The Holy Gospel is the most important book in the life of an Orthodox Christian, the most sacred book of the Holy Mother of our Church. Apparently, it was precisely while reading the Holy Scriptures that the parents found the child Jesus in the Jerusalem Temple (Luke 2:46-47). It was precisely from the Gospel that the newly converted Christians of the apostolic age studied the faith.(Acts 17:11). It is with the Gospel that both the Holy Fathers and our priests in churches strongly advise modern believers to check their daily actions.

The Gospel is the main, but not the only book used during services in churches. The Apostle is also read from the pulpit. Other liturgical books are used in the choir - menaion, octoechos, psalter... They are publicly available today and can be purchased in large church stores. But, unfortunately, not many people know what these books are (with the exception of clergy and some scientists). We will tell you today what books are on the choir bookshelves.

Liturgical books– contain, in whole or in part, the rites of service and statutory instructions. Each liturgical book has its own “core” - the basis of its content - and applications that are included in it for ease of use. Sometimes these applications may be the same for different books. All these books are divided into two parts - sacred liturgical and church liturgical. The first include books borrowed from the Bible - Gospel, Apostle, Psalter. To the second, compiled on the basis of Holy Scripture and Holy Tradition, transmitted by the Fathers and teachers of the Church: Book of Hours, Service Book, Menaion, Octoechos, Triodion, Typikon, Irmologium, Breviary.

Liturgical Gospel

The Gospels are the first four books of the New Testament, which describe the teaching, life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Each book is named after the author-compilers - the apostles Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. The word “Gospel” itself translated from Greek means good news. In Byzantine-Slavic liturgical writing, several types of Gospels developed: Gospel-chetiy (for reading), Gospel aprakos(for services), Explanatory Gospel, Teaching Gospel.

In the Aprakos Gospel, short Gospel texts were arranged in the order of readings for each week (week) of the liturgical year. This Gospel became the first translation of the Holy Book into the Slavic language, made in 863-867 by the Slavic first teachers, Saints Equal to the Apostles Cyril and Methodius.

The liturgical Gospel that we hear in church is slightly different in its text structure from the Gospel that we are used to reading at home. In the liturgical Gospel the text is divided into “conceptions” (passages). Each “conception” has an initial phrase that we hear during worship, but never find in the text of the Gospel - “At the time it was...” or “The Lord spoke.” At the end of the liturgical Gospel there is an index of readings for each day of the year.

Apostle

This liturgical book, compiled by the Byzantine Church, contains the “Acts” and “Epistle” of the holy apostles (the epistles of the Apostle James, the two epistles of the Apostle Peter, the three epistles of the Apostle John, the epistle of the Apostle Jude, and the fourteen epistles of the Apostle Paul). By analogy with the Gospel books, the “Apostle” was divided into three types.

“Apostle” is read at the Divine Liturgy, before reading the Gospel. In addition to the listed books, the liturgical “Apostle” also contains a collection of general and Sunday prokeimns, prokeimns for special services (dedicated to martyrs, prophets...) and alleluia - individual verses from the Psalter or other books of Holy Scripture.

The entire text of the “Apostle” is divided into 335 concepts, each of which corresponds to the reading of one day. The beginning and end of each reading are marked with an asterisk, and below the line there are two instructions for the readers: when to read “conception” and the words that begin the concept when reading (“Brotherhood”, “Child Timothy”, “Beloved.”).

And it is also worth noting that “The Apostle” is the first book printed in Russia, published in 1564 in the first printing house of Ivan Fedorov.

Psalter

This is one of the books of the Old Testament, consisting of songs of praise - psalms. In addition to the psalms of the prophet David, of which there are no less than 78, there is one more (89th) belonging to Moses, eleven psalms (41-48, 83, 84, 86) of the Levites, the sons of Korah, twelve (49, 72-82) Asaph the prophet, also from the tribe of Levi, one (87th) of Heman and one (88th) of Etham, contemporaries of David. All 150 psalms were collected into one book by the high priest Ezra. Later, another one was added to the canonical psalms - the 151st, dedicated to the psalmist David.

The Psalter is divided into 20 sections, called kathismas, each of which, in turn, is divided into three parts of “Glory”, ending with the prayer “Glory to the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.” The Psalter was very popular both in the pre-Christian period and from the era of early Christianity. It was translated into the Slavic language in the initial period of the emergence of Old Slavic writing, since without its text it was impossible to perform a church service.

Today, the daily services of the Orthodox Church include fifty psalms, including the Six Psalms. The entire Psalter is read during worship within one week, and during Lent - twice a week. For worship, the following psalter is also used - a book indicating the troparia and prayers read after the kathismas. The book can contain a book of hours and months.

Missal

This book is for deacons and priests. It contains the sequences of the three Divine Liturgies that are served in the Orthodox Church - Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, Liturgy of St. Basil the Great and Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts. Hence the second name of this book - liturgiary. All the sequences of the service book are given precisely from the point of view of the clergy: all the prayers, litanies, exclamations that they pronounce; all the actions that they must perform. This book also indicates what is read or sung in the choir at this time. In addition to the rite of the Divine Liturgy, the Service Book contains rite of Vespers and Matins, but in the form in which it is necessary for the deacon and priest.

This composition of the Service Book was formed by the beginning of the 17th century and was recorded in its first printed editions. Before this, the Service Book of Varlaam of Khutyn (XII-XIII centuries) and the Service Book of Metropolitan Cyprian (XIV-XV centuries) were used in services.

The service book has several applications. First of all, vacations- words spoken by the priest at the very end of the service; months - indication of the memory of saints and holidays for each day of the year; prokimny which the deacons proclaim.

Let us also mention a book called Bishop's service book or Official of the bishop's clergy. Its content coincides with the usual Service Book, but is supplemented by the rite of one sacrament that cannot be performed by a priest - the Sacrament of Ordination (ordination). Also in this book is the sequence of the rite of consecration of the antimension. It is not considered one of the main sacraments of the Church, however, it is closely connected with them.

Book of Hours

This is the main book for choir use. Its composition is attributed to the Monk Sava the Sanctified (532). Then it was supplemented by John of Damascus and Theodore the Studite. The appearance of the first complete Books of Hours dates back to the 9th century. (It was according to the Book of Hours that children were taught to read in Ancient Rus'). The Book of Hours contains unchangeable prayers of the services of the daily daily circle: Matins, Midnight Office, Fine Office, Vespers and Hours with Interhours (hence the name). There are two types of Book of Hours: large and small.

Great Book of Hours contains the sequences of the Midnight Office of the day, Saturday and Sunday, Great and Lesser Compline, the Hours with the hours between them. This book also includes prayers for the Eves of the Nativity of Christ, Epiphany and Friday of Holy Week; succession of Fine, daily and Paschal Matins, Great and Small Vespers. In addition, the modern Slavic Book of Hours contains morning prayers read after the Midnight Office, a blessing of the meal after Vespers, a canon to the Mother of God, prayers for the future, troparia and kontakia, a monthly book with hymns in honor of the saints and other prayers.

Small Book of Hours is an abbreviation of a large book of hours.

Menaea

This liturgical book is also used mainly in the choir. It appeared in our churches at the end of the 10th century, from the time when its first translation into the Slavic language was made from the Greek mena on Mount Athos and Ohrid. The second edition, Russian, was created on the basis of the South Slavic translation in the middle of the 11th century. Menaia come in three types.

