Quotes from the Old Testament about death. Popular expressions that came from the Old Testament - edward_trad

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Biography

He started out as an ordinary liberal priest in New England, but in 1832, with the awakening of "faith in the soul", he left his parish. He made a living by lecturing and by 1850 had gained international fame. Married in 1835, he settled in Concord (Massachusetts), although the geography of his lectures already included Canada, California, England and France. From time to time, he rewrote his old lectures, compiling collections from them: Essays (1844), Representatives of Humanity (Representative Men, 1850), Features of English Life (English Traits, 1856), “ Moral philosophy(The Conduct of Life, 1860). In 1846 and 1867 books of his poems were published. Some of his poems - "Brahma" (Brahma), "Days" (Days), "Snowstorm" (The Snow-Storm) and "Concord Hymn" (Concord Hymn) - became classics of American literature. Emerson died in Concord on April 27, 1882. His Diaries (Journals, 1909-1914) were published posthumously.

In his first book, On Nature (Nature, 1836), in the historical speech "The American Scholar" (American Scholar, 1837), in "Address to the students of the theological faculty" (Address, 1838), and also in the essay "On trust in himself” (Self-Reliance, 1841), he spoke to the young dissidents of his time as if on their behalf. “We begin to live,” he taught, “only when we begin to trust our inner strength, the “I” of our “I”, as the only and sufficient remedy against all the horrors of “not I”. What is called human nature, is only an outer shell, a scab of habit, plunging the innate forces of a person into an unnatural sleep.

The history of Emerson's thought is a rebellion against the world of mechanical necessity created in the 18th century, an assertion of the sovereignty of the self. Over time, Emerson learned new idea natural evolution, which came to him from sources "before Darwin", and began to treat Eastern philosophy with a growing understanding.

Emerson's influence on the development of American thought and literature cannot be overestimated. The liberals of his generation recognized him as their spiritual leader. He influenced W. Whitman and G. Thoreau, N. Hawthorne and G. Melville. Subsequently, Emily Dickinson, E. A. Robinson and R. Frost experienced his influence; the most "American" of all philosophical currents, pragmatism, demonstrates a clear closeness to his views; Emerson's ideas inspired the "modernist" direction of Protestant thought. Emerson won the sympathy of readers in Germany, having a profound influence on F. Nietzsche. In France and Belgium, Emerson was not so popular, although M. Maeterlinck, A. Bergson and C. Baudelaire were interested in him.

Biography

Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson
(05/25/1803 [Boston] - 04/27/1882 [Concord])
USA

Emerson, Ralph Waldo (1803–1882), American writer and philosopher. Born May 25, 1803 in Boston (pc. Massachusetts). He started out as a typical liberal New England priest, but in 1832, with the awakening of "faith in the soul", he left his parish. He made a living by lecturing and by 1850 had gained international fame. Married in 1835, he settled in Concord (Massachusetts), although the geography of his lectures already included Canada, California, England and France. From time to time he rewrote his old lectures, compiling collections of them: Essays (1844), Representatives of Humanity (Representative Men, 1850), Features of English Life (English Traits, 1856), Moral Philosophy (The Conduct of Life, 1860). In 1846 and 1867 books of his poems were published. Some of his poems - Brahma (Brahma), Days (Days), Snowstorm (The Snow-Storm) and the Concord Hymn (Concord Hymn) - have become classics of American literature. Emerson died in Concord April 27, 1882. Posthumously published his Diaries (Journals, 1909-1914).

In his first book On Nature (Nature, 1836), in the historical speech American Scholar (American Scholar, 1837), in an Address to students of the theological faculty (Address, 1838), and also in an essay on self-confidence (Self-Reliance, 1841 ) he spoke to the young dissidents of his time as if on their behalf. We begin to live, he taught, only when we begin to trust our inner strength, the “I” of our “I”, as the only and sufficient remedy against all the horrors of “not I”. What is called human nature is only an outer shell, a scab of habit, plunging the innate forces of man into an unnatural sleep.

The history of Emerson's thought is a revolt against the 18th-century the world of mechanical necessity, the assertion of the sovereignty of the "I". Over time, Emerson absorbed the new idea of natural evolution, which came to him from sources "before Darwin", and began to relate with growing understanding to Eastern philosophy.

