4. The Bible: composition and content. Canon and Apocrypha -

Это продолжение увлекательной статьи про христианство.

...

it can be freed only through asceticism, through the renunciation of everything worldly. Manichaean communities were characterized by insularity and isolation. Manichaeism interested the educated people of the empire, since it contained certain ideas of ancient philosophical teachings, in particular Neoplatonism. At the same time this teaching, with its mysterious mystical rites, also spread in rural areas, in remote villages of the eastern provinces. Rejection of existing society brought the Manichaeans close to those groups of Christians who preserved the traditions of original Judeo-Christianity. It is not surprising that Diocletian began his struggle first of all against this movement. The Manichaeans were declared outlaws. Following this, Diocletian began to persecute Christians. Into these persecutions he poured the same indomitable energy as into his other undertakings. In 303 he issued an edict forbidding Christian religious services throughout the whole empire. Church buildings were demolished, the property of Christians was confiscated. All people suspected of belonging to Christianity were expelled from the army and the state apparatus, many were executed, and Christian books were burned. It was said that even Diocletian's wife had to perform a public sacrifice so as not to be suspected of Christianity. At the height of the persecutions a fire broke out in Diocletian's palace in the city of Nicomedia (where the emperor's residence was); the Christians were accused of arson.

The repressions directed against the Christians, for all their massiveness, did not bring the desired result. On the contrary, the persecutions by the all-powerful emperor aroused sympathy for the Christians, open and secret, among many people who suffered from the heavy burden of the bureaucratic apparatus that had grown immoderately under Diocletian. By that time the church was sufficiently organized to save its books, to provide refuge for those in hiding, and to render aid to victims and their families. Diocletian could offer no alternative to Christianity as an ideology. In 305 Diocletian abdicated power, and in 311 one of his successors (the empire had been divided among several rulers), Galerius, who was persistently called the instigator of the persecutions under Diocletian, was forced to revoke these persecutions. Their futility had become obvious. The time had come not only for a tolerant attitude toward Christianity, but also for a union of imperial power with the Christian church – not with Christianity in general, but precisely with the church – an organization that could provide ideological support to the rulers of the empire.

Two years after the end of Galerius's persecutions, two rulers of the empire – temporary allies and future irreconcilable enemies – Constantine and Licinius, in the midst of their struggle for sole power, adopted a decree legalizing the Christian church. This was the so-called Edict of Milan, which, in essence, repeated and developed Galerius's decree. According to the Edict of Milan, Christians had the right to openly practice their cult, church organizations could now own any property, including real estate (from this time begins the growth of the church's landed holdings), and confiscated property was returned to Christians. Formally, Christianity thus became merely one of the many permitted cults of the empire. Constantine himself, who eventually became sole ruler of the empire, was not a Christian (though there is a tradition that he was baptized just before his death). He had been raised in the veneration of the «Unconquered Sun», divine honors continued to be paid to statues of the emperor during his reign; moreover, he established a cult of the family from which he came. His alliance with the Christian church was above all political in character, and although he did not persecute the traditional cults, it was precisely from the time of his reign that Christianity be-

gan to acquire decisive significance in the ideological life of the empire, and the Christian church gradually became the dominant church. Constantine patronized the Christian church because he understood that precisely such a religious organization could offer him more substantial support than the mutually unconnected priesthoods of the numerous ancient deities. Under him the seventh day of the week was declared a market (that is, work-free) day. This day, according to the teaching of the astrologers, was the day of the Sun, but for Christians this day was dedicated to Christ. From the 4th century, December 25

– the feast of the birth of the «Unconquered Sun» – began to be celebrated as the feast of the Nativity of Christ. In the 4th century Aelia Capitolina again officially came to be called Jerusalem.

4. The Bible: composition and content. Canon and Apocrypha

The composition and sequence of the books in the Jewish and Christian biblical canons differ. These differences go back to two biblical canons of the pre-rabbinic Jewish tradition: the Palestinian, represented by the Masoretic Hebrew Bible, and the Alexandrian, represented by the Greek Septuagint, the latter being fully known only from Christian sources. The Masoretic text is accepted in modern Judaism, while the Septuagint became the authoritative source of the biblical text for many Christian churches. At the same time, there is no unanimous opinion among Christian confessions about the biblical canon, so it is legitimate to speak of Orthodox, Catholic, Protestant, and other Bibles. There are elements common to all biblical traditions: the books included in the Palestinian canon are part of every Bible, and the Pentateuch always stands in first place, characterized by an identical order of books. The differences relate to the rest of the Old Testament: they may concern the number of books, their order, the extent of individual books, their titles; there may be discrepancies in the division into books

and chapters, as well as numerous textual variants; the status of biblical books may also differ.

In the Protestant Bible the number of Old Testament books is the same as

in the Hebrew Bible. In addition, the Orthodox and Catholic

(although in modern times Hebrew and Aramaic originals of some of them have been found): the books of Tobit, Judith, the Wisdom of Solomon, the Wisdom of Jesus son of Sirach, 2 and 3 Esdras, the Epistle of Jeremiah, Baruch, and 3 Maccabees; the Prayer of Manasseh at the end of 2 Chronicles, certain parts of the Book of Esther, the psalm placed after Psalm 150, and three fragments from the Book of the Prophet Daniel (the Song of the Three Young Men in Babylon – 3. 24-90; the story of Susanna – Dan 13; the story of Bel and the Dragon – Dan 14).

