King James Bible read interlinear translation in Russian. Why do you use new translations of the Bible and what is the King James Version? Excellent modern translation

“I will worship your holy temple and glorify your name for your loving kindness and for your truth: for you have magnified your word above all your name. "(Ps. 139:2 (synod. 137:2)).

Observing the distortions in modern versions since 1992, we have a desire for ordinary Russian-speaking people to have God’s word “not as the word of men, but as it truly is, the word of God” (1 Thess. 2:13).

Translation of the Authorized King James Version (1611) into Russian - BibleQuote Module

Society of Bible Believers

Second edition, 2015

I don’t see any point in writing anything about this translation, because there are a lot of disputes on the Internet. You can read about the translation on their website http://www.harvestukraine.org/rus/litera/perry/Abtopn3obahhon.htm

Read about the “excessive love” for this translation in comparison with the Synodal translation in LJ http://klangtao.livejournal.com/312393.html

Translation of the Authorized King James Version (1611) into Russian - BibleQuote Module - from the administration

We nevertheless decided to comment somewhat on this translation, because there are simply no words for the authors of this translation - we will give quotes, and you judge for yourself...

QUESTION: What is LXX?
ANSWER: Someone's invention.
All references to the "Bible", "Holy Bible", "God's perfect Bible", "Holy Scripture" are to the authorized 1611 translation, also known as the King James Bible, i.e., the Holy Bible, God's perfect Bible, Holy Scripture - this can only be KJV 1611...

QUESTION: If there is a perfect Bible in English, shouldn't there be a perfect Bible in French, German or Russian, etc.?

ANSWER: NO. God has always given His Word to one people, in one language, so that they would do one thing - convert the world. The suggestion that there must be a perfect translation in every language is erroneous and inconsistent with God's way of doing things.

POLL: Don't the best manuscripts support new Bible translations?

ANSWER: No. The best manuscripts support the Authorized Translation of the Bible.

In the New Testament, the King James Bible mentions the word “devil(s)” or “devil” 102 times.

In the Synodal text the word “devil” is mentioned only 23 times. This means that it is 79 times less than the King James Bible in the New Testament.
- The word “devils” is not mentioned ONCE in the Synodal text.
The scoundrel priests, the “priests of Baal,” dared to translate the word “devil” only διάβολος, and not δαιμόνιον, for which, unlike the poor synonyms in English, the word “demon” was found! Ftopku false synodal text!

Note from VladMo: nonsense, how is it that the originator of sin is simply classified as demons, and demons are made devils... daimonion is daimonion, diabolos is diabolos... diabolos is to show the originator of sin and separate him from his associates, demons... as a translator, I don’t see this as a problem in the Synodal translation...

Instead of helping people better understand the synodal text, they strongly criticize it... strong criticism of the translation of the Bible, on which millions of Christians built their faith and gave their lives, is the devil’s work of sowing doubt and distrust, and above all, distrust of God , who all these years has been giving people distorted Scripture... I have now looked at many places where they say that the Synodal translation is distorted... I am not a supporter of the Synodal translation, but I believe. that it is he who is worthy of trust in the study of the scriptures, for he is more consistent in translations of the same words... the KJV translation showed that he is not worthy of study, but only of reading, for even translating the word daimonion as devil, this does not make it possible to study the scriptures according to the principle of a symphony... they show that in many places the synodal has the word boat, although in the KJV there is a ship everywhere... for them this is important, but for people? focusing on the fact that they were ships, not boats, although if you imagine a picture of that time and place in your head, it is difficult to imagine their boats in the form of ships, but most likely they were fishing boats or small fishing vessels, but nothing like not ships in the understanding of this word... so what does it mean that the Synodal is wrong about this?

Yes, nothing but doubts, Jesus constantly reproached even his disciples for their lack of faith, how sensitive we should be to the slightest spark of faith in people... especially, what’s the point that in many places they are fixated on translating the word orgE as rage, instead of synodal anger ... firstly, in Russian these words are synonyms, and secondly, because this is rage and not anger, the meaning does not change at all, but great confidence is sown in the translation...

Conclusion- God is now extreme again and now it is He who will have to sort all this out... and all we do is rush to show each other the right path, instead of saving people on their territory, and resorting to those means (in particular, translation Bibles) which they accept...

The quotes given here were taken from private correspondence, not on my initiative (I would be against it), and look somewhat chaotic. Apparently, my words are quoted from private correspondence as a result of indignation at the authors of the translation and other supporters of the King James Version, who insist that the KJV 1611 should be considered “God’s perfect Bible.” We recommend that the translation of the KJV into Russian be considered in the same way as the Synodal translation, that is, this is another translation of the Bible into Russian, and we ask you to avoid extremes in statements in favor of one translation or another. Remember, we are not supporters of the Muslim approach, for us both translations are the Word of God, and we do not consider the translation of the Word of God into any language as an interpretation. And also remember that the Savior promised us the main interpreter and translator of the Holy Scriptures - the Holy Spirit. Do you invoke it when you read the Bible in any language?

Translation of the Authorized King James Version (1611) into Russian - About the module

This module includes 29 books of the New Testament and 5 books of the Tanakh: Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Song of Songs, Ecclesisast.

The material for the module was taken from the Internet, but there were problems with opening tags (instead of opening tags there were closing tags), I restored them, but I am not sure that there are no other errors in the source text, since there is no printed edition.

Therefore, this module is purely for informational purposes. I and the club do not bear any responsibility.

2016-02-29 22:33 GMT+02:00 Perry Demopoulos :
Dear Site Administrator eshatos,

We noticed that your website contains our translation of the King James Bible into Russian (second edition). We have decided that we will not present it electronically for now. Therefore, we kindly ask you to remove it from your site, and to do so as soon as possible. In addition, this is a violation of copyright, which is attached below.
If you have any questions, please contact us. You can contact us by email. by mail or by phone: 0956138073.

Sincerely,
Society of Bible Believers (Kyiv).

Commentary (introduction) to the entire book of James

Comments on Chapter 1

INTRODUCTION TO THE EPISTLE OF JAMES

The Epistle of James was only included in the New Testament after a stubborn struggle. But even after it was included in the Holy Scriptures, it was viewed with suspicion and reserve. Back in the sixteenth century, Martin Luther would have readily excluded it from the New Testament.

DOUBTS OF THE CHURCH FATHERS

In the writings of the Church Fathers, the Epistle of James is found only at the beginning of the fourth century. The first collection of New Testament books was the Muratorian Canon, dating back to about 170, and the Epistle of James was not included in it. The Doctor of the Church Tertullian, writing in the middle of the third century, very often quotes Scripture, including 7258 times from the New Testament, but not a single time from the Epistle of James. The Epistle of James is mentioned for the first time in a Latin manuscript: which is called the Codex Corbeiensis and dates from about 350; it was attributed to James, son of Zebedee, and was included not among the generally accepted books of the New Testament, but in the collection of theological treatises written by the fathers of the early Christian Church. Thus, the Epistle of James was accepted, however, with certain reservations. A verbatim quotation from the Epistle of James was first quoted by Hilary of Poitiers in a treatise entitled “On the Trinity,” written around 357.

But if the Epistle of James became known so late in the Church, and its acceptance was associated with reservations, how then was it included in the New Testament? Of great importance in this is Jerome, one of the outstanding teachers of the Church (330-419), who, without the slightest hesitation, included the Epistle of James in his verified edited translation of the Bible, called the Vulgate. But he had some doubts. In his book On Famous Men, Jerome wrote: “James, who is called the brother of the Lord, wrote only one epistle - one of the seven conciliar epistles, about which some people say that someone else wrote it and attributed it to James.” Jerome fully recognized this epistle as an integral part of Holy Scripture, but he realized that there was some doubt as to who its author was. All doubts were finally dispelled when Augustine fully accepted the Epistle of James, without any doubt that this James was the brother of our Lord.

The Epistle of James was recognized rather late in the Church: for a long time it stood under a question mark, but its inclusion by Jerome in the Vulgate and its recognition by Augustine secured for it, after some struggle, full recognition.

SYRIAN CHURCH

It may be supposed that the Syrian church must have been one of the first to receive the Epistle of James, if it had really been written in Palestine and had really come from the pen of our Lord's brother, but the same doubts and hesitations existed in the Syrian church. The official Syriac translation of the New Testament held by the Syriac church is called Pescito and occupies the same place in the Syrian Church as it occupies in the Roman Catholic Church Vulgate. This translation was carried out in 412 by Rabulla, Bishop of Edessa, and at the same time the Epistle of James was first translated into Syriac; before this time there was no translation of it in Syriac, and until 451 this letter was never mentioned in Syriac theological literature. But from this time on it gained wide acceptance, and yet as early as 545 Paul of Nisibis disputed its right to be included in the New Testament. It was not until the middle of the eighth century that the authority of John of Damascus brought about the recognition of the Epistle of James in the Syrian church with the same force with which the authority of Augustine influenced the whole church.

GREEK SPEAKING CHURCH

Although the Epistle of James appeared in the Greek-speaking church earlier than in other churches, it eventually took a certain place in it.

It is first mentioned by Origen, the head of the Alexandrian school. Somewhere in the middle of the third century he wrote: “Faith, even if it is called faith, but has no works, is dead in itself, as we read in the epistle that is now called James.” In other theological treatises, however, he cites this quotation already completely confident that it belongs to James and makes it clear that he believes that Jacob was the brother of our Lord; although even here there remains a tinge of doubt.

A major theologian and bishop of Caesarea in Palestine, Eusebius traces and analyzes various books of the New Testament and books related to the New Testament written before the mid-fourth century. He classifies the Epistle of James as “controversial” and writes about it this way: “The first of the epistles, called ecumenical, conciliar, is said to belong to him (James); but it should be noted that some consider it to be counterfeit and, indeed, only very few authors mention his". And here again doubt creeps in.

The turning point in the Greek-speaking church was 267, when Bishop Athanasius of Alexandria wrote his famous Easter Epistle in Egypt. It was supposed to give people guidance on which books were considered Holy Scripture and which were not, because they began to read too many books, or at least, too many books began to be considered Holy Scripture. In this epistle of Bishop Athanasius, the Epistle of James was included in the canon without any additional commentary and since then it has taken a firm place in the canon.

Thus, in the early Church the meaning and importance of the Epistle of James itself was never questioned, yet it became known quite late and for some time its right to take its place among the books of the New Testament was disputed.

The Epistle of James still holds a special position in the Roman Catholic Church. In 1546, the Council of Trent finally, once and for all, established the composition of the Roman Catholic Bible. A list of books was compiled to which nothing could be added. It was also impossible to remove anything from this list. The books of the Bible were to be presented only in a version called the Vulgate. All books were divided into two groups: protocanonical, that is, undeniable from the very beginning, and deuterocanonical, that is, those that only gradually made their way into the New Testament. Although the Roman Catholic Church never questioned the Epistle of James, it was nevertheless included in the second group.

LUTHER AND THE EPISTLE OF JAMES

Today it can also be said that many do not consider the Epistle of James to be the most important in the New Testament. Few would place it on a par with the Gospels of John and Luke or the Epistles to the Romans and Galatians. Many people today still treat him with restraint. Why? This is of course not connected with the doubts expressed regarding the Epistle of James in the early Christian Church, because many in the modern Church have no idea at all about the history of the New Testament at that distant time. The reason is this: the Roman Catholic Church determined its attitude towards the Epistle of James by the edict of the Council of Trent, but in the Protestant Church doubts about its history remained and, in fact, even intensified, because Martin Luther opposed it and even preferred to remove it altogether from the New Testament. Luther included a table of contents with his edition of the German New Testament, in which all the books were numbered. At the end of this list was given, separately from the others, a small group of books without numbers. This group included the Epistles of James and Jude, Hebrews, and Revelation. Luther considered these books to be of secondary importance.

Luther was especially harsh in his attack on the Epistle of James, and an unfavorable opinion from a great man could ruin the book forever. Luther's famous statement about the message is found in the last paragraph of his Preface to the New Testament:

"So the Gospels and 1 John, the Epistles of Paul, especially Romans, Galatians and Corinthians, and 1 Peter are the books that show you Christ. They teach everything you need to know for your salvation, even if You would never have seen any other book, or heard of them, or even heard of any other teaching. Compared to them, the Epistle of James is an epistle full of straw, because there is nothing ecclesiastical in it. But more on this in other prefaces."

Luther developed his assessment in the "Preface to the Epistles of James and Jude", as he promised, He begins: "I highly value the Epistle of James and consider it useful, although it was not accepted at first. It is about the law of God and does not contain exposition and interpretation of human doctrines. As for my own opinion, without regard to anyone else's prejudices, I do not believe that it came from the pen of the apostle." And this is how he justifies his refusal.

First, in contrast to Paul and the rest of the Bible, the Epistle ascribes a redemptive quality to human actions and accomplishments, incorrectly citing Abraham as an example, who supposedly atoned for his sins through his deeds. This in itself proves that the letter could not have come from the pen of the apostle.

Secondly, there is not a single instruction or reminder to Christians that they should remember suffering, the Resurrection, or the Spirit of Christ. It speaks of Christ only twice.

Then Luther sets out his principles for evaluating any book in general: “The true standard for evaluating any book is to establish whether it emphasizes the prominent position that Christ occupies in the history of mankind or not... What does not preach Christ is not from "the apostles, even if it was Peter or Paul who preached it. And on the contrary, everything that preaches Christ is apostolic, even if it is done by Judas, Anna, Pilate or Herod."

But the Epistle of James does not stand up to such a test. And therefore Luther continues: “The Epistle of James pushes you only towards the law and accomplishments. He confuses one with the other so much that, I suppose, one virtuous and pious man collected several sayings of the disciples of the apostles and wrote them down, or maybe someone wrote the epistle -even after recording someone's sermon, he calls the law the law of freedom (James 1.25; 2.12), while Paul calls it the law of slavery, wrath, death and sin (Gal. 3:23ff; Rom. 4:15; 7:10ff)".

