Posts Tagged ‘holy scriptures’

The names of the Twelve apostles of Christ – Feast of the Twelve Glorious and Primal Apostles in Eastern Orthodox Church (30th of June)

Wednesday, June 30th, 2021

Roman_Domitilla-Katakomben_Fresko__Christus_und_die_12_Apostel__und_Christussymbol__Chi_Rho__1
Jesus and his Twelve Apostles, fresco with the Chi-Rho symbol ☧, Catacombs of Domitilla, Rome

One day after the June 29 the Feast of The Glorious and First among Apostles Peter and Paul  on 30th of June according to so called new calendar in the Eastern Orthodox Church comes, the remembrace of Feast of the gathering of 12 Glorious apostles (Σύναξη των Αγίων Δώδεκα Αποστόλων).

Simon_ushakov_last_supper_1685

The Secret Supper (Christ and the 12 Apostles iconographer Simon Ushakov y. 1685 (Jude the Iscariot the traitor without a halo)

"The names of the 12 Holy Apostles are: Simon (called Peter), Andrew his brother, Jacob the Zabedee and John his brother, Philip and Bartholomew, Thomas and Mathew (tax collectors), James, son of Alphaeus and Levi called (Thadeus), Simon The Canonite and Jude the Iscariot who has betrayed Christ"

(Gospel of Mathew 10:2-4)

 

13 When morning came, he called his disciples to him and chose twelve of them, whom he also designated apostles: 14 Simon (whom he named Peter), his brother Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, 15 Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Simon who was called the Zealot, 16 Judas son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.

(Luke 6:13-16)

15 And in those days Peter stood up in the midst of the disciples, and said, (the number of names together were about an hundred and twenty,)

16 Men and brethren, this scripture must needs have been fulfilled, which the Holy Ghost by the mouth of David spake before concerning Judas, which was guide to them that took Jesus.

17 For he was numbered with us, and had obtained part of this ministry.

18 Now this man purchased a field with the reward of iniquity; and falling headlong, he burst asunder in the midst, and all his bowels gushed out.

19 And it was known unto all the dwellers at Jerusalem; insomuch as that field is called in their proper tongue, Aceldama, that is to say, The field of blood.

20 For it is written in the book of Psalms, Let his habitation be desolate, and let no man dwell therein: and his bishoprick let another take.

21 Wherefore of these men which have companied with us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, (Acts 1:15-26)

Synaxis_of_the_Twelve_Apostles_by_Constantinople_master_early_14th_circa_Pushkin_museum

The Synaxis of the Twelve Apostles. Russian, 14th century, Moscow Museum.

"Jesus had other desciples as well that were seventeen and other circles of desciples around each of the pupils, however they have alwasys been considered less venerable as they did not been so close to Christ and did not understand so well the mysterios of Christ's teaching and did not persevere as mcuh as the twelve and the seventeen of desciples. Those had been been distinguished among the King, those who have been the closest people to the Teacher" (Saint John Chrysostomos)

In Constantinople Saint King Constantine ( y. 274 – 337 ), has built a famous Church dedicated to the 12 Apostles. In historian documents there is data for a first time the feast is celebrated in the V-th century.

While the memory of each apostle has a separate day in the Church calendar yearly circle, they 12 apostles are sharing the same honor, because the Holy Scriptures and the Tradition glorifious their high efforts for building the Church on top of the corner stone that is Jesus Christ himsef and for their perseverance to accept martyrdom for Christ, thus to accent this they're is this special feast the Gathering of the 12 Glorious Apostles on 30th of June. As the Holy Scriptures says they're a friends of God (John 15:14), and when the Son of Man (Jesus) sits on the glory of his power, they all are to sit on 12 thrones, to judge the 12 Hebrew tribes (Mathew 19:28). 

