Short overview of Holy Scripture

Church of the East is guardian to the Eastern Bible, a body of Sacred Scripture delivered to us through holy Tradition over the years.

The Eastern Bible is divided into two sections; The Awakening and The Way. The Awakening is a collection of Scripture which pre-dates Yesu our Lord's incarnation. These Scriptures reflect the directions of how to walk The Way, as devotees understood it in the ages before the Incarnation. Yesu came into the world and inherited these Traditions, which He set out to follow and live accordingly. By the mastering of the guidelines of The Awakening Yesu became perfect -- and He subsequently became our Saviour and our Lord.

During the bodily ministry of Yesu a movement started as His followers gathered newcomers into groups. In line with Tradition the Yesu movement is called The Way. This movement spread throughout all cultures of the known world at the time--from China to India, to Persia, Arabia, Armenia and the Roman Empire and deep into North Africa.

As the Roman Empire spread its wings the name of Yesu, or Isous as He is known in Latin, spread throughout Europe and Russia. The various cultures brought about hundreds of Scripture, each of which reflects that culture=s adaptation and assimilation of the Truth of The Way. It seems as if by the 4th century the number of Scriptures tallied almost 300 separate books. The Roman Church, being one of the many aspects of The Way, chose to adopt the new name 'Christian' in favour over the Traditional name 'The Way'. This Christian movement also selected some Scriptures that appealed to them more than others, and this collection is referred to as The Bible.

The Way, as it came to be gathered in the eastern lands selected Scripture from their cultural heritage, and this collection is referred to as The Eastern Bible. African followers of Yesu's Way had their own particular collection of Scriptures and so did Syrian, Armenian and certain Persian groups have their own particular scriptures. As the Roman Empire spread to the West and the militant Muslim movements occupied the other parts of the world, most of the more vulnerable religious movements who did not follow the Hebrew Scriptures were oppressed. 

By the 7th century only two official sets of Scripture remained, the Western Bible