December 22nd in the church calendar of this year falls on the 24th week (Sunday) after Trinity Day. The current Gospel reading tells us about God's mercy towards those rejected by society, forgotten by all people, as well as about human gratitude.

During the service in the church, Father Deacon solemnly read the following passage from the Gospel narrative (Luke 17: 12–19):

“And when He entered a certain village, ten lepers met Him, who stopped at a distance and said in a loud voice: Jesus the Mentor! have mercy on us.
When He saw [them], He said to them: Go, show yourself to the priests. And as they walked, they purified themselves.
One of them, seeing that he was healed, returned, glorifying God with a loud voice, and fell prostrate at His feet, thanking Him; and it was a Samaritan.
Then Jesus said, “Were not ten cleansed?” where is nine?
How did they not return to give glory to God except this foreigner?
And he said to him: get up, go; your faith has saved you.”

Leprosy was at one time considered a death sentence for a sick person. He was doomed to wandering, humiliation, hunger, loneliness and pain.

Saint Theophylact of Bulgaria explains the first verses of the Gospel about the 10 lepers:

“The lepers met Him outside the city, for they, since they were considered unclean, were not allowed to live inside the city.

They stopped “at a distance,” as if ashamed of their imaginary uncleanness and not daring to come closer in the thought that Jesus also abhors them, as others did, raising their voices and asking for mercy.

According to their location, they stood far away, but through prayer they stood close. For the Lord is close to all who call on Him in truth.

They ask for mercy not as from an ordinary person, but as from one who is higher than man. For they call Jesus Mentor, that is, Master, Trustee, Overseer, which is very close to calling him God, He (Jesus) commands them (the lepers) to show themselves to the priests

For the priests examined such, and from them they made a decision whether they were clean from leprosy or not.

The priests had signs by which they noted incurable leprosy. And even then, when someone fell ill with leprosy and then recovered, the priests examined it, and they were given a gift, as prescribed in the Law.

Here, when the lepers were indisputably such, what need was there for them to appear to the priests if they did not have to be completely cleansed?

The command for them to go to the priests indicated nothing else than that they would be made clean. That’s why it is said that as they walked along the road they purified themselves.”

10 were cleansed, but only one returned to give glory to God, and that was a foreigner, whom the Jews considered a less worthy person.

But in his heart he turned out to be more worthy than others, because he was a grateful person.

Is gratitude so important in the lives of each of us? Or is it insignificant? There is less and less of it in our lives every year.

Saint Nicholas of Serbia teaches us that God in itself does not need our gratitude, it is important for us and benefits us:

“Why does a father demand that his son bow to him, take off his hat, and thank him for every big and small thing received from his parents? What does father need this for?

Does filial gratitude make him richer, stronger, more respected, more influential in society? No, not at all.

But if he personally has nothing from filial gratitude, isn’t it funny that he constantly teaches it to his child and teaches him to be grateful, and not only a pious parent, but even an unpious one?

No, it's not funny at all; it's noble. For this shows the most selfless parental love, which forces parents to teach their child gratitude.

For what? So that the child feels good.

So that he would feel good in this temporary life among people, among friends and enemies, in villages and cities, in power and in trade. For everywhere a grateful person is appreciated, loved, invited, helped and welcomed.

Whoever teaches you to be grateful will teach you to be merciful. And a merciful person walks more freely on this earth...

So why does God require gratitude from people? And why do people pay him with gratitude?

Out of His infinite love for people, God requires that people thank Him.

Human gratitude will not make God greater, more powerful, more glorious, richer, or more alive; but it will make the people themselves greater, more powerful, more glorious, richer and more alive.

Human gratitude will add nothing to the peace and bliss of God, but it will add peace and bliss to people themselves.”

Therefore, the Gospel reading about the 10 lepers teaches us a useful skill in the life of every person - the ability to thank God and people. Because it is easier for a grateful person to live on earth.

Moreover, this bright feeling opens the way to Heaven - the path to eternal life

(Luke 17. 11-37)

Luke 17:11. Going to Jerusalem, He passed between Samaria and Galilee.

Luke 17:12. And as He entered into a certain village, ten men who were lepers met Him and stood at a distance

And from here everyone can know that nothing prevents anyone from pleasing God, even if he is from a cursed family, as long as he has a good will. So “ten lepers” met Jesus when He was about to enter a certain city. They met Him outside the city, for they, since they were considered unclean, were not allowed to live inside the city (Lev. 13:46). They stopped “far away,” as if ashamed of their imaginary uncleanness and not daring to come closer in the thought that Jesus also abhors them, as others did, raising their voices and asking for mercy. According to their location, they stood far away, but through prayer they stood close. For the Lord is near to all who call on Him in truth (Ps. 144:18). They ask for mercy not as from a simple person, but as from one who is higher than man. For they call Jesus Mentor, that is, Master, Trustee, Overseer, which is very close to calling him God.

Luke 17:14. Seeing them, He said to them: Go, show yourself to the priests. And as they walked, they purified themselves.

    He (Jesus) commands them (the lepers) to show themselves to the priests. For the priests examined such, and from them they made a decision whether they were clean from leprosy or not (Lev. 13). The priests had signs by which they noted incurable leprosy. And even then, when someone fell ill with leprosy and then recovered, the priests examined it, and they were given a gift, which was commanded in the Law. Here, when the lepers were indisputably such, what need was there for them to appear to the priests if they did not have to be completely cleansed? The command for them to go to the priests indicated nothing else than that they would be made clean. That is why it is said that as they walked along the road they purified themselves.

Luke 17:15. One of them, seeing that he was healed, returned, glorifying God with a loud voice,

Luke 17:16. and fell on his face at His feet, giving thanks to Him; and it was a Samaritan.

    But look, as we said at first, out of ten people, nine, although they were Israelis, remained ungrateful. And the Samaritan, although he was of an alien race, returned and expressed his gratitude (and the Samaritans were Assyrians), so that none of the pagans would despair, and none of those descended from holy ancestors would boast about this.

Luke 17:17. Then Jesus said, “Were not ten cleansed?” where is nine?

Luke 17:18. how did they not return to give glory to God, except this foreigner?

Luke 17:19. And he said to him: get up, go; your faith has saved you.

    This miracle also hints at the general salvation that existed for the entire human race. The ten lepers represent the entire human nature, leprous with malice, bearing the ugliness of sin, living for its uncleanness outside the city of heaven and standing far from God. This very distance from God interceded for mercy. For for someone who loves mankind and wants to save everyone and bless God, the strongest motivation for mercy is to see that no one participates in goodness. For this very reason, He bowed down to heal those in such a situation. And although He healed all leprous nature, becoming incarnate and tasting death for every person, the Jews, despite the fact that by the Lord they were cleansed from all the impurities of leprous sin, turned out to be ungrateful and did not turn from their vain path to give glory to the Savior God, that is, to believe Him that He, the true God, was pleased to endure the most severe suffering. For the Flesh and the Cross are the glory of God. So, they did not recognize the Incarnate and Crucified as the Lord of glory. And the pagans, a strange people, recognized Him who had purified them and glorified Him by faith that God is so loving and powerful that for our sake He took upon Himself extreme dishonor, which is a matter of love for mankind, and, having accepted it, did not suffer any harm in His nature, which is a matter of power.

Luke 17:20. Having been asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come,

The Lord often mentioned the Kingdom of God in His teaching. But the Pharisees, hearing about it, laughed at the Lord and therefore began to ask when it would come, in the form of ridicule of Him as an eccentric preaching about an extraordinary and strange subject. For none of the former teachers and prophets mentioned it (the Kingdom of God). Or, perhaps, having in mind their intention to kill Him in a short time, they approach Him with a question in order to prick Him and ridicule Him, as if to say: You are talking about the Kingdom, when will this Kingdom of Yours come? For in the morning You will be betrayed by us to death, You will be lifted up on a cross, and You will receive many other dishonors. What about Christ?

He answered them: The Kingdom of God will not come in a noticeable way,

Luke 17:21. and they will not say: behold, it is here, or, behold, there. For behold, the Kingdom of God is within you.

He does not answer the foolish according to their foolish thoughts and madness (Prov. 26:4), but leaves them to wander as to the similarity of the Kingdom, and does not reveal to them what kind of Kingdom He is talking about (for they would not accept it), nor the fact that this Kingdom is not like a worldly kingdom, but is a premium Kingdom (John 18:36). Having kept silent about this, since they, due to their arbitrary deafness, were unworthy to hear about this, the Lord says about the time of the coming of the Kingdom that it is unknown and cannot be observed; since the Kingdom of God does not have a specific time, but is present to those who wish it at any time. For the Kingdom of God, without a doubt, constitutes living and building itself in the image of the Angels. Then, they say, God truly reigns when there is nothing worldly in our souls, but when we behave above the world in everything. And we have this way of life within ourselves, that is, whenever we want. For faith does not require either long time or travel, but faith, and following faith, a life pleasing to God, is close to us. About this very thing the apostle said: “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart, that is, the word of faith, which we preach” (Rom. 10:8). For that we may believe, and having believed, walk worthy of the calling, this is within us. So, the Pharisees mocked the Lord because He was preaching a Kingdom that no one had preached about. But the Lord declares that they do not understand an object that is within them and which it is very convenient for those who wish to achieve it. Now that I am among you, you can undoubtedly receive the Kingdom of God if you believe in Me and decide to live according to My commandments.

Luke 17:22. He also said to the disciples: the days will come when you will wish to see even one of the days of the Son of Man, and you will not see;

    That is, the Kingdom of God is inherent in you as long as I am with you. It is inherent in you not only because you believed in Me and followed Me, but also because you now live with complete carelessness, since I care and think about you. But when I am not with you, such days will come that you will be given over to dangers, you will be led before rulers and kings. Then you, as the Kingdom of God, will wish for the current safe life that you lead with Me, and you will repeatedly wish to receive at least one of My days, that is, the days of My stay with you, as the safest days. Although they (the Lord’s disciples) even while they were with Him, did not lead a life without labor and dangers, but suffered flight with the fleeing and insult with the insulted, but if their previous adventures are compared with future dangers, it turns out that they were then very safe. Therefore, even with this way of life, that is, with little danger and labor, the Kingdom of God was within the apostles; whereas after the Resurrection they were, as it were, captives and exiles. With these words the Lord prepares the hearts of the apostles for labor and patience and first tells them not to be tempted (John 16:1).

Luke 17:23. and they will say to you: here, here, or: here, there - do not go and do not chase,

Don’t listen, he says, to anyone’s beliefs that I came here or there.