Emerson's influence on the development of American thought and literature cannot be overestimated. The liberals of his generation recognized him as their spiritual leader. He influenced W. Whitman and G. Thoreau, N. Hawthorne and G. Melville. Subsequently, Emily Dickenson, E.A. Robinson and R. Frost experienced his influence; the most "American" of all philosophies, pragmatism, shows a clear closeness to his views; Emerson's ideas inspired the "modernist" direction of Protestant thought. Emerson won the sympathy of readers in Germany, having had a profound influence on F. Nietzsche. In France and Belgium, Emerson was not so popular, although M. Maeterlinck, A. Bergson and C. Baudelaire were interested in him.

Biography

Ralph Waldo Emerson (Eng. Ralph Waldo Emerson, May 25, 1803, Boston, USA - April 27, 1882, Concord, USA) - American essayist, poet, philosopher, pastor, public figure; one of the most prominent thinkers and writers of the United States. In his essay "Nature" ("Nature", 1836), he was the first to express and formulate the philosophy of transcendentalism.

His father was a Unitarian pastor, after whose death the family was in poverty for a long time.

In 1821, Waldo graduated from Harvard, where he received a theological education. After graduating from university, he took clergy and became a preacher in the Boston Unitarian Church.

He was a liberal pastor in the New England Unitarian Church. But after sudden death his first wife experienced an ideological crisis, as a result of which, in the autumn of 1832, he opposed the rite of the Last Supper, inviting the parishioners to leave his ministry. During the conflict that arose, he was forced to leave his parish, continuing to preach as a visiting pastor until 1838 in various parishes of Massachusetts. For his preaching work, the venerable emerson wrote about 190 sermons. He made a living by lecturing and by 1850 had become known outside the United States. Married in 1835 for the second time, he settled in Concord (Massachusetts), although the geography of his lectures already included Canada, California, England and France. From time to time, he rewrote his old lectures, compiling collections from them: Essays (1844), Representatives of Humanity (Representative Men, 1850), English Traits (1856), Moral Philosophy (The Conduct of Life, 1860). In 1846 and 1867 books of his poems were published. Some of his poems - "Brahma" (Brahma), "Days" (Days), "Snowstorm" (The Snow-Storm) and "Concord Hymn" (Concord Hymn) - became classics of American literature. He died in Concord April 27, 1882. Posthumously published his Diaries (Journals, 1909-1914).

Literary activity and transcendentalism

The text of the essay "Nature" by Ralph Waldo Emerson became the manifesto of the religious-philosophical movement transcendentalism. In his first book, On Nature (Nature, 1836), in the historical speech "The American Scholar" (American Scholar, 1837), in "Address to Divinity Students" (Address, 1838), and in the essay "Self-Confidence (Self-Reliance, 1841) he spoke to the young dissidents of his time as if on their behalf. “We begin to live,” he taught, “only when we begin to trust our inner strength, the “I” of our “I”, as the only and sufficient remedy against all the horrors of “not I”. What is called human nature is only an outer shell, a scab of habit, plunging the innate forces of man into an unnatural sleep.

The history of Emerson's thought is a rebellion against the world of mechanical necessity created in the 18th century, the assertion of the sovereignty of the "I". Over time, he adopted the new idea of natural evolution, which came to him from sources "before Darwin", and began to treat Eastern philosophy with a growing understanding.

His influence on the development of American thought and literature cannot be overestimated. The liberals of his generation recognized him as their spiritual leader. He gave very big influence on G. Thoreau, G. Melville and W. Whitman. Subsequently, Emily Dickinson, E. A. Robinson and R. Frost experienced his influence; the most "American" of all philosophies, pragmatism, shows a clear closeness to his views; his ideas inspired the "modernist" direction of Protestant thought. However, there were also opponents of transcendentalism in America, among them such prominent writers as Nathaniel Hawthorne and Edgar Poe, while Hawthorne himself said that Emerson's face was like a sunbeam.

Ralph Emerson won the sympathy of readers in Germany, influencing F. Nietzsche. In France and Belgium, he was not so popular, although M. Maeterlinck, A. Bergson and C. Baudelaire were interested in him.

