The Mystery of Faith. Introduction to Orthodox Dogmatic Theology

All ancient religions knew that there is not only a material, but also a spiritual nature in man, but the correlation of these principles was understood in different ways. In dualistic religions, matter is initially evil and hostile to man: the Manichaeans even considered Satan to be the creator of the material world. In ancient philosophy, the body is a prison in which the soul is imprisoned, or a grave in which it is buried. For example, Plato derives the term soma (body) from sema ("tombstone", "coffin"): "Many believe that the body is like a tombstone, hiding the soul buried under it in this life... The soul endures punishment... and the flesh serves as a bulwark for it, so that it can survive, being in the body, as in a torture chamber [1]."Ancient Indian philosophical systems speak of the transmigration of souls from one body to another, including from man to animal (and vice versa): "As a man throws off old clothes and takes new ones, so after leaving the old body, the soul enters (Skt. dehih - spirit) into the new, the other," we read in the Bhagavad Gita [2]. The doctrine of metempsychosis (reincarnation) was rejected by the entire ancient Church tradition as not corresponding not only to Divine Revelation, but also to common sense: a person who possesses reason and free will cannot turn into an irrational animal, because any rational being is immortal and cannot disappear. In addition, the teaching that man on earth suffers punishment for his sins in previous lives contradicts the concept of the goodness of God: what is the point of punishment if a person does not know why he suffers it (after all, people do not remember their previous "existences")? united in the individual only for a certain time, but given simultaneously and forever in the very act of creation: the soul is "betrothed" to the body and inseparable from it. Only the totality of soul and body is a full-fledged person-hypostasis: neither soul nor body in themselves are such: "For what is man if not a rational living being consisting of soul and body? - says St. Justin the Philosopher. - So, is the soul itself a person? No... Can the body be called a person? No... Only a being consisting of a combination of both is called a man [3]." St. Gregory of Nyssa calls the indissoluble connection between soul and body "acquaintance," "friendship," and "love," which persist even after death: "In the soul and after separation from the body, certain signs remain... for the rich man and Lazarus (each other) knew each other in paradise. On the soul there remains, as it were, an imprint (of the body), and during the renewal it will again take upon itself (the body) [4]." Speaking of the body and matter in general, the Fathers of the Church emphasized their Divine origin, expressing themselves in a very lofty way: "I confess that matter is God's creation and it is beautiful...", says St. John of Damascus. "I do not worship matter, but I worship the Creator of matter, who became material for my sake... and to him who made my salvation through matter [5]." The assertion that Christianity allegedly preaches abhorrence of the flesh and contemptuous of the body seems to be profoundly wrong. Abhorrence of the flesh was characteristic of some heretics (Gnostics, Montanists, Manichaeans), whose views in patristic theology were sharply criticized: "Many of the heretics even say that the body was not created by God. It is not worth God creating it, they say, pointing to impurity, sweat, tears, toil, exhaustion, and all other imperfections of the body... But don't tell me about this fallen, condemned, humiliated man. If you want to know how God created our body in the beginning, then let us go to paradise and look at the first-created man" (John Chrysostom [6]).In all cases where Christian ascetic literature speaks of enmity between the flesh and the spirit (beginning with the Apostle Paul: "the flesh desires that which is contrary to the spirit, and the spirit that which is contrary to the flesh"; Gal. 5:17), we are talking about sinful flesh as a set of passions and vices, and not about the body in general. And when we speak of the "mortification of the flesh," we mean the mortification of sinful inclinations and "carnal lusts," and not contempt for the body as such. The Christian ideal is not to humiliate the flesh, but to purify it and free it from the consequences of the Fall, to return it to its original purity and make it worthy of being likened to God. In the Bible, this word sometimes refers to any living creature in general (Gen. 2:9), in other cases it is a certain vital principle or vital principle contained in the flesh (Gen. 9:4) and even blood (Lev. 17:11) of a living being, often the very life of a person (Gen. 19:17). In the Psalms of David it is often spoken of the soul as an inner immaterial principle in man: "My soul thirsts for Thee, My flesh yearns for Thee" (Psalm 62:2). The definition of the soul was given by St. Athanasius the Great: "The soul is an intelligent, incorporeal, passionless, immortal essence [7]." St. Gregory of Nyssa supplemented the