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Please use the BLOG link on each page to go to
our discussion forum. Post by replying to threads or starting new
threads via the "new topic" link. Current questions and answers will be
posted here, all others may be found on the BLOG forum itself. We're
waiting to hear from YOU!
Please note, we attempt to provide
answers to your question with haste. Thank you for your patience!
Gospel Questions
- 1. In the bible study, it says that most
of us think of the poor in spirit as people who moan over
sufferings, or as people who are to be pitied or despised. But are
you still blessed if you don't complain of your woes, but attempt to
deal with them humbly? Like, which is better for a Christian,
constant complaints of woes or quiet dealing? Are both considered
lowly? Or does it not matter, lowly is just realizing that all is in
God's hands?
- Vibin
General Questions
- 2. Why is it that our churches only
stress giving up meat and prayer when there is much more involved in
partaking in the Lent process? Also, I was wondering why we chose to
give up meat as opposed to being able to give up something like like
sweets or avoiding a bad habit that might, in fact, be a more
rigorous experience for the individual?
- OBC
-
3. I read that during the
1500’s AD some Protestant scholars were worried that the Old
Testament contained books not found in the Hebrew Bible and so these
books were taken out of the Old Testament and called Apocrypha (comeing
from the Greek word meaning "hidden"). I also read that the Orthodox
churches consider the Apocrypha as Canonical books and therefore
there would be more than 66 books in the Holy Bible. Where can I
find the Bible that contains all the Syrian Orthodox Canonical
books? Is there one on-line? Is there any books that other
denominations have as canonical that we do not, if so why?
- OBC
Gospel Answers
-
1. The eight categories of blessing that
Jesus mentions were never meant to be all inclusive. Jesus seeks to
reassure the troubled that God has them in mind, and indeed we all
find ourselves in such positions from time to time (some do not like
to admit it).
If a person can humbly seek God's direction without feeling "lowly"
then good - this too is a blessing. Recall that we are encouraged by
Paul to "rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who
weep," indicating that in every season of life the goodness of God
can be found. Lowliness is basically humbleness exaggerated.
-Dn.
Zach Varghese
General Answers
-
2.
You are right OBC, We should be more careful of taking lents. I
heard that still in syria they dont eat food till evening. Some
people dont even eat anything during small lents.(like 3 day lent)
It is a blessing, if you take lent like that.
Fasting in the flesh is a feasting
in the soul. But there was a kalpana by our patriarch about
if it is hard for you to take a real lent you can just take lent on
first and last ten days of 50 day lent) But people misunderstoood
that kalpana and thought they only have to take lent on that days.
So now everybody dont take the lent properly.
-lijumoolayil
-
2.
The length of lenten days and times of prayer are not meant to be
rigid, but change as the develops Church through time. The reason
why we do these things does not change. The length of these items
has liitle to do with our salvation. The CONTENT of these items has
a great deal more.
We practice corporate lent and corporate prayer to generate a unity
of the Christian body. There is a good reason why we still retain
the regulations of the olden days - out of love for Christ, some
Christians must wake up and pray at odd times of the day. But note
there is no command from Christ or the Apostles to do this. Never in
the history of the church is the mere length or specific procedure
given as necessary for communion with God. To prove the point, there
is no mention of fasting or prayer in the Creed. If one is compelled
to follow the old strict ways, everyone is happy. If one compells
someone to follow strict, burdensome rules when the spiritual desire
is not there - well, faith becomes a snare rather than a life giving
force. (Of course, we all should pray and fast, as these were givens
at the time of the writing of the Creed. The point is that there is
no rigid regulation of these things in the Creed.)
-
DZV
-
3.
That is correct. When the Protestants were created, they wanted to
exhibit qualities different than the Papal Church (Roman Catholic).
One of the errors the Protestants made was to remove 7 books of the
Old Testament. They did this to match up with the Masoretic Hebrew
Old Testament, which was the Old Testament in use by the European
Jews during the time of the reformation. The Masoretic canon
reflects the Jamnian Canon, which was compiled in 70AD at a Jewish
council held at Jamnia where the Jews condemned (anathemized the
teachings of) Jesus Christ and prevented these books from remaining
in their Old Testament.
So the intent of the Protestants was positive: they figured a Hebrew
text would be more beneficial than a Latin based text for their
retranslation of the Bible.
As to the second part of your question, each different Orthodox
jurisdiction has a different canon of scripture -- the Syriac
Orthodox has the smallest of all, and the Coptic Orthodox of
Ethiopia have the largest. Usually when I explain this to
Protestants, they begin to panic, as their only knowledge of the
Christian faith comes from the Bible that we Orthodox Christians put
together. For us, we have many sources of knowledge of the Christian
faith, the Scriptures of course are one example, but we have many
more. The purpose of Scriptures for us, is to profit the soul. As
such, different jurisdictions using different canons is perfectly
fine since these canons typically reflect annual liturgical
practices, which is why some books are not read.
In the Syriac canon, we have all the standard Old Testament books
(including the Deuterocanonical seven books mentioned above as
Apocrypha) but our New Testament traditionally does not contain 2
John, 3 John, 2 Peter, Jude and Revelation.
- Sharwoyo
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