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Orthodox Doctrine (Summary of Christian Divinity)
Metropolitan Platon of Moscow, tr. Pinkerton, 1814
2. Part 2, Section 2: Of the Holy Scriptures
The Holy Scriptures are the true word of God.
What are the Old and New Testament? and what are the Law and the Gospel?
1. The Holy Scriptures are divided into the Old and New Testament. The Old Testament contains the law, which prepares man for the perfect reception of the faith of Christ, as also the prophecies and the symbols of gospel blessings; and the New Testament reveals the fulfilment of these prophecies and symbols, and makes known the great mercy of God obtained for us by the death of Jesus Christ.
The Holy Scriptures are also divided into the Law and the Gospel. Under the term Law, we include all those passages in which God strongly requireth the exact fulfilment of his commandments; and for the breaking of which he threatens to inflict the most dreadful punishments. And by the word Gospel, is to be understood all that respects the merciful promises of God, and that love wherewith our heavenly Father hath loved us, for the sake of his well-beloved Son. Thus, for example, these words which were spoken by God to Abraham: “In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed,” belong to the gospel.
The author of the Holy Scriptures, is the Holy Spirit; for “the things of God knoweth no man but the spirit of God;” 1 Cor. ii. 11. And according to the words of St Peter, his instruments were the prophets and apostles: “For the prophecy came not, in old time, by the will of man; but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.” 2 Peter i. 21.
Evidences of the Holy Scriptures being the word of God.
2. The real Christian is convinced, that the Holy Scriptures are the word of God, from the internal effects which he feels them produce in himself on reading them, or on hearing the great doctrines which they contain. But as, it is possible, that every one, and particularly the unlearned, may not feel the power of this operation within himself; there is, besides, sufficient evidence to support this truth, in the following considerations: 1st, The most convincing and well-known fulfilment of the prophecies. Such prophecies, for example, as that of the patriarch Jacob, (Gen. xlix. 10.) concerning the future kingdom of Judah, and its continuance till the coming of the Messiah: those of Daniel concerning the future changes that should take place in the monarchies of the world, with a prediction of the most particular events; Chap. ii. 31, and viii. 8. Also of the coming and sufferings of Christ, and the abolition of the sacrifices of the Old Testament; Chap. ix. 24: those of Isaiah and of Malachi, in regard to the conversion of the Gentiles to the knowledge of the true God, Isaiah ii. and xi. and Mat. i. 10; and likewise the prophecies of Christ himself, respecting the destruction of Jerusalem, and the dispersion of the Jews, Mat. xxiv. 2, and xxiii. 35; together with a great number of other predictions, which I shall not here particularize.
The fulfilment of these prophecies has been so clear, that the whole world bears incontestible evidence of it. And as none but God can know what a day may bring forth, not to speak of five hundred or a thousand years, so, without doubt, those writings which contain such predictions ought to be respected as divine.
2d, The superior dignity of the doctrines, and the holiness of the commands. The Holy Scriptures reason so sublimely of the majesty of God, and of the mysteries of our salvation, that it is impossible to imagine any thing more exalted. The worship therein required of us, is such as becometh God to receive, and reasonable creatures to give; for we are commanded to worship in sincerity, and a contrite spirit is represented to be a most acceptable offering to God.
In regard to the commands, they are most holy, on this account, because they prescribe to man the most exalted way to perfection. They require us to love God with all our heart and with all our soul, and not only to refrain from injuring our neighbour, but to endeavour, to the utmost of our power, to assist him in need; and this we are not to do to our friends alone, but we are to render to our very enemies acts of kindness in place of revenge; in a word, we are not only to do no evil to any one, but to avoid retaining an evil thought against our neighbour in our hearts.
In general, we ought to remark, that all the commands of Christianity are perfectly consonant to the dictates of sound reason, and in no books, written by persons ignorant of revelation, can there be found morality so pure and so applicable to the present state of man. But that in Christianity there are doctrines which transcend our comprehension, is not wonderful; for, “O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out! For who hath known the mind of the Lord, or who hath been his counsellor?” Rom. xi. 33, 34.