In Russia, the writer made a strong impression on Leo Tolstoy and a number of other Russian writers. According to a number of statements by L. N. Tolstoy in diaries, letters and articles, one can see the similarity of Tolstoy's views with the philosophy of Emerson, which naturally fits into the system of views of the Russian writer. Leo Nikolayevich Tolstoy held Emerson very highly, calling him a "Christian religious writer."

In the second half of the 19th century, Ralph Emerson took over the empty seat after the death of Benjamin Franklin. spiritual leader American nation.

"Nature" ("Nature", ) Emerson was the first to express and formulate the philosophy transcendentalism.

Biography

He started out as a typical liberal New England priest, but in 1832, with the awakening of "faith in the soul", he left his parish (see also UNITARIA). He made a living by lecturing and by 1850 had gained international fame. Married in 1835, he settled in Concord (Massachusetts), although the geography of his lectures already included Canada, California, England and France. From time to time he rewrote his old lectures, compiling collections of them: Essays (1844), Representatives of Humanity (Representative Men, 1850), Features of English Life (English Traits, 1856), Moral Philosophy (The Conduct of Life, 1860). In 1846 and 1867 books of his poems were published. Some of his poems - Brahma, Days, The Snow-Storm and the Concord Hymn - have become classics of American literature. Emerson died in Concord on April 27, 1882. His Diaries (Journals, 1909-1914) were published posthumously.

Emerson's influence on the development of American thought and literature cannot be overestimated. The liberals of his generation recognized him as their spiritual leader. He influenced W. Whitman and G. Thoreau, N. Hawthorne and G. Melville. Subsequently, Emily Dickenson, E. A. Robinson and R. Frost experienced his influence; the most "American" of all philosophies, pragmatism, shows a clear closeness to his views; Emerson's ideas inspired the "modernist" direction of Protestant thought. Emerson won the sympathy of readers in Germany, having had a deep influence on F. Nietzsche. In France and Belgium, Emerson was not so popular, although M. Maeterlinck, A. Bergson and C. Baudelaire were interested in him.

Quotes

Laugh often and love a lot; to be successful among intellectuals; gain attention from honest critics; appreciate beauty; give your all to something; leave the world behind a little bit better, at least for one healthy child; to know that at least one person on Earth has become easier to breathe because you have lived - all this means to succeed.

Silly consistency is the superstition of narrow-minded minds

What a person accomplishes, that he owns - his power is in himself.

The religion of one century is the fiction of another.

Our greatest strength is our greatest weakness.

"If you attack the king, all you have to do is kill him."

Links

Emerson R. Moral Philosophy. - Mn.: Harvest, M.: ACT, 2001.

Wikimedia Foundation. 2010 .

See what "Ralph Emerson" is in other dictionaries:

- (Eng. Ralph Waldo Emerson, May 25, 1803 April 27, 1882) American essayist, poet and philosopher; one of the most prominent thinkers and writers of the United States. In his essay "Nature" ("Nature", 1836), Emerson was the first to express and formulate the philosophy ... ... Wikipedia

Ralph Waldo Emerson Ralph Waldo Emerson (born Ralph Waldo Emerson, May 25, 1803 – April 27, 1882) was an American essayist, poet, and philosopher; one of the most prominent thinkers and writers of the United States. In his essay "Nature" ("Nature", 1836), Emerson was the first to express and ... Wikipedia

- (Emerson) Ralph Waldo (25. 5.1803, Boston, 27. 4. 1882, Concord, near Boston), Amer. idealist philosopher, founder of the transcendental school (see Transcendentalists), poet and essayist. Studied theology at Harvard University Philosophical Encyclopedia

- (Ralph Wald Emerson) famous American writer (1803 1882). The son of a Unitarian minister, he trained for his father's profession by studying theology at Harvard University. and was a preacher of the Unitarian community in Boston, but, refusing to subdue his ... ... Encyclopedia of Brockhaus and Efron

- (Ralph Wald Emerson; 1803 1882) famous American writer. The son of a Unitarian minister, he trained for his father's profession, studying theology at Harvard University. and was the preacher of the Unitarian community in Boston, but, refusing to submit his ... ... Encyclopedic Dictionary F.A. Brockhaus and I.A. Efron

"Emerson" redirects here; see also other meanings. Ralph Waldo Emerson Ralph Waldo Emerson ... Wikipedia

Books

American accent. A book about America and its literature, Anastasyev N. In the early 70s of the last century, the publishing house "Fiction" published a monograph on the work of William Faulkner, which became the first noticeable word of N. Anastasyev in the national ...

