In that era, the intertestamental period, the pagan world was desperately looking for a new faith and new ideals. It is unlikely that in earlier times Judaism could have gained such popularity. The official cult of the Roman Empire was less and less able to satisfy the religious needs of the population. The upper strata turned to philosophy, the lower - to the mystical religions of the East. Judaism, professing faith in the One Lord, following a strict moral law, attracted the sympathy of the educated strata of society. In contrast to vague syncretism, Judaism was strict and consistent, possessing the Law and the Holy Book.

Judaism in the intertestamental period and its movements

Judaism is a symbol for the religion, tradition and history of that period of the Old Testament, which began after the Captivity period, more precisely from the era of the Restoration under Ezra, and ended with the emergence of Judaism. This period also includes the intertestamental period. In the Bible, the term "Judaism" first appears in (2 Mac. 2:21); it is also used by the ap. Paul (Gal. 1:13). After the restoration, the Old Testament Church acquired the character of a theocratic Community, completely subordinate to the canons and statutes of the Law. At the end of this period, in the 2nd - 1st centuries. BC, Judaism still retained the features of a universal religion and allowed foreigners (proselytes) into the Community. After the Christians of the Jerusalem Church left Judea, and the Sadducees, Essenes and Zealots disappeared as a result of the catastrophe of 70, the only leaders of Judaism remained the Pharisees, under whose influence Judaism turned into a national religion - Judaism.

Judaism is the religion practiced by the Jewish people (with the exception of the medieval Khazars and some groups of American blacks). The beginning of the specific development of Judaism is considered to be the turn of the 1st and 2nd centuries. AD, when the gap between the Jewish and Christian communities became a fait accompli. I. should be distinguished from Judaism, although in Western European languages ​​both of these concepts are designated the same. The main sources of Judaism, in addition to the books of the Old Testament, are the rabbinic tradition and the Talmud. If Judaism maintained a pluralism of movements and sects, then a stable orthodoxy developed in Judaism, formed by the Pharisaic schools. However, in parallel with it, there also existed a number of nonconformist doctrines.

The religious and political trends and aspirations of the era of the descent of the Lord Jesus Christ onto earth found their expression in the activities of modern religious parties. The currents and sects in biblical history are of very deep significance for understanding the so-called intertestamental period and represent religious groups known to us from written tradition from the sacred books of the Old and New Testaments. There is no special term for the general designation of such groups in the Old Testament. In the New Testament they are called "airesis" - interpretation, opinion (Acts 24:5), although in some cases this word means error. Most of the Jewish movements arose in the intertestamental period and the New Testament period. Many of them trace their origins to the Hasidic group, pious people who, in the early 2nd century BC. resisted Hellenistic influences and joined the Maccabean revolt (1 Maccabees 2:42 speaks of the “synagogue of the Assideans”; Synodal translation: “many Jews”).

Inside Palestinian society of the 1st century AD. e. there was no unity: there were a variety of groups and movements arguing with each other on political and doctrinal issues. Josephus spoke about the main parties of the Jews in the book “The Jewish War”: “Jewish philosophy has three forms. The followers of the first school are called Pharisees, the second Sadducees, and the third sect, which considers itself more disciplined, is the Essenes.” In another context he mentions the Zealots. Josephus, adapting to his Greco-Roman readers, identifies Jewish movements with philosophical schools. Of course, not every Jew belonged to one group or another. All these groups, as organized parties, were small in number, but were popular.

Pharisees.

The Pharisaic League (“Haburot”, partnership) was founded by guardians of piety who opposed the Hellenistic influence that had penetrated into Judea. At that time it caused alarm in many countries. Among the Romans, the fight against Hellenism was led by Cato, and in Palestine by the Hasidim. “To strengthen the fence around the Laws” was the motto of the Hasidim (Avot, 1, 1). “...the “fence” came out so high that it covered the Law; thanks to her, the Law seemed to be hidden. This trend is partly reminiscent of our Slavophilism with its contempt for the “rotten West.” The Pharisaic movement was formed by those Hasidim who did not recognize the secular course of the Hasmonean dynasty. Probably the name "Pharisees" was given to them by their opponents. The etymology of the word "Pharisee" is unknown. Most believe that it comes from the verb “parash” (“to separate”) and means “separated,” since the Pharisees considered themselves separated from all uncleanness. There is also an opinion that this is a distorted “Persian”. This is what their opponents could call them because they believed in relatively new teachings, which were partly borrowed from the Persian religion (angelology and the resurrection of the dead). The Pharisaic League formed in the 2nd century BC. e. (the first mention of the Pharisees dates back to the time of King Hyrcanus the First, around 135). In the 80s of the 1st century BC. e. The Pharisees tried to lead a rebellion against the Hasmonean king Alexander Yannai. It was brutally suppressed, many rebels were crucified on crosses. Under Queen Alexandra (76–67), the Pharisees became the ruling party in Jerusalem, but under Herod its political importance declined. They offered passive resistance to the king, did not want to swear allegiance to Augustus and prophesied the end of Herod’s dynasty, calling him himself a “slave of the Hasmoneans.” First half of the 1st century AD was a time of external domination by the Sadducees. However, the influence of the Pharisees continued to grow and after the war with Rome they finally took control of the spiritual life of the people. Not a single work authentically belonging to the Pharisees has survived. Many scholars associate the 2 Book of Maccabees, the Psalms of Solomon and the 3 Book of Ezra (Ezra) with the Pharisaic environment. In any case, they reflected the views that are usually attributed to the Pharisees. Information about them is available from Josephus, in the New Testament and in the Talmud.

“The Pharisees,” writes Josephus, “are reputed to be the most accurate interpreters of the Law... They make everything dependent on God and fate and teach that although a person is given the freedom to choose between honest and dishonest actions, the predestination of fate is also involved in this. Souls, in their opinion, are immortal, but only the souls of the good are transferred after their death to other bodies, and the souls of the evil are doomed to eternal torment... The Pharisees are strongly devoted to each other and, acting with united forces, strive for the common good.” “The Pharisees lead a strict lifestyle and refuse all pleasures. They follow everything that reason recognizes as good, considering reason to be the best guardian in all desires. They stand out for their respectful attitude towards the elderly and do not dare to contradict their plans... The Pharisees believe in the immortality of the soul and that beyond the grave people will face judgment and reward for virtue and retribution for crime during life; sinners are subject to eternal imprisonment, and virtuous people have the opportunity to rise again. Thanks to this, they have extraordinary influence over the people, and all sacred rites associated with prayers and sacrifices take place only with their permission. Thus, individual communities testified to their virtue, since everyone was convinced that the Pharisees in deed and in word strive for the highest.” “The Pharisees imposed on the people many laws from the traditions of the elders, which were not written in the Law of Moses.” Even the Sadducees, according to Josephus, when they were in power, “adhered, although reluctantly and forcedly, to what the Pharisees said, for otherwise the people would not have tolerated them.” The Pharisees “had a claim to the special favor of the Most High. This sect had women in complete subordination.” Josephus puts the number of Pharisees at 6,000. The Talmud, created by the Tannai rabbis, contains data on Pharisaism that, in general, completely coincides with the evidence given by Josephus and the New Testament. Moreover, the messages of Talmudists often contain critical remarks addressed to those Pharisees whom they call “colored”. For example, in the treatise of Soth the king’s words are quoted: “Fear those who have the appearance of Pharisees, who are devout like the Pharisees, but act lawlessly.” It is said that they believed in the Resurrection from the dead, posthumous rewards, in angels and the authority of the “elders” (Matthew 15:1ff.; Acts 23:8). Early Christian writers, in particular St. Epiphany of Cyprus. He emphasizes the ascetic exercises adopted by the Pharisees and the penchant of many of them for astrology.

The Pharisees isolated themselves not only from the ruling elite, but also from everyone who, in their opinion, knew little or poorly kept the Law. The Pharisees were “the most subtle interpreters of the Law,” but their interpretation was of a special kind. Unlike the Sadducees, they did not look upon Scripture as a dead relic or a strictly fixed code; at least in principle, the Pharisees proceeded from the idea that faith could not be limited to the boundaries of the book. They argued that living spiritual continuity, or Church Tradition, plays a role no less than canonical books. Of course, oral Tradition is more easily clogged with human conjectures, “traditions” with a small T. To avoid this, the Pharisees sought to preserve the connection between generations of scribes and develop principles for explaining the Bible. But it was here that the constraint of their spiritual creativity manifested itself. The “Traditions of the Elders” were canonized and elevated to the rank of universally binding truth. The Pharisees did not allow the spirit of piety to fade among the people and prevented their degeneration into a secular nation ruled by secular kings. Thanks to them, the Bible did not turn into a fetish, but remained a genuine book of life. Over time, synagogues and schools ended up entirely in the hands of the Pharisees. It was to them that the people owed all the best that grew in their depths on the threshold of the New Testament. While paying tribute to the Pharisees, they should not, however, be idealized. In this movement, casuistry and ritualism occupied too much of a place, which clipped the wings of free prophetic inspiration.

Sadducees.

The Sadducees were extremely conservative and averted any kind of innovation, any kind of change that could shake their dominant position in society. Theoretically, they believed in the coming of the Messiah, but they wanted nothing to do with political protests, it would only get them into trouble - they were friends with the Romans. Traditional respectable righteousness (sedeka) remained for the higher clergy and nobility something unsurpassed. Perhaps that is why they called themselves “Zadokites”, or Sadducees. In practical life, the Sadducees showed themselves to be flexible pragmatists, pursuing self-interested goals and prone to concessions. They surrounded themselves with luxury, but they considered it necessary to constantly keep the people in check. To this end, the Sadducees upheld the harsh principles of ancient criminal law. In the struggle for a strong place at court, they turned into an active political party. The Council of Elders, or Sanhedrin, consisted mainly of its members. Naturally, the people treated these callous, arrogant people with almost hostility. During the war with Rome, most of the Sadducees died at the hands of their fellow tribesmen who rebelled against the nobility.