Luke 17:24. For as lightning that flashes from one end of the sky shines to the other end of the sky, so will the Son of Man be on His day.

For My second coming, most brilliant and most glorious, will not be limited to any place, but just as lightning is not hidden, but appears from one end of the earth to the other, so My second coming will be bright and obvious and will not be hidden from anyone. So, do not give in to the temptations of false Christs. Previously, I appeared in a manger and was in humiliation for thirty years, but then it will not be so: I will come in all glory, accompanied by angelic armies, and in an instant.

Luke 17:25. But first He must suffer much and be rejected by this generation.

Then, since he predicted terrible disasters for them, consoling them and convincing them to endure them courageously, he sets himself up for them as an example. Do not be surprised, he says, if such difficulties happen to you that they will make you wish for the return of My present stay with you. For I Myself, who am about to appear like lightning, must first suffer much and be rejected, and then come in this glory. Let this be for you a conviction to virtue and encouragement to patience, that is, look at Me and trust that you too will receive glory for enduring dangers and for rejection, just like Me.

Luke 17:26. And as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be in the days of the Son of Man:

Luke 17:27. They ate, they drank, they married, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all.

Luke 17:28. Just as it was in the days of Lot: they ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built;

Luke 17:29. but on the day that Lot came out of Sodom, it rained fire and brimstone from the sky and destroyed everyone;

Luke 17:30. so it will be on the day when the Son of Man appears.

And here the Lord points out the suddenness and unexpectedness of His coming. For just as under Noah the flood suddenly came and destroyed everyone, so will His coming be. These examples, that is, the example of the pre-flood people and the Sodomites (before the fire), also hint that at the coming of the Antichrist all indecent pleasures will increase among people, that people will be dissolute and given over to criminal pleasures, just as the apostle said that “in the last days ... people will ... be lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God” (2 Tim. 3:1-2, 4). And it is not surprising that under the reign of the seducer, evil will flourish. For it is the abode of the malice of all sin. What else will he try to instill in the pitiful generation of people of that time, if not his own properties? For what can be made clean from something unclean? So, people will then wallow in every sensual pleasure, like in the time of Noah, and will not expect any trouble, they will not even believe if anyone speaks to them about the occurrence of any misfortune, like the people who lived in the days of Noah and in the days of Lot .

Luke 17:31. On that day, whoever is on the housetop and his belongings are in the house, do not go down to take them;

On that day of the coming of the Antichrist, “whoever is on the roof,” that is, at the height of virtue, do not go down with it, do not go down for any everyday object. For all everyday objects are called vessels for man, serving one for virtue, and another for evil. So, standing at the height of virtue, do not descend for anything worldly and do not fall from your height, but resist malice and do not weaken.

and whoever is on the field, also do not turn back.

Likewise, let him “whoever is on the field” not turn back. For one who is in the field, that is, cultivating virtue in this world, should not turn back, but should extend forward, as it is said in another place: “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the Kingdom of God.” (Luke 9:62).

Luke 17:32. Remember Lot's wife.

The Lord presents Lot's wife as an example. She, turning back, became a pillar of salt (Gen. 19:26), that is, without moving away from anger, she remained with its saltiness, becoming completely evil, and, having become mired and remaining in evil, constitutes a monument to the defeat that she suffered.

Luke 17:33. Whoever saves his soul will destroy it; and whoever destroys her will bring her to life.

Then the Lord adds something also related to the above: “Whoever will save his life will lose it.” No one, he says, during the persecution of the Antichrist, do not try to save your soul, for such a one will destroy it. And whoever gives himself up to death and to disasters in general will be saved without bowing to the tormentor out of love for life. Above, the Lord said that he who stands at the height of virtue should not go with it for everyday objects, should not be carried away by acquisitions or property and because of them weaken in the struggle. Likewise now, extending further, he says: and why do I say, do not go for the vessels? No, do not abandon virtue because of external benefits, or even for the very preservation of your soul, do not dare to bow before the seducer and persecutor.

Evangelist Matthew (Matthew 24) says that the Lord said all this about the captivity of Jerusalem, hinting at the siege from enemies and that during the invasion of the Romans one should flee from them without looking back: those on the roof do not need to go into the house to take what - something from everyday life, but must immediately flee, for this is not a time of peace to collect vessels; Likewise, those who are in the field do not need to return home, and even those who are at home need to flee. However, there is nothing surprising if this came true during the capture of Jerusalem and will come true again at the coming of the Antichrist, especially if just before the time of death (the world) the grief is unbearably severe.

Luke 17:34. I tell you: on that night there will be two in one bed: one will be taken, and the other will be left;

And from here we learn that the coming of the Lord will follow unexpectedly and suddenly. For the saying that “two... will be... on one bed” shows the carelessness of people. Likewise, the grinding signifies the surprise of the coming. We also learn that the coming will follow at night. So, the Lord says that of the rich who rest on their beds, some will be saved and others will not. The Lord once said that the rich are saved with difficulty (Matthew 19:23-24). Now He shows that not all the rich perish, not all the poor are saved, but even of the rich one will be taken up and caught up “to meet the Lord” (1 Sol. 4:17), as light in spirit and heavenly, and the other will be left below, as convicted.

Luke 17:35. two will grind together: one will be taken, and the other will be left;

Luke 17:36. two will be on the field: one will be taken, and the other will be left.

In the same way, of the poor, who are designated as grinders, one will be saved and the other will not. For not all the poor are righteous: some of them are thieves and cut wallets. The grinding indicates the difficult life of the poor.

Luke 17:37. To this they said to Him: Where, Lord? He said to them, “Where the corpse is, there the eagles will also gather.”

When the disciples asked the Lord where these would be taken, He answered: “Where the corpse is, there... are the eagles”; that is, where the Son of Man is, there are all the saints, light and high-flying, while sinners are heavy and therefore remain below. Just as when a dead body lies, all the carnivorous birds flock to it, so when the Son of Man appears from heaven, who died for us and was counted among the corpse, all the saints and even the Angels themselves will gather. For He will come with them in the glory of the Father and in unspeakable splendor. Although He called this time night, He called it so because it was unexpected and that darkness would then embrace sinners. But the light will shine on the righteous, and they themselves will be illuminated like the sun (Matt. 13:43).

If you hold a Gospel reading group in your city, add it to our database. This way it can be found by those who do not yet know about it, but who need it.

New groups in the database

Rostov-on-Don - Gospel conversations at the Church of the Icon of the Mother of God “Tenderness” Gospel conversations at the Church of the Icon of the Mother of God “Tenderness” in Rostov-on-Don appeared in September 2015.
During the meetings, the Sunday Gospel and the Apostle are read and discussed, and there is an opportunity to ask questions about pressing issues.
With the blessing of Archpriest Dimitry Osyak, the conversation is led by Deacon Alexy Ryazhskikh.
Meetings are held on Sunday after the service at 11 am. Moscow - Gospel readings at the SPAS PMO At the SPAS Orthodox youth association, Gospel readings with the blessing of Rev. Vasily Vorontsov has been taking place since 2007. Meetings take place on Saturdays after the all-night vigil. Presenter - Mikhail Minaev.
Syasstroy - Evangelical group at the Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary The Evangelical group at the Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary was created in 2011, when people did not want to leave after catechesis. The group is led by the rector of the temple, Rev. Vitaly Fonkin. The group uses different reading plans from the Old and New Testaments. They also read the holy fathers, discuss and share. Sometimes they read poetry or a short work of art and share how their heart responded to what they read. Kyiv - Evangelical group at the Church of St. Adrian and Natalia in Kyiv The Evangelical group at the Church of St. Adrian and Natalia was created on May 20, 2013 after missionary training.
The creation of the group was blessed by Archpriest. Roman Matyushenko, the group is led by Vitaly Sidorkin, who graduated from the Kyiv Theological Seminary.
Reading the Gospel of Luke. Moscow - Gospel conversations at the Church of the Passion-Bearer Tsar in Annino In the Church of the Passion-Bearer Tsar Nicholas II in Annino, Gospel conversations appeared in 2014. Participants read the Gospel Synopsis and compare different evangelists. The conversations are conducted by the rector of the temple, Priest Timofey Kuropatov.

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit!

Brothers and sisters! Today you heard the Gospel story about the healing of ten lepers by Jesus Christ (Luke 17:12-19).

Leprosy is a disease that is predominantly found in southern countries. A person develops spots on his face and body, his body loses sensitivity, rots, and his face swells. The person's hair and teeth fall out, and foul-smelling saliva constantly oozes from the mouth. The flesh falls away, revealing bones. Sometimes a person's eyes bleed out, he becomes blind, his fingers die, and he cannot even bring food to his mouth. The leper turns into a living corpse. Previously, lepers were expelled from cities and villages. They lived in the forest, in dugouts, and occasionally food was placed in a designated place. Driven by hunger, they wandered around big cities so that people would take pity and throw them something to eat. They were driven like wild animals. The relatives mourned the leper more than the dead man.

When a leper died somewhere in the forest or along the road, even birds of prey did not peck at his corpse, infected with a deadly poison, and the animals avoided him. Other lepers had to bury the body or burn it.

After the so-called Crusades, this disease entered Europe and caused great horror there. Lepers were required to wear a shroud-white hood over their face with slits only for the eyes, so as not to frighten people with their appearance. Others had a bell hanging on them, and its ominous ringing warned people to move out of the way. Meanwhile, brothers and sisters, lepers forgot who they were: Jews, Samaritans, Arabs or Greeks. Expelled by their fellow tribesmen, they became, as it were, one people. With their laws, welded together by one misfortune, lepers often experienced strong affection and the most tender love for each other. Their hearts, having lost everything earthly, seemed to open to true friendship. They shared the last piece of bread with each other, ate from the same dish, and warmed themselves by the same fire. Misfortune equalized them, just as the common grave equalized the dead.

When our Lord Jesus Christ, going to Jerusalem, entered a certain village, He was met by ten lepers. They began to call on the Lord, asking Him for mercy: Jesus Mentor! have mercy on us(Luke 17:13) - that is, heal us!

Human help was powerless, these unfortunates were doomed to a painful death, their condition was worse than slaves who work in quarries and mines, or criminals imprisoned in dungeons for the rest of their lives. For them there seemed to be no return to life, but these lepers apparently heard about Jesus, the Great Prophet and Wonderworker, and therefore shouted: Jesus Mentor! have mercy on us.

Leprosy eats away the throat and lips, and therefore, instead of screaming, only a hoarse whisper came from their lips: Jesus Mentor! have mercy on us.

