The book by Archpriest Alexander Sorokin "Christ and the Church in the New Testament. Introduction to the Holy Scriptures of the New Testament. A Course of Lectures" was published by the Publishing House of the Krutitsy Metochion together with the Synodal Department for Youth Affairs of the Moscow Patriarchate (with the blessing of the chairman of the Department, Archbishop Alexander of Kostroma and Galich) and the Society of Lovers of Church History. The book is a course of lectures on the Introduction to the Holy Scriptures of the New Testament, read by the author since 1996 at the St. Petersburg Institute of Theology and Philosophy. The book describes in detail the history of the writing of the Holy Books of the New Testament – the Gospels, the Book of the Acts of the Holy Apostles, the Apostolic Epistles and the Apocalypse. The publication is dictated by the lack of systematic introductory manuals, which would be compiled taking into account both the generally accepted achievements of modern biblical studies and, to no lesser extent, the Orthodox Church Tradition.

History of Christianity, Orthodoxy ru Tatyana Trushova If you found an error - write to e-mail saphyana@inbox.ru ExportToFB21 06.04.2011 OOoFBTools-2011-4-6-14-32-36-363 1.0 Christ and the Church in the New Testament. Introduction to the Holy Scriptures of the New Testament. Course of lectures Krutitsy Metochion Publishing House Moscow 2006

CHRIST AND THE CHURCH IN THE NEW TESTAMENT

Introduction to the Holy Scriptures of the New Testament A Course of Lectures at the Institute of Theology and Philosophy

Introduction

§ 16. Three Starting Points Suggested by Church Tradition

The liturgical annual cycle of readings of the Holy Scriptures of the New Testament at the Divine Liturgy in the Orthodox Church begins on Pascha, the feast of the Resurrection of Christ. The Prologue of the Gospel of John (John 1:1-17[1]) is read as the Paschal Gospel reading, and the first verses of the Book of the Acts of the Holy Apostles (Acts 1:1-8) are also read as the Paschal Gospel reading. At the same time, neither the Prologue nor the beginning of the Acts are stories or direct testimonies about the Resurrection of Jesus or even the appearances of the Risen One (as, for example, the last chapters of any of the canonical Gospels[2]). At the same time, what is discussed in the Prologue and in Acts has a close and direct, although not obvious at first glance, relationship to Christ's Resurrection[3].

To begin our acquaintance with the New Testament, it is interesting to consider the relationship between these three, seemingly different themes: the Resurrection of Jesus Christ (the meaning of the feast of Easter), the beginning of the history of the Church (the theme of the Book of Acts) and the Incarnation of God (the theme of the Prologue). Seeing these three topics in their close connection, we get, figuratively speaking, three points that "set the plane" of our upcoming course.

1. Pascha of the Resurrection of Christ

So, what happened when Christ was resurrected, and why is His Resurrection so fundamental? To begin with, let's briefly reconstruct history.