6. Appendix.

Ancient East. The Old Testament about the Messiah. Revelation and interpretation. Dead Sea Scrolls. Qumran community.

1. Preliminary information

Content:

The Concept of Holy Scripture. Why the Scriptures are dear to us. Why should you know the Old Testament? Under the direction of the Church. The divine inspiration of the Scriptures. The history of the origin of the Holy Books. The question of "non-canonical" books. The original form and language of the Scriptures. The language of sacred books. Targums and other ancient translations. The original appearance of the Holy Books. List of Old Testament books. Summary of Scripture translations. Holy Scripture and Divine Services. Levels of understanding. Ways of Explanation. The mood of the soul when reading the word of God. Harmony of two revelations.

The Concept of Holy Scripture

The Holy Scripture or Bible is a collection of books written by prophets and apostles, as we believe, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. The Bible is a Greek word meaning "books." This word is put in Greek with the article "ta", in the plural, i.e. it means: "Books with a certain content". This definite content is God's revelation to people, given in order for people to find the way to salvation.

The main theme of the Holy Scriptures is the salvation of mankind by the Messiah, the incarnate Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. The Old Testament speaks of salvation in the form of types and prophecies about the Messiah and the Kingdom of God. The New Testament sets forth the very realization of our salvation through the incarnation, life and teaching of the God-Man, sealed by His death on the cross and resurrection. According to the time of their writing, the holy books are divided into the Old Testament and the New Testament. Of these, the first contain what the Lord revealed to people through the divinely inspired prophets before the coming of the Savior to earth; and the second is what the Lord the Savior Himself and His apostles revealed and taught on earth.

Initially, God, through the prophet Moses, revealed what later made up the first part of the Bible, the so-called Torah, i.e. the Law, consisting of five books – the Pentateuch: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. For a long time, it was this Pentateuch that was Holy Scripture, the word of God for the Old Testament Church. But immediately after the Torah, the Scriptures appeared, supplementing it: the book of Joshua, then the book of Judges, the books of Kings, Chronicles (chronicles). They supplement the books of Kings, the books of Ezra and Nehemiah. The books of Ruth, Esther, Judith, and Tobit depict separate episodes in the history of the chosen people. Finally, the books of Maccabees complete the history of ancient Israel and bring it to the goal, to the threshold of the coming of Christ.

Thus is the second section of the Holy Scriptures that follows the Law, called the Historical Books. And in the Historical Books there are individual poetic creations: songs, prayers, psalms, as well as teachings. In later times, they compiled entire books, the third section of the Bible being the Teaching Books. This section includes the books: Job, Psalms, Proverbs of Solomon, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, Wisdom of Solomon, Wisdom of Jesus son of Sirach.