In first centuries the Church has been feasting all the apostles together, Later she has included saint Apostle Paul, again the full list of names of the apostles are as follows:

1. Saint Apostle Peter the First Called (commemorated 29 June and 16 of January)

2. Saint apostle Andrew the First Called – as has been called by Christ together with Peter (30 November)

3.  Saint Jacob the Zebedee (30 April)

4. Saint Apostle John the Zebedee – the evangelist (26 September and 8 May)

5. Saint Apostle Philip (14 November)

6. Saint apostle Bartholomew or Nathanael (11 June and 25 August)

7. Saint apostle Thomas (6 October)

8. Saint apostle Mathew – evangelist (16 November)

9. Saint Apostle Jacob – son of Alpheus 9 October)

10. Saint Apostle Jude – fleshly brother of Christ (son of Joseph), called also Thadeus and Levi (19 June)

11. Saint Apostle Mathew (Mathias) (9 August)

12. Saint Apostle Paul  (Paul of Tarsus) (29 June)

The Church books define the feast day as the "Gathering of the Twelve", because this number of 12 apostles is initial and depics Christ essence of Completeness (as he is All in everything) Mathew (10:1-5)

 

The Lord’s prayer in Anglo Saxon (Vikings) like English and Welsh – Pater Nostra English language development 7th to 16 century

Tuesday, December 4th, 2012

The story of Christianization of the nations is one of the most fascinating stories of all times. Yet people and especially historians forgot that. Modern Anthropology is based on some mambo-jambo and some speculations on the basis of rejection of God. It is my believe that people who wish to know what has really happened in the past and have a better understanding on human history should study closely Christianity.

The Lord's prayer and studying the origin and spread among languages of the Lord's prayer is one great Anthropological standpoint. While researching on The Lord's Prayer in as many languages as I can I've stumbled on rather unique fascinating information, which gives one a glimpse on how Ancient Anglo-Saxon (Viking) English looked like?

This inspired me to come with this little article in which I want to share with other brother and sisters in Christ the blessing of hearing and listening to the Lord's prayer in Ancient languages.

In Arabic world, there are plenty of theories that the Qur'an and the ancient prayers from there contain more spiritual power than the modern translated ones. Of Course we Christians knows well the Qur'an does not possess a spiritual power in truth, so I just it just as example as many Islamic people believe that too.
The topic of which languages are more blessed than others has been in wide discussion in Christian realm, way before Islamic people had their Qu'ran written.

In IX – 7th century there was a wide spread belief that there are in practice two God inspired languages, which should be used for Christian faith (Jewish, Greek and Latin).

There were people in the ancient Church for and against the understanding of the only 3 God blessed languages in which the Holy writtings – the Holy Bible and Church Liturgical texts should be written.

God's will for humanity to use mother languages to read holy scriptures and pray as well as the existence of the Autocephalous Orthodox Churches all around the world has shown that this understanding is incorrect.

Even though this, the fact that there was a dispute on the topic had a good reason as the more ancient languages (in my view) had more spiritual deepness compared to newer developed mixed languages; besides that older languages are less mixed up, almost as a rule of thumb the more advanced a language is the more words from other languages it includes.

This is just my personal understanding and not a viewpoint of the one Holy Apostolic Church – The Orthodox Church. The reason why I think so is in the past people were more simple in their thinking and their understanding about the world. In my view simplicity and simple way of thinking allowed our ancestors to be more real and more closer to God, in a way offering them less options for evil, therefore I believe the ancient languages in which the Holy Bible and Church services are done like Church Slavonic, Jewish, Greek, Syriac, Coptic etc.

One of this ancient languages is Anglo-Saxon whose variation nowadays most of the world speaks in the face of modern English. As I felt so joyful to find and listen the Lord's prayer being recited in Anglo-Saxon and other ancient English-Germanic Languages, therein I decided to share the Lord's Prayer in Ancient English from XI-th century (from youtube) .