Menaea menstruation contain variable chants of fixed holidays for one month. It consists of 12 books according to the number of months in the year, but almost each month can be divided into two or three books, so there are many more volumes. The first book of the menaion begins with the church new year - September 14 according to the new style. There are publications in which one book includes two or three months; sometimes the menaion consists of two books - September (September-February) and March (March-August); sometimes from one - annual. But such publications are extremely rare today.

Festive Menaion is a convenient liturgical collection, a selection from the monthly Menaion for the entire year. It includes services for the twelve feasts of the Lord and the Mother of God, some of the most revered icons of the Mother of God and great saints. This book is not required for worship, but is used by readers for convenience. The festive Menaion may also include commemorations of ordinary saints, whose memory coincides with the pre-celebrations and post-celebrations of fixed holidays.

Menaea common consists of modified prayers and hymns that the Church assigned to the saints of one or another face - prophets, saints, apostles, and so on. For each face of saints there are two sequences: for the service alone to the saint and for service several saints of the same face . The texts in it are composed in such a way that they glorify the saint’s feat in its general terms. Most chants leave spaces: name - the name of the saint to whom the memory is being celebrated is inserted.

Usually the “General Menaia” is used together with the “Festive Menaia” where the “Monthly Menaia” is missing. The “General” and “Festive” Menaions are also used when it is necessary to perform a service to a saint (for example, a newly glorified saint), the following of which is either not at all in the Menaions of Menstruation, or it is incomplete.

The Menaion contains one appendix – Theotokos.

There is also a fourth version of this book - "Cheti-Menei". It contains, in calendar order, the lives of saints whose memory the Church honors daily. “Cheti-Menei” is divided into twelve volumes, corresponding to the months of the year. At the very beginning of its creation, this book was intended for choir reading, but it soon became so popular, not only among clergy, but also among ordinary believers, that it soon ended up on the shelves of home and public libraries. The “Cheti-Menei” compiled by St. Demetrius of Rostov were and continue to be especially popular.

Triodion

Triodion translated into Church Slavonic means “trisong”. This name is determined by the fact that the canons contained in it mostly consist of three songs. After the sixth song of the canon, the Synaxarium is placed - a collection of historical information about a holiday or about a saint. The authors of the Byzantine Triodion are many Holy Fathers, including the Venerable Roman the Sweet Singer, Andrew of Crete (let us remember his Great Penitential Canon), and John of Damascus.

According to the testimony of the first synaxarion of the Lenten Triodion, these hymns were collected into one book by the Monks Theodore and Joseph the Studites. In the 9th century the saints the brothers, combining the 200-year experience of their predecessors and adding stichera and canons of their own work to their works, created a church service prayer book containing about one hundred and sixty large and small services - the triodion. In the 10th century, this book was divided into two parts: Lenten Triodion And Triodion Colored.

Lenten Triodion contains modified prayer books for the Lenten cycle services. It begins with three preparatory weeks for Lent (with the Week of the Publican and the Pharisee)

The first two preparatory weeks of the Triodion are used only at Sunday services, and starting from the Saturday before the Last Judgment Week and throughout the entire Pentecost - daily. A very special period: Lazarus Saturday, Palm Sunday and Holy Week. At the Midnight Office before Easter Matins, the Lenten Triodion is used for the last time in the annual cycle of services.

On Easter night the service begins Triodion Colored, otherwise called penticostarion, (from the Greek word - Pentecost) , which contains modified prayers for the services of Easter, Easter Week and all the time until Pentecost and All Saints Sunday, when the last service according to this book is performed.

Octoechos

This book was compiled at the beginning of the 7th century. A hundred years later it was edited and supplemented by Saint John of Damascus. The Octoechos contains the chants of Vespers, Compline, Matins and Liturgy (and on Sundays - Little Vesper and Midnight) of the weekly cycle, sung in one voice. There are eight voices in total (hence the name of this book - Osmoglasnik; Greek). Word and sound are inseparable in this book. In the vocal system, this is very easy to feel, because when the voice changes, not only the tunes change, but also the texts that correspond to the liturgical themes of the days of the week. After completing the cycle of eight weeks, the singing of the Octoechos begins again with the chants of the first tone. The change of voice occurs on Saturday evening, at the Sunday all-night vigil.

Each day of the week in Octoechos is associated with the remembrance of a certain face of saints or sacred events: Sunday is dedicated to the Lord Jesus Christ and his Resurrection; Monday's hymns are of a penitential nature and sing of the holy angels; on Tuesday they glorify St. John the Baptist; on Wednesday and Friday - hymns are dedicated to the Holy Cross and the Mother of God; on Thursday - they glorify the apostles and St. Nicholas the Wonderworker; On Saturday, All Saints and departed Christians are commemorated in prayer.

There are two periods of action of Octoechos. From the Sunday of All Saints to the Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee, this book interacts only with the Menaion. It's called period of the singing of the Octoechos. The Sunday service always dominates the weekly cycle of worship. It can only be canceled if it coincides with the Twelfth Feast of the Lord. IN period of singing of the Triodion Octoekh is connected with the Triodion and at this time it is used less often: on weekdays of Great Lent - only at certain moments of the service, but on Sundays it comes first. From Lazarus Saturday to Great Saturday, the Octoechos is not used at all.

Octoechos also contains numerous applications. One of them contains a table from which one can determine which of the eleven Sunday Gospels is read at Sunday Matins on a given day. The Gospel texts themselves are also placed in the Octoechos. Another appendix contains liturgical texts (exapostilary, his Theotokos and Gospel stichera), which are related to the Gospel reading. They depend not on the voice, but on the Gospel reading on a given Sunday.

It is also worth noting that starting from the 13th-14th centuries, several types of the abbreviated Octoechos became widespread: Elective Octoechos, Paracliticus, Six-Day Service and Theotokos.

Irmology

This is a singing book. It contains irmos from various liturgical books and is distributed among eight voices. The voice itself consists of nine songs, according to their number in the complete canon. Most of the irmos included in the Irmology are borrowed from the canons of Octoechos, as well as from the Menaion and Triodion. This liturgical book has an appendix - prayers that are sung by singers at Liturgies - St. John Chrysostom, St. Basil the Great and the Presanctified Gifts; various Theotokos, troparia performed at Matins and Polyeleos, prokemenyas, prophetic biblical songs and others. However, the same application is available in the Menstruation Menu.

Breviary

This book is used by clergy. All the rites contained in the Trebnik are not performed every day, but as necessary, upon request - baptism, memorial services, funeral services, betrothal and wedding services; Confirmation, various rites of consecration. The earliest Slavic copy of the Trebnik is Glagolitic (11th century), kept in the library of the Sinai Monastery of St. Catherine. It is an incomplete translation from Greek of special prayers and services for various occasions. The oldest Russian Trebniks have also been preserved in monastic libraries - these are the monastic Trebniks.

In the modern Trebnik, several thematic sections of various rites and prayers can be distinguished: those that are performed by the priest in the church or outside it, and those that occur at the request of the worshipers in connection with their life circumstances.

In addition to the monastic Breviaries, there are bishop's Breviaries, which contain both the rites and rituals necessary for monastics, and those that are performed only by the bishop - the rites of ordination, installation of abbot, chrismation, consecration of the antimension, special prayers of the bishop.

