Orthodox Outlet for Dogmatic Enquiries Holy Bible
Holy Bible (Old and New Testaments)

Orthodox Perspective - Academic Sources - Hermeneutics

 

Strictly speaking, there never was a Bible in the Orthodox Church, at least not as we commonly think of the Bible as a single volume book we can hold in our hand. Since the beginning of the Church, from the start of our liturgical tradition, there has never been a single book in an Orthodox church we could point to as the Bible. Instead, the various Books of the Bible are found scattered throughout several service books located either on the Holy Altar itself, or at the chanter's stand. The Gospels (or their pericopes) are compiled into a single volume — usually bound in precious metal and richly decorated — placed on the Holy Altar. The Epistles (or, again, their pericopes) are bound together in another book, called the Apostolos, which is normally found at the chanter's stand. Usually located next to the Apostolos on the chanter's shelf are the twelve volumes of the Menaion, as well as the books called the Triodion and Pentekostarion, containing various segments of the Old and the New Testaments.

The fact that there is no Bible in the church should not surprise us, since our liturgical tradition is a continuation of the practices of the early Church, when the Gospels and the letters from the Apostles (the Epistles) had been freshly written and copied for distribution to the Christian communities. The Hebrew Scriptures -what we now call the Old Testament - comprising the Law (the first five books) and the Prophets, were likewise written on various scrolls, just as they were found in the Jewish synagogues. The Church is not based on the Bible. Rather, the Bible is a product of the Church. For the first few centuries of the Christian era, no one could have put his hands on a single volume called "The Bible". In fact, there was no agreement regarding which books of Scripture were to be considered accurate and correct, or canonical.

-- Greek Orthodox Diocese of Denver Bulletin: March 1995, Volume 3, Number 3., pp. 14-17

ê LIST OF ARTICLES  ê


>  "Let the sinless one among you cast the first stone!"

Old Testament prophecies hinting the Crucifixion and confirmed historically

Ø  Lazarus Saturday

Ø  The end of Judas and the potter's field

Ø  How many women anointed Jesus' feet?

Ø  Divine Providence: From God's Law to God's Grace

Ø  The history of Judas

Ø  The soul's deeper craving

Ø  "James" or "Jacob" in the Bible?

Ø  Preaching without a Bible

Ø  The Man Born Blind and the Pool of Siloam

Ø  A Ring Unearthed 50 Years Ago Likely Belonged To Pontius Pilate

Ø  A Prophecy of Christ Revealing More Than 66 Books in the Bible

Ø  Divine commands for genocide

Ø  "Show them no mercy!"

Ø  Has the Bible become an idol ?

Ø   Jesus Christ, the "Alpha" and the "Omega"

Ø  Morality, Freedom and way of existence in Orthodoxy.

Ø  Is the Holy Bible the Logos in written form?

Ø  The Bible: Its Original Languages and English Translations

Ø  The Hebrew Bible Moses Couldn’t Read

Ø  Why does the Bible speak in riddles?

Ø  Shadow, Image, Servants and Children

Ø  Has the Bible become an Idol?

Ø  Frequent Bible Reading Tied to Social Justice, Openness to Science

Ø  Was Adam an actual or a symbolic figure according to the Fathers of the Church?

Ø  Expiation, Blood & Atonement

Ø  Septuagint quotes in the New Testament

Ø  Saint Athanasius: Excerpt of a Homily on the Passion of the Lord and on the Cross

Ø  Does Isaiah really teach the juridical theory of  a "demented god" who punishes one innocent in the place of sinners?

Ø  In defense of the Septuagint

Ø  The definition of the word "Gynai"

Ø  David, Goliath and the Divinely-inspired sources of the Faith

Ø  THE BOOK OF TOBIT (Part 1)

Ø  The importance of the Septuagint

Ø  The Old Testament Prophecy about the Virgin Birth

Ø  Is it Christian, to accept ONLY what the Holy Bible says?

Ø  Is the Holy Bible the ONLY source of faith?

Ø  IS THE BIBLE “The Word Of God”?

Ø  The Protestant mentality and the Scriptural critics’ misconceptions

Ø  Is “SOLA SCRIPTURA” (=only the Scripture) the key to the Truth?

Ø  Fr. Romanides’ comments on the infallibility of the Holy Bible

Ø  On divine inspiration

Ø  The Interpretation of the Holy Bible

Ø  Classification of the books of the Holy Bible

Ø  Tradition and Traditions (Book)

Ø  Sources that verify the Canonicity of the Holy Bible:

Ø  Synod of Laodicea

Ø  Synod of Carthage

Ø  85th Apostolic canon

Ø  Saint Athanasius

Ø  Saint Gregory the Theologian

Ø  Saint Amphilochius of Ikonion

Ø  When, exactly, was Jesus Christ born?

Ø  The brothers of Christ

Ø  Who got married at the wedding of Cana?

Ø  Jesus and the swine

Ø  Science analyzes the Crucifixion and the Resurrection of Christ

Ø  Decrypting the… Da Vinci Code!

Ø  Was Adam created perfect?

Ø  God’s “breathing upon” Adam was the Holy Spirit

Ø  Why all the hype over the so-called “Gospel of Judas”?

Ø  The true reason for the publicity behind the Gnostic “Gospel of Judas”

Ø  The infants of Babylon and the Stone

Ø  Saturday of Lazarus

Ø  Is Our Copy of the Bible a Reliable Copy of the Original?

Ø  Mummy Mask May Reveal Oldest Known Gospel

File published in English on: 4-8-2005.

Last update: 02-12-2018.

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