‹p›1.0 – file creation‹/p›

Lopukhin

Lopukhin's explanatory Bible. OLD TESTAMENT.GENESIS

The Expository Bible

or a commentary on all the books of the Holy Scriptures

Old and New Testaments.

Entity.

Revised and expanded edition, 2003

The concept of the Bible.

With the word "Bible" we associate the idea of one large book containing all the Holy Scriptures of both the Old and New Testaments. But, in essence, it is not one book, but a whole collection of sacred books, strictly defined by the Church, written at different times, in different places and with different purposes, and belonging either to the divinely inspired (canonical books) or only to God-enlightened men (non-canonical books).

It is taken from the Greek from the word βίβλος, which means "book," and is used in the plural form τά βιβλία from unities, the diminutive τό βιβλίον, meaning "a small book," "a book." In view of this, St. John Chrysostom interprets this word as one collective concept: "The Bible," he says, "are many books that form one single one."

This collective designation of Holy Scripture by one collective name undoubtedly existed already in the Old Testament period. Thus, in its original Greek form, τά βιβλία is found in the First Book of Maccabees (1 Maccabees 12:9), and the corresponding Hebrew translation is given by the Prophet Daniel (Dan. 9:2), where the works of Holy Scripture are designated by the term "Hassefarim" (םירפםה), which means "books," or rather, certain certain books, since they are accompanied by a certain term – "ha". [1]

In the period of New Testament history, at least in its early days, we do not yet find the word "Bible," but we encounter a number of its synonyms, of which the following are the most used: "Scripture" (ή γραφή Lk. 4:21; Jn. 20:9; Acts 13:32; Gal. 3:22), "Scriptures" (αί γραφαί – Matt. 21:41; Lk. 24:32; Jn. 5:39; 2 Pet. 3:16), "Holy Scriptures" (γραφαί άγίαι – Rom. 1:2), "The Holy Scriptures" (τά ίερά γράμματα – 2 Tim. 3:15).

But already among the Apostolic Fathers, along with the names of the Holy Scriptures just enumerated, the term τά βιβλία began to be encountered. [2] However, it came into general use only from the time of the famous collector and interpreter of the Holy Scriptures – Origen (3rd century) and especially St. John Chrysostom (4th century).