The Lord stopped and said: go show yourself to the priests(Luke 17:14). They believed that they would be healed and headed along the road to Jerusalem, to the temple, where the priests were to witness their healing. And while still on the way, they felt the power of God’s grace, which poured into them and healed them.

A child does not know the hour of his birth, and these unfortunates seem to have experienced their second birth. Their terrible wounds have healed. The scale-like skin had fallen off; a new one appeared - clean and white, like a child's, and now they clearly imagined how they were returning to their families, how they greeted them with tears of joy, how they hugged their children, sat with friends and talked about a great miracle. They already saw before their eyes the lights of their father’s house and the walls of Jerusalem; They forgot only one thing: the One who healed them!

Healed by the grace of God, they forgot about God Himself and moved away from Christ every minute. Nine of them were Jews, one was a Samaritan. The Jews already knew from childhood that the Savior was coming to earth: they were taught about this in synagogues, they heard sermons about this in temples. The miracle had to convince them with their own eyes that the Savior of the world was before them. However, they continued to go their own way. Those who called themselves children of Abraham did not desire God, but the gifts of God, not the Heavenly Father, but His inheritance.

Only one Samaritan returned, fell at the feet of Jesus, thanking and praising God, glorifying Him as the Messiah. The Lord said: were not ten purified? where is nine? how did they not return to give glory to God, except this foreigner?(Luke 17, 17–18). This question was intended for His disciples, the apostles, so that they, being Jews themselves, would understand that the Savior of the world had come for all people, for all peoples, for all nations. Now these nations of the world were represented by one Samaritan who lay at the feet of Christ.

The Lord said to him: get up, go; your faith saved you(Luke 17:19). What kind of faith? Other lepers also believed that they would be healed: in misfortune they believed, and in prosperity they forgot God, as often happens with us.

Saint Isaac the Syrian says: “I know people who have remained firm in adversity, but I don’t know anyone who has not changed in happiness and prosperity.”

Brothers and sisters! The Samaritan's faith in Christ as the Messiah and Savior of the world is the faith that He who healed his body can heal his soul; He who brought him back again to his people can open the gates of heaven for him; He who granted him cleansing from leprosy grants him both forgiveness of sins and eternal life.

This is the so-called literal historical meaning of this story, but there is also another – a moral meaning. We must constantly thank God for everything. Some of us will say, “Why should I thank God?” Thank God that He created us, created heaven and earth, created us as people, the only creatures on earth adorned with the image and likeness of God. Give thanks that the Lord has given you faith; give thanks that you belong to the Orthodox Church; thank you for the fact that the Lord did not leave you to perish in your sins, but the Son of God descended to earth and was crucified for you; that the Lord forgives you your sins and feeds you with His Body and Blood; that the Lord fulfills your prayers; that how many of your peers are already lying in the grave, but you live, and your every day can be the day of your salvation.

There is also a mystical meaning. The lepers shouted: Jesus the Mentor! help us. Their hope in man had long since dried up, but their hope in God had not disappeared.

And we, too, are lepers of sins for the angels. Our souls in the eyes of the Angels are as terrible and disgusting as the bodies of lepers. But we know our Savior and therefore we must constantly say in our hearts: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner, heal me, save me!”

Brothers and sisters! We would like to pray from a pure heart, but our heart exudes pus, like the stinking lips of lepers. But the Lord heard their whispers. He also hears the secret voice of our heart!

There is also an ecclesiological meaning here. The Lord says: Go show yourself to the priests. The Lord gave the Church great sacraments that can cleanse, revive spiritually, and revive a person. These are the Sacraments of Anointing, Repentance and Communion.

This Gospel story also has a symbolic meaning: lepers are humanity after the Fall, people rejected from their older brothers - the angels, people doomed to death and hell. But the Lord crucified himself on the cross to heal humanity, and the majority, like the nine lepers, show indifference and coldness to the Savior’s Calvary sacrifice.

Brothers and sisters! We must thank God for everything, thank even for the trials and suffering that He sends us.

One ascetic said: “He is insincere in love who does not thank God in sorrow, as well as in joy.” And another replied: “He is insincere who does not accept sorrow as joy and blows as blessing.”

Favorite prayer of St. John Chrysostom had the words: “Glory to God for everything!”

Brothers and sisters! A proud heart cannot thank God, a proud heart is always embittered, it is always in confusion, it is always dissatisfied. Sometimes it is enough for a proud person to hear some word, even an unfriendly look, for his heart to be filled with hatred. The heart of a proud person does not know spiritual joy - the highest happiness. Only the humble are revealed to the mysteries of God and the mysteries of Divine love; only the humble can thank God for everything.

Amen.

Archimandrite Raphael (Karelin)

Source: Archimandrite Raphael (Karelin). The path of a Christian. Sermons. – http://lib.eparhia-saratov.ru/books/16r/rafail/christianway/35.html

Commentary on the book

Comment to the section

1. Luke, “beloved physician,” was one of the closest associates of the apostle. Paul (Col 4:14). According to Eusebius (Church East 3:4), he came from Syrian Antioch and was raised in a Greek pagan family. He received a good education and became a doctor. The history of his conversion is unknown. Apparently, it occurred after his meeting with St. Paul, whom he joined c. 50 He visited with him Macedonia, the cities of Asia Minor (Acts 16:10-17; Acts 20:5-21:18) and remained with him during his stay in custody in Caesarea and Rome (Acts 24:23; Acts 27; Acts 28; Col 4:14). The narration of Acts was extended to the year 63. There is no reliable data about the life of Luke in subsequent years.

2. Very ancient information has reached us confirming that the third Gospel was written by Luke. St. Irenaeus (Against Heresies 3:1) writes: “Luke, Paul’s companion, set forth the Gospel taught by the Apostle in a separate book.” According to Origen, “the third Gospel is from Luke” (see Eusebius, Church. Ist. 6, 25). In the list of sacred books that have come down to us, recognized as canonical in the Roman Church since the 2nd century, it is noted that Luke wrote the Gospel in the name of Paul.

Scholars of the 3rd Gospel unanimously recognize the writing talent of its author. According to such an expert on antiquity as Eduard Mayer, Ev. Luke is one of the best writers of his time.

3. In the preface to the Gospel, Luke says that he used previously written “narratives” and the testimony of eyewitnesses and ministers of the Word from the very beginning (Luke 1:2). He wrote it, in all likelihood, before 70. He undertook his work “by carefully examining everything from the beginning” (Luke 1:3). The Gospel is continued in Acts, where the evangelist included his personal memories (starting from Acts 16:10, the story is often told in the first person).

Its main sources were, obviously, Matthew, Mark, manuscripts that have not reached us, called “logia,” and oral traditions. Among these legends, a special place is occupied by stories about the birth and childhood of the Baptist, which developed among the circle of admirers of the prophet. The story of the infancy of Jesus (chapters 1 and 2) is apparently based on sacred tradition, in which the voice of the Virgin Mary herself is also heard.

Not being a Palestinian and addressing pagan Christians, Luke reveals less knowledge of the situation in which the gospel events took place than Matthew and John. But as a historian, he seeks to clarify the chronology of these events, pointing to kings and rulers (eg Luke 2:1; Luke 3:1-2). Luke includes prayers that, according to commentators, were used by the first Christians (the prayer of Zechariah, the song of the Virgin Mary, the song of the angels).

5. Luke views the life of Jesus Christ as the path to voluntary death and victory over it. Only in Luke the Savior is called κυριος (Lord), as was customary in the early Christian communities. The Evangelist repeatedly speaks about the action of the Spirit of God in the life of the Virgin Mary, Christ Himself and later the apostles. Luke conveys the atmosphere of joy, hope and eschatological expectation in which the first Christians lived. He lovingly depicts the merciful appearance of the Savior, clearly manifested in the parables of the Good Samaritan, the Prodigal Son, the Lost Coin, the Publican and the Pharisee.

As a student of ap. Paul Lk emphasizes the universal character of the Gospel (Lk 2:32; Lk 24:47); He traces the genealogy of the Savior not from Abraham, but from the forefather of all mankind (Luke 3:38).

INTRODUCTION TO THE BOOKS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT

The Holy Scriptures of the New Testament were written in Greek, with the exception of the Gospel of Matthew, which, according to tradition, was written in Hebrew or Aramaic. But since this Hebrew text has not survived, the Greek text is considered the original for the Gospel of Matthew. Thus, only the Greek text of the New Testament is the original, and numerous editions in various modern languages ​​around the world are translations from the Greek original.

The Greek language in which the New Testament was written was no longer the classical ancient Greek language and was not, as previously thought, a special New Testament language. It is a spoken everyday language of the first century A.D., which spread throughout the Greco-Roman world and is known in science as “κοινη”, i.e. "ordinary adverb"; yet both the style, the turns of phrase, and the way of thinking of the sacred writers of the New Testament reveal Hebrew or Aramaic influence.

The original text of the NT has come down to us in a large number of ancient manuscripts, more or less complete, numbering about 5000 (from the 2nd to the 16th century). Until recent years, the most ancient of them did not go back further than the 4th century no P.X. But recently, many fragments of ancient NT manuscripts on papyrus (3rd and even 2nd century) have been discovered. For example, Bodmer's manuscripts: John, Luke, 1 and 2 Peter, Jude - were found and published in the 60s of our century. In addition to Greek manuscripts, we have ancient translations or versions into Latin, Syriac, Coptic and other languages ​​(Vetus Itala, Peshitto, Vulgata, etc.), of which the most ancient existed already from the 2nd century AD.

Finally, numerous quotes from the Church Fathers have been preserved in Greek and other languages ​​in such quantities that if the text of the New Testament were lost and all the ancient manuscripts were destroyed, then experts could restore this text from quotes from the works of the Holy Fathers. All this abundant material makes it possible to check and clarify the text of the NT and classify its various forms (so-called textual criticism). Compared with any ancient author (Homer, Euripides, Aeschylus, Sophocles, Cornelius Nepos, Julius Caesar, Horace, Virgil, etc.), our modern printed Greek text of the NT is in an exceptionally favorable position. And in the number of manuscripts, and in the shortness of time separating the oldest of them from the original, and in the number of translations, and in their antiquity, and in the seriousness and volume of critical work carried out on the text, it surpasses all other texts (for details, see “Hidden Treasures and new life,” archaeological discoveries and the Gospel, Bruges, 1959, pp. 34 ff.). The text of the NT as a whole is recorded completely irrefutably.

