The Orthodox person is called to constant spiritual improvement, to the knowledge of the truths of the Christian doctrine, to work on his moral qualities. One of the aspects in the study of the foundations of the Orthodox faith and the main moral criteria is reading the Bible.
For an Orthodox Christian, the Bible is the most important book; it is no coincidence that in the Christian tradition it is called Holy Scripture. The texts written in the Bible are inspired. They were written by holy prophets and apostles, inspired by the Holy Spirit.
The Bible itself is a collection of many sacred texts. It consists of two bodies of sacred books, called the Old and New Testaments.
The Bible tells about the creation of the world, man, the fall of people. The Holy Scriptures give the history of the chosen people of God, the gift of the ten commandments and the Old Testament moral law, the holy prophecies about the Messiah (Jesus Christ). These stories are found in the Old Testament. The very word "covenant" can be understood as "union". That is, the Old Testament is the first covenant (union) between God and man. All the books of the Old Testament were written before the coming of Jesus Christ into the world.
The books of the New Testament narrate about the coming into the world of the promised Messiah and Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. The gospels included in the New Testament describe how the Lord accomplished the salvation of mankind through His death on the cross, tells about the miraculous resurrection of the Savior Jesus Christ. The New Testament is a kind of proclamation of the salvation of mankind, good news directed to people. Also, the New Testament books tell about the public ministry of Christ, his miracles and sermons. In addition, the New Testament corpus of the Bible includes the letters of the holy apostles to various churches and the prophecy of the Apostle John the Theologian about the fate of the world.
In the modern Synodal Bible, which is published in Russia as a priority, 50 books of the Old Testament and 27 books of the New Testament are printed. The Old Testament includes the Pentateuch of Moses, books about the history of the Jewish people during the periods of Israel's judges and kings, books of the Old Testament prophets. The New Testament includes four gospels, seven conciliar epistles of the apostles Peter, John, James and Jude, fourteen epistles of the apostle Paul, and the Revelation of John the Theologian.
The attitude of an Orthodox person to Bible tests should be reverent. The text itself is read with special attention and attitude. Through the reading of the Bible (especially the New Testament texts), the Orthodox person, as it were, communicates with the Lord Himself. It is in the Holy Scriptures that a Christian can learn important and necessary life values for himself, find answers to many everyday questions. The entire Christian Orthodox faith is based on the biblical texts of the New Testament. Therefore, a person who considers himself Orthodox should have a desire to read sacred texts as much as possible. For the Orthodox, the Bible is not just a book that can be read and put on a shelf to gather dust. This is a real gift. Over and over again, rereading the texts of Holy Scripture, a believer is able to discover new truths that are useful in the spiritual and moral improvement of his personality.
