Old Testament- the first and more ancient of the two parts of the Christian Bible, along with the New Testament. The Old Testament is Scripture common to Judaism and Christianity. It is believed that the Old Testament was written from the 13th to the 1st century. BC NS. Most of the books of the Old Testament are written in Hebrew, but some are written in Aramaic. This fact is associated with a change in the political situation.

Read the Old Testament online for free.

Historical books

Teaching books

Books of prophecy

The texts of the Old Testament were widely disseminated after their translation into ancient Greek. This translation dates back to the 1st century and is called the Septuagint. The Septugiant was adopted by Christians and played a key role in the spread of Christianity and the establishment of the Christian canon.

The name "Old Testament" is a tracing paper from ancient Greek. In the biblical world, the word "covenant" meant a solemn agreement of the parties, which was accompanied by an oath. According to the Christian tradition, the division of the Bible into the Old and New Testaments is based on the lines from the Book of the Prophet Jeremiah:

"The days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah."

Old Testament - Authorship.

The books of the Old Testament were created by dozens of authors over the centuries. Most of the books traditionally bear the names of their authors, but most modern Bible scholars agree that authorship was attributed much later and that in fact the bulk of the books of the Old Testament were written by anonymous authors.

Fortunately, the text of the Old Testament has reached it in many copies. These are both original texts in Hebrew and Aramaic, and numerous translations:

• Septuagint(translation into ancient Greek, made in Alexandria in the III-I centuries BC),
• Targums- translation into Aramaic,
• Peshitta- a translation into Syriac made among early Christians in the 2nd century A.D. NS.
• Vulgate- a translation into Latin made by Jerome in the 5th century A.D. NS.,

The Qumran manuscripts are considered the oldest (incomplete) source of the Old Testament.

The Septuagint became the basis for the Church Slavonic translations of the Old Testament - the Gennady, Ostrog and Elizabethan Bibles. But the modern translations of the Bible into Russian - the Synodal and the translation of the Russian Bible Society were made on the basis of the Masoretic text.

Features of the texts of the Old Testament.

The texts of the Old Testament are considered divinely inspired. The inspiration of the books of the Old Testament is recognized in the New Testament, a similar point of view is shared by early Christian historians and theologians.

Canons of the Old Testament.

Today there are 3 canons of the Old Testament, slightly differing in composition.

1. Tanakh - Jewish canon;
2. Septuagint - Christian canon;
3. Protestant Canon dating back to the 16th century.

The canon of the Old Testament was formed in two stages:

1. Formation in the Jewish environment,
2. Formation in a Christian environment.

Jewish canon divided into 3 parts:

1. Torah (Law),
2. Neviim (Prophets),
3. Ktuvim (Scriptures).

Alexandrian canon differs from the Jewish one in the composition and arrangement of the books, as well as in the content of individual texts. This fact is explained by the fact that the Alexandrian canon is based not on the Tanakh, but on the proto-Masoretic version. It is also possible that some of the test differences are due to Christian reinterpretation of the original texts.

Structure of the Alexandrian Canon:

1. Legislative books,
2. History books,
3. Teaching books,
4. Prophetic books.

From the point of view of the Orthodox Church, the Old Testament consists of 39 canonical books, while the Catholic Church recognizes 46 books as canonical.

Protestant Canon appeared as a result of the revision of the authority of the Bible books by Martin Luther and Jacob van Lisveldt.

Why read the Old Testament?

You can read the Old Testament for a variety of purposes. For believers, this is a sacred, sacred text, for the rest the Old Testament can become a source of unexpected truths, a reason for philosophical reasoning. The Old Testament can be read along with the Iliad and Odyssey as a great monument of ancient literature.

Philosophical and ethical ideas in the Old Testament are rich and varied. We are talking about the destruction of false moral values, and about the love of truth, and about the concepts of infinity and limit. In the Old Testament, a peculiar view of cosmology is set forth, issues of personal identification, issues of marriage and family are discussed.

Reading the Old Testament, you will talk about both everyday issues and global issues. On our site you can read the Old Testament online for free. We also provided the texts with various illustrations on the Old Testament plots in order to make the reading even more enjoyable and informative.

