The Canon of the Books of Holy Scripture: The History of Translation into the Russian Language #
The study of the canon of the books of Holy Scripture in Rus’ is the subject of close attention in contemporary research. The term canon (from the Greek κανών) means a rule, standard, or norm. The biblical canon is the collection of 66 books of the Bible (39 books of the Old Testament and 27 books of the New Testament). These are considered canonical, recognized by the Universal Church as the autographs of Christ’s disciples (the Apostles), divinely inspired, and used in worship as Holy Scripture.
This article examines the formation of the canon of Holy Scripture, identifies particular aspects of the history of translating the Holy Scriptures into the Slavic language, and determines the characteristics of the biblical book collection. The history of the formation of the scriptural codex begins with the writing of the earliest biblical books. The process of transmitting and preserving the biblical texts begins with Moses and continues through succeeding generations until the beginning of the Babylonian captivity. In books written before the exile, biblical authors often refer to earlier authors or cite them—for example, the prophet Ezekiel mentions Job (14:14–20).
By the time of the Babylonian captivity, the biblical books already constituted a definite collection. The prophet Daniel refers to the books from which he learned of the seventy years of captivity (9:2). The very content implies the existence of many books, indicating a recognized body of scriptural texts. “After the Babylonian captivity, the collection of Holy Scripture enters its final stage.” The overwhelming majority of scholars believe that the period of Ezra and Nehemiah was the pivotal moment in the creation of the Old Testament biblical canon. Hence, the book of the prophet Malachi, regarded as the last prophet, is called “the seal of the prophets”—that is, the seal of the canonical writings of the Old Testament. As a result, it was held that Divine Revelation in word had ceased, and in order to preserve Holy Scripture, the biblical canon was established. For the first time, such a collection of books is mentioned in the letter of the Palestinian Jews to the Alexandrian Jews, which contains a general division of the sacred codex into three parts: the Law, the Prophets, and the Writings.
Initially, the canon included those books that truly had divine inspiration. “The Pentateuch of Moses unquestionably held divinely inspired authority in the Old Testament Church.” Later, the prophetic books—both historical in content and directly prophetic—were added, followed by didactic writings. It is possible that to these, Nehemiah and Ezra added the laws and decrees of the Persian kings concerning the restoration of the temple. The letter of the Palestinian Jews to the Alexandrian diaspora (2 Macc. 2:13) indicates that Nehemiah included these laws and decrees in a separate collection. It may be supposed that in the course of their historical transmission, some of the more significant laws were incorporated into the text of Holy Scripture, either during the Septuagint translation or in later manuscript copying. “Therefore, it should be considered that in this way one can explain the presence of non-canonical texts in the Greek biblical text, since they are absent in the Hebrew text.” Clement of Alexandria held it entirely credible that Ezra was indeed the editor of the Old Testament books. This view is also upheld by Irenaeus of Lyons in his work Against Heresies, where he writes: “After the Babylonian captivity, the text of Holy Scripture was corrupted, and so Ezra restored all the words of the earlier prophets and reestablished the ordinances of Moses for the people.” Thus, this testifies that Ezra was not only the restorer of the Law of Moses among the Jewish people but also a full-fledged editor of all the books of the Old Testament Holy Scripture.
In the 3rd century B.C., among the Jewish diaspora in Egypt, a translation of the biblical books into Greek was undertaken, which, due to its origin, came to be known as the Septuagint. According to historical sources such as Josephus Flavius, Blessed Jerome, and others, the Pentateuch of Moses was translated first, followed later by the other biblical books.
In the late 3rd and early 2nd centuries B.C., as non-canonical books began to appear, these works clearly reflect the state of the canon of Holy Scripture at the time. In the Book of Jesus the son of Sirach (Ecclesiasticus), there is mention of the chronological distribution and arrangement of the Old Testament biblical books. In the preface to the book, the author formulates the canon as it existed among the Palestinian Jews, dividing it into “the Law, the Prophets, and other writers.” Here, for the first time, the term “Prophets” is used. This indicates that between the 4th and 2nd centuries B.C., the prophetic books already existed within the scriptural codex.