The New Testament consists of 27 books. The publishers have divided them into 260 chapters of unequal length to accommodate references and quotations. This division is not present in the original text. The modern division into chapters in the New Testament, as in the whole Bible, has often been attributed to the Dominican Cardinal Hugo (1263), who worked it out when composing a symphony for the Latin Vulgate, but it is now thought with greater reason that this division goes back to Archbishop Stephen of Canterbury Langton, who died in 1228. As for the division into verses, now accepted in all editions of the New Testament, it goes back to the publisher of the Greek New Testament text, Robert Stephen, and was introduced by him in his edition in 1551.

The sacred books of the New Testament are usually divided into laws (the Four Gospels), historical (the Acts of the Apostles), teaching (seven conciliar epistles and fourteen epistles of the Apostle Paul) and prophetic: the Apocalypse or the Revelation of John the Theologian (see Long Catechism of St. Philaret of Moscow).

However, modern experts consider this distribution to be outdated: in fact, all the books of the New Testament are legal, historical and educational, and prophecy is not only in the Apocalypse. New Testament scholarship pays great attention to the precise establishment of the chronology of the Gospel and other New Testament events. Scientific chronology allows the reader to trace with sufficient accuracy the life and ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ, the apostles and the primitive Church in the New Testament (see Appendices).

The books of the New Testament can be distributed as follows:

1) Three so-called synoptic Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke and, separately, the fourth: the Gospel of John. New Testament scholarship devotes much attention to the study of the relationships of the first three Gospels and their relation to the Gospel of John (synoptic problem).

2) The Book of the Acts of the Apostles and the Epistles of the Apostle Paul (“Corpus Paulinum”), which are usually divided into:

a) Early Epistles: 1st and 2nd Thessalonians.

b) Greater Epistles: Galatians, 1st and 2nd Corinthians, Romans.

c) Messages from bonds, i.e. written from Rome, where ap. Paul was in prison: Philippians, Colossians, Ephesians, Philemon.

d) Pastoral Epistles: 1st Timothy, Titus, 2nd Timothy.

e) Epistle to the Hebrews.

3) Council Epistles (“Corpus Catholicum”).

4) Revelation of John the Theologian. (Sometimes in the NT they distinguish “Corpus Joannicum”, i.e. everything that St. John wrote for the comparative study of his Gospel in connection with his epistles and the book of Rev.).

FOUR GOSPEL

1. The word “gospel” (ευανγελιον) in Greek means “good news.” This is what our Lord Jesus Christ Himself called His teaching (Mt 24:14; Mt 26:13; Mk 1:15; Mk 13:10; Mk 14:9; Mk 16:15). Therefore, for us, the “gospel” is inextricably linked with Him: it is the “good news” of the salvation given to the world through the incarnate Son of God.

Christ and His apostles preached the gospel without writing it down. By the mid-1st century, this preaching had been established by the Church in a strong oral tradition. The Eastern custom of memorizing sayings, stories, and even large texts helped Christians of the apostolic era accurately preserve the unrecorded First Gospel. After the 50s, when eyewitnesses of Christ's earthly ministry began to pass away one after another, the need arose to write down the gospel (Lk 1:1). Thus, the “gospel” came to mean the narrative recorded by the apostles about the life and teaching of the Savior. It was read at prayer meetings and in preparing people for baptism.

2. The most important Christian centers of the 1st century (Jerusalem, Antioch, Rome, Ephesus, etc.) had their own Gospels. Of these, only four (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John) are recognized by the Church as inspired by God, i.e. written under the direct influence of the Holy Spirit. They are called “from Matthew”, “from Mark”, etc. (Greek “kata” corresponds to Russian “according to Matthew”, “according to Mark”, etc.), for the life and teachings of Christ are set out in these books by these four sacred writers. Their gospels were not compiled into one book, which made it possible to see the gospel story from different points of view. In the 2nd century St. Irenaeus of Lyons calls the evangelists by name and points to their gospels as the only canonical ones (Against heresies 2, 28, 2). A contemporary of St. Irenaeus, Tatian, made the first attempt to create a single gospel narrative, compiled from various texts of the four gospels, “Diatessaron”, i.e. "gospel of four"

3. The apostles did not set out to create a historical work in the modern sense of the word. They sought to spread the teachings of Jesus Christ, helped people to believe in Him, to correctly understand and fulfill His commandments. The testimonies of the evangelists do not coincide in all details, which proves their independence from each other: the testimonies of eyewitnesses always have an individual coloring. The Holy Spirit certifies not the accuracy of the details of the facts described in the gospel, but the spiritual meaning contained in them.

The minor contradictions found in the presentation of the evangelists are explained by the fact that God gave the sacred writers complete freedom in conveying certain specific facts in relation to different categories of listeners, which further emphasizes the unity of meaning and orientation of all four gospels (see also General Introduction, pp. 13 and 14) .

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11 Ev. Luke again repeats that Christ is going to Jerusalem, heading towards Jerusalem, although this procession is very slow. So, in the present case, the Lord passes along the line that separated two regions: Samaria and Galilee. About Samaria ev. mentions and, moreover, puts it in the foreground in order to explain how one Samaritan ended up among the ten lepers, nine of whom were Jews.

12-19 Upon entering a certain village, Christ was met by ten lepers (see Matthew 8:2). They stood away because the law forbade them to approach healthy people, so as not to infect them ( Lev 13:46), and loudly spoke to Christ to have mercy on them. It is clear that they had some faith in Christ as a God-sent prophet. The Lord in response commands them to go and show themselves to the priests. Obviously, He thereby made it clear to them that they would now be healed, that the very process of healing had already begun, and that as soon as they reached the priests, they would turn out to be completely healthy. The lepers believed the Lord and went so that the priests would look at them and declare them well ( Lev 14:3-4). It is not said where or to which priest the Samaritan went, but, undoubtedly, to his Samaritan. And then on the road it turned out that everyone was truly freed from leprosy. This was a great miracle, and, of course, all those healed should have quickly returned to Christ in order to thank Him and, through Him, God for the healing received. But only one of those healed soon, apparently, without reaching the priest, returned and it was a Samaritan. Christ, noting the ingratitude of the healed Jews, turns to the foreigner (ἀλλογενὴς cf. Matthew 10:5) with soothing words, showing him what actually saved him.

This fact is Luke reports, obviously, with the purpose of showing that the pagans - the Samaritan was close to them, at least in his origin - turned out to be more capable of appreciating the benefits of the revealed Kingdom of God than the Jews, who had long been prepared to accept this Kingdom .

The personality of the Gospel writer. Evangelist Luke, according to legends preserved by some ancient church writers (Eusebius of Caesarea, Jerome, Theophylact, Euthymius Zigabene, etc.), was born in Antioch. His name, in all likelihood, is an abbreviation of the Roman name Lucilius. Was he a Jew or a pagan by birth? This question is answered by the passage from the Epistle to the Colossians, where St. Paul distinguishes Luke from the circumcision (Luke 4:11-14) and therefore testifies that Luke was a Gentile by birth. It is safe to assume that before joining the Church of Christ, Luke was a Jewish proselyte, since he is very familiar with Jewish customs. By his civilian profession, Luke was a doctor (Col. 4:14), and church tradition, although rather later, says that he was also engaged in painting (Nicephorus Callistus. Church history. II, 43). When and how he turned to Christ is unknown. The tradition that he belonged to the 70 apostles of Christ (Epiphanius. Panarius, haer. LI, 12, etc.) cannot be considered credible in view of the clear statement of Luke himself, who does not include himself among the witnesses of the life of Christ (Luke 1:1ff.). He acts for the first time as a companion and assistant to the ap. Paul during Paul's second missionary journey. This took place in Troas, where Luke may have lived before (Acts 16:10 et seq.). Then he was with Paul in Macedonia (Acts 16:11ff.) and, during the third journey, in Troas, Miletus and other places (Acts 24:23; Col. 4:14; Phil. 1:24). He accompanied Paul to Rome (Acts 27:1-28; cf. 2 Tim 4:11). Then information about him ceases in the writings of the New Testament, and only a relatively later tradition (Gregory the Theologian) reports his martyrdom; his relics, according to Jerome (de vir. ill. VII), under the emperor. Constantia was transferred from Achaia to Constantinople.

Origin of the Gospel of Luke. According to the evangelist himself (Luke 1:1-4), he compiled his Gospel on the basis of the tradition of eyewitnesses and the study of written experiences in presenting this tradition, trying to give a relatively detailed and correct, ordered account of the events of the gospel history. And those works that Ev. used. Luke, were compiled on the basis of the apostolic tradition, but nevertheless, they seemed to be true. Luke insufficient for the purpose that he had when composing his Gospel. One of these sources, maybe even the main source, was for Ev. Luke Gospel Mark. They even say that a huge part of Luke's Gospel is literary dependent on Ev. Mark (this is precisely what Weiss proved in his work on St. Mark by comparing the texts of these two Gospels).

Some critics also tried to make the Gospel of Luke dependent on the Gospel of Matthew, but these attempts were extremely unsuccessful and are now almost never repeated. If anything can be said with certainty, it is that in some places Ev. Luke uses a source that agrees with the Gospel of Matthew. This must be said primarily about the history of the childhood of Jesus Christ. The nature of the presentation of this story, the very speech of the Gospel in this section, which is very reminiscent of the works of Jewish writing, suggests that Luke here used a Jewish source, which was quite close to the story of the childhood of Jesus Christ as set out in the Gospel of Matthew.

Finally, even in ancient times it was suggested that Ev. Luke as a companion. Paul, expounded the “Gospel” of this particular apostle (Irenaeus. Against heresy. III, 1; in Eusebius of Caesarea, V, 8). Although this assumption is very likely and agrees with the character of Luke's Gospel, which, apparently, deliberately chose such narratives as could prove the general and main idea of ​​​​Paul's Gospel about the salvation of the Gentiles, nevertheless, the evangelist's own statement (1:1 et seq.) does not indicate this source.