The Bible ("book, composition") is a collection of the sacred texts of Christians, consisting of many parts, united in the Old Testament and the New Testament. The Bible has a clear distinction: before and after the birth of Jesus Christ. Before birth, this is the Old Testament, after birth, it is the New Testament. The New Testament is called the Gospel.

The Bible is a book containing the scriptures of the Jewish and Christian religions. The Hebrew Bible, a collection of Hebrew sacred texts, is also included in the Christian Bible, forming its first part - the Old Testament. Both Christians and Jews regard it as a record of the covenant (covenant) made by God with man and revealed to Moses on Mount Sinai. Christians believe that Jesus Christ announced the new Covenant, which is the fulfillment of the Covenant given in Revelation to Moses, but at the same time replaces it. Therefore, books describing the activities of Jesus and his disciples are called the New Testament. The New Testament is the second part of the Christian Bible.

The word "bible" is of ancient Greek origin. In the language of the ancient Greeks, "byblos" meant "books." In our time, we call this word one specific book, consisting of several dozen separate religious works. The Bible is a book of over a thousand pages. The Bible is divided into two parts: the Old Testament and the New Testament.

The Old Testament, which tells about the participation of God in the life of the Jewish people before the coming of Jesus Christ.

The New Testament, which gives information about the life and teaching of Christ in all His truth and beauty. God through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ gave people salvation - this is the main teaching of Christianity. Although only the first four books of the New Testament deal directly with the life of Jesus, each of the 27 books seeks to interpret the meaning of Jesus or show how his teachings apply to the lives of believers in their own way.

Gospel (Greek - "good news") - the biography of Jesus Christ; books revered as sacred in Christianity, which tell about the divine nature of Jesus Christ, his birth, life, miracles, death, resurrection and ascension. The Gospels are part of the books of the New Testament.

Bible. New Testament. Gospel

Bible. Old Testament

The texts of the Books of Holy Scripture of the Old and New Testaments presented on this site are taken from the Synodal translation.

Prayer before reading the Holy Gospel

(prayer after the 11th kathisma)

Shine in our hearts, Human-loving Master, of Thy Imperishable Light of God-mind, and open our mental eyes, in Thy Gospel sermons understanding, put in us the fear of Thy blessed commandments, and fleshly lusts, all right, we will pass through spiritual life, all Thy pleasing and wise and effective. Thou art the enlightenment of our souls and bodies, Christ God, and we glorify Thee, with Thy Beginning Father, and the Most Holy and Good, and Thy Life-giving Spirit, now and ever, and forever and ever, amen.

“There are three ways to read a book,” writes one wise man, “you can read it in order to subject it to critical assessment; you can read, looking for comfort in it for your feelings and imagination, and, finally, you can read with your conscience. The former read to be judged, the latter to amuse themselves, and the latter to cultivate. The gospel, which has no equal among the books, must first be read only with a simple mind and conscience. Read this way, it will make your conscience tremble on every page before the good, before the lofty beautiful morality. "

“When reading the Gospel,” Bishop says. Ignatius (Brianchaninov) - do not seek pleasure, do not seek delight, do not seek brilliant thoughts: seek to see the infallibly holy Truth.
Do not be content with one fruitless reading of the Gospel; try to fulfill his commandments, read his deeds. This is the book of life, and one must read it with life.

Rule Regarding Reading the Word of God

The reader of the book must do the following:
1) I must not read many sheets and pages, for one who has read a lot cannot understand everything and keep in memory.
2) It is not enough to read and to argue a lot about what is being read, because this is how the read is better understood and deepens in memory, and our mind is enlightened.
3) See what is clear or incomprehensible from what is read in the book. When you understand what you are reading, it's good; and when you don’t understand, leave it and read on. The incomprehensible either from the next reading will be clarified, or by repeated reading, with the help of God, it will be clarified.
4) What the book teaches to evade, what it teaches to seek and do, about what you try to do in order to do it yourself. Avoid evil, and do good.
5) When you only sharpen your mind from the book, but you will not correct your will, then from reading the book you will be more evil than you were; even the most evil are learned and rational fools, rather than simple ignoramuses.
6) Remember that it is better to love in a Christian way than to understand high; it is better to live redly than to say redly: "the mind is swearing, but love creates."
7) What you yourself will learn with the help of God, teach both of them on occasion, so that the seed that is sown will grow and produce fruit. ”

2 But the earth was formless and empty, and darkness was over the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the water.

