And no sooner had she uttered these words than two angels appeared beside me; in one of them for some reason I recognized my Guardian Angel, and the other was unknown to me" (An Incredible for Many, but True Incident, Ch.17).

Who wrote the Bible? Where did it come from?

Priest Athanasius Gumerov, a monk of Sretensky Monastery  

The Bible consists of the holy books of the Old and New Testaments. These texts were written by divinely inspired writers under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. They contain divine revelations about God, the world, and our salvation. The authors of the biblical texts were holy people – prophets and apostles. Through them, God gradually (as mankind matured) revealed truths. The greatest of them is about the Savior of the world, Jesus Christ. He is the spiritual heart of the Bible. His incarnation, death on the cross for our sins and Resurrection are the main events of all human history. The Old Testament books contain prophecies about this, and the Holy Gospel and other New Testament texts tell about their fulfillment.

The books of the Old Testament as canonical sacred texts were collected into a single corpus in the middle of the fifth century B.C. by the holy righteous men: Ezra, Nehemiah, Malachi, and others.

The Bible is given to all mankind. Its reading should begin with the Gospel, and then turn to the Acts of the Apostles and the Epistles. Only after understanding the New Testament books, one should proceed to the Old Testament books. Then the meaning of prophecies, types and symbols will be understood. In order to receive the Word of God undistortedly, it is useful to turn to the interpretations of the Holy Fathers or researchers who rely on their heritage.

Why in Est. In Acts 6:1, the name of the Lord is not in square brackets as usual?

Hieromonk Job (Gumerov): The verse quoted in the letter refers to the canonical part of the book of Esther. In the Hebrew text there is the pronoun he (hu). O.N. Steinberg (Hebrew and Chaldean Etymological Dictionary for the Books of the Old Testament) considers this word as a derivative of the word hava: "according to the property of the language, that which neither I nor you denote only indicatively: being in general, that". Based on the meaning of the word "being" and the meaning of the verse (... He took sleep away from the king...) the Hebrew translators in the Greek manuscript put Kyrios (Lord).

Are the Biblical Magi Caspar, Melchior and Belshazzar canonized?

Hieromonk Job (Gumerov)  

In the Orthodox Church, there was no special glorification of the Magi who brought gifts to the Infant Jesus, but their piety and love for the Divine Infant command the highest respect. In the Minology of Basil II (976-1025), on the day of the feast of the Nativity of Christ, an event is mentioned: the adoration of the Magi. For Western Christians, on the feast of the Epiphany (January 6 according to the Gregorian calendar), the central event is the commemoration of the appearance of the star to the Eastern magi or kings (according to European belief, they were kings) at the time of the birth of Jesus Christ. Therefore, the feast of the Epiphany is also called Festum magorum (feast of the Magi), or Festum regum (feast of kings). The day of the Baptism of the Lord (Baptisma Christi) is celebrated on the first Sunday after the feast of the Epiphany and completes the Christmas cycle. The names of the Magi (Caspar, Melchior, and Belshazzar) are first found in Bede the Venerable (672 or 673 – May 27, 735).

About the wise men who came to worship the Divine Infant is known for certain only from the Holy Gospel: entering the house, they saw the Infant with Mary, His Mother, and, falling down, they worshipped Him; and having opened their treasures, they brought Him gifts: gold, frankincense, and myrrh (Matt. 2:11). They came from the east (2:1). The Greek word magoy used in the text refers to Persian or Babylonian priests, sages, and astrologers. It is impossible to say with certainty from which country the Magi came: most likely, from Persia or Babylonia. In these countries, the messianic expectations of the Jews were known thanks to the prophet Daniel, whose book was well known to both the Persians and the Chaldeans.

Gradually, a great literary tradition developed on the theme of the Magi. Researchers are faced with an insurmountable difficulty: to separate the historical elements of this tradition from the legendary ones. According to legend, they later became Christians. They were baptized by the holy Apostle Thomas, who preached the gospel in Parthia and India. They became preachers of the Gospel. Western traditions even speak of their ordination by the Holy Apostle Thomas to the episcopacy. It is also said that their relics were found by St. Empress Helena and placed in Constantinople. Later, under the Milanese bishop Eustorgius in the 5th century, they would have been transferred to Milan. Currently, the golden reliquary with their relics is in the Cologne Cathedral.

The gifts that the Magi brought to the Infant Jesus were carefully preserved by the Mother of God. Before Her blessed Dormition, she handed them over to the Church of Jerusalem. They stayed there until the year 400. Later, the Byzantine Emperor Arcadius transferred them to Constantinople and placed them in the Church of St. Sofia. In 1453, Constantinople fell. In 1470, the daughter of the Serbian ruler Georgi Branković, Maria (Maro), who was the widow of the Turkish Sultan Murat (Murad) II (1404–1451), gave the Gifts of the Magi to the monastery of St. Paul, which was Serbian until 1744. Despite the fact that she was the wife of the sultan, she did not convert to Islam and remained a Christian until the end of her life. At the place where the kneeling Mary stood, a cross was erected, called the Tsaritsyn Cross. In the chapel standing next to it, the meeting of the monks with these great shrines is depicted. There is a legend that the pious Mary herself wanted to bring the Gifts of the Magi to the monastery, but at the wall of the monastery, as once Princess Placidia in the monastery of Vatopedi, a heavenly voice stopped her and reminded her that the Athonite rule forbids women to enter the monastery.