Biblical genocide

A curious case recently occurred in a Moscow court. One lawyer read to the judge extracts from Old Testament. Of course, without saying from which book he took quotes. The judge told him that the book was unambiguously extremist, with elements religious fanaticism and that it should be banned. When she found out that it was the Bible, she ... was very frightened and began to be baptized and ask for forgiveness. All this might seem like a funny misunderstanding. But to be honest, it is impossible not to admit that the Bible really has a lot of things that make your hair stand on end. And some of the Old Testament prophets and heroes included in Orthodox saints, by modern standards could seem like real fascists. Unless, of course, double standards are avoided.

Do not kill?

We once argued with an atheist friend, and he said to me:

Just imagine: a horde of conquerors attacks a peaceful people and kills all men. He burns down all their villages and brings about a hundred thousand captives - women and children. And then, on the orders of the leader, they leave the girls for themselves and mercilessly cut down with swords and axes all women-mothers and boys, even babies! Women pray to the gods for help and beg not to kill at least their little children, but the stone hearts of the conquerors know no mercy. The mothers, mad with horror and pain, try to close the children with their bodies, but it is useless - after killing them, the fanatics immediately cut down the children. The neighborhood is shaking from the screams and howls of unarmed defenseless people being killed. Blood flows in rivers, tens of thousands of women and children are brutally exterminated. Well, how do you like this picture?

Of course it's terrible! God forbid you see this with your own eyes!

But all this was done by your own biblical saints! Having already received the 10 commandments from God, the prophet Moses arranges the very massacre that I gave you as an example. As if there were no commandment “Thou shalt not kill!” among these commandments. And what his disciple Joshua then did - I can give even worse examples! When he took foreign cities, he didn’t leave anyone alive at all, they cut out everything that breathes! You read your Bible and turn on your imagination, imagine what they did then - yes, even Hitler did not dream of this, he, compared to Moses and Navin, is just a petty hooligan! And after all this, they are also revered as saints!

It was difficult to object to such "lethal" arguments. After all, if, while reading the Bible, one judges the Old Testament heroes by their bloody deeds, then one can really lose one's faith!

Take Moses, who is considered a holy prophet who created great Church, worshiping only one God and giving the world known commandments to everyone, limiting the evil manifestations of human nature. But after all, in addition to the 10 commandments, he also had hundreds of sub-commandments, many of which shock with their cruelty and inexorability. A person was supposed to be brutally executed if he “wrongly” believed in God. Moreover, anyone could be killed even for such seemingly nonsense as doing worldly affairs on the Sabbath day, dedicated to God. Personally, Moses ordered the execution of the unlucky poor fellow who dared on that day ... to gather brushwood to either keep warm or feed his family.

What is curious, while developing the foundations of a new religion, Moses, irreconcilable to dissent, himself borrowed a lot from the "damned" pagans. The liturgical clothing described in the Bible is almost an exact copy of the clothing Egyptian priests. The idea of creating the Ark of the Covenant was also born not without the influence of the Egyptians, whose priests carried caskets with cult objects during the procession. Pagan caskets were decorated with carved figures of winged patron spirits. The ark of the Israelites was decorated with exactly the same images, only they were renamed cherubim ...

They never stood on ceremony with their own religious apostates. During the infamous incident with the “golden calf”, on the orders of Moses, the priests and assistants killed several thousand (!) Of their brothers and neighbors who dared to grumble and deviate from the veneration of Yahweh-Jehovah. What can we say about foreigners and non-believers, whom they did not even consider to be people? In the same additional commandments, you can find such “philanthropic” passages: “And you will destroy all the nations that the Lord your God gives you (Israel); May your eye not spare them."(Deuteronomy 7:16).