Typicon

The very first Typicons - monastic Rules - appeared along with the birth of monasticism in the 3rd-4th centuries. The most famous are the Typicons of Studite, Jerusalem and the Great Church. The latter was common in Rus' until the 11th century. Then, in the Kiev-Pechersk Monastery, the St. Theodosius of Pechersk introduced the Studite Typikon. In the 14th century, the Monk Afanasy Vysotsky translated from Greek and brought from Constantinople the Jerusalem Typikon, which began to be used in Rus'.

In its entirety, the Typikon consists of two large sections: liturgical and disciplinary. In the liturgical book, instructions are given on what days and hours, in what order and how all the sequences that are in the above-mentioned liturgical books are combined and read. The liturgical section of this book (also called Liturgical) is divided into two parts - triode and synaxarium. The first contains a description of the liturgical sequences according to the Lenten and Colored Triodion, the second, synaxar, - according to the monthly word for the entire annual circle

The modern Typikon can be divided according to its content into three main parts. Part one (from chapters 1 to 47) contains general instructions on the procedure for performing services. The second (chapters 47-52) contains a description of the liturgical sequences for each day of the year. The third part (chapters 52-60) contains a singing appendix to the Typikon.

There is also the “Explanatory Typikon” Mikhail Skaballanovich. In it, the author gives a detailed explanatory presentation of the Typikon with an analysis of the historical circumstances of the formation of the liturgical charter. When considering each fragment of the charter, discussions are given about its meaning, significance and history.

Prepared by Dimitry Bogachev

September 24-28, 2018 in Moscow The First International Conference “The Gospel of Matthew: Historical and Theological Context”, which was prepared and held jointly with the international Society for New Testament Studies (SNTS), as well as the Higher School of Economics (HSE).

The rector of the OTSAD made a plenary report on the topic “The Gospel of Matthew in the Church Tradition and in Modern Science” at the conference.

Dear conference participants! Dear fathers, brothers and sisters!

Our meeting is dedicated to the first book of the New Testament canon - the Gospel of Matthew. It is often called the “Gospel of the Church,” primarily because it was much more famous in the early Church than the Gospels of Mark and Luke. From the earliest periods of Christian history it has attracted the greatest attention of exegetes. At the beginning of the 2nd century, Ignatius the God-Bearer already referred to it, and in the first half of the 3rd century, Origen wrote a full commentary on it. In the 4th century, John Chrysostom compiled a complete commentary on it. It is not surprising that in modern times, during the era of the formation of academic New Testament biblical studies, this Gospel became the subject of debate. In my report, I would like to identify and evaluate the contradictions in the assessment of the origin, dating and content of this Gospel that exist between church tradition and modern biblical scholarship. I would like to offer my thoughts on the Church Tradition that preserves information about the origin of the Gospel of Matthew, and call for greater confidence in this evidence. In addition, I would like to assess the significance of the contradictions between Church Tradition and academic biblical studies for modern Orthodox theology.

In the first part of my report, I will describe the image of the author of the Gospel of Matthew, which can be reconstructed on the basis of the Gospel text itself. In this part I will rely on the presentation given in the first volume of my study on Jesus Christ. In the second part, I will consider the evidence for the origin of the Gospel of Matthew, which can be gleaned from the Tradition of the Church, and analyze it from the standpoint of the criterion of theological conditionality. In conclusion, I will present my thoughts on the theological “background” of the Gospel narrative, starting from the discussion around the concept of the Church in the Gospel of Matthew.

1. The Gospel of Matthew: what does the text say about its author?

Let us begin by presenting positions that are obvious from the Gospel text itself and which can be considered consensus both for the church tradition and for the scientific community.

What can you tell from the text of the Gospel of Matthew about its author? It is obvious that he is a Jew, well acquainted with the Jewish environment and the traditional interpretation of the Old Testament for this environment. Abundant quoting of the Old Testament is also characteristic of other Evangelists, but Matthew stands out among them in that he most consistently pursues the idea of ​​the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies in the life of Jesus as the promised Messiah.

The Gospel of Matthew differs in composition from the other two synoptic Gospels. Significant space is devoted to the speeches of Jesus. There are five such speeches in it: the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:3-7:27); instruction to the disciples (Matthew 10:5-42); teaching in parables (Matt. 13:3-52); another instruction to the disciples (Matthew 18:3-35); prophecies and parables about the end times (Matthew 24:3-25:46). Each of these speeches is stitched together with the subsequent narrative using the formula “When Jesus finished these words” (Matt. 7:28; 19:1) or something similar (Matt. 11:1; 13:53; 19:1). The fifth teaching is followed by the words of the Evangelist: “When Jesus had finished all these words...” (Matthew 26:1). Thus, Matthew places special emphasis on Jesus' teaching ministry, embedding several lengthy speeches into the narrative fabric.

Matthew, more than the other Evangelists, emphasizes the royal dignity of Jesus. It is no coincidence that in the very first verse he calls Him “the son of David,” emphasizing His descent from the royal family:

Matthew shows the Messiah as King—crowned, rejected, and coming again. In this Gospel, like no other, Jesus is depicted in royal colors. His lineage is determined by the royal line of Israel, His life is threatened by an envious king, the wise men from the East bring royal gifts to the baby Jesus, and John the Baptist proclaims Him King and proclaims that His Kingdom is at hand. Even temptations in the wilderness reach their climax when Satan offers Christ all the kingdoms of the world for his possession. The Sermon on the Mount is a manifesto of the King, miracles confirm His royal regalia, and many of the parables reveal the secrets of His Kingdom. In one of the parables, Jesus compares Himself to the son of a king and later enters Jerusalem royally. In the face of death on the cross, He foretells His future reign and declares power over the angels of heaven. His last words affirm that all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Him (Matthew 28:18) 1 .

The text of the Gospel of Matthew indicates that its main addressee was Jewish readers. This is confirmed by numerous examples. In particular, Matthew calls Jerusalem the “holy city” (Matt. 4:5). Mark and Luke would probably have explained which city they were talking about; for Matthew and his readers it is clear that the holy city is Jerusalem, because for the Jews there was no other “holy city” in the universe, just as there was no other temple except the temple of Jerusalem.

In the Gospel of Matthew there are many Aramaic words left without translation, for example: “Whoever says to his brother “raká” is guilty of fiery hell” (Matthew 5:22); “You cannot serve God and mammon” (Matthew 6:24). Borrowings from Hebrew or Aramaic are also found in Mark, but Mark, as a rule, translates them (for example, Mark 5:41), and Matthew in a number of cases considers this unnecessary, since, obviously, his readers, unlike the readers Mark, the meaning of these words was known.

Many events in the life of Jesus are presented in Matthew as the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies. We also find allusions to the Old Testament and quotes from it in other Evangelists, but their share in Matthew is much greater: in his Gospel we find about 60 such quotes and allusions, while, for example, in Mark there are three times less.

The Gospel of Matthew contains parallelisms characteristic of Semitic literature. For example: “He who saves his life will lose it; but he who loses his life for My sake will save it” (Matthew 10:39). As is well known, parallelism is especially characteristic of Hebrew poetry: in many psalms, the verses are clearly divided into two parts, parallel to one another (for example, in Psalm 50). It is obvious that these parallelisms reflect one of the precious features of Jesus' oral speech preserved by Matthew.