Books or parts of books absent from the Hebrew Bible may have various statuses in the Christian churches: they may either be recognized on a par with the canonical books (as in the Ethiopian Bible), or be rejected entirely (as is the case in Protestantism, where such books are called apocrypha and are not included among the biblical books). In the Catholic and Orthodox Bibles these books are present, though the attitude toward them differs somewhat. In the Catholic Church they received the name «deuterocanonical»; at the Council of Trent (1546) they were given the status of canonical books (the so-called «second canon»). The Orthodox Church regards books not included in the Palestinian canon as edifying and useful for reading; there is no uniformity in their designation: the terms «deuterocanonical» (as among Catholics), «non-canonical», or «anagignoskomena» (that is, recommended for reading) may be used. In this connection the most important criterion of canonicity for a given book in the Orthodox Church is its use in liturgical worship. From this point of view, the Wisdom of Solomon or the «non-canonical» parts of the Book of the Prophet Daniel cannot be considered «non-canonical».

The position of the early fathers of the Christian church regarding the non-canonical books was not unanimous: some accepted the Palestinian canon, others followed the more extensive Alexandrian canon, recognizing also the Greek books that have no Hebrew original. Lists of canonical books were discussed at local councils. For example, the Council of Laodicea (340) recognized only the books of the Palestinian canon; the 3rd Council of Carthage (397), on the contrary, equated the status of the non-canonical books to that of the canonical ones. The Council in Trullo (691-692) confirmed the apostolic and conciliar decisions on this matter. However, in doing so, provisions were adopted that partly contradicted one another. Namely, the rule of the Council of Laodicea and the 85th Apostolic Canon distinguish between canonical and non-canonical books, whereas the 37th canon of the 3rd Council of Carthage does not specifically stipulate any distinction between them. In subsequent eras repeated attempts were made to eliminate the resulting inconsistencies.

This problem again became relevant in the 17th century, in the course of discussions between Protestant and Catholic theologians. The question of the canon was also touched upon in the Orthodox confessions of faith created in imitation of the Protestants and Catholics. In the 18th century, both in the Russian and in the Greek churches there were quite a few supporters of recognizing only the limited canon, but at present the majority of theologians speak in favor of the extensive canon.

The canon of the Catholic Bible was finally fixed at the Council of Trent (1546): confirming the decisions of the Councils of Hippo (393) and the 4th Council of Carthage (401), it granted canonical status to all the books included in the Vulgate. The motive for such a decision was the fact that Old Testament books without a Hebrew original had long been placed in biblical collections alongside the canonical ones.

Protestants, on the contrary, limited the composition of the Old Testament to the bounds of the Palestinian canon, while retaining the order of the books as presented in the Vulgate. Modern Protestant editions of the Bible sometimes include the deuterocanonical books as an appendix under the name of «Apocrypha».

The Septuagint. The most ancient translation of the Old Testament into Greek is cal-

into Greek; the composition of the Septuagint reflects the Alexandrian canon of the Bible. Later, between 285 and 150 BCE, among the Alexandrian Jews, for whom Greek was already their native language, a translation was made of the remaining books

the status of a sacred text in the eyes of the Jews, the Septuagint became widely disseminated in the Jewish diaspora of the Greco-Roman oikoumene; and when, in the first centuries CE, Christianity spread through the Roman Empire, it adopted the Septuagint as the Sacred Scripture of the Old Testament; at the same time, by the era of Christianity's emergence (since the canonization of the Ketuvim section had not yet been completed) the biblical canon still retained an open character.

The new theological interpretation of the Old Testament established, in comparison with the Jewish tradition, a different distribution of the books in the Christian Septuagint by section. Thus, the Pentateuch was now understood primarily as a narrative of the earliest stages of the history of humanity and the chosen people (which is why its association with the historical books seems natural). The properly prophetic books (called the Latter Prophets in the Hebrew Bible) were set apart into a special section; as containing messianic prophecies, i.e. prophecies relating to Jesus Christ, they were placed

it contains significant prophecies about Christ. The Wisdom of Jesus son of Sirach, the Wisdom of Solomon, and the books of Maccabees are absent from the Palestinian canon; their authority for Christianity is explained by the fact that of all the books of the Old Testament it is precisely these that most fully set forth the teaching on the Holy Spirit and the immortality of the soul.

Depending on their content, the books of the Old Testament are divided in the Christian tradition into the following three groups:

1) legislative and historical:

a) legislative – this is the Pentateuch, which narrates the creation of the world and of man, the earliest pages of the history of humanity, the Old Testament patriarchs, the prophet and lawgiver Moses, who led the people of Israel out of Egyptian slavery, and the forty years of the wandering of the Jews in the wilder-

canon, 2 Ezra, 1–3 Maccabees and 3 Ezra (the books of Maccabees and 3 Ezra, as belonging to a later period of Old Testament history, are placed in the Slavonic-Russian Bible at the end of the corpus) – these contain the narrative of the migration of the people of Israel into Canaan, the promised land, of the wars with the local peoples, of the period of rule of the military leaders (traditionally

and kings of this period, of the fall of the Northern Kingdom, the destruction of Jerusalem, and the forced deportation of the Jews to Babylon;

2) wisdom books – these are Job, the Psalter, Ecclesiastes, Proverbs, the Wisdom of Solomon, Judith, Esther, Tobit, and the Wisdom of Jesus son of Sirach; they were written by biblical sages and dealt with various aspects of human life and manifestations of the human spirit, seeking to resolve the problems of the existence of evil and suffering, as well as the meaning of life.

3) prophetic books: the 3 major prophets (by the size of their books) (Isaiah, Jer-

emiah, Ezekiel), Daniel, and the 12 minor prophets, as well as the Lamentations of Jeremiah and the non-canonical Letter of Jeremiah and Book of the Prophet Baruch; these books contain the preaching of the Israelite prophets directed against the moral and religious distortion of the idea of God's covenant with people, and foretelling the coming of the Kingdom of the Messiah.

Christianity attaches exceptional importance to the text of the Septuagint, since it is precisely there that readings are found underlying certain dogmas (for example, Isaiah 7:14). The Orthodox Church accepts the Septuagint as the authentic text of the Old Testament, in contrast to the Masoretic text, in comparison with which significant discrepancies are found in many places. Christian scholars belonging to the Alexandrian and Antiochene theological schools subjected the text of the Sep-

his resurrection from the dead and subsequent ascension into heaven), the founding of the Christian church and the initial period of its existence, and they also explain the teaching of Christ and reveal the mysteries of the last destinies of the world. This collection of biblical books is called the "New Testament" because they contain the revelation of the conclusion of a new "testament" (covenant, union) of God with man, accomplished through the appearance in the world, the sufferings, and the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

The New Testament consists of 27 books: the Gospel of Matthew, the Gospel of Mark, the Gospel of Luke, and the Gospel of John; the Acts of the Apostles; the Catholic Epistle of James, 2 Catholic Epistles of Peter, 3 Catholic Epistles of John, the Catholic Epistle of Jude; the Epistles of the Apostle Paul to the Romans, to the Corinthians (1 and 2), to the Galatians, to the Ephesians, to the Philippians, to the Colossians, to the Thessalonians (1 and 2), to Timothy (1 and 2), to Titus, to Philemon, to the Hebrews; and the Revelation of the Apostle John the Theologian.

According to their content, the books of the New Testament are divided into 4 parts: 1) legislative (these include the 4 Gospels (from the Greek, literally "good" or "glad tidings," usually translated into Russian as "the good news"), since they narrate the teaching of Jesus Christ); 2) the historical book of the Acts of the Apostles, describing the history of the spread of the Christian faith by the apostles; 3) didactic (all the epistles of the apostles, containing their teaching and instructions to Christians); 4) the prophetic book, the Revelation (or Apocalypse) of John the Theologian, containing prophecies about the future destinies of the Church and the world. In the Orthodox liturgical tradition it is customary to divide the New Testament into 2 parts: the Gospel and the Apostle; the first includes the narratives of the 4 evangelists, and the second the Acts and the epistles

The exact dating of the composition of the books of the New Testament has not been established in scholarly biblical studies and is unlikely ever to be established. The first men-

in their missionary activity. Thus, the epistles of the Apostle Paul are dated to the period 49–60. The Catholic Epistles were written approximately between

50 (the Epistle of the Apostle Jude) and 105 (the Epistles of the Apostle John).

From the earliest centuries of Christianity, Christian scholars and church fathers have been interested in the question of the origin and date of composition of the Gospels. Early Christian authors unanimously recognize the Gospel of Mat-

thew as the first in order of composition. Second arose the Gospel of Mark, going back to the preaching of the Apostle Peter, then the Gospel of Luke, behind which stood the authority of the Apostle Paul. According to Augustine of Hippo, each of the subsequent evangelists made use of the work of the earlier authors. Archbishop Theophylact of Bulgaria (11th c.), on the basis of the testimony of Eusebius of Caesarea (4th c.), gives in the preface to his commentary on the Gospels information from oral traditions and early sources about the origin of the Gospels: the evangelist Matthew wrote his Gospel in Hebrew 8 years

However, Western biblical scholarship, relying on the historical-critical method, has revised the traditional view of the sequence of composition of the canonical Gospels. The following solution to the

synoptic problem was proposed (synoptic – sharing a similar viewpoint, adhering to a common point of view; the first three Gospels are called synoptic): the Gospel of Mark was written first – on the eve of or immediately after the fall of Jerusalem (70); on this Gospel, as well as on a source of the sayings (logia) of Jesus that has not survived, designated Q (German Quelle – source), is based the more extensive Gospel of Matthew, as well as the Gospel of Luke. This hypothesis, which came to be called the two-source hypothesis, gained wide currency; its main tenets are often taken as axiomatic. Meanwhile, to explain, for example, the differences between the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, it is necessary, following the logic of this hypothesis, to postulate some third source, which leads to an unjustified multiplication of entities.

In 1999, the priest Leonid Grilikhes proposed his own view of the problem of the relationship between the Gospels of Matthew and Mark. Taking into account the testimony

of early Christian authors concerning the Hebrew origin of the Gospel of Matthew, he carried out a reconstruction of the Hebrew text of this Gospel; moreover, he substantiated the thesis that the Gospel of Mark was originally written in Aramaic. Comparison of the reconstructions of the two Gospels with each other and with the Greek text made it possible to conclude that the Gospel of Matthew was primary. According to L. Grilikhes's conception, this Gospel, in its early edition, was used (with certain changes) by the Apostle Peter in his preaching activity. Peter himself spoke Aramaic, and his constant companion and helper Mark translated his speech into Greek. Subsequently Mark, with Peter's permission, wrote down his preaching in Greek.

It appears that the New Testament books, in particular the epistles, began to be gathered into collections almost immediately after their appearance. The apostle Paul himself points to the churchwide significance of the epistles: "And when this epistle is read among you, cause that it be read

authoritative sources. All 27 books that make up the canon of the New Testament were accepted by the Christian Church from the very beginning (though for quite a long time there was no consensus regarding the canonicity of the Epistle to the Hebrews and the Revelation of John the Theologian). The New Testament canon in its present form was fixed in 360 at the local Council of Laodicea and confirmed at the Fourth Ecumenical Council (451).

The Vulgate (Latin Vulgata – plain, common, ordinary) – a translation of the Bible into Latin, carried out in the 380s of the 4th century by Jerome of Stridon (died c. 420) at the commission of Pope Damasus I (366–384). The motives for creating a new translation were: 1) the notable great variability of the existing translation; 2) the lack of dogmatic author-

ity of this translation; 3) the need for liturgical texts in the Latin language. In the first stage of the work (in Rome), Blessed Jerome corrected the Old Latin translation of the Gospels, relying on a Greek manuscript of the Byzantine text-type. Then in Bethlehem he edited the translation of the Old Testament books. On the basis of Origen's "Hexapla" he revised the Psalter (this edition became the standard liturgical text in Gaul). Then, using the same Greek original, he revised the books of Job, Proverbs, the Song of Songs, Ecclesiastes, and Chronicles. Using the translations of Aquila and Symmachus as auxiliary sources, he retranslated from the Hebrew the Psalter and other books of the Old Testament, while the non-canonical books he either did not translate at all (Sirach, Wisdom, 1–2 Maccabees, Baruch, the Letter of Jeremiah), or only slightly edited the Old Latin translation (Tobit, Judith). Of the New Testament Jerome himself corrected only the Gospels; the remaining New Testament books were corrected in Rome at the end of the 4th – beginning of the 5th century in the circle of Pelagius and Rufinus. A complete set of biblical books in the new Latin translation appears in the middle of the 5th century.

The manuscript heritage of the Church Slavonic Bible is very rich. The number of manuscripts of the Old Testament from the 11th–18th centuries approaches 4,500; the number of New Testament manuscripts is not precisely known, but it must be at least two or three times greater. Church Slavonic biblical manuscripts were intended predominantly for liturgical use and are of Bulgarian, Serbian, and East Slavic origin, the last being in the majority.

The first translations of biblical and other liturgical texts into Church Slavonic were made in the second half of the 9th century in Moravia by Cyril and Methodius and their disciples. The composition of the biblical books translated in this period remains a matter of debate, but there is no doubt that the New Testament was translated in full, and the Psalter and certain other books of the Old Testament were also translated. The language of these translations is distinguished by archaism and a large number of lexical borrowings from Greek, combined with a free rendering of the grammatical features of the original. The translations are notable for their clarity and accuracy; errors are extremely rare.

Texts from the Cyrillo-Methodian period have not survived. The Gospel has survived in manuscripts beginning from the 11th century. In the early 14th century it was twice revised on Mount Athos according to the Greek original. The new edition, distinguished by its literalism in rendering the Greek text, achieved wide circulation and was subsequently made the basis of printed editions.

The history of the Apostle (the Acts and Epistles lectionary) is less well known in comparison with the history of the Gospel. From the 11th century only one copy has survived, and that only in fragments. In the 14th century the Apostle underwent the same revision as the Gospel.

The oldest manuscript of the Psalter dates to the 11th century. From the 14th century the Athonite edition of this biblical book, corrected against the Greek text, became widely circulated.

The creation of the first complete biblical codex was carried out in Novgorod at the order of Archbishop Gennady (after whom this codex is called the Gennady Bible) around 1499. The translators Dmitry Gerasimov and Vlas Ignatov took part in the work, as well as the Croatian monk Benjamin. The latter translated from the Vulgate the books absent from the Church Slavonic manuscript tradition: 1 and 2 Chronicles, 1 Ezra, Nehemiah, 2 and 3 Ezra, Tobit, Judith, Esther (chapters 10–16), the Wisdom of Solomon, the prophecies of Jeremiah (chapters 1–25, 45–52) and Ezekiel (chapters 45–46), and 1 and 2 Maccabees. The translation of these books is marked by extreme literalism, to the point of violating Church Slavonic grammatical norms; there is a noticeable tendency to render each Latin word by only one Church Slavonic equivalent, without regard for the polysemy of the word in the original language, which often leads to losses of meaning. Some Latin words were borrowed into the Church Slavonic text without translation, which in some cases was compensated for by placing Slavonic equivalents in the margins.

The first complete printed edition of the Church Slavonic Bible – the Ostrog Bible – was prepared in southwestern Rus' (which at that time was part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth), in the town of Ostrog in 1580–1581, on the initiative of Prince Konstantin Ostrozhsky. In 1580 the New Testament and Psalter were published, and in 1581 the whole Bible. G. D. Smotrytsky, the Moscow printer Ivan Fyodorov, and the Greeks Eustathius Nathanael and Dionysius Palaiologos-Ralli took part in the work. The text of the Gennady Bible was used as the textual basis, but collation was carried out

also against other manuscripts. Among the printed Greek sources used were the Complutensian Polyglot of 1514–1517 and the Aldine Bible of 1518.

In 1663 the first Moscow edition of the Bible appeared, representing a reprint of the Ostrog Bible with minor changes.

In 1712 Peter I ordered a correction of the Church Slavonic Bible. However, the work proceeded slowly, commissions succeeded one another,

and the new edition appeared only in 1751, receiving, after the name of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna, the name of the Elizabethan Bible. With minor corrections, this text continues to be reprinted to this day.

Alongside the biblical codices intended for use outside of worship, there existed a liturgical edition of the Gospel and the Apostle; its history has to this day been insufficiently studied.

sense this term is used to designate all books excluded from Holy Scripture. Protestants usually use it in application to the 14 books that were included in the Septuagint but are absent from the Hebrew canon. Catholics and Orthodox avoid this usage, using this term exclusively to designate pseudepigraphical books that never entered the Bible. The books that Protestants call "apocryphal" are called "deuterocanonical" by Catholics, while the books that Catholics call "apocryphal" may be designated variously by Protestants (the most common term being "apocryphal literature"). The ancient rabbinic designation of non-canonical books was "outside books"; the term "apocrypha" was introduced

into usage for non-canonical books by Jerome, the creator of the Vulgate. Some of these books were written in Hebrew, some in Aramaic or Greek, and some contain Christian elements.

The books that Protestants call apocryphal and Catholics call deuterocanonical formed part of English translations of the Bible from 1382 onward. They were included in the King James Bible (1611), however

in modern standard English-language editions they are, as a rule, omit-

ted. The Puritans rejected them on the grounds that these books were not part of the original Hebrew canon. However, these books are present in the Septuagint, and Jerome, following the Septuagint, included them in the Vulgate. Originally the apocrypha were published within the corpus of the canonical Old Testament books, but in 1534 Luther, in his translation of the Bible into German, was the first to set them apart into a special section, placed between the Old and New Testaments. These books bear the following names: First and Second Esdras, the additions to the Book of Daniel (including the Song of the Three Children, the History of Susanna, and the Story of Bel and the Dragon), additions to the Book of Esther, the Book of Baruch together with the Letter of Jeremiah, the Prayer of Manasseh, First and Second Maccabees, the Book of Tobit, the Book of Judith, the Wisdom of Jesus son of Sirach, and the Wisdom of Solomon.

The books called apocryphal among Catholics constitute an extensive body of writings whose authorship and exact date of composition are unknown. Some of them have survived only in fragments, and some have been lost entirely and are known only from mentions by other authors. These writings are usually divided into two main groups: Old Test-

It is impossible to give an exhaustive list of all these writings. But the most important among the Old Testament apocrypha are considered to be the following: the Psalms of Solomon, the Jewish sections of the Sibylline Oracles, the books of Enoch, the Assumption of Moses, the Syriac Apocalypse of Baruch, the Greek Apocalypse of Baruch, the Book of Jubilees, the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, the Martyrdom of Isaiah, the Testament of Job, several works devoted to Adam and Eve, the History of John Hyrcanus, and various legendary and apocalyptic writings. Among the New Testament apocrypha the following deserve mention: the Gospel of Nicodemus, the Gospel of Thomas, the Protoevangelium of James, the Gospel of the Egyptians and the Gospel of the Hebrews; a series of "acts," including the Acts of John, the Acts of Thomas, and the Acts of Paul, as well as the Didache, or the Teaching of the Twelve Apostles; numerous epistles attributed to Clement of Rome, Ignatius the God-bearer, Polycarp of Smyrna, the Apostle Paul, and other figures; an extensive body of apocalyptic writings, which include the Christian sections of the Sibylline Oracles, the Shepherd of Hermas, the Apocalypse of Peter, the Apocalypse of Paul, and the Testament of Abraham.

5. Apologetics: Justin the Philosopher, Clement of Alexandria, Origen. Tertullian

Apologetics – a branch of theology devoted to the rational defense of the truth of Christian doctrine. The Greek word apologia (defense) originally denoted the speech of a defendant in court in response to the speech of the accuser. Hence the term "apologists" became attached to the Christian writers of the 2nd–3rd centuries who, in their "apologies," addressed to Roman emperors or the educated public, sought to defend the rightness of Christianity. Among them are numbered Aristides, Justin Martyr, Tatian, Athenagoras, Minucius Felix, and Tertullian. Later apologies were composed during periods of persecution of Christianity. Thus Augustine wrote the treatise "The City of God" (413–426) in response to accusations directed against Christians that the misfortunes that had befallen Rome were caused by the abandonment of faith in the pagan gods.