3 And God said, Let there be light. And there was light.

4 And God saw the light that it was good, and God separated the light from the darkness.

5 And God called the light day and the darkness night. And there was evening and there was morning, one day.

6 And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the water, and let it separate the water from the water. [And it was so.]

7 And God created the firmament, and separated the water that is under the firmament from the water that is above the firmament. And it became so.

8 And God called the firmament Heaven. [And God saw that this is good.] And there was evening and there was morning, the second day.

9 And God said, Let the water that is under the sky be gathered into one place, and let the dry land appear. And it became so. [And the water gathered under the sky to its places, and dry land appeared.]

10 And God called the dry land earth, and the gathering of the waters called seas. And God saw that this is OK.

11 And God said: Let the earth bring forth greenery, the herb yielding seed [after kind and after likeness her, and] a fruitful tree, bearing fruit after its kind, in which is its seed on the earth. And it became so.

12 And the earth brought forth grass, herb yielding seed after its kind [and after its likeness], and a tree [fruitful] bearing fruit, in which is its seed after its kind [on the earth]. And God saw that this is OK.

13 And there was evening and there was morning, the third day.

14 And God said: Let there be lights in the firmament of heaven [to illuminate the earth and] to separate day from night, and for signs and seasons and days and years;

15 And let them be for lights in the firmament of heaven, to give light on the earth. And it became so.

16 And God made two great luminaries: a greater one to rule the day, and a lesser one, to govern the night, and the stars;

17 And God set them up in the firmament of heaven to give light on the earth,

18 and rule day and night, and separate light from darkness. And God saw that this is OK.

19 And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day.

20 And God said: Let the water bring forth reptiles, the living soul; and let the birds fly over the earth, in the firmament of heaven. [And it was so.]

21 And God created great fish, and every living creature that creeps, which the waters brought forth, after their kind, and every bird of the bird after its kind. And God saw that this is OK.

22 And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.

23 And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day.

24 And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after its kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after its kind. And it became so.

25 And God made the beast of the earth after its kind, and cattle after its kind, and every thing that creeps on the earth after its kind. And God saw that this is OK.

26 And God said, Let us make man in our image [and] in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, [and over the beasts,] and over cattle, and over all the earth, and over all creeping things, reptiles on the ground.

27 And God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female he created them.

28 And God blessed them, and God said to them: Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea [and over the beasts] and over the birds of the air [and over every cattle, and over all the earth, ] and over every animal that creeps on the ground.

29 And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb that sows seed that is on all the earth, and every tree that has tree fruit that sows seed; - to you this will be for food;

30 But to all the beasts of the earth, and to all the birds of the air, and to everyone that creeps on the earth, in which there is a living soul, gave I have all herbal herbs for food. And it became so.

31 And God saw all that He had made, and, behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

1 Thus the heavens and the earth, and all their host, are perfect.

2 And on the seventh day God completed his works that he had done, and rested on the seventh day from all his works that he had done.

3 And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it, for on that day He rested from all His works, which God did and created.

4 This is the origin of heaven and earth, when they were created, at the time when the Lord God created earth and heaven,

5 and every bush of the field that was not yet on the earth, and every grass of the field that was not yet growing, for the Lord God did not send rain on the earth, and there was no man to till the earth,

6 but steam rose up from the earth and watered all the face of the earth.

7 And the Lord God made man out of the dust of the earth, and breathed into his face the breath of life, and man became a living soul.

8 And the Lord God planted a paradise in Eden in the east, and placed there the man he had made.

9 And the Lord God grew out of the earth every tree that is pleasing to the sight and good for food, and the tree of life in the midst of paradise, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

10 A river went out of Eden to water paradise; and then split into four rivers.

11 The name of one is Pison: it flows around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold;

12 and the gold of that land is good; there is bdellium and onyx stone.