The main opponents in the dispute over religious traditions were the Pharisees and Sadducees. The Pharisees recognized both the written Torah and the unwritten (oral tradition). The Sadducees recognized the authority only of the written Torah. Although the Pharisees are usually not very flattering in this regard, one must still understand why they placed such a high value on oral tradition. The Pharisees realized that no written law can provide for all life situations, so that the written Torah does not turn into an archaic relic, it must be interpreted and supplemented in accordance with the requirements of the time. To the Pharisees, the Torah seemed more important, more holy and directly related to life than the written word. the word as such. In practice, this meant a proliferation of unwritten rules and guidelines to suit different situations. For the Pharisees, all these instructions had authority - but not in themselves, but only because they were considered as interpretations of the written law, clearly expressing what was latently contained in the written Torah. And if a tradition was recognized as a legitimate interpretation of the written Torah, then it was part of the Torah and therefore had its authority.

Zealots.

The Zealots are an extremist, religious-political and messianic party that waged an armed struggle against the Roman yoke. Formed at the end of the 1st century BC. e. The apocrypha “The Ascension of Moses” may have come from among the Zealots. The Romans called Zealot terrorists "sicarii" (daggermen). The Zealots are a rebellious group, more than others involved in direct action against the Romans (the word “zealot” means to be diligent, to be jealous). In religious terms, they shared the positions of the Pharisees, but one idea dominated all their religious views - they have no other Lord than God, and therefore they cannot obey anyone except God. Therefore, the Romans must be driven out at any cost, even if all of Israel is destroyed. According to Josephus, their founder was Judas the Galilean, who in the 6th year, when Archelaus was deposed and the Romans began to rule Judea directly, rebelled. Joseph writes: “These people agree with the Pharisees in everything, but they have an insatiable passion for freedom, they are convinced that only God can be their only Master; no fear could induce them to assign this title to anyone else.” One of Jesus' disciples was called Simon Zelotes. But more typical Zealots were people like Barabbas. It was his crowd who chose to release him instead of Jesus, because the crowd admired the Zealots: they were national heroes, patriots. This group retained the spirit of Judas Maccabee, the rebel leader who succeeded in the 2nd century BC. e. recapture the Temple from the Syrians. The Zealots refused to pay taxes to the Romans and were preparing for war, which, in their opinion, should lead to the creation of the Kingdom of God on earth. Most of the Zealots met their death during two uprisings against Rome: in 66-70 and in 132-135.

Essenes.

Among these was one whose teaching and organization are related (albeit largely controversial) to the origins of Christianity. These are the Essenes, who are described by ancient authors (Josephus, Philo of Alexandria, the Roman writer Pliny the Elder) and to whom, according to most scientists, belonged members of a religious group whose manuscripts, and then settlements, were discovered in the Dead Sea area after the Second World War. world war. This community is usually called Qumran in literature. Extensive literature is devoted to the manuscripts of this community and descriptions of its settlements excavated by archaeologists. It was in 1947 that in one of the caves on the northwestern coast of the Dead Sea in the desert area of ​​Wadi Qumran (Jordan), a Bedouin accidentally discovered leather scrolls covered with Hebrew writing. The subsequent searches and excavations led to the discovery of new treasures of manuscripts in other dialects and languages. In total, about 40 thousand fragments of various sizes were found, representing the remains of about 600 books. All this handwritten material covers the time from the 3rd century. BC. up to 8th century AD After lengthy discussions, most researchers came to the conclusion that the texts belong to the Essenes or sectarians close to them. The scrolls were hidden in caves during the war with Rome (66-70s of the 1st century), but were created much earlier. Excavations have shown that the Qumranites lived in fortified coastal settlements founded around 130 BC.

Jews who took part in the Maccabean revolt in the 2nd century BC. e., divided into hostile factions - those who were dissatisfied with the betrayal of the leaders of the uprising went to the desert so as not to see the corruption of the state and to be closer to God. Those who received some benefits from the Maccabean regime submitted to the changed conditions, while others, left with nothing, went into opposition. The Sadducees belonged to the conservative aristocracy and actively supported the ruling regime. The Pharisees were a “middle class” of priests, scribes and teachers, they lived primarily in villages and their views coincided with those dominant in society. The Essenes were the direct descendants of the Hasidim who preceded the Maccabees. "Hasidim" means "devout" in Hebrew, and "Essenoi" is the Greek version of this word, derived from Aramaic. Later, disillusioned by the political betrayal of the “rogue priest,” they broke away from the main stream of Judaism. Apparently, they considered Jonathan Maccabee to be a “rogue priest.” Although he was not a Zadokite and was not eligible to serve as high priest, he became high priest in 153–152 BC. e., when he was offered this post by one of the Seleucids, who needed support from the Jews. This was a double sin: violation of the “law of Moses” regarding the succession to the priesthood and an alliance with the “Great Beast” and his “horde of Belial.” The response to this was a break with the traditional church by determined believers who decided to found an ascetic, traditionalist sect. The Essene leader, the "Master of Justice", believed that the Hasmonean kings, the aristocratic Sadducees and even the Pharisees, had been corrupted by power, wealth and Hellenistic culture, that they had broken the strict laws of the Torah for the sake of an easier life, that they were "a society of useless people and a collection of Belial." The real prophets were persecuted, tortured and exiled. Most of the Essene psalms speak of the struggle of lone preachers against the temptations of evil, ongoing persecution by the state, and the attempts of lone preachers to gather followers, a community of people. The "Teacher of Righteousness" was successful in his efforts: several people joined the preacher crying out in his wilderness. According to the Damascus Document, these people, who called themselves “the chosen ones” and “the simple ones,” “groped their way like blind men for twenty years, wandering in darkness, until God appointed them a Teacher of Righteousness to guide them in the path of His heart and to inform them subsequent generations about what He did to subsequent generations of apostates.”

According to information about the Essenes from Philo, Josephus and Pliny the Elder, at the time of the first two named historians there were about 4 thousand Essenes. Scattered in Palestine, they lived at first in cities and villages, under the name of Hasidim, and constituted that national party in Jewry that fought with another, more powerful party - the Hellenists. Then, according to Philo, feeling disgusted by the corrupt morals of the cities or having lost hope of success in the struggle for the national principles of Jewish life, the Essenes retired to the northwest from the Dead Sea and, having formed separate colonies there, avoided meeting with the rest of their fellow tribesmen even in the temple of Jerusalem, formed themselves into a strictly closed order.

Qumran appears to have become the main religious center of the Essenes. Pliny the Elder, writing his Natural History, reported on a “lonely tribe of Essenes” who did not use money and had no women. But, wrote Pliny the Elder, the number of Essenes was constantly increasing thanks to “a large number of new members who, tired of their old life, chose a new path.” Pliny locates this tribe on the northwestern shore of the Dead Sea. Based on the size of the village and the number of graves in the cemetery, archaeologists concluded that the number of monks did not exceed 150 people. Apparently, when Josephus estimates the number of Essenes at 4,000, he includes in this number the followers of this sect throughout the country. During the Jewish revolt of the first century, the Essenes were a small minority seeking to preserve what they said were the authentic traditions of the Jewish religion.

In addition to the listed groups in Palestine of the 1st century AD. e. there were a large number of wandering preachers who heralded the imminent arrival of the savior, the messiah (“mashiach”) - the anointed one of God, who would free the people from Roman rule and become the true “king of the Jews.” It was a time of extraordinary fermentation of minds, especially intense messianic and eschatological expectations. In his books, Josephus describes several religious figures in Palestine who were in one way or another connected with the messianic movement. Among them is the prophet Theudas, who spoke ca. 44 AD e., one Egyptian Jew who claimed the status of Savior of Israel c. 58, as well as a certain Samaritan rebel of 36, probably taken for the new or resurrected Moses (Antiquities, XVIII 4.1; XX 5.1; 8.6; cf. Acts 5:36; 21:38). The same cohort includes the Qumran “Teacher of Righteousness”, the Samaritan Simon Magus mentioned in the New Testament ( Dejan 8:9) and, finally, Bar Kokhba, recognized as the Messiah by many rabbis and ruled in Judea for several years (132-135). As a contemporary and eyewitness who personally encountered such leaders, Josephus described them as “deceivers and seducers who, under the guise of divine inspiration, sought revolution and rebellion, fogged the people with insane ideas, lured them with them into the desert in order to show them miraculous signs.” his liberation" (War, 2, 13, 4). Josephus's opinion is, of course, the opinion of a traditionalist, moreover, expressed after deep disappointment in the messianic idea. Most Jews did not think so. The following figures indicate the scope of the messianic movement. Theudas had about 400 active supporters (Acts 5:36), the Egyptian false prophet had 4 or 30 thousand (Acts 21:38; Josephus. War, 2, 13, 5), and the Samaritan prophet had so many that Pilate had to send infantry and cavalry detachments against them. Against this background, Jesus' 12 apostles plus 70 or even 500 disciples (Luke 10:1; 1 Cor 15:6) look quite modest. Behind the active participants in the messianic movement was the mass of the peaceful Palestinian population, who also believed in the imminent end of the world and the coming of the long-awaited Savior. These trends also reached Europe. “In the East,” wrote Suetonius, “there was a long-standing and firm belief that fate was destined at this time for immigrants from Judea to take over the world.”

Hellenistic Judaism.

Under the Romans, the “Hellenists” group mentioned in the book of Acts became strong. The word Hellenistic refers to those Jews whose universal language was Greek and who were influenced by Greek culture. These, apparently, were mainly Diaspora Jews who settled in Jerusalem, although some local Jews, who were attracted by more sophisticated Hellenistic customs, were undoubtedly in solidarity with them. By "Jews" we obviously mean those who, even in the Diaspora, retained Aramaic as their everyday language, and who remained entirely Jewish in spite of pressures to weaken their allegiance to the Torah and the Temple. Whatever the specific details, it is clear from Acts 6 that the Jerusalem Hellenists maintained separate synagogues where they preached and prayed in Greek. Perhaps the Hellenists lived in a separate area of ​​the city, forming a separate social stratum. Relations between the two groups could be complicated by the fact that the strict orthodox felt superior to the Hellenists: the latter adopted Greek customs, which cast a shadow on their loyalty to the law; the proselytes, who were inferior to those born in Jewry, gravitated more towards the Hellenists; Since the time of the Maccabees, the name “Hellenist” apparently had a “derogatory connotation”; while the Sadducees collaborated with foreigners politically, the Hellenists made a cultural compromise.