The reason and purpose, place and time of writing the Gospel. The Gospel of Luke (and the book of Acts) was written for a certain Theophilus to enable him to ensure that the Christian teaching he was taught was based on solid foundations. There are many assumptions about the origin, profession and place of residence of this Theophilus, but all these assumptions do not have sufficient grounds. One can only say that Theophilus was a noble man, since Luke calls him “venerable” (κράτ ιστε 1:3), and from the nature of the Gospel, which is close to the nature of the teaching of the apostle. Paul naturally draws the conclusion that Theophilus was converted to Christianity by the Apostle Paul and was probably previously a pagan. One can also accept the testimony of the Meetings (a work attributed to Clement of Rome, X, 71) that Theophilus was a resident of Antioch. Finally, from the fact that in the book of Acts, written for the same Theophilus, Luke does not explain the apostles mentioned in the history of the journey. Paul to Rome of the localities (Acts 28:12.13.15), we can conclude that Theophilus was well acquainted with the named localities and probably traveled to Rome himself several times. But there is no doubt that the Gospel is its own. Luke wrote not for Theophilus alone, but for all Christians, for whom it was important to become acquainted with the history of the life of Christ in such a systematic and verified form as this story is in the Gospel of Luke.

That the Gospel of Luke was in any case written for a Christian or, more correctly, for pagan Christians, this is clearly evident from the fact that the evangelist nowhere presents Jesus Christ as primarily the Messiah expected by the Jews and does not strive to indicate in his activity and teaching Christ fulfillment of messianic prophecies. Instead, we find in the third Gospel repeated indications that Christ is the Redeemer of the entire human race and that the Gospel is intended for all nations. This idea was already expressed by the righteous elder Simeon (Luke 2:31 et seq.), and then passes through the genealogy of Christ, which is given by Heb. Luke is brought down to Adam, the ancestor of all mankind and which, therefore, shows that Christ does not belong to the Jewish people alone, but to all mankind. Then, beginning to depict the Galilean activity of Christ, Ev. Luke puts in the foreground the rejection of Christ by His fellow citizens - the inhabitants of Nazareth, in which the Lord indicated a feature that characterizes the attitude of the Jews towards the prophets in general - an attitude due to which the prophets left the Jewish land for the pagans or showed their favor to the pagans (Elijah and Elisha Luke 4 :25-27). In the Nagornoy conversation, Ev. Luke does not cite Christ’s sayings about His attitude to the law (Luke 1:20-49) and Pharisaic righteousness, and in his instructions to the apostles he omits the prohibition for the apostles to preach to the pagans and Samaritans (Luke 9:1-6). On the contrary, he alone talks about the grateful Samaritan, about the merciful Samaritan, about Christ’s disapproval of the immoderate irritation of the disciples against the Samaritans who did not accept Christ. This should also include various parables and sayings of Christ, in which there is great similarity with the teaching about righteousness from faith, which the apostle. Paul proclaimed in his letters written to churches made up primarily of Gentiles.

The influence of ap. Paul and the desire to explain the universality of salvation brought by Christ undoubtedly had a great influence on the choice of material for composing the Gospel of Luke. However, there is not the slightest reason to assume that the writer pursued purely subjective views in his work and deviated from historical truth. On the contrary, we see that he gives place in his Gospel to such narratives that undoubtedly developed in the Judeo-Christian circle (the story of Christ’s childhood). It is in vain, therefore, that they attribute to him the desire to adapt Jewish ideas about the Messiah to the views of the apostle. Paul (Zeller) or another desire to elevate Paul above the twelve apostles and Paul's teaching before Judeo-Christianity (Baur, Hilgenfeld). This assumption is contradicted by the content of the Gospel, in which there are many sections that run counter to this alleged desire of Luke (this is, firstly, the story of the birth of Christ and His childhood, and then the following parts: Luke 4:16-30; Luke 5:39; Luke 10:22; Luke 12:6 et seq.; Luke 16:17; Luke 19:18-46, etc. (To reconcile his assumption with the existence of such sections in the Gospel of Luke, resort to a new assumption that in its present form the Gospel of Luke is the work of some later person (editor), Holsten, who sees in the Gospel of Luke a combination of the Gospels of Matthew and Mark, believes that Luke had the goal of uniting the Judeo-Christian and. Paul's views, highlighting from them the Judaistic and extremely Pauline. The same view of the Gospel of Luke, as a work pursuing purely reconciliatory goals of two directions that fought in the primal Church, continues to exist in the latest criticism of the apostolic writings. to the interpretation of Ev. Luke (2nd ed. 1907) come to the conclusion that this Gospel cannot in any way be recognized as pursuing the task of exalting Paulinism. Luke shows his complete “non-partisanship”, and if he has frequent coincidences in thoughts and expressions with the messages of the Apostle Paul, this can only be explained by the fact that by the time Luke wrote his Gospel, these messages were already widespread in all churches . The love of Christ for sinners, the manifestations of which he so often dwells on. Luke, there is nothing particularly characteristic of Paul’s idea of ​​Christ: on the contrary, the entire Christian tradition presented Christ precisely as loving sinners...

The time of writing the Gospel of Luke for some ancient writers belonged to a very early period in the history of Christianity - even to the time of the activity of the apostle. Paul, and the newest interpreters in most cases claim that the Gospel of Luke was written shortly before the destruction of Jerusalem: at the time when the two-year stay of the ap. Paul in Roman imprisonment. There is, however, an opinion, supported by fairly authoritative scholars (for example, B. Weiss), that the Gospel of Luke was written after the 70th year, i.e., after the destruction of Jerusalem. This opinion seeks to find its basis mainly in Chapter 21. The Gospel of Luke (v. 24 et seq.), where the destruction of Jerusalem is supposed to be an already accomplished fact. With this, it seems, the idea that Luke has about the position of the Christian Church, as being in a very oppressed state, also agrees (cf. Luke 6:20 et seq.). However, according to the conviction of the same Weiss, it is impossible to date the origin of the Gospel further than the 70s (as, for example, Baur and Zeller do, putting the origin of the Gospel of Luke in 110-130, or as Hilgenfeld, Keim, Volkmar - in 100-100). m g.). Regarding this opinion of Weiss, we can say that it does not contain anything incredible and even, perhaps, can find a basis for itself in the testimony of St. Irenaeus, who says that the Gospel of Luke was written after the death of the apostles Peter and Paul (Against Heresies III, 1).

Where the Gospel of Luke is written - nothing definite is known about this from tradition. According to some, the place of writing was Achaia, according to others, Alexandria or Caesarea. Some point to Corinth, others to Rome as the place where the Gospel was written; but all this is just speculation.

On the authenticity and integrity of the Gospel of Luke. The writer of the Gospel does not call himself by name, but the ancient tradition of the Church unanimously calls the apostle the writer of the third Gospel. Luke (Irenaeus. Against heresy. III, 1, 1; Origen in Eusebius, Church history VI, 25, etc. See also the canon of Muratorium). There is nothing in the Gospel itself that would prevent us from accepting this testimony of tradition. If opponents of authenticity point out that the apostolic men do not cite passages from it at all, then this circumstance can be explained by the fact that under the apostolic men it was customary to be guided more by the oral tradition about the life of Christ than by the records about Him; in addition, the Gospel of Luke, as having, judging by its writing, a private purpose first of all, could be considered by the apostolic men as a private document. Only later did it acquire the significance of a generally binding guide for the study of Gospel history.

The newest criticism still does not agree with the testimony of tradition and does not recognize Luke as the writer of the Gospel. The basis for doubting the authenticity of the Gospel of Luke for critics (for example, for Johann Weiss) is the fact that the author of the Gospel must be recognized as the one who compiled the book of the Acts of the Apostles: this is evidenced not only by the inscription of the book. Acts (Acts 1:1), but also the style of both books. Meanwhile, criticism claims that the book of Acts was not written by Luke himself or even by his companion. Paul, and a person who lived much later, who only in the second part of the book uses the notes that remained from the companion of the ap. Paul (see, for example, Luke 16:10: we...). Obviously, this assumption expressed by Weiss stands and falls with the question of the authenticity of the book of the Acts of the Apostles and therefore cannot be discussed here.

As for the integrity of the Gospel of Luke, critics have long expressed the idea that not all of the Gospel of Luke originated from this writer, but that there are sections inserted into it by a later hand. Therefore, they tried to highlight the so-called “first-Luke” (Scholten). But most new interpreters defend the position that the Gospel of Luke, in its entirety, is the work of Luke. Those objections that, for example, he expresses in his commentary on Ev. Luke Yog. Weiss, a sane person can hardly shake the confidence that the Gospel of Luke in all its sections is a completely integral work of one author. (Some of these objections will be dealt with in the interpretation of Luke's Gospel.)

Contents of the Gospel. In relation to the choice and order of the Gospel events, Ev. Luke, like Matthew and Mark, divides these events into two groups, one of which embraces the Galilean activity of Christ, and the other His activity in Jerusalem. At the same time, Luke greatly abridges some of the stories contained in the first two Gospels, but gives many stories that are not at all in those Gospels. Finally, those stories that in his Gospel represent a reproduction of what is in the first two Gospels, he groups and modifies in his own way.

Like Ev. Matthew, Luke begins his Gospel with the very first moments of New Testament revelation. In the first three chapters he depicts: a) the announcement of the birth of John the Baptist and the Lord Jesus Christ, as well as the birth and circumcision of John the Baptist and the circumstances surrounding them (chapter 1), b) the history of the birth, circumcision and bringing of Christ to the temple , and then the appearance of Christ in the temple when He was a 12-year-old boy (chapter 11), c) the appearance of John the Baptist as the Forerunner of the Messiah, the descent of the Spirit of God on Christ during His baptism, the age of Christ, at what He was at that time, and His genealogy (chapter 3).

The depiction of Christ's messianic activity in the Gospel of Luke is also quite clearly divided into three parts. The first part covers the work of Christ in Galilee (Luke 4:1-9:50), the second contains the speeches and miracles of Christ during His long journey to Jerusalem (Luke 9:51-19:27) and the third contains the story of the completion of the messianic ministry Christ in Jerusalem (Luke 19:28-24:53).

In the first part, where the Evangelist Luke apparently follows St. Mark, both in the choice and in the sequence of events, several releases are made from Mark's narrative. Omitted specifically: Mark 3:20-30, - the malicious judgments of the Pharisees about the expulsion of demons by Christ, Mark 6:17-29 - the news of the capture and killing of the Baptist, and then everything that is given in Mark (as well as in Matthew) from history the activities of Christ in northern Galilee and Perea (Mark 6:44-8:27 et seq.). The miracle of the feeding of the people (Luke 9:10-17) is directly joined by the story of Peter’s confession and the Lord’s first prediction about His suffering (Luke 9:18 et seq.). On the other hand, ev. Luke, instead of the section on the recognition of Simon and Andrew and the sons of Zebedee to follow Christ (Mark 6:16-20; cf. Matthew 4:18-22), reports the story of a miraculous fishing event, as a result of which Peter and his comrades left their occupation in order to constantly follow Christ (Luke 5:1-11), and instead of the story of Christ’s rejection in Nazareth (Mark 6:1-6; cf. Matthew 13:54-58), he places a story of the same content when describing Christ’s first visit as Messiah of His father city (Luke 4:16-30). Further, after the calling of the 12 apostles, Luke places in his Gospel the following sections, not found in the Gospel of Mark: Sermon on the Mount (Luke 6:20-49, but in a more concise form than it is set out in St. Matthew), the question of the Baptist to the Lord about His messiahship (Luke 7:18-35), and inserted between these two parts is the story of the resurrection of the Nain youth (Luke 7:11-17), then the story of the anointing of Christ at a dinner in the house of the Pharisee Simon (Luke 7:36-50) and the names of the Galilean women who served Christ with their property (Luke 8:1-3).

