Introduction

On the Necessity and Benefits of Studying the Holy Scriptures. St. Seraphim of Sarov said that it is of great benefit for a person to read the entire Bible at least once intelligently. So let us not neglect this advice of the monk. Unfortunately, experience shows that very many modern Orthodox people consider the reading of the Old Testament to be completely unnecessary, useless, and, in comparison with numerous pamphlets of pious content, consider it a waste of time. Although theoretically, probably, each of you imagines that this is not the case and that the commandment to study and delve into the Holy Scriptures has been handed down to us from the Savior Himself, the Apostles and the Holy Fathers. For you and me, it is first of all a witness to Christ, a witness to God. And if we try even a little to keep the commandment of God: "And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might" (Deuteronomy 6:5); "this is the first and greatest commandment" (Matt. 22:37-38), then, probably, the Holy Scriptures, as a book about Him Whom we have loved with all our heart, with all our mind, with all our strength, should be dearer to us than any other book. We also call Holy Scripture Divine Revelation, since it contains what God was pleased to reveal to us about Himself, about His action in the world, about His relationship with man, so from this point of view, of course, the Word of God is extremely important for us.

In fact, our entire course will be based on this first commandment, and if I manage to instill in you even a little love for reading the Bible, I will be very happy and will consider my goal achieved. To inspire you, I want to read you a little bit from the writings of the Holy Fathers. St. John Chrysostom in one of his sermons tells his listeners about how much attention they pay to mastering some secular crafts, taking care of their home, household, and then says: "Tell me, if I ask any of you present here, who can read one psalm or some passage from the Holy Scriptures? Of course, no one, and not only this is bad, but the fact that, not caring about spiritual things, you are faster than fire in satanic deeds: if anyone wishes to visit you about the devil's songs, about voluptuous melodies, you will find that many know them firmly and pronounce them with great pleasure. And how are they justified if you accuse them? They say that I am not a monk, but I have a wife and children, I take care of my home, and this is why all the harm comes out of it, that you consider the reading of the Holy Scriptures proper only for monks, while you yourselves have a much greater need for it. Whoever lives in the world and receives new ulcers every day is especially in need of healing, so to consider reading the Scriptures superfluous is much worse than not reading them – such a thought is satanic suggestion. Do you not hear what Paul said, that all these things are written for our instruction?" He goes on to say the following: "When you talk about worship, if you don't even have time to read the Scriptures at home, why don't you listen to them during the service? Listen and be horrified: the deacon stands from the face of all and, shouting loudly, says: "Let us hear" – and this repeatedly. This voice that he pronounces is the common voice of the Church, but no one listens. After it, the reader begins: "The reading of the prophecies of Isaiah" – and again no one listens, although the prophecy contains an inhuman teaching. Then he proclaims aloud to everyone: "This saith the Lord" – and no one hears either, but what I say: something terrible and terrible is read further, but even at the same time no one listens. And what do many people say against this? "Always," they say, "the same thing is read," but this is what especially destroys you. If you knew all this, how much more should you not neglect it. For even in spectacles it is always the same, but you do not know satiety in them. What do you dare to speak of the same thing, when you do not even know the names of the prophets? Are you not ashamed to say that you do not listen because you always read the same thing, when you do not even know the names of the writers you read, although you always listen to the same thing, for you yourself said that you read the same thing? If I were to say this to your condemnation, then you should have turned to another justification, and not to the one that serves to condemn you" [30, pp. 34-36]. "Let us not, beloved, neglect our salvation – all this is written for us for our instruction, in which the ends of the ages have reached. The great defense against sins is the reading of the Scriptures, and ignorance of the Scriptures is a great rapids, a deep abyss; The great destruction for salvation is not to know anything of the divine laws. This ignorance gave rise to heresies, it introduced a depraved life, it turned everything upside down, for it is impossible for one who is constantly diligently engaged in reading the Scriptures to remain without fruit" [30, pp. 93-94]. These are the persuasive and powerful words in which St. John Chrysostom addressed his listeners more than 1500 years ago. But since then, unfortunately, we have not made much progress.

In the lives of the saints we encounter the fact that some saints, being absolutely illiterate and never having studied anywhere, by the height of their podvig acquired that they knew the Scriptures by heart and always quoted it to the point. Let us recall, for example, the Life of St. Mary of Egypt; of the Egyptian desert dwellers – the Monk Patermuphius, the Monk Orus, of whom it is said that they received knowledge of the Holy Scriptures in a supernatural way. This is also a possible way.

St. John Chrysostom gives an explanation of it in his discourses on the Gospel of Matthew: "In truth, we should not have need of the help of the Scriptures, but should lead a life so pure that instead of books the grace of the Spirit would serve our souls, and so that both those written with ink and our hearts would be written with the Spirit, but as we rejected such grace, then we will use at least the second way" [29, vol. 7, book 1, p. 5].