Hellenistic Judaism - Judaism, scattered throughout the Greco-Roman world, maintained the unity of the people and faith, maintaining a connection with Jerusalem as the national and religious center. Diaspora Jews paid temple taxes and, whenever possible, made pilgrimages to Jerusalem on major holidays. But the religion of Hellenistic Judaism was also based on the synagogue cult, and the life of the Jews of the Diaspora was also determined by ritualism, although not as strict as that of their pious compatriots in Palestine. In any case, circumcision and the celebration of the Sabbath, as well as some regulations of ritual purity - for example, the ban on eating pork that struck the pagans - separated the Hellenistic Jews from the pagan environment, although M. Hengel in his fundamental work “Jewry and Hellenism” substantiated the thesis according to which by the middle of the 2nd century BC, Hellenistic culture was much more deeply rooted among the Aramaic-speaking Jews of Palestine than was usually allowed in science. M. Hengel believed that by the time of the emergence of Christianity, the opposition “Greek - Jewish” (or, in the terms of philosophical journalism, “Athens - Jerusalem”), which was familiar to the scientific public, had long lost its sharpness.

So, with the exception of the Sadducees, all the religious groups in Palestine (Pharisees, Essenes, Zealots) hoped and prayed for God to perform some miraculous work in the lives of his people. Everyone had their own ideas as to when and how it would happen. Some, like the Zealots, were ready to help God do this as quickly as possible. Others, like the Pharisees and Sadducees, believed that God had a plan that could neither be changed nor accelerated by human intervention.

Paganism before the coming of Christ the Savior.

In the era preceding the reign of Alexander the Great, ancient Greek civilization reached its peak. The new historical period, begun by the conquests of Alexander, is called the era of Hellenism (from the word “Hellene” - Greek). At this time, Greek became an international language in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East. The main features of Hellenistic culture were determined by the interaction of Greek and Eastern cultures. Alexander's campaigns and the power of his successors spread Greek civilization beyond the Balkans. Its impact affected not only the Middle East and North Africa, but also Central Asia and India. In turn, there was an Orientalization of Greek customs and beliefs; Various forms of religious syncretism arose, combining elements of Western and Eastern cults (and, accordingly, religious art). It was during the Hellenistic era that Greek and Eastern beliefs penetrated into Rome, which became the successor of the Hellenistic powers. The Hellenistic period was characterized by the revival of ancient mysteries and the development of pagan versions of eschatology. The philosophy of Hellenism (Stoicism, Cynicism, skepticism, Epicureanism) was not metaphysical, but predominantly ethical in nature. Within the framework of this philosophy, the idea of ​​a “universal religion” first arose. Hellenism is characterized by the predominance of urban civilization and the growth of education (the creation of libraries, museums, and popular literature). At the same time, during the Hellenistic period, the development of occultism, astrology, and superstitions was observed. The literature of Hellenism bears the features of epigonism and decadence. The most outstanding works of Hellenistic literature belong to the field of ethics and historiography.

During the Hellenistic period, the ethical principle prevailed over physics and metaphysics, and it was its voice that sounded louder than others in philosophy. Political questions had indeed lost their relevance because freedom of speech was impeded by the presence and memory of the Tsarist garrisons, and it was self-evident that national freedom depended on inaction. The glory days of the Athenian state were in the past, and philosophy had to confront a gap between politics and ethics never seen before in Greece. She had to find a way of life that would simultaneously respect the dignity of philosophy and be compatible with political impotence. Therefore, she realized that her task was no longer to build a just state, but to educate a self-sufficient and satisfied individual. The development of ethics now proceeded in two opposite directions. The first followed the example of Heraclitus, Socrates, Antisthenes and Diogenes and transformed Cynicism into Stoicism; the other went back to Democritus, relied heavily on Aristippus and transformed the teaching of the Cyrenaics into the school of Epicureanism. Both philosophical attempts to overcome religious and political decline originated in Asia: Stoicism was a development of Semitic pantheism, fatalism and humility; Epicureanism was started by the bliss-loving Greeks of the Asian coast.

Some researchers believe that thanks to the active missionary work of the Jews who returned from Babylonian captivity, the demographic situation in Palestine changed dramatically over the course of several centuries. Even in Maccabean times, Galilee was inhabited mainly by pagans and there was only a small Jewish colony there. By the time of Christ, the pagans already formed a colony there with a significant dominance of the Jewish population. For educated Jews of the Diaspora, the superiority of Judaism over the magical religions of paganism was obvious. In the Judaism of the Dispersion, the conviction grew that among all nations God had chosen one people, the bearer of the priesthood, to bless others. A kind of impetus for the development of the missionary activities of Judaism was strong anti-Semitic sentiments in pagan society. In communicating with other peoples, the Jews first of all strived for apologetic and then for missionary activity. This was especially evident in the relationship between the Alexandrian Jews and the local population. The Greek Lagid dynasty granted privileges to the Jews of Alexandria, wanting to rely on them in clashes with the indigenous inhabitants of Egypt. Therefore, it is natural that the Jews were hated by the Egyptians all the more since the Jews had less rights to the position they occupied, being aliens. Therefore, the pagan population of Egypt tried in every possible way to humiliate both the Jews themselves and their faith. The pagans deliberately spread and willingly adopted crude interpretations of Jewish Law, cult and customs. There was a widespread belief among pagans that a donkey's head was located in the Sanctuary of the Jerusalem Temple and enjoyed special religious respect. The pagans tried to give a derogatory meaning to Jewish holy days. Such a hostile attitude necessitated an apology for Judaism and its customs. In Alexandria, where the opposition was most acute, many literary works were written in defense of the Jews, their Law and cult. The Jews did not have to invent any new means for apology and mission. They successfully used the methods of Hellenic society. One of the main means of the Jewish mission in ancient society was literature. The Hellenic and then Roman eras can rightly be called the heyday of Jewish missionary literature (the books of the Sibyl, the apologetic work of Josephus “against Apion”, the works of the Jewish philosopher Philo of Alexandria, the Letter of Aristaeus to Philocrates, the Testament of the Twelve Patriarchs, etc. ).

From the surviving remains of Judeo-Alexandrian literature and from the widespread propaganda of Judaism in the Greco-Roman world, it can be concluded that in the dispersion there existed a Judaism in the consciousness of which cult and ceremonial laws were completely overshadowed by the monotheistic veneration of God, the teachings of virtue and the belief in future reward beyond the grave. Even circumcision was not always required of Jewish converts; contented themselves with a cleansing bath. The Jewish religion seemed here transformed into a universal morality and into a monotheistic cosmology. The specifically Jewish character was preserved in the unconditional veneration of the Old Testament, which was looked upon as the source of all wisdom (even Greek philosophy and all manifestations of the truth of non-Jewish religions). Many of the enlightened strictly observed the Law for its symbolic meaning. These Jews and the Greeks they converted formed a new Judaism on the basis of the old. It prepared the ground for the Christianization of the Greeks and for the emergence of a great church of pagan Christians in the empire, renounced by the Law; it developed under the influence of Greek culture into, so to speak, world citizenship on a monotheistic background. As a religion, it freed itself from national forms or weakened them and turned out to be the most perfect expression of that “natural religion” that the Stoic school discovered. The close rapprochement of Judaism with Hellenistic religious philosophy must be considered the most important progress in the history of religion and culture; but he lacked the strength for lasting religious formations. His creations were transformed into “Christianity.”

Pagan religiosity in the era of Cicero.

After religious sentiments had almost disappeared in educated circles in the era of Cicero, by the first century a new revival of religious thought was noticed in the Greco-Roman world, covering all levels of society and intensifying subsequently. In parallel with it, there were unsuccessful attempts to restore ancient national cults. But the new religious needs of the time did not find clear expression in these attempts, which were partly made from above and artificially. According to completely changed conditions (the mixing of peoples and their communication, the decline of ancient republican orders, monarchy and absolutism, social crises and pauperism, the comprehensive influence of philosophy, the idea of ​​world citizenship and human rights, the invasion of Eastern cults, knowledge of the world) these needs were sought new forms of satisfaction. From the decline of political cults and from syncretism, under the influence of philosophy, a disposition towards monotheism developed. Religion and individual morality became closer to each other: the spiritualization of cults, the ennoblement of man, the idea of ​​a moral personality, conscience, purity, repentance and atonement were given great importance. They were looking for internal relations with the deity, a desire appeared for revelation (asceticism and mysterious rituals as a means of communion with the deity), a carefree eternal life in the next world; earthly life seemed illusory. The ideal of a perfect person and mentor (savior) develops. But all these new ideas are partly hidden under the old forms of worship, supported or restored by the state and pious people; they only groped for new expressions; and the sage, and the skeptic, and the pious man, and the patriot had to capitulate to the ancient traditions of the cult. For the development of new forms in the field of religion, the existence of associations and the formation of the monarchical worldwide Roman Empire were of enormous importance. Both give rise to the idea of ​​global citizenship; In addition, firstly, social assistance is practiced, and in the second, the unification of humanity and the neutralization of nations is carried out. The most important factor in the revolution in religious and moral sentiments was, perhaps, philosophy, which put forward and improved ethics in almost all of its schools. Starting from the principles of Stoicism, Posidonius, Seneca, Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius - and people like Plutarch, starting from Platonism - reached ethical views that, despite all the uncertainty in principle (knowledge, obedience, hope), in particulars are hardly can be surpassed. They all agree in their assessment of the soul. In some, a religious mood is clearly manifested, a search for divine help, salvation and eternal life; This is most noticeable among the Neoplatonists and their predecessors.

The main features of this direction are the dualistic opposition of the divine and the earthly, the abstract concept of God, the assertion that God is unknowable, a skeptical attitude towards the experience of the senses, distrust of the power of reason along with an ardent readiness to explore things and use the fruits of already accomplished scientific work, further - the demand for liberation from sensuality through asceticism, the need for authority, faith in revelation from above and the unity of religion, science and mythology. People are already beginning to legitimize religious fantasies in the field of philosophy, returning to myths as the source of the deepest wisdom. The prepared theosophical philosophy appears, from the point of view of the natural sciences and enlightenment, to be a regression; but it was an expression of deeper religious needs and valuable self-knowledge. Inner life with all its aspirations, hopes and aspirations becomes the starting point for thinking about the world. Ideas about a divine, merciful Providence, about the unity of all humanity, about universal brotherly love, about the need for forgiveness of evil, forgiving patience, about recognizing one’s own shortcomings - all these ideas, not in full perfection, of course, through the medium of Greek philosophy became the same property of the wider world. circles, as well as the conviction of innate sinfulness, and the need for salvation, and the assessment of the human soul, which finds peace only in God. But there was a lack of positive revelation, a broad, satisfying religious community, a powerful religious genius; there was a lack of an understanding of history that could replace the political history that had lost its meaning.

