul’s use of nuptial imagery in Ephesians 5:23f. Sanfilippo concludes that Paul means that “Christ the Bridegroom ‘marries’— and takes into His marriage bed —not only the Church, but each of us individually; and not only each woman and girl, but also each man and boy” (italics original). Sanfilippo’s conclusion—which if taken at face value justifies not only homosexuality but also pedophilia (“also each man and boy ”)—simply doesn’t follow. It is yet another example of his failure to distinguish metaphor from reality. Here the Church as a whole is typologically feminine, but this does not mean that the men within it are somehow female or feminine. Such a suggestion would overthrow the very point which Paul makes about husbands loving their wives as Christ loved the Church. |
| Е. употребляется и в составе священнодействий, не включаемых в число таинств. Наряду с хлебом и вином он благословляется во время чина благословения хлебов , истоки которого восходят к практике древних монашеских общин. Кроме того, в визант. традиции существует обычай во время праздничной всенощной помазывать прихожан Е., взятым из лампады, горящей у иконы празднуемого святого (см.: Типикон. Главы 3 и 48 (описание службы 26 сент.)). Это помазание символизирует благословение, к-рое святой невидимо преподает верующим. Требник предписывает возливать Е. на могилу усопших мирян, монахов и священников при их погребении - в древности этому обряду придавалось большое значение (см.: Areop. EH. 7; вероятно, из этой же традиции происходит и обычай совершать Елеосвящение над усопшими, к XVII в. вышедший из церковной практики). Употребление Е. в пищу регламентировано церковным уставом (в частности, в дни строгого поста предписывается сухоядение). В апостольскую эпоху Е. приносился среди начатков пророкам (Didache. 13. 6), позже - епископам (Const. Ap. 2. 34. 5; 7. 29. 3). Е. издавна используется для освещения церквей (Ап. 3). В целом за богослужением принято употреблять именно оливковое масло (см. символику в Рим 11. 17). В арм. традиции оно заменялось кунжутным, что порицали визант. полемисты. В РПЦ иногда ввиду отсутствия или дороговизны оливкового используется подсолнечное масло, но это допустимо лишь в крайних случаях. Лит.: Марков Н. Елей//ПБЭ. Т. 5. Стб. 390-391; Mayer C. Das Öl im Kultus der Griechen: Diss. Hdlb., 1917; Pease A. S. Oleum// Pauly, Wissowa. 1937. Bd. 17. Col. 2454-2473; Schlier H. λαιον//TDNT. Vol. 2. P. 470-473; Ross J. F. Oil//IDB. Vol. 3. P. 592-593; Kutsch E. Salbung als Rechtsakt im Alten Testament und im Alten Orient. B., 1963; McCarthy D. J. Hosea XII 2: Covenant by Oil//VT. 1964. Vol. 14. P. 215-221; Hoenig S. B. Oil and Pagan Defilement//Jewish Quarterly Review. 1970/1971. Vol. 61. P. 63-75; Baumgarten J. The Essene Avoidance of Oil and the Laws of Impurity// Idem. Studies in Qumran Law/Ed. J. Neusner. Leiden, 1977. P. 88-97; Goodman M. Kosher Olive Oil in Antiquity//A Tribute to G. Vermès: Essays on Jewish and Christian Literature and History/Ed. P. R. Davies, R. T. White. Sheffield, 1990. P. 227-245; Hoffner H. A., Jr. Oil in Hittite Texts//BiblArch. 1995. Vol. 58. P. 108-114; Olive Oil in Antiquity: Israel and Neighbouring Countries from the Neolithic to the Early Arab Period/Ed. D. Eitram, M. Heltzer. Padova, 1996; Chesnutt R. Perceptions of Oil in Early Judaism and the Meal Formula in «Joseph and Aseneth»//JSP. 2005. Vol. 14. N 2. P. 113-132. |
