What are legends and whether to believe them. "Holy Scripture" and "Sacred Tradition

The life of God's people throughout their history is called Holy Tradition. The Sacred Tradition of the Old Testament is the life of the people of Israel before the birth of Christ, described in the first part of the Bible. This tradition was fulfilled and completed with the coming of the Messiah Jesus Christ and the birth of the Christian Church.

The New Testament, Christian Tradition is also called Apostolic Tradition. The New Testament books in the Bible are the central written part of Christian Tradition and the main written source that inspired all of its subsequent development.

Sacred Christian Tradition is passed from people to people, from person to person, through space and time, from the time of Christ's apostles to the present day. The word “tradition” also means that which is transmitted, passes from one to another.

Sacred Tradition is not only a collection of many written documents, it is the transfer of the life and experience of the entire Church from one person to another, from one generation of people to another, and the initial link of this chain turns out to be in God.

From the beginning of the world to Moses there were no sacred books, and the teaching about the faith of God was transmitted orally, by tradition, that is, by word and example, from one to another and from ancestors to descendants. Likewise, Jesus Christ Himself transmitted His Divine teaching and ordinances to the disciples by His word (sermon) and the example of His life. By the oral method, at the beginning, the apostles also spread the faith and established the Church of Christ. Holy Tradition has always preceded Holy Scripture. This is quite understandable, because not all people can use books, and the tradition is available to everyone without exception.

In Sacred Tradition, the Bible takes the first place. Then follows the liturgical life of the church and her prayer, then her teaching decrees and acts of Councils recognized by the Church, the writings of the Church fathers, the lives of the saints, church law, and finally the iconographic tradition, singing and architecture. All these parts are organically linked.

The word Bible means book. The Bible has been written over thousands of years by various people. It is divided into two covenants: Old (old) and New. “Covenant” is an Old Church Slavonic word meaning “testament” or “agreement”.

The Old Testament begins with five books of the Law, called the "Pentateuch." They are sometimes also called “The Books of Moses” because their central theme is the exodus of the Jewish people from Egypt and the laws given to Moses by God.

In addition, the Old Testament includes: books about the history of Israel; teaching books - “Psalms”, “Proverbs of Solomon”, “Book of Job”; prophetic books - entitled by the names of the Old Testament prophets.

The New Testament consists of 27 books. The center of the New Testament part of the Bible is made up of the four Gospels written by the holy evangelists: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. It also includes: the book “Acts of St. Apostles ”,“ Epistles ”and“ Apocalypse ”.

For the Orthodox, the Bible serves as the main source of divine teaching, for God Himself by the Holy Spirit inspired its writing. Both the Old and New Testaments are perceived by the Church through Jesus Christ - the Living Word of God - because they lead to Him, talk about Him and find their fulfillment in Him. And as an image of the fact that Christ is the heart of the entire Bible, only the Four Gospel, and not all of it, is placed on the throne in the church.

When the church comes together as the people of God for worship, it is called the liturgy. The Divine Liturgy of the Christian Church is a joint action of God and His people.

The Old Testament service was held in the Jerusalem temple according to the Law of Moses and included feasts, fasts, private prayers and services performed by the Israelites in their homes and synagogues. In the Christian Church, Old Testament prayers, scriptures and psalms are viewed in the light of Christ. The sacrifice of the Body and Blood of Christ replaced the sacrifices in the Old Testament temple. The Lord's Day - Resurrection - replaced the Jewish Saturday. Jewish holidays also acquired a new meaning: for example, the main holiday - Easter, became the holiday of the death and resurrection of Christ.

Growing out of Old Testament worship, the Church developed special Christian forms of her sacraments - baptism in the Name of the Holy Trinity, chrismation, communion, repentance, wedding, unction and ordination of the priesthood.

In addition, over time, an inexhaustible treasury of Christian prayers, holidays in remembrance of New Testament events and the exploits of the saints was formed. Thus, in church services, Holy Scripture and Holy Tradition are combined into a single whole, and thus - through prayer and worship - people learn by God, as predicted by the prophet Isaiah about the time when the Messiah will come.

Tradition is the testimony of the Spirit: “When He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all truth” (). It is this divine promise that forms the basis of Orthodox faithfulness to tradition.

External forms

Let us consider, in order, those external forms in which tradition is expressed.

1. THE BIBLE

a) The Bible and the Church. The Christian Church is the Church of Scripture: it believes in this as firmly (if not more firmly) as Protestantism. The Bible is the highest expression of Divine Revelation to the human race, and Christians will always be the "people of the Scripture." But if Christians are the people of Scripture, then the Bible is the Scripture of the people: it cannot be regarded as something that stands above the Church, for it lives and is understood within the Church (this is why one should not separate Scripture and Tradition).