A characteristic technique of Jewish poetry is the use of a particular phrase as a refrain. In Matthew, when reproducing the speech of Jesus, formulas such as, for example, “by their fruits you will know them” are repeated many times (Matthew 7:16, 20), “there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 8:12; 13:42 ; 22:13), “woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites” (Matt. 23:13-15, 23, 25, 27), “fools and blind” (Matt. 23:17, 19). These refrains also reflect one of the features of Jesus' speech.

An example that confirms that the Gospel of Matthew was addressed primarily to a Jewish audience is the words of Jesus: “Pray that your flight does not happen in winter or on the Sabbath” (Matthew 24:20). The mention of the Sabbath had meaning only for the Jews, for whom fleeing on the Sabbath meant violating the commandment of Sabbath rest.

The Gospel of Matthew begins where the Old Testament ends. The last book of the Nevi'im (Prophets) section, Malachi 2, ends with a prophecy that in the Christian tradition is interpreted as referring to John the Baptist. Matthew begins his story with the birth of Jesus and the preaching of John the Baptist. Perhaps this, as well as the general orientation of the Gospel of Matthew, the addressee of which was primarily Jewish Christians, became the reason that this Gospel was placed in first place in the canon of the New Testament, as if connecting the Old Testament with the New.

The theme of the relationship between the two Testaments is one of the central themes in Matthew. It is in his presentation that Jesus builds His main teaching - the Sermon on the Mount - on a comparison of the moral postulates He offers with the commandments of the Law of Moses: “You have heard what was said to the ancients... But I say to you...” (Matthew 5:21; 5 :27; 5:33; 5:43). Moreover, only in Matthew Jesus says: “Do not think that I came to destroy the law or the prophets: I came not to destroy, but to fulfill... Until heaven and earth pass, not one jot or one tittle will pass from the law, until everything will not be fulfilled” (Matthew 5:17-18). Only in Matthew does Jesus emphasize the importance of the Old Testament law, while in the other two synoptics this motive is virtually absent.

Moreover, in Matthew, Jesus, although he criticizes the Pharisees, still says that they must be obeyed: “The scribes and Pharisees sat in the seat of Moses; So whatever they tell you to observe, observe and do; But do not follow their works” (Matthew 23:2-3). We will not find such advice in any other Gospel.

Jesus' disputes with the Pharisees, recorded in the Gospel of Matthew, often touch on topics related to the interpretation of Old Testament law. Representatives of various schools of rabbinic thought of His era waged similar disputes among themselves. A reflection of these disputes can be seen in the words of Jesus about the oath of the temple or the golden temple, the altar or the gift that is on it, about the tithe of mint, anise and cumin; about the outside and inside of a cup or dish (Matt. 23:16-26). For the readers of Mark and Luke this issue was irrelevant, whereas the intended reader of Matthew would have known the context in which Jesus developed His thoughts.

2. Tradition of the Church about the writing of the Gospel of Matthew and the criterion of theological conditionality

These are the indirect evidence about the author of the Gospel of Matthew that the Gospel text itself gives us. We can draw conclusions about his origin and worldview, but all other questions, without which further discussion is impossible: the identity of the author, time, geographical scope and the reason for writing the text - the biblical text does not give us obvious answers.

At the same time, the answers to these questions were kept and transmitted by the Church from the earliest times, and if we trace the thread of church tradition, we will come almost to New Testament times. In fact, the earliest church evidence for the authorship of the first book of the New Testament canon is almost as ancient as the earliest manuscript evidence for the New Testament itself. It dates back to the second half of the 2nd century. and belongs to the holy martyr Irenaeus of Lyons. This text is well known, but we find it appropriate to quote it here:

Matthew published the scriptures of the Gospel among the Jews in their own language, while Peter and Paul in Rome preached the gospel and founded the Church. After their departure, Mark, Peter's disciple and translator, gave us in writing what was preached by Peter. And Luke, Paul's companion, set forth in a book the Gospel he preached. Then John, the disciple of the Lord, reclining on His chest, also published the Gospel during his stay in Ephesus of Asia 3 .

This text belongs to a man who set himself the task of presenting Church Tradition in counterbalance to the numerous heresies that arose at that time. The text shows that already in the 2nd century there was a stable understanding of how the four Gospels were created and about their authors. If we add to this that Irenaeus of Lyons was a student of Polycarp of Smyrna, a student of the Apostle John the Theologian, then we receive evidence that practically connects us with apostolic times.

In the testimony of St. Irenaeus we see four points that complement the gospel testimony and are not derived from it:

2) The Gospel of Matthew was written first among all the canonical Gospels;

3) it was written at the time when Peter and Paul were founding the church in Rome, therefore between the years 45 and 65;

4) it was written in the language of the Jews, that is, Hebrew or Palestinian Aramaic.

As is well known, all of these points have been questioned in modern academic biblical scholarship. Most modern researchers are inclined to believe that the Gospel of Matthew appeared after the Gospel of Mark and after the destruction of Jerusalem in 70. B. Streeter's hypothesis that the Gospel of Matthew was written around 85 AD turned out to be very tenacious. in Antioch. The main argument in favor of this dating is that the words of Jesus quoted in Matthew contain a clear indication of the destruction of the Jerusalem temple (Matthew 24: 1-2). This argument presupposes a priori the idea that Jesus Christ lacked the gift of prophecy. In other words, he proceeds from a predetermined ideological premise, which actually replaces historical evidence.

However, is it possible to deny historicity to Church Tradition only on the grounds that it is an object of faith? We know well that in the absence of evidence of the earliest history of the creation of the biblical text, researchers inevitably turn to tradition. Let's say we have no early evidence of the writing of prophetic texts of the Old Testament or the Torah that would have arisen outside the Jewish tradition itself. Even such monumental discoveries as the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls cannot shed light on questions such as the origins of the books of Ezekiel or Micah. A similar situation occurs with many New Testament texts. Under these conditions, researchers were forced to formulate criteria for the reliability of evidence by which one or another piece of evidence from a biblical text or tradition could be assessed. These criteria can be boiled down to one main point: can we expect that there is any theological concept behind this or that evidence? Is it possible to say that this or that evidence serves someone’s interests? For example, even critics of Christianity admit that the story of Peter’s abdication could not meet the interests of early Christian communities, because it showed in an unfavorable light the greatest of the preachers of Christianity, who was also considered the founder of the Roman Church. On the contrary, the thesis that Jesus Christ had 12 main disciples has been questioned by many researchers because it is seen as influenced by a certain theological position: the 12 apostles symbolize Israel. It is for this reason that Joseph Klausner, the first Jewish historian to turn to New Testament studies, considered the testimony of the Talmud more reliable, according to which Jesus had 5 disciples: this number, according to the researcher, is not deducible from any theological concept, does not meet anyone’s interests and , therefore, should be considered more reliable.

Leaving aside the question of the validity of such a judgment about the apostles (why couldn’t Jesus choose exactly 12 disciples for Himself, consciously correlating their number with the 12 tribes of Israel? Moreover, from the Gospels we know that He himself made such a comparison), let’s focus on this criterion - I would call it the “criterion of theological conditionality” - and we will try to apply it to the evidence of the early Church about the origin of the Gospel of Matthew. We have identified 4 points on which the testimony conveyed through Irenaeus of Lyons complements Scripture. Could there be anyone's interest behind at least one of them? Let us turn to the first point - the authorship of Matthew. The recognition of authorship by the apostle, an eyewitness of Jesus Christ, certainly gave the text a kind of advantage as written by an eyewitness of the Gospel events. The Gospel of Mark did not have this advantage, and it might be assumed that for this reason it fell into the background. However, we see that the Gospel of Luke from this point of view is even more inferior to the Gospel of Mark: according to Church Tradition, Luke was strongly influenced by the Apostle Paul, who himself was not a disciple of Jesus Christ. Nevertheless, this Gospel has always enjoyed enormous influence in the Church.

