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.

It should be noted, however, that Western authors, devoting much space to the scientific and historical side of biblical studies, often do so to the detriment of the spiritual and theological understanding of the Word of God. The task of the Orthodox science of Holy Scripture is to organically combine the historical-critical approach with the approach to the Bible as Divine Revelation.

For various reasons, this two-pronged method, first used by B. A. Turaev and other Orthodox researchers, has not yet received proper development in Russian biblical studies. Therefore, the educational manuals compiled for theological schools are built without sufficient consideration of the tradition coming from B. A. Turaev.

Предлагаемый краткий курс преследует цель хотя бы отчасти восполнить этот пробел и тем самым воздать должное «первопроходцам русской библейской критики». Археологическое открытия, сделанные уже после смерти Тураева, в принципе не ослабили ценности его концепций; они сохраняют актуальность и сегодня.

Библейские руководства пишутся обычно в двух вариантах. Один — содержит последовательный анализ каждой св. книги, в том порядке, как они расположены в Писании. На русском языке последний по времени образчик такого метода изложения — переводной труд аббата Фульхрана Вигуру (1880; русск. незавершенный перевод: М., 1916). Другой способ изложения полагает в основу священную историю как канву для изучения библейских книг. В данной работе предпочтение отдано второму методу, т. к. он с большей наглядностью показывает действие Промысла в Домостроительстве нашего спасения.

Раздел I Введение

§1 Библия — Священная Книга Откровения и Завета

1. С первых дней существования Церкви, когда еще не было апостольских книг, Ветхий Завет прочно вошел в ее жизнь. Псалмы были первыми молитвами христиан, в библейских пророчествах раскрывалась для них искупительная тайна Мессии, духовный опыт ветхозаветных предтеч Богочеловека стал той почвой, на которой созидалось здание евангельской веры. В сокровищнице Слова Божия христианство постоянно черпало вдохновение и назидание. Не зная Ветхого Завета, трудно понять многие аспекты церковной жизни. Таинства, богослужение, религиозно-нравственные устои Церкви, ее богословие, взгляд на прошлое, настоящее и будущее — все это тесно связано с Ветхим Заветом.