Explanatory Bible of the Old and New Testaments

Explanatory Bible of the Old Testament Explanatory Bible of the New Testament “Explanatory Bible” (interpretation of the Bible), published under the editorship of prof. Alexander Pavlovich Lopukhin (1852–1904). The first twelve-volume edition was published in St. Petersburg, from 1904 to 1913, as a free supplement to the magazine “Wanderer”. One volume was published annually, and in 1912 and 1913 - two volumes. The start of publication of the Explanatory Bible was announced in the October 1903 issue of the Wanderer. In the annotation of the upcoming edition, in particular, it was said that when starting this publication, the editors believe that they are meeting the most persistent and urgent needs of our clergy and the entire society. Every year the Bible becomes more and more widespread both in society and among the clergy, and the time is not far when it will become a reference book in every pious home. To give the pastors of the Church, as well as all lovers of reading the Word of God in general, a guide to the correct understanding of the Bible, the justification and defense of the truth from its distortion by false teachers, as well as a guide to the understanding of many unclear places in it - this is the purpose of this publication.” The “Explanatory Bible,” therefore, is by no means a strictly scientific publication, because the authors’ desire for spiritual edification of readers, as well as the desire to support the reliability of the Bible with reference to data from positive science, comes to the fore. The relationship between the scientific and spiritual-educational approaches, as well as the level of commentary, varies from book to book, because a large number of authors, different in their scientific level and vision of the problem, participated in their writing. Work on the Explanatory Bible began under the editorship of professor of theology Alexander Pavlovich Lopukhin. But, unfortunately, Alexander Pavlovich died at the dawn of his creative powers in August 1904, and work on this unique publication was continued by his successors. The last volume was published less than a year before the First World War. The death of the scientist, fortunately, did not lead to the cessation of his main publishing projects. Continued by the successors of A.P. Lopukhin's publication of the Explanatory Bible was completed in 1913. Over the course of ten years, twelve volumes were published, consistently offering the reader commentaries and interpretations of biblical texts on all the books of the Old and New Testaments. Alexander Pavlovich Lopukhin himself only managed to prepare a commentary on the Pentateuch of Moses, which compiled the first volume of the “Explanatory Bible”. Starting with the historical books of the Old Testament of the Bible (the books of Joshua, Judges, Ruth, the books of Kings), the work was undertaken by outstanding Russian biblical scholars, professor of the Kyiv Theological Academy priest Alexander Aleksandrovich Glagolev, professor of the St. Petersburg Theological Academy Fyodor Gerasimovich Eleonsky, professor of the Kazan Theological Academy Vasily Ivanovich Protopopov, professor of the St. Petersburg Theological Academy Academy Ivan Gavrilovich Troitsky, professor archimandrite (later bishop) Joseph, master of theology priest Alexander Vasilyevich Petrovsky, professor of the Kyiv Theological Academy Vladimir Petrovich Rybinsky, professor Vasily Nikanorovich Myshtsyn, professor of the Moscow Academy Alexander Ivanovich Pokrovsky, professor of the Kyiv Theological Academy Mikhail Nikolaevich Skaballanovich, teacher of the Moscow Theological Seminary Nikolai Petrovich Rozanov, teacher of the St. Petersburg Seminary Pavel Smaragdovich Tychinin, priest Dmitry Rozhdestvensky, N. Abolensky, priest Mikhail Fiveysky, K.N. Faminsky, Archpriest Nikolai Orlov. “ABC of Faith” expresses gratitude to the publishing house “Dar” for providing the text of the interpretation of the “New Testament”. Starting in 2005 to reissue this classic work of Lopukhin's Explanatory Bible, the publishing house sought to offer it to the reader in a new, more convenient and corrected form. For this purpose, commentaries on this or that passage of Holy Scripture follow directly after the biblical text (in the original they are located at the bottom of the page in small, hard-to-read font). In an effort to preserve the original text in all its originality, the editors eliminated only obvious flaws and typos, which were found in large numbers in the original edition and reproduced in the Stockholm edition of 1988. A complete edit was made of Greek and Latin words and expressions, which were found in large numbers in the text of the comments, since, unfortunately, the number of errors in them initially exceeded any acceptable measure. At the same time, in the new edition it was decided to abandon the presentation of Hebrew words in their original spelling and to use Cyrillic transcription, which, as accurately as possible, conveys the sound of the words of the Hebrew language. Moreover, an attempt was made to verify numerous (about 50,000) references to various passages of Holy Scripture found throughout the commentary, and to correct inaccuracies in the first edition of Lopukhin’s Explanatory Bible (the number of which turned out to be very significant). Thus, Lopukhin’s interpretation of the Bible in the new edition is one of the best to date. You might be interested in: