Holy Scripture

BIBLE (lat. scriptura = writing, book; gr. Βίβλίον, τό — biblion. to = book, βίβλος, ή — Biblos = Bible) or Holy Scripture — is the word of God revealed to people.

Written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the Bible is a holy book, completely different from all other books that have ever been written. It is also called the Holy Book, the Word of God, the Holy Scriptures (Holy Scriptures) and consists of a collection of books divided into the Old Testament and the New Testament.

The OT books (39 in number) talk about the history, religion and institutions of the Jewish people, and the NT books (27 in number) show the life and teachings of Christ, the founder of Christianity.

The word "Testament" also means inheritance and covenant (agreement) and law. In the biblical sense, the Testament is the Law that God gave to people to live according to His will and to be happy, but it also means the Covenant made by God with the first people, that he will send them a Savior who will free them from slavery original sin.

The authors of the books of the Old Testament are learned people, who knew history and even the events they wrote about; this truth results from the titles and content of these books and from the specialists' research on them. The first established author is Moses, also considered the first great prophet of the OT, to whom is attributed the writing of the Pentateuch (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy); the books of the Pentateuch (v. Pentateuch) talk about the creation of the world, the fall into sin of the first people, the development of human society and the plan of the divine economy for the salvation of man by founding a people chosen to keep faith in one God the Creator, and through which to fulfill the promise of the coming of a savior, who will raise man from sin. From Abraham's race will be born the twelve tribes of Israel, from which the Jewish people will be formed, also called Israel, the "chosen", from which Christ the Savior (Messiah, the one announced by the prophets) was to be born; we follow the historical destiny, the religious-moral life of this people who fell into Egyptian slavery, freed by God through his prophet, Moses, through whom he will give them the first laws and forms of organization and the Law (the Decalogue), and who will carry them the way back to Canaan, the land of the ancestors and of the patriarch Abraham, the progenitor of Israel. The following books of the Pentateuch (Judges, Kings, Chronicles) show the political life, the wars of conquest of all of Canaan and the strengthening of the state of Israel, which will know its greatest flourishing under the heralded Jewish kings David and his son Solomon, who are responsible for the foundation of the country's capital in Jerusalem and the raising of the greatest temple that the history of Israel has known. An important place is occupied by the prophetic books in the OT. Their authors are the 16 prophets, of which four are "great" prophets, because they give more details about the coming of the Messiah: Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Daniel; among the books of the OT we also have a number of books with poetic and philosophical content also called didactic (teaching) books, because they contain teachings regarding man's connection with God, man's rights, but especially the duties to God. The most beautiful of these is the book of Psalms written by the poet-king David. It includes 150 psalms, which are hymns and religious songs of praise to God. The Psalms entered the cult of our Orthodox Church, being transcribed in the service book called the Psalter. Other didactic books are: The Book of Job, permeated by the idea of the purpose of the righteous man's suffering, here on earth; the books of Solomon: Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and the Song of Songs. Proverbs, collection of thoughts, maxims and teachings; Ecclesiastes with the meaning of "speaker" develops the philosophical problem of man's purpose on earth: all his turmoil is "futility", the only happiness is the fulfillment of God's commandments. The Song of Songs, that is, "the most beautiful song", is a poem with a spiritual allegorical character, in which God's love for the chosen people is sung, as well as Christ's love for the Church (for the Christian community).

The second part of the Holy Scripture is formed by the New Testament. Unlike VT. in which we see that the divine Revelation is silent through chosen people, in the NT the divine revelation is perfect, because God addresses people directly, through His incarnate Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. The teaching of Jesus is the new Covenant between man and God; it was transmitted orally, because Jesus spoke to people, without writing anything, but the disciples and the Apostles decided to fix it in writing, so that it would not be lost. Thus, since the first century of the Christian era, the NT took shape, comprising 27 books, which, like the OT books, have a historical, didactic and prophetic character.

The first four books are called the Gospels and are written by four of the Savior's disciples: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. The Gospels tell, with small differences, the events related to the Savior's earthly life: birth, childhood, teaching given to people, miracles performed, passions, death, His Resurrection and ascension to heaven.

We are told about the Descent of the Holy Spirit and the foundation of the Christian Church in the book of the Acts of the Apostles written by St. Luke.

The didactic writings are the 21 Epistles, sent by the Holy Apostles to Christians from the various communities outside Jerusalem. 14 Epistles are written by St. Paul the Apostle, and the remaining 7 belong to the Apostles Peter, Luke, Judas and John.

The last book of the NT, written by St. John the Evangelist, has a prophetic character and is called Revelation. The Apocalypse symbolically shows the Church founded by Jesus Christ, in his fight for the salvation of the world, a fight he will lead until the end of time.

Synthesizing the character and value of Holy Scripture, St. Apostle Paul writes: "All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for wisdom in righteousness, so that the man of God is perfect, well prepared for every good thing" (II Timothy 3.16-17).

The Holy Scripture was written in Hebrew (Old Testament) and in lb. Greek (the New Testament, apart from the Gospel of Matthew, written in 1b. Aramaic, the Hebrew spoken at the time of the Savior). The Old Testament was translated into Greek under the name Septuagint, during the time of Ptolemy Philadelphus (b. 230 BC), in Alexandria, Egypt, by a group of 72 scholars. In the century IV AD, the Bible was translated entirely into lb. Latin by St. Jerome and is called the Vulgate. St. Jerome used the term Testament for the two parts of the Bible, translating into lb. latin the Hebrew term berith with which the OT was called and which in lb. the Greek was translated with διαθήκη, ή — diatatiki = covenant (Testament) by the translators of the Septuagint. In the century IX the Bible was translated into lb. slavonic Starting from the century XVI, after the appearance of Protestantism, it began to be translated into all national languages. The truths of faith that are the basis of Christian teaching are found in the Bible and Holy Tradition.

Christians take the Bible as it was written.

The finality of the OT is in the NT

The texts of Holy Scripture that speak of revealed truths are research tools in biblical archaeology.

Source: Rev. Prof. Ene Branişte, Prof. Ecaterina Branişte, "Dictionary of religious knowledge", "Andreiana" Publishing House, Sibiu, 2010.

TESTAMENT