This closeness of Luke's Gospel to Mark's Gospel is undoubtedly explained by the fact that both evangelists wrote their Gospels for pagan Christians. Both evangelists also show a desire to depict the gospel events not in their exact chronological sequence, but to give as complete and clear an idea as possible of Christ as the founder of the Messianic kingdom. Luke’s deviations from Mark can be explained by his desire to give more space to those stories that Luke borrows from tradition, as well as the desire to group the facts reported to Luke by eyewitnesses, so that his Gospel would represent not only the image of Christ, His life and works, but also His teaching about the Kingdom of God, expressed in His speeches and conversations with both His disciples and His opponents.

In order to systematically implement this intention of his. Luke places between both, predominantly historical, parts of his Gospel - the first and third - the middle part (Luke 9:51-19:27), in which conversations and speeches predominate, and in this part he cites such speeches and events that according to others The Gospels took place at a different time. Some interpreters (for example, Meyer, Godet) see in this section an accurate chronological presentation of events, based on the words of Ev. himself. Luke, who promised to present “everything in order” (καθ ’ ε ̔ ξη ̃ ς - 1:3). But such an assumption is hardly valid. Although ev. Luke says that he wants to write “in order,” but this does not mean at all that he wants to give only a chronicle of the life of Christ in his Gospel. On the contrary, he set out to give Theophilus, through an accurate presentation of the Gospel story, complete confidence in the truth of those teachings in which he was instructed. General sequential order of events. Luke preserved it: his gospel story begins with the birth of Christ and even with the birth of His Forerunner, then there is a depiction of the public ministry of Christ, and the moments of the revelation of Christ’s teaching about Himself as the Messiah are indicated, and finally, the whole story ends with a statement of the events of the last days of Christ’s presence on the ground. There was no need to list in sequential order everything that was accomplished by Christ from baptism to ascension - it was enough for the purpose that Luke had, to convey the events of the gospel history in a certain group. About this intention ev. Luke also says that most of the sections of the second part are connected not by exact chronological indications, but by simple transitional formulas: and it was (Luke 11:1; Luke 14:1), and it was (Luke 10:38; Luke 11:27 ), and behold (Luke 10:25), he said (Luke 12:54), etc. or in simple connectives: a, and (δε ̀ - Luke 11:29; Luke 12:10). These transitions were made, obviously, not in order to determine the time of events, but only their setting. It is also impossible not to point out that the evangelist here describes events that took place either in Samaria (Luke 9:52), then in Bethany, not far from Jerusalem (Luke 10:38), then again somewhere far from Jerusalem (Luke 13 :31), in Galilee - in a word, these are events of different times, and not just those that happened during the last journey of Christ to Jerusalem for the Passover of suffering Some interpreters, in order to maintain chronological order in this section, tried to find in it indications of two journeys of Christ to Jerusalem - on the feast of renewal and the feast of the last Easter (Schleiermacher, Olshausen, Neander) or even three, which John mentions in his Gospel ( Wieseler). But, not to mention the fact that there is no definite allusion to various journeys, the passage in Luke’s Gospel clearly speaks against such an assumption, where it is definitely said that the evangelist wants to describe in this section only the last journey of the Lord to Jerusalem - on the Passover of Passion. In the 9th chapter. 51st art. It is said: “When the days of His taking from the world drew near, He wanted to go to Jerusalem.” Explanation see clearly. Chapter 9 .

Finally, in the third section (Luke 19:28-24:53) Hev. Luke sometimes deviates from the chronological order of events in the interests of his grouping of facts (for example, he places the denial of Peter before the trial of Christ before the high priest). Here again ev. Luke adheres to the Gospel of Mark as the source of his narratives, supplementing his story with information drawn from another, unknown to us, source Thus, Luke alone has stories about the publican Zacchaeus (Luke 19:1-10), about the dispute between the disciples during the celebration of the Eucharist (Luke 22:24-30), about the trial of Christ by Herod (Luke 23:4-12), about the women who mourned Christ during His procession to Calvary (Luke 23:27-31), the conversation with the thief on the cross (Luke 23:39-43), the appearance of the Emmaus travelers (Luke 24:13-35) and some other messages representing itself a addition to the stories of Ev. Brand. .

Gospel Plan. In accordance with his intended goal - to provide a basis for faith in the teaching that had already been taught to Theophilus, Hev. Luke planned the entire content of his Gospel in such a way that it really leads the reader to the conviction that the Lord Jesus Christ accomplished the salvation of all mankind, that He fulfilled all the promises of the Old Testament about the Messiah as the Savior of not just the Jewish people, but of all nations. Naturally, in order to achieve his goal, the Evangelist Luke did not need to give his Gospel the appearance of a chronicle of the Gospel events, but rather needed to group all the events so that his narrative would make the impression he desired on the reader.

The evangelist's plan is already evident in the introduction to the history of the messianic ministry of Christ (chapters 1-3). In the story of the conception and birth of Christ, it is mentioned that an angel announced to the Blessed Virgin the birth of a Son, whom she would conceive by the power of the Holy Spirit and who would therefore be the Son of God, and in the flesh - the Son of David, who would forever occupy the throne of his father, David. The birth of Christ, as the birth of the promised Redeemer, is announced through an angel to the shepherds. When the Infant Christ is brought to the temple, the inspired elder Simeon and the prophetess Anna testify to His high dignity. Jesus Himself, still a 12-year-old boy, already declares that He should be in the temple as in the house of His Father. At the baptism of Christ in the Jordan, He receives heavenly testimony that He is the beloved Son of God, who received all the fullness of the gifts of the Holy Spirit for His messianic ministry. Finally, His genealogy given in Chapter 3, going back to Adam and God, testifies that He is the founder of a new humanity, born of God through the Holy Spirit.

Then, in the first part of the Gospel, an image is given of the messianic ministry of Christ, which is accomplished in the power of the Holy Spirit indwelling Christ (4:1). By the power of the Holy Spirit, Christ defeats the devil in the wilderness (Luke 4:1-13), and then appears in This “power of the Spirit” in Galilee, and in Nazareth, His own city, declares Himself the Anointed One and the Redeemer, about whom the prophets of the Old Testament predicted. Not finding faith in Himself here, He reminds His unbelieving fellow citizens that God, even in the Old Testament, prepared acceptance for the prophets among the pagans (Luke 4:14-30).

After this, which had a predictive significance for the future attitude towards Christ on the part of the Jews, the event was followed by a series of deeds performed by Christ in Capernaum and its environs: the healing of a demoniac by the power of the word of Christ in the synagogue, the healing of Simon’s mother-in-law and other sick and demoniacs who were brought and brought to Christ (Luke 4:31-44), miraculous fishing, healing of the leper. All this is depicted as events that entailed the spread of the rumor about Christ and the arrival to Christ of entire masses of people who came to listen to the teachings of Christ and brought with them their sick in the hope that Christ would heal them (Luke 5:1-16).

Then follows a group of incidents that aroused opposition to Christ on the part of the Pharisees and scribes: the forgiveness of the sins of the healed paralytic (Luke 5:17-26), the announcement at the publican’s dinner that Christ came to save not the righteous, but sinners (Luke 5:27-32 ), justification of Christ's disciples for non-observance of fasts, based on the fact that the Bridegroom-Messiah is with them (Luke 5:33-39), and in breaking the Sabbath, based on the fact that Christ is the Lord of the Sabbath, and, moreover, confirmed by a miracle, which Christ did this on the Sabbath with the withered hand (Luke 6:1-11). But while these deeds and statements of Christ irritated his opponents to the point that they began to think about how to take Him, He chose 12 from among His disciples as apostles (Luke 6:12-16), proclaimed from the mountain in the hearing of all the people who followed Him, the main provisions on which the Kingdom of God founded by Him should be built (Luke 6:17-49), and, after descending from the mountain, he not only fulfilled the request of the pagan centurion for the healing of his servant, because the centurion showed such faith in Christ, which Christ did not find in Israel (Luke 7:1-10), but also raised the son of the widow of Nain, after which he was glorified by all the people accompanying the funeral procession as a prophet sent by God to the chosen people (Luke 7:11-17 ).

The embassy from John the Baptist to Christ with the question whether He is the Messiah prompted Christ to point to His deeds as evidence of His Messianic dignity and at the same time reproach the people for their lack of trust in John the Baptist and in Him, Christ. At the same time, Christ makes a distinction between those listeners who long to hear from Him an indication of the path to salvation, and between those, of whom there are a huge mass and who do not believe in Him (Luke 7:18-35). The subsequent sections, in accordance with this intention of the evangelist to show the difference between the Jews who listened to Christ, report a number of facts that illustrate such a division among the people and at the same time the relationship of Christ to the people, to its different parts, consistent with their relationship to Christ, namely: the anointing of Christ a repentant sinner and the behavior of a Pharisee (Luke 7:36-50), a mention of the Galilean women who served Christ with their property (Luke 8:1-3), a parable about the various qualities of a field in which sowing is done, indicating the bitterness of the people (Luke 8: 4-18), the attitude of Christ towards His relatives (Luke 8:19-21), the crossing into the country of the Gadarenes, during which the lack of faith of the disciples was revealed, and the healing of a demoniac, and the contrast is noted between the stupid indifference that the Gadarenes showed to the miracle performed by Christ, and the gratitude of the healed (Luke 8:22-39), the healing of the bleeding woman and the resurrection of Jairus’ daughter, because both the woman and Jairus showed their faith in Christ (Luke 8:40-56). What follows are the events related in chapter 9, which were intended to strengthen the disciples of Christ in the faith: equipping the disciples with power to cast out and heal the sick, together with instructions on how they should act during their preaching journey (Luke 9:1- 6), and it is indicated, as the tetrarch Herod understood the activity of Jesus (Luke 9:7-9), the feeding of five thousand, with which Christ showed the apostles returning from the journey His power to provide help in every need (Luke 9:10-17), the question of Christ , for whom the people consider Him to be and for whom the disciples, and Peter’s confession on behalf of all the apostles is given: “You are the Christ of God,” and then Christ’s prediction of His rejection by the representatives of the people and His death and resurrection, as well as the admonition addressed to the disciples so that they imitated Him in self-sacrifice, for which He will reward them at His second glorious coming (Luke 9:18-27), the transfiguration of Christ, which allowed His disciples to penetrate with their gaze into His future glorification (Luke 9:28-36), the healing of the demoniac a sleepwalking youth - whom Christ's disciples could not heal due to the weakness of their faith - which resulted in the enthusiastic glorification of God by the people. At the same time, however, Christ once again pointed out to His disciples the fate awaiting Him, and they turned out to be incomprehensible in relation to such a clear statement made by Christ (Luke 9:37-45).

