2.2. The Inspiration of Holy Scripture

A distinctive feature of the books of Holy Scripture is their divine inspiration (2 Tim. 3:16), that is, the only true author of these books is God Himself.

It is necessary to say a few words about the misunderstanding of inspiration. Sometimes inspiration is understood in a purely negative way. The work of writing sacred books is completely assimilated to man, and the action of the Holy Spirit is limited only by the fact that He is guaranteed to protect the author from possible heretical errors. In fact, such an understanding leads to the denial of inspiration as such, for in terms of their content, the sacred books turn out to be purely human works, and the activity of the Holy Spirit is reduced to a kind of spiritual censorship that "does not allow through" any false opinions.

The opposite extreme is expressed in the denial of all freedom for man in general, and the authors of the sacred books are regarded as some kind of automatons, mechanically carrying out the will of the Deity who possesses them completely. Of course, God inspires the authors of sacred books, puts into their consciousness a certain dogmatic and moral content, but the personal independence of man is not eliminated. The creation of sacred books is a creative process that requires intense intellectual work from a person. To be convinced of this, it is enough to turn to the first verses of the Gospel of Luke (Luke 1:1-3). The biblical books vary considerably in style and language, conveying the vivid individual characteristics of their authors.

It seems almost impossible to give an exhaustive definition of inspiration. Let's try to explain the meaning of this concept with the help of an example. Why do we call the books of Holy Scripture divinely inspired, while other writings worthy of respect, for example, the works of Sts. Fathers or hymnographic works, we deny this right, although often they were also created by people filled with the Holy Spirit? The difference between the books of the Holy Scriptures and other works can be expressed in part through such concepts as authorship and co-authorship. In the works of Sts. In the liturgical hymns, man acts as the author, the subject of creativity, and God only inspires man, helps him. In the case of the creation of sacred books, the true author is God Himself, He determines their dogmatic and moral content, and man only embodies, though not automatically, but creatively, God's plan, acting as a co-author.

When studying the Holy Scriptures, it is necessary to keep in mind that the Holy Scriptures have two sides – the Divine and the human. The divine side consists in the fact that the Holy Scriptures contain the God-revealed Truth. The human side is that this eternal, unchanging Truth is expressed in the language of people of a certain epoch, who belonged to a certain culture, therefore the biblical books reflect the cosmological, natural-scientific, historical ideas of people of the epoch of their creation. Saying that the Holy Scriptures contain the unchangeable God-revealed Truth, it is necessary to clearly understand that this statement refers only to religious and moral truths, but does not at all mean the infallibility of the Bible from the point of view of the natural and historical sciences.

2.3. The Canon of the Books of the Holy Scriptures

The word "canon (κάνονος)" in Greek literally means "reed". In ancient times, measuring sticks were made from reeds, which were used in land surveying. Over time, this word began to denote a norm, measure, standard. In the Church, canons are the rules that regulate the life of a church organization [46]. As applied to the Holy Scriptures, the canon is a list of books officially accepted by the Church that the Church recognizes as divinely inspired. These books are called canonical.

«… The Church, guided by the Holy Spirit, has singled out these books in a completely separate collection, which she has approved and offered to the faithful as books that contain a model of true faith and piety, suitable for all times. New books cannot be added to the canon of Holy Scripture, nor can anything be subtracted from it..." [47].