Chapters 1 -2

Chapter I, pp. 1-13.

The Gospel is a Greek word. Translated into Russian, it means "good news".

Good news! How to assess this?

Somewhere far, far away in a cold, inhospitable foreign land, perhaps in the harsh captivity of the enemy, a dear person is languishing. You don't know anything about him. Disappeared - as if he sank into the water. Where is he? What's wrong with him? Is he alive? Healthy? Perhaps he is impoverished, in need of everything... And there are cold, indifferent strangers all around... Nothing is known. The heart is languishing, yearning. At least one word: alive or not? No one knows, no one will say. Oh, what a melancholy! Lord, send a message!

And then one day they knocked on the door. Who's there? The postman has brought a letter! From whom? Good god... Is it? Yes, yes... On the back of the letter is a familiar cute handwriting: incorrect large letters, his handwriting. News from him. What does he write? You hurriedly tear open the envelope and read with bated breath. Thank God! Everything is fine: he is alive, healthy, provided with everything, he is going to come to! Homeland... The heart is filled with grateful joy. God! How merciful Thou art Thou hast not forgotten, Thou hast not forsaken, Thou hast not rejected wretched prayer! How can we thank You, Creator?

That is the impression of the good news. But in personal life, this looks relatively weak.

Why is the Gospel called the Gospel? Why is it good news?

This is a message from the other world to a sinful earth. A message from God to a suffering man languishing in sin; the news of the possibility of rebirth to a new, pure life; the news of the bright happiness and joy of the future; the news that everything has already been done for this, that the Lord gave His Son for us. Man had waited so long, so passionately, so drearily for this news.

Listen, I will tell you a little about how people lived before the coming of the Saviour, how they languished and tensely waited for the news that would show them a new, bright path and a way out of the dirty swamp of vice and passion in which they floundered, and you will understand why they greeted this news with such enthusiastic joy, why they called it good, and why for man there was and could not be another. more joyful, more good news than the Gospel.

The whole world, before the time when the Saviour was to come, groaned in the iron grip of the Roman state. All the lands located around the Mediterranean Sea and constituting the then European civilized world were conquered by the Roman legions. (To speak of the life of mankind at that time is to speak almost exclusively of Rome.) This was the heyday of Roman power, the era of Augustus. Rome grew and became rich. All countries sent their gifts here either as tribute or as goods of trade. Countless treasures were collected here. It was not for nothing that Augustus liked to say that he had transformed Rome from stone to marble. The upper classes - patricians and equestrians - became incredibly rich. True, the people did not benefit from this, and under the golden tinsel of the external splendor of the empire there was a lot of grief, poverty and suffering. But, strange as it may seem, the upper rich classes did not feel happy either. Wealth did not save them from despondency, blues and sometimes from the anguish of despair. On the contrary, it contributed to this, giving rise to satiety with life. Let's see how the rich lived at that time.

Luxurious white marble villa... Elegant porticoes, between slender columns there are statues of emperors and gods made of snow-white Carrara marble chiseled by the best masters. Luxurious mosaic floors, on which intricate drawings are laid out of expensive colored stones. Almost in the middle of the large central room serving for receptions (the so-called atrium) is a square pool filled with crystal water, where goldfish splash. Its purpose is to spread a pleasant coolness when the air is hot with the heat of a southern day. On the walls there are gilding, fresco paintings, intricately intertwined ornaments of thick tones. In the family rooms there is valuable furniture, gilded bronze, the entire decoration bears the stamp of wealth and elegant taste. In the outbuildings there are a lot of trained slaves, always ready for the service of the master. So it is felt by everything that bliss, laziness and pleasure have built a solid nest for themselves here.

Amphitryon (the master of the house), a Roman horseman with a fat double chin, with an aquiline nose, clean-shaven, is preparing for an evening feast. In this house, feasts are held almost daily. A huge fortune acquired on farming allows you to spend colossal sums on this. He is now busy in his home library: he needs to choose a poem for the entertainment of his guests. Slowly and lazily, with his chubby hands, adorned with heavy gold rings with gemstones, he sorts through the cases where precious scrolls of violet and purple parchment are kept, on which the latest novelties of Roman poetry are copied in gold letters. His lips are disgustingly pursed: he does not like all this. Everything is so flat, uninteresting, so boring!