Following the canon of the Old Testament books, the New Testament canon began to take shape. The earliest collections of New Testament books can historically be attributed to the Apostle Timothy and the Apostle John the Theologian. The formation of the New Testament canon began in the second century, at a time when the tradition of apostolic teaching began to require written testimony. The remoteness of other Christian communities from direct participation in apostolic preaching, as well as the later composition of some New Testament books, influenced disputes about their authenticity. The apostles themselves speak of this problem and of attempts to resolve it: “Whoever departs for Syria shall also deliver letters from us… however many we have, we have sent to you out of great necessity.” For example, from the second century until the time of Eusebius of Caesarea, the Church of Antioch regarded several writings as questionable: the Apocalypse of John the Theologian, two epistles of the Apostle Peter, two or three epistles of the Apostle John, and the epistle of Jude—none of which were present in the early translations.
Thus, in the second century, the books accepted as canonical in the East were not recognized as such in the West, or were entirely unknown. The criterion for the canonicity of Old Testament Scripture was prophetic authorship; for the New Testament, apostolic authorship was required.
In the third century, Origen edited the New Testament, separating apostolic writings from those of non-apostolic origin and established the New Testament canon as consisting of 27 books. Later, Eusebius of Caesarea made a final redaction of the New Testament canon, excluding from it the books not considered canonical. At the beginning of the second century, the rise of Gnosticism made it necessary to clearly define the canonicity of the books of Holy Scripture.
In the fourth century, the issue of canonicity began to be defined through the concept of divine inspiration. Books were recognized as canonical not based on their inclusion in the Hebrew canon, but based on their inspired nature. Cyril of Jerusalem recommended reading only those books acknowledged by the Church as divinely inspired and canonical: “Read nothing from the books that are not acknowledged by the Church… Read the Divine Scriptures… read the 22 books of these Holy Scriptures, but do not acquaint yourself with writings not recognized by the Church.”
The precise distinction between reliable and unreliable books is expressed by Gregory the Theologian: “So that your mind may not be deceived by foreign books (for much useless matter has been added to Scripture)… I hand over to you the 22 books of the Old Testament, equal in number to the letters of the Hebrew alphabet.” Specific indications of the canonical status of the books of Holy Scripture and the significance of their divine inspiration were first articulated by Athanasius of Alexandria. He divided the canon into books of canonical origin, which he called the “source of salvation,” and into non-canonical books.
In identifying biblical books by their origin, St. Athanasius the Great introduced the concept of the “canon” as a codex of books of the Christian Church. In his work Synopsis of Holy Scripture, he excluded non-canonical books from the Old Testament. He wrote: “All Christian Scripture is divinely inspired and consists of definite and canonized canonical books of the Old Testament—22 in number, according to the Hebrew letters. In addition to these, there are also non-canonical books, intended only for catechumens: the Wisdom of Solomon, the Wisdom of Jesus the Son of Sirach, Esther, and others.”
The biblical canon outlined by Athanasius the Great was further studied by Eusebius of Caesarea and John Chrysostom. John Chrysostom introduced the term Bible (biblia) to refer to the sacred books—a term of ancient origin that had been commonly used in Christian literature. But by the term Bible, Chrysostom referred to the entirety of the Holy Scripture, both Old and New Testaments. And despite the classification of books in the Septuagint, he expressed the view that the books were unified and interwoven: “These three types of content in the sacred books are not strictly separated from one another. For in historical accounts one can find prophecy; from the prophets, one can hear many historical narratives of a moral character, directed to man.”
As is well known, the historical development of the canon in Western Christianity differs from that in the East, although in the fourth century the canon developed on a similar historical plane. The similarities between the canonical codices of East and West were quite natural. The Latin writer Rufinus confirmed that the books of the Hebrew canon were divinely inspired and were included in the canon by the Fathers, from which they drew proofs for our faith. In the Western Church, the canon of Holy Scripture began to shift away from the principles of the Eastern Christian understanding during the time of Blessed Jerome and Blessed Augustine. In translating the Old Testament into Latin, Jerome translated only the traditional Jewish list of canonical books. Thus, he considered canonical only those books found in the Jewish canon. According to Jewish tradition, the books included in the Greek Bible (the Septuagint) but not in the Hebrew canon were classified by him as apocrypha. Later, the canonical authority of Jerome’s codex was modified and supplemented by Augustine.