13 The name of the second river is Gihon [Geon]: it flows around the entire land of Kush.

14 The name of the third river is Hiddekel [Tigris]: it flows in front of Assyria. The fourth river is the Euphrates.

15 And the Lord God took the man [whom he had made] and placed him in the garden of Eden, to cultivate it and keep it.

16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree in the garden you will eat,

17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you do not eat of it, for in the day you eat of it, you will die a death.

18 And the Lord God said, It is not good for the man to be alone; let us make him a helper corresponding to him.

19 The Lord God formed out of the earth all the animals of the field and all the birds of the air, and brought [them] to man, so that he might see what he would call them, and that as man called every living soul, so be its name.

20 And the man gave names to all the cattle, and to the birds of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for man there was not found a helper like him.

21 And the Lord God brought the man into a deep sleep; and when he fell asleep, he took one of his ribs, and covered that place with flesh.

22 And the Lord God made a woman out of a rib taken from a man, and brought her to a man.

23 And the man said, Behold, this is bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh; she will be called wife, for she was taken from her husband.

24 Therefore a man will leave his father and his mother, and cleave to his wife; and there will be [two] one flesh.

25 And they were both naked, Adam and his wife, and were not ashamed.

Bible (Old Testament)

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Bible (Old Testament).

1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

2 But the earth was formless and empty, and darkness was over the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the water.

3 And God said, Let there be light. And there was light.

4 And God saw the light that it was good, and God separated the light from the darkness.

5 And God called the light day and the darkness night. And there was evening and there was morning, one day.

6 And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the water, and let it separate the water from the water. [And it was so.]

7 And God created the firmament, and separated the water that is under the firmament from the water that is above the firmament. And it became so.

8 And God called the firmament Heaven. [And God saw that * it * was good.] And there was evening and there was morning: the second day.

9 And God said, Let the water that is under the sky be gathered into one place, and let the dry land appear. And it became so. [And the water gathered under the sky to its places, and dry land appeared.]

10 And God called the dry land earth, and the gathering of the waters called seas. And God saw that * this * is good.

11 And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, herb yielding seed [after its kind and after its likeness, * and] a fruit tree, yielding fruit after its kind, in which is its seed on the earth. And it became so.

12 And the earth brought forth grass, herb yielding seed after its kind [and after its likeness], and a tree [fruitful] bearing fruit, in which is its seed after its kind [on the earth]. And God saw that * this * is good.

13 And there was evening and there was morning, the third day.

14 And God said: Let there be lights in the firmament of heaven [to illuminate the earth and] to separate day from night, and for signs and seasons and days and years;

15 And let them be for lights in the firmament of heaven, to give light on the earth. And it became so.

16 And God made two great luminaries: a greater one to rule the day, and a lesser one, to govern the night, and the stars;

17 And God set them up in the firmament of heaven to give light on the earth,

18 and rule day and night, and separate light from darkness. And God saw that * this * is good.

19 And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day.

20 And God said: Let the water bring forth reptiles, the living soul; and let the birds fly over the earth, in the firmament of heaven. [And it was so.]

21 And God created great fish, and every living creature that creeps, which the waters brought forth, after their kind, and every bird of the bird after its kind. And God saw that * this * is good.

22 And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.

23 And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day.

24 And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after its kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after its kind. And it became so.

25 And God made the beast of the earth after its kind, and cattle after its kind, and every thing that creeps on the earth after its kind. And God saw that * this * is good.

26 And God said, Let us make man in our image [and] in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, [and over the beasts,] and over cattle, and over all the earth, and over all creeping things, reptiles on the ground.

27 And God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female he created them.

28 And God blessed them, and God said to them: Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea [and over the beasts] and over the birds of the air [and over every cattle, and over all the earth, ] and over every animal that creeps on the ground.

