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.

Finally, the works of Sts. prophets, who acted after the division of the kingdom and the captivity of Babylon, made up the fourth section of the Holy Books, the Prophetic Books. This section includes books: Fr. Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations of Jeremiah, Epistle of Jeremiah, pror. Baruch, Ezekiel, Daniel, and the 12 minor prophets, i.e., Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zaphoniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi.

This division of the Bible into Legislative, Historical, Didactic, and Prophetic books was applied to the New Testament as well. The Gospels are legislative, the Acts of the Apostles are historical, and the Epistles of Sts. The Apostles and the Prophetic Book is the Revelation of St. John the Theologian. In addition to this division, the Holy Scriptures of the Old Testament are divided into canonical and non-canonical books.

Why Scripture Is Dear to Us

The Old Testament writings, first of all, are dear to us because they teach us to believe in the One True God and to fulfill His commandments, and they speak of the Savior. Christ Himself points to this: "Search the Scriptures, for you think through them to have eternal life, but they bear witness to Me," He said to the Jewish scribes. In the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, the Savior puts into the mouth of Abraham the following words about the rich man's brothers: "They have Moses and the prophets, let them listen to them." Moses is the first five books of the Old Testament Bible, and the prophets are the last 16 books. In a conversation with His disciples, the Savior pointed out, in addition to those books, the Psalter: "All things must be fulfilled which are written in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms concerning Me." After the Last Supper, "having sung, they went to the Mount of Olives," says the Evangelist Matthew: this indicates the singing of psalms. The words of the Savior and His example are enough for the Church to treat these books with all due diligence – the Mosaic Law, the prophets and the Psalms, to preserve and learn from them.

In the circle of books recognized by the Jews as sacred, in addition to the Law and the Prophets, there are two more categories of books: a number of teaching books, of which one is named the Psalter, and a number of historical books. The Church accepted the circle of the sacred Jewish books in the Greek translation of the Seventy Interpreters, made long before the birth of Christ. This translation was also used by the apostles, since they wrote their own epistles in Greek. This circle also included books of sacred content of Jewish origin, known only in Greek, as they were compiled after the establishment of the official list of books by the Great Synagogue. The Christian Church joined them under the name of non-canonical. Jews do not use these books in their religious life.