The modern Bible of the Catholic Church fully reflects the canon established by Blessed Augustine. Augustine’s biblical terminology shows that in determining the canon, he made use of the Jewish biblical tradition. The canon of Holy Scripture in the Western Church has a more specific origin. The biblical canon in the West underwent significant changes due to the influence of the biblical traditions of Eastern Christianity. Yet the tradition of conveying and expressing the divine inspiration of the books points to a distinct historical path of theological development.
In Rus’, the canon of Holy Scripture was fully formed even before the invention of printing, and it became the foundation for the creation of the printed version. This was largely due to the labors of the enlighteners of the Slavs, the holy brothers Cyril and Methodius, who emulated the holy apostles in their efforts to spread the faith of Christ. The ascetic labor of these enlighteners has become the subject of research by many historians, especially in the Slavic world.
The Bible of Saints Cyril and Methodius is the first known Bible in the Slavic language. Let us briefly examine the history of this translation. In 863, Prince Rastislav of Great Moravia appealed to Byzantium with a request to send teachers of the Christian faith. In response to his request, the holy brothers were sent. Natives of Thessalonica, they based the new language on a South Slavic dialect. The holy brothers created this language and translated sacred texts for their missionary work in Moravia. However, this mission was not crowned with success, as German missionaries considered Moravia to be within their sphere of influence and hindered the brothers in their labors.
Saints Cyril and Methodius pursued the goal of creating an autonomous Church that could conduct the liturgy independently. And in order to serve in the Slavic language, the holy brothers first had to create an alphabet for the Slavic tongue, and then translate liturgical texts into it. They began with the translation of the Psalter and the books of the New Testament. After the death of Cyril, Methodius, together with his disciples, continued the work; he translated the entire New Testament and nearly all of the Old Testament.
The Byzantine missionaries who came to Kievan Rus’ at the end of the 10th century brought not only the teachings of Christianity but also a fully developed liturgical language and script, into which a significant number of texts had already been translated. The written language that was brought to ancient Rus’, and which would later be known as Church Slavonic, was based on a South Slavic dialect that did not differ greatly from the Old Russian language. The fact that the language of worship was largely understandable to the common people meant a great deal for the spread of Christian teaching. The choice of Church Slavonic meant that a part of European identity—where Latin was a crucial component—was excluded. At the same time, the pagan pre-Christian legacy of antiquity, with its philosophy, poetry, and drama, was dismissed as unnecessary at the very stage of translating Christian texts from Greek into Church Slavonic.
Great and beautiful is the gift prepared by Providence for our people in its language. Worthy of wonder are the richness of this language, its flexibility, grandeur, euphony, the plasticity of its sound and rhythm, its directness, capaciousness, aptness, powerful brevity, and artistic expressiveness, its freedom in the combination and arrangement of words… But even this is not enough! A language that was granted such a blessed destiny at its very birth was again blessed in its infancy by a mysterious baptism in the life-giving streams of the Church Slavonic tongue. These waters partially transformed its body and spiritually transfigured its soul—its “inner form.” “And thus it is no longer merely a gift of God to us, but a doubled and redoubled divine gift—filled and increased. The Church Slavonic speech became, under the hands of the God-inspired sculptors of the Slavic soul, Saints Cyril and Methodius, a living imprint of the ‘divine Greek speech,’ the image and likeness of which was instilled in their ever-memorable creation by the Enlighteners.”
The canon was not established by any one individual; it was formed by the consensus of the whole Church as to which books of Holy Scripture, now comprising the Bible, were chosen and considered the most important and sufficient for reading by Christians. Holy Scripture is the foundation laid for the building of the Church’s edifice, which was formed under the guidance of the Holy Ghost.
Every Christian should read Scripture, first and foremost, with prayer, because through Holy Scripture the Holy Ghost acts. One must invoke Him, asking the Lord to grant wisdom and understanding to rightly read and comprehend what is being said in the Holy Scriptures. But in addition to this, one must also make use of supplementary sources that can help in understanding Holy Scripture. There are specific theological works, there are special articles on the subject, and there are textual tools that help locate parallel passages. Scripture is just as important to us now as it ever was. “Holy Scripture, and especially the Gospel, are those eternal books which will never cease to be relevant for us, Christians. They always sound exceedingly and profoundly relevant to our lives.”
