| Part 5. Is Any Service Pleasing to God? In another conversation on the book of Genesis, Andrei Ivanovich Solodkov speaks about why it repented the Lord that He had made man on the earth (Gen. 6:6), what was foreshadowed by the ark made by Noah, how the holy fathers interpret its arrangement, what was Noah’s first act after the flood and what it teaches us. Mosaic from Monreale Cathedral, Sicily For an Orthodox Christian, the subject of the destruction of the antediluvian civilization sounds like a warning about the cause of the ruin and apostasy of the modern world. In the Gospel of Mark the Savior warned about the end of this world and instructed the disciples: Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away. But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only. But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left. Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other left. Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come. But know this, that if the goodman of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up. Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh (Mt. 24:34-44). Giants, set at naught by God Let’s turn to the book of Genesis. In chapter 6 we read: And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose. And the Lord said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years (Gen. 6:1-3). |
| ‘What is it?’ she cried. ‘Show it to me, for the house is bare, and we have need of many things.’ And he drew the cloak back, and showed her the sleeping child. ‘Alack, goodman!’ she murmured, ‘have we not children enough of our own, that thou must needs bring a changeling to sit by the hearth? And who knows if it will not bring us bad fortune? And how shall we tend it?’ And she was wroth against him. ‘Nay, but it is a Star-Child,’ he answered; and he told her the strange manner of the finding of it. But she would not be appeased, but mocked at him, and spoke angrily, and cried: ‘Our children lack bread, and shall we feed the child of another? Who is there who careth for us? And who giveth us food?’ ‘Nay, but God careth for the sparrows even, and feedeth them,’ he answered. ‘Do not the sparrows die of hunger in the winter?’ she asked. And is it not winter now?’ And the man answered nothing, but stirred not from the threshold. And a bitter wind from the forest came in through the open door, and made her tremble, and she shivered, and said to him: ‘Wilt thou not close the door? There cometh a bitter wind into the house, and I am cold.’ ‘Into a house where a heart is hard cometh there not always a bitter wind?’ he asked. And the woman answered him nothing, but crept closer to the fire. And after a time she turned round and looked at him, and her eyes were full of tears. And he came in swiftly, and placed the child in her arms, and she kissed it, and laid it in a little bed where the youngest of their own children was lying. And on the morrow the Woodcutter took the curious cloak of gold and placed it in a great chest, and a chain of amber that was round the child’s neck his wife took and set it in the chest also. So the Star-Child was brought up with the children of the Woodcutter, and sat at the same board with them, and was their playmate. And every year he became more beautiful to look at, so that all those who dwelt in the village were filled with wonder, for, while they were swarthy and black-haired, he was white and delicate as sawn ivory, and his curls were like the rings of the daffodil. His lips, also, were like the petals of a red flower, and his eyes were like violets by a river of pure water, and his body like the narcissus of a field where the mower comes not. |
| Лит.: Муравьев А. Н. История св. града Иерусалима от времен апостольских и до наших. СПб., 1844. 2 ч.; Couret A. La Palestine sous les empereurs grecs, 326-636. Grenoble, 1869; Медников Н. А. Палестина от завоевания ея арабами до крестовых походов по араб. источникам. СПб., 1897-1903. 2 т. в 4 ч. (ППС; Т. 17. Вып. 2(50)); Abel F.-M. Géographie de la Palestine. P., 1933-1938. 2 vol.; idem. Histoire de la Palestine. P., 1952; Smith G. A. The Historical Geography of the Holy Land. L., 193526; Kraeling C. H. Gerasa, City of the Decapolis. New Haven, 1938; Jones A. H. M. The Herods of Judaea. Oxf., 19672; Ovadiah A. Corpus of the Byzantine Churches in the Holy Land. Bonn, 1970; Bagatti B. The Church from the Gentiles in Palestine: History and Archaeology. Jerus., 1971; Sch ü rer E. The History of the Jewish People in the Age of Jesus Christ (175 BC-AD 135). Edinb., 1973-1987. 3 vol.; Пигулевская Н. В. Из истории социальных и религ. движений в Палестине в римскую эпоху// Она же. Ближ. Восток, Византия, славяне. Л., 1976. С. 94-110; Avi-Yonah M. The Holy Land from the Persian to the Arab Conquests (536 BC to AD 640): A Historical Geography. Grand Rapids, 1977; idem. The Jews under Roman and Byzantine Rule: A Political History of Palestine from the Bar Kokhba War to the Arab Conquest. N. Y.; Jerus., 1984; Hüttenmeister F., Reeg G. Die antiken Synagogen in Israel. Wiesbaden, 1977. 2 Bde; Wilkinson J. Jerusalem Pilgrims before the Crusades. Warmiuster, 1977; Gutwein C. Third Palestine: A Regional Study in Byzantine Urbanization. Wash., 1981; Smallwood M. The Jews under Roman Rule from Pompey to Diocletian: A Study in Political Relations. Leiden, 19812; Hunt E. D. Holy Land Pilgrimage in the Later Roman Empire, AD 312-460. Oxf.; N. Y., 1982; Goodman M. State and Society in Roman Galilee, AD 132-212. Totowa (N. J.), 1983; Urman D. The Golan: A Profile of a Region during the Roman and Byzantine Periods. Oxf., 1985; Dar Sh. Landscape and Pattern: An Archaeological Survey of Samaria, 800 BCE - 636 CE. |
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