It is from the Church that the Bible ultimately receives its authority, for it was the Church who originally decided which books belong to Holy Scripture; and only the Church has the right to authoritatively interpret Holy Scripture. There are many sayings in the Bible that are far from clear in themselves, and if an individual reader, even a sincere one, takes the liberty of personally interpreting them, he risks falling into error. "Do you understand what you are reading?" - Philip asks the Ethiopian eunuch; and the eunuch replies: "How can I understand if someone does not instruct me?" (Acts 8sl). When the Orthodox read Scripture, they accept the direction of the church. When a new convert is accepted into the Orthodox Church, he promises: "I accept and understand Holy Scripture according to the interpretation given and is being given by the Holy Orthodox Catholic Church of the East, our mother."

b) Bible Text: Biblical Criticism. The Orthodox Church has the same as the rest of the Christian world. She uses the ancient Greek translation known as the Septuagint as the authoritative Old Testament text. When it disagrees with the original Hebrew text (which happens quite often), the Orthodox consider the changes in the Septuagint to be made by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and accept them as part of a continuous divine revelation. The most famous case is Isaiah 7:14, where the Hebrew text reads: "A young woman will conceive and give birth to a son," and the Septuagint translates: "Behold, the Virgin will receive in her womb ..." The New Testament follows the text of the Septuagint ().

The Hebrew version of the Old Testament consists of 39 books. The Septuagint contains 10 more books that are not represented in the Hebrew Bible, which are known in the Orthodox Church under the name "Deuterocanonical". The councils at Iasi (1642) and Jerusalem (1672) proclaimed them "authentic portions of Scripture"; however, the majority of Orthodox theologians of our day, following the opinion of Athanasius and Jerome, although they recognize the Deutero-canonical books as parts of the Bible, nevertheless consider them to be of a lower rank than the rest of the books of the Old Testament.

True Christianity has nothing to fear from conscientious inquiry. Although the Church considers the Church to be the authoritative interpreter of Scripture, it does not prohibit critical and historical studies of the Bible, although so far Orthodox scholars have not been very successful in this area.

v) Bible in worship. It is sometimes thought that the Bible is less important in Orthodoxy than in Western Christianity. But Holy Scripture is constantly read at Orthodox divine services: during Matins and Vespers, the entire Psalter is read weekly, and during Great Lent twice a week; the reading of the Old Testament is performed during Vespers on the eve of many holidays, and during Great Lent also at the sixth hour and Vespers on weekdays (but, unfortunately, the Old Testament readings are not performed during the Liturgy). The reading of the Gospel is the culmination of Matins on Sundays and holidays; During the liturgy, portions of the Epistles and Gospels are read, assigned for each day of the year, so that the entire New Testament (with the exception of the Revelation of John the Theologian) is read at the Eucharist. "Now otpuschaeshi" is read during Vespers; Old Testament hymns, coupled with the Song of the Virgin (Magnificat) and the Song of Zechariah (Benedictus), are sung during Matins; Our Father is heard at every service. In addition to these specific Scripture passages, the entire text of each service is in the language of the Bible: it has been calculated that the liturgy contains 98 passages from the Old Testament and 114 from the New Testament.

5 ... Confession of Faith by Gennady, Patriarch of Constantinople (1455-1456).

6 ... Jeremiah II's Answers to the Lutherans (1573-1581).

7 ... Confession of Faith by Metropolitan Kritopoulos (1625).

8 ... The Orthodox confession of Peter Mogila in its revised form (approved by the Council in Yassy, ​​1642).

9 ... Confession of Dositheus (approved by the Jerusalem Cathedral).

10 ... Answers of the Orthodox Patriarchs to the Unsworn (1718, 1723).

11 ... Reply of the Orthodox Patriarchs to Pope Pius IX (1848).

12 ... Reply of the Synod of Constantinople to Pope Leo XIII (1895).

13 ... District letters of the Patriarchate of Constantinople on the issue of Christian unity and the "ecumenical movement" (1920, 1952).

These documents, especially 5-9, are sometimes called the "symbolic books" of the Orthodox Church; but many Orthodox scholars today consider such a name misleading and do not use it.

4. THE HOLY FATHERS

The definitions of councils should be studied in the broader context of patristic writings. But in relation to the holy fathers, as in relation to local councils, the court of the church is selective: individual authors at times fell into error or contradicted each other. The seed of the patristic should be separated from its own chaff. An Orthodox Christian should not only know and quote the fathers, but deeply imbued with the patristic spirit and assimilate the patristic "way of thinking." One should see in the holy fathers not relics of the past, but living witnesses and contemporaries.