Further, it is not clear why the personality of Matthew was given such great importance if his authorship is considered only a legend. It is unclear what significance the identity of the former tax collector must have had for the Jewish community to which the Gospel of Matthew was addressed. Apart from Matthew's former profession, nothing is known about his life from ancient Christian sources. We have a fairly clear idea of ​​the mechanism by which pseudepigrapha arise: a particular work, as a rule, is inscribed with the name of a famous author or legendary character, so that the work receives an authoritative status. In the case of the Gospel inscribed with the name of Matthew, we see no reason to choose just such an author. If the Gospel of Matthew was considered a text written for the Palestinian Jewish community, then it would have been much more natural to inscribe it with the name of James, the brother of the Lord (we know that this is exactly what happened with the apocryphal text telling about the childhood of Mary, which became known as the First Gospel of James). ). It must be admitted that, based on theological criteria, we find no compelling reason to question Matthew's authorship.

The next point is the primacy of the Gospel of Matthew among the other Gospels. In this case, it is also unclear what theological reasons could have prompted the ancient Church to declare the Gospel of Matthew to be the first in time. The only possible basis is the tradition that Matthew wrote for the Jewish community: since the Jerusalem Church was the center from which the worldwide preaching of the Gospel began, the appearance of the first written Gospel should have been associated with this Church.

The third point is the time of creation of the Gospel of Matthew. According to the tradition recorded by Irenaeus of Lyons, Matthew wrote his Gospel at the time when the apostles Peter and Paul were preaching in Rome. This dating seemed to have a clear theological basis: as eyewitness accounts, the Gospels must have been written down quite early. However, a more detailed examination shows that the church tradition set forth by Irenaeus has deeper foundations. An example of a purely theological approach to dating the Gospels is the preface of Theophylact of Bulgaria to his commentary on the Gospel of Matthew. According to Theophylact, all the Synoptic Gospels were written down in a very short period of time and during the lifetime of most of the apostles: Matthew wrote his Gospel in the eighth year after the Ascension of Christ, Mark in the tenth, and Luke in the fifteenth 4 . On the contrary, the testimony of Irenaeus of Lyons establishes a lower limit, before which the Gospels could not have been written: This is the sermon of the apostles Peter and Paul in Rome. In other words, during the first three missionary journeys of the Apostle Paul, not a single Gospel had yet been compiled. And indeed, the authors of the epistles almost never quote the Gospels as a literary source, while the Old Testament is quoted quite abundantly in the Apostolic Epistles. This could be due to the fact that the Gospels did not yet exist in a clearly recorded written form at the time of the appearance of the apostolic epistles, including the epistles of the Apostle Paul, or that they did not receive universal circulation within the Church. We see that the tradition set forth by Irenaeus of Lyons is consistent with the text of the New Testament itself and cannot be explained by the criterion of theological conditionality.

If we turn to the words of Irenaeus of Lyons about the Gospel of Mark, we will see that it dates back quite late - the time “after the departure” of Peter and Paul, that is, after the year 65, very close to the time of the Jewish War and the destruction of Jerusalem. We see that St. Irenaeus (unlike many modern biblical scholars, both secular and ecclesiastical) did not see a theological problem in the late dating of the Gospel of Mark. From the point of view of theological conditionality, he should have dated both Gospels much earlier. And Irenaeus of Lyons had more than enough reasons for such a conditionality, because he was faced with the task of proving to the Gnostics the truth of the canonical Gospels, and it was St. Irenaeus is famous for his purely theological arguments that there can only be four Gospels, and that their number has prototypes already in the Old Testament.

Finally, the last item on our list is the original language of the Gospel of Matthew. By setting forth the tradition that the first Gospel was written in the language of the Jews, Irenaeus of Lyons put himself in a rather dangerous position: while proving to the Gnostics that only the canonical Gospels are authentic, Irenaeus at the same time argued that members of the Church were not dealing with the original Gospel of Matthew, and with translation. Moreover, at the time of Irenaeus, there were still Gnostic communities of the Judeo-Christian persuasion, which used the Hebrew text, which was presented as the original version of the first Gospel.

Meanwhile, the testimony of Irenaeus of Lyons about the original language of the Gospel of Matthew is not the only thing that confirms its rootedness in the earliest Tradition of the ancient Church. Eusebius of Caesarea cites the testimony of Papias of Hierapolis, which he also traces back to apostolic times through a chain of succession:

Matthew wrote down the sayings (λόγια) in the Hebrew dialect, and they were translated as best they could 5.

According to Eusebius, Papias of Hierapolis took his teaching from a certain “presbyter John,” who could be either the Apostle John the Theologian or a man “who stood next to the apostles” 6 . This is already the second legend about the origin of the New Testament texts, which goes back to New Testament times. And it is also confirmed by Irenaeus of Lyons, who directly calls Papias of Hierapolis an eyewitness of the apostles and says that Papias communicated with his teacher, Polycarp of Smyrna:

He is a man who lived a long time ago (ἀρχαίος ἀνήρ), who heard the preaching of the Apostle John and was friends with Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna 7 .

It should be noted that the words of Papias of Hierapolis that the “sayings in the Hebrew dialect” recorded by Matthew were “translated as best they could” 8 sound even more harshly than the testimony of Irenaeus: it follows from them that there were several versions of the Greek translation of Matthew, for the quality of which Papias cannot vouch. The mention of “sayings” could also only raise questions among subsequent generations of Christians: in fact, it called into question the integrity of the first Gospel. What exactly these “sayings” were remains a mystery. There are some apocryphal Gospels (such as the Gospel of Thomas) written in the form of sayings of Jesus. However, in content these sayings differ significantly from those included in the canonical Gospels.

Summing up the fourth point, we note that it also does not find a satisfactory explanation according to the criterion of theological conditionality.

So, we have examined four provisions about the origin of the text of the Gospel of Matthew, which Irenaeus of Lyons cites on the basis of church tradition dating back to apostolic times. Of these, only for the second point we were able to offer a possible theological basis that would allow us to question the historical interpretation.

It seems to us a secondary question whether the Gospel of Matthew appeared earlier or later than the Gospel of Mark. There is some logic in the assumption that the Gospel of Mark was supplemented by Matthew and adapted for a Jewish reader. Nevertheless, we want to show that in resolving the question of the origin of the New Testament texts one cannot ignore the Tradition of the Church, and even more so one cannot abandon it in favor of general reasoning.

History and Theology: A View from Inside the Gospel

Analyzing the text of Irenaeus of Lyons from the point of view of the criterion of theological conditionality, we accepted the “rules of the game” of modern biblical studies and contrasted “theology” and “history.” But we would like to specifically emphasize that this opposition itself is in many cases strained. As an example, let us turn to one particular issue of the isagogy of the Gospel of Matthew - the use of church theological terminology in it.