| Like Reuben, wretch that I am, I have planned an unprincipled and lawless act against God Most High, having defiled my bed as he defiled that of his father. (Genesis 35:21; 49:3-4) I confess to Thee, O Christ my King: I have sinned, I have sinned, like Joseph's brothers of old, who sold the fruit of purity and chastity. (Genesis 37) His brothers gave up righteous Joseph, that sweet soul was sold into slavery, as a type of the Lord; and you, my soul, have sold yourself completely to your vices. (Genesis 37:27-28) Imitate, wretched and worthless soul, righteous Joseph and his pure mind, and do not be wanton with irrational desires, ever transgressing. (Genesis 39:7-23) If Joseph of old also occupied a pit, O Sovereign Lord, yet it was as a type of Thy Burial and Rising. But will I ever offer Thee anything like it? (Genesis 37) Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: To The Trinity: Thee, O Trinity, we glorify, the one God: Holy, Holy, Holy art Thou, Father, Son and Spirit, simple Being, Unity ever adored. Now and ever, and to the ages of ages. Amen. Theotokion: From thee, O pure maiden Mother and Virgin, God Who created the worlds and ages was clad in my clay and united to Himself human nature. Ode 6 Eirmos: I cried with my whole heart to the merciful God, and He heard me from the lowest hell and raised my life out of corruption. Refrain: Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy on me. I sincerely offer Thee with a pure intention, O Savior, the tears of my eyes and groans from the depths of my heart, crying: O God, I have sinned against Thee; be merciful to me. (Luke 18:13) You, my soul, have revolted from the Lord like Dathan and Abiram. But with all your heart cry, " Spare! " , that a yawning gulf of the earth may not swallow you. (Numbers 16) Like a stampeding heifer stung to madness, my soul, you have resembled Ephraim. Winged with action, resolve and contemplation, save your life like a gazelle from the noose. (Hosea 4:16) Let Moses' hand assure us, my soul, how God can whiten and cleanse a leprous life. So do not despair of yourself, even though you are leprous. (Exodus 4:6-8) |
| Sacred Scripture. By “sacred scripture” are to be understood those books written by the holy Prophets and Apostles under the action of the Holy Spirit; therefore they are called “divinely inspired” They are divided into books of the Old Testament and the books of the New Testament. The Church recognizes 38 books of the Old Testament. After the example of the Old Testament Church (Although the Church in the strict sense was established only at the coming of Christ (see Matt.16:18), there was in a certain sense a “Church” in the Old Testament also, composed of all those who looked with hope to the coming of the Messiah. After the death of Christ on the Cross, when He descended into hell and “preached unto the spirits in prison” (1 Peter 3:19), He brought up the righteous ones of the Old Testament with Him into Paradise, and to this day the Orthodox Church celebrates the feast days of the Old Testament Forefathers, Patriarchs, and prophets as equal to the saints of New Testament.), several of these books are joined to form a single book, bringing the number to twenty-two books, according to the number of letters in the Hebrew alphabet. (The 22 “canonical” books of the Old Testament are: 1. Genesis, 2. Exodus, 3. Leviticus, 4. Numbers, 5. Deuteronomy, 6. Joshua, 7. Judges and Ruth considered as one, 8. First and Second Kings (called First and Second Samuel in the King James Version), 9. Third and Fourth Kings (First and Second Kings in the KJV), 10. First and Second Paralipomena (First and Second Chronicles in the KJV), 11. First Esdras (Ezra) and Nehemiah, 12. Esther, 13. Job, 14. Psalms, 15. Proverbs, 16. Ecclesiastes, 17. The Song of Songs, 18. Isaiah, 19. Jeremiah, 20. Ezekiel, 21. Daniel, 22. The Twelve Prophets (Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi). This is the list given by St. John Damascene in the Exact Exposition of the Christian Faith, p. 375) These books, which were entered at some time into the Hebrew canon, are called “canonical.” (The word “canonical” here has a specialized meaning with reference to the books of Scripture, and thus must be distinguished from the more usual use of the word in the Orthodox Church, where it refers not to the “canon” of Scripture, but to “canons” or laws proclaimed at church councils. |
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