The Orthodox Church has never tried to accurately determine the status of the holy fathers, and even less - to classify them according to the degree of importance. But she has an emphasized respect for the authors of the 4th century, especially for those whom she calls "three saints": Basil the Great, Gregory Nazianzin (known in Orthodoxy as Gregory the Theologian) and John Chrysostom. From the point of view of Orthodoxy, the “age of the fathers” did not end in the 5th century: many later writers are also recognized as “fathers”: Maxim, John Damascene, Theodore the Studite, Simeon the New Theologian, Gregory Palamas, Mark of Ephesus. In truth, it is dangerous to see in the "fathers" only a vicious circle of authors, wholly belonging to the past. Can't our time give birth to a new Basil or Athanasius? To assert that there can be no more holy fathers is to assert that the Holy Spirit has left the Church.

5. LITURGY

This inner tradition, "handed down to us in the sacrament," is preserved primarily in church services. Lex orandi lex credendï our faith is in our prayer. Orthodoxy has developed few direct definitions regarding the Eucharist and other sacraments, the future world, the Mother of God and the saints: our faith in relation to these things is expressed mainly in prayers and hymns that are part of worship. Not only the words of service belong to tradition: various gestures and actions - immersion in water at baptism, various kinds of anointing with oil, the sign of the cross, etc. - all of them have a special meaning, all express the truth of faith in a symbolic or dramatic form.

6. CANONS

In addition to doctrinal definitions. Ecumenical councils established canons regarding church organization and discipline; other canons were adopted by local councils or individual bishops. Fyodor Valsamon, Zonara and other Byzantine writers compiled collections of canons with explanations and commentaries. The generally accepted Greek commentary, Pidalion (Greek for Rul), published in 1800, is the fruit of the tireless labors of St. Nikodim Svyatogorets.

The church law of the Orthodox Church has been studied very little in the West, and as a result, Western authors sometimes fall into the error, believing that they do not know external regulations. This is not at all the case. In Orthodox life there are many rules, often very strict and harsh. However, it must be admitted that today many canons are difficult or impossible to apply, and they have long gone out of use. If when a new pan-Orthodox council meets, one of its main tasks will be to revise and clarify canon law.

The doctrinal definitions of councils have absolute and unchanging authority, which the canons cannot claim: after all, the definitions concern eternal truths, and the canons - the earthly life of the church, the conditions of which are constantly changing, and countless special situations arise. Nevertheless, there is an essential connection between the canons and dogmas of the church: church law is nothing more than an attempt to apply the dogma to specific situations that develop in the daily life of every Christian. Thus, the canons are part of the Holy Tradition.

7. ICONS

The tradition of the church is expressed not only through words, not only through gestures and actions during worship, but also through art - in the colors and lines of holy icons. An icon is not just a picture on a religious subject, designed to awaken the corresponding emotions in the viewer: it is one of the ways in which it reveals itself to people. Through icons, the Orthodox Christian gains a vision of the spiritual world. Since icons are part of the tradition, icon painters do not have the right to make changes or innovations at their own whim: after all, their work is intended to reflect not their own aesthetic experiences, but the thinking of the church. Artistic inspiration is not excluded, but it is guided by strictly established rules. It is important that the icon painter be a good artist, but it is even more important that he be a sincere Christian, living in the spirit of tradition and preparing for his work by confession and holy communion.

These are the main elements that make up the outward appearance of the tradition of the Orthodox Church: Scripture, cathedrals, holy fathers, liturgy, canons, icons. They cannot be separated or opposed to each other, for the same Holy Spirit speaks through them all, and together they form a single whole, each part of which should be understood in the light of all other parts.

It is sometimes said that the underlying cause of the schism in the Western Church in the 16th century. there was a gap between theology and mysticism, between liturgy and personal piety, revealed at the end of the Middle Ages. For my part, I have always tried to avoid such a gap. Any truly Orthodox theology is mystical: just as mysticism, divorced from theology, becomes subjectivism and heresy, so theology, divorced from mysticism, degenerates into dry scholasticism, "academic" in the bad sense of the word.

Theology, mysticism, spirituality, morality, worship, art: these things cannot be thought of separately. The doctrine cannot be understood outside of prayer: as Evagrius says, a theologian is one who knows how to pray; and the one who prays in spirit and truth is thereby already a theologian. " If a doctrine is to be expressed in prayer, it must be experienced: theology without action, according to St. Maxim, there is demonic theology. belongs only to those who live by them. Faith and love, theology and life are inseparable. In the Byzantine liturgy, the symbol of faith is preceded by the words: "Let us love each other in order to confess with one mind the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, the Trinity consubstantial and indivisible." These words accurately reflect the Orthodox approach to tradition. If we do not love each other, we cannot truly confess our faith and enter into the inner spirit of tradition. For there is no other way to know God but to love Him.

Everyone knows that the main book of Christians is the Bible, we call it Holy Scripture. But it is obvious that the life of Christian communities is regulated not only by the Bible. In solving many issues, we turn to the Holy Tradition. What is it and what is the connection between Scripture and Tradition?

Where is it recorded?