This inability of the disciples, despite their confession of the Messiahship of Christ, to understand His prophecy about His death and resurrection, had its basis in the fact that they were still in those ideas about the Kingdom of the Messiah that had developed among the Jewish scribes, who understood the Messianic Kingdom as an earthly kingdom, political, and at the same time testified to how weak their knowledge was still about the nature of the Kingdom of God and its spiritual benefits. Therefore, according to Ev. Luke, Christ devoted the rest of the time before His triumphal entry into Jerusalem to teaching His disciples precisely these most important truths about the nature of the Kingdom of God, about its form and spread (second part), about what is needed to achieve eternal life, and warnings not to get carried away the teachings of the Pharisees and the views of His enemies, whom He will eventually come to judge as the King of this Kingdom of God (Luke 9:51-19:27).

Finally, in the third part, the evangelist shows how Christ, by His suffering, death and resurrection, proved that He is truly the promised Savior and the King of the Kingdom of God anointed by the Holy Spirit. Depicting the solemn entry of the Lord into Jerusalem, the evangelist Luke speaks not only about the rapture of the people - which is also reported by other evangelists, but also about the fact that Christ announced His judgment over the city that disobeyed Him (Luke 19:28-44) and then, according to with Mark and Matthew, about how He put His enemies to shame in the temple (Luke 20:1-47), and then, pointing out the superiority of the poor widow's alms for the temple compared to the contributions of the rich, He foretold to His disciples the fate of Jerusalem and His followers ( Luke 21:1-36).

In the description of the suffering and death of Christ (chap. 22 and 23), it is exposed that Satan prompted Judas to betray Christ (Luke 22:3), and then Christ’s confidence is put forward that He will eat supper with His disciples in the Kingdom of God and that the Old Testament Passover must henceforth be replaced by the Eucharist established by Him (Luke 22:15-23). The evangelist also mentions that Christ at the Last Supper, calling his disciples to service, and not to domination, nevertheless promised them dominion in His Kingdom (Luke 22:24-30). Then follows the story of three moments of Christ's last hours: Christ's promise to pray for Peter, given in view of his imminent fall (Luke 22:31-34), the call of the disciples in the fight against temptations (Luke 22:35-38), and Christ's prayer in Gethsemane, in which He was strengthened by an angel from heaven (Luke 22:39-46). Then the evangelist speaks about the capture of Christ and Christ’s healing of the servant wounded by Peter (51) and about His denunciation of the high priests who came with the soldiers (53). All these particulars clearly show that Christ went to suffering and death voluntarily, in the consciousness of their necessity so that the salvation of mankind could be accomplished.

In the depiction of the very suffering of Christ, the denial of Peter is presented by the Evangelist Luke as evidence that even during His own suffering, Christ pitied His weak disciple (Luke 22:54-62). Then follows a description of the great sufferings of Christ in the following three features: 1) the denial of the high dignity of Christ, partly by the soldiers who mocked Christ in the court of the high priest (Luke 22:63-65), and mainly by the members of the Sanhedrin (Luke 22:66-71), 2 ) recognition of Christ as a dreamer at the trial of Pilate and Herod (Luke 23:1-12) and 3) the people’s preference for Barabbas the thief over Christ and the sentencing of Christ to death by crucifixion (Luke 23:13-25).

After depicting the depth of Christ’s suffering, the evangelist notes such features from the circumstances of this suffering that clearly testified that Christ, even in His suffering, remained the King of the Kingdom of God. The Evangelist reports that the Convict 1) as a judge addressed the women who wept for Him (Luke 23:26-31) and asked the Father for his enemies who committed a crime against Him unconsciously (Luke 23:32-34), 2) gave a place in paradise to the repentant thief, as having the right to do so (Luke 23:35-43), 3) realized that, dying, He betrayed His very spirit to the Father (Luke 23:44-46), 4) was recognized as righteous by the centurion and By His death he aroused repentance among the people (Luke 23:47-48) and 5) was honored with a particularly solemn burial (Luke 23:49-56). Finally, in the history of the resurrection of Christ, the evangelist highlights such events that clearly proved the greatness of Christ and served to clarify the work of salvation accomplished by Him. This is precisely: the testimony of the angels that Christ conquered death, according to His prophecies about this (Luke 24: 1-12), then the appearance of Christ himself to the Emmaus travelers, to whom Christ showed from Scripture the necessity of His suffering in order for Him to enter into glory His (Luke 24:13-35), the appearance of Christ to all the apostles, to whom He also explained the prophecies that spoke about Him, and commissioned in His name to preach the message of forgiveness of sins to all the nations of the earth, promising at the same time to the apostles to send down the power of the Holy Spirit (Luke 24:36-49). Finally, having briefly depicted the ascension of Christ into heaven (Luke 24:50-53), Hev. Luke ended his Gospel with this, which really was a confirmation of everything taught to Theophilus and other pagan Christians, Christian teaching: Christ is truly depicted here as the promised Messiah, as the Son of God and the King of the Kingdom of God.

Sources and aids for studying the Gospel of Luke. Of the patristic interpretations of the Gospel of Luke, the most thorough are the works of Blessed. Theophylact and Euthymius Zigabena. Of our Russian commentators, in the first place we must put Bishop Michael (Explanatory Gospel), then who compiled a textbook for reading the Four Gospels by D.P. Bogolepov, B.I. Gladkov, who wrote the “Explanatory Gospel,” and Prof. Kaz. spirit. Academy of M. Theologian, who compiled the books: 1) The Childhood of Our Lord Jesus Christ and His Forerunner, according to the Gospels of St. apostles Matthew and Luke. Kazan, 1893; and 2) The public ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ according to the stories of the holy evangelists. Vol. first. Kazan, 1908.

Of the works on the Gospel of Luke, we have only the dissertation of Fr. Polotebnova: The Holy Gospel of Luke. Orthodox critical-exegetical study against F. H. Baur. Moscow, 1873.

From foreign comments we mention interpretations: Keil K. Fr. 1879 (in German), Meyer as revised by B. Weiss 1885 (in German), Jog. Weiss "Writings of N. Zav." 2nd ed. 1907 (in German); Trench coat. Interpretation of the parables of our Lord Jesus Christ. 1888 (in Russian) and Miracles of Our Lord Jesus Christ (1883 in Russian, language); and Merckx. The four canonical Gospels according to their oldest known text. Part 2, 2nd half of 1905 (in German).

The following works are also quoted: Geiki. Life and teachings of Christ. Per. St. M. Fiveysky, 1894; Edersheim. The life and times of Jesus the Messiah. Per. St. M. Fiveysky. T. 1. 1900. Reville A. Jesus of Nazareth. Per. Zelinsky, vol. 1-2, 1909; and some articles from spiritual magazines.

Gospel

The word “Gospel” (τὸ εὐαγγέλιον) in classical Greek was used to designate: a) a reward that is given to the messenger of joy (τῷ εὐαγγέλῳ), b) a sacrifice sacrificed on the occasion of receiving some good news or a holiday celebrated on the same occasion and c) this good news itself. In the New Testament this expression means:

a) the good news that Christ reconciled people with God and brought us the greatest benefits - mainly founded the Kingdom of God on earth ( Matt. 4:23),

b) the teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ, preached by Himself and His Apostles about Him as the King of this Kingdom, the Messiah and the Son of God ( 2 Cor. 4:4),

c) all New Testament or Christian teaching in general, primarily the narration of the most important events from the life of Christ ( 1 Cor. 15:1-4), and then an explanation of the meaning of these events ( Rome. 1:16).

e) Finally, the word “Gospel” is sometimes used to designate the very process of preaching Christian teaching ( Rome. 1:1).

Sometimes the word “Gospel” is accompanied by a designation and its content. There are, for example, phrases: Gospel of the kingdom ( Matt. 4:23), i.e. good news of the kingdom of God, the gospel of peace ( Eph. 6:15), i.e. about peace, the gospel of salvation ( Eph. 1:13), i.e. about salvation, etc. Sometimes the genitive case following the word "Gospel" means the author or source of the good news ( Rome. 1:1, 15:16 ; 2 Cor. 11:7; 1 Thess. 2:8) or the personality of the preacher ( Rome. 2:16).

For quite a long time, stories about the life of the Lord Jesus Christ were transmitted only orally. The Lord Himself did not leave any records of His speeches and deeds. In the same way, the 12 apostles were not born writers: they were “unlearned and simple people” ( Acts 4:13), although literate. Among the Christians of the apostolic time there were also very few “wise according to the flesh, strong” and “noble” ( 1 Cor. 1:26), and for most believers, oral stories about Christ were much more important than written ones. Thus, the apostles and preachers or evangelists “transmitted” (παραδιδόναι) the stories about the deeds and speeches of Christ, and the believers “received” (παραλαμβάνειν) - but, of course, not mechanically, only by memory, as can be said about the students of rabbinical schools, but with all my soul, as if something living and life-giving. But this period of oral tradition was soon to end. On the one hand, Christians should have felt the need for a written presentation of the Gospel in their disputes with the Jews, who, as we know, denied the reality of Christ’s miracles and even argued that Christ did not declare Himself the Messiah. It was necessary to show the Jews that Christians have genuine stories about Christ from those persons who were either among His apostles or who were in close communication with eyewitnesses of the deeds of Christ. On the other hand, the need for a written presentation of the history of Christ began to be felt because the generation of the first disciples was gradually dying out and the ranks of direct witnesses to the miracles of Christ were thinning. Therefore, it was necessary to secure in writing individual sayings of the Lord and His entire speeches, as well as the stories of the apostles about Him. It was then that isolated records of what was reported in the oral tradition about Christ began to appear here and there. The words of Christ, which contained the rules of Christian life, were most carefully recorded, and they were much more free to convey various events from the life of Christ, preserving only their general impression. Thus, one thing in these records, due to its originality, was transmitted everywhere in the same way, while the other was modified. These initial recordings did not think about the completeness of the story. Even our Gospels, as can be seen from the conclusion of the Gospel of John ( In. 21:25), did not intend to report all the speeches and deeds of Christ. This is evident, by the way, from the fact that they do not include, for example, the following saying of Christ: “It is more blessed to give than to receive” ( Acts 20:35). The Evangelist Luke reports about such records, saying that many before him had already begun to compile narratives about the life of Christ, but that they lacked proper completeness and that therefore they did not provide sufficient “affirmation” in the faith ( OK. 1:1-4).