Thus, Luther draws his conclusion: “James wants to warn those who rely on faith and do not move on to actions and accomplishments, but he does not have the inspiration, thoughts, or eloquence appropriate for such a task. He commits violence against the Holy Scriptures and contradicts, therefore, Paul and all Holy Scripture; he attempts to achieve by law what the apostles achieve by preaching love to people. And therefore I refuse to acknowledge his place among the authors of the true canon of my Bible; but I will not insist if anyone will place him there, or raise him even higher, because there are many beautiful passages in the epistle. In the eyes of the world one man does not count; how can this solitary author be taken into account against the background of Paul and the rest of the Bible?"

Luther does not spare the Epistle of James. But, after studying this book, we may conclude that this time he allowed personal prejudices to interfere with common sense.

This is how complex the story of the Epistle of James was. Now let's look at the related issues of authorship and dating.

PERSONALITY OF JACOB

The author of this message, in fact, does not tell us anything about himself. He calls himself simply: "James, servant of God and the Lord Jesus Christ" (James 1:1). Who is he then? There are five people with this name in the New Testament.

1. Jacob is the father of one of the twelve, named Judas, but not Iscariot (Luke 6:16). It is given only to refer to someone else and cannot have any relation to the message.

2. Jacob, son of Alphaeus, one of the twelve (Mark 10:3; Matt 3:18; Luke 6:15; Acts 1:13). Comparison Mat. 9.9 and Mar. 2.14 shows that Matthew and Levi are the same person. Levi was also the son of Alphaeus and, therefore, the brother of Jacob. But nothing more is known about Jacob, son of Alphaeus, and therefore he, too, could not have anything to do with the message.

3. Jacob, nicknamed "the lesser", mentioned in Mar. 15.40; (cf. Matt. 27:56 and John 19:25). Again, nothing more is known about him and, therefore, he could not have anything to do with the message.

4. James - brother of John and son of Zebedee, one of the twelve (Mark 10:2; Matt. 3:17; Luke 6:14; Acts 1:13). In the Gospels, James is never mentioned on his own, without his brother John (Matt. 4.21; 17.1; Mark 1.19.29; 5.37; 9.2; 10.35.41; 13.3; 14.33; Luke 5.10; 8.51; 9.28.54 ). He was the first martyr of the twelve; Herod Agrippa beheaded him in 44, he was associated with the message. In the Latin Codex Corbeiensis, written in the fourth century, a note was made at the end of the epistle that most definitely attributed the authorship to James, son of Zebedee. But this authorship was taken seriously only in the Spanish church, where until the seventeenth century he was considered the author of this letter. This is due to the fact that John of Compostela, the father of the Spanish church, was identified with James, the son of Zebedee, and therefore it is quite natural that the Spanish church was predisposed to consider its head and founder as the author of the New Testament epistle. But the martyrdom of James came too early for him to write this epistle and, moreover, only the Codex Corbeyensis connects him with the epistle.

5. Finally, James, who is called the brother of Jesus. Although his name was first associated with the message only by Origen in the first half of the third century, traditionally the message was attributed to him. As already mentioned, in 1546 the Council of Trent decided that the Epistle of James is canonical and was written by an apostle.

Let us consider everything that is said about this Jacob. From the New Testament we learn that he was one of Jesus' brothers (Mark 6:3; Matt 13:55). Later we will discuss in what sense the word brother should be understood. During the period of Jesus' preaching, His family could neither understand Him nor sympathize with Him and wanted to stop His work (Matt. 12:46-50; Mark 3:21.31-35; John 7:3-9). John says directly: “For His brothers also did not believe in Him.” (John 7.5). Thus, during the period of Jesus’ earthly preaching, James belonged to His opponents.

The book of the Acts of the Apostles records a sudden and inexplicable change. From the very first lines of the book, the author tells that the mother of Jesus and His brothers were among a small group of Christians ( Acts 1.14). And from this place it becomes clear that Jacob became the head of the Jerusalem church, although there is no explanation anywhere how this happened. So Peter sent word of his deliverance to James (Acts 12:17). James presided over the council of the Jerusalem church, which approved the entry of pagans into the Christian Church (Acts 15). And Paul, who first came to Jerusalem, met with James and Peter; and again he discussed the scope of his activities with Peter, James and John, revered pillars of the Church (Gal. 1.19; 2.9). During his last visit to Jerusalem, which led to his imprisonment, Paul brought to James the donations collected from the pagan churches (Acts 21:18-25). This last episode is very important because in it we see that James was sympathetic to the Jews who kept the Jewish law, and, moreover, convincingly insisted that their beliefs should not be insulted and even persuaded Paul to demonstrate his loyalty to the law by encouraging him to accept themselves the expenses of some Jews who took a vow of Nazirites.

Thus, it is clear that James was the head of the Jerusalem church. This has received great development in tradition and legend. Egesipus, one of the first historians of the Church, reports that James was the first bishop of the Jerusalem church. Clement of Alexandria goes further and says that James was chosen for this ministry by Peter and John. Jerome writes in the book “On Famous Men”: “After the Passion of the Lord, James was immediately consecrated by the apostles to the rank of Bishop of Jerusalem. He ruled the Jerusalem church for thirty years, that is, until the seventh year of the reign of Emperor Nero.” The last step in the creation of this legend was the “Clementine Confessions,” which say that Jacob himself was ordained bishop of Jerusalem by Jesus himself. Clement of Alexandria conveys a strange legend: “The Lord entrusted the message (knowledge) to James the Just, John and Peter after the Resurrection; they passed it on to the other apostles, and the apostles to the seventy.” There is no point in tracing the further development of this legend, but it is based on the fact that Jacob was the undisputed head of the Jerusalem church.

JACOB AND JESUS

IN 1 Cor. 15 a list of the appearances of Jesus after the Resurrection is given in the following words: “Then he appeared to Jacob” ( 1 Cor.. 15, 7). And, in addition, we find a strange mention of the name of James in the Gospel of the Jews, one of the first gospels, which was not placed in the New Testament, but which, judging by the surviving fragments, could be of great interest. Here is an excerpt from it that has come down to us from Jerome: “And now the Lord, having given the shroud to the servant of the high priest, went in to Jacob and appeared to him (because Jacob swore that he would not eat bread from the moment he tasted the cup of the Lord until until he sees Him risen again from those who sleep)." And further: “Bring you,” says the Lord, “a table and bread,” and immediately added: “He took the bread and blessed it, and broke it, and gave it to Jacob the Just and said: “My brother, eat your bread, for the Son Man has risen from those who sleep."

There are some difficulties to note in this passage. It seems that it has this meaning: Jesus, having risen from the dead and came out of the tomb, gave the shroud that He wore in death to the servant of the high priest and went to His brother James. It also seems that the passage implies that Jacob was present at the Last Supper. But despite the unclear and incomprehensible places in the passage, one thing is absolutely clear: something in the behavior of Jesus in the last days and hours so captured the heart of Jacob that he vowed not to eat until Jesus rose again, and therefore Jesus came to him and gave him the necessary assurance. It is clear that Jacob met the risen Christ, but we will never know what happened at that moment. But we know that after this James, who had previously been hostile and unfriendly to Jesus, became His slave in life and a martyr in death.

JACOB - MARTYR FOR CHRIST

Early Christian lore and tradition are consistent in the fact that Jacob died a martyr. Descriptions of the circumstances of his death vary, but the assertion that he died as a martyr remains unchanged. Josephus has a very short message (Antiquities of the Jews 20:9.1):

“And therefore Ananias, being such a man and believing that a good opportunity was being offered to him, because Festus was dead and Albinus had not yet arrived, called a trial and brought before him the brother of Jesus, who was called Christ - by the name of James - and some others accused of breaking the law and handed them over to be stoned."

Ananias was the Jewish high priest, Festus and Albinus were procurators of Palestine, occupying the same position as Pontius Pilate had previously held. What is important about this account is that Ananias took advantage of the so-called interregnum, the time between the death of one procurator and the arrival of his successor, to eliminate James and other leaders of the Christian Church. This is quite consistent with our information about the character of Ananias. From this we can also conclude that Jacob was killed in 62.

A much more detailed account is given in the history of Egesippus. This story itself is lost, but the message about the death of Jacob is completely preserved by Eusebius ("History of the Church" 2.23). This is a rather long message, but it is of such great interest that it needs to be given here in full.

“The leadership of the Church passed to the Lord’s brother James, together with the apostles, the one whom everyone from the time of the Lord to this day called the Just, because many were called Jacob. And he was a saint from his mother’s womb; he did not drink wine or strong drinks and did not eat meat; a razor never touched his head; he did not anoint himself with oil (for anointing) and did not take a bath. He alone could enter the Holy Place, because he wore linen clothes, not wool. And only he alone entered the Temple and he could be seen there prostrate on his knees, praying for the forgiveness of people, so that his knees were calloused like those of a camel, due to constant prostration in prayer to God and begging forgiveness for people. For his unusual virtue he was called the Just, or Obias, which translated from Greek means the Stronghold of the People and Righteousness, as the prophets testify to it.

And therefore some of the seven sects already mentioned in the Memoirs said to him: “Where is the way to Jesus?” and he answered that Jesus was the Savior - and many believed that Jesus was the Christ. Well, the sects mentioned above did not believe either in the Resurrection or in the One who will reward everyone according to their deeds; And those who believed in it believed because of Jacob. And due to the fact that many of the rulers also believed, confusion arose among the Jews, scribes and Pharisees, because, they said, there is a danger that all people will wait for Jesus Christ. And therefore, having met with Jacob, they said to him: “We beg you, restrain the people, because they are straying from the true path and are following Jesus, considering Him to be Christ. We beg you to convince all those who will come on the day of Passover regarding Jesus , because we all listen to your word, because we and all the people testify to you that you are just and do not look at personalities. And therefore, warn the people about Jesus not to step on the wrong path, because all the people and all of us believe in you; and therefore speak your word from the roof of the Temple, so that you can be clearly seen, and your words can be heard by all the people: all the tribes and the pagans too have gathered for Easter.”

And so the mentioned scribes and Pharisees put Jacob on the roof of the Temple and called out to him: “O You, the Just One, to whom we should all listen - for the people are leaving the true path - tell us where is the path of Jesus?” And he, Jacob, answered with a loud voice: “Why do you ask me about the Son of Man? He Himself sits in heaven at the right hand of the Almighty (Great Power) and will come on the clouds of heaven.” And when many were converted and praised the testimony of Jacob and said: “Hosanna to the Son of David,” the same scribes and Pharisees said among themselves: “We have made a mistake in allowing such a testimony about Jesus, but let us go and throw him (Jacob) down, so that out of fear they did not believe him." And they cried, "Oh, oh, even the Just One has gone astray," and they did what Isaiah said, "Let us remove the Just One, because he is causing us trouble; and therefore they will eat the fruit of their deeds."

And they went up and threw the Just One down, and they said to each other, “Let us stone Jacob the Just,” and they began to stone him, because the fall did not kill him, and he turned and knelt down, saying, “I beseech You, Lord God the Father, forgive them, because they don’t know what they’re doing.” And when they stoned him like that, one of the priests, the son of Rechabit, about whom the prophet Jeremiah says, cried out: “Stop! What are you doing? The just one is praying for you.” And one of them, who was clothing, took the stick with which he was beating out the cloth, and lowered it on the head of the Just One, and he died the death of a martyr. And they buried him right there near the Temple. He made a righteous witness to both Jews and Greeks that Jesus is the Christ. And immediately after this Vespasian besieged them."

The last words indicate that Aegesippus had a different date for Jacob's death. Josephus dates it to 62, but if it occurred immediately before the siege of Jerusalem by Vespasian, then it happened in 66. It is quite possible that much of the story of Aegesippus belongs to the realm of legend, but from it we learn two things. Firstly, it also testifies that Jacob died a martyr's death. And, secondly, that even after Jacob became a Christian, he remained absolutely faithful to the orthodox Jewish law, so much so that the Jews considered him theirs. This is quite consistent with what we have already noted about the attitude of James towards Paul when the latter came to Jerusalem with donations for the Jerusalem church (Acts 21:18-25).

BROTHER OF OUR LORD

Let us try to resolve one more problem in connection with the personality of Jacob. IN (Gal. 1:19) Paul speaks of him as the brother of the Lord. IN Mat. 13.55 and Mar 6.3 his name is listed among the names of Jesus' brothers, and in Acts 1:14 It is said, without specifying names, that Jesus' brothers were among the followers of the early Church. The problem is to find out the meaning of the word brother because it is given so much importance by the Roman Catholic Church and Catholic groups in the national Christian churches. Already in the time of Jerome, there were continuous disputes and discussions on this issue in the Church. There are three theories regarding the relationship these "brothers" had to Jesus; and we will look at them all separately.

JEROME'S THEORY

Jerome developed the theory that Jesus' "brothers" were actually his cousins. The Roman Catholic Church is firmly convinced of this, for which this provision is one of the important elements of doctrine. This theory was put forward by Jerome in 383, and we can do no better than to present his complex arguments one by one.

1. James, the brother of our Lord, is mentioned as an apostle. Paul writes: “But I saw no other apostle except James the Lord’s brother.” (Gal. 1:19).

2. Jerome states that the word apostle can only be used of one of the twelve. In this case, we must look for Jacob among them. He cannot be identified with James, the brother of John and the son of Zebedee, who, among other things, had already died a martyr’s death at the time of writing Gal. 1.19, as is most definitely stated in Acts 12.2. And therefore he should be identified only with another Jacob of the twelve - Jacob, the son of Alphaeus.