definition: "The soul is a born essence, a living, intellectual essence, imparting by itself to the organic and sensual body the vital force [8]." In both definitions, the soul is called an essence (ousia), that is, it is not only a function of the body, its faculty, feeling, manifestation, but has an independent existence. The term "spirit" (Hebrew ruah, Greek pneuma) is of biblical origin and means rather "breath", sometimes "wind" (see, for example, Ps. 148:8, according to the LXX translation). The term "mind" (Greek nous) is borrowed from ancient philosophy and is not found in the Old Testament at all (it is replaced there by the concepts of "reason" and "prudence"), but it is often used by the Apostle Paul, and in the Greek Fathers of the Church it (and not "spirit") will become the main anthropological concept. By its nature, the mind is significantly different from everything that is in a person. He has the ability to comprehend the meaning of things, to penetrate into their essence. "And the mind sees, and the mind hears," said Menander [9]. And St. Anthony the Great says: "The mind sees everything, even that which is in heaven (i.e. in the spiritual world), and nothing darkens it except sin [10]." It is through the mind that a person can come into contact with God, pray to Him; with his mind he also hears God's "answer" to his prayer. St. Gregory Palamas calls the mind "a particle of the Godhead" [11], emphasizing its unearthly origin.In general, the biblical-Christian tradition is characterized by an exceptionally elevated view of man. The opinion about the "humiliation" of man in Christianity is deeply erroneous. What is a person in the perception of an atheist? This is a monkey, only with more developed abilities. What is a human being in the perception of a Buddhist? One of the reincarnations of the soul, which before its entry into the body of a man could exist in the body of a dog or a pig, and after the death of the human body can again find itself in the body of an animal. The concept of "personality" as the totality of soul and body, inseparably united, is completely absent: man in himself is only a certain intermediate stage in the soul's journey from body to body. In Christianity, a person is a person, a person created in the image of God, that is, being an icon of the Creator (Greek eikon means "image"). In his dignity, man is not inferior to angels. As the Prophet David says: "... What is man, that Thou rememberest him, and the son of man, that Thou visitest him? Thou hast humbled him not much before the angels: Thou hast crowned him with glory and honor; Thou hast made him ruler over the works of Thy hands; He put all things under his feet" (Psalm 8:5-7). Plato. Cratylus 400c ^ Bhagavad Gita 2, 22. Ashgabat, 1978. P. 86 ^ PG 6, 1585B ^ PG 44, 225B-229C ^ PG 94, 1297C-1300B ^ PG 49, 121 ^ PG 28, 608A ^ Gregoriou Nyssis erga. T. 1. Sel. 228 ^ Ibid. T. 1. Sel. 230 ^ Filokalia 1, 19 ^ PG 150, 144 ^

The life of the first people before the fall

To the materialistic view of the early stages of the development of mankind, when people were like beasts and led a bestial way of life, not knowing God and having no concept of morality, Christianity opposes the teaching about the blessedness of the first people in paradise and about their subsequent fall into sin and expulsion from paradise. It must be said that the legends about the initial bliss of people and their subsequent fall have been preserved in the mythology of many peoples, and there are some features of striking similarity between these legends. Isn't the Bible story one of these myths? And can it be treated as the real history of mankind or should it be perceived as an allegory? The Greek word mythos generally means a story, a story, a tradition, a parable, mainly a tale about gods and heroes, that is, about the prehistoric past of mankind. As A. Losev has shown, myth is not an invention, not a fantastic fiction and not an allegory, but "life itself", "being itself, reality itself", that is, real history, but expressed in words and symbols. At the same time, myth is a miracle, and in this it differs from the usual historical narrative based on a rational analysis of facts and events. The language of myth is the language of symbols: real history, becoming a myth, is clothed in words and images that have a symbolic meaning [1]. As this or that people moves away from the true faith, that is, from faith in one God, the real reality originally laid down in its mythology becomes more and more distorted and acquires fabulous, "mythical" (in the negative sense of the word) features. But there is still some truth in any mythology. This explains the similarities between the various mythologies.The biblical story differs from all ancient myths in that it belongs to God's chosen people - the only one who preserved the true faith, and therefore distortions did not penetrate into this story: he preserved the tradition intact. Moreover, the Church accepts everything that is written in the Bible as divinely revealed truth, that is, the truth revealed by God Himself through His chosen ones - teachers, apostles, prophets. In this sense, the