Decisions about the canon of the Old Testament in Russian academic orthodox theology in the 19th century

The article was written on the basis of a report read by the author at a scholarly seminar of the Department of Theology of St. Petersburg Theological Academy in September 2019. The seminar discussed the situation in the Russian Orthodox Church with the canon of the Old Testament. The existing set of Old Testament books in the Russian biblical tradition turns out to be disproportionate to the canon, that is, to the normative composition of the Holy Scripture of the Old Testament, as it was defined within the framework of Russian academic Orthodox theology of the 19th century. Certain books that are part of the Old Testament of the Slavic Bible and the Synodal translation, but not designated with the status of “canonical”, are read during the service, despite the ban on this practice imposed by a number of Local Councils of the 4th-5th centuries. The report examines the theological decisions made concerning the canon of the Old Testament by the school of Russian academic Orthodox theology in the 19th century. The main attention is paid to the developed and accepted terminology and definitions, which are still dominant in the ideas of Russian Orthodox theology about the normative composition of the Old Testament. Their critical assessment is given. The report and this article are based on a previous publication of the author: Tikhomirov B. A. “Formirovanie predstavlenii o kanone Vetkhogo Zaveta v russkom Pravoslavii” (“Formation of the Concept of the Canon of the Old Testament in Russian Orthodoxy”). Tserkovʹ i vremia, 2015. no. 2 (71), pp. 149-192.