29 And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb that sows seed that is on all the earth, and every tree that has tree fruit that sows seed; - * this * will be for your food;

30 But to all the beasts of the earth, and to all the birds of the air, and to everyone that creeps on the earth, in which there is a living soul, * I have given * all herbal herbs for food. And it became so.

31 And God saw all that He had made, and, behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

1 Thus the heavens and the earth, and all their host, are perfect.

2 And on the seventh day God completed his works that he had done, and rested on the seventh day from all his works that he had done.

3 And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it, for on that day He rested from all His works, which God did and created.

4 This is the origin of heaven and earth, when they were created, at the time when the Lord God created earth and heaven,

5 and every bush of the field that was not yet on the earth, and every grass of the field that was not yet growing, for the Lord God did not send rain on the earth, and there was no man to till the earth,

6 but steam rose up from the earth and watered all the face of the earth.

7 And the Lord God made man out of the dust of the earth, and breathed into his face the breath of life, and man became a living soul.

8 And the Lord God planted a paradise in Eden in the east, and placed there the man he had made.

9 And the Lord God grew out of the earth every tree that is pleasing to the sight and good for food, and the tree of life in the midst of paradise, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

10 A river went out of Eden to water paradise; and then split into four rivers.

11 The name of one is Pison: it flows around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold;

12 and the gold of that land is good; there is bdellium and onyx stone.

13 The name of the second river is Gihon [Geon]: it flows around the entire land of Kush.

14 The name of the third river is Hiddekel [Tigris]: it flows in front of Assyria. The fourth river is the Euphrates.

15 And the Lord God took the man [whom he had made] and placed him in the garden of Eden, to cultivate it and keep it.

16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree in the garden you will eat,

17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you do not eat of it, for in the day you eat of it, you will die a death.

18 And the Lord God said, It is not good for the man to be alone; let us make him a helper corresponding to him.

19 The Lord God formed out of the earth all the animals of the field and all the birds of the air, and brought [them] to man, so that he might see what he would call them, and that as man called every living soul, so be its name.

20 And the man gave names to all the cattle, and to the birds of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for man there was not found a helper like him.

21 And the Lord God brought the man into a deep sleep; and when he fell asleep, he took one of his ribs, and covered that place with flesh.

22 And the Lord God made a woman out of a rib taken from a man, and brought her to a man.

23 And the man said, Behold, this is bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh; she will be called wife, for she was taken from her husband.

24 Therefore a man will leave his father and his mother, and cleave to his wife; and there will be [two] one flesh.

25 And they were both naked, Adam and his wife, and were not ashamed.

1 The serpent was more cunning than all the beasts of the field, which the Lord God made. And the serpent said to his wife, Has God truly said, Do not eat of any tree in paradise?

2 And the wife said to the serpent, We may eat the fruits of the trees,

3 only the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of paradise, God said, do not eat them or touch them, lest you die.

4 And the serpent said to his wife, No, you will not die,

5 But God knows that on the day you taste them, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like gods knowing good and evil.

6 And the woman saw that the tree is good for food, and that it is pleasing to the eyes and desirable, because it gives knowledge; And she took of its fruit and ate; And she gave also to her husband, and he ate.

7 And the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons.

9 And the Lord God called to Adam and said to him: [Adam,] where are you?

11 And [God] said, Who told you that you were naked? Have you not eaten from the tree from which I have forbidden you to eat?

12 Adam said, The wife you gave me, she gave me from the tree, and I ate.

13 And the Lord God said to his wife, Why have you done this? The wife said: The serpent deceived me, and I ate.

14 And the Lord God said to the serpent, Because you have done this, you are cursed before all cattle and before all the beasts of the field; you will walk in your belly, and you will eat dust all the days of your life;

15 And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed. it will hit you in the head, and you will sting it in the heel.

16 He said to his wife: By multiplying I will multiply your affliction in your pregnancy; in illness you will bear children; and your desire is for your husband, and he will rule over you.

17 And he said to Adam, Because you listened to your wife's voice and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, saying: Do not eat of it, cursed is the land for you; with sorrow you will eat of it all the days of your life;

18 thorns and thistles she shall bring forth for you; and you will eat the grass of the field;

19 In the sweat of your face you will eat bread, until you return to the ground from which you were taken, for dust you are, and to dust you will return.