biblical account is a real story, not an allegory or a parable. But, like any ancient tale, it is written in symbolic language, and every word, every image in it requires interpretation. We understand that "heaven and earth" is a symbol of something more significant than our astronomical sky and our globe. And the "serpent" who was "more cunning than all the beasts of the field" is not an ordinary snake, but some evil force that entered it. In the Bible, every last letter is true, but not everything is to be taken literally. Thus, having created man, God leads him into paradise - the garden that He "planted in Eden in the east" (Gen. 2:8). Paradise was given over to man, who lived in complete harmony with nature: he understood the language of the beasts, and they were obedient to him; all the elements were subordinate to him as a king. "The Lord hath made man the prince of this world, and the ruler of things visible. Neither the fire overcame him, nor the water drowned him, nor the beast harmed him," says St. Macarius of Egypt [2]. Adam had "shining glory" on his face, he was a friend of God, he was pure, he reigned over his thoughts and was blessed. The Word dwelt in Adam, and he had the Spirit of God in him. "The Word that dwelt in him was all things to him, knowledge, sensation, inheritance, and teaching."[4] God brings all the beasts to man, "to see what he shall call them, and that whatever man shall call every living creature, that shall be its name" (Gen. 2:19). And Adam gives names to all animals and birds, that is, he cognizes the meaning, the hidden logos of every living creature. For what is a name? It is more than just a symbol or a conventional designation of this or that creature. "The name - as the maximum tension of meaningful existence in general - is the foundation, force, goal, creativity and feat... of a lifetime... The name is the element of rational communication of living beings in the light of meaning and intelligent harmony, the revelation of mysterious faces and the bright cognition of the living energies of existence... Every living creature bears a name" (A. Losev [5]). By giving man the right to call the names of all creation, God as if brings him into the very heart of His creative process, calls him to co-creation, cooperation: "Adam had to behold the ineffable dispensation carried within himself by each animal. And they all approached Adam, acknowledging their slavish state... God says to Adam: be the creator of names, since you cannot be the creator of the creatures themselves... We share with you the glory of creative wisdom... Give names to those to whom I have given existence" (Basil of Seleucia [6]).God introduces man into the world as the priest of all visible creation. He is the only living creature who is able to praise God verbally and bless Him. The entire universe is given to him as a gift, for which he must offer a "sacrifice of praise" and which he must return to God as "Thine of Thine." In this unceasing Eucharistic (thanksgiving) sacrifice of man is the meaning and justification of his being, and at the same time his highest blessedness. Heaven, earth, sea, fields and mountains, birds and beasts - all creation as it were delegates man to this high priestly service in order to praise God through his lips.God allows man to eat from all the trees of paradise, including the tree of life, which grants immortality. However, he forbids eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, because "to know evil" means to partake of evil and to fall away from bliss and immortality. The commandment of God is given, according to the explanation of St. John of Damascus, "as a kind of trial and trial, an exercise in the obedience and disobedience of man [7]." That is, a person is given the right to choose between good and evil, although God prompts him what the choice should be, warning him about the consequences of the Fall. Having chosen evil, man falls away from life and "dies by death"; having chosen the good, he ascends to perfection and achieves the highest goal of his existence.The goal of human life, according to the teaching of the Fathers of the Eastern Church, is "deification" (theosis). Assimilation to God and deification are one and the same: "Our salvation is possible only through deification. And deification is, as far as possible, assimilation to God and union with Him" (Dionysius the Areopagite [8]). The Apostle Paul calls this union with God "adoption" to God (Romans 8:15), the Apostle Peter - "communion of the divine nature" (2 Pet. 1:4), Origen - "change (transformation) into God [9]". Union with God, which is the ultimate goal of human existence, is not merging with the divine essence and dissolution in the Divinity (as with the Neoplatonists), it is not, moreover, immersion in non-existence-nirvana (as with the Buddhists), but is life with God and in God, in which the personality of man does not disappear, but remains itself, partaking of the fullness of Divine love. A. Losev. Dialectics of myth. Philosophy, mythology, culture. Moscow, 1991. Ss. 23-27 ^ V. E. P. 42, 202 ^ Ibid ^ V. E. P. 41, 208 ^ A. Losev. Philosophy of the name. Moscow, 1990. P. 166. ^ PG 85, 40C-41A ^ Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith 2, 11 ^ PG 3, 376A ^ PG 11/1, 41 ^