 

The Lords Prayer in Old English from the 11th century


 

The Lord's Prayer (Fæder ure) in Anglo Saxon (Old English)


 

The Lord's Prayer in Gaelic

 

The Lord's Prayer in Welsh


 

The Lord's Prayer in Old English

 


 

The Lord's Prayer in Old Norse


 

Heliand, Lord's Prayer – Old Saxon

 

The Lord's Prayer / Preier of Oure Lord in Recited Middle English John Wycliffe Bible


 

 

Lords Prayer in Proto-Celtic, Ancient British and Brythonic


 

 

Pater Noster in Old English-Middle English-Early Modern English


 

 

The Lord's Prayer in Old English (with scary voice and face :))

People who might enjoy this post might want to check out my previous attempt to collect Otche Nash – The Lord’s Prayer in 10 languages as sung by Church choires and prayed in the Orhodox Church

24 of May National feast of Bulgarian Education Enlightenment and Culture

Friday, May 24th, 2013

saint Cyril and Methodius holding Cyrillic Glagolic manuscript 24th of May most light Bulgarian national feast

24-th of May is one of well known newest and most bright Bulgarian national feasts. 24th of May is officially one of the most light Bulgarian feasts and there is virtually no Bulgarian who doesn't connect this feast with Celebrations related to Bulgarian Cyrillic Alphabet and the Holy brothers st., st. CYRIL and METHODIUS as well as their 5 pupils , CLEMENT, NAHUM, GORAZD, ANGELARIUS, SAVVA – known here in Bulgaria as the 7-th Holy enlighteners of the Bulgarian lands. The alphabet invented by the 2 holy brothers was with the goal of translating the Holy Scriptures in understandable language to Slavonic tribes inhabiting (Great Moravia and Panonia) big part of Bulgarian lands as well as many other regions of Eastern Europe. Today the 2 holy brothers are righteously called "Apostles of the Slavs". The two brothers devised the most ancient form of a Cyrillic language (Glagolitic Alphabet / Glagolitsa –  glagoliti means "to speak"), whose modified version the Cyrillic used to this very day in Slavonic part of Orthodox Eastern Church, which in practice nowadays makes up near half of the Eastern Orthodox Church Christian people (about 200 000 000 members) – from Bulgaria, Russia, Belarus, Serbia,  Ukraine, Croatia, Poland, Kazakhstan, Czech, Slovakia, Slovenia

Codex Zographensis Bulgarian Christian Orthodox Zographus Monastery Holy mount Athos

Page of Codex Zographensis nowadays kept in Bulgarian Zograf Monastery St. gt. martyr George

Glagolic alphabet consisted of 41 letters. Many of the letters were devised based on Greek, where others were created based on Latin, Arabic / Coptic, Hebrew  and some other not still determined languages of the time.

According to some modern research 5 pupils of st. Cyril and Methodius – st. Clement,Nahum, Gorazd, Savva and Angelarius re-formed Glagolitsa and create Cyrillic alphabet used to these days among about 450 000 000 ppl around the world. Because Cyrillic was easier for writting with time last Glagolitic manuscripts started to disappear around the middle age XV-th century. 

Asemanievo Gospel from the end of X-th XI century Glagolic and cyrillic letters

St. King Boris – The Baptizer of Bulgarian lands accepted st. Cyril and Methodius pupils and created 2 early Spiritual / Enlightenment Schools in Preslav and Ohrid. In this two spiritual centers many Church books were copied / transcribed. Many of the translations of Holy Scriptures and Living of the saints made in Preslav and Ohrid are nowadays influenced Church life in Russia, Serbia and Romania. Some of the original manuscripts produced in there are nowadays kept mainly in Russia and Serbia.

Celebrating of 24-th of May as a national and Church feast of Bulgarian Enlightenment and Bulgarian Culture started as such  in the pre-liberation from Ottoman Turkish slavery period around y. 1852. According to some historical documents the feast was first celebrated on 22 of May in still "unliberated" Bulgarian Church (which at that time belongs to Greek Patriarchy). Initially the feast was celebrated on 11th of May as one feast both celebrated in Church and nation. Later after secularization period since 1969, two feasts developed one Church official in 11-th of May and one nationwide in 24-th of May. The feast 24-th of May is celebrated on this date since 1969. Today though Bulgarian Orthodox Church marks the remembrance of holy brothers st. Cyril and Methodius on 11-th of May. Every 24-th of May there is a Holy Liturgy served asking God to bless Bulgarian nation and grant us good nation health and success in all good knowledge. In relation to Bulgarian Liberation period, there was need for writing a secular Hymn for the feast. In City of Ruse in y. 1892 Stoyan Mihailovski then a teacher in High School writes a hymn which is well known and sign even by this day by Bulgarians – the infamous "Върви народе възродени" / "Walk straight, oh renewed nation".