20 And Adam called his wife's name Eve, for she became the mother of all living.

21 And the LORD God made for Adam and his wife coats of skins, and clothed them.

22 And the Lord God said: Behold, Adam has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil; and now, no matter how he stretched out his hand, and took also from the tree of life, and did not taste, and did not begin to live forever.

23 And the Lord God sent him out of the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken.

24 And he drove out Adam, and set in the east of the garden of Eden a cherubim with a fiery

Please tell us how old are the oldest copies of the New and Old Testament from the existing ones and where are they kept?

Hieromonk Job (Gumerov) answers:

When compiling a classification of biblical manuscripts, textual scholars take into account not only their content (Old Testament and New Testament texts), completeness (the entire biblical corpus, individual books and fragments), but also material (papyrus, parchment) and form (scroll, codex).

Ancient biblical manuscripts have come down to us on papyrus and parchment. To make papyrus, the inside of the fibrous reed was cut into strips. They fit snugly on a smooth board. Other strips smeared with glue were laid on the first layer at right angles. The resulting sheets, about 25 cm wide, were dried under a press in the sun. If the reed was young, the page was light yellow. From old reeds, papyrus was obtained dark yellow. Separate sheets were glued together. The result was a strip about 10 meters long. Although a (non-biblical) scroll is known to reach 41 meters, papyri more than ten meters in size were very inconvenient to use. Big books like Gospel of Luke and Acts of St. Apostles were placed in separate papyrus scrolls 9.5 - 9.8 m long. Rollers were attached to the left and right of the scroll. One of them was wrapped around the entire papyrus: texts in Hebrew and other Semitic languages ​​in the left, and in Greek and Roman - on the right rod. When reading, the scroll was unbent by the size of the page. As you read the page, the papyrus wound around another roller. For greater convenience, large scrolls were sometimes cut into several pieces. When the Savior entered the Nazareth synagogue, He was given the book of the prophet Isaiah. The Lord Jesus Christ opened the book and found a place. In the Greek text, literally: unrolling the book(Luke 4:17) and rolling up a book (4:20).

From the 2nd century BC. they began to use parchment for writing - a material made of animal skin treated in a special way. Parchment was used by the Jews to write sacred texts. For this purpose, only leather was used. clean(according to the law of Moses) animals. Leather books are mentioned by St. Apostle Paul (2 Tim. 4:13).

Parchment had advantages over papyrus. It was much stronger. The parchment strip could be written on both sides. These scrolls have a name opistograph(Greek opisthe - behind; grapho - I write). The vertical filaments on the back of the papyrus made the work of the scribes difficult. However, parchment had its drawbacks. It was easier to read the papyri: the polished surface of the parchment tired the eyes. The corners of the parchment sheets begin to wrinkle over time and become uneven.

The scroll was inconvenient to use. When reading, both hands were busy: one had to unwind the scroll, and the other to wind it as it was read. The scroll had another drawback. Since the biblical texts were used by early Christians for worship purposes, it was difficult to quickly find the necessary scripture. At the end of the 1st century. or at the beginning of the 2nd century. in early Christian communities began to use codes... Folded in the middle, papyrus sheets were folded together and then stitched together. These were the first books in our understanding. This form of papyrus made it possible for Christians to combine all four Gospels or all the Epistles of the Apostle Paul into one book, which the scroll did not allow, because it became huge in size. It was now easier for scribes to check manuscripts with autographs. “It is probably true that it was the Gentile Christians who began to use the form of the code of Scripture rather than the scrolls quite early on in order to deliberately distinguish between the practice of the Church and the practice of the synagogue, where traditionally the transmission of the Old Testament was preserved by means of scrolls.” (Bruce M. Metzger. Textology of the New Testament, M., 1996, p. 4).

Experts distinguish between: complete biblical manuscripts, including the entire text of the Holy Scriptures, the complete corpus of the Old Testament, the complete corpus of the New Testament, individual books and fragments of books.

Old Testament.