Fall of man

"The serpent was more cunning than all the beasts of the field, which the Lord God had created" (Gen. 3:1); Thus begins the biblical narrative of the fall of the first people. This is the same "great dragon, the ancient serpent, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the world" spoken of in the Revelation of John the Theologian (Rev. 12:9) and who was once the Light-bearer (Lucifer), but fell away from the love of God and became the enemy of all good. St. John Chrysostom does not consider it possible to completely identify the devil with the serpent: he says that the devil used the serpent as a tool [1]. The devil deceives man with the "hope of deification," in the words of St. John of Damascus [2]. Man did not recognize deception because the desire for deification was put into him by the Creator. But deification is impossible without God, and the sign of the greatest pride is the desire to become equal to God in spite of Him.The biblical account of the Fall helps us to understand the entire tragic history of mankind and its present state, since it shows who we were and what we have become. He reveals to us that evil entered the world not through the will of God, but through the fault of man, who preferred the devil's deception to the Divine commandment. From generation to generation, mankind repeats the mistake of Adam, seducing false values and forgetting true ones - faith in God and faithfulness to Him. Freedom is the greatest gift that makes man the image of the Creator, but freedom initially contains the possibility of falling away from God. According to Archimandrite Sophrony, God, in creating man free, in a certain sense took a risk: "The creation of something is always a risky enterprise, and God's creation of man in His image and likeness involved a certain degree of risk... Giving man a godlike freedom opened up the possibility of resisting predestination in some form. Man is quite free to define himself negatively in relation to God - even to the point of conflict with Him [3]." God, because of His love for man, did not want to invade human freedom and forcibly prevent sin. But even the devil could not force man to evil. The culprit of the Fall is man himself, who used the freedom granted to him for evil.What was the sin of the first man? Blessed Augustine sees it in disobedience: "It cannot be that one's own will should not fall upon a man with the great weight of the fall, if he arrogantly prefers it to the higher will. This is what man experienced, having disobeyed the commandment of God, and through this experience he learned the difference between... the good of obedience and the evil of disobedience [4]."The majority of ancient church writers say that Adam fell because of pride: "Where the Fall occurred, there pride first settled," says St. John of the Ladder. "The punishment of the proud is a fall, and the vexation is the demon... From this one passion, without any other, someone (the devil) fell from heaven [5]." St. Symeon the New Theologian speaks of the same thing: "Eosphorus, and after him Adam, one being an angel and the other a man, came out of their nature and, being proud before their Creator, they themselves wanted to become gods [6]." Pride is a wall between man and God. The root of pride is egocentrism, self-centeredness, self-love, self-lust. Before the Fall, the only object of man's love was God, but now a value outside of God appeared - the tree seemed "good for food, pleasing to the eyes, and desirable" (Gen. 3:6) - and the entire hierarchy of values collapses: my "I" is in the first place, and the object of my desire is in the second. There is no place for God: He is forgotten, expelled from my life. on the contrary, man suddenly felt his nakedness: he became ashamed, and he tried to hide from God. The feeling of one's own nakedness means the deprivation of that Divine covering light-bearing garment that protected man from the "knowledge of evil." A burning feeling of shame for one's own shame is the first feeling of a person after he has committed a sin. The second is the desire to hide from God, showing that he has lost the concept of God's omnipresence and is looking for some place where there is no God. A fall is not yet a falling away: a person could repent and thereby regain his former dignity. God goes out "in search" of fallen man: He walks among the trees of paradise and as if looking for him, asking "Where are you?" (Gen. 3:9). In this humble walk of God in paradise we see the humility of Christ, revealed to us in the New Testament, the humility with which God goes out to look for the lost sheep. He does not need to go and seek and ask, "Where art thou?" because He may call out from heaven with a voice of thunder or shake the foundations of the earth, but He still does not want to be the Judge of Adam, He still wants to be with him on an equal footing and hopes for his repentance. God's question contains a call to repentance, as Origen pointed out: "God said to Adam, 'Where are you?' not