ХОР"БОДРА СМЯНА" – ВЪРВИ, НАРОДЕ ВЪЗРОДЕНИ!

Read Holy Bible on Linux with KDE GUI environment

Friday, April 5th, 2013

Whether you're Christian and you're into the habit to read daily a Chapter from Holy Bible and you use Linux with KDE environment on your Desktop, you definitely have to check BibleTime. BibleTime is one of Crosswire Sword Projects. The aim of project is to bring Holy Scriptures to people who spend long time in front of PC. Though Xiphos Bible reading app does the same Xiphos is build on top of GTK2 and targets GNOME users thus, if you're a KDE user and you prefer to use applications build on top of KDE's QT library it is preferable to use BibleTime.

Below is description of Debian package;

debian:~# apt-cache show bibletime|grep -i description -A 5

Description: A bible study tool for Qt
 BibleTime is a free and easy to use bible study tool.
 It uses the Qt and SWORD software libraries.
 BibleTime provides easy handling of digitized texts (Bibles, commentaries
 and lexicons) and powerful features to work with these texts (search in
 texts, write own notes, save, print etc.) in the SWORD module format.
 

debian:~# apt-get install bibletime
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree      
Reading state information... Done
The following extra packages will be installed:
  bibletime-data
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  bibletime bibletime-data
0 upgraded, 2 newly installed, 0 to remove and 77 not upgraded.
Need to get 4,812 kB of archives.
After this operation, 16.1 MB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? Y
....

Once installed to launch it invoke bibletime cmd:

debian:~$ bibletime

Libletime Holy Bible read in KDE Linux reading tool launch screen

Just like with Xiphos, BibleTime KDE app supports installing extra Holy Bible texts in your mother language. To install additional Bible translations from:

Settings -> BookShelf Manager -> Languages

BibleTime read holy bible on Linux BookShelf Manager adding Holy Bible in additional languages

Then to choose default language in which default Holy Bible translation will appear use menus:

BibleTime Holy Bible Linux KDE reading program adding Holy Scripture additional language translations

 

One major disadvantage in BibleTime whether compared with Xiphos is it doesn't support Tabs. So there is no way to read in Parallel two different language translation of Holy Bible. Thus those wanting to stick to compare different versions of Holy Bible translations Install Xiphos

How to Read Holy Bible on GNU / Linux with Xiphos

Thursday, April 4th, 2013

If you're a Christian and you need application to read the Holy Scriptures in Linux. You definitely have to take a look at Xiphos Open Source Bible Study tool.

Here is Xiphos deb package desciprtion;

linux:~# apt-cache show xiphos|grep -i description -A 4

 

Description: environment for Bible reading, study, and research
 Xiphos is a Bible study program for the GNOME desktop environment, based on The
 SWORD Project by the CrossWire Bible Society, a framework for developing Bible
 study tools and of associated texts such as commentaries and dictionaries.

 .

To install Xiphos on Debian, Ubuntu and other Deb derivatives run in terminal:

linux:~# apt-get --yes install xiphos
....

To run it further type in terminal:

hipo@linux:~$ xiphos

Xiphos American King james Holy_Bible on Debian Ubuntu GNU Linux screenshot

Default Holy Bible provided by Xiphos is American version of King James Holy Bible.

However a Holy Bible translation is available on almost any popular Language on earth and is easily installable via Xiphos Module Manager. Xiphos Module Manager uses text obtained from Crosswire  Bible Society – Sword Project.


Linux Xiphos Holy Bible reading GNOME tool Module Manager screenshot

To install your Homeland language Holy Scriptures translation choose whatever language via menus:

Edit -> Module Manager -> Install/Update -> Biblical Texts

Linux Holy Bible reading tool Xiphos choose bible texts in all country homeland language

For English Speaking people, there are some extra Books, Heretical texts well known in Christiandom as well as Concordance (Interpretation of Holy Bible writtings with some general marks on Bible verses).