To begin with, let us ask ourselves a question: how did the Scripture reach the people? Did the angels bring them a book? No, it wasn't quite like that. In the life of different people, starting with Abraham, different events took place, which they perceived as the Revelation of God. They told their children and grandchildren about these events. Then some of these stories were written down, others were gradually added to them. And what had already been written down needed various explanations. To put it simply, the main books recorded have been called Holy Scripture. And the books written down later, or even just the tradition of interpreting the most important books, received the name of Sacred Tradition.

The question of the relationship between Scripture and Tradition remains eternally relevant, it is interpreted in different ways in different Christian denominations, it is necessary to turn to it again and again when solving practical problems arising in the life of the Church. Debates on this topic can often be heard in dialogues between Orthodox and Protestants: Protestants reproach the Orthodox for replacing Scripture with many of their own notions that cannot be found in the Bible, and called them Tradition. The Orthodox, on the contrary, answer that since ancient times Christians did not rely on one Scripture, as, for example, St. Basil the Great testifies: “Of the dogmas and sermons preserved in the Church, we have some from written instructions, and some from the apostolic tradition ... For example Who taught by the Scriptures that those who trust in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ be signified by the image of the cross? Which Scripture taught us to turn to the East in prayer? The words of invocation during the offering of the Bread of the Eucharist and the Chalice of Blessing, which of the saints left us in the Scriptures? .. We also bless the water of baptism and the oil of the anointing ... according to which Scripture? Is it not according to Tradition, silent and secret? "

And then the Protestants usually exclaim: "But where is it, this is your secret Tradition, show us the list of books that contain it?" But this is how our contemporary hegumen Peter (Meshcherinov) answers this question: “The Church does not have a dogmatic theological definition, a certain exact formula for what is Holy Tradition. There is no book in the Church entitled “St. Tradition ”... The Orthodox Church is very free, unlike, for example, the Latin Church. So they define everything precisely, formulate everything, dogmatize everything scholastic and write it down in thick catechisms. We don't have that; in the Orthodox Church only very few of the most important things are precisely fixed - only the foundations of our religion; much has been left to freedom, to the very experience of the life of the Church. This is the deepest respect for a person. "

Does this mean that Tradition is anything at all? Of course no. For the Orthodox, Tradition is, in fact, the centuries-old experience of the life of the Church. But if we call the Scripture a book of quite definite content, then Tradition simply cannot be defined by such a framework, as it is impossible to define them, say, family traditions. If I say to a stranger: "It is customary in our family to do this and that," he may ask me: "Where is this written down?" And I will have nothing to answer him. We just live like this ...

Hierarchy of texts

It may seem surprising to us today, but for the first decades the Church lived even without a written Gospel. As the Evangelist Luke notes at the very beginning of his book, he took up this work precisely because there were already many oral stories, and he wrote down his Gospel “after a careful study of everything from the beginning” (1: 3).

Apparently, something similar happened with the Old Testament: it is not that Moses, coming down from Mount Sinai, sat down and wrote the entire Pentateuch at once, or Isaiah, having received a revelation, immediately created his book from the first to the last page. We will not find this anywhere in the Bible itself. On the contrary, there are clear indications in her that her books took shape gradually. In the Proverbs of Solomon, for example, there is a subtitle: "And these are the parables of Solomon, which were gathered together by the men of Hezekiah king of Judah" (25: 1). But more than two centuries passed between Solomon and Hezekiah! That is, all this time, the sayings of Solomon existed either orally or in the form of some separate documents, but were not included in the single book of Proverbs. This can be compared with a collection of poems by Lomonosov or Derzhavin, first published only in our time.

Thus, we can say that Scripture gradually crystallized in the depths of Tradition: the most important and valuable parts of it were selected by the community of believers and included in the Bible, and only then this choice was finally limited by the framework of the canon.

But this does not mean at all that there can be no tension between Scripture and Tradition. In the same Gospels, we read more than once about how Christ denounced the scribes and Pharisees, who replaced Scripture with the "traditions of the elders" and laid on people "burdens that could not be borne." This can happen in our time, and in any other time: human traditions become self-sufficient, sometimes they simply overshadow everything else.

That is why, at the dawn of the Reformation, the Protestant Fathers refused to see in Tradition something equivalent to Scripture, proclaiming the principle of Sola Scriptura: only Scripture can be the source of doctrine for Christians. The Catholics objected to them: both Scripture and Tradition should be sources of doctrine. The Orthodox vision of this issue can be thought of as a system of concentric circles. In the very center is the Gospel, followed by other biblical books, from the most relevant Pauline Epistles to the books of Chronicles. This is where Scripture ends, but the teaching of the Church does not end at all. The next circle - definitions of ecumenical councils and liturgical texts, then there are the creations of the fathers, icons, temple architecture and other elements of the Tradition. In the outermost circles - the traditions of specific dioceses and even parishes, but they already clearly lie outside the boundaries of Holy Tradition.