Conclusion

For the Orthodox biblical scholar Fr. Archpriest Alexander Men, from a general standpoint, ancient philosophy and biblical thought had both similar and different features, and there were more of the latter. In the ancient worldview, there are many points of contact with the Holy Scriptures of the Old Testament, especially in Greco-Roman philosophy. All philosophy followed the path of searching for a higher Principle, a single Deity, although the Deity was thought of in a pantheistic way. Plato's merit was the recognition of the supreme importance of the Spirit. Divinity is the highest invisible Good, which is comprehended by detached, mental contemplation. Philosophers such as Xenophanes and some Stoics criticized polytheism and spoke out against the worship of idols. In Platonism, the Divinity was represented as the bearer of absolute being. Likewise, in the biblical worldview, existence belongs only to God (the Existing One), Who bestows it on His creations. Many philosophical movements adhered to the “apophatic” method of reasoning, i.e. believed that the Deity could notbe described by any human concepts (the highest Good is posited in being above all essence and above conceivable existence).

The differences between the biblical worldview and the ancient one were much greater: the Greeks viewed the world as a “cosmos,” as a kind of complete harmony of parts, as a structure that remains unchanged; in the Bible, the world is something placed in time, subject to change, up to complete transformation in the Kingdom of God. Antiquity sought God in nature; The Bible sees the acts of the Lord primarily in the history of the human race. Antiquity, following the Ancient East, believed in the circular, cyclical movement of the world and history, while for the Bible history is a unique, irreversible formation that has its goal in the highest plans of God. For most Greek philosophers, the world was divided “horizontally” into the invisible and the visible; for the biblical sages and prophets - for the present and future world. In Greek philosophy (especially in Stoicism and Aristotle), God is distant and indifferent to the world; in the Bible we hear the voice of the “Living God”, who speaks to people, seeks dialogue with them through the Covenant and Promise. In their searches, philosophers most often relied on the power of reason, formal logic and dialectics, while the Bible. man was guided only by faith, which is a response to God’s call. For the Platonists, the highest good was liberation from matter (immortality of the soul), while the Bible recognized the value of matter as the creation of Being and proclaimed the resurrection of the dead.

Compared to all other religions of the ancient world, the religion of Israel was truly unique. The faith of Israel did not arise from spiritual development, but had a supernatural source. The fundamentals of Israel's religion transcended the boundaries of human experience and thought. The ideals inspired by the Israelite religion were higher than the ordinary human capacity for good. Pagan religions were cultic in nature. They were based on the manifestation of divine powers in certain holy places where people could communicate with them. This took place in the form of cultic worship and rituals in order to avoid the formidable forces of chaos and destruction. Pagan beliefs were associated with seasonal changes, with winter and summer following each other in an eternal struggle for primacy. They were based on the idea of ​​​​renewing what had happened - repetition and the need to remember this. For the Israelites, on the contrary, the world was not seen as a closed whole, but as a manifestation of the Divine glory of the Almighty. The arena of God's activity was history itself. The emphasis was on what God had already done, was doing, and would do.

Faulkner N. Apocalypse, or the First Jewish War / trans. from English Pomogaibo A. A. – M.: Veche, 2006. P. 133 – 134.

Men A., archpriest. Bibliological dictionary. T. I. / A. Men. – M.: Alexander Men Foundation, 2002.

Christianity. T. I. / Encyclopedia of Efron and Brockhaus. – M.: Great Russian Encyclopedia, 1993. P. 536.

Faulkner N. Apocalypse, or the First Jewish War / trans. from English Pomogaibo A. A. - M.: Veche, 2006. P. 126.

It can definitely be said that Jesus was put to death as a candidate for the messianic role, as a person who posed a nationalist threat to the political authorities (Mk 15:26; Mt 27:37; Lk 23:38; Jn 19:19, where “the king of the Jews” - this is a paraphrase by the Roman governor in his own interests of the formulation of the accusation of a “pretender to messiahship”). The enthusiasm shown for Jesus as a possible candidate for the role of messiah is visible in the episode that underlies the story of the feeding of the five thousand. It is very likely that Peter's confession implies messianism in the same nationalistic and political sense. All three episodes show that Jesus rejected such a role. The concept of messiahship in popular aspirations and ideas was unacceptable to Jesus.

Plato, Phaedrus, 247c. See: Plato. Full composition of writings. M.: Mysl, 1994.

Men A., archpriest. Bibliological dictionary. T. I. / A. Men. – M.: Alexander Men Foundation, 2002. P. 68 – 70.

Article from the collection "Atheist Readings", 1988.

When I had already prepared the article after scanning, I discovered that it was already on the Internet. Well, okay...

One of the most common misconceptions about religion ancient Judeo-Israelite society there is a current idea that it was originally monotheistic (monotheistic). This is precisely the conviction that the Old Testament forms in its reader. The original religion of the ancient Israelites, he argues, is the service of Yahweh; veneration of other gods, who, moreover, are not gods at all, is a betrayal of the service of Yahweh, an abomination for which he cruelly punishes his people. This view is actively supported by both Jewish synagogue, and the Christian church tradition. It is also widespread in liberal bourgeois biblical studies, which is closely related to theology.

However, a careful reading of the Old Testament shows that this concept is nothing more than a falsification of real historical reality. Numerous slips of the tongue, reservations, and often direct evidence of the Old Testament show that the original religion of the ancient Israelites was polytheistic. Moreover, a comparison of information extracted from the Old Testament with poetic narratives and ritual texts discovered during excavations of the ancient city Ugarit on the northeastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea (2nd millennium BC), as well as with Phoenician inscriptions (1st millennium BC) shows that the ancient Israelite polytheistic religion was a local version of the Semitic religion (belonging to the Canaanite-Amorite linguistic group) of the peoples who inhabited the Syrian-Palestinian region in ancient times. It could not have been otherwise: the ancient Israelites, both in language and culture, belonged to the same Canaanite-Amorite environment as the Ugaritians and Phoenicians. There were, of course, local specific features here.

The head of the ancient Israeli pantheon was the general Semitic supreme god El, otherwise Eloah or Elohim. This word itself in all its variants means the same thing: God. The word Elohim appears to be plural, but in reality it is not: in the Old Testament it constantly agrees with singular verbs. The ending -m has been preserved in this word since the 2nd millennium BC. e., when it played the role of a definite article, placed at the end of a word. In the 1st millennium BC. e. this article disappeared, but the naming of God with the ending -m remained. Similar forms existed in the Phoenician and Ammonite languages.

Ancient Israelite El was the supreme god and head of the council of gods (Ps. 82:1), but the council of gods existed and was the object of cult in the Ugaritic and Phoenician pantheon. El the Almighty was considered the creator of heaven and earth. (Gen. 14; 19; cf. Gen. 1). This role also belongs to El in Ugaritic and Phoenician mythology.

IN Judeo-Israeli pantheon Other deities of the pan-Semitic pantheon also appear. Among them are Asherah- the great mistress and foremother of the gods, the wife of El, Astarte - the goddess of love and fertility, the agricultural god Baal (translated into Russian as the owner), the dying and resurrecting agricultural god Tammuz, as well as the goddess-hunter and warrior Anatbetel. The name Baal is found repeatedly in the so-called theophoric proper names (i.e. names in which the deity is mentioned), for example: Ishbaal - “man of Bal”, Yerubbaal - “may Baal increase”, etc. The worship of Baal and Asher is actively condemned in the Old Testament, but even in the Talmud, fields irrigated by rain are called “fields of Bal.” There was also a cult of the Brazen Serpent, the production of which was attributed to Moses (II Kings, 18:4).

Very popular in ancient Israel there was worship of the “heavenly army” - the Sun, Moon and stars (Jeremiah 8:2; Ezek 8:16). The heroic song of the prophetess Deborah (Judg. 5, 6; the text dates back to the 13th century BC) talks about how the stars fight the enemies of the Israeli tribal union.

We have at our disposal some evidence that sheds additional light on ancient Israelite paganism. Yes, prophet Ezekiel(Ezek. 8:14) says that at the northern gate of the Jerusalem Temple of Yahweh, women performed a ritual of mourning for the deceased god Tammuz. Jeremiah (Jeremiah 7:18) mentions another ritual: “the sons gather wood, and the fathers light the fire, and the women knead the dough to prepare pies for the Queen of Heaven (Asherah - I. Sh.) and libations for other gods” (cf. also Jeremiah 44:15-19). The so-called sacred marriage played a large role in the rituals of the agricultural religion. He was supposed to ensure the fertility of the fields and a rich harvest. We know the peculiar scenario of this festival, originating from Ugarit. Here the sacred marriage of the supreme god Ilu (corresponding to the ancient Israeli El) and his wives takes place - Asiratu(corresponding to the ancient Israelite Asherah) and Virgo; from this marriage beneficent gods are born Shaharu(god of the dawn) and Shalym (god of general prosperity). Interestingly, one of the important elements of this ritual is the eating of a kid boiled in milk. In the light of what has been said, the Old Testament prohibition of eating a kid boiled in its mother’s milk receives its explanation (Exod. 23:19; Deut. 14:21), thereby placing an insurmountable barrier to participation in a sacred marriage. Nevertheless, this ceremony was also performed in Israeli society; it bore, as elsewhere, the character of an unbridled orgy, accompanied by the lifting of all sexual prohibitions. This is why biblical prophets constantly speak of pagan cults as fornication and debauchery. The rites of the sacred marriage of El and Asherah go back to the diatribe attributed to the prophet Isaiah (57:7-8):

On a mountain high and sublime
you place your bed,
it is there that you ascend to make a sacrifice.
And behind the door, behind the jamb
you bet your memory,
for you departed from Me, undressed and ascended,
spread out her bed
and made a deal with them,
loved their bed,
I saw the hand.

Note that “hand” in ancient Western Asian poetics is a euphemistic designation for the male genital organ.