because he wanted to inquire about him, but because he wanted to remind him. For to him who at first walked in blessedness, but soon broke the commandment and became naked, he reminds (of this), saying: "Where are you? See in what state you were and where you are (now) when you have fallen away from the sweetness of paradise" [7]." If Adam had said "I have sinned," he would undoubtedly have been forgiven, affirms St. Symeon the New Theologian [8]. But instead of repentance, Adam pronounces self-justification, blaming his wife for everything: "... The woman whom Thou hast given me, she gave me of the tree, and I have eaten" (Gen. 3:12). You gave a wife, You are also to blame... And the wife blames the serpent for everything.The consequences of the Fall for the first man were catastrophic. Not only did he lose the bliss and sweetness of paradise, but the whole nature of man changed and distorted. Having sinned, he fell away from the natural state and fell into the unnatural state (Abba Dorotheus [9]). All parts of his spiritual and bodily composition were damaged: the spirit, instead of striving for God, became soulful, passionate; the soul has fallen into the power of bodily instincts; The body, in turn, lost its original lightness and turned into heavy sinful flesh. After the Fall, man became "deaf, blind, naked, insensible in relation to those (goods) from which he had fallen away, and moreover, he became mortal, perishable and senseless", "instead of divine and incorruptible knowledge, he took on carnal knowledge, for having become blind with the eyes of the soul... he saw with his bodily eyes" (St. Symeon the New Theologian [10]). Illnesses, sufferings and sorrows have entered human life. He became mortal because he lost the ability to eat from the tree of life.Not only man himself, but the entire world around him changed as a result of the Fall. The original harmony between nature and man is broken - now the elements can be hostile to him, storms, earthquakes, floods can destroy him. The earth will no longer grow everything by itself: it must be cultivated "by the sweat of its brow", and it will bring "thorns and thorns". Beasts also become enemies of man: the serpent will "bite his heel" and other predators will attack him (Gen. 3:14-19). The whole creation is subject to the "bondage of corruption," and now it will "await liberation" from this slavery together with man, because it submitted to vanity not voluntarily, but through the fault of man (Romans 8:19-21). not two or ten days, but... all his life. For how could one not cry, remembering... this meek Lord, this ineffable sweetness of paradise, this indescribable beauty of those flowers, this carefree and laborless life, this ascent and descent of angels to them?" (St. Symeon the New Theologian [11]). On the eve of Great Lent, the Church remembers Adam's exile, and the following words are sung at the service: "Adam was expelled from paradise through food; therefore, sitting opposite him, he wept, exclaiming in a touching voice: "Woe is me! How I suffered, miserable! I have transgressed one commandment of the Lord and have lost all blessings! O most holy paradise, planted for my sake... I will no longer enjoy your sweetness, nor will I see the Lord my God and Creator any more, for I will go to the ground from which I was taken." Explanatory Bible. T. 1. St. Petersburg, 1904. P. 24 ^ PG 96, 98B ^ Archimandrite Sophrony. His Life is Mine. New York, 1977. P. 32 ^ PL 34, 384 ^ Ladder 14, 32 [Ioannou tou Sinaitou Klimax. Athenai, 1989. Sel. 191] ^ Theological Homily 1, 357-359 [SC 122, 122] ^ V. E. P. 27, 67 ^ Catechetical Homily 5, 175-182 [SC 96, 390-392] ^ Homily 1, 1 [SC 92, 148] ^ Moral Homily 13, 63-67 [SC 129, 404] ^ Catechetical Homily 5, 282-310 [SC 96, 400] ^ Stanza on verse, see: Triodion katanyktikon, ekd. "Fos". Sel. 69 ^

Spreading Sin

After Adam and Eve, sin spreads rapidly among people. If they have sinned through pride and disobedience, then their son Cain commits fratricide... Cain's descendants very soon forgot God altogether and began to arrange their earthly life: Cain himself "built a city", of his closest descendants, one "was the father of all those who dwelt in tents with flocks", another "was the father of all those who play the harp and the flute", the third was "the forger of all instruments of brass and iron" (Gen. 4:17-22). That is, urban planning, cattle breeding, musical art and, in modern terms, "the production of tools" - all this was brought to mankind by the descendants of Cain as a kind of surrogate for the lost heavenly bliss. This is explained by the Apostle Paul: "As by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, so death passed on to all men, because in him all sinned" (Romans 5:12). This text of Paul can be understood in different ways: the Greek words "ef' ho pantes hemarton" can be translated not only "because in him all sinned", but also "in whom all sinned" (i.e. in the person of Adam all people sinned). in this case, Adam is only a prototype of all future sinners, each of whom, repeating the sin of Adam, is responsible only for his own sins. "When we succumb to the influence of evil