So, we can say that Scripture is the central and most important part of Tradition, inseparable from everything else. However, at the same time, it is necessary to distinguish that part of it, which has really become the property of the entire Church and which can be safely called Holy Tradition, from different customs, albeit useful, but not of general church significance. At the Council of Carthage in 257, one of the bishops remarked: “The Lord said: I am the truth. He did not say: I am the custom. " The contemporary theologian Bishop Callistus Ware commented on these words: “There is a difference between tradition and tradition: many inherited traditions from the past are of a human and accidental nature. These are pious (or impious) opinions, but not the true part of Tradition - the foundations of the Christian message. "

From the periphery to the golden mean

People who come to the Church first come into contact with its outermost layers: "but our father says ...", "but they told me in the church ...". This is quite natural, but you should never stop there. The peripheral circles must agree with the central ones: what the parish priest says is, of course, important, but even more important is the decree of the Ecumenical Council, and most importantly, the Gospel. And if you see a contradiction between one and the other, then ... no, there is no need to rush. We must first think about it.

We are well aware of the distance between us and the Fathers of the Church when we talk about their holiness and our sinfulness. But at the same time, many people speak as if there is no distance at all between their understanding and what the fathers said, as if any repetition of the words they said automatically creates a spiritual identity between us and them. We can repeat the words of Scripture or its most authoritative interpreters, but this does not mean that our current understanding of these words is the most correct: we need to penetrate into the very essence of their arguments, understand their position and see how it is applicable to our own situation. Following the fathers is not mechanical repetition.

Even within one confession there are people of different views and directions. Therefore, there is no absolutely objective, scientifically proven interpretation of the Bible, which could be likened to the periodic table or a map of the starry sky. If it existed, it would long ago have been accepted by all sane Christians, rejecting everything that does not agree with it. But they continue to argue, and each is confident that he is right. And each side refers to its own fathers: the Orthodox, for example, John Chrysostom, Catholics - to Augustine of Hippo. It has always been this way: for example, in the 3rd century, Cyprian of Carthage and Pope Stephen argued about whether the baptism received from heretics was really - but both of them died a martyr's death, both are glorified as saints. By the way, there is no consensus among Christians as to whose baptism is invalid to this day.

However, on many important issues, all Christians have the same or very close point of view, and even that which seemed controversial during the Reformation, today can be recognized in one way or another by almost all Christians. For example, Martin Luther proclaimed that Scripture is understandable to every person on the external, grammatical level, but a deep understanding of spiritual truths comes only under the action of the Holy Spirit. This was said in response to the assertion of Catholic theologians that the Bible is not available to the common man (at that time, Catholics did not at all encourage reading it in popular languages, but only in Latin). But today, perhaps few traditional Christians would argue with Luther.

The Fathers really help us to find the golden mean, therefore the concept of "Sacred Tradition" can be defined as follows: it is the experience of reading the Holy Scriptures by our most experienced and spiritually mature predecessors. Tradition is an experience of living according to the Scriptures.

Andrey DESNITSKY

How the Holy Tradition should be studied - Archimandrite Markell (Pavuk), the confessor of the Kiev theological schools.

- Father, what is Sacred Tradition?

- Sacred Tradition is everything concerning the Christian life that is not recorded in the Holy Scriptures. The need for the existence of Tradition is connected with the fact that there are many places in the Holy Scriptures that are very difficult for an inexperienced person to understand. Saint Apostle Peter writes about this. He states that in the sacred texts "there is something incomprehensible that the ignorant and unconfirmed, to their own destruction, transform, like the rest of the Scriptures" (2 Pet. 3:16).

- How was the Tradition passed down from generation to generation?

- The Church Tradition is kept and transmitted primarily by the bishops and their immediate assistants - the priests. They took power in the Church not arbitrarily and not even by virtue of the democratic election procedure, but through successive ordination from the holy apostles, who, in turn, received the added grace of the gifts of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, which is described in the second chapter of the Book of Acts (see Acts . 2: 1-47).

- Are Tradition and Scripture somehow interconnected?

- The texts of Holy Scripture did not just fall to us from heaven, they were written down thanks to the Tradition from the apostles, who received the grace of the Holy Spirit from the Lord. The canon of the texts of Holy Scripture was finally formed in the 2nd century, that is, already under the apostolic successors. When now sectarian preachers reject Tradition, they prune the branch on which they sit.

- What is dominant in the Tradition? Or are all parts equally authoritative?