The same saint, objecting to the words of his listeners that they sometimes read the Scriptures, but could not understand anything in them, says the following: "Let us not, I beseech you, neglect the reading of the Scriptures, but whether we understand what is contained in them or not, in any case, let us turn to them as often as possible. Constant exercise in reading imprints indelibly in the memory what we have read, and often, what we could not understand today when reading, we suddenly understand when we start reading tomorrow, because the loving God invisibly enlightens our mind." Such statements are often repeated in many Holy Fathers that God's zeal for the study of Holy Scripture, dissolved by humility, is always rewarded by the enlightenment of his mind.

1, c. 285]. See what spiritual blessings can be vouchsafed if you diligently study our subject.

St. John of the Ladder speaks of the same thing: "The soul, which during the day is constantly learning the word of God, usually exercises itself in the same thing even in sleep, for this second is the true reward for the first work, for to drive away spirits and evil dreams" (Ladder 20: 20) [46].

The Holy Fathers have warned us that the study of Holy Scripture cannot be reduced to a purely mechanical re-reading of it, cannot be completely successful, even if we read the corresponding interpretations. A true understanding of the Scriptures lends itself only to the person who by his life tries to fulfill what he encounters in the Scriptures. But even for this he must ask for help from God, "for," in the words of Blessed Theodoret, "wisdom and prudence are truly needed both for the knowledge and understanding of the words of God, and for their fulfillment and observance. It is impossible to understand them for those who have not received the illumination from the Spirit of God, and to preserve them for those who do not use help from above" [74: vol. 29, p. 270].

Bishop Theodore Pozdeevsky, rector of the Moscow Theological Academy, in his speech at a moleben before the beginning of the school year (1912) said: "For if we, too, looked upon the word of God not as a set of truths revealed in the interests of human curiosity alone, but as a revelation of the highest truths of a God-like life, as a revelation of the laws of the moral world order, then it goes without saying that the assimilation and understanding of these truths would be accomplished in a different way. than usual. After all, it is no secret for each of us that when we begin to delve deeper into the meaning of the words of Holy Scripture, then these attempts of ours remain almost completely in vain, and as if some kind of veil prevents us from understanding the hidden meaning of the Scriptures with pure eyes. And this, of course, is because "the law (of God) is spiritual," and man is "carnal, sold under sin" (Romans 7:14), and never, of course, can a person who lives according to the law of the flesh understand the laws of spiritual life, a life like God, for in order to know these laws, one must approach them in life itself and experience them. That is why St. Symeon the New Theologian, discussing the ways of understanding the Word of God, compares it to a locked chest with treasures. This chest can be carried uselessly on your shoulders and you will not be able to reach the treasures stored in it if you do not have the key to it. The key to the spiritual treasure contained in the Word of God is one – moral purity and holiness; that is why the Word of God, which contains all the knowledge of God, must be studied not so much with the mind as with a pure heart, capable of seeing God Himself" [71, pp. 348-349].

I will quote the words of St. Symeon the New Theologian, to which His Grace Theodore refers. St. Simeon compares the Holy Scriptures to a kind of strong chest, inside of which a treasure is locked. And he says that "just as if a man lifts this chest on his shoulders, cannot by this alone see the treasure that is within him, so if a man reads and even memorizes all the Divine Scriptures, and can read them all as one psalm, he cannot by this alone comprehend the grace of the Holy Spirit, which is hidden in them; for neither that which is inside the chest can be revealed by means of the chest itself, nor that which is hidden in the Divine Scriptures can be revealed by means of the writings themselves" [66, vol. 1, p. 443]. He says that such a person who has learned the Scriptures even by heart, but mechanically, is like one who carries this chest on his shoulders. The most he can achieve is to get himself some kind of back disease from diligence, and he will not be able to get treasure in this way. But the fulfillment of the commandments, the fulfillment of virtues is much more useful here, he says that "from the commandment are born virtues, and from virtues the sacraments hidden in the letter of the Scriptures are made manifest. Then they succeed in virtue when they keep the commandments, and, again, when they keep the commandments when they are zealous for virtue – and from this the door of knowledge is already opened, that is, those mysteries which are hidden in the divine Scriptures." So, you see, it turns out that you need to be zealous for reading the Holy Scriptures, you need to try to know them properly, but the real benefit can be obtained if you try to apply in your life what is revealed.

General information about the Holy Scriptures. From the course of the Catechism, you remember that the Holy Scriptures are "books written by the Spirit of God through people sanctified by God, called prophets and apostles. Usually these books are called the Bible." Depending on the time of writing, the books of the Holy Scriptures are divided into two sections: "Those Holy Books that were written before the Nativity of Christ are called the Books of the Old Testament, and those that were written after the Nativity of Christ are called the books of the New Testament."

In total, there are 50 books in the Holy Scriptures of the Old Testament in our editions of the Bible, of which 39 books are canonical and 11 are non-canonical. It is necessary to say right away what this is, since in the course of the New Testament you have not come across the concept of non-canonical New Testament books – all the books that are contained in the corpus of the Holy Scriptures of the New Testament are canonical. If we open the Holy Scriptures of the Old Testament, we will find there also 11 non-canonical books, such as the Books of the Wisdom of Solomon and Jesus, the son of Sirach; The Epistle of Jeremiah, the Books of Maccabees, etc.[1]