THE MORALS OF CHRISTIANS IN THE 2ND AND 3RD CENTURY

Translated from the original by Costas Balomenos

The Christians was believed about themselves that they are the new Israel (=people of salvation), Israel of God, that guided by the spirit and the grace˙ that they are not citizens of the Roman Empire, but  they constitute a new nation - certainly within its territory - for this reason moreover was praying for the stability of the state and its Governor. They (for the Romans) were saying that they are alien residents and pilgrims - as highlighted very nicely in letter to Diogniton - in this world, for which they believed that will soon be elapsed because it was going to come the Second Coming of the Lord...

The narration of Harrowing of Hell, in the apocryphon Gospel of Nicodemus

Translated from the original by Costas Balomenos

“Apocrypha” books of the New Testament are named several texts from the 2nd century onwards, from Christians or heretics authors. They refer to it the life of Christ, for the action of the Apostles, or contain various revelations. Each one of them has a name of a known person from the early Church, for example, "At Thomas Gospel," "Acts Peter," "Letter of eleven Apostles" "Revelation Paul", etc. The “Apocrypha” are many and were written either to cover - with fantastic episodes - the gaps in the history of Christ or the Apostles, or to disseminate heretical ideas. The Christians, to distinguish the original texts of the Apostles from the inauthentic circulating then, stood out the 27 books as authentic, which have been the body of the books of the New Testament called “Canon”...

THE WORD CHRIST AND HIS MEANINGS IN THE OLD TESTAMENT

Translated from the original by Costas Balomenos

T

he word "Christ" is a translation of the Aramaic word MESHICHA, which also is derived from the Hebrew word MASHIACH, which in the Hellenistic years hellenized in Messiah. In the New Testament, the Greek word Μεσσίας (Messiah) is encountered twice and even is accompanied with the translation “Christ”: «First, he finds his brother Simon and tells him, “We have found the Messiah, which translated means Christ”»  John 1:41 and «He saith to him the woman “I know that will come the Messiah, the so-called Christ”» John 4:25.

The Greek word χριστός(christos) is produced from the verb χρίω(chrio), meaning anoint and was formed by the verbal adjectives ending in –τος(-tos), of the Greek language. As an adjective, the word christos is found in the ancient Greek poets of tragedy. Apart from tragedians poets, we meet this and in the “Septuagint” (O’), who - as we know - they translated the Old Testament from Hebrew into Greek...

The pre-Christian religion of the Slavs

Translated from the original by Costas Balomenos

The God Dabog of the Slavs

T

he beliefs and rituals of Slavic peoples namely of Bulgarians, Serbs, Croats, Czechs, Poles and Russians are difficult to describe, due to the limited number of their sources. However, what is common in these is the word "Bong" which means the God and by linguistic aspect is related to the Indian word “Baghavata” (Lord), quite literally meaning “scrumptious” and was attributed to Vishnu and Krishna, Gods of Hinduism.

Some information about the religion of the Slavs gives us the Byzantine historian Procopius (500-565 AD). Among other things he writes the following: «Because they consider one God, this of lightning as creator and master of all and they sacrifice to him oxen and all sanctuaries ... they respect and the rivers and the nymphs and other such demons, and they sacrifice to all these, and they are making these sacrifices in divination» (Procopii opera,  J. Haury. Bellum Gothicum, III 14, Lipsiae 1906, p. 357 – 358)...