Matthew's Gospel is the only one of the four that mentions the Church twice (Matthew 16:18; 18:17). This is the only Gospel in which the baptismal formula is used “in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 28:19). Some scholars see this as confirmation of the dating of the Gospel of Matthew to the end of the 1st century, when the Church, in their opinion, had already created its own fairly developed liturgical tradition, which included baptismal and eucharistic formulas. Matthew, according to this view, adapted the Gospel of Mark in the light of the later liturgical tradition of the Church.

In our opinion, such a representation perfectly demonstrates the artificiality of the opposition between “theology” and “history.” Researchers put into this opposition the meaning that the “theological” inevitably turns out to be secondary, not allowing that this or that theological position from the very beginning could be inherent in the Christian community and be perceived directly from the lips of its Founder. In fact, the term “Church” appears many times in the letters of the Apostle Paul, written in the 50s and the first half of the 60s. The appearance of this term in the Gospel of Matthew, therefore, does not at all mean that it was written later than the other Gospels. As for the baptismal formula, according to Matthew, it belongs to Jesus and should have been used in the Church from the very beginning. From the Acts of the Apostles we know that baptism and the Eucharist were the initial formative elements on which the life of the Church was built in the very first months and years after the resurrection of Jesus (Acts 1:41-42). At baptism, a formula was to be used that went back to Jesus Himself, and at the celebration of the Eucharist, the words that He spoke at the Last Supper were to be used: they are conveyed to us in a fairly uniform form by all three Evangelist Synoptics (Matt. 26:26-28; Mark. 14:22-24; Luke 22:17-20).

We have every reason to believe that both baptism and the Eucharist are primary to the fixed written text of any of the four Gospels. Consequently, the presence of a baptismal formula in the Gospel of Matthew does not at all speak in favor of its later origin in relation to the Gospel of Mark.

One of the significant arguments put forward by researchers in favor of the late origin of both the Gospel of Matthew and the other Gospels was an indication of the fact that the Gospel text contains obvious references to church tradition, in particular to the already established liturgical practice of the Church. It would not be an exaggeration to say that the recognition of this fact was the cause of the great disappointment that ended the so-called “first search for the historical Jesus.” Then the hopes of researchers in the Gospel of Mark as the best source of information about the “historical Jesus” were deceived when a number of studies (in particular, in the works of William Wrede) showed that the entire presentation in the Gospel of Mark is based on a certain theological concept, and It is impossible to separate history from theology in this Gospel.

This crisis of confidence in the Gospel texts as sources of information about Jesus, oddly enough, has a theological basis. In our opinion, it goes back to that strict opposition between Holy Scripture and Holy Tradition, which arose in the wake of the Counter-Reformation in attempts to oppose a certain coherent concept to the thesis of M. Luther “Only Scripture!” Catholic apologists had to show that not only Scripture, but also Tradition are necessary for salvation, and thus they drew a rigid line between Scripture and Tradition. At the same time, Luther's thesis was developed in subsequent Protestant theology. As a result, with the strengthening of the rationalistic approach in the study of the Holy Scriptures, everything related to the sphere of Tradition was automatically recognized as unnecessary and impeding a reliable understanding of the biblical text.

We see a completely different approach in the works of the fathers of the Eastern Church. We will not find in them a strict opposition between Scripture and Tradition. Like modern biblical scholars, the Church Fathers faced situations when the text of Scripture was not enough to answer a particular question. Just as when analyzing the text of the Gospel of Matthew (relying only on this text itself) we are left with a whole series of unresolved questions, the contemporaries of St. Basil the Great could not find in Scripture sufficient grounds for constructing a convincing doctrine of the divinity of the Holy Spirit. And in these conditions, Saint Basil pointed to the church liturgical tradition, which is as ancient as the New Testament texts, and which preserved, in rituals and formulas, the original church teaching about the Spirit. In making this argument, Basil the Great did not emphasize the difference between Scripture and Tradition; on the contrary, for him they were part of a single whole, and he saw no reason to give preference to one over the other. In general, in the Eastern patristic tradition Scripture is viewed as Part Legends.

What does this mean in relation to our problem? First of all, this means that the situation that has baffled rationalist biblical scholarship—the situation in which the gospel narrative has a theological basis from the very beginning—has been there from the very beginning. natural for the Fathers of the Eastern Church. The situation, which put rationalistic theology under threat (and, in particular, led to the construction of R. Bultmann’s kerygmatic theology as a possible way out), can become for Orthodox theologians the basis for building historical-critical biblical studies not only without a break with Tradition, but also based on Legends.

The first steps in this direction have already been taken by the famous Orthodox theologian of the 20th century. Protopresbyter John Meyendorff. He was one of those thinkers who returned Orthodox academic theology to its patristic foundations. Largely thanks to him, Orthodox theology of the 20th century. returned to the original, characteristic of the Eastern Church, idea that Scripture and Tradition cannot be opposed. Scripture as part of Tradition - this understanding has become self-evident for our theology. And precisely about. John became the author of perhaps the most unusual reception of the kerygmatic theology of R. Bultamann. In it about. John saw another confirmation of the obvious: the Tradition and theology of the Church are not opposed to the historical event that lies at its foundation; The Church with its Tradition and theology is the only possible form of existence of historical Christianity 9.

The contradiction between tradition and scientific consensus is not only a gulf separating two spheres of human intellectual culture, the world of faith and the world of rational knowledge. These are at the same time points of contact that give each of these areas an incentive for development. Doubts among researchers about the authorship of both the Gospel of Matthew and other New Testament (and Old Testament) books prompted theologians to respond to this challenge and, as a result, to comprehend the very phenomenon of authorship in relation to the Holy Scriptures, to raise the question of the meaning and boundaries of inspiration.

In this regard, I would like to quote the words of William Lowder, voiced here in Moscow at the Seventh Eastern European Symposium of New Testament Scholars: “New Testament biblical scholarship is trying to understand the complex vicissitudes of history and serve the Church. And here we need each other. After all, our faith is based on events that occurred in history. And we cannot be satisfied with the departure from history that sometimes occurs among supporters of a strictly synchronic approach or among those who run away from complex historical issues into such safe, albeit important, areas as linguistics and archeology.” And a careful study of the Tradition of the Church is not a rejection of the historical-critical study of the Bible, but rather an attempt resist the departure from history, an attempt to fit in the study of the New Testament text from the very beginning into the historical context of early Christianity.

Speaking about the study of Church Tradition, we mean not only the cooperation of “secular” and “confessional” biblical scholars, but also the interaction of biblical scholars, on the one hand, and patrolologists specializing in early Christian writing, liturgists, and specialists in ancient hagiography, on the other. Today we are coming to the realization that the future of New Testament studies lies in interdisciplinary biblical studies. And I would like to express the hope that the mode of dialogue between science and Tradition, which was established in the last two decades, will receive a fruitful continuation and will prove useful for all researchers, ecclesiastical and secular, involved in this field. I also hope that the conferences on New Testament biblical studies taking place in Moscow will prove to be a significant contribution to this dialogue.

1 McArthur J.F. Interpretation of the Books of the New Testament. Matthew 1-7. P. 10.

2 Taking into account the fact that the Old Testament in the Gospels is, first of all, “the law and the prophets” (Matthew 11:13; 22:40), the book of the prophet Malachi, to a certain extent, can be called the final one among the holy books. At the time of the Gospel events, the section “Ketuvim” (Scriptures) had not yet been formed.