In Holy Scripture, the Lord constantly points us to what constitutes enduring values: faithfulness, love, mercy, compassion. The outward forms of human life may change—its accessories, its conditions—because of scientific and technological progress, but the questions of conscience remain the same. Therefore, we must pay attention to what is a priori in our lives—human relationships. And then Holy Scripture will open itself to us even more.
Holy Scripture answers a central question of Christian life: what is more important—the form of prayer or the inner striving of the heart? The form of prayer is undoubtedly important. But if there is no inward orientation, no clear life position, then we risk spiritual ruin, for sound without content is nothing. What matters deeply is the meaning we invest in prayer, the disposition of the heart with which we say it. If we seek righteousness, if we seek truth, we are already on the right path.
M. Voloshin writes: “Whatever one’s attitude to the Gospel—whether as a human book or as a divine one—the Gospel narrative lies in the soul of each person like unshakable crystals. The language of our moral sense was born of the Gospel, and every Gospel name, every Gospel episode, every Gospel parable has become a facet of our soul. Therefore every Gospel word is a symbol to us, for by ‘symbol’ we mean that word which serves as a key to an entire realm of the spirit.”
Liturgical forms allow Orthodox Christians to understand much about the life of the Church, which developed under the action of the Holy Ghost. The liturgy as we know it did not arise instantly, but was handed down to us as a good inheritance through all the centuries, by every generation of Christians.
The Bible is inextricably linked with the history of all humanity over the past 2000 years. Gospel stories and scenes are constantly connected to our lives, to our culture. Attention should be paid to works of art on this theme—not only painting and sculpture, but literary works as well. A large portion of the masterpieces of Russian literature are devoted precisely to biblical themes.
The influence of the Bible on Russian literature was first noted in translated works, including poetic lyricism integrated into worship (hymnography), church preaching, paraphrases with commentary, and numerous apocrypha. Folkloric plots and legends of Byzantine, Persian, and Indian origin (tales of Solomon, the Queen of Sheba, etc.) are also evident. Ancient Russian chronicles and didactic writings are filled with biblical reminiscences and reflect on the Christianization of Rus’ in the context of universal sacred history (Nestor the Chronicler, Vladimir Monomakh, Daniil Zatochnik, Kirill of Turov, Hilarion of Kiev).
Russian poets and writers composed poetic biblical paraphrases and spiritual odes filled with biblical allusions (M. Lomonosov, V. Trediakovsky, A. Sumarokov, G. Derzhavin). Russian poetry of the 19th–20th centuries is especially rich in paraphrases and works based on biblical motifs (V. Zhukovsky, A. Pushkin, A. Griboedov, A. Tolstoy, F. Dostoevsky, L. Tolstoy, A. Maikov, Y. Polonsky, M. Yazykov, A. Khomyakov, Vl. Solovyov, M. Voloshin, Vyach. Ivanov, K. Balmont, F. Sologub, B. Pasternak). The Bible was also interpreted in the literary works of I. Bunin, L. Andreyev, A. Kuprin, M. Bulgakov, and others. Biblical themes are present in secular dramatic and poetic works of that time. An original thinker of the 18th century, who symbolically interpreted Holy Scripture in poetic form, was Hryhorii Skovoroda.
Russian writers of past centuries touched upon Gospel themes in their art because they were relevant. But even after 2000 years, all of humanity—atheists and believers alike, Christians, Muslims, Jews—cannot forget the person of Jesus Christ. Gospel themes and the words of the Savior remain eternally relevant, because they speak to eternal truths that do not pass away.
The unique literary and artistic form of the Bible, the expressive means it employs, its immense variety of genres and themes, and the originality of its concerns have ensured not only its direct use in Christian liturgical and theological practice. Biblical motifs are widespread in contemporary global and national culture—in literature, visual art, music, and cinema.
Thus, the study of the transmission of the canonical books of Holy Scripture in Rus’ is the subject of close interest in current research. The importance of the translation of the Bible into Slavic by Saints Cyril and Methodius for ancient Rus’ is colossal. The Bible, translated into the Slavic language, is a great treasure of the entire Russian people.