thoughts, let us blame ourselves, and not the sin of our ancestors," says St. Mark the Ascetic [1]. Adam's sin, according to this interpretation, is not the cause of our sinfulness, because we have no part in Adam's sin, and consequently his guilt should not be imputed to us.However, if we read "in whom all sinned" (as the Slavonic translator read: "in whom all sinned"), then we can speak of the imputation of Adam's sin to all subsequent generations of people due to the contamination of human nature with sin in general: the disposition to sin becomes hereditary, and the punishment for sin becomes universal. Man's nature is "sick with sin," in the words of St. Cyril of Alexandria [2], and, consequently, we are all guilty of Adam's sin because everything is of the same nature with him. St. Macarius of Egypt speaks of the "leaven of sin" [3] and of the "secret impurity and the abundant darkness of passions" [4], which entered into man's nature in spite of his primordial purity: sin was so deeply rooted in his nature that none of Adam's descendants was exempt from the hereditary predisposition to sin. "Behold, I was conceived in iniquity, and in sin my mother gave birth to me" (Psalm 50:7). They believed that God "punishes the children for the sins of their fathers, even to the third and fourth generation" (Exodus 20:5)—not innocent children, but those whose personal sinfulness was rooted in the guilt of their ancestors. Many theologians of the last centuries, who fought for the creation of "religion within the limits of reason alone" (Kant's expression), rejected this teaching as inconsistent with the arguments of reason. But not a single dogma is comprehended by reason, and religion within the limits of reason is not religion, but naked rationalism, because religion is super-rational, super-logical. The teaching about the responsibility of mankind for Adam's sin is revealed in the light of Divine Revelation and is comprehended in connection with the dogma of the redemption of man by the New Adam - Christ: "... As by the transgression of one man is the condemnation of all men, so by the righteousness of one man is justification unto life. For just as by the disobedience of one man many were made sinners, so also by the obedience of one will many become righteous... that as sin reigned unto death, so grace might reign through righteousness unto eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord" (Romans 5:18-19, 21). Filokalia 1, 117 ^ PG 74, 785A ^ V. E. P. 41, 265 ^ V. E. P. 42, 205 ^

Waiting for the Messiah

The Old Testament era was a time of waiting for the Messiah-Redeemer. The first-created Adam, at the instigation of the devil, violated the commandment and fell away from God, but the Divine plan for man did not change: man is still destined for deification, only now it is no longer in his power - a Savior is needed, Who will reconcile man with God. God mysteriously announces this to the devil, addressing him with a curse at the moment of the expulsion of Adam and Eve from paradise: "... I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel" (Gen. 3:15); in the Greek Bible it says, "he shall smite thee in the head." The masculine pronoun "he" does not agree with the neuter word "seed" (sperma, according to the LXX translation), which usually means "offspring" in general, but in this case, as Christian interpreters believe, it indicates a specific person ("seed" can also mean "son", "descendant") who will strike the devil in the head. In the same context, God's promise to Abraham is understood: "And in your seed all the nations of the earth will be blessed" (Gen. 22:18). The dying Jacob, blessing his sons, speaks directly of the Mediator who will come from the tribe of Judah: "The scepter shall not depart from Judah... until the Mediator comes, and to Him is the obedience of the nations" (Gen. 49:10). The entire second Psalm prophetically speaks of the Messiah, who is here called the Son of God and Christ (the Anointed One): "The kings of the earth arise, and the princes take counsel together against the Lord and against His Anointed One... The Lord said to me, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee" (Psalm 2:2, 7). The prophet speaks of the birth of the Messiah from a Virgin: "Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel, which means, God is with us" (Isaiah 7:14). Isaiah predicts the birth of the Child (Isaiah 9:7), the descent of the Holy Spirit upon Him (Isaiah 11:1-10, 42:1-7, 61:1). Isaiah's prophecies about the sufferings of the Messiah are striking: "As many were amazed when they looked at You, so much was His countenance disfigured more than any man, and His form more than the sons of men! So many nations will be amazed by Him; kings will shut their mouths before him, for they will see what has not been spoken, and they will know what they have not heard. Who believed what we heard, and to whom was the arm of the Lord revealed? For He ascended before Him as a sprout, and as a sprout out of dry earth; there is neither form nor majesty in Him... He took upon Himself our infirmities and bore our sorrows... He was wounded for our sins, and bruised