3. Jerome proceeds to establish the identity using other data. IN Mar. 6.3 we read: “Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James, Josiah...?”, and in Mar. 15.40 we see Mary, the mother of James the lesser and Josiah, at the crucifixion. Since Jacob the younger is the brother of Josiah and the son of Mary, he must be the same person as Jacob in Mar. 6.3, who was the brother of our Lord. And therefore, according to Jerome’s theory, James, the brother of the Lord, James, the son of Alphaeus, and James the lesser are one and the same person, characterized differently. 4. Jerome bases the next and final premise of his argument on the list of women present at the crucifixion of Christ. Let's present this list as it is given by the three authors.

IN Mar. 15.40 we read: "Mary Magdalene, Mary, mother of James and Josiah, and Salome."

IN Mat. 27.56 we read: "Mary Magdalene, Mary, the mother of James and Josiah, and the mother of the sons of Zebedee."

IN John 19.25 we read: “His mother and his mother’s sister Mary of Cleophas and Mary Magdalene.”

Let's now analyze this list. Each of them mentions the name of Mary Magdalene. One can most definitely identify Salome and the mother of the sons of Zebedee. But the problem is to say how many women are in John's list. Should the list be read like this:

1. His Mother

2. His mother's sister

3. Maria Kleopova

4. Mary Magdalene

or like this:

1. His Mother

2. His mother’s sister, Maria Kleopova

3. Mary Magdalene

Jerome insists that the second option is correct and that the sister of His Mother and Mary of Cleopas are one and the same person. In that case, she must also be Mary, who in another list is the mother of James and Josiah. This James, who is her son, is known as James the lesser, and as James the son of Alphaeus, and as James the Apostle, known as the brother of the Lord, which means that James is the son of Mary's sister (His mother), and therefore a cousin Jesus.

This is Jerome's argument. At least four objections can be raised against it.

1. James is repeatedly called the brother of Jesus or listed among His brothers. In each case the word was used adelphos- a common designation for brother. It may indeed characterize a person who belongs to a common brotherhood. According to this principle, Christians call each other brothers. It can also be used to express affection or love - one can call someone very close spiritually a brother. But when this word is used to denote relatives, it is doubtful whether it means cousins. If James was Jesus' cousin, it is unlikely, perhaps even impossible, that he would have been named adelphos Jesus.

2. Jerome was greatly mistaken in asserting that the title of apostle could only be used in relation to one of the twelve. Paul was an apostle (Rom. 1:1; I Cor. 1:1; 2 Cor. 1:1; Gal. 9:1)- Barnabas was apostle (Acts 14:14; I Cor. 9:6). The strength was apostle (Acts 15:22). Andronicus and Junius were apostles(Rom. 16:7). It is impossible to limit the use of a word apostle only twelve, and therefore, since there is no need to look for James, the brother of the Lord, among the twelve, then the entire system of Jerome’s arguments collapses.

3. The literal meaning of words in John 19.25 indicates that there are four women mentioned here, not three, for if Mary, the wife of Cleopas, was the sister of Mary, the Mother of Jesus, then this would mean that there were two sisters named Mary in the same family, which is unlikely.

4. It should be remembered that this theory appeared in the Church only in 383, when it was developed by Jerome, and it is quite obvious that it was developed for only one purpose - to substantiate the theory of the purity of the Virgin Mary.

EPIPHANY THEORY

The second major theory regarding the relationship of Jesus and His “brothers” is based on the fact that these “brothers” were actually His half-brothers, the sons of Joseph from his first marriage. This theory is called Epiphanius, named after Epiphanius, who firmly insisted on it around 357; but he did not create it - it existed long before that and, one might say, became most widespread in the early Church. The essence of this theory was already set forth in an apocryphal book called the Book of James or Proto-Gospel, dating back to the middle of the second century. This book is about a devoted married couple named Joachim and Anna. They had one big sorrow - they had no children. To their great joy, when they were already in old age, they had a child, and in this, moreover, in all likelihood, they also saw the immaculate conception. The child, a girl, was named Mary, the future mother of Jesus; Joachim and Anna dedicated their child to the Lord and when the girl was three years old, they took her to the Temple and left her in the care of the priests. Maria grew up at the Temple and when she was twelve years old, the priests decided to marry her off. They called all the widowers, ordering them to take their staffs with them. The carpenter Joseph came along with everyone. The high priest collected all the staves, and Joseph was the last to take. Nothing happened to all the staffs, but a dove flew up from Joseph’s staff and landed on his head. Thus it was revealed that Joseph should take Mary as his wife. Joseph was very reluctant at first. “I have sons,” he said, “I am an old man, and she is a girl: lest I become a laughing stock in the eyes of the children of Israel” (Proto-Gospel 9:1). But then he took it, obeying the will of God, and in due time Jesus was born. The Proto-Gospel is, of course, based on legends, but it shows that in the middle of the second century there was a widespread theory that would later be named Epiphanius. But there is no direct evidence to support this theory, and only indirect evidence is given in support of it.

1. They ask: Would Jesus have entrusted the care of His mother to John if she had other sons besides Him? (John 19,26,27). In response to this, we can say that, as far as we know, the family of Jesus did not sympathize with Him at all and it would hardly be possible to entrust anyone from the family with the care of them.

2. They claim that Jesus’ “brothers” treated Him like older brothers to younger ones: they doubted His sanity and wanted to take Him home (Mark 3:21.31-35); they were quite hostile towards Him (John 7:1-5). It could also be argued that they viewed Jesus' actions, regardless of His age, as a nuisance to the family.

3. It is argued that Joseph must have been older than Mary because he completely disappears from the Gospel and must have died before Jesus began his preaching and public ministry. Jesus' mother was present at the wedding feast in Cana of Galilee, but Joseph is not mentioned at all (John 2:1). Jesus is sometimes called the son of Mary and this leads to the assumption that Joseph had already died by that time and Mary was a widow (Mark 6:3; but cf. Matt. 13:55). Further, Jesus remained in Nazareth for a long time until He was thirty years old. (Luke 3:23), which can be easily explained if we assume that Joseph died and the care of home and family fell on Jesus. But the mere fact that Joseph was older than Mary does not prove that he had no children by her, and the fact that Jesus remained in Nazareth as a village carpenter to provide for the family would be a more natural indication that He was the eldest, not the youngest son. The basis of the Epiphanian theory was the same points on which the theory of Jerome is based. Its goal is to substantiate the theory of the absolute purity of Mary. But for the latter there is no evidence or evidence at all.

ELVIDIAN THEORY

The third theory is called the Elvidian theory. According to it, the brothers and sisters of Jesus were fully His brothers and sisters, that is, His half-brothers and sisters. All that is known about Elvidius is that he wrote a treatise in support of it, which Jerome sharply opposed. What can be said in favor of this theory?

1. A person reading the New Testament without certain theological premises and assumptions perceives the expression “brothers and sisters of Jesus” used in the Gospel as evidence of direct kinship.

2. The account of the birth of Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew and the Gospel of Luke suggests that Mary had more children. Matthew writes: “Rising from sleep, Joseph did as the angel of the Lord commanded him, and received his wife, and without knowing her, at last she gave birth to her firstborn Son.” (Matthew 1:24.25). From this we can clearly conclude that after the birth of Jesus, Joseph entered into a normal marital relationship with Mary. Tertullian, in fact, uses this little passage to prove that both the virginity and the marital state of Mary were sanctified in Christ by the fact that she was first a virgin and then a wife in the full sense of the word. Narrating the birth of Jesus, Luke says: “And she gave birth to her firstborn Son.” (Luke 2:7). By calling Jesus the firstborn, Luke clearly indicates that there were more children later.

3. As we have already said, the fact that Jesus remained in Nazareth as a country carpenter until He was thirty years of age is at least an indication that He was the eldest son and had to take charge of the family after Joseph's death.

We believe and believe that the brothers and sisters of Jesus were truly His brothers and sisters and do not insist that celibacy is superior to sanctified love by marriage. At the heart of any other theory is the glorification of asceticism and the desire to see Mary as an eternal virgin.

And therefore we proceed from the fact that James, who is called the brother of the Lord, was in the full sense the brother of Jesus.

JACOB AS AUTHOR OF THE EPISTLE

Can we then say that this James was the author of the present letter? Let's see what evidence supports this point of view.

1. If James wrote the epistle, it is completely natural, it could only be of a general nature, which it is. James was not, like Paul, a traveler known in many church communities. James was the leader of the Judaism movement in Christianity and one might well expect that if he were the author of the message, it would be similar to an appeal to Jewish Christians.

2. There is nothing in the epistle that a virtuous Jew cannot accept or agree with; some even believe that it is a Jewish ethical treatise that found its way into the New Testament. It was also pointed out that in the Epistle of James one can find many such phrases that read equally well in both the Christian and the Jewish sense. The words "twelve tribes scattered" (James 1:1) can be attributed not only to Jews living in the Diaspora around the world, but also to the Christian Church, the new Israel of the Lord. The word "Lord" can refer equally to Jesus and God the Father. James says that God begat us by the word of truth, that we might be some firstfruits of His creatures." (James 1:18) can equally be understood in terms of God's act of creation or in terms of regeneration, God's re-creation of humanity in Jesus Christ. The expressions “perfect law” and “royal law” (James 1.25; 2.8) may equally be understood as the ethical law of the Ten Commandments and as the new law of Christ. The words of the "elders of the Church" - ekklesia (James 5:14) can be understood both as elders of the Christian Church and as elders of the Jews, because in the Septuagint (a translation of the Bible made in Alexandria in the third century BC) ekklesia is the title of God's chosen people. IN Jacob 2.2 it speaks of “your meeting”, and the word is used synagogue, and it can rather be understood as synagogue, rather than how Christian church community. Addressing readers as brothers is absolutely Christian in nature, but it is equally inherent in the Jews. The Coming of the Lord and the picture of the Judge standing at the door (James 5,7.9) are equally inherent in both Christian and Jewish ways of thinking. The phrase that they condemned and killed the righteous (James 5:6), is often found in the prophets, and the Christian read it as an indication of the Crucifixion of Christ. There is really nothing in this message that an Orthodox Jew could not accept with a pure heart.

It can be argued that all this speaks in favor of Jacob: he was the head, if you can call it that, of Jewish Christianity, he was the head of the Jerusalem church.

At one time the Church must have been very close to Judaism and rather represented a reformed Judaism. This type of Christianity lacked the breadth and universality that the Apostle Paul gave it. Paul himself said that he was destined to be a missionary to the Gentiles, and Peter, James and John to the Jews (Gal. 2.9). The Epistle of James may well reflect the views of Christianity in its early form. This can explain the following two points.

First, it explains why James so often expounds and repeats the teachings from the Sermon on the Mount. We can compare Jacob 2.12 and Mat. 6,14.15; Jacob 3:11-13 and Matt. 7.16-20; Jacob 5.12 and Mat. 5.34-37. The ethics of Christianity were of great interest to all Jewish Christians.

Secondly, it may help explain the relationship between this letter and Paul's teaching. At first sight Jacob 2.14-26 contains direct attacks on Paul's teaching. "A man is justified by works, and not by faith alone" (James 2:24). This contradicts Paul's teaching about justification by faith. In fact, James condemns faith that does not lead to any ethical action. And those who accused Paul of preaching just such a faith did not read his epistles, for they are simply filled with demands of a purely ethical nature, as can be seen in the example Rome. 12.

James died in 62 and could not see Paul's letters, which became the common property of the Church only in the 90s. And therefore the Epistle of James cannot be considered either as an attack on the teachings of Paul, or as their perversion. And such a misunderstanding was most likely to occur in Jerusalem, where Paul's teaching on the priority of faith and grace and his attacks on the law were viewed with suspicion.

We have already said that the Epistle of James and the message of the council of the Jerusalem church to the churches of the Gentiles have a strange similarity to each other in at least two points. First of all, both start with the word rejoice (James 1:1; Acts 15:23), in the Greek version - hairrein. This is the traditional beginning of a Greek letter, but for the second time in the New Testament it is found only in a letter from the commander Claudius Lysias to the governor of the province Felix ( Acts 23.26-30). Secondly, in Acts 15.17 is a phrase from Jacob's speech that speaks of the nations, among whom my name will be proclaimed. This phrase is repeated only once in the New Testament. Jacob 2.7, where it is translated like this: the name by which you are called. Although these phrases are different in the Russian translation, they are the same in the original Greek. It is interesting that in the message of the council of the Jerusalem church we find two unusual phrases that are found only in the Epistle of James. It should also not be forgotten that the epistle of the council of the Jerusalem church was in all likelihood composed by James.

This fact supports the theory that the Epistle of James was written by James, the brother of our Lord and the head of the Jerusalem church.

But, on the other hand, there are facts that still make us doubt his authorship.

1. It might be supposed that if the author of the epistle had been a brother of the Lord, he would have made some reference to this. But he calls himself only a servant of God and the Lord Jesus Christ (James 1:1). After all, such an indication would not necessarily serve his personal glory, but would give weight and significance to his message. And such weight would be especially valuable outside Palestine, in countries where hardly anyone knew Jacob. If the author of the message was indeed the brother of the Lord, why did he not mention this directly or indirectly?

2. Since the epistle does not indicate that its author is a brother of the Lord, one would expect an indication that he is an apostle. The Apostle Paul always began his epistles with certain words. And again, the point here is not about personal prestige, but about the reference to the authority on which he relies. If James, who wrote the epistle, was indeed the brother of the Lord and the head of the Jerusalem church, one would expect an indication of his apostleship at the very beginning of the epistle.

3. But the most surprising thing - and this prompted Martin Luther to challenge the epistle's right to be included in the New Testament - is the almost complete absence of references to Jesus Christ in it. In the entire message, His name is mentioned only twice, and these mentions are almost random. (James 1.1; 2.1).

There is not a single mention of the Resurrection of Christ in the message at all. We know well that the young Church grew up on faith in the risen Christ. If this message came from the pen of James, then it coincides in the time of writing with the book of the Acts of the Holy Apostles, in which the Resurrection of Christ is spoken of no less than twenty-five times. It is surprising that a man writing at such an important time in Church history would not write about the Resurrection of Christ, since James had compelling personal reasons for writing about the appearance of Jesus, which apparently changed his life.