From the description of the religious reform of King Josiah (621 BC) (And Kings, 23:4-14) it is clear that statues and utensils associated with the cults of Baal, Asherah, the Sun, the Moon, and stars were kept in the Jerusalem Temple and "all the army of heaven." At the temple there were also special houses in which lived harlot priestesses who wove clothes for Asherah. The temple also had chariots of the Sun and horses, which the Jewish kings dedicated to him. The ritual of serving the Sun apparently included the ritual passage of images of this deity on a sacred chariot, which should have corresponded to the passage of the Sun across the heavens from sunrise to sunset. In one of the psalms (19:5-7) a description corresponding to this ritual has been preserved:

He set up a tent for the sun in them (heaven. - I.Sh.)
and it, like a groom, comes out from under its roof,
rejoices, like a knight, to run his way.
From the edge of heaven his exit,
and his procession to their ends,
and nothing can escape its heat.

In the 10th century BC e. King Solomon, pursuing his political goals, built in Jerusalem temples of the gods of the peoples under his control - the Moabite Kemosh, the Ammonite Milkom, as well as Astarte, the goddess of the Sidonians allied with Solomon. These temples existed until the last quarter of the 7th century. BC e. There was also a temple of Baal in Jerusalem.

One of the characteristic features of the religion of the ancient population of the Syrian-Palestinian region was the widespread practice of human sacrifice: firstborn sons were sacrificed to the deity. The sacrifice itself was burning (alive or stabbed) at the stake. It was called molek (molkh in Phoenician). From this name, the idea arose relatively late that in ancient times there was worship of the bloody god Moloch, to whom human sacrifices were made. A study of Phoenician dedicatory inscriptions accompanying such sacrifices has refuted this misconception. The remains of those sacrificed were buried in special cemeteries (they were called tophet); such cemeteries were found during the archaeological study of Phoenician cities of the Western Mediterranean. The ancient Israelites were no exception among the ancient peoples of the Syrian-Palestinian region. Like others they performed these sacrifices in the valley of Hinnom; From the Hebrew Ge Hinnom (“Valley of Hinnom”) the expression “fiery Gehenna” subsequently arose. One description from the prophet Isaiah (30:33) reproduces a picture of such a sacrifice:

For since yesterday the tophet has been established,
also he is for the king
cooked deep;
his fire /burns/ with fire
and a lot of firewood.

Contemporaries who observed the sacrificial burning of children among the Phoenicians were horrified by the monstrous cruelty of the donors. It seemed unthinkable to them that a normal person, a loving father, could doom his child to a terrible, painful death. However, from the point of view of those who made such sacrifices, they were a feat of piety in the name of the deity, and often for the benefit not only of that particular person, but also for the sake of the entire people. Thus, the Moabite king Mesha (9th century BC), who was defeated by the Israelites, sacrificed his eldest son, the heir, on the city wall as a burnt offering. The Israelites, confident that the wrath of the deity would now fall upon them, fled in panic (II Sam. 3:27). The motivation for these sacrifices is obvious from the Old Testament legend about how God demanded Abraham to sacrifice his only beloved son Isaac. Stopping the ritual at the last moment, God says (Gen. 22:12): “Do not stretch out your hand to the boy and do not do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God and did not hide your son, your only son, from Me.” . For this, God promises (Gen. 22:17-18): “I will bless you and make your descendants multiply as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies. And they will be blessed with your descendants all the nations of the earth, because you have obeyed My voice." Similar reasoning (to refute them) is given by the prophet Micah (6:6-7):

With what will I appear before Yahweh,
will I bow before the Most High God?
Shall I come before Him with burnt offerings,
with yearling calves?
Doesn't Yahweh want a thousand rams,
myriad streams of oil?
Shall I give my firstborn for my crime,
the fruit of my womb for my sin?

Over time, people's way of thinking changes. They gradually come to the conclusion that a good god cannot demand such a terrible sacrifice from his worshipers. In Jewish prophetic preaching it is certainly condemned. The Prophet Jeremiah (32:35) said: “And they (the Jews - I.Sh.) built the heights of Baal, which are in the valley of the Sons of Hinnom, to conduct their sons and their daughters in the sacrifice of milk, which I did not command them, and It came into my heart to do such abomination as to cause Judas to sin." The Pentateuch categorically prohibits it (Lev. 20:2-5): “Every one of the Sons of Israel and of the inhabitants living in Israel, who gives a mole from his offspring as a sacrifice, let him die, let the people of the Land stone him. And I I will set My face against this man and destroy him from among his people, for he has sacrificed milk from his descendants to defile My sanctuary and profane My holy name.” The tradition of Abraham and Isaac was meant to convince us that the willingness to make a sacrifice was sufficient; Instead of Isaac, Abraham sacrifices a ram caught in the bushes by its horns. A similar development of ideas took place among the Phoenicians. In late Phoenician inscriptions, along with human sacrifices (molkhod), a similar sacrifice of a ram (molkhomor) is also mentioned.

A special place in the Judeo-Israelite polytheistic pantheon was occupied by the god Yahweh (variant name: Yahu, Yaho). His very name (it means “Existence”) was avoided: to name God meant, according to the ideas of the era, to call him, but seeing God inevitably led to death. Instead they said and read: “My Lord” (adonai). When in the middle of the 1st millennium AD. e. The keepers of the Jewish Old Testament tradition invented special signs to designate vowels; they added vowels from the word adonai to the consonants of the name Yahweh. Thus they signaled that it was not Yahweh that should be read, but Adonai. The result was a Yehovah (traditionally spelled Jehovah) that never really existed or was read. However, the name Yahweh (Yahu, Yaho) continues to exist in such proper names as Yehosef (i.e. Joseph - “Yahweh will add”) Eliyahu (i.e. Elijah - “my god is Yahweh”), Yehohanan (i.e. e. John, Ivan. - “Yahweh be merciful”), etc.
The pagan mythology of Yahweh is reconstructed according to guidelines that were not eliminated during the monotheistic editing of the Old Testament.

Already in the legend about the expulsion of Man (Adam) from the Garden of Eden - a fertile place where God lives (according to later ideas, earthly paradise), Yahweh God appears not only as the main character, but also as one of the gods, fearing that Man acquires divine essence. He says (Gen. 3:22): “Behold, Man became as one of us, knowing good and evil. And now, lest he put forth his hand and take also from the Tree of Life, and I wish I could live forever!" Obviously, in the original version of the legend, not only Yahweh, but also other gods of the Israeli pantheon acted; he addresses them, motivating the expulsion of Man from God’s dwelling.

The book of the prophet Jeremiah (10:12-13) says:

He made the earth his strength,
established the universe with his wisdom
and with his understanding he stretched out the heavens.
To the voice that He makes,
the waters roar in the sky.
And He lifts up the clouds from the ends of the earth,
makes lightning in the rain
and brings the wind out of its bins.

The prophet Zechariah says (10:1):

Ask Yahweh for rain
during the late rains!
Yahweh makes lightning,
and He will give you pouring rain,
for everyone there is greenery in the field.

Let us give another extremely expressive description from the Psalms (65:10-14):

You visit the earth and give it water,
you richly enrich it.
God's stream is full of water.
You prepared them (people - I. Sh.) right,
for this is how You created it (the earth. - I. Sh.).
Filling its furrows with water,
crushing its blocks,
with the rains you soften it,
You bless her harvest.
You crown the year with Your goodness,
and Your ways are dripping with fat,
pour out on oases in the desert,
and the hills are girded with joy.
Pastures are dressed with small livestock,
and the valleys are covered with bread,
people shout and sing joyfully.

Thus, Yahweh is God - the organizer of the earth, the thunderer, the giver of blessed rain, and with it, universal well-being.
Among the pagan myths, in the center of which Yahweh stood, was the myth of his struggle with the Sea - the embodiment of the elemental principle. It is reflected in a number of Old Testament texts. Thus, in the book of Job (38:8-11) Yahweh demonstrates his power:

And who closed the sea with doors,
when it was expelled and came out of the womb,
when I put the cloud with his clothes
and the cloud is his shroud?!
And I declared My law about him,
and installed the bolts and sashes,
and said: Hitherto you will come and no more,
and here the arrogance of your waves will be stopped.

We find approximately the same thing in the book of Psalms (104:5-9).
There was also a myth in Judeo-Israeli mythology about the construction of a House (temple) for Yahweh. It is reflected in the prophecy of Haggai (1:8-11): “Go up to the Mountain, and bring wood, and build a House, and I will favor it and be glorified,” said Yahweh. “You seek much, but there is little; and bring it home, and I will scatter it. For what? The word of Yahweh of Armies: for My House, which is destroyed, and you are running each to your home. Therefore, the heavens do not give you dew, and the earth does not give a harvest. And I called a drought on the Land , and for the mountains, and for bread, and for wine, and for oil, and for what the land grows, and for man, and for livestock, and for all manual labor." As you can see, possession of the House is an indispensable condition for Yahweh to properly fulfill his divine functions (i.e., to take a worthy position in the community of gods). However, in the prophecy the ancient myth has already been reinterpreted: drought, crop failure and infertility appear as the punishment that Yahweh imposes on people for their negligence in building the temple. However, the ancient myth is clearly visible through this new interpretation.

The myth about the fight between Yahweh and the Serpent Livyatan (Leviathan) was widely known. The prophet Isaiah (27:1) says:

On that day Yahweh will bring down
Your sword is heavy, and huge, and strong
on Livyatan, the fleeing Serpent,
and on Livyatan, the writhing Serpent,
and he will slay the dragon that is in the sea.

In the book of Job (40:20-41:2), Yahweh boasts:

Will you pull out Livyatan with a fishing rod?
and with a rope you will lower his tongue,
will you put a ring on his nose?
and will you pierce his jaw with a hook?
Will he beg you a lot
or speak to you meekly?
Will he make a contract with you?
will you take him as an eternal slave?
Will you amuse yourself with him like a bird?
and will you bind it for your young women?
Will /your/ comrades sell it?
will it be divided among the Phoenicians?
Will you pierce his skin with a harpoon?
and a sharp fisherman's fish - his head?
Place your palms on it
remember the battle
do not continue!
Behold, hope is deceptive:
and did /anyone/ meet his gaze
won't fall?
There is no brave man who can awaken him;
Who is he who will stand before Me?

These pagan myths are also mentioned in Psalm 74:13-15:

You cut the sea with your strength,
cut off the heads of the serpents above the waters!
You smashed the heads of Livyatan,
gave it as food to the people of the desert!
You cut the source and the streams,
You have dried up the mighty rivers.