- The entire circle of worship of our Church and many other things that are not clearly spelled out in Holy Scripture, but have thoroughly become part of the tradition of our Christian life, belong to Tradition. For example, in Scripture, nowhere is it said about the veneration of holy icons, about monastic service, but for thousands of years all this has been preserved precisely thanks to the Holy Tradition. And the text of Holy Scripture itself was preserved in the Church thanks to Holy Tradition. But, perhaps, the most important place in Holy Tradition is occupied by the patristic interpretation (understanding) of Holy Scripture. All patristic creations can be attributed to this category, starting with the writings of the apostolic men, that is, people who communicated directly with the apostles, and ending with the creations of ascetics of faith and piety, who relatively recently lived and are now canonized by the Church.

- Why are their creations especially valuable to us?

- The fact is that the holy fathers knew how to read and interpret the texts of Holy Scripture, as well as all the phenomena of the surrounding world, impartially, with the sober eyes of faith. This was achieved through the ascetic practice of prayer, fasting and other virtues. We, ordinary people, most often, due to our sinfulness and passion, evaluate people and events, if not with anger, then with partiality, and our assessment is quite subjective. For example, in front of our eyes, military operations are being waged in the east of Ukraine, but there are so many opinions about what is happening there, how many people there are. Due to the discord provoked by the media and their owners, there are still no ready to take full responsibility and resolutely end this armed confrontation.

When we read the works of the holy fathers of the Church, then, even sometimes without understanding the full depth of their thoughts, we are affirmed in faith, clothed with peace, imbued with reverence and fear of God. The most important thing is that we draw from their creations Divine grace, inspiration for our daily work.

- How should the Tradition be studied? After all, it is much broader than a set of abstract provisions.

- Tradition is best studied in the Church, that is, directly participating in worship and the life of a particular community with all its joys and problems. When a person initially comes to the temple, he does not know where and how to light a candle, where it is possible and where not to stand in the temple. With a superficial approach to church life, he gets the impression that the entire Christian life consists of such purely external rites and traditions. Many people think: "I was baptized, got married, put a candle - and that's enough for me." But in reality, church life is much deeper and broader. If a person received Baptism, sanctified his marriage with the Sacrament of the Wedding, comes in appropriate clothes to the church and correctly puts a candle, then this is unlikely to bring him closer to God and solve the problems with which he came here, if he is not accompanied by prayer and repentance. It is also necessary to become churched, that is, to enter the smooth rhythm and structure of church life: regularly attend services, read morning and evening prayers at home, observe fasting, read Holy Scripture, learn to endure, humble and truly love God and other people. Only then will the perception of Tradition be not superficial, but deep and effective.

- How has Tradition changed over its history? Was it enriched with new formulas of faith?

- In general, the Holy Tradition is very conservative and hardly amenable to change. Only the external forms of its expression can change. For example, the first Christians performed divine services in the catacombs and caves on the graves of martyrs, and now we serve in large majestic temples. But the essence has not changed, because the main thing in worship is union with Christ through prayer, Repentance and the Sacrament of Holy Communion.
Likewise, the doctrine remains unchanged throughout the two millennia of the existence of the Church of Christ. During the dogmatic disputes that were waged in the Church, especially from the 4th to 8th centuries, new formulas of faith were not invented, but only the Orthodox doctrine was protected from distortions by heretics and schismatics. We, Orthodox Christians, cannot even admit such a thought that the apostles did not believe in the Holy Trinity, as Jehovah's Witnesses assert. Thus, all the dogmatic definitions of the Ecumenical Councils are not some doctrinal novelty, but a fixation of the old, sometimes forgotten or lost Church Tradition.

- Why is it important to remain faithful to the Tradition?

- Remaining faithful to the Tradition, we remain faithful to the Church in which it is preserved. When Tradition is distorted by us or we completely reject it, for example, we do not observe fasting, do not confess and do not take communion, then we cease to be members of the Orthodox Church.

Some do not follow the Tradition due to changes in the political situation in the country or because of their human weaknesses and passions. The Great Schism of 1054 (then the western part of the Christian world fell away from Orthodoxy), the Brest Union of 1596 (then, in order to avoid oppression from the authorities of the Poles and Lithuanians - Roman Catholics, part of Orthodox Christians in present-day Western Ukraine and Western Belarus, outwardly preserving the Orthodox rite, administratively submitted to the Pope), and the recent so-called autocephalous schism that took place in the early 90s of the last century did not lead to anything good. Any split is tears, suffering, oppression of the innocent; it always causes a general weakening of faith and piety among the people, which ultimately leads to its complete moral and physical degeneration and enslavement to enemies.

- What other confessions have Tradition? Or does it only exist in the Orthodox Church?

- No matter how immodest it may seem, I state that in fullness and without any distortions, Holy Tradition is preserved only in the Orthodox Church. Only Orthodox Christians, if they are such not only in name, spiritually have the ability to breathe deeply. In other confessions, according to the words of St. Theophan the Recluse, part or all of the lung is affected by the disease. Therefore, all we have to do is to pray fervently at each service in the church or at home for those people who, due to their birth or political preferences, found themselves outside the ship of the Orthodox Church, so that they too could achieve the union of faith and be saved.