Wandering in the desert after leaving Egypt, Moses and his people approached the borders of Palestine. Skirmishes began with local residents - Amalekites, Moabites, Amorites and others. Most often, such conflicts ended with a natural ending like: "... and we struck ... all his people ... took ... all his cities, and cursed all the cities, men, women and children, did not leave anyone alive."(Deut. 2:33 - 35).

The peaceful Midianites, who did not want to fight and were ready to submit and pay tribute, were initially spared. But it soon became clear that the Jewish people were in danger of leaving monotheism, assimilation and moral decay. More and more new Jews were fascinated by the beautiful Midianites and even accepted their pagan faith.

Moses decided to act by the most radical means. First, a brutal purge was carried out in their own ranks - the Levites killed 24,000 of their own "opportunist" fellow tribesmen. Then came the turn of the seducers. The reprisal against them is described in the 31st chapter of the biblical book "Numbers".

One of the wives of Moses - Zipporah, was a Midianite, her father, at one time, he successfully hid from persecution for many years Egyptian pharaoh. But this did not save their people from extermination, because, according to the Bible, “God Himself” ordered Moses to “cleanse” the earth from spiritually dangerous pagans. A 12,000-strong army went to the Midianites and destroyed all the men, as well as the five kings of the Midianites and even the prophet Balaam, who hitherto sympathized with the Jews.

The fate of the captives was unenviable: “... And Moses was angry with the military leaders ... and said to them: why did you leave all the women alive? ... So kill all the male children, and kill all the women who know a man in a man's bed; and all the female children who have not known the male bed, leave alive for yourself ... "(Num. 31:13-18) . After a grandiose massacre, 32,000 virgin girls survived, however, thirty-two of them, along with cattle, were sacrificed to God. It must be assumed that if any director had dared to make a film about the genocide of the Midianites, then his picture would certainly have been banned for exorbitant cruelty, from which the viewer's mental health could be upset ...

Joshua

After the death of Moses, Joshua, his companion and chief military assistant, became the ruler of Israel. The small fragmented kingdoms of Western Palestine were conquered and destroyed by him one by one. The local population was treated according to the covenant given even to Moses: “And in the cities of these peoples, which the Lord your God gives you as a possession, do not leave a single soul alive, but put them under a curse ... as the Lord your God commanded you ... "(Deut. 20:16-17) . Of course, everything was done with “good” and pedagogical goals - so that the chosen people would not be distracted from their messianic path and again not carried away by pagan gods.

The attack on each of the kingdoms ended with the standard extermination of all living things: “...they took the city. And they cursed everything in the city, both husbands and wives, both young and old, and oxen, and sheep, and donkeys, they destroyed everything with the sword ... And they burned the city and everything in it with fire.(Joshua 6:20,23) Such ominous biblical lines are repeated many times in all new biblical chapters. In some cases, animals or individual traitors managed to survive.

Cities such as Jericho, Ai, Maked, Livna, Lachish, Gazer, Eglon, Hebron, Davir, Hazor fell and were destroyed along with the inhabitants ... More than thirty people were killed alone kings (although it would be more appropriate to call them princelings). The total number of victims of the Palestinian genocide, according to some Bible scholars, was close to one million. More than a third of them were innocent children. Such a bloody, unthinkable by modern standards price was taken by the “given” by God the Promised Land.

"Meek" King David

King David, who began his political career with a victory over the giant Goliath and became one of the most famous and respected monarchs, is traditionally idealized in Orthodoxy. After all, it is he who is considered one of the most important and famous ancestors of Jesus Christ and the author of the biblical psalms. He is perceived as a kind, meek and just ruler, who knew how to repent of his sins so sincerely and earnestly that almost no one tries to challenge his holiness.

Indeed, David sincerely repented of some of his sins. For example, he was very worried when he got into an unsightly affair with someone else's wife, the beautiful Bathsheba, whom he took for himself, and meanly destroyed her husband, a military leader loyal to him, sending him to certain death. But after all, there were such sins in his biography, repentance for which somehow is not noticed at all ...