In Old Testament mythology, Yahweh is represented as the king and leader of Israel (see 1 Sam. 8:6). His usual epithet is: “Yahweh Tsevaot”, i.e. "Yahweh of Hosts"; from this, through a Greekized reproduction of the Hebrew tsevaot, the formula “Lord of Hosts” subsequently arose. Yahweh leads the Israelites in battle against their enemies (see 1 Sam. 4:4-6), he leads them to the Promised Land and destroys their enemies. In the legend about the commander Yiftah (Yephthai), Yahweh appears as a strictly and exclusively Israeli god, similar to the gods of other nations. Addressing the Ammonite king, Yiftah says (Judg. 11:24): “Do you not own what Kemosh your god gave you as your possession? And what Yahweh our God gave you as your possession we own.” . However, at the same time he is “a great God and a great king over all gods” (Ps. 94:3), “the god of gods” (Ps. 50:1), i.e. the head of the pantheon, and “the great king over all the earth” (Ps. 47:3). A study of the book of Psalms made it possible to establish that in Judea the feast of the accession of Yahweh was celebrated annually; the reproduction of the myths mentioned above, either in the form of a theatrical performance, or through recitation and singing, was, in all likelihood, part of his ritual.

Relatively recently published inscriptions from Khirbet el-Qoma and ostracons from Kuntillat Ajrud showed that in the 8th-7th centuries. BC e. (the time to which they date) Asherah passed into the place of Yahweh's consort. Ostracons from Kuntillat Ajrud also indicate that there were various hypostases of Yahweh: Yahweh of Samaria (which corresponds to Taurus of Samaria in the Old Testament), Yahweh of Teman and, probably, others.

An appeal to the Ugaritic poetic narratives already mentioned above shows that the image of Yahweh in the polytheistic Jewish pantheon is parallel to the Ugaritic image of the Strongman Balu (otherwise: Haddu). Both of them are kings of the universe; both are warrior gods, thunderers, givers of fire, ensuring fertility. In the Ugaritic poems, the Strongman Balu is a horseman riding on a cloud. But in Psalm 104:3 Yahweh is depicted as

making the clouds his chariot,
walking on the wings of the wind.

Likewise in Psalm 68:5.

The myths in which the Strongman Baloo plays a central role show striking similarities in plot with Judeo-Israelite pagan myths. This is primarily a myth about the struggle of the Strongman Balu with the god of death Mutu. Here Balu is a dying and resurrecting god, along with whom nature dies and is resurrected. Another myth is about the construction of a House for Balu, which makes it possible to exercise his functions as a rain-giver and thunderer, as well as his royal power over the gods and the entire Universe. Another myth is about the victory of the Strongman Balu over Yammu, the god of the sea and the water element, and Balu personifies the universal world order, while Yammu represents the dark, destructive forces of the universe. Finally, there were myths about the fight between the Strongman Balu and the Serpent. Let us also note that the Strongman Balu often appears in Ugaritic texts in the guise of a calf; but Yahweh was also worshiped in the form of a calf. No wonder: Taurus is the embodiment of strength and power.

This parallelism is, of course, not accidental; it arises because the mythological ideas of the Ugaritians, Israelites and other peoples of the Syrian-Palestinian region were common. And this community was a consequence of a common way of life and cultural traditions.

Let us note another remarkable fact: one of the main gods of the Phoenician city of Byblos was called Ievo. There is reason to believe that here we have a local version of the cult of Yahweh, which developed independently outside of Israeli society on the basis of ideas common to the entire region.

Social processes in the kingdoms of Judah and Israel in the first half of the 1st millennium BC. e. brought to life a powerful social movement directed against the ruling elite - aristocrats and rich people, in defense of the ruined and oppressed peasantry - that “people of the Country”, from whom land, means of subsistence and personal freedom were taken away in various ways. The actions of the “people of the Country” against rapists and enslavers have repeatedly led to a sharp aggravation of the political situation, coups, the overthrow of some kings and the enthronement of others.

The ideology of this movement was reflected in the preaching of the Old Testament prophets. It was based on the idea that Yahweh was from time immemorial not only the main god of the ancient Israeli pantheon, but also the only god of Israel. The cults of other gods are a falling away from Yahweh, a betrayal of him. The Old Testament prophets denounced the universal disorder, violence and oppression reigning in this world; they predicted punishment for villains and oppressors. The evil that reigns in Judeo-Israelite society is, according to the prophets, a consequence of violation of the will of Yahweh, his commandments and commands, a consequence of betrayal of the veneration of Yahweh as the only god of Israel and even the only god in general, a consequence of the fact that the Israelis turned to the cult of other gods (abomination and wickedness, according to the concepts of the prophets), and the misfortunes and troubles that befall Israel are God’s punishment for these crimes. The establishment of social justice and general prosperity was to be realized primarily as a consequence of the “return” to the supposedly primordial monotheism of Yahweh and the implementation of his teachings.

The final defeat of Judeo-Israelite paganism was caused by the religious reform of the Jewish king Josiah (621 BC), which embodied the ideas of the prophets. As a regulator of the entire life of society, she approved the teachings of Yahweh, embodied in a book “found” (this is the official version) during the renovation of the Jerusalem Temple.

The monotheism of Yahweh in the Judeo-Israeli religion arises as a result of the fusion of the images of Yahweh and the supreme god El, and Yahweh acquires the features inherent in El. All traditions that talk about El begin to be perceived as relating to Yahweh, and a generalized image of Yahweh-Elohim (“Yahweh-God”) arises, embodying this inextricable unity. All forces of nature are perceived as being under the control of Yahweh alone, and everything that happens is perceived as happening according to his will. The cults of other gods with their inherent rituals were deliberately eradicated, even to the point of destroying temples and priesthood. In mythology, a central place is occupied by pseudo-historical legends about the patriarchs, the mythical ancestors of ancient Israel and the exodus from Egypt. But they are not important here in themselves; this is, in essence, a story about the establishment of an alliance between Yahweh and his people, about the proclamation of the teachings of Yahweh in the mythical past. Pagan myths Yahweh is pushed into the background and gradually forgotten.

This is how the idea of ​​Jewish monotheism was formed. About the social basis of monotheism, F. Engels wrote: “... a single god could never have appeared without a single king... the unity of God controlling numerous natural phenomena... is only a reflection of a single eastern despot, who apparently or really unites people with hostile, conflicting interests."

The Canaanite-Amorite subgroup of the northwestern group of the Semitic language family includes Ugaritic, Amorite, Phoenician, Moabite, Ammonite, Hebrew and several other languages.
. All references to the Old Testament in the article are given according to the traditional Jewish canonical (so-called Masoretic) text. Correspondences of the Synodal translation (if there are discrepancies) are indicated in square brackets. All Old Testament and other ancient texts are quoted in the translation of the author of the article.
. Sachau E. Aramaische Papyrus und Ostraca aus einer Militarkolonie zu Elephantine. Lpz., 1911, N 18.
. Heights were the name given to sanctuaries where sacrifices were made to the gods.
. Tenants were called incomplete settlers.
. Dever W. S. Iron Age Epigraphic Material From the Area of ​​Khirbet el-Kom. - Hebrew Union College Annual, vol. 40-41. Philadelphia, 1969-1970, p. 139-204.
. EmertonJ. A. New Light on Israelite Religion: The Implications of the Inscription from Kuntillet Ajrud. -Zeitschrift fur die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft. Bd. 94. V., 1982, S. 1-20.
. Marx K., Engels F. Soch., vol. 27, p. 56.

Judaism is one of the oldest religions in the world and the oldest of the so-called Abrahamic religions, which, in addition to it, includes Christianity and Islam. The history of Judaism is inextricably linked with the Jewish people and extends back centuries, at least three thousand years. This religion is also considered the oldest of all those that proclaimed the worship of one God - a monotheistic cult instead of worship of pantheons of different gods.

The emergence of faith in Yahweh: a religious tradition

The exact time when Judaism arose has not been established. The adherents of this religion themselves attribute its appearance to approximately the 12-13th centuries. BC e., when on Mount Sinai the leader of the Jews, Moses, who led the Jewish tribes from Egyptian slavery, received Revelation from the Almighty, and a Covenant was concluded between the people and God. This is how the Torah appeared - in the broadest sense of the word, written and oral instruction in the laws, commandments and requirements of the Lord in relation to his fans. A detailed description of these events is reflected in the book of Genesis, the authorship of which is also attributed to Moses by Orthodox Jews and which forms part of the written Torah.

A scientific view of the origins of Judaism

However, not all scientists are ready to support the above version. Firstly, because the very Jewish interpretation of the history of man’s relationship with God includes a long tradition of honoring the God of Israel before Moses, starting with the forefather Abraham, who, according to various estimates, lived in the period from the 21st century. to the 18th century BC e. Thus, the origins of the Jewish cult are lost in time. Secondly, it is difficult to say when the pre-Jewish religion became Judaism proper. A number of researchers attribute the emergence of Judaism to much later times, right up to the era of the second Temple (mid-first millennium BC). According to their conclusions, the religion of Yahweh, the god professed by the Jews, was not monotheism from the very beginning. Its origins lie in the tribal cult called Yahwism, which is characterized as a special form of polytheism - monolatry. With such a system of views, the existence of many gods is recognized, but veneration is given to only one - one’s divine patron based on the fact of birth and territorial settlement. Only later did this cult transform into a monotheistic doctrine, and thus Judaism appeared - the religion that we know today.

