Words from acts and epistles of the apostles in Anton Chekhov's letters

Chekhov was born in a very religious family and from early childhood was acquainted with church practice. In the letters he wrote as a middle-age man, he called himself an unbeliever. However, lack of faith did not prevent him from using the Biblical words in his letters and works. This paper examines Chekhov's using and reflecting the words from Acts and Epistles of the Apostles in his letters. We consider all forms of this reflecting: quotes, reminiscences, allusions, idioms of New Testament's origin, etc. The research enabled us to evaluate the degree of Chekhov's familiarity with Acts and Epistles of the Apostles, as well as the frequency and context of his references to it. We also try to answer the question why Chekhov, being an "unbeliever", uses the scriptural words so often, and make a conclusion that scriptural words formed an integral part of his thesaurus. This, therefore, leads us to a conclusion that the researchers and readers of Chekhov need to know the Bible to understand the writer's language.