1. In Hebrew.

The oldest Old Testament manuscripts date from the 3rd century BC. We are talking about manuscripts found in the vicinity of Wadi Qumran near the Dead Sea. Out of over 400 texts, 175 are biblical. Among them are all the Old Testament books, except for the book of Esther. Most of them are incomplete. The oldest of the biblical texts turned out to be a copy Samuel's books (1-2 Books of Kings) (3rd century BC). The most valuable find are two manuscripts books of the prophet Isaiah(complete and incomplete). The entire book of the great prophet that has come down to us dates back to the 2nd century BC. Before its discovery in 1947 in cave no. 1, the oldest Hebrew text was Masoretic- AD 900 A comparison of the two documents separated in time by the 10th centuries has shown the exceptional reliability and accuracy with which the Hebrew sacred text was copied for 1000 years. The scholar G.L. Archer writes that copies of the books of the prophet Isaiah found in the Qumran cave “were word for word coinciding with our standard Hebrew Bible by more than 95 percent of the text. And 5 percent of the differences come down mainly to obvious misspellings and spellings of words. " A special storage facility has been set up in Jerusalem for the Dead Sea Scrolls. In a special compartment there are precious manuscripts of the prophet Isaiah. Why are the sacred biblical texts in Hebrew (apart from the Dead Sea Scrolls) very late (9th - 10th centuries A.D.)? Because the Jews had a custom for a long time not to use sacred books, which had become shabby and dilapidated, in worship and prayer reading. Old Testament piety did not allow this. The sacred books and objects were not indulged in fire. The so-called geniz(Heb. concealment, burial). There they were for centuries, gradually collapsing. After the geniza was filled, the objects and books collected in it were buried in Jewish cemeteries with ceremonial solemnity. The geniza were, apparently, at the Jerusalem temple, and later at the synagogues. Many old manuscripts were found in the Cairo geniza, located in the attic of the Ezra synagogue built in 882 in Fostat (Old Cairo). Geniza was discovered in 1896. Its materials (more than one hundred thousand sheets of documents) were transported to the University of Cambridge.

2. In Greek. The text of the Septuagint has come down to us in the form of codes.

Codex Sinai (Sinaiticus)... Dates back to the 4th century. It was found in 1859 in the monastery of St. Catherine (on Sinai) and donated to the Imperial Library in St. Petersburg. This Codex contains an almost complete text of the Old Testament (in Greek translation) and a complete text of the New Testament. In 1933, the Soviet government sold it to the British Museum for £ 100,000.

Vatican Code (Vaticanus). Dates to the middle of the 4th century. Belongs to the Vatican. The Codex contains the entire text of the Greek Bible (Septuagint). The text of the New Testament has losses.

Alexandrian Codex ( Alexandrinus). The text was written in 450 in Egypt. The manuscript contains the entire Old Testament and New Testament, starting with the 25th chapter of the Gospel of Matthew. The codex is kept in the British Museum.

New Testament.

New Testament textual criticism has made remarkable advances in the 20th century. There are currently more than 2,328 manuscripts or fragments of manuscripts in Greek language that have come down to us from the first three centuries of Christianity.

By 1972, the Spanish palaeographer Jose O'Callahan completed his work on the identification of 9 fragments from Cave 7 near the Dead Sea as New Testament passages: Mk. 4:28; 6:48, 52-53; 12:17; Acts. 27:38; Rom. 5: 11-12; 1 Tim. 3:16; 4: 1-3; 2 Pet. 1:15; Jac. 1: 23-24. Fragments from the Gospel of Mark are dated to A.D. 50. From Acts, the 60th year, and the rest of the scientist refers to the 70th year. Of these 9 passages, 1 Tim. 3:16: And unquestioningly - the great mystery of piety: God appeared in the flesh, justified Himself in the Spirit, showed Himself to the Angels, preached among the nations, accepted by faith in the world, ascended in glory(1 Tim. 3:16). These discoveries are invaluable in confirming the historicity of New Testament texts and refuting the false claims that distorted texts are used by Christians today.

