Page 1 of 2

The Catechism of St. Philaret of Moscow/Septuagint

Posted: Thu 10 March 2016 1:09 am
by Maria

http://www.pravoslavieto.com/docs/eng/O ... ilaret.htm

Examined and Approved by the Most Holy Governing Synod, and Published for the Use of Schools, and of all Orthodox Christians, by Order of His Imperial Majesty (Moscow, at the Synodical Press, 1830.)

St. Philaret (Drozdov) of Moscow, russian icon. Source: days.ru[The large Russian Catechism of Philaret, approved by the holy Synod (although omitted by Kimmel in his Collection, and barely mentioned by Gass in his Greek Symbolics), is now the most authoritative doctrinal standard of the orthodox Græco-Russian Church, and has practically superseded the older Catechism, or Orthodox Confession of Mogila. Originally composed in Slavono-Russian, it was by authority translated into several languages. We have before us a Russian edition (Moscow, 1869), a Greek edition (Χριστιανικ κατ᾿ ἔκτασιν κατήχησις τῆς ὀρϑοδόξου, καϑολικῆς καὶ ἀνατοικῆς ἐκκλησίας , Odessa, 1848), and a German edition (Ausführlicher christlicher Katechismus der orthodox-katholischen orientalischen Kirche, St. Petersburg, 1850).Examined and Approved by the Most Holy Governing Synod, and Published for the Use of Schools, and of all Orthodox Christians, by Order of His Imperial Majesty (Moscow, at the Synodical Press, 1830.)

Please click the lnk to view this catechism. There is also an icon of St. Philaret of Moscow.


Re: Orthodox Catechism of St. Philaret of Moscow

Posted: Thu 10 March 2016 10:21 am
by Luke

I am glad you posted this. Right now I am with a Church committee that is trying to write a little manual for the Catechumens. It will be fairly simple and short, but we like looking at web pages like this in order to give us ideas.


Re: Orthodox Catechism of St. Philaret of Moscow

Posted: Thu 10 March 2016 1:35 pm
by Maria
Luke wrote:

I am glad you posted this. Right now I am with a Church committee that is trying to write a little manual for the Catechumens. It will be fairly simple and short, but we like looking at web pages like this in order to give us ideas.

You cannot go wrong with this one.

Most of the catechisms post-1920s contain polemics attacking True Orthodoxy, or these modern catechisms are blatantly pro-Ecumenist, which violate our Holy Canons. This catechism was written by Saint Philaret of Moscow long before the 1880's, at which time Ecumenism was making inroads into Russia. It was written and approved by the Holy Synod in 1830.


Re: Orthodox Catechism of St. Philaret of Moscow

Posted: Fri 11 March 2016 6:09 pm
by Jean-Serge

Well, this catechism is not perfect and contains mistakes, for instance.

34. Why is there no notice taken in this enumeration of the books of the Old Testament of the book of the Wisdom of the son of Sirach, and of certain others?

Because they do not exist in the Hebrew.

  1. How are we to regard these last-named books?

Athanasius the Great says that they have been appointed of the Fathers to be read by proselytes who are preparing for admission into the Church.

These books are to be read by everybody. The answers gives the impression the Septuagint is inferior to the Massoretic.


Re: Orthodox Catechism of St. Philaret of Moscow

Posted: Fri 11 March 2016 6:42 pm
by Maria
Jean-Serge wrote:

Well, this catechism is not perfect and contains mistakes, for instance.

34. Why is there no notice taken in this enumeration of the books of the Old Testament of the book of the Wisdom of the son of Sirach, and of certain others?

Because they do not exist in the Hebrew.

  1. How are we to regard these last-named books?

Athanasius the Great says that they have been appointed of the Fathers to be read by proselytes who are preparing for admission into the Church.

These books are to be read by everybody. The answers gives the impression the Septuagint is inferior to the Massoretic.

Not really.

Because Protestants have the largest publishing houses, these publishers of the Bible have not included the books found in the Septuagint Greek because they erroneously think that only the Hebrew Bible is canonical. Thus, Western Christians are not exposed to the full compliment of the Old Testament as found in the Septuagint: Tobit, Wisdom, etc.

Only now with the Orthodox Study Bible and a few other Orthodox Bibles are all the books of the Old Testament available to a wider group of English-speaking Christians in the West.


Re: Orthodox Catechism of St. Philaret of Moscow

Posted: Sat 12 March 2016 3:43 pm
by Cyprian

These books are included in the original "Authorized Version" (King James version) of 1611. Only in later published editions were they removed. So the books of Tobit, Wisdom, etc. have been available to English readers for over 400 years. One does not have to buy an expensive Orthodox Study Bible to read these books. They can be read in the KJV online for free.


Re: Orthodox Catechism of St. Philaret of Moscow

Posted: Sun 13 March 2016 5:38 am
by Archimandrit Nilos

This is a great problem: This Catechism of Philarète does in no way include the so called Deuterocanonical Books (only in Greek language written) of the Septuaginta. Here is Philarète influenced unfortunately by Protestantism.