Isagogy

Volume 1. Introduction. Sacred Writing before the Age of the Prophet-Writers

From the compiler

The knowledge of the Word of God, sealed in the Holy Scriptures, is the most important aspect of Christian life and theology. The works of the Church Fathers and Orthodox ascetics have created over the centuries an extensive spiritual commentary on the Bible, which was closely connected with the daily work of a Christian, his religious and moral existence in the world. The Word of Eternal Life, which is heard daily in Orthodox churches, gives the faithful "an indication of the way to the Kingdom of God" (St. Innocent of Moscow).

Addressing the students of the theological school, His Holiness Patriarch Pimen said: "I fervently wish you to direct all your efforts to the assimilation of the sciences taught in the seminary, and especially the Holy Scriptures, which are the primary source of theological education (sect. A. M.). Remember that without knowledge of the Bible and without assimilation of its spirit, pastoral counseling cannot be effective. Therefore, make reading the Bible and meditating on it the rule of your whole life. And then this Holy Book will reveal to the pastor everything necessary for the affirmation of our faith and for the Christian education of the flock" (Pimen, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, Words, Speeches, Epistles, Appeals, Moscow, 1977, p.375). These words of the First Hierarch should be used as the basis for our study of the Bible.

Like church historiography, liturgics, canonics and other theological disciplines, biblical studies since the time of Origen and Bl. Jerome makes extensive use of auxiliary data from various branches of knowledge: archaeology, philology, and ancient source studies. But before the world of the ancient East was rediscovered, against which sacred history took place, this scholarly commentary on the Bible was based on a rather scant amount of material. Over the past century and a half, numerous finds of Oriental monuments and the deciphering of ancient texts have made a considerable contribution to the solution of historical, textual and isagogic problems important for the understanding and interpretation of the Old Testament. In particular, new light has been shed on the dating and authorship of parts and books of Scripture. This, of course, did not concern the very divine inspiration of the canonical text, the belief in which does not depend on certain scientific conclusions.

Fundamentalist Protestants and theologians of the Roman Catholic Church at first reacted negatively to the use of methods of historical-critical exegesis. In the epistles of the Pontifical Biblical Commission of the first years of this century, an attempt was made to defend the isagogy in the form in which it existed before the eighteenth century.

In Russian Orthodox Biblical studies, this question was considered, but a single church-wide judgment was not proposed. However, a number of eminent Orthodox historians and theologians have adopted historical-critical methods and conclusions. Among them were Prof. S. N. Trubetskoy, Prof. I. D. Andreev of the Moscow Theological Academy, Prof. N. M. Drozdov of the Kiev Theological Academy, A. Elchaninov (later a priest), who, in collaboration with Fr. P. Florensky created a short course in the history of religion, in which the theme of St. The Scriptures was presented from the point of view of the new achievements of biblical scholars.

The leading place in these studies belongs to Academician Boris Alexandrovich Turaev (1868–1920). Turaev was a brilliant representative of Russian church history. He lectured at a theological school, collaborated in the journal Bogoslovsky Vestnik, and was a member of the Local Council of the Russian Orthodox Church in 1917-1918. During his short life, Turaev gained a reputation as a world-renowned scientist who combined a deep devotion to Orthodoxy with a genuinely scientific approach to the issues he studied. His legacy includes two hundred books and articles (not counting four hundred notes in the periodicals).

An orientalist, philologist, and historian of the Church, Turaev did especially much for the study of Coptic and Ethiopian Christianity. The result of his work was the two-volume "History of the Ancient East"[1]. In this book, Turaev devoted several sections to the Old Testament theme. Using the results of the biblical scholarship of the time, he was far ahead of the Catholic exegetes, who were bound by the decisions of the Bible Commission. Only 23 years after the death of B. A. Turaev in Rome was published the encyclical "Divina Afflante Spiritu" (Divine Inspiration of the Spirit), which opened the way for biblical scholars and theologians to assimilate and apply the conclusions of the Old Testament science.

The tradition coming from B. A. Turaev was continued by the theologian of the Russian Orthodox Church Boris Ivanovich Sauvé, who formulated the principles of this tradition at the First Congress of Orthodox Theologians in Athens (1936). Other Russian biblical scholars (Prof. A. V. Kartashev, Protopresbyter A. Knyazev) worked in the same direction. Their attitudes also found a positive response among the biblical scholars of the Greek Orthodox Church.

At the present time, these conclusions and methods have received the rights of citizenship in Catholic theology as well: and not only in special works, but also in seminary courses, in catechetical and popular literature.