History of Yahwism

As already mentioned, God Yahweh is the national God of the Jews. Their entire culture and religious traditions are built around it. But in order to understand what Judaism is, let us briefly touch on its sacred history. According to Jewish belief, Yahweh is the only true God who created the entire world, including the solar system, the earth, all its flora, fauna and, finally, the first pair of people - Adam and Eve. At the same time, the first commandment for man was given - not to touch the fruits of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. But people violated the divine command and were expelled from paradise for this. Further history is characterized by the oblivion of the true God by the descendants of Adam and Eve and the emergence of paganism - gross idolatry, according to the Jews. However, from time to time the Almighty made himself felt, seeing the righteous in the corrupt human community. Such was, for example, Noah - the man from whom people again settled on the earth after the Flood. But Noah’s descendants quickly forgot the Lord, starting to worship other gods. This continued until God called Abraham, a resident of Ur of the Chaldeans, with whom he entered into a Covenant, promising to make him the father of many nations. Abraham had a son Isaac and a grandson Jacob, who are traditionally revered as patriarchs - the ancestors of the Jewish people. The last one - Jacob - had twelve sons. By God's providence it happened that eleven of them were sold into slavery by the twelfth, Joseph. But God helped him, and over time Joseph became the second person in Egypt after Pharaoh. The family reunion took place during a time of terrible famine, and therefore all the Jews, at the invitation of Pharaoh and Joseph, went to live in Egypt. When the royal patron died, another pharaoh began to brutalize Abraham's descendants, forcing them to do hard work and killing newborn boys. This slavery continued for four hundred years until God finally called Moses to free his people. Moses led the Jews out of Egypt, and at the command of the Lord, forty years later they entered the Promised Land - modern Palestine. There, waging bloody wars with idolaters, the Jews established their state and even received a king from the Lord - first Saul, and then David, whose son Solomon built the great shrine of Judaism - the temple of Yahweh. The latter was destroyed in 586 by the Babylonians, and then rebuilt by order of Tire the Great (in 516). The second temple lasted until 70 AD. e., when it was burned during the Jewish War by the troops of Titus. Since that time it has not been restored, and worship has ceased. It is important to note that in Judaism there are not many temples - this building can only be one and only in one place - on the temple mount in Jerusalem. Therefore, for almost two thousand years, Judaism has existed in a unique form - in the form of a rabbinic organization led by learned laymen.

Judaism: Basic Ideas and Concepts

As already mentioned, the Jewish faith recognizes only one and only God - Yahweh. In fact, the true meaning of his name was lost after the destruction of the temple by Titus, so "Yahweh" is simply an attempt at reconstruction. And she did not gain popularity in Jewish circles. The fact is that in Judaism there is a ban on pronouncing and writing the sacred four-letter name of God - the Tetragrammaton. Therefore, from ancient times it was replaced in conversation (and even in Holy Scripture) with the word “Lord.”

Another important feature is that Judaism is the religion of strictly one nation - the Jews. Therefore, it is a rather closed religious system, which is not so easy to get into. Of course, in history there are examples of the adoption of Judaism by representatives of other nations and even entire tribes and states, but in general, Jews are skeptical about such practices, insisting that the Sinai covenant applies only to the descendants of Abraham - the chosen Jewish people.

Jews believe in the coming of the Moshiach - an outstanding messenger of God, who will return Israel to its former glory, spread the teachings of the Torah throughout the world and even restore the temple. In addition, Judaism has a belief in the resurrection of the dead and the Last Judgment. In order to righteously serve God and know him, the people of Israel were given the Tanakh by the Almighty - the sacred canon of books, starting with the Torah and ending with the revelations of the prophets. The Tanakh is known in Christian circles as the Old Testament. Of course, Jews categorically disagree with this assessment of their Scripture.

According to the teachings of the Jews, God cannot be depicted, therefore in this religion there are no sacred images - icons, statues, etc. Artistic art is not at all what Judaism is famous for. We can also briefly mention the mystical teachings of Judaism - Kabbalah. This, if we rely not on legends, but on scientific data, is a very late product of Jewish thought, but no less outstanding. Kabbalah views creation as a series of divine emanations and manifestations of a number-letter code. Kabbalistic theories, among other things, even recognize the fact of transmigration of souls, which distinguishes this tradition from a number of other monotheistic, and especially Abrahamic, religions.

Commandments in Judaism

The commandments of Judaism are widely known in world culture. They are closely connected with the name of Moses. This is truly the true ethical treasure that Judaism brought to the world. The main ideas of these commandments come down to religious purity - worship of the one God and love for him and to a socially righteous life - honoring parents, social justice and integrity. However, in Judaism there is a much more expanded list of commandments, called mitzvot in Hebrew. There are 613 such mitzvot. This is believed to correspond to the number of parts of the human body. This list of commandments is divided into two: prohibitive commandments, numbering 365, and imperative commandments, of which there are only 248. The generally accepted list of mitzvot in Judaism belongs to the famous Maimonides, an outstanding Jewish thinker.

Traditions

The centuries-old development of this religion has also shaped the traditions of Judaism, which are strictly observed. Firstly, this applies to holidays. Among the Jews, they are timed to coincide with certain days of the calendar or lunar cycle and are designed to preserve the people’s memory of certain events. The most important holiday of all is Passover. The command to observe it was given, according to the Torah, by God himself during the exodus from Egypt. That is why Passover is timed to coincide with the liberation of the Jews from Egyptian captivity and the passage through the Red Sea into the desert, from where the people were later able to reach the Promised Land. Also known is the holiday of Sukkot, another important event that Judaism celebrates. Briefly, this holiday can be described as a remembrance of the Jews’ journey through the desert after the exodus. This journey lasted 40 years instead of the initially promised 40 days - as punishment for the sin of the golden calf. Sukkot lasts seven days. At this time, Jews are required to leave their homes and live in huts, which is what the word “Sukkot” means. Jews also have many other important dates that are celebrated with celebrations, special prayers and rituals.

In addition to holidays, there are fasts and days of mourning in Judaism. An example of such a day is Yom Kippur - the day of atonement, prefiguring the Last Judgment.

There are also a huge number of other traditions in Judaism: wearing sidelocks, circumcision of male children on the eighth day of birth, a special kind of attitude towards marriage, etc. For believers, these are important customs that Judaism imposes on them. The basic ideas of these traditions are consistent either directly with the Torah or with the Talmud, the second most authoritative book after the Torah. They are often quite difficult for non-Jews to understand and comprehend in the modern world. However, it is they who shape the culture of Judaism today, based not on temple worship, but on the synagogue principle. A synagogue, by the way, is a meeting of the Jewish community on a Sabbath or holiday for prayer and reading the Torah. The same word also refers to the building where believers gather.

Saturday in Judaism

As already mentioned, one day per week is allocated for synagogue worship - Saturday. This day is generally a sacred time for Jews, and believers are especially zealous in observing its statutes. One of the ten basic commandments of Judaism prescribes keeping and honoring this day. Breaking the Sabbath is considered a serious offense and requires atonement. Therefore, not a single devout Jew will work or generally do anything that is forbidden to do on this day. The sanctity of this day is associated with the fact that, having created the world in six days, the Almighty rested on the seventh and prescribed this to all his admirers. The seventh day is Saturday.

Judaism and Christianity

Since Christianity is a religion that claims to be the successor of Judaism through the fulfillment of the prophecies of the Tanakh about the Moshiach on Jesus Christ, the relations of Jews with Christians have always been ambiguous. These two traditions especially moved away from each other after the Jewish conclave imposed a herem, that is, a curse, on Christians in the 1st century. The next two thousand years were a time of enmity, mutual hatred, and often persecution. For example, Archbishop Cyril of Alexandria expelled a huge Jewish diaspora from the city in the 5th century. The history of Europe is replete with such relapses. Today, in the era of the heyday of ecumenism, the ice has gradually begun to melt, and dialogue between representatives of the two religions is beginning to improve. Although among broad layers of believers on both sides there is still distrust and alienation. Judaism is difficult for Christians to understand. The basic ideas of the Christian church are such that the Jews are charged with the sin of the crucifixion of Christ. Since ancient times, the Church has represented Jews as Christ-killers. It is difficult for Jews to find a way to dialogue with Christians because for them, Christians clearly represent heretics and followers of the false messiah. In addition, centuries of oppression taught the Jews not to trust Christians.

Judaism today

Modern Judaism is a fairly large (about 15 million) religion. It is characteristic that at its head there is no single leader or institution that would have sufficient authority for all Jews. Judaism is spread almost everywhere in the world and consists of several denominations that differ from each other in the degree of religious conservatism and the peculiarities of their doctrine. The strongest core is represented by representatives of Orthodox Jewry. The Hasidim are quite close to them - very conservative Jews with an emphasis on mystical teaching. Following are several Reform and Progressive Jewish organizations. And on the very periphery there are communities of Messianic Jews who, like Christians, recognize the authenticity of the messianic calling of Jesus Christ. They themselves consider themselves Jews and, to one degree or another, observe the main Jewish traditions. However, traditional communities deny them the right to be called Jews. Therefore, Judaism and Christianity are forced to divide these groups in half.

Spread of Judaism

The influence of Judaism is strongest in Israel, where about half of all the world's Jews live. Another approximately forty percent comes from North American countries - the USA and Canada. The rest are settled in other regions of the planet.

Pagan rituals in Russian Christianity

It is generally accepted that pagan rituals in Rus' were brutally destroyed by the Christian Church. This is wrong. Kupala and Maslenitsa games, Yuletide and Trinity folk festivals, which preserved the pagan antiquity of burning straw effigies of Maslenitsa, jumping over the fire on Ivan Kupala, mummers going home and caroling during Christmas week, remained in Rus' almost untouched. Moreover, Christian great holidays were combined with pagan ritual games, which had nothing to do with the theology of Orthodoxy, but were tolerated by the Church and preserved as fun and entertainment dear to the Russian heart. At the same time, many pagan rituals became part of official Christian rituals.

The sacred responsibilities of the Magi were taken over by Christian priests, who turned to God with prayers for the harvest, rain and an end to the drought, for healing the sick and helping those in need. The consecration of the house and barn, livestock, and harvest passed to them. The latter is evidenced by the three August Saviors: honey, apple and bread, when part of the collected honey, apples, flour and bread is brought to the church for consecration. In essence, this is a purely pagan thanksgiving to God. The three Saviors in the church calendar mark different events in church history: on the Honey Savior, August 14, the carrying of the Life-giving Cross of the Lord is celebrated, on the Apple Savior, on August 19, the Transfiguration of the Lord Jesus Christ on Mount Tabor is celebrated, on August 29, on the Bread and Nut Savior, is commemorated transfer of the miraculous image of the Lord Jesus Christ to Constantinople. But in popular memory these days are associated with the sacrifice of the fruits of the earth to the All-Merciful God for his help and protection in agriculture - a purely pagan ritual. The decoration of Christian churches with fir trees at Christmas and birch trees at Trinity also goes back to the pagan tradition. The echoes of the ancient cults of worship of nature and the tree of life rejoice in the hearts of Christians and pagans alike. Moreover, from childhood we get used to looking at the decoration of trees on these holidays as a sacred rite and, as adults, we expect a miracle and raise our children in this wonderful tradition.