Our canonical Gospels apparently arose from the same motives. The period of their appearance can be determined to be approximately thirty years - from 60 to 90 (the last was the Gospel of John). The first three Gospels are usually called synoptic in biblical scholarship, because they depict the life of Christ in such a way that their three narratives can be viewed in one without much difficulty and combined into one coherent narrative (synoptics - from Greek - looking together). They began to be called Gospels individually, perhaps as early as the end of the 1st century, but from church writing we have information that such a name began to be given to the entire composition of the Gospels only in the second half of the 2nd century. As for the names: “Gospel of Matthew”, “Gospel of Mark”, etc., then more correctly these very ancient names from Greek should be translated as follows: “Gospel according to Matthew”, “Gospel according to Mark” (κατὰ Ματθαῖον, κατὰ Μᾶρκον). By this the Church wanted to say that in all the Gospels there is a single Christian gospel about Christ the Savior, but according to the images of different writers: one image belongs to Matthew, another to Mark, etc.

Four Gospels

Thus, the ancient Church looked upon the portrayal of the life of Christ in our four Gospels, not as different Gospels or narratives, but as one Gospel, one book in four types. That is why in the Church the name Four Gospels was established for our Gospels. Saint Irenaeus called them the “fourfold Gospel” (τετράμορφον τὸ εὐαγγέλιον - see Irenaeus Lugdunensis, Adversus haereses liber 3, ed. A. Rousseau and L. Doutreleaü Irenée Lyon. Contre les hé résies, livre 3, vol. 2. Paris, 1974, 11, 11).

The Fathers of the Church dwell on the question: why exactly did the Church accept not one Gospel, but four? So St. John Chrysostom says: “Couldn’t one evangelist write everything that was needed. Of course, he could, but when four people wrote, they wrote not at the same time, not in the same place, without communicating or conspiring with each other, and for all that they wrote in such a way that everything seemed to be uttered by one mouth, then this is the strongest proof of the truth. You will say: “What happened, however, was the opposite, for the four Gospels are often found to be in disagreement.” This very thing is a sure sign of truth. For if the Gospels had exactly agreed with each other in everything, even regarding the words themselves, then none of the enemies would have believed that the Gospels were not written according to ordinary mutual agreement. Now the slight disagreement between them frees them from all suspicion. For what they say differently regarding time or place does not in the least harm the truth of their narrative. In the main thing, which forms the basis of our life and the essence of preaching, not one of them disagrees with the other in anything or anywhere - that God became a man, worked miracles, was crucified, resurrected, and ascended into heaven.” (“Conversations on the Gospel of Matthew”, 1).

Saint Irenaeus also finds a special symbolic meaning in the fourfold number of our Gospels. “Since there are four countries of the world in which we live, and since the Church is scattered throughout the entire earth and has its confirmation in the Gospel, it was necessary for it to have four pillars, spreading incorruptibility from everywhere and reviving the human race. The All-Ordering Word, seated on the Cherubim, gave us the Gospel in four forms, but permeated with one spirit. For David, praying for His appearance, says: “He who sits on the Cherubim, show Yourself” ( Ps. 79:2). But the Cherubim (in the vision of the prophet Ezekiel and the Apocalypse) have four faces, and their faces are images of the activity of the Son of God.” Saint Irenaeus finds it possible to attach the symbol of a lion to the Gospel of John, since this Gospel depicts Christ as the eternal King, and the lion is the king in the animal world; to the Gospel of Luke - the symbol of the calf, since Luke begins his Gospel with the image of the priestly service of Zechariah, who slaughtered the calves; to the Gospel of Matthew - a symbol of a man, since this Gospel mainly depicts the human birth of Christ, and, finally, to the Gospel of Mark - a symbol of an eagle, because Mark begins his Gospel with a mention of the prophets, to whom the Holy Spirit flew, like an eagle on wings "(Irenaeus Lugdunensis, Adversus haereses, liber 3, 11, 11-22). Among the other Fathers of the Church, the symbols of the lion and the calf were moved and the first was given to Mark, and the second to John. Since the 5th century. in this form, the symbols of the evangelists began to be added to the images of the four evangelists in church painting.

Mutual relationship of the Gospels

Each of the four Gospels has its own characteristics, and most of all - the Gospel of John. But the first three, as mentioned above, have extremely much in common with each other, and this similarity involuntarily catches the eye even when reading them briefly. Let us first of all talk about the similarity of the Synoptic Gospels and the reasons for this phenomenon.

Even Eusebius of Caesarea, in his “canons,” divided the Gospel of Matthew into 355 parts and noted that 111 of them were found in all three weather forecasters. In modern times, exegetes have developed an even more precise numerical formula for determining the similarity of the Gospels and calculated that the total number of verses common to all weather forecasters rises to 350. In Matthew, then, 350 verses are unique to him, in Mark there are 68 such verses, in Luke - 541. Similarities are mainly noticed in the rendering of the sayings of Christ, and differences - in the narrative part. When Matthew and Luke literally agree with each other in their Gospels, Mark always agrees with them. The similarity between Luke and Mark is much closer than between Luke and Matthew (Lopukhin - in the Orthodox Theological Encyclopedia. T. V. P. 173). It is also remarkable that some passages in all three evangelists follow the same sequence, for example, the temptation and the speech in Galilee, the calling of Matthew and the conversation about fasting, the plucking of ears of corn and the healing of the withered man, the calming of the storm and the healing of the Gadarene demoniac, etc. The similarity sometimes even extends to the construction of sentences and expressions (for example, in the presentation of a prophecy Small 3:1).

As for the differences observed among weather forecasters, there are quite a lot of them. Some things are reported by only two evangelists, others even by one. Thus, only Matthew and Luke cite the conversation on the mount of the Lord Jesus Christ and report the story of the birth and first years of Christ’s life. Luke alone speaks of the birth of John the Baptist. Some things one evangelist conveys in a more abbreviated form than another, or in a different connection than another. The details of the events in each Gospel are different, as are the expressions.

This phenomenon of similarities and differences in the synoptic Gospels has long attracted the attention of interpreters of Scripture, and various assumptions have long been made to explain this fact. It seems more correct to believe that our three evangelists used a common oral source for their narrative of the life of Christ. At that time, evangelists or preachers about Christ went everywhere preaching and repeated in different places in a more or less extensive form what was considered necessary to offer to those entering the Church. Thus, a well-known specific type was formed oral gospel, and this is the type we have in written form in our Synoptic Gospels. Of course, at the same time, depending on the goal that this or that evangelist had, his Gospel took on some special features, characteristic only of his work. At the same time, we cannot exclude the assumption that an older Gospel could have been known to the evangelist who wrote later. Moreover, the difference between the weather forecasters should be explained by the different goals that each of them had in mind when writing his Gospel.

As we have already said, the Synoptic Gospels differ in very many ways from the Gospel of John the Theologian. So they depict almost exclusively the activity of Christ in Galilee, and the Apostle John depicts mainly the sojourn of Christ in Judea. In terms of content, the Synoptic Gospels also differ significantly from the Gospel of John. They give, so to speak, a more external image of the life, deeds and teachings of Christ and from the speeches of Christ they cite only those that were accessible to the understanding of the entire people. John, on the contrary, omits a lot from the activities of Christ, for example, he cites only six miracles of Christ, but those speeches and miracles that he cites have a special deep meaning and extreme importance about the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Finally, while the Synoptics portray Christ primarily as the founder of the Kingdom of God and therefore direct the attention of their readers to the Kingdom founded by Him, John draws our attention to the central point of this Kingdom, from which life flows along the peripheries of the Kingdom, i.e. on the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, whom John portrays as the Only Begotten Son of God and as the Light for all mankind. That is why the ancient interpreters called the Gospel of John primarily spiritual (πνευματικόν), in contrast to the synoptic ones, as depicting predominantly the human side in the person of Christ (εὐαγγέλιον σωματικόν), i.e. The gospel is physical.

However, it must be said that the weather forecasters also have passages that indicate that the weather forecasters knew the activity of Christ in Judea ( Matt. 23:37, 27:57 ; OK. 10:38-42), and John also has indications of the continued activity of Christ in Galilee. In the same way, weather forecasters convey such sayings of Christ that testify to His Divine dignity ( Matt. 11:27), and John, for his part, also in places depicts Christ as a true man ( In. 2 etc.; John 8 etc.). Therefore, we cannot talk about any contradiction between the weather forecasters and John in their depiction of the face and work of Christ.

The Reliability of the Gospels

Although criticism has long been expressed against the reliability of the Gospels, and recently these attacks of criticism have especially intensified (the theory of myths, especially the theory of Drews, who does not recognize the existence of Christ at all), however, all the objections of criticism are so insignificant that they are broken at the slightest collision with Christian apologetics . Here, however, we will not cite the objections of negative criticism and analyze these objections: this will be done when interpreting the text of the Gospels itself. We will only talk about the most important general reasons for which we recognize the Gospels as completely reliable documents. This is, firstly, the existence of a tradition of eyewitnesses, many of whom lived to the era when our Gospels appeared. Why on earth would we refuse to trust these sources of our Gospels? Could they have invented everything that is in our Gospels? No, all the Gospels are purely historical. Secondly, it is not clear why the Christian consciousness would want - as the mythical theory claims - to crown the head of a simple Rabbi Jesus with the crown of the Messiah and Son of God? Why, for example, is it not said about the Baptist that he performed miracles? Obviously because he didn't create them. And from here it follows that if Christ is said to be the Great Wonderworker, then it means that He really was like that. And why would it be possible to deny the authenticity of Christ’s miracles, since the highest miracle - His Resurrection - is witnessed like no other event in ancient history (see. 1 Cor. 15)?

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