for our iniquities... and with his stripes we were healed... We all wandered like sheep, each turned to his own path, and the Lord laid on Him the sins of all of us. He was tormented, but he suffered voluntarily, and did not open his mouth... A tomb with evildoers was assigned to him, but he is buried with the rich, because he committed no sin, and there was no lie in his mouth" (Isaiah 52:14-15; 53:1-2, 4-7, 9). The prophets were witnesses of Christ before His coming—the Holy Spirit revealed to them the future that they spoke of as the present. The Apostle Peter writes that the Spirit of Christ dwelt in the prophets: "To this salvation belonged the searches and searches of the prophets, who foretold the grace assigned to you, examining to what and to what time the Spirit of Christ who was in them indicated, when He foretold Christ's sufferings and the glory that would follow them" (1 Pet. 1:10-11). With their spiritual eyes, the prophets foresaw what would be revealed in the New Testament, and prepared the people of Israel to meet the Messiah. The last of the prophets, John the Baptist, was the first of the apostles: he foretold about Christ and he also testified about Him when Christ came. John the Baptist stands on the verge of two epochs, completing one and opening the other: in his person there was a meeting of the Old Testament with the New.In the years immediately preceding the birth of Christ, the expectation of the Messiah was universal. "I know that the Messiah is coming, that is, Christ; when He comes, He will declare all things to us," says a simple Samaritan woman in the Gospel (John 4:25). Not only among the people of Israel, but also among the Gentiles, many lived with the dream of a "golden age." The Roman poet Virgil (1st century B.C.) in the fourth eclogue of his "Aeneid" announced the mysterious Child, Whose birth signifies the beginning of a new blessed era of salvation. "Peering into the future, Virgil involuntarily spoke in the language of Isaiah and truly appeared as a prophet of the ancient world," writes a modern researcher on this occasion [1]. Mankind languished, seized by a premonition of the coming of the Savior into the world... E. Svetlov. On the threshold of the New Testament. Brussels, 1983. P. 507 ^

Anthology of Holy Texts

The world is beautiful, the creation of the great God, but there is nothing more beautiful than man, the true man, the son of God.Archimandrite Sophrony (Sakharov)It is also worthy of our attention that when the foundation was laid for such a vast world and its main parts, which became part of the whole, the creation was carried out as if in a hurry... The constitution of man is preceded by counsel, and by the Artist... the future creation is prefigured: what it should be, what prototype (should) bear in itself a likeness, for what purpose it will be and what it will do after creation, and over what it should rule - all this was provided by the Word, so that man would assume a dignity that is higher than his being, acquire power over beings before he himself came into being. For it is said: "And God said, Let us make man in our image and after our likeness" (Gen. 1:6)... What a miracle! The sun is arranged, and no council precedes it, neither does the heavens, although there is nothing equal to it in the created (world)... The Creator approaches the very arrangement of man as if with prudence, in order to... to liken his image to a certain primordial beauty... According to the Orthodox worldview, God created two levels of created things: first, the "noetic," spiritual or mental level, and second, the material or bodily level. On the first level, God created angels who do not have a material body. On the second level, He created the physical world—galaxies, stars, and planets—with various kinds of minerals, plant and animal life. Man, and only man, exists simultaneously on two levels. By virtue of his spirit or spiritual mind, he is a partaker of the noetic realm and is a "companion of angels"; thanks to his body and soul, he moves, feels and thinks, eats and drinks... Our human nature is thus more complex than angelic and endowed with greater potential. Viewed from this perspective, man is not inferior, but higher than angels... Man stands at the heart of God's creation. Being a partaker of both the spiritual and material realms, he is the image or mirror of the whole creation, the imago mundi, the "small universe" or microcosm. Everything created has a meeting place in it... Saint Irenaeus said: "The glory of God is a living man." The human person is the center and crown of God's creation.Bishop Kallistos of DiokleiaIn the beginning, when God created man, He placed him in paradise, as the Holy Scriptures say, adorned him with every virtue and gave him the commandment not to eat of the tree that is in the midst of paradise. And he was in the delights of paradise, in prayer, contemplation, in all glory and honor, having healthy senses and being in the natural (state) in which he was created. For God created man in His own image, that is, immortal, free, adorned with every virtue. But when he transgressed the commandment by eating the