Interviewed by Natalia Goroshkova

Tradition

Of the dogmas and sermons observed in the Church, some we have from written instruction, and some we have received from the Apostolic Tradition, by succession in secret. Both have the same power for godliness ...

St. Basil the Great

The source of the Orthodox faith is Divine Revelation, i.e. that which God Himself through the prophets and apostles revealed to people, so that they could rightly and savingly believe in Him and worthily honor Him. Divine Revelation spreads between people and is kept in the true Church through the Holy. Scriptures and Holy Scriptures. Legends.

In ancient times, St. Scripture (Bible) was the written Word of God, and Holy. Apostolic Tradition (a part of Divine Revelation, not recorded in writing) - by the Word of God. But already by the era of freedom and the triumph of the Church in the 4th century. this part of Divine Revelation also received a written record.

As the Word of one God Svsch. Scripture and Holy Scripture. Tradition is of equal dignity. At the same time, they are equally necessary and mutually complementary. According to St. Irenaeus of Lyons, the grounds for the Tradition are drawn from St. Scriptures, because it is “the foundation and pillar of our faith,” and Tradition “is ... the door to the correct understanding of Holy. Scriptures ". The Holy Fathers call the Holy Fathers. Scripture and Holy Scripture. Tradition with two lungs in the body of the Church.

In the aggregate, the truths of faith contained in Svsch. Scripture and Holy. Apostolic Tradition, give the fullness of the teachings of the Orthodox faith.
Svshch. The Apostolic Tradition is compiled by St. Tradition in its own, or narrow, sense. Divine Revelation was given to people once and for all times and must be preserved unchanged.

The Church is the Keeper of Divine Revelation

Our Lord Jesus Christ entrusted the keeping of Divine Revelation not to individuals, but to the Church founded by Him. “In it, as it were in a rich treasury, the apostles in full put everything that belongs to the truth, so that everyone who wishes can receive from it the drink of life,” says St. Irenaeus of Lyons.

The Church, according to the Divine promise, is continuously preserved inseparably with her Christ "all the days until the end of the age" (Matthew 28, 20) and the Holy Spirit, guiding her "into all truth" (John 16, 13), so that not can neither fall away from faith, nor sin in the truth of faith. Being “the pillar and confirmation of the truth” (1 Tim. 3:15), it keeps and transfers from century to century the Divine Revelation intact and intact, in the form in which it was given to her by God. She also preserves and transfers from century to century her understanding of Divine Revelation, i.e. is the infallible interpreter of it.

This transmission in the Orthodox Church of Divine Revelation by letter, or keeping it, and transmission in spirit and meaning, or interpretation of it, is Tradition in the broad sense of the word.

In other words, - Tradition in this sense is the testimony, or voice, of the Universal Church, that spirit of truth and faith, that consciousness of the Church that lives in it from the time of Christ and the apostles. It contains the rule of a proper understanding of the truths of Divine Revelation and that spiritual experience of the Church in bringing people to salvation, which allows her at each specific historical time, without changing the content of Revelation, to teach it to people in a language they understand, teach them its correct perception and, in general, to attach them to spiritual Christian life in the Church.
Traditionally, the meaning of Svshch. Tradition is assimilated: by the decrees of the Ecumenical Councils; dogmatic and moral teaching of the Church, expressed in the concordant teaching of St. fathers; the foundations of the liturgical life of the Church.

Svshch. Tradition can only contain that which, according to Svsch. Scripture and what, according to St. Vikentiy Lirinsky, believed "everywhere, always and everything." It does not include local church customs, as well as that which has nothing to do with Tradition, but comes from the area of ​​superstition.
Keepers of Svshch. Traditions are all members of the Church who stand in the truth.
“What is Tradition? - writes St. Vikenty Lirinsky. - What is entrusted to you, and not what is invented by you, what you have accepted, and not what you have invented ... business that has come down to you, and not you discovered, in relation to which you should not be an inventor, but as a guard ... Keep the Tradition. That is, the talent of faith ... keep it intact. What is entrusted to you, then you pass it on ...
Let them (dogmas) interpret, explain, define: this is permissible; but their completeness, integrity, quality must remain unchanged: this is necessary. "

Patristic Tradition

The Holy Fathers are nothing more than the keepers of the Apostolic Tradition. All of them, like the holy apostles, are only witnesses of the Truth ... - The God-man Christ. They tirelessly confess and preach it, they are the all-gracious mouth of God the Word.

Venerable Justin Popovich

With the passage of time after the Apostolic Tradition, a Tradition appeared, which is called "proper paternal". It refers to the position of the Fathers, who, while not referring to the time of their appearance in apostolic antiquity, are recognized, however, as the truth of the Church. This also includes hagiography (biographies of saints) as examples of the religious and moral life of people.