3d, The wonderful effects of the apostles’ preaching, which so justly excite our admiration. The apostles, though few in number, without worldly influence, but, on the contrary, poor, weak, and indigent, destitute of every kind of armour, without the powers of eloquence, merely by preaching, in a short time subdued multitudes of people under the yoke of their most holy faith; while the edicts of Emperors against their doctrine, threatenings, tortures, and the ingenious opposition and artful reasonings of sophistical philosophers, all proved insufficient to oppose them. Who does not here clearly behold the finger of God? The doctrine of the apostles also, as contained in the Holy Scriptures, agrees exactly with the other parts of holy writ; therefore, no doubt remains of the doctrines of the Christian religion having been revealed by God himself.
Moreover, if the doctrines of the apostles were not divine, then what was it that made them hold so fast by these devices, and strive to bring the children of men under their influence? Was it the desire of gain? No; for they themselves willingly forsook all that they possessed, and never endeavoured to obtain riches. Was it the hope of obtaining honours? Such hope it was impossible that they could entertain; for their Master predicted to them, that in place of honours they should meet with sufferings and deaths, and sent them out as lambs in the midst of wolves. Some, however, will perhaps say, that they were deceived through their own ignorance and simplicity. But there are no marks of ignorance to be observed in their sublime and divine writings. Again, if this was a device, it was not that of one man only, but of many, through many ages; or rather from the very foundation of the world, many had agreed to propagate the same device. Sooner, indeed, might all that is impossible have come to pass, than that this could have taken place. Hence every one ought to receive, without hesitation, the Holy Scripture as the authentic word of God. We have been the more particular on this point, because the arguments advanced prove, at the same time, the genuineness of Christian piety.
Notes
- The Slavonian version of the Bible was made in the ninth century, by two learned Greeks, Cyril and Methodius, the apostles of the Slavonians. The first edition of it was printed in Prague in 1519, and the second in Ostrog in 1581. The present version in use among the Russians is that of Ostrog, which, however, has undergone different revisions, particularly in the time of the patriarch Nikon. It was first printed at Moscow in 1663, since which period it has gone through many editions both in Moscow and Kieff. The Slavonian version of the Scriptures is almost a verbal translation from the Greek, that of the Old Testament being made from the Septuagint. The New Testament is more perspicuous, and more easily understood than the Old, of which many passages are dark, and others quite unintelligible. On this account, a modernised version is a most desirable object; for though the Bible Slavonian be the ancient language of the Russians, yet it differs so far from the modern Russ in a number of words, in the inflections of nouns, tenses of verbs, particles of speech, and grammatical construction, that comparatively few of the Russians of the present day properly understand it.
The edition printed at Ostrog in 1581, is said to have been corrected, in many passages, from an ancient manuscript, written in the time of the grand prince Vladimir, who properly may be denominated the Constantine of the Russian church; and there are still copies of the Slavonian New Testament preserved in the library belonging to the Holy Synod in Moscow, which were written in the 11th and 12th centuries. This valuable collection of Slavonian and Greek manuscripts was not destroyed at the burning of the city in 1812; for I visited that library, before I left Moscow, in September 1813. At that period, in the printing office of the Holy Synod, an edition of the Slavonian Bible, of 2400 copies in four vols. octavo, was nearly printed off, together with 3600 copies of the New Testament.
Dr Marsh, in his History of Translations, makes mention of a version of the Scriptures in the modern Russ. This, however, I believe to be a mistake, which probably arose from the following circumstance. The Emperor, Peter the Great, who was very fond of the Dutch language, got a folio edition of the Slavonian and Dutch Scriptures printed on opposite columns, the former in the modern Russ character. This differs so much from the Slavonian character, in which the Bible and all the church books are uniformly printed, that it was apt to make the superficial observer take the work for a modern translation. After the death of this great man, however, this edition, which was only modernised in character, soon disappeared, and there are but few copies of it now remaining.
See some interesting particulars concerning the Slavonian version of the Scriptures, in Dr Marsh’s translation of Michaelis’ Introduction to the New Testament, vol. ii. p. 153.