Xiphos Linux bible reader program Extra General Books screenshot

Orthodoxy as you see in the screenshot doesn't have unfortunately nothing to do with Orthodox Christianity. Take few minutes and click on each of the books install them and check out what's inside. The books are interesting for anyone like me who holds deep interest in Christianity. Something else worthy to check out from Module Manager is Commentaries on Holy Bible unfortunately available only in German, English, Dutch and Finnish.

Xiphos module manager Linux commentaries

The Sword Project has  also few interesting sub-projects, worthy to check out whether you use Linux with KDE or for those who want read Holy Bible on Mac OS and IPhone.

BibleTime – A Free and Easy to Use Bible Reading Tool intended for Linux KDE environment users.

PocketSword – An Iphone Bible Study Open Source App

MacSword – is a free & open-source application for research and study of God and His Word. It is developed specifically for Macintosh computers running Mac OS X.

Alkitab Bible Study – An open source and free desktop Bible study software. It supports parallel view, commentaries, dictionaries, lexicons, daily devotions, with powerful search capability.

Xiphos Parallel View funtionality and Tabs are very handy as they offer the user a very easy way to open a number of Bible Translations in various languages and make comparison between different Holy Bible translations.
Reading in Parallel the Holy BIble in two or more different languages is a great way to learn quickly a new language. On below screenshot you see opened, American King James Holy Bible in Tab 1 and Bulgarian Language (the well known Tsarigrad Edition) in Tab 2

Linux Xiphos Bulgarian with two tabs American King James Translation and New Testament from 1914 known as Tsarigrad Edition

Well that's all, Happy Blessed Bible reading on your Linux Desktop 🙂

Feast of Saint Stephen’s martyrdom in Bulgarian Orthodox Church / Saint Stephen the first Christian Saint

Tuesday, December 27th, 2011

Saint Stephen Martyrdom Orthodox Christian Icon

It is 27th of December, the 3rd day of Christmas and in those day in the Bulgarian Orthodox Church we co-memorate saint Stephen's Martyrdom.

Its a well known fact that by his martyrdom Saint Stephen become the first Christian martyr
Stephen's name etymology comes from Greek (Stephanos) and translated means "Crown".

What we know from Orthodox Church's tradition is that Stephen was a very young in his age of Martyrdom probably in his 20s.

Stephen's glorious martyrdom has inspired and strengthened significantly the early seveerly hunted Church and has give a lot of courage and faith to many of our early Saint Martyrs. These early Church saints now incesently pray to God to have mercy on our earthly Church.
Its not much known fact St. Stephen held a rank in the early Church clergy, he was a HieroDeacon.
Hierodeaconism in our church is considered the maximum rank of deaconship one can have just before he is ordained for a Priest.

St. Stephen Orthodox Christian icon

St. Stephen was burning for love in Christ and had a strong faith in God, turning many Jewish to our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. He has shown the truth way to many by teaching them, how to properly interpret the Old Testament (Ancient Jewish) writtings.
He explained to many jewish, how all the old scriptures testify about the coming of the Messiah (Christ), which will save all who believe in his name from sins hell damnation.
As Jewish looked for ways to shutter any kind of preaching of the Gospel and kill Christianity, they saw Stephen as a big enemy just like all Christians in those early days. Therefore they looked for ways to accuse him and execute them and end up the large numbers of jewish people converting from Jewism to Christianity
The whole story of stoning (execution) of st. Stephen is described in the Holy Scriptures in the book called Acts of the Apostles

As he was about to die, Stephen looked up to heaven and said;

"Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing at the right hand of God."
Then, as he was being stoned, he cried out, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.".Our Beloved saints last words were, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them." manifesting his saintship and deep Christ love even during his last moments of earthly living.
St. Stephen is celebrated in almost all West Roman Catholic Church and in Anglicans.
Churches who co-mmemorate the great saint are located in all around the world.
St. Stephen is also considered a patron saint of Republika Sprska (Bosnia and Herzegovina)
Stephen's name later probably become the origin name for western's so popular Steven name).
Saint Stephen Orthodox Christian Icon 11th century byzantine icon
 

Saint Stephen's Byzantine Icon from the 11th Century

Let by the Holy Prayers of St. Stephen God have mercy on the Church and increase our faith and mercies to us sinners.