3 Irenaeus of Lyon. Against heresies 3, 1, 1 (SC 211, 22-24). Rus. transl.: p. 220.

4 Theophylact of Bulgaria. Interpretation of the Gospel of Matthew. Preface.

5 Eusebius of Caesarea.

6 Eusebius of Caesarea. Church history 3, 39, 5.

7 Irenaeus of Lyon. Against heresies 5, 33: 3-4.

8 Eusebius of Caesarea. Church history 3, 39, 16. P. 119.

9 Meyendorff I., prot. Living Tradition: The Witness of Orthodoxy in the Modern World. M., 1997. P. 15.

OCAD Press Service / Patriarchy.ru

Books used during worship can be divided into sacred liturgical books and church liturgical books. The sacred liturgical books include: the Gospels, the Apostle and the Psalter, i.e. books taken from the Bible. Church liturgical books include: the Service Book, the Book of Hours, the Octoechos, the Menaion, the Lenten Triodion, the Colored Triodion, the Typikon, or Rules, the Irmologium, the Breviary, the Book of Prayer Songs, books compiled by the Fathers and Teachers on the basis of the Holy Scriptures and Holy Tradition.

The liturgical Gospel contains four gospels: from Matthew, from Mark, from Luke and from John, which is why it is sometimes called the Four Gospels.

According to the rules, reading the Gospel during worship is required every day, except for Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday of Lent and Wednesday and Friday of Cheese Week. The entire Gospel is read over the course of a year.

Before each Gospel there is: 1) a brief description of the life of the Apostle-Evangelist; 2) a summary of the gospel chapters; 3) an index of parallel passages from other evangelists. In this index, events are arranged in chronological order, starting from the Nativity of Christ and ending with His resurrection and ascension. The numbers that indicate the Gospel events correspond to black numbers on the outer margins.

The usual division of the text of Holy Scripture into chapters and verses is preserved in the liturgical Gospel. The chapter count is indicated in the top margin. The count of verses is indicated in black numbers on the inner field. In addition to the division into chapters: (Matthew 20, Mark 16, Luke 24, John 21) and verses, each of the four Gospels is divided for liturgical use into so-called conceptions. In the Gospel of Matthew conceived 116, Mark 71, Luke. 114, In. 67. The division of the Gospels into concepts was made by St. John of Damascus and St. Theodore Studite.

Conceived is the part of the text of the New Testament designated for reading during worship on a given day. An asterisk is placed before the conception, and the date of reading the conception is indicated below the line. There, under the line, the words are indicated with which to begin the reading of the conception: “At the time it is,” “The Lord speaks...” The end of the Gospel reading is indicated in the text itself with cinnabar, for example: “end of the week,” “end of the heel.” Sometimes the gospel reading consists of several passages selected from different chapters and even different evangelists; which transition in the text itself is indicated as follows: “transcend the Cross”, and “honor the Cross”.

At the end of the liturgical Gospel there is an index of ordinary readings for each day of the week of the entire year and all weeks (Sundays) starting from Easter and ending with cheese week.

From Easter to All Saints Sunday there are 8 weeks. Then follow 32 weeks and preparatory weeks for Great Lent: the 33rd week about the publican and the Pharisee, the 34th week about the prodigal son, the 35th week of the meat fast, after which Great Lent begins. (For the evangelical transgression and apostasy necessary for this, see the 3rd grade notes).

To determine and find the Gospel conception for a given day, you must use the Gospel appendices, which contain all the necessary instructions. In total, the following four applications can be distinguished in the Gospel:

1. “The saying of the hedgehog every day should be an honor to the Gospel of the weeks of the whole summer”- ordinary readings of the moving circle of worship. This application begins on the day of Holy Easter and ends on Holy Saturday. The period of Lent stands out in particular. Here are the ordinary or daily readings for all Sundays and weekdays of the year, with the exception of Wednesday and the heel of Cheese Week, as well as the weekdays of Holy Pentecost (that is, days when the Gospel is not supposed to be read). At the end of the appendix are 11 Sunday morning Gospels, which are read sequentially on Sundays throughout the year at matins.

2. “Collegiate of the 12th month”- reading the fixed circle of worship (months of words). Here are readings for every day of the year. Since the beginning of the church year falls on September, the month begins on September 1 and ends on August 31. It should be noted that on the days of remembrance of some minor saints, the Gospel reading is not indicated at all in the monthly text (September 10, October 15, etc.). In these cases, only ordinary readings are read at the liturgy.

3. “The Gospel is common to the saints”- readings are common for each face of saints. This application is used in the same cases when the book of the General Menaion is used: if a vigil or polyeleos service is performed to a saint who does not have a sign in the Rule (for example, in the case of a temple holiday), or when services are performed for newly glorified saints.

4. “There is a different gospel for every need.” Here are the Gospel readings during the celebration of the Sacraments and other private services.

Gospel reading scheme

The usual scheme for reading the Gospel during worship is as follows:

Deacon: “And we pray that we may be worthy to hear the Holy Gospel of the Lord God.”

Choir: "Lord have mercy" (three times).

Deacon: “Wisdom, forgive me, let us hear the Holy Gospel.”

Priest: "Peace to all."

Choir: "And to your spirit."

Priest: "From… (names the evangelist) Reading of the Holy Gospel."

Choir:

Deacon: “Let’s hear it.”

Priest reads the Gospel.

Choir(after finishing reading): “Glory to Thee, Lord, glory to Thee.”

On liturgy this scheme is somewhat different in the sense that the Gospel is read by a deacon on the pulpit, and therefore, if there is no second deacon, the words of the deacon (“Wisdom, forgive ...” and “Let us remember”) in the dialogue before the Gospel are spoken by the priest, and the deacon calls the name of the evangelist. In addition, during the liturgy the initial prayers “And may you be considered worthy to us...” and “Lord, have mercy” are always omitted, so the transition to reading the Gospel begins immediately with “Wisdom, forgive...”. Also, “And about us being honored...” is not said in the following two cases:

At the Great Hours (always), at Vespers of the Nativity of Christ, Epiphany and Good Friday and at the matins of Great Saturday, when the Gospel follows the Apostle;

At the 3rd, 6th and 9th hours in the first three days of Holy Week in those cases where the reading of the same Gospel that was started in the previous hour continues. In particular, the Gospel of Luke is divided into three parts, and only at the beginning of the reading of the first part is it said “And we are counted worthy...”, while before the beginning of the second and third parts it is said immediately “Wisdom, forgive...”.

Charter for reading the Gospel

At the beginning of each beginning there is an asterisk (if there are two beginnings on one page, then at the beginning of the second there are two asterisks), which plays the role of a link and correlates with the interlinear. At the bottom of the page, the day of reading of this concept is indicated interlinearly, and here is an introductory phrase with which to begin reading the concept. The phrases most often used in the Gospels are “At the time it was...” and “The Lord spoke...”.

Thus, when reading the Gospel during the service, one should, firstly, use the appendices to determine the Gospel and the number of the conception that is assigned for reading on that day. Then, having opened the desired beginning, you should immediately make sure, based on the interlinear translation, that it is really intended to be read on a given day. Next, you need to completely take the introductory phrase from the interlinear translation and then read from the very words that appear after the asterisk (that is, the words that appear before the asterisk in the main text of the Gospel are omitted in this case). The reading ends not where the next beginning begins, but only in the place indicated by the words “end...” (for example, “the end of the Epiphany” or “the end of the Sabbath”). If, in the middle of reading one beginning, the beginning of another reading is encountered, then in this case it is necessary to follow the main text, not paying attention to the interlinear.