Justin the Philosopher (c. 100 – c. 165) – philosopher and Christian apologist, was born into a Greek family in Neapolis in Palestine (modern Nablus). Having received a classical education, he sought in vain in the writings of pagan philosophers of various schools for a teaching about God that could satisfy him. The study of Holy Scripture led him, at approximately 30 years of

and executed: for refusing to offer sacrifice to the pagan gods he was flayed and beheaded. Of Justin's writings two "Apologies" and the "Dialogue with Trypho the Jew" have come down to us. Although he was profoundly influenced by the writings of Plato and the Stoics, he sought to reinterpret them in the spirit of Jewish and Christian doctrine. Justin's writings are the most valuable testimony to the life of the church of the 2nd century. His feast day is April 14 (in the Russian Orthodox Church, June 1 Old Style).

Clement of Alexandria (c. 150 – c. 220) – Christian philosopher and theologian. Titus Flavius Clement was born into a pagan family, possibly in Athens, and converted to Christianity very early. After long travels he settled in Alexandria, where he taught at the so-called Alexandrian Catechetical School. In the era of Clement and Origen this city became the most important center of Christian philosophical thought. Clement left Alexandria during the persecution of Christians under the emperor Severus (202–203), and almost nothing is known of his subsequent life and travels. Pope Clement VIII removed his name from the church calendars because of doubts about the orthodoxy of some of his writings.

Clement's exceptional erudition and his acquaintance with a wide range of pagan and Christian sources are reflected in the principal surviving works – the "Protrepticus," or "Exhortation to the Greeks,"

the "Hypotyposeis" ("Outlines"), the "Stromata" ("Miscellanies," literally "Patchwork"), the "Paedagogus," and the homily "Who Is the Rich Man That Shall Be Saved?"

Being an incomplete and unsystematic reflection of the brilliant lectures given by Clement in Alexandria, these works – though marked by an excessive fondness for philosophical allegorism and a number of dogmatic errors – allow us to grasp Clement's main aim: through the rational comprehension of the mysteries of the Christian faith to lead man to true "gnosis," that is, to that state of spiritual perfection to which the Word of God calls us, and in which man, freed from the passions, through love of God, already on earth lays the foundations of heavenly blessedness.

Origen (c. 185 – c. 254), early Christian theologian and writer, son of the martyr Leonidas. He was born in Alexandria in Egypt. He studied under Clement of Alexandria, whom, at the age of 18, he succeeded as head of the Alexandrian Catechetical School. Tormented by youthful carnal desires, he, taking the words of the evangelist literally (Matt 19:12), castrated himself. Around 231 Origen came into conflict with Demetrius, bishop of Alexandria, having accepted ordination to the presbyterate in Caesarea in Palestine without his permission. Subsequently Origen lived and worked in Caesarea. During the persecution of Decius he was thrown into prison and subjected to torture. He died in Tyre shortly afterward.

Origen was a brilliant teacher and a prolific writer. His treatise "On First Principles" is devoted to the foundations of Christian doctrine and the method of theology. The famous "Hexapla" (so called because the text in it was arranged in six columns) was a critical edition of the Hebrew Bible in parallel with its main Greek translations. The extensive treatise "Against Celsus" is one of the most impressive attempts at a defense of Christianity in the face of pagan philosopher-opponents. He also wrote the works "On Prayer" and "Exhortation to Martyrdom." Among the signifi-

a highly original thinker, faithful to the apostolic tradition, yet at the same time distinguished by an excessive inclination toward allegorism in the interpretation of Holy Scripture and toward philosophizing in a "Neoplatonic" spirit. His methods, especially in the field of biblical exegesis, exerted a profound influence on later Christian thinkers.

After Origen's death, the tradition associated with his name, which came to be called Origenism, provoked much controversy. At the end of the 4th century a fierce polemic broke out over the orthodoxy of Origen's teaching, in which Jerome took a position hostile to Origen, while Rufinus, once Jerome's friend, came out in defense of Origenism. In 543 the emperor Justin-

the Second Council of Constantinople (553), which condemned Origen as a heretic. What was recognized as heretical above all was Origen's teaching on the pre-existence of souls and on "apocatastasis," i.e. on the universal "restoration," in which the souls of all rational beings, after a preliminary "purification" (simi-

lar to that postulated in the later Catholic doctrine of "purgatory"), would inevitably reach heaven.

Justinian's efforts led to the complete or partial loss of Origen's writings. In the 20th century historians and theologians again showed considerable interest in Origen, and it has repeatedly been suggested that the condemnation of his teaching as heretical was unjustified.

Tertullian (full name Quintus Septimius Florens Tertullianus) (c. 155–245), Christian theologian, was born in Carthage before 160, into the family of a centurion. He practiced successfully as a lawyer in Rome. It is not known when Tertul-

and where, in the words of St. Jerome, he lived "to advanced years." Tertullian was excellently versed in Holy Scripture and Greek authors.

