This book is based on the conversations of the priest of the Moscow church of Sts. Cosmas and Damian in Shubin by Georgy Chistyakov, devoted to reflections on the synoptic Gospels — from Matthew, Mark and Luke. Using the method of comparative linguistic analysis of the ancient texts of the Gospels and their translations into modern languages, analyzing the texts in a broad cultural and historical context, the author helps us not only to see the world in which Jesus preached, but also to "perceive every line of Scripture as a call that He addresses to us." The book is addressed to a wide range of readers: church-going Christians, those who are just looking for a way to church, and those who consider themselves non-believers.

2008 ru FB Tools, FictionBook Editor Release 2.6 2008-11-16 http://tapirr.com/ekklesia/chistyakov/nadstrokami1.htm A217AAC4-4DEE-4EE6-B521-132C03C24C24 1.0 Moscow, Istina i Zhizn Publ., 1999. - 340 p. - ISBN 5-88403-031-2 UDC 2 BBK 86.3 425 © Chistyakov G.P., text, 1999. © Truth and Life, edition, 1999.

Priest Georgy Chistyakov

Above the lines of the New Testament

From the author

This book was born many years ago, as a cycle of reflections aloud on the lines of the New Testament. It is no longer possible to establish who was the first (probably someone from the staff of Truth and Life) to come up with this title—"above the lines" and not "above the pages" of the New Testament. The title turned out to be ideal, because it was to individual lines of Scripture and reflections on them that those meetings were devoted, to which we gathered in the evenings in the Moscow Church of Sts. Cosmas and Damian, trying to listen together to what Christ tells us in the Gospel.

Of course, as a scientist, as a philologist and theologian, I prepared for each conversation by reading special literature, referring to serious scientific comments and a variety of works, sometimes unexpected. But then a conversation began, and it was built contrary to all the canons of a university lecture. The task was not to give a popular course on exegesis, even if it was based on modern research and included the latest discoveries of biblical scholars. No, it was different: to learn together to listen to every word of the Gospel, to learn to see behind every word the world in which Jesus preaches, and to accept every line of Scripture as a call that He addresses to us.

Oral conversations, turned into essays, were published in the journal "Truth and Life" since 1996, and then were once again revised and supplemented for a separate publication. There are a lot of elements of science in this book, but it has nothing to do with science. The book is devoted to what in the Middle Ages in Latin was called lectio divina, or the spiritual reading of Scripture. It is an attempt to learn how to read the Gospel in such a way that our personal prayer is born from reading, and from prayer grows a stable desire to respond in our real life to the call with which Jesus addresses us. Probably, neither my listeners, nor I, nor my friends, who then heroically helped me turn these conversations and essays into a book, have set and do not set any other tasks. We wanted to help the reader learn, opening the Gospel from any place, to immediately turn on, to be among those disciples who listen to the Teacher with glowing eyes, listening not just to remember everything He says, but to answer the words with which He addresses them, and, consequently, to us.

Sending the finished book to the printing house, I cannot but say special words of gratitude to Marina Sergeevna Fedorova, who was the first to come up with the idea of turning the texts of the lectures into written essays. I also thank all those who gathered in the evenings at Kosmodemyansky Church to take part in our conversations. This book would never have been born if it were not for the listeners. They forced me to prepare for each lecture, understanding it not merely as the time in which to speak about this or that chapter of the New Testament, but as an encounter with Christ, who preaches among us and whose preaching sometimes needs this or that phrase to be singled out, and this or that expression to be explained and interpreted.

Part I

The Four Gospels