fruit of the tree, from which God commanded him not to eat, then he was expelled from paradise, fell away from the natural (state) and fell into the unnatural, that is, into sin, love of glory, thirst for worldly pleasures, and other passions, which took possession of him, for he himself became their slave through disobedience. Then evil gradually began to increase, and death reigned. There was no worship of God left anywhere, and everywhere there was ignorance of God... So the good God gave (people) the law to help them convert and correct evil, but it was not corrected. He sent prophets, but they were not successful either. For evil prevailed, as Isaiah says: "Neither for injury, nor for ulcer, nor for inflamed wound is there plaster to apply, nor oil, nor bandage" (Isaiah 1:6, LXX). As if to say: evil is not somewhere in one place, but in the whole body, has embraced the whole soul, has taken possession of all its powers... Only God could heal such a disease... Abba DorotheusAdam was created by God pure to serve Him, and all this creation was given to serve Adam, because he was made lord and king of all creation. But when the evil word found access to him and conversed with him, Adam first received it with his outer ears, then it penetrated into his heart, and embraced his whole being. And thus, after his captivity, all the creatures subject to him were already captive with him, because through him death reigned over every soul, and as a result of his disobedience so distorted Adam's image that people were changed and came to worship demons. For behold, the fruits of the earth, beautifully created by God, are offered to the demons: bread, wine, oil, and animals are placed on their altars. Even their sons and daughters (pagans) were sacrificed to demons.The Monk Macarius of EgyptWhen Adam fell and died to God, the Creator grieved for him: the angels, all the powers, heaven, earth and all creatures mourned his death and fall. For the creatures saw that he who was given to them as king had become the slave of an opposing and evil power. And so, with darkness, bitter and evil darkness he clothed his soul, because the prince of darkness reigned over him. He was the one who was wounded by robbers and became half-dead when he went from Jerusalem to Jericho (Luke 10:30). And Lazarus, whom the Lord resurrected, this Lazarus, filled with a great stench, so that no one could approach his tomb, was an image of Adam, who took a great stench into his soul and was filled with blackness and darkness. But you, when you hear about Adam, about the robbers, about Lazarus, do not let your mind wander as it were in the mountains, but shut yourself up within your soul, because you bear the same wounds, the same stench, the same darkness. We are all sons of this darkened lineage... We are wounded with such an incurable wound that only the Lord can heal it. That is why He Himself came, for none of the Old Testament (righteous), neither the law itself, nor the prophets could heal this wound.St. Macarius of EgyptNot only the Holy Scriptures of the Old Testament are filled with prophecies about the coming Deliverer from sin and its consequences – death and hell: the expectation of the coming God, the conqueror of hell, suffering, dying and resurrecting, as if by lightning, cut through the darkness of the pagan consciousness... Mankind longed for God-manhood... The prophecy of a suffering god descending into hell for the proud and embittered Prometheus is one of the most amazing images of Aeschylus. Hermes, addressing Prometheus, says: "And know that your sufferings will end only when some god agrees to descend instead of you into the dark kingdom of Hades, into the gloomy abysses of Tartarus." in paradise he knew the sweetness of God's love, and therefore, when he was expelled from paradise for sin and deprived of God's love, he suffered bitterly and wept with a great groan... He did not regret the beauty of paradise so much as that he had lost the love of God, which insatiably draws the soul to God at every moment. Thus, every soul that has come to know God by the Holy Spirit, but then loses grace, experiences Adam's torment... (Adam) wept bitterly, and the earth was not dear to him. He yearned for God and said: "My soul misses the Lord, and I seek Him with tears. How can I not seek Him?.. I cannot forget Him even for a minute, and my soul yearns for Him..." Great was Adam's sorrow after his expulsion from Paradise, but when he saw his son Abel killed by his brother Cain, his grief became even greater, and his soul was tormented, and he wept, and thought: "From me shall come forth and multiply nations, and all shall suffer, and live in enmity, and kill one another." And this sorrow of his was as great as the sea, and only he whose soul has come to know the Lord can understand it... Adam lost the earthly paradise and wept for it: "Paradise is mine, paradise, my beautiful paradise." But the Lord, through His love on the cross, gave him another paradise, better than the previous one – in heaven, where the light of the Holy Trinity is. What shall we repay the Lord for His love for us?

Chapter VI: Christ

The New Adam