31 works of Tertullian have come down to us; all his writings are devoted to subjects of practical significance: the attitude of Christians toward paganism, questions of Christian morality, and the refutation of heresies. 14 works, known by title, have not survived. In the first, "Catholic" period of his life, Tertullian defended Christianity from the accusations of pagans in the apologies

"To the Nations" (Ad nationes, 197) and "Apologeticus" (Apologeticus), worked

out a code of Christian morality in the treatises "On the Spectacles" (De spectaculis), "On Idolatry" (De idololatria), "On the Apparel of Women"

"On Repentance" (De poenitentia), and explained why one should not heed

and from this point on his writings bear the mark of an ever-increasing moral rigorism. The five books "Against Marcion" (Contra Marcionem, in its final edition – c. 211) contain valuable information about the Gnostic teaching of Marcion, and the treatise "On the Soul" (De anima, c. 211) is the first Christian work on this subject. After his formal entry into the Montanist sect (c. 212), Tertullian accused the "Catholic" Christians ("psychics") of indulging weaknesses and vices, defending an extreme as-

ceticism in the works "On Flight in Persecution" (De fuga et persecutione, c. 212), "On Monogamy" (De monogamia), "On Fasting" (De ieiunio), and "On Modesty"

(De pudicitia), in which he opposed the granting of absolution to adulterers and fornicators after they had performed penance.

6. Patristics: Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian, Gregory of Nyssa, John Chrysostom, Aurelius Augustine.

The Church's struggle with Gnosticism, Montanism, and Manichaeism

Patristics (Lat. "father") – traditionally – one of the theological disciplines whose subject is the study of the works of the Holy Fathers of the Church and the systematic exposition of the teaching contained in them. According to N. I. Barsov, in the Christian Church the title "father" has been applied, since the time of the apostles, to pastors of the Church in general. In a more specialized sense the title "Holy Fathers of the Church" refers to those church teachers who in their writings left an exposition and explanation of the Christian faith accepted by the Church as its guide. Among the "Fathers of the Church" the "ecumenical teachers" stand out especially, possessing the highest personal authority in the Church as those who rendered it special service in defending, formulating, and explaining the dogmas of the faith. In the Eastern Church such significance is usually attached to St. Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian, John Chrysostom, and Athanasius of Alexandria; in the West, in addition, to Blessed Jerome, Blessed Augustine, Ambrose of Milan, and Pope Gregory the Great. In addition, the Western Church has the institution of the Doctors of the Church. Some theologians limit the existence of "Fathers of the Church" in the Church to a certain period of time; in the East – from the beginning of the Church to John of Damascus, in the West – up to and including Gregory the Great (died 604); according to others – up to the 13th century.

A number of Catholic theologians hold that the pope may at any time elevate to the rank of Father of the Church anyone he deems worthy.

The Eastern Church has no canonical ruling on this subject, but theologians and patrologists for the most part think that since the Church is always one and the same and possesses the same graced powers, it is possible at any time for persons possessing patristic gifts to appear in it and be recognized as "Fathers of the Church," by the judgment of the Church itself. Being numbered among the canonized saints and agreement with the teaching of the Church are considered so necessary for inclusion among the Fathers of the Church that even such great theologians of the Christian world as Clement of Alexandria, Origen, Eusebius of Caesarea, and Tertullian are recognized not as "Fathers of the Church" but merely as ecclesiastical writers.

The problematics of patristics have to a large extent determined the field of problems of both Orthodox and Catholic theology.

On the whole, the content of patristics is recognized in Christianity (Orthodoxy and Catholicism) as the most important component of Holy Tradition; the study of patristics took shape within theology as the discipline of patrology.

Basil the Great, saint (c. 330–379) – Archbishop of Caesarea (from 370), Father and Teacher of the Church. He is numbered among the "Three Holy Hierarchs," in whose honor a well-known Christian feast was instituted. During the persecution of Christians by the Roman emperor Diocletian, his grandfather on his mother's side

was put to death, while his grandfather on his father's side, according to the testimony of Gregory Nazianzen, hid together with his whole household in the forests of Pontus for seven years. According to I. V. Popov, Basil the Great was a practical man of action, and dogmatic questions in themselves interested him little; his teaching on the Holy Trinity was aimed at reconciling the Orthodox who distrusted one another. Basil the Great's contribution to the history of dogma consists in the fact that it was he who finally established the terminology of the Trinity accepted by the Church. By his upbringing and connections Basil the Great belonged to that intellectual party of the East which, while respecting Origen and avoiding the term "consubstantial" as not found in Holy Scripture, acknowledged the Son of God as in every respect essentially like God the Father. The Old Nicene trinitarian terminology (one essence, one hypostasis, and three persons), preserved by the followers of Eustathius in Antioch, did not satisfy Basil the Great. From it followed the conclusion that God is one in hypostasis and threefold in persons, or that one and the same Divine Being is revealed now in the image of the Father, now in the image of the Son, now in the image of the Holy Spirit. In his teaching on the Holy Trinity and in his terminology Basil the Great tried to avoid two extremes: the "Sabellian" merging of the persons and the "Arian" division of them. Basil the Great expresses the mutual relation of the persons of the Holy Trinity in the formula: God is one in essence and threefold in hypostases. Basil the Great understands the term "hypostasis" in the sense of the Aristotelian "abstract essence." According to his definition, essence is a generic concept, while hypostasis is a concept denoting an individual particularity.