The oldest manuscript of the New Testament (part of the Gospel of John: 18: 31-33, 37-38) is Fragment by J. Ryland(P52) - papyrus dating from the period 117 - 138, i.e. during the reign of Emperor Hadrian. A. Deissman admits the possibility of the appearance of this papyrus during the reign of Emperor Trajan (98 - 117). It is stored in Manchester.

Another oldest New Testament manuscript - Bodmer Papyrus(P75). The 102 surviving pages contain the texts of the Gospels of Luke and John. “The publishers of this document, Victor Martin and Rodolphe Kasser, determined that it was written between 175 and 225. This manuscript is thus the earliest copy of the Gospel of Luke and one of the earliest copies of the Gospel of John. "(Bruce M. Metzger. Textology of the New Testament, M., 1996, p. 39). This most valuable manuscript is in Geneva.

Chester Beatty Papyri(P45, P46, P47). Located in Dublin. Dated to the 250th year and a little later. This codex contains most of the New Testament. There are thirty leaves in P45: two from the Gospel of Matthew, six from the Gospel of Mark, seven from the Gospel of Luke, two from the Gospel of John and thirteen from the Book of Acts. Several small fragments of the Gospel of Matthew from this codex are in the collection of manuscripts in Vienna. The P46 contains 86 sheets (11 x 6 inches). Papyrus P46 contains the epistles of St. Apostle Paul to: Romans, Hebrews, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Ephesians, Galatians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 and 2 Thessalonians. R47 - ten sheets containing part of Revelation (9:10 - 17: 2) of the Apostle John the Theologian.

Uncials on parchment. We are talking about leather codes that appeared in the 4th century, written uncials(Latin uncia - inch) - in letters without sharp corners and broken lines. This letter is distinguished by greater refinement and clarity. Each letter stood in a line in isolation. There are 362 uncial manuscripts of the New Testament. The oldest of these codes ( Sinai, Vatican, Alexandrian) have already been mentioned above.

This impressive collection of ancient New Testament manuscripts was supplemented by scholars with the text of the New Testament, which was composed of 36,286 quotes from the Holy Scriptures of the New Testament found in the works of the holy fathers and teachers of the Church from the 2nd to the 4th centuries. This text is missing only 11 verses.

Textual scholars in the 20th century have done a tremendous job of comparing all (several thousand!) New Testament manuscripts and revealed all the discrepancies that arose through the fault of the scribes. Their assessment and typology was made. Clear criteria for establishing the correct option have been formulated. For someone familiar with this strictly scientific work, the falseness and unfoundedness of statements about the distortion of the current sacred text of the New Testament are obvious.

It is necessary to turn to the results of these studies to make sure that in the number of ancient manuscripts and the brevity of the time separating the earliest extant text from the original, no work of antiquity can compare with the New Testament. Let us compare the time separating the earliest manuscript from the original: Virgil - 400 years, Horace - 700, Plato - 1300, Sophocles - 1400, Aeschylus - 1500, Euripides - 1600, Homer - 2000 years, i.e. from 400 to 2000 years. We have survived 250 manuscripts of Horace, 110 of Homer, about a hundred - Sophocles, 50 Aeschylus, only 11 Plato. It is sad to realize how strongly millions of our contemporaries have been poisoned by the poison of unbelief, how anti-Christian sentiments have taken root deeply on the soil of sinful life. If a person doubts the authenticity of the treatises of Aristotle, the speeches of Cicero, the books of Tacitus, or claims that we are using distorted texts of ancient authors, then the thought of his mental or mental health will arise. With regard to the Bible, people can indulge in any rude and ridiculous statements. Now we are witnessing how a detective story, full of false ideas and gross errors that arose due to the author's ignorance and anti-Christian attitude, captivated tens of millions of people. The reason for this is massive disbelief. Without grace, man is full of innate and irreparable delusion. Nothing tells him the truth; on the contrary, everything is misleading him. Both vehicles of truth, reason and feelings, in addition to the inherent lack of truthfulness in both, still abuse each other. The senses deceive the mind with false signs. The mind also does not remain in debt: emotional passions darken feelings and cause false impressions(B. Pascal. Thoughts on religion).