St. Athanasius the Great formulated three main conditions for the truth of the paternal Tradition proper: the correspondence of St. Scripture; agreement with other fathers; good life and death in Christ of the author. When these conditions are fulfilled, the Church accepts this Tradition and recognizes for it the same dignity that belongs to the apostolic teaching.
The authority of St. Fathers in the Orthodox Church are very high. St. Seraphim Sobolev says: “Listen to St. fathers as successors of St. apostles means listening to God Himself. "

Holy Fathers - Spirit Receivers and Spirit Bearers

The Spirit is truly the place of the saints and the holy is the proper place of the Spirit.

St. Basil the Great

On the day of Holy Pentecost, the Holy Spirit descended into the God-human body of the Church and forever remained in it as his all-living soul (Acts 2: 1-47). The Holy Spirit descended on the apostles in the form of tongues of fire. Now He is poured out on believers in an invisible way through prayer, the Church's sacraments, and especially through her Sacraments. Everyone receives the Spirit to the extent that he is able to receive and retain it. This measure is determined by faith and holiness of life, the fulfillment of the commandments. Therefore, only the saints of God are true spirit-receivers and spirit-bearers. To them the Holy Spirit - the Spirit of wisdom and reason - reveals the secrets of God. According to St. Justin Popovich, “in the Church, St. fathers, for they think in the Holy Spirit. " They are the only true and reliable interpreters of St. Scripture and Divine Revelation in general.

Holy Fathers - Interpreters of Divine Revelation

If the Word of Scripture is investigated, it is not otherwise, but they explain it, except as the luminaries and teachers of the Church set out in their writings.…

From the Rules of the Sixth Ecumenical Council

St. Ambrose Optinsky. To the question: “Why is the doctrine of the Orthodox Church, planted by different apostles in different places and nations, remains the same and unchanged in the course of eighteen and a half centuries; The Lutheran doctrine, taught by one person, was divided over the course of three centuries by more than seventy conflicting parties, - he replied: because the Catholic Orthodox and Apostolic Church commands her children to understand Svch. Scripture in the way ... it is explained by God's chosen men, cleansed of passions, God-bearing and Spiritual ... Luther, however, allowed everyone ... to interpret Scripture at his own discretion. "

Patristic works and lives of the saints

Let us acquire true knowledge of God, alien to delusions and speculations, it shines from Holy. Scriptures and writings of St. fathers like light from the sun.

St. Ignatiy Bryanchaninov

With a sufficient degree of convention, patristic creations can be divided into theological-dogmatic and moral-ascetic.
In the field of dogmatic theology, the Patriotic Tradition can be expressed not in a change in the content of dogmatic truths that were once and forever communicated by the apostolic teaching, but only in their explanation, a more flexible presentation, and the compilation of new terms. Venerable Vikenty Lyrinsky writes: "... teach what you yourself have learned, so that when you say something new, you do not tell you something new."
The Holy Fathers gave accuracy to the expression of the truths of Christian teaching and created the unity of the dogmatic language.

A classic example of patristic dogma is the well-known work of St. John Damascene's "Accurate Exposition of the Orthodox Faith", summarizing the theological experience of St. the fathers of the first seven centuries of Christianity. And in our time, he remains the most authoritative presentation of the Christian doctrine.
Serbian theologian St. Justin Popovich, who himself is the author of the remarkable three-volume work "Dogmatics of the Orthodox Church", calls St. Fathers of the Church are the best theologians, since they theologize with the Holy Spirit, and considers the study of their works the first thing of every Orthodox theologian.

The moral and ascetic works of St. Fathers are for us a treasure trove of real, living experience of life in Christ and pointers to the path to salvation. They teach the correct inner moral life, the fight against sin, passions, fallen spirits, the acquisition of virtues.
The lives of the saints of all ages of Christianity can serve as a model for us of how we should act in certain circumstances, how to exercise our moral choice.

Let us give just one example from the life of the saints especially close to us - the new martyrs and confessors of Russia: St. Afanasy Sakharov, Bishop Kovrovsky, the author of the Service to All Saints Who Shone forth in the Land of Russia, was first performed in a prison cell, out of 33 years of hierarchy he was in diocesan service for less than 3 years and spent about 30 in prisons, camps and exile. At the same time, he did not stop thanking God for the fact that he was honored "a little", in his words, to suffer for Christ.

The Holy Fathers, according to St. Justin Popovich, "the yardstick and criterion of everything Orthodox ... only that which can be verified by their spirit, harmonized with their teaching ... Orthodox and corresponds to the spirit of the Gospel."
Svshch. Tradition of the Church, being traditional in terms of the indispensable conformity of Svsch. Scripture, the patristic and liturgical experience of the Church, does not remain something frozen. With a responsibility to respond to the needs of Christians of every age, it lives and develops. It is a living Tradition.