Some Gospel readings have a break in the text, or crime , when a certain passage in the middle of a given beginning is omitted. In this case, it is necessary, having reached the mark “transcend ...”, skip the next passage, find the note “honor ...” and immediately continue reading from this point. As an illustration, we give the most famous and frequently used reading with “crime” - conception 4th from Luke(Luke 1, 39–49, 56), which is read at matins on all the feasts of the Mother of God:

In those days, Miriam arose and went to the mountains with diligence, to the city of Judah. And Zechariah went into the house and kissed Elizabeth. And when Elizabeth heard Mary kissing, the baby leaped in her womb: and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. And you cried with a great voice and said: Blessed are You among women, and blessed is the fruit of Your womb. And where do I get this from, so that the Mother of my Lord may come to me? Behold, as if the voice of Thy kiss came into my ear, the baby leaped with joy in my womb. And blessed is She who believed, for there will be a fulfillment of what was spoken to Her by the Lord. And Mariam said: My soul magnifies the Lord, and My spirit rejoices in God My Savior: for I have looked upon the humility of My Handmaid: behold, from now on all my kindred will bless Me. For the Mighty One has done great things for Me, and holy is His name.

Transgress the Mother of God.

And His mercy endures throughout all generations of those who fear Him. Create power with Your arm: squander the proud thoughts of their hearts. Destroy the mighty from their thrones and lift up the humble. Fill those who hunger with good things; and those who are rich, let go of their vanities. They will remember His servant Israel, remembering His mercies, just as He said to our fathers Abraham and his seed forever. this passage is omitted].

Honor the Mother of God:

So Miriam remained with her for three months and returned to her home.

The end of the Mother of God.

In this case, immediately after the sentence “For the Mighty One has done great things for Me, and holy is His name,” it reads “Mariam abide with her for three months and return to her home,” and the intervening passage is omitted.

Due to the fact that many readings have “crimes,” it is necessary in advance (preferably before the service) to look through the entire beginning and note where and with what introductory phrase it begins, which passage is skipped (in the case of a “crime”) and where the beginning ends. In some cases, reading with a “crime” ends not in the present beginning, but several beginnings or chapters later. A typical example here is the Gospel for the feasts of the Mother of God at the liturgy - from Luke the 54th was conceived:

During this time, Jesus came into the whole place: and a certain woman named Martha received Him into her house. And she had a sister, called Mary, who even sat at the foot of Jesus and heard His word. Martha, speaking of much service, began to say: Lord, are you not delusional, because my sister has left me alone to serve? Thank you so much, let me help you. Jesus answered and said to her: Marfo, Marfo, worry and say about the multitude: There is only one thing that is needed. Mary has chosen the good part, and it will not be taken away from her.

The first place among the liturgical books is occupied by: Gospel, Apostle And Psalter. These books are taken from the Holy Scriptures - the Bible - and therefore are called sacred and liturgical.

Then follow the books: Service Book, Book of Hours, Breviary Book, book of prayer songs, Octoechos, Menaion Menaion, General Menaion, Festive Menaion. Lenten Triodion, Colored Triodion, Typikon or Charter, Irmologium and Canon. These books were compiled on the basis of Holy Scripture and Holy Tradition, by the fathers and teachers of the Church. And they are called church services.

Gospel- this is the Word of God. It consists of the first four books of the New Testament, written by the evangelists Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. The Gospel contains a description of the earthly life of our Lord Jesus Christ: His teaching, miracles, suffering on the cross, death, glorious resurrection and His ascension to heaven. The liturgical Gospel has the peculiarity that, in addition to the usual division into chapters and verses, it is also divided into special sections called “conceptions.” At the end of the book there is an index: when to read this or that.

Apostle, this is the name in church language of a book containing the subsequent books of the New Testament: the Acts of the Holy Apostles, the conciliar epistles and the epistles of the Apostle Paul (except for the book of the Apocalypse). The book of the Apostle, like the Gospel, is divided, in addition to chapters and verses, into “conceptions,” with an indication at the end of the book of when and which “conception” to read.

Psalter- book of the prophet and king David. It is so called because most of the psalms in it were written by St. Ave. David. In these psalms, St. the prophet opens his soul to God, all his joys and sorrows, repents of his sins, glorifies God’s endless perfections, thanks Him for all His mercies and good deeds, asks for help in all his undertakings... That is why the psalter is used during Divine services more often than any other liturgical books.

The book of Psalms for use in divine services is divided into twenty sections called “kathismas,” and each “kathisma” is divided into three parts, called “glories.”

In addition to the simple Psalter, there is also a Psalter “followed”; it is distinguished by the fact that it contains three appendices: a) Book of Hours, b) troparia and kontakia selected from all liturgical books and c) all prayers that should be read by those approaching the Holy Sacrament Communions.

Missal- a book for priests and deacons. It contains the order of Vespers, Matins and Liturgy. At the end of the service book there are: dispensations, prokemenyas, magnifications and months, i.e. a list of saints commemorated daily by the church.

The bishop's missal (or "Bishop's official") is distinguished by the fact that it also contains the rite of consecration of the antimension and the rite of ordination as a reader, deacon, priest, etc.

Book of Hours- a book that serves as a guide for readers and singers in the choir. The Book of Hours contains the order of all daily services, except for the Liturgy.

Breviary- a book containing the rites of the Holy Sacraments (except for the sacraments of Holy Communion and Priesthood) and other requirements - the rite of funeral and burial of the deceased, the rite of the blessing of water, prayers for the birth of a baby, at the naming of the baby and his churching, etc.

Book of Prayer Songs contains rites of prayers (prayer chants) for different occasions.

Octoechos or Osmiglasnik contains hymns (troparia, kontakion, canons, etc.), divided into eight tunes or “voices.” Each voice, in turn, contains hymns for the entire week, so that the services of the Octoechos are repeated once every eight weeks. The division of church singing into voices was accomplished by the famous hymnist of the Greek Church, St. John of Damascus (VIII century). The Octoechos is attributed to him and compiled, although it should be noted that St. took part in the compilation of the Octoechos. Mitrofan, Bishop of Smyrna, St. Joseph the hymnographer and others.

Menaea Menses contains prayers in honor of saints for every day of the year and solemn services for the feasts of the Lord and the Mother of God, falling on a specific day of the month. According to the number of 12 months, it is divided into 12 separate books.

Minea General contains hymns common to a whole group of saints, for example, in honor of prophets, apostles, martyrs, saints, etc. It is used during Divine services in the event that a separate service has not been compiled for any saint in the Menaion of the Month.

Minea Festive contains the services of the Great Holidays, extracted from the Menaion of the Month.

Lenten Triodion contains prayers for the days of Great Lent and for the preparatory weeks for it, starting from the week of the Publican and the Pharisee and until Easter. The word: "Triod" is Greek and means three songs. This book and the following “Triod Tsvetnaya” received this name because they contain incomplete canons, consisting of only three songs, instead of the usual nine songs of the canon.

Triodion Colored contains hymns from the day of Holy Easter to the Week of All Saints (i.e., until the 9th Resurrection, counting from the day of Easter).

Typicon or Charter contains detailed instructions: on what days and hours, during what Divine services and in what order the prayers contained in the service book, book of hours, octoechus and other liturgical books should be read or sung.

Irmology contains chants selected from various canons, called irmos (irmos is the initial chant of each song of the canon).