Even before coming to power, finding himself in disfavor with King Saul, David and his supporters fled to the recent enemies of the Philistines and even temporarily found protection from their king, Anchus. The king allowed the defector to guard the border city of Ziklag, and he, in turn, turned it into a real robber base. David's detachments robbed the surrounding civilians, and sent part of the booty to Achish. “And David went out with his people and attacked the Gessuryans and the Girzeans and the Amalekites, who had inhabited this country for a long time ... And David devastated that country ... he took sheep, and oxen, and donkeys, and camels, and clothes ... And David did not leave alive a single He did not bring men or women to Gath, saying, “They can denounce us and say, ‘Thus did David, and this is the way he did all the time he was in the country of the Philistines.”(1 Samuel 26:8-11) . In fact, our hero insidiously deceived his benefactor, saying that he was robbing his former fellow tribesmen, but in fact he attacked completely different people - allies of the one he served. Moreover, he robbed them in the worst traditions, exterminating everyone so that not a single witness of his lawlessness remained alive.

After the death of King Saul, David led first Judah, and then the united state of Israel. He continued to expand and strengthen his state and waged wars of conquest. The civilians of the cities he took were not particularly spared, leaving only one in three alive. Citizens, young and old, were driven to the central square, laid on the ground in dense rows and measured with a rope according to the principle: "Two ropes to kill, and one rope to keep alive" (2 Kings 8:2) And the survivors later could envy the dead, working hard until the end of their days in hard labor.

With the inhabitants of the capital of the Ammonite kingdom, the city of Rabbah, a muddy story came out at all. “And the people that were in it, he (King David) brought out, and put them under the saws, under the iron threshers, under the iron axes, and threw them into the kilns”(2 Sam. 12:31) In fairness, it is worth noting that some modern biblical scholars believe that this translation is inaccurate. And in fact, King David did not kill them, but only forced the Ammonites to carry out labor duties as sawyers, threshers, woodcutters and brickmakers ...

David also had many other unseemly and evil deeds and deeds, which we will not mention, since they do not relate to the topic of genocide. If you wish, you can learn about them by carefully reading the Bible.

animal time

Of course, the events described in the Bible cannot be regarded in the spirit of today's morality. We see in our own way an honest and detailed account of the life of fallen humanity, and not a Christmas story about something sweet, but unreal. It was a barbaric, bestial era. Killing the captive population and dissidents was considered in the order of things. And the Israelites were faithful sons of their era.

Another thing is surprising - that so many modern believers consider such manifestations of genocide to be normal! For example, such curious statements can be read on some Jewish Internet sites: “The meekness of Moses consisted in the fact that he completely obeyed the will of God. Everything God told Moses to do was moral by definition. Even genocide is moral if it is ordered by God! The Torah calls God jealous. He is no stranger to violence. He rewards obedience, but also punishes disobedience, even in remote generations. Jews are forbidden to forgive because forgiveness encourages criminals... The killing of the civilian population of the enemy down to children is allowed if it is proper revenge...”

Not so long ago, Israeli psychologist Georgiy Tamarin conducted surveys in Jewish schools, finding out whether today's children and adolescents approve of Old Testament atrocities. As it turned out, the vast majority of schoolchildren from the most different schools- fully or with reservations approve of any examples of biblical genocide cited by him! Then the experimenters went to the trick and, reading to the next schoolchildren the book of Joshua, they replaced the names of the main characters: Naveen was called "General Lin", and Palestine was replaced with "the Chinese kingdom 3000 years ago." And what would you think? Only 7% of the survey participants approved of the behavior of "General Lin", while 75% recognized it as absolutely wrong and unreasonably cruel. Such interesting double standards have turned out.

Some modern historians believe that the biblical chroniclers, to put it mildly, exaggerated the cruelties of their heroes and inflated the number of victims. Difficulties in translation could also interfere. For example, the Hebrew noun "eleph" means not only the number "thousand", but also such concepts as: detachment, family group and generation. And these are completely different numbers.

It seems that with Joshua it was not as simple as it seems at first glance. For example, the Canaanite city of Gai, “conquered” by him, according to the conclusions of modern archaeologists, during his life… lay in ruins for five hundred years. Yes, and Jericho, according to some calculations, could fall a hundred years earlier than the Israelites who left Egypt entered it. With the help of linguistic analysis of the text, it was established that the Book of Joshua is a kind of "hodgepodge" of several historical documents related to different eras and reflecting the interests of different social strata. And these sources were subjected to countless editorial corrections over time.