Moreover, the message says nothing about Jesus as the Messiah. If James, the leader of the Jewish church, was writing to Jewish Christians in those early years, one would expect that his main purpose would be to present Jesus as the Messiah, or at least to make his belief in it abundantly clear; but there is nothing of the kind in the message.

4. It is clear that the writer of this epistle was greatly influenced by the Old Testament; it is also quite evident that he was very well acquainted with the Books of Wisdom. The message contains twenty-three obvious quotations from the Sermon on the Mount - and this is not surprising. Even before the writing of the first Gospel, summaries of the teachings of Jesus were probably circulated in lists. Some people argue that the writer of the epistle must have known Paul's letters to the Romans and Galatians in order to write so about faith and human achievement; They also rightly assert that a Jew who had never been outside Palestine and died in 62 could not have known these messages. But, as we have already seen, this argument misses the mark, because criticism of Paul's teaching, if any can be traced in the Epistle of James, could only be undertaken by a person who did not read the original Pauline epistles, but used only incorrectly stated or perverted teaching of Paul. Next phrase in Jacob 1.17: “Every good gift and every perfect gift” is written in hexameter and is quite obviously a quote from some Greek poet; and the phrase in Jacob 3.6: "circle of life" may be an Orphic phrase from mystery religions. Where could Jacob from Palestine get such quotes?

Some things are simply difficult to explain if we assume that the author of the letter was James, the brother of the Lord.

As we can see, the pros and cons of James writing this epistle balance each other out, but we will leave this question unresolved for now and turn to other questions.

DATING OF THE MESSAGE

Turning to the factors that shed light on the time of writing the message, we are again faced with the same problem: it is impossible to give an unambiguous answer to this question. It can be argued that the message could have been written very early, but it can also be argued that it was written quite late.

1. It is quite obvious that at the time of writing the message there was still a very real hope for the imminent Second Coming of Jesus Christ (James 5:7-9). Although the expectation of the Second Coming never left the Christian Church, as the period of its arrival dragged on, this expectation weakened somewhat and lost its urgency. This speaks in favor of early writing of the message.

2. In the first chapters of the book of the Acts of the Holy Apostles and in the epistles of Paul, the discussions of the Jews against the admission of pagans into the Church solely on the basis of the principle of faith were reflected. Everywhere Paul went, followers of Judaism followed him, and the acceptance of pagans into the Church turned out to be a very difficult matter. In the Epistle of James, however, there is no hint of this struggle, which is doubly surprising if we remember that James, the brother of the Lord, played a leading role in resolving this issue at the council of the Jerusalem church, and therefore this epistle must have been written either too early, even before these contradictions arose; or very late, after the last echo of this dispute had died down. The absence in the message of references to the contradictions between Jews and pagans can be interpreted in different ways.

3. Equally contradictory are the information reflected in the message about the structure of the Church and its norms. Church meeting places are still called sunagogue (James 2.2). This indicates an early date for the writing of the message; later the church meeting would definitely be called ecclesia, because the Jewish name was soon forgotten. Elders of the Church are mentioned (James 5:14), but neither deacons nor bishops are mentioned. This again indicates an early date for the writing of the epistle and, possibly, a Jewish source, because the Jews had elders and then Christians. Jacob is concerned that many want to be teachers (James 3:1). This may also indicate the early date of writing the epistle, when the Church had not yet developed and developed its system of priesthood and had not yet introduced a certain order into church worship. This may also indicate a late date for the writing of the message, when numerous teachers appeared who became a real scourge of the Church.

But there are two general facts that seem to indicate that the message was written quite late. First, as we have seen, it barely mentions Jesus at all. The theme of the message is essentially the shortcomings of the members of the Church and their imperfections, their sins and their errors. This may indicate a rather late date for writing the message. Preaching in the young Church in the early years of its existence was imbued with the grace and glory of the risen Christ. Later the sermon turned, as it often does today, into a tirade against the shortcomings of members of the church community. The second important fact from which it can be concluded that the message was written late is the condemnation of the rich (James 2:1-3; 5:1-6). The flattery and arrogance of the rich did seem to be a big problem for the Church in the era in which this letter was written, for there were very few, if any, of them in the early Church. (1 Cor. 1:26.27). The Epistle of James appears to have been written at a time when the formerly poor Church was threatened by the newly awakened desire in its members for earthly goods and pleasures.

PREACHERS AND TEACHERS IN THE ANCIENT WORLD

We can make it easier for ourselves to establish the date of the writing of the Epistle of James if we consider it against the background of the world of that time.

Preaching is always associated with Christianity, but preaching itself was not an invention of the Christian Church. The tradition of preaching existed in both the Jewish and ancient Greek worlds; and if one compares Greek and Jewish preaching with the Epistle of James, one is struck by their great similarity.

Let's look first at Greek preaching by Greek preachers. Wandering philosophers (Stoics, Cynics, etc.) were common in the ancient Greek world. Wherever people gathered, one could meet them and hear their calls to virtue: at crossroads, in squares, among large crowds of people at sports games and even at gladiatorial fights. Sometimes they even addressed the emperor directly, reproaching him for luxury and tyranny and calling for virtue and justice. The time has passed when philosophy was studied exclusively in academies and philosophical schools. Philosophical ethical sermons could be heard every day in public places. These sermons had their own characteristics: the order and techniques were always the same. They had a great influence on the manner in which Paul preached the gospel, and James followed in the same footsteps. Let us give a few of the professional methods of these ancient preachers and note their influence on the method of the Epistle of James and the Epistles of Paul to the churches.

Preachers in ancient times sought not so much to learn new truths as to draw people's attention to shortcomings in their way of life and make them see again truths that they knew, by chance or deliberately forgotten. They sought to call people who were mired in debauchery and had forgotten their gods to a virtuous life.

1. They often had fictitious conversations with fictitious opponents in the form of so-called “truncated dialogues.” Jacob also uses this technique in 2.18ff and 5.13ff.

2. They were in the habit of moving from one part of the sermon to another by means of questions which they asked to introduce a new topic. Jacob also uses this method in 2.14 and 4.1.

3. They were very fond of the imperative mood, calling on their listeners to act righteously and renounce error. Of the 108 verses in the Epistle of James, almost 60 are imperatives.

4. They loved to ask their listeners rhetorical questions. Jacob also often asks such questions (2,4.5; 2,14-16; 3,11.12; 4,4) .

5. They often made lively appeals directly to some part of the listeners. Jacob speaks directly to the arrogant rich who trade for profit (4,13; 5,6) .

6. They were very fond of figurative expressions to characterize virtues and vices, sins and positive qualities. James also shows lust and sin in action (1,15) ; mercy (2,13) and rust (5,3) .

7. They used images and pictures of everyday life to awaken the interest of the listeners. Typical images of a bridle, a ship's rudder, a forest fire, etc. were typical for preaching in ancient times. (cf. James 3:3-6). Along with many others, Jacob very vividly uses the image of the peasant and his patience (5,7) .

8. They often cited famous and famous people and their moral behavior as examples. Jacob gives the example of Abraham (2,21-23) , the harlot Rahab (2,25), Elijah (5,17) .

9. In order to attract the attention of listeners, ancient preachers began their sermons with a controversial statement. Jacob does the same, inviting people to accept life with great joy when they fall into temptation. (1,2) . The preachers of antiquity also often contrasted genuine virtue with ordinary standards of life. James, for his part, insists that the happiness of the rich lies in humiliation (1,10) . The preachers of antiquity used the weapon of irony. Jacob does the same (2,14-19; 5,1-6).

10. The preachers of ancient times could speak harshly and harshly. James also calls his reader “a foolish man” and “an unbeliever and an enemy of God.” (2,20; 4,4) . The preachers of ancient times resorted to verbal scourging - Jacob does the same.

11. Preachers of ancient times had their own standard ways of composing sermons.

a) They often ended part of their sermon with a powerful contrast. For example, they contrasted righteous and unrighteous lifestyles. Jacob also repeats this technique (2,13; 2,26) .

b) They often proved their points by asking their listeners direct questions - Jacob does the same (4,4-12) . It is true that we do not find in Jacob the bitterness, empty and coarse humor that the Greek preachers resorted to, but it is quite obvious that he uses all the other methods that the wandering Greek preachers used to win the minds and hearts of their listeners.

The ancient Jews also had their own tradition of preaching. Such sermons were usually delivered by rabbis during synagogue services. They had much in common with the sermons of the wandering Greek philosophers: the same rhetorical questions, the same urgent calls and imperatives, the same illustrations from everyday life, the same quotes and examples from the lives of martyrs for the faith. But Jewish preaching had one curious feature: it was abrupt and incoherent. Jewish teachers taught their students never to linger on one subject, but to move quickly from one subject to another in order to maintain the interest of the listeners. And therefore such a sermon was also called Haraz, What means stringing beads. Jewish preaching often consisted of a heaping of moral truths and exhortations one upon another. The Epistle of James is written exactly like this. It is very difficult to see consistency and a thoughtful plan in it. Sections and verses in it follow one after another, unrelated to each other. Goodspeed writes about this epistle as follows: “This work has been compared to a chain, in which each link is connected with the one preceding it and the one following it. Others have compared its contents to a string of beads... But perhaps the Epistle of James is not so much a chain thoughts or beads, like a handful of pearls, thrown one at a time into the memory of the listener."

No matter how we view the Epistle of James as a manifestation of the ancient Greek or Jewish worldview, it represents a good example of the preaching of that time. And, apparently, here lies the key to unraveling his authorship.

AUTHOR OF JAMES

There are five possibilities to answer this question.

1. Let's start with the theory developed more than half a century ago by Mayer and revived by Easten in The Interpretation of the Bible. In ancient times, it was common to publish books under the name of a great person. Jewish literature between the Old and New Testaments is full of such writings, attributed to Moses, the twelve patriarchs, Baruch, Enoch, Isaiah and other prominent people in order to attract the attention of readers. This was common practice. The most famous of the apocryphal books is the book of the Wisdom of Solomon, in which the sages of later times attribute new wisdom to the wisest of the kings. We must not forget the following about the Epistle of James:

a) There is nothing in it that an orthodox Jew would not accept if the two references to Jesus in James were removed. 1.1 and 2.1, which is not difficult to do.

b) In Greek Jacob sounds like Jacobus, which undoubtedly corresponds Jacob in the Old Testament.

c) The message is addressed to the twelve tribes who are scattered. From this theory it follows that the Epistle of James is just a Jewish composition, signed with the name Jacob and intended for the Jews scattered throughout the world to strengthen them in the faith amid the trials to which they were subjected in pagan countries.

This theory received further development. IN Life 49 Jacob's address to his sons is given, which is a series of short descriptions and characteristics of each of his sons. Mayer states that he can find in the Epistle of James parallels to the description of each of the patriarchs and therefore all twelve tribes given in the address of James. Here are some of the comparisons and parallels:

Asir is a rich man: Jacob 1.9-11; Gen.. 49.20.

Issachar - doer of good: Jacob 1.12; Life 49.14.15.

Reuben - begun, first fruit: Jacob 1.18; Life 49.3.

Simeon symbolizes anger: Jacob 1.9; Life 49.5-7.

Levi is a tribe with a special relationship to religion: Jacob 1.26.27.

Naphtali symbolizes peace: Jacob 3.18; Life 49.21.

Gad symbolizes wars and battles: Jacob 4.1.2; Gen.49.19.

Dan symbolizes the expectation of salvation: Jacob 5.7; Life 49.18.

Joseph symbolizes prayer: Jacob 5.1-18; Life 49.22-26.

Benjamin symbolizes birth and death: Jacob 5.20; Life 49.27.

This is a very ingenious theory: no one can provide irrefutable evidence in its favor, or refute it; and it certainly explains well the appeal to Jacob 1.1 to the twelve tribes living in dispersion. This theory allows us to conclude that the moral and ethical aspects of this Jewish treatise, written under the name of James, made such a strong impression on some Christian that he made some corrections and additions to it and published it as a Christian book. This is, of course, an interesting theory, but perhaps its main advantage lies in its wit.

2. Like the Jews, Christians also wrote many books, attributing them to prominent figures of the Christian faith. There are gospels written in the name of Peter, Thomas, and even James; there is an epistle signed with the name of Barnabas, there are the gospels of Nicodemus and Bartholomew; there are the acts of John, Paul, Andrew, Peter, Thomas, Philip and others. Such books are called in literature pseudonymous, that is, written under in someone else's name.

It has been suggested that the Epistle of James was written by someone else and attributed to the Lord's brother. Apparently this is what Jerome thought when he said that this letter "was published by someone in the name of James." But whatever this message really was, it could not possibly have been “published by someone in the name of Jacob,” because the person who wrote and attributed such a book to someone would have carefully and diligently tried to show who was supposed to be considered by its author. If the author had wanted to publish the book under a pseudonym, he would have made sure that no one would have doubted that its author was James, the brother of our Lord, but this is not even mentioned.

3. The English theologian Moffat was inclined to believe that the author of the letter was neither the brother of the Lord nor any other well-known Jacob, but simply a teacher named Jacob, about whose life we ​​know nothing at all. This, in fact, is not so incredible, because even at that time the name Jacob was very widespread. But then it is difficult to understand what book was included in the New Testament, and why it began to be associated with the name of Jesus' brother.

4. It is generally accepted, however, that this book was written by James, the brother of the Lord. We have already pointed out a very strange point - that in such a book the name of Jesus is accidentally mentioned only twice and it never talks about His Resurrection or that Jesus was the Messiah. But there is another, even more difficult and complex problem. The book is written in Greek and Ropes believes that Greek should have been the native language of the author of the epistle, and the great classical philologist Major stated: “I am inclined to believe that the Greek of this epistle is closer to the norms of high classics than to the Greek of other books of the New Testament, with the possible exception of Hebrews." But Jacob's native language was undoubtedly Aramaic, not Greek, and he most certainly could not have mastered classical Greek. The Orthodox Jewish upbringing he received should have aroused in him contempt for Greek as a hated pagan language. In this vein, it is almost impossible to imagine that this letter came from the pen of James.