Gregory the Theologian, Gregory Nazianzen (329–389) – associate of Basil the Great, one of the three "ecumenical teachers" of the Eastern Church. The significance of Gregory the Theologian in the history of dogma, according to the exposition of I. V. Popov, is summed up in three points.

1. In the doctrine of the Trinity, Gregory the Theologian, like Basil the Great, belonged to that party which developed from so-called Semi-Arianism, which accepted the term "consubstantial" and interpreted it in the sense of "of like essence." The writings of Gregory the Theologian were the first justification of the teaching of the Neo-Nicenes.

2. Alongside the doctrine of the Trinity, the Christology of Gregory the Theologian was of great importance. Excerpts from the writings of Gregory the Theologian were cited by the fathers of the Councils of Ephesus and Chalcedon as proof of the truth of the Orthodox teaching about the person of Jesus Christ. According to the teaching of Gregory the Theologian, the human nature of Christ consists not only of a body and an irrational soul, as Apollinaris asserted, but also of a mind, or spirit.

3. Gregory the Theologian, together with Basil the Great, studied Origen thoroughly. This is reflected in his theological system, in which there are many echoes of Origenism. To this belong a distinctive reworking of Origen's teaching on faith and gnosis, the teaching that God is above essence, the teaching about the mind as an intermediate principle through which the union of the incorporeal Logos with the soul and body of man was made possible, the teaching on the existence in the afterlife of a purifying fire for sinners, and a certain uncertainty in the teaching on the eternity of torments. Of the philosophical influences on the system of Gregory the Theologian, Neoplatonism is the most in evidence.

Gregory of Nyssa (c. 335 – c. 394) – father of the church, was born in Cappadocia. He taught rhetoric, but under the influence of two other "Cappadocians" – his brother, St. Basil the Great, and St. Gregory Nazianzen – he became a monk, and later, against his own wishes and under the influence of the same Basil, accepted the office of bishop of Nyssa in Cappadocia. He preached regularly in Constantinople and took part in the First Council of Constantinople (381). Not a very skillful administrator, Gregory was at the same time a talented preacher and a profound theologian. Enthralled by Neoplatonism and the teaching of Origen, he sought to demonstrate the beauty of Christian asceticism (especially in the Life of Macrina, devoted to his sister, and in the work "On Virginity") and to justify the dogmas of the Trinity, the divinity of Christ, and redemption. In his teaching he followed chiefly Basil the Great and Gregory Nazianzen. In addition to his letters (c. 30) and numerous sermons and exegetical works, among his most important works are the treatise "Against Eunomius" in 12 books (c. 381) and the Great Catechism (after 381).

John Chrysostom, Ioannes Chrysostomos (Greek Ioannes Chrisostomos; 347–407) – Christian saint, theologian, one of the greatest Fathers of the Church. From 372 John Chrysostom continued his theological education. Having then withdrawn into the desert, John Chrysostom spent four years there in the company of monks, and then a further two years in complete solitude. One of his fellow students, Theodore, likewise entered monastic life, but later left the monastery for the sake of an Antiochene beauty named Hermione. This gave John Chrysostom occasion to write his second work – "To Theodore After His Fall" (373). Another companion of John Chrysostom – Basil the Great, having become a bishop, reproached John Chrysostom for his flight from the higher priesthood. In response to these reproaches John Chrysostom wrote "On the Priesthood" – one of the finest works of patristic literature: it depicts the ideal of the Christian pastor, the scope of his duties, and the qualities required of him. At this time many were hostile toward the monasteries, which often took away from society its best people. On this occasion John Chrysostom wrote three "Discourses" "In Defense of Monasticism" (386). Eight hundred and four sermons of John Chrysostom are known, though a number of church historians attribute more than 1,000 texts to him.

Augustine of Hippo (Augustinus Sanctus) Aurelius (354–430) – Christian theologian. The forty-three years of Augustine's life after his acceptance of Christianity are regarded in theological tradition as a model of Christian life and service. In Orthodoxy he is recognized as blessed, and in Catholicism as a saint and Doctor of the Church. Augustine is considered the ideological forerunner of the rules followed by a number of monastic orders of the Catholic Church: the Order of Canons Regular of St. Augustine (Augustinian Canons) and the Order of the Hermits of St. Augustine (Augustinian Friars, from whom came Martin

Luther and to which Gregor Mendel belonged), as well as a number of women's Augustinian monastic congregations.

Augustine's literary legacy is very extensive: in his work "Retractationes" (427), devoted to correcting the inaccuracies of his earlier texts, Augustine records that he had corrected 97 works, containing a total of 232 books; also known are 224 of his letters and more than 500 texts of sermons. The philosophical component of Augustine's

продолжение следует...

Продолжение:

Часть 1 9. The emergence of Christianity: the early (pre-Constantinian) period in the history of Christianity
Часть 2 4. The Bible: composition and content. Canon and Apocrypha -
Часть 3 7. The formation of the cult and of the church