When reading the Old Testament (also known as the Jewish Tanakh), one gets the impression that Joshua, in the course of his “brilliant victories”, exterminated entire nations and left no one alive. The funny thing is that later in the same Bible we find references to the “exterminated” peoples, who not only reborn in an incomprehensible way like the Phoenix bird, but also brought a lot of problems and suffering to the Jews. The Book of Judges makes it clear that the Israelites under Joshua only occupied part countries and remained to live in the neighborhood of the Canaanite peoples, and that in fact not all the Israelite tribes received land. The thing is that the compilers of the Tanakh used the documents they got uncritically, without trying to link them into a logical whole. And the tales of the total slaughter of pagan peoples were more like an attempt to wishful thinking and get at least moral satisfaction from this.

They created God in their own image

Most Christians try not to remember or think about the biblical genocide at all. And many of those who nevertheless dared to study this topic are ready to willingly believe that “it was necessary” and that God’s chosen people, by permission from Above, had the right to protect themselves from all the “abominations” of other religions by any means.

Such a belief at the end of the Middle Ages played a cruel joke on the conquered American Indians. After reading the Old Testament, good Catholics staged such a genocide in the New World that even Moses and Nun never dreamed of! Millions of natives became their victims, and the conquerors justified their atrocities with the same Old Testament philosophy.

More progressive Christians have a negative view of the bloody passages in the Bible and consider them just ambiguous features of history. Jewish people, with all its victories and mistakes, ups and downs, spiritual heights and crimes.

It is clear that the real God in fact cannot be as unsightly, vengeful and capricious as the ancient authors painted him, based on their primitive concepts and fantasies. People with savage consciousness created God in their own image and likeness, projecting onto Him their own imperfection and spiritual damage, putting into His mouth what they wanted to hear. And also shifting the responsibility for the seemingly necessary unpleasant and cruel actions to God. With this approach, any interethnic and internecine massacre can be given a sacred status and deify evil, but, of course, all this, arguing in conscience, will not be true.

The real God, as best he could, taught people Good and limited human malice, but, obviously, He was not always heard and understood correctly. He denounced his chosen people through the prophets, in particular, Jeremiah: “A sinful people, a people burdened with iniquities, a tribe of evildoers, sons of perdition! Your hands are full of blood! ... My people are stupid ... they are smart for evil, but they do not know how to do good ... You steal, kill, commit adultery, and swear in a lie ... ".

The meaning of God's chosenness of the Jews lies not at all in their exclusivity, but in revealing the Savior to the world through them. all nations capable of defeating evil in human souls. Gradually, from century to century, from a kind of "dung" and "humus" formed in the bowels of the people the same soil that allowed God to incarnate in man. And the main fruit of the Old Testament was the birth in one of the pious Jewish families of a little girl, whose soul was free from ancestral sinful passions and was ready to receive and give birth to Jesus Christ. It is for the sake of this girl, whom we now know as Holy Mother of God The Lord took care of and nurtured the people of Israel.

Many holy fathers offer to perceive the Old Testament Bible not literally, but only from the point of view of symbols and allegories. For example, Philo of Alexandria allegorically connected the biblical narratives with the state human soul. Ephraim the Syrian understood the five destroyed Midianite kings as five instruments of sin entering a person through his five senses. And Neil of Sinai considers the Midianites a symbol of " fornication", which must be destroyed in oneself. The battles of Joshua against the Canaanite peoples were considered by many fathers as a symbolic description of spiritual warfare against their own enemies: vices, sins and demons. The desert through which the Jews wandered can be perceived as a world fallen in evil, the passage through the Jordan as baptism, and the Promised Land can symbolize the Church, into which, under the leadership of Jesus, the believer passes from the wilderness of sin.

As for the inclusion of the Old Testament prophets and heroes in the Christian calendar, we must not forget that, according to Orthodox doctrine, before the coming of Christ, all the dead people were in hell, in which there was a special place for the righteous of that level. When the Savior descended into hell and destroyed it, the souls of all who could and wanted accepted Him, were cleansed of all sins and were accepted into God's Mansions. And they were brought into the earthly lists of the holy fathers much later, turning a blind eye to their unsightly deeds and taking into account all the positive things that they brought to the world.