5. Let's remember how much the book of James is like a sermon. It may well be that this sermon was actually preached by James himself, but written down and translated by someone else; then it was slightly changed and sent to all churches. This explains both the form of the message and the fact of its identification with the name of Jacob. This also explains the absence of numerous references to Jesus, His Resurrection and Messiahship: after all, James could not touch on all aspects of the faith in one sermon; he is, strictly speaking, making people aware of their moral obligations, and not teaching them theology. It seems to us that this theory explains everything.

One thing is very clear - we may begin to read this little letter realizing that the New Testament contains books of greater significance, but if we study it with perfect reverence, we will close it with a feeling of gratitude to God that it was preserved for our guidance and inspiration.

GREETINGS (James 1:1)

Already at the very beginning of the epistle, Jacob rewards himself with a title in which is all his glory and all his honor; He - servant of God and the Lord Jesus Christ. James is the only one of the authors of the New Testament, apart from Jude, who calls himself " doulos" without any further explanation or reservation. Paul calls himself "a servant of Jesus Christ, called an apostle" (Rom. 1:1; Phil. 1:1). Jacob does not want to add anything more to the fact that he is a servant of God and the Lord Jesus Christ. This title has four meanings.

1. It assumes absolute obedience. For a slave there is only one law - the word of the master, the slave has no rights; he is the complete property of his master, and he is obliged to show absolute obedience.

2. It assumes absolute submission. This is what a person calls himself who thinks not about his privileges - but about his obligations, not about his rights - but about his duty. This is what a person who has forgotten himself in the service of God calls himself.

3. It assumes absolute loyalty and devotion. This is what a person calls himself who has no interests of his own, because everything he does, he does for God. He does not count on personal benefits and advantages, he is faithful to Him.

4. But, on the other hand, this proud rank. This is what the greatest personalities of the Old Testament era called themselves. Moses was doulos, servant of God (1 Kings 8.53; Dan. 9.11; Mal. 4.4), also Joshua and Caleb (Joshua 24:29; Num. 14:24); patriarchs - Abraham, Isaac, Jacob (Deut. 9.27), Job. (Job 1.8) and Isaiah (Isa. 20:3). It is quite obvious that the servants of God, doulos there were prophets (Am. 3.7; Zech. 1.6; Jer. 7.25). Calling myself a slave doulos, Jacob considers himself a follower and successor of those who found freedom, peace and glory in absolute submission to the will of God. A Christian cannot have a higher goal than this - to be a servant of God.

But this greeting has one interesting feature: when greeting his readers, Jacob uses the word hairrein, a common greeting in Greek secular letters. Paul, for example, never used this word: he always used a purely Christian greeting, “grace and peace.” (Rom. 1.7; I Cor. 1.3; 2 Cor. 1.2; Gal. 1.3; Eph. 1.2; Phil. 1.2; Col. 1.2; I Thess. 1, 1; 2 Thess. 1,2; Phil. 3). Further in the New Testament, this secular greeting occurs only twice: in a letter from the Roman officer Claudius Lysias to the governor Felix, written about ensuring the safety of Paul’s journey (Acts 23:26), and in a letter to all churches, written after the decision of the Jerusalem council to admit pagans into the Church (Acts 15:23). This is an interesting fact because Jacob presided over that meeting (Acts 15:13). It is quite possible that he used the most common greeting because his message was being sent to the general public.

THE JEWS LIVING DISPERSED AROUND THE WORLD (James 1:1 continued)

The message is addressed to to the twelve tribes who were scattered - in the diaspora. This word is used exclusively in relation to Jews living outside Palestine. Millions of Jews who, for one reason or another, lived outside Palestine constituted the diaspora. This dispersion of the Jews throughout the world played an extremely important role in the spread of Christianity, because all over the world at that time there were synagogues where Christian preachers could begin their journey and, in addition, all over the world there were people, men and women, who already knew the Old Testament and who sought to arouse in other people interest in their faith. Let's look at how this scattering came about.

The Jews were forcibly driven from their land several times and forced to live in foreign territories. There were three such relocations.

1. The first forced resettlement of the Jews was carried out by the Assyrians, when they captured the Northern Kingdom with its capital Samaria and took the entire people captive to Assyria (2 Kings 17.23; 1 Chron. 5.26). These were the ten tribes that never returned. The Jews themselves believed that they would all eventually gather in Jerusalem, but these ten tribes, they believed, would not return until the end of the world. This belief was based on a rather strange interpretation of the text of the Old Testament. The rabbis stated: “These ten tribes will never return, because it is said about them: “And he cast them into another land, as we now see.” (Deut. 29.28). And just as today (now) day passes and will never return, so they have left and will never return. And just as today there comes a dark night, and then light again, so light will shine again for those ten tribes for whom there was darkness.”

2. The second forced resettlement of the Jews occurred around 580 BC, when the Babylonians conquered the Southern Kingdom, the capital of which was Jerusalem, and took many, including the noblest, into Babylonian captivity (2 Kings 24:14-16; Psalm 1:36). In Babylon, the Jews behaved independently: they stubbornly refused to assimilate and lose their national identity. They were settled in the cities of Nehareda and Nibisis. It was in Babylon that Jewish learning reached its highest peak, and there the Babylonian Talmud, an extensive sixty-volume exposition of Jewish law, was created. Josephus wrote The Wars of the Jews initially not in Greek, but in Aramaic, since this book was intended for scholars in Babylon. Josephus writes that the Jews achieved such power there that for a certain period the province of Mesopotamia was under their control. The two Jewish rulers of Mesopotamia were named Asidaeus and Anileus; According to information that has reached us, after the death of Anileus, over 500,000 Jews were slaughtered.

3. The third forced migration of the Jews took place much later. Pompey, having defeated the Jews and taken Jerusalem in 63 BC, took many Jews to Rome as slaves. The Jews' adherence to the ritual law and their stubborn observance of the Sabbath made it difficult for them to be used as slaves, and therefore most of them were set free. The Jews settled in a special quarter on the far bank of the Tiber and soon flourished throughout the city. Dio Cassius says about them: “They were often humiliated, but they, nevertheless, grew stronger and even achieved the right to freely practice their customs.” The great patron of the Jews was Julius Caesar; the Jews mourned him all night at his tomb. According to information that has reached us, many Jews were present during Cicero's speech in defense of Flacus. In 19 AD, the Jews were expelled from Rome, accused of robbing a wealthy Roman proselyte, promising to send her money as a donation to the Jerusalem Temple. 4,000 Jews were taken into the army to fight against the robbers on the island of Sardinia, but they were soon returned. When Palestinian Jews sent a delegation to Rome to complain about the ruler of Archelaus, the delegates were joined by 8,000 Jews living in Rome. Roman literature is full of contemptuous remarks about the Jews, so anti-Semitism is not a new phenomenon, and the large number of references to the Jews is clear evidence of the large role the Jews played in the life of the capital of the Roman state.

These forced relocations led to thousands of Jews settling in Babylon and Rome, but even more Jews left Palestine in search of more convenient and profitable places: they were sent, first of all, to two neighboring countries - Syria and Egypt. Palestine was sandwiched between these two countries and could at any time become a battlefield between them. Therefore, many Jews left Palestine and settled in these countries.

During the era of Nebuchadnezzar, many Jews voluntarily went to Egypt (2 Kings 25,26). There is information that back in 650 BC there were Jewish mercenaries in the army of the Egyptian pharaoh. When Alexander the Great founded Alexandria, the settlers were given special privileges, and this brought large numbers of Jews there. The city of Alexandria was divided into five administrative districts, two of which were inhabited by Jews. The population of the latter two was more than one million. The settlements of the Jews in Egypt grew so large that around 50 BC a temple was built for them in Leontopolis, in the image of the one in Jerusalem.

Among the Syrian cities, the largest number of Jews lived in Antioch. There the gospel was first preached to the pagans, and the followers of Jesus were first called Christians in Antioch. According to information that has reached us, 10,000 Jews were once massacred in Damascus.

There were also many Jews living in Egypt, Syria and far beyond their borders. According to information that has reached us, the population of Cyrene in North Africa was divided into farmers, foreigners living in the country, and Jews. The historian of Rome, the German Mommsen, wrote: “The inhabitants of Palestine are only part of the Jews, and not the largest; the Jewish communities of Babylon, Asia Minor and Egypt are much larger in number than the Jewish population of Palestine.”

Mommsen mentioned another area where many Jews lived - Asia Minor. After the death of Alexander the Great, his empire fell apart: Egypt fell under the rule of the Ptolemies, and Syria and the surrounding areas fell under the rule of the Seleucids. The Seleucid dynasty pursued, on the one hand, a policy of suppressing peoples, in the hope of eradicating nationalism, and on the other hand, it was very fond of building new cities. These cities needed inhabitants and the Seleucids provided special privileges and preferential conditions to those who settled in them. The Jews settled in such cities by the thousands and formed a large and prosperous part of the population of the cities of Asia Minor, the large cities of the Mediterranean and other large trading centers. But even there they were subject to forced relocation. Antiochus III the Great resettled two thousand Jewish families from Babylon to Lydia and Phrygia. The flow of Jews emanating from Palestine was so powerful that Palestinian Jews complained about their brethren leaving their harsh homeland for the baths and feasts of Asia and Phrygia, and Aristotle spoke of meeting a Jew in Asia Minor who “was Greek not only in language, but also with soul."

All this clearly shows that the Jews lived throughout the entire world of that time. The Greek geographer Strabo wrote: “It is difficult to find a place in the whole world where the Jews did not live and dominate,” and the Jewish historian Josephus wrote: “There is no city or tribe where Jewish law and Jewish customs have not taken root.” .

In the "Prophecy of Savilla", written around 140 BC, it is said that every sea and every land is full of Jews. Philo of Alexandria quotes a letter allegedly written by the Jewish king Herod Agrippa I to the Roman emperor Caligula, which states that Jerusalem is the capital not only of Judea, but of most countries; for in Egypt, and in Phenicia, and in Syria, and even further - in Pamphylia and Cilicia, in most of Asia Minor to Bithynia itself and the remote corners of the Black Sea coast and in Europe: in Thessaly, Boeotia, Macedonia, Etomia, Argos , Corinth - in many of the best places of the Peloponnesian Peninsula - there are colonies of Jews everywhere. And not only on the mainland, but also on the largest and most important islands of Euboea, Cyprus, Crete - not to mention the areas beyond the Euphrates River - Jews live everywhere.

The Jewish dispersion, the diaspora, truly covered the whole world and this played an extremely important role in the spread of Christianity.

THE TRIAL AND THE STANDARD (James 1:2-4)

James never instilled in his readers the idea that Christianity was an easy path. He warned Christians that various temptations awaited them: in Greek this word peirasmos, the meaning of which we must understand well in order to realize the essence of the Christian life.

Greek peirasmos- this is not a temptation in the literal sense of the word - it is trial; a test with a specific purpose, which is for the subject to become stronger and purer after the test. Corresponding verb peyracein, which is now more often translated as test, has the same meaning and comes down not to temptation and introduction into temptation and sin, but to the strengthening and cleansing of a person.

So, for example, the Greeks said that the chick experiences ( peyracein) their wings. It is said about the Queen of Sheba (1 Kings 10.1) what she came to experience ( peyracein) the wisdom of Solomon in riddles. The Bible also says that God tempted (i.e., tested - peyracein) Abraham, appearing to him and demanding that Isaac be sacrificed (Gen. 22.1). When Israel came to the promised land, God did not take away the nations living there: He left them in order to tempt (test - peyracein) by them Israel in the fight against them (Judges 2.22; 3.1.4). The life trials of Israel served to form and strengthen the people (Deut. 4:34; 7:19).

This is an important and sublime thought: Christians must be prepared to face trials in their Christian journey. A variety of experiences and trials, sorrows and disappointments await us, which can take away our faith; temptations that can lead us astray from the righteous path; dangers, the distrust of others, which Christians so often have to feel towards themselves, but all this is not aimed at leading us to fall, but to lift us higher; all this falls on us not in order to overcome us, but so that we overcome it all; all this should not weaken us, but make us strong, and therefore we should not cry and complain about these trials, but rejoice at them. A Christian is in a sense like an athlete: the more he trains (works), the more he rejoices, because he knows that this contributes to ultimate success. As the English poet Robert Browning put it: “we should rejoice at every shock that makes it difficult to move along the earth,” because every difficulty overcome is a step on the way up.

THE FRUITS OF TESTING (James 1:2-4 (continued))

Jacob defines the process of testing itself with the word dokymion. And this is a very interesting word - with meaning clean coin, full-fledged, genuine. The test is to cleanse a person of all impurity.

If we meet these trials correctly, they will give us an unbending hardness. In the Bible it is patience(in Greek - hupomone), but patience is too passive a character trait. Hupomone- this is not only the ability to endure and endure, but also the ability to accomplish great and glorious deeds. During the centuries of persecution of Christians, the pagans were amazed that the martyrs died singing, and not in despair. One Christian, standing smiling among the flames, was asked why he was smiling: “I have seen the glory of God,” he said, “and I am glad.” Hupomone is a character trait that gives a person the ability not only to endure difficulties, but also to overcome them. A correctly endured test gives a person the strength to endure even more and win even more difficult battles.

Unbending hardness gives a person:

1. Perfection. In Greek it is teleios, What means purposeful excellence. So the sacrificial animal is defined as teleios, if it is without flaws and can be sacrificed to God. Schoolboy, student, becomes teleyos - when he is well trained. The person becomes teleios when he was completely grown up. The test passed by a person helps a person to fulfill the task assigned to him on earth. And this is a great idea. As we overcome the trials that befall us in life, we either prepare ourselves for the task God has given us, or we become unfit and incapable of fulfilling it.