Christian rites also included pagan rituals of burying the dead. Pagan lamentation was replaced by a funeral service, but crying was preserved among the people almost everywhere. The Christian Church legalized and funeral feast - a pagan ritual funeral meal, at which a bowl of water and a funeral pancake were placed for the deceased, replaced in modern times by a glass of vodka covered with a piece of bread. The church has preserved the custom of carrying the body forward feet first, so that, according to pagan beliefs, the deceased would cover his trail with his hair and his spirit could not find its way back. For this same, essentially pagan, purpose, the relatives of the deceased should throw clods of earth into the grave onto the coffin, as a final farewell to him without return. Even hanging mirrors in the house so that the spirit of the deceased does not get caught in its reflection is a pagan custom that has been preserved to this day, which none of the Christian missionaries even thought of fighting.

In modern wedding rituals, there are pagan customs of showering the newlyweds with hops and money and the bride and groom walking along a spread towel - a symbolic path of life. Until now, at a Russian wedding feast, the newlyweds are seated on a bear's fur coat turned outward for a rich and abundant life, and this is a remnant of the ancient Slavic belief in the protection of the pagan totem - the bear. The eating of ritual bread and salt by the young, offered to the elders in the family, is also a legacy of paganism. The Christian thing in the wedding ceremony is only the wedding. The pagan folk tradition existed unhindered and is still preserved among Russian Christians and is the most beautiful part of a wedding.

The pagan cults of fire and water and the ancient belief in their cleansing power found their place in Christian rituals. The cult of fire entered the church in the form of the custom of lighting candles and lamps, which sanctify every action of Christians in churches and protect against evil spirits. The cult of water was transformed into Christian rituals of blessing of water, pilgrimage to holy springs, and treatment with holy water.

Celebrations of saints were combined with days of special worship of pagan gods. So the day of Ivan Kupala (Kupala is not a pagan deity, as we are convinced today, but a literal Slavic translation of the Greek name for John the Baptist) coincided with the ritual of purification by fire in honor of the solar deity Dazhdbog. Celebrations to the thunderer Perun were transformed on the day of St. Elijah the Prophet, who, according to popular belief, rode a chariot across the sky and sent thunder and lightning across the world. Christian veneration of holy icons surprisingly replaced the custom of worshiping pagan deities. The cult of birthing goddesses was replaced by the worship of the Mother of God, whose prayers ensured a successful outcome of childbirth. The Mother of God was also asked to grant crops and livestock offspring. The numerous miraculous Mother of God icons that are worshiped in Rus' have archetypally replaced the host of women in labor who, according to the Russians, were the patronesses of motherhood and abundance in life. This, in our opinion, explains the inexplicable fact from the point of view of rationalism of the varied veneration of various types of icons of the Mother of God - Iveron, Sovereign, Vladimir, Fedorov, Tolga, Kazan, Three-Handed, Soothe My Sorrows, All-Tsarina, Joy of All Who Sorrow, and many others, to to each of which Christians turn with special petitions: to heal from blindness - to Kazan, to help in childbirth - to Fedorovskaya, to save from cancer - to the All-Tsaritsa... The Mother of God appeared in various saving images and thereby demonstrated visible omnipotence, strengthened by the sacred semi-pagan faith of the Russian people to the miracle and help of God through the prayers of the Mother of God.

Pagan worship of the seasonal changes of nature was included in the Christian folk calendar, where Christian saints, and not pagan deities, patronized economic affairs and the harvest, where they also became observers of good and bad weather for crops and livestock. The name day of horses was considered to be the day of Saints Frol and Laurus; cattle were blessed on St. Blasius, who was nicknamed “the bestial god,” behind him lurks echoes of the cult of the pagan deity Volos. Poultry was blessed on the Annunciation, and bees on the day of Saints Zosima and Sabbatius. The consecration of the trees was timed to coincide with Lent - the blessing of willows. Weather signs were assigned to other saints: Vasily the dropper - March 13, Avdotya the wet hem - March 14, Fedul the windy - April 18, Spiridon the solstice - December 25. The days of agricultural work were associated with the saints: Semyon the Early Tiller - May 10, Fyodor the Zhitnik - May 29, Fedot the Oatmeal - May 31, Falalei the Borage - June 2, Akulina the Buckwheat - June 26...

Christian religious teachers showed great wisdom in not pushing away from the church everything that was close, dear and familiar to the people into whose lives the new religion was included. Among the Russian people, such facts of paganism remain alive as belief in omens, the desire to turn away (“beware of me!”) or to protect yourself from the evil eye and evil spirits (“pah-pah-pah, so as not to jinx it”), the familiar “knock on wood” "...

How pagan ritual names were transformed in Christian culture can be evidenced by the words enchant And pray . Word enchant betrays its original meaning by a root going back to chare. Ancient sculptural statues, found by archaeologists in mounds and burial grounds, in pagan settlements and on temples, often have the appearance of a woman sitting over a chara or cup. Hexing water is still a living practice of witchcraft. The ritual of pagan sacred rites with water, apparently, was called the word enchant , perform sacred acts over the spell. This sense of the word in fragments has been preserved in the language, denoting the action of supernatural forces used sorcerer to influence other people.

The fate of words turned out completely differently pray And prayer . According to the dictionary of Russian folk dialects pray means “to cut, kill, sacrifice,” and the words molina, prayer room denote ritual dishes, pies; they were baked on holy holidays, and prayers were read over them. In wedding ceremonies prayer book - This is wheat bread with decorations, which was used to bless newlyweds. Pray in Russian folk dialects it meant having a joint ritual meal: praying for porridge, praying for Easter, praying for a cow. By prayer funeral food was called kutia, baked lamb at a home holiday in honor of the patron saint. In all likelihood, words with roots say – beg And grind initially there was a general meaning divide, chop- words of one original root. Means, prayer this is something separated from the whole – harvest, offspring of livestock – for the sake of sacrifice to deities when performing ritual actions in pagan times. Apparently, the existence of the word pray values kill, slaughter a sacrificial animal is a legacy of paganism.

So modern Christian words pray, prayer Previously, there was an ancient initial principle - pagan sacrifice. Then the words spoken during sacrifice and addressed to the deities also began to be called a verb pray. It was in this sense that the word passed to Christians to designate communion with God, to pronounce Christian prayer, in which there were no traces of ancient pagan sacrifices. This is how the chain turns out: first pray - this is to separate something from one’s wealth for sacrifice to a pagan deity, then - the ritual actions associated with such a sacrifice, and, finally, prayer - these are the words addressed to the deity when making a sacrifice. This is the final meaning of the word prayer . Prayer entered the Christian liturgical rite as a special name for communion with God.

The combination of the Slavic pagan picture of the world with the Christian worldview gave rise to an amazing phenomenon called Russian Orthodoxy . The uniqueness of the Russian Orthodox view of the world, in contrast to other Christian cultures, consists of conscientiousness and sincerity, faith in the good providence of fate and the absence of fear of death, fervent worship of shrines and patient expectation of a miracle, demand for sins from oneself and the willingness to repentantly atone for the evil committed. The main thing that Russian Orthodoxy delights other peoples with is its joyful aspiration towards God, whom Russians contemplate as the Source of light, truth and love, and not as a formidable Judge and Avenger. All this was given to us by a fusion of the meanings of our native dialect, which preserves pagan antiquity in its roots, and Christian dogmas, which over the past thousand years were learned by the Russian people from divine services and the Gospel.

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Pagan Roots So, Gothic began in Saint-Denis, a royal abbey believed to have been built on the spot where Saint Dionysius died, from whom it took its name. The abbey, dating back to the 4th century, housed the tomb of the French kings,

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Arian influence in ancient Russian Christianity A.G. Kuzmin exposed the very essence of the problem, saying that “ultimately, it is the question of Arianism that is pivotal in understanding the relationship of Old Russian Christianity with the Cyril and Methodius tradition.”

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Prayer. It is the most common ritual in Judaism. In the minds of Jewish believers, the word of prayer and chant reach heaven and influence the decisions of the inhabitants of heaven. During morning prayer (except Saturdays and holidays), the believer is required to wear tefillin (phylacteries) - two small cubic leather boxes with straps - on his forehead and left hand. The boxes contain quotes from the Torah written on parchment. The believer is also obliged to pray “betsibur” three times a day, i.e. perform divine services in the presence of a prayer dozen, a minyan (community quorum) and, in addition, accompany any action (eating, taking care of natural needs, etc.) with praise to Yahweh. The believer is ordered to thank the Almighty daily for the fact that God did not create him as a pagan, a woman and an Amhaarian.

Mezuzah and tzitzit. Judaism requires believers to hang a mezuzah and wear tzitzit. Mezuzah - a piece of parchment on which verses from Deuteronomy are written; the rolled scroll is placed in a wooden or metal case and attached to the door frame. Tzitzit - tassels made of woolen threads attached to the edges of the arbakanfot, i.e. to a quadrangular piece of material worn by religious Jews under their outer clothing.

Kapores. The magical rite of kapores is performed on the night before the day of judgment and consists of a man twirling a rooster three times over his head (a woman a chicken), saying a special prayer three times. The bird is then slaughtered and the meat eaten on the night of the end of Judgment Day.

Lulav. The ancient rite of lulav is performed during prayer on the days of the autumn Jewish holiday of tabernacles (Sukkot). The worshiper must hold a lulav in one hand, consisting of a palm branch tied with three myrtle and two willow branches, and in the other hand an esrog, a special type of lemon, and shake the air with them, which supposedly serves as a magical means to summon wind and rain Tashlich. On the day of the Jewish New Year (Rosh Hashanah), believers gather near the river, read passages from the Old Testament book of Micah and sing religious hymns. While reading prayers, believers empty their pockets and throw crumbs of bread into the water, believing that they are thereby freed from sins. Kosher n clubs. According to Jewish belief, poverty is divided into permitted (kosher) and unlawful (trefna). You can eat the meat of ruminants and poultry, slaughtered according to the rules of she-khita (ritual slaughter). It is forbidden to consume meat and dairy foods at the same time. Pork is a taboo food.

Circumcision. The fulfillment of this rite in Judaism is given special significance: the fulfillment of this great covenant of Yahweh is considered the guarantee of the religious exclusivity of the Jewish people. Ablution. The believer is prescribed on the eve of Saturday and other religious holidays to wash in a mikveh - a specially equipped pool with rain or spring water, preceding each prayer by washing his hands.