2. Completeness. In Greek this word holocleros, What means whole, complete in all parts. This word characterizes an animal intended as a sacrifice to God, as well as a priest who can serve Him; this means that an animal or a person does not have any disfiguring defects. Unbending firmness frees a person over time from weaknesses and shortcomings of his character; helps him to overcome old sins, to be freed from old defects and to acquire virtues, until he is able to fully serve God and his fellow men.

3. Complete absence of any shortcomings. In Greek it is Leipesfay; this word defines victory over the enemy, the cessation of the fight. The man who has duly endured the test that has befallen him, in which this inflexible firmness is perfected day by day, will be victorious and gradually approach Jesus Himself.

GOD IS GIVING AND MAN IS ASKING (James 1:5-8)

This passage is closely related to the previous one. James has just told his readers that by making the right use of life's experience, they will acquire that unbending firmness which lies at the basis of all virtues. But immediately a person has a question: “Where can one find the wisdom and intelligence necessary for a correct attitude towards life’s trials?” And to this Jacob replies: “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given to him.”

One thing follows from this: for Jacob, a Christian teacher with a Jewish upbringing and background, wisdom is a practical thing, associated with real life, and not with philosophical reasoning and intellectual knowledge. The Stoics defined wisdom as “knowledge of the human and the divine.” People defined Christian wisdom as “the highest and divine property of the soul, giving a person the ability to recognize righteousness and act in accordance with it,” or “a spiritual and mental gift necessary for a righteous life.” Christian wisdom undoubtedly contains knowledge of divine depths, but in essence it is practical in nature; it actually represents knowledge of divine depths, realized in decisions made and in personal everyday relationships with people. When asking God for such wisdom, a person must remember two things.

1. A person must remember how God gives. God gives generously and never remembers it. “All wisdom,” said Jesus, the son of Sirach, “is from the Lord, and remains with him forever.” (Sir. 1.1). But the Jewish sages understood well that the best gift in the world could be spoiled by the manner in which it was given. The Jews had a lot to say about how a foolish person gives: “My son, when giving a good deed, do not reproach, and when giving any gift, do not insult with words... Isn’t a word higher than a good gift? But for a well-meaning person, both. he reproaches mercilessly, and the good deed of the ill-disposed tempts the eyes." (Sir. 18.15 - 18). “The giving of a fool will not benefit you, for instead of one he has many eyes to accept. He will give a little, but will reproach a lot, and will open his mouth like a herald. Today he lends, and tomorrow he will demand it back: such a person is hated by the Lord and people" (Sir. 20,14.15).

There are people who give only with the expectation that they will receive more than they give; or giving only to satisfy their vanity and sense of superiority, in order to put the recipient in the position of a debtor, giving, and then constantly reminding them of the gift they made. God gives generously. The Greek poet Philemon called God “the lover of gifts,” not in the sense that he loves to receive them, but in the sense that he loves to give. God does not remind of His gifts, He gives them in the radiance of His love, because it is His essence to give.

2. A person must remember how to ask. A person must ask God without any doubt that he will receive what he asks. A person must be confident that God can give what he asks for and that He is ready to give. The mind of a person who asks God with a feeling of doubt is like the waves of the sea, tossed to and fro by a random gust of wind, or like a cork that the waves carry to the shore and then carry into the sea. Such a person walks, like a drunken man, unevenly and unsteadily, here and there, and never arrives anywhere. Jacob very clearly characterizes such a person with the word dinsihos, What means with double soul or double thoughts. One believes, and the other does not, and man is a walking civil war, in which faith and unbelief are fought desperately. In order to correctly evaluate and use the experience of life and purify oneself, a person must ask for wisdom from God and remember at the same time that God is very generous and that one must ask with faith, that God gives everything that He finds useful and necessary for us.

TO EACH HIS OWN (James 1:9-11)

Jacob believed that Christianity brings every person exactly what he needs: the despised poor man gains self-esteem, and the proud rich man experiences self-humiliation.

1. Christianity brings to the poor a new sense of his own worth.

a) He learns that he is taken into account in the Church. In the early Christian Church there were no class distinctions at all. It could be that the slave was the elder of the community, preaching and celebrating the Lord's Supper, and his master was just an ordinary member of the church. In the Church, social differences are erased and everyone has the same weight and meaning.

b) He finds out that he has a certain meaning in the universe. Christianity teaches that every person in this world performs or should perform a certain task. Every person is needed by God. And even if he is chained to a bed of suffering, his prayer can have an impact on the human world.

c) He learns what matters in the eyes of God. As someone said a long time ago: “Do not call anyone worthless among those for whom Christ died.”

2. Christianity gives the rich man a new sense of self-abasement. Wealth is fraught with great danger because it gives a person a false sense of security. The rich man believes that he has everything and can buy himself out of any situation in which he does not want to find himself.

Jacob paints a vivid picture that is well known to the inhabitants of Palestine: after the rain, grass sprouts in the desert, but already one hot day destroys them completely, as if they had not existed at all. Searing heat(in Greek cawson) is a southeast wind. He came from the deserts and poured over Palestine like heat from an open red-hot furnace. This wind could destroy all vegetation overnight.

Such is a life built on wealth. A person who places his hope in wealth hopes for something that can be carried away at any moment by accidents and changes in life. Life itself is an uncertain and unreliable thing. And in Jacob’s thoughts is a phrase from the book of the prophet Isaiah: “All flesh is grass, and all its beauty is like the flower of the field. The grass dries up, the flower withers when the breath of the Lord blows on it: so the people are grass.” (Isa. 40:6.7; cf. Ps. 103:15).

Jacob wants to say this: if life is so fragile, and a person is so vulnerable, disaster and destruction can befall him at any moment, then that person is stupid who hopes for material values, wealth, which he can lose at any moment. He acts wisely who trusts in what he cannot lose.

Thus, Jacob convinces the rich not to rely on what only appears, but to realize their human helplessness and humbly trust in God, who alone can give what endures forever.

CROWN OF LIFE (James 1:12)

A person who correctly meets the trials of life and emerges from them with dignity is destined for bliss both in this world and in the world to come.

1. In this world a person gains the highest respect; He - dokimos, it is like metal purified from all impurities; All weaknesses of character were eradicated from him, he emerged from the trials strong and pure.

2. In the life to come he will receive crown of life. This expression has several meanings: in ancient times, a crown ( Stefanos) were associated with the following important points:

a) A wreath of flowers was put on the head in joyful moments of life - at a wedding, on holidays (cf. Is. 28:1.2; Song of Songs 3:11). The crown symbolized festive joy.

b) The crown was a sign of royal dignity. Crowns were worn by kings and people who had royal power; sometimes it was a golden crown, sometimes a linen ribbon or a narrow bandage worn around the forehead (Ps. 20:4; Jer. 13: - 18).

c) the winner of the games was crowned with a laurel wreath; it was the highest award for an athlete (2 Tim. 4:8).

d) The crown was a sign of honor and dignity. Parents' instructions can be a wonderful crown for those who listen to them. (Proverbs 1:9); wisdom gives man a crown of glory (Proverbs 4:9). In times of misfortune and dishonor, one can say: “The crown has fallen from our head.” (Lam. 5:16).

There is no need to choose between these meanings - this phrase has something from each. Christian is given bliss, which no one else has; life for him is like an eternal feast, given to him greatness, which others can never even imagine; no matter what modest place he occupies in life, he is a child of God; he wins victory which others cannot do, because against all the adversities of life he is clothed in the all-conquering power of the presence of Jesus Christ. New things have been given to the Christian self-esteem, because he knows: God considered him worthy for Jesus Christ to give His Life for him and accept death.

What kind of crown is this? This crown of life, which means that this the crown is life. The crown of a Christian is a new way of life, it is real life: through Jesus Christ life has become more complete.

James thus says: if a Christian consistently, with the steadfastness given to him by Jesus, endures the trials sent down to him, his life will become more beautiful than ever. Struggle is the path to glory and the struggle itself is also glory.

THE ACCUSERS OF GOD (James 1:13-15)

This passage is inspired by the idea of ​​the Jews, to whom, to some extent, we also became debtors. James rebukes those who blame temptation on God.

Jewish thinking reflected the inner duality of man. This question also haunted Paul: “I delight in the law of God according to the inward man; but I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me captive to the law of sin that is in my members.” (Rom. 7:22.23). A person is torn into two parts, the Jews believed, and therefore came to the conclusion that in every person there are two aspirations, two inclinations: yetser hatob - good aspiration, And yetser hara - sinful desire. But this problem was only formulated, not explained. In fact, it has not even been established where these sinful aspirations arise. And so Jewish thinkers sought to explain this.

The author of the Book of Wisdom, Jesus, son of Sirach, was deeply struck by the harm that this sinful desire causes: “O evil thought ( yetser hara)! where did you invade from to cover the earth with deceit?” (Sir. 37.3). In his opinion, sinful desire is a creation of the devil; a person’s only defense against it is his will. “He (the Lord) created man from the beginning, and left him in the hand of his will. If you want, you will keep the commandments and remain faithful faithfully.” (Sir. 15,14.15).

Some Jewish thinkers traced this sinful desire back to the Garden of Eden. The apocryphal book “The Life of Adam and Eve” tells the following story: the devil turned into an angel and, speaking through the serpent, inspired Eve with the idea of ​​​​tasting the forbidden fruit. He also made her promise that she would offer Adam a taste of the forbidden fruit. “When he took an oath from me,” Eve says in this book, “he climbed up a tree. But in the fruit that he gave me to eat, he put the poison of his anger, that is, your lust. For lust is the beginning of all sin. And he bent the branch to the ground and I took the fruit and ate." According to this version, the devil himself succeeded in putting this sinful desire into a person, and this sinful desire is identified with carnal lust. Further development of this theory led to the fact that in The basis of all sin is the lust that the devil felt for Eve.

The Book of Enoch gives two versions. According to one, fallen angels are responsible for sins. According to the second theory, the person himself is responsible for this. “Sin was not sent to earth, but man himself created it.” But each of these theories only takes the problem further and further into the depths of time. Maybe the devil really put a sinful desire into a person, maybe the person himself did it. But where does it come from? ultimately, appeared?

To answer this question, some rabbis ventured to argue that since God created everything, He also created sinful desire. And therefore we meet such statements by the rabbis: “God said, I regret that I created a sinful desire in man, for if I had not done this, he would not have rebelled against Me. I created a sinful desire and I created a law in order to correct it "Whoever keeps the law will not fall under its power. God has placed good desires on the right hand, and sinful ones on the left." The danger of this approach is obvious - ultimately, a person can blame God for his sins. He can declare, as Paul says, “It is not I who do this, but sin that dwells in me.” (Rom. 7:17).

Of all the strange theories, the strangest is the one that holds God ultimately responsible for sin.

EVADATION OF RESPONSIBILITY (James 1:13-15 (continued))

A person's first instinct has always been to blame someone for the sins he has committed. When God asked Adam to account for the sin he had committed, Adam said, “The woman whom You gave me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate.” And when God accused Eve of committing the crime, she said: “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” Adam said, "Don't blame me, blame Eve," and Eve said, "Don't blame me, blame the serpent." (Gen. 3:12.13). Man has always been a master at blaming others. Robert Burns wrote this:

You know you created me

With strong and wild passions;

I was going off the right path.

In other words, Robert Burns claims that he acted the way he did because God made him that way, he blames his behavior on God. In the same way, people blame their sins on fellow citizens, on comrades, on circumstances and conditions, on innate character traits.

And James severely condemns this way of thinking. He believes that responsibility for human sin lies entirely with the person who indulges his vicious desires. Sin is powerless if it has nothing to appeal to in the person himself. And desires can either be warmed up and kindled in oneself, or suppressed and stifled. A person can control his desires and even, by the grace of God, completely get rid of them if he immediately chooses the right course of action. But he can allow his thoughts and legs to move along certain paths to certain places, and his eyes to dwell on certain objects, and thereby kindle his desires. A person can completely surrender himself into the hands of Christ and devote himself to good works, then he will have neither time nor opportunity for vicious desires. For idle hands the devil finds evil deeds and the vulnerable ones are, above all, the inexperienced mind and the unenlightened heart. Desire turns into action.

The Jews believed that sin led to death. In the book "The Life of Adam and Eve", it is said that at the moment when Eve ate the forbidden fruit, she saw death for an instant. The word used by James in v. 15 and translated in the Bible as gives birth death means in the original to reproduce, to spawn, and therefore has the meaning here - sin gives rise to, causes, procreates death. A person who has become a slave to his desires loses his human dignity and sinks to the level of a stupid animal, a “beast.”

This passage is extremely important because James points out to people that they themselves are responsible for their own sins. No one has yet been born without the desire to commit some bad act. But if a person consciously and deliberately nourishes and cultivates such a desire in himself until it finally becomes so monstrously strong that it results in a sinful act, then the person will take the path of death. This thought - and all human experience shows that it is true - should lead us to the grace of God, which alone can make us pure and keep us pure, and access to it is open to everyone.

GOD'S CONSISTENCE IN GOOD (James 1:16-18)

Again, James emphasizes the great truth that every good gift and every perfect gift comes from God. Verse 17 could be translated as follows: Every giving and every gift from God is good. In the original Greek this is a very interesting place. The phrase translated in the Bible as “every good gift and every perfect gift” is a perfect hexameter verse. Either Jacob had an excellent sense of poetic rhythm, or he quotes from a source unknown to us.

And he emphasizes the immutability, constancy of God and uses two terms from astronomy for this: parallage(changes) and path(changes). Both words denote visible changes and deviations in the movement of celestial bodies, changes in the length of day and night, visible deviations in the trajectory of the sun, differences in the brightness of stars and planets at different times, etc. Change and variability are characteristic of everything created. God is the Creator of everything. The morning prayer of the Jews is: “Blessed be the Lord God, who made the stars.” The brightness of the stars changes, but the One who created them never changes.

Likewise, His purposes are always good and merciful. Word of Truth- this is the gospel, good news; God sent this good news so that man would be reborn for a new life. This rebirth is a rebirth into the family of God and into His possession.

In the ancient world there was a law according to which all first fruits were dedicated to God and sacrificed to Him. They were offered to God as a sacrifice of thanksgiving because they belong to Him, and therefore when we are born again by the good news, we come into God's possession, just as the first fruits came into His possession.

James argues that God's gifts and gifts have nothing to do with temptation and are always good. They are constant in all the changes and contingencies of this changing world, and God's highest purpose is to recreate the world through the truth of the good news, so that people know that they rightfully belong to Him.

WHEN TO HURRY AND WHEN TO SLOW (James 1:19-20)

Only a few smart people understand the danger of speaking quickly and not listening. You can make a very interesting list of things to do in which you need to be quick, and things to do in which you need to be slow. In “Proverbs and Sayings of the Jewish Sages” we read: “There are four types of students: some quickly grasp (hear) and quickly forget - their advantage is reduced to zero by their disadvantage; others grasp slowly, but also slowly forget - they help themselves with memory. Still others quickly those who grasp and slowly forget - they are wise; the fourth - those who grasp slowly and quickly forget - these are the worst students." The Roman poet Ovid asks people to delay punishment and be quick to reward. Philo of Alexandria asks people to be quick to do good to others and to be slow to harm anyone.

Wise people understand very well that there is no need to rush to speak. Rabbi Simon said: “I grew up all the time among the wise and found that there is nothing better for a person than silence. He who multiplies words commits sin.” Jesus, the son of Sirach, wrote: “Be quick to listen and give a thoughtful answer. If you have knowledge, then answer your neighbor; but if not, then let your hand be on your lips. In speech there are words and dishonor.” (Sir. 5:13-15). The book of Proverbs of Solomon is full of warnings about the dangers of speaking too quickly. "When you talk too much, you cannot avoid sin" (Proverbs 10:19). "He who guards his mouth guards his soul" (Proverbs 13:3). "And a fool, when he is silent, may seem wise" (Prov. 17.28). “Have you seen a person who is rash in his words? There is more hope for a fool than for him.” (Proverbs 29:20).

A truly wise person would rather listen passionately to the voice of God than presumptuously, talkatively and loudly jump out with his opinion. Already the writers of antiquity agreed with this opinion. Thus, the ancient Greek philosopher Zeno said: “We have two ears and only one mouth, so that we can listen more and talk less.” One of the seven Greek sages is credited with the following words: “If you do not like quick speeches, you will not make mistakes.” Another, when asked how best to rule the country, answered: “Without anger, saying little, but listening a lot.” And one prominent linguist was once given the following compliment: “He can be silent in seven languages.” Many of us would benefit greatly from listening more and talking less.

James also advises us to be slow to anger. Obviously, he does not agree with those who make angry reproaches to people. This, of course, is also partly true - after all, the world would be a much poorer place without those who flare up in anger at the sight of the recurrence of sin and its tyrannical nature. But people abuse it so often.

That's teacher may become angry with a slow, clumsy, or even more often, simply lazy student. But with patience you can achieve greater understanding than with a sharp reproach or shout. AND preacher may angrily denounce. But it’s better that he always remember the good advice - “don’t grumble.” If his every word and every gesture does not prove to people that he loves them, he will lose all power over them and all influence. A sermon in which anger, contempt and dislike are felt will not convert souls to the path of truth. AND parent may become angry, but parental anger often causes even more stubborn resistance. A note of love in a voice always has a greater impact than an angry one. When anger develops into constant irritation, indignation or picky grumbling, it does more harm than good.

Being slow to speak, slow to anger and quick to listen always helps in life.

THE TEACHING SPIRIT (James 1:21)

Jacob uses a number of very vivid images and expressions. In Greek, the word translated in the Bible as postponing, has the meaning take off In terms of take off clothes, be naked. In other words, Jacob implores his listeners to get rid of all filthiness - uncleanness and malice, just as they take off dirty clothes and a snake sheds its skin.

Both words used by Jacob to mean filth, very expressive: Greek word Ruparna translated in the Bible as uncleanness, can mean uncleanness that stains both clothing and body. But it has one interesting feature: it is derived from another Greek word rupos, which as a medical term has the meaning wax plug in the ear. It may well be that this word retains its original meaning in this context. James encourages his listeners to empty their ears of anything that prevents them from receiving the true Word of God. Earwax plugs in the ears can deprive a person of hearing, and a person’s sins make his mind deaf to the words of God.

Jacob speaks further about perisseia- about the growth of vice (translated in the Bible as remainder malice), meaning by this a vice that has grown and become entangled like young undergrowth, or like a cancer that needs to be cut off.

James asks his listeners to accept, as translated in the Bible, implanted word in meekness. For implanted in the original Greek the word is emfutos, which can have two meanings.

1. It can make a difference congenital In terms of natural, as opposed to acquired. If James used this word in this sense, then he means the same thing as Paul when he spoke of the Gentiles doing what is lawful by nature, because the work of the law is written in their hearts (Rom. 2:14.15) or the understanding of the law in the Old Testament (Deut. 30.14), where it is said that this commandment “is very close to you; (it is) in your mouth and in your heart.” It is practically equivalent to our word conscience. If James used the word in this sense, he meant to say that there is an instinctive knowledge of good and evil in the human heart, and we should always follow its guidance.

2. But it can also matter. congenital, In terms of planted like a seed planted in the ground. If Jacob uses this word in this sense, then perhaps his thought goes back to the parable of the sower (Matthew 13:1-8), which talks about how the seed of the Word is sown in the human heart. God, through His prophets and preachers, and primarily through Jesus Christ, sows His truth into the hearts of people, and a wise person accepts and welcomes it.

It is quite possible that we do not need to choose between these two meanings: after all, perhaps James means that people receive knowledge of the true Word of God immediately from two sources: from the depths of our being, as well as from the Spirit of God through the preaching of people. Both from within and from without, voices come to us, showing us the true path; a wise person listens to them and follows them.

And he listens to them meekness. Meekness is an attempt to translate an untranslatable Greek word Proutes, which Aristotle defined as the mean between excessive anger and the complete absence of it; This word defines the character trait of a person who is in complete control of his feelings and emotions. One Greek commentator on Aristotle writes: " Proutes- this is moderation in anger... Proutes can be defined as clarity and willpower not to allow oneself to be overwhelmed by feelings, but to direct emotions as common sense dictates." According to Plato's "Definitions", Proutes- this is the normalization of the movements of the soul caused by anger.

It is hardly possible to describe the spirit in one word understanding and submissive and that's why it's enough obedient to learn and teach. Learning spirit does not know the feelings of indignation and anger, he is able to recognize the truth even when it hurts and condemns, he is not blinded by insurmountable prejudices and does not close his eyes to the truth, he is not overcome by laziness, and he is so in control of himself that he willingly masters the academic discipline. Proutes- this is a person’s perfect mastery of his nature and the conquest of that part of it that can prevent him from seeing the truth, obeying it and cognizing it.

HEAR AND DO (James 1.22-24)

A person who goes to church to listen to the reading and interpretation of the Word of God and believes that such listening has already made him a Christian turns a blind eye to the fact that everything read and heard in church should be put into practice. And in our time there are people who equate going to church and reading the Bible with Christianity.

James compares such a person to a person who looks into mirror and sees the spots disfiguring his face and disheveled hair, but then calmly moves away from the mirror and completely forgets about his unpleasant appearance and does nothing to correct it. Listening to the true Word of God in church, a person discovers his true essence within himself and recognizes the ideal to which he should strive; sees all the inconsistencies, all the deviations and all that needs to be done to correct it, but he remains a listener who is not changed by what he hears.

James reminds us once again that what we hear in the holy place must be put into action in the marketplace of life. Otherwise, there is no point in such a hearing.

THE PERFECT LAW (James 1:25)

This is one of those passages in the Epistle of James that Martin Luther disliked so much: he did not like the idea of ​​law at all and was ready to repeat after Paul: “The end of the law is Christ.” (Rom. 10:4). “James,” says Luther, “refers us again to the law and works.”

James characterizes the law in these words:

1. The law is perfect. There are three reasons for this:

a) This is the law of God, which He Himself gave and revealed to people. The lifestyle commanded by Jesus and His followers is in complete accordance with the will of God.

b) It is perfect because nothing in it can be improved. The Christian law is the law of love, and the demands of love are difficult to meet. When we love someone, we know that we are not able to love completely.

c) But the Christian law is perfect in another sense. In Greek this word teleios, which almost always denotes perfection aimed at some specific end goal. Now, if a man keeps the law of Christ, he will fulfill his destiny for the purposes of God in this world; he will be the person he should be and he will make his due contribution to the development of the world and will be perfect in the sense that, fulfilling the law of God, he is aware of the destiny set for him by God.

2. The law of freedom - This is a law, the observance of which gives a person true freedom. All great people agreed that only by fulfilling the law of God can a person become truly free. “Obedience to God,” said Seneca, “is freedom.” “Only the wise are free,” said the Stoics, “and all fools are slaves.” And Philo of Alexandria said: “All who are in the power of anger or desire or other passion are slaves in the full sense of the word; all who live according to the law are free.” When a man must obey his passions, feelings or desires, he is but a slave. And only by recognizing the will of God does he become completely free, because then he is free to become who he should be. Serving Him is perfect freedom and in the fulfillment of His will is our peace.

GENUINE REVERENCE OF GOD (James 1:26.27)

This is a very important passage. Word piety(in Greek fresquea) means rather not piety, but worship of God in the sense of the external manifestation of piety in ritual and in ceremonial worship. James actually says this: “You can do God the best service by helping the poor and remaining clean from filth.” For Jacob, true worship of God does not lie in fine clothing or beautiful music or elaborate ritual, but in practical service to others and a blameless lifestyle. It happens that a church community or the Church in general devotes quite a lot of time and money to decorating the building and developing worship services. This often takes time and resources away from practical Christian service. James condemns this approach.

Actually, Jacob condemns what the prophets condemned long ago. “God,” said the psalmist, “is the Father of the fatherless and the judge of widows.” (Ps. 67.6). The Prophet Zechariah also complained that people turned away and hardened their hearts when the God of Hosts demanded that they treat their brothers fairly, not oppress widows, orphans, strangers and the poor, and not think evil in their hearts against each other. (Zech. 7:6-10). And the prophet Micah argued that all ritual sacrifices have no meaning if a person does not act justly, does not love mercy and does not walk humbly before his God (Mic. 6:6-8).

Throughout history, people have tried to replace the true service of God with ritual; they replaced service with the internal splendor of churches, neglecting its external action. This does not mean that it is a sin to celebrate beautiful worship in the church itself; but this means that such worship will have no meaning and significance if it does not move a person to love God through his brothers and keep himself undefiled from the world.

From the address of King James at the opening of the conference at Hampton Court in January 1604, where it was decided to create a new King James Bible:

“I assure you that we have not assembled this assembly for any innovation, for we recognize the authority of the Church as it is, approved by the manifest blessing of God, both in the dissemination of the Scriptures, and in a happy and glorious world. But, since nothing can be completely ordered, something can be added at any time, and corruption (as in the human body) imperceptibly increases by the will of time or people, and since we have received many complaints about many violations since entering this kingdom and disobedience of the law with a great departure from what is due, our goal, like that of a good doctor, is to test and verify all complaints and completely eliminate their causes if they are scandalous, cure them if they are dangerous, and completely understand them if they are only frivolous, thus silencing , the mouth of Cerberus, so that he barks no more."

Six teams of translators worked on the King James Bible: two at Westminster, two at Oxford, and two at Cambridge. Each group was assigned to work on a specific part of the Bible, but in cases that required discussion, they all shared the results before making a decision.

From the Introduction to the Bible written by King James:

“This translation will open the window to let in the light, break the shell so that we can eat the kernel, pull back the curtain so that we can look into the Holy of Holies, remove the lid of the well, as Jacob rolled away the stone from the mouth of the spring to water the sheep of Laban. Truly, without translation into simple language, the unlearned are like children at Jacob’s well without a bucket.”

A BRIEF HISTORY OF ENGLISH BIBLE TRANSLATIONS

The Christian Bible originally existed primarily in Hebrew and Greek, and then, for a millennium, in Latin. The first noteworthy translation into English was made in the 1380s by John Wycliffe from the Catholic Latin Vulgate.

In 1516, the scholastic Erasmus began correcting the corrupt Latin Vulgate and published a revised text of the New Testament in parallel in Greek and Latin. Erasmus argued that the Latin Vulgate was inaccurate and that texts in the original languages ​​needed to be consulted to create a correct English translation.

William Tyndale used Erasmus's text to translate and printed the first New Testament in English in 1525. For this work, Tyndale was persecuted by the Inquisition and hunters for the reward placed on his head, but one copy fell into the hands of King Henry VIII. Tyndale was eventually captured, tortured, strangled and burned.

This apparently happened in 1539, when King Henry began publishing the English Bible, known as the Great Bible.

John Calvin published the complete Bible in English in 1560. It was called the Geneva Bible. For the first time, the numbering of verses in chapters was established, which simplified references to a particular passage. In addition, each chapter was provided with copious marginal notes and references. Shakespeare quoted this Bible hundreds of times in his plays. She was most popular among the people of England.

Queen Elizabeth recognized the Geneva Bible, but was annoyed by the footnotes. They opposed the institution of the church as such and instilled a critical attitude towards the authorities in general. The Queen preferred the Bishop's Bible, also the English but less outrageous version used by the Anglican clergy.

After Elizabeth's death, Prince James of Scotland became King James I of England. In 1604, Anglican priests asked him to create a new translation that would suit both priests and parishioners. Many have suggested combining the Bishop's and Geneva Bibles.

In 1605–1606, James's scholars were engaged in individual research. From 1607 to 1609, joint work was carried out. In 1611, the first King James Bible was published.

THE NAME "JESUS" AND THE HISTORY OF ITS TRANSLATION

The name Christ possibly comes from the Hebrew Yehoshua, which was rendered in Aramaic as Yeshua, then in Greek as Jesus, in Latin as Iezus, and finally in English as Jesus.

The main root of this name comes from the Hebrew Yeshua (Joshua), meaning “salvation.” However, it is believed that a more complete explanation of the name Jesus is based on the authority of Moses. In Numbers (13:2, 3, 4, 17) we read: “And the Lord spake to Moses, saying, Send men from before you, that they may spy out the land of Canaan, which I have given to the children of Israel; Send one man at a time from the tribe of their fathers, the chief of them...And Moses named Hosea the son of Nun Joshua.”

The first Christians referred to this ability of Moses to invent names and gave secret names to the Savior and his twelve disciples (Mark 3:16–19). By the fifth century BC, the name Yehoshua (meaning “God Saves”) was shortened to Yeshua (Nehemiah 8:17).

By the first century AD, Yeshua's name was further shortened to Yeshua and then to Yeshu. From the Gospel of Philip: “Jesus is a hidden name. Christ is the open name. Therefore, Jesus does not exist in any language, but his name is Jesus, as he is called. Christ: his name in Syriac is Messiah, and in Greek - Christ. In general, everyone else has it, according to the language of each of them. The Nazarene is that which is revealed of that which is hidden.”

The first Gospels were often written in Greek, and there were two ways to render a Hebrew name in Greek: translation or transliteration. Greek translators tried to convey the sounds of the Hebrew language and came up with a name that was pronounced approximately like “ee-ay-sus.”

In 382, ​​when Jerome was working on the Vulgate, translating the Bible from Greek to Latin, he rendered the Greek name of the Savior as Iesus - due to differences in the Greek and Latin alphabet. (In 1229, the Council of Toulouse declared Latin the official language of the Bible and prohibited translations into other languages.)

Finally, in 1066, along with the Norman invasion of England, the previously missing letter J was introduced into the English language. It began to replace I and Y in male names beginning with these letters (because, presumably, “j” sounded more masculine) . Yems became James, Jesus became Jesus.

However, in 1384, John Wycliffe, when translating the New Testament into English for the first time, retained the Latin spelling and pronunciation of Iezus. Apparently the name Jesus only appeared in English with William Tyndale's translation.

Tyndale managed to secretly smuggle 18,000 copies of his illegal translation into England. After his arrest in Belgium, the Catholic Church condemned him for heresy, and in 1536 he was hanged, after which his body was burned at the stake. Apparently King Henry VIII provided financial support for the English translation of the Bible, which set a precedent for James's enterprise.

OTHER TEXTS

1. From the introduction to King James Demonology: “The frightening abundance at the present time in this country of these abominable slaves of the devil, witches or sorcerers, has prompted me (beloved reader) to send by mail my next treatise, which is in no way (I insist) intended to show my learning and ardor, but only (by the dictates of conscience) to resolve, to the best of my ability, the spiritual doubts of many: both that such attacks of Satan undoubtedly exist, and that his weapons deserve the most serious punishment.”

2. A book called Enemies of God: The Witch Hunts in Scotland (1981) by Christina Lerner is considered the definitive study of the witch hunts in Scotland. A good discussion of the Berwick Trial can be found in Witchcraft in 15th-17th Century Scotland: The Demonology of James VI and the Witches of North Berwick, published in 2000, edited by Laurence Normand and Garth Roberts. I also enjoyed Sir John Frazer's book The Golden Bough, especially the chapter on magic and religion.

But to hear the quote first hand, I will refer to the News from Scotland - a historical document describing the witch trials in North Berwick in 1590, in which James participated. I quote it verbatim: “Jellis Duncan undertook to help anyone who was in trouble or suffering from any disease or illness; and in a short time she performed many most wonderful deeds (for which she was suspected of being a witch). Jellis Duncan was tortured with her fingers clamped in a vise and her head squeezed or twisted with a rope. She did not confess until the executioners announced that they had found the 'devil's mark' - it was discovered that lately he had been habitually marking them with a secret mark."

3. The Gospels of Thomas, Mary and Philip mentioned in the King James Mystery are real. They belong to texts that are often called the Gnostic or Apocryphal Gospels. They are quoted here from The Nag Hammadi Library in English, edited by James Robinson.

FROM THE GOSPEL OF THOMAS

These are the secret words that the living Jesus said and which Didymus Judas Thomas wrote down. And he said: He who finds the interpretation of these words will not taste death.

1. Jesus said: Let him who seeks never cease to seek until he finds, and when he finds, he will be shocked, and if he is shocked, he will be amazed, and he will reign over all.

117. His disciples said to him: On what day does the kingdom come?

It doesn't come when expected. They won’t say: Here, here! - or: There, there! “But the Father’s kingdom spreads across the earth, and people do not see it.

FROM THE GOSPEL OF PHILIP

Some said that Mary conceived by the Holy Spirit. They are mistaken. They don't know what they say. When has it ever happened that a woman conceived from a woman? Mary is a virgin who was not defiled by power. She is a great anathema for the Jews - the apostles and apostolic men. This virgin, (whom) the power did not defile, is pure; the powers were defiled. And the Lord would not (say): my father, who is in heaven, if he had no other father, but he would simply say: my father.

Those who say that the Lord died from the beginning and he rose again are mistaken, for he rose from the beginning and he died. If one has not achieved resurrection first, he will not die. God is alive - he will be dead.

They will not hide an object of great value in a large vessel, but often myriads that cannot be counted were thrown into a vessel worth an assarium. Likewise with the soul: a valuable object, it is enclosed in a despised body.

FROM THE GOSPEL OF MARY

Peter... asked them about the Savior: “Did he speak to the woman in secret from us, unopenly? Should we turn and all listen to her? Did he prefer her more than us?

Then Mary burst into tears and said to Peter: “My brother Peter, what do you think? Do you think I made this up in my mind or am I lying about the Savior?”

Levi answered and said to Peter, “Peter, you are always angry. Now I see you competing with a woman as opponents. But if the Savior found her worthy, who are you to reject her? Of course, the Savior knew her very well. That's why he loved her more than us."

FROM “THUNDER.” PERFECT MIND"

...For I am the first and the last. I am revered and despised. I'm a harlot and a saint. I am a wife and a virgin. I am mother and daughter.

WATSON'S CONSPIRACY

The Watson Plot was a rather ill-advised plan by Catholic priest William Watson to kidnap King James and force him to repeal anti-Catholic laws in England. The plot was discovered by English Jesuits, including Father Henry Garnet, who reported to the authorities. Garnett was not entirely motivated by altruistic motives. The plan was doomed to failure, and he feared reprisals against all Catholics.

THOMAS DECKER

Descriptions of London streets are partly borrowed from Thomas Dekker's book “The Seven Deadly Sins of London” (1606): “In every street carts and carts make such a noise as if the world were rolling on wheels ...”, as well as from “Dead term” (1608): “ Who opens his cloak to reveal a new outfit...” Decker quoted in Shakespeare's England, edited by Prichard (2000).

SHORT REFERENCES FOR FURTHER READING

The King James Bible. Plume Books, 1974.

Daemonologie. King James VI of Scotland. Originally printed Edinburgh, 1597. E. P. Dutton & Company, 1966.

The Nag Hammadi Library in English. New York: Harper & Row, 1977. James Robinson, general editor.

A quote from Aristophanes’ “The Birds” came to mind from a 1966 production in which I played the role of Tereus the hoopoe. Alas, I don’t remember which translation the play was based on. I checked the quote against several modern translations and it is quite accurate.

The Nag Hammadi Library in English(Hardcover) by Coptic Gnostic Library Project (Corporate Author), James McConkey Robinson (Editor), Richard Smith (Editor). Boston: Brill Academic Publishers, 4th revised edition, 1997.

The Timetables of History. Bernard Grun. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1991.

Giordano Bruno's The Heroic Frenzies. A translation with introduction and notes by Paul Eugene Memmo, Jr. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1964.

Giordano Bruno: Philosopher/Heretic. Ingrid D. Rowland. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2008. This book came out too late to be used in the writing of The Secret of the King James, but it is an excellent account of the life of Giordano Bruno.

Internet resources

Geneva Bible http://www.genevabible.org/Geneva.html

Bible Translators http://www.leamthebible.org/king_james

The rarity was discovered by the new rector of the Church of St. Egidio in the city of Wrexham in Wales (Great Britain), priest Jason Bray, reports the British “The Telegraph”.

He found an old Bible - the first edition of the King James Bible in Britain - in one of the church cupboards while exploring his new parish.

“We didn’t know that this was the first edition, but we sent photographs to the National Library of Wales, and they confirmed that this was it, dating the book to 1611,” the publication quotes the clergyman as saying. “It has been verified as authentic and, as far as we know, it has always been here.”

The found Bible is an important find because it is one of the few copies of the first "authorized" translation of the Bible, which not only defined the major features of medieval Christian worship in English, but also directly influenced the development of the English language.

It was printed in London by King James I's official printer, Robert Barker, who was part of the so-called Hampton Court Conference, a panel convened at the king's initiative in 1604 to determine errors in previous translations.

Known as the Authorized English Version of the Bible, the King James Bible was the third Bible translated into English and officially approved by the Church. It brought together a number of translations carried out by scholars at Westminster, Oxford and Cambridge.

Although parts of the Bible were first translated into English and published nearly 100 years earlier by William Tyndale, the King James Version was the first widely accepted and authorized translation of the Bible into English.

The discovered copy is not perfectly preserved: the text of the Old Testament is missing the frontispiece, and several pages at the end of the book are also lost. But overall the book is in good condition, the text is readable due to the fact that at the beginning of the 17th century woven paper, which has a low acid content, was used to print the Bible.

In 2011, a similar specimen was found in the university church of Cambridge - Great St Mary's - valued by experts at several thousand pounds.

Dr Bray, who was appointed rector of St Egidio's in April, said that soon after arriving at the parish he read Alfred Palmer's record of the parish church at Wrexham and decided to look for some of the items in the church collection mentioned in the document.

He admitted that he could not appreciate the significance and value of the found Bible. “I have absolutely no idea about its value. I don’t know how many copies have survived, but you can buy individual pages on the Internet for about £500 each,” the publication quotes him as saying.

Now the clergyman would like to ensure proper storage conditions for the first church edition of the Bible, as well as set up a place where it could be available to church visitors.

“Today we keep the book in a safe place, but we would like to have the Bible on display somewhere. However, in order to implement these plans, we need money,” noted J. Bray.

King James Bible

The question of creating a new translation of the Bible was put to the king by a group of Puritans led by Reverend John Reynolds. To resolve this, King James I convened the so-called Hampton Court Conference in January 1604, where a number of errors in previous translations, primarily the officially adopted Anglican Church of the Episcopal Bible, were reviewed, and a decision was made to create a new translation.

The translation was carried out by 47 translators - members of the Anglican Church. The source for the translation of the New Testament, like most other English translations of the time, was the Greek Textus Receptus. The Old Testament was translated from Hebrew (Masoretic texts), the Deuterocanonical books - from the Greek Septuagint, except for the second book of Ezra (in the Slavic tradition - the third), translated from the Latin Vulgate.

The translation of the New Testament into English was led by Thomas Ravis until his death in 1609. He was assisted by Henry Saville.
The King James Bible consists of 27 books of the New Testament and 39 books of the Old Testament.

Services at Hampton Court Chapel Royal still include readings from the King James Bible.

Temple of St. Egidio in Wrexham

Church of St. Aegidia, built in the late 15th and early 16th centuries, is known as one of the most beautiful churches in Great Britain. Its tall bell tower, towering over the town and visible for miles, is considered one of the "Seven Wonders of Wales".

Historians suggest that the existing stone church building is the third to be erected on this site since the 11th century. The earliest mention of a church in Wrexham appears in the chronicles in 1220.

Buried in the church cemetery is Elijah Yale (1649-1721), a Welsh merchant and philanthropist whose name is given to a famous university in the United States.

The translation of the New Testament into English was led by Thomas Ravis until his death in 1609. He was assisted by Henry Saville. He was appointed to this position in 1604.

Structure

The King James Bible consists of 27 books of the New Testament and 39 books of the Old Testament.

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Literature

• // Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron: in 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - St. Petersburg. , 1890-1907.

Notes

Links

Passage characterizing the King James Bible

Princess Marya postponed her departure. Sonya and the Count tried to replace Natasha, but they could not. They saw that she alone could keep her mother from insane despair. For three weeks Natasha lived hopelessly with her mother, slept on an armchair in her room, gave her water, fed her and talked to her incessantly - she talked because her gentle, caressing voice alone calmed the countess.
The mother's mental wound could not be healed. Petya's death took away half of her life. A month after the news of Petya’s death, which found her a fresh and cheerful fifty-year-old woman, she left her room half-dead and not taking part in life - an old woman. But the same wound that half killed the countess, this new wound brought Natasha to life.
A mental wound that comes from a rupture of the spiritual body, just like a physical wound, no matter how strange it may seem, after a deep wound has healed and seems to have come together at its edges, a mental wound, like a physical one, heals only from the inside with the bulging force of life.
Natasha’s wound healed in the same way. She thought her life was over. But suddenly love for her mother showed her that the essence of her life - love - was still alive in her. Love woke up and life woke up.
The last days of Prince Andrei connected Natasha with Princess Marya. The new misfortune brought them even closer together. Princess Marya postponed her departure and for the last three weeks, like a sick child, she looked after Natasha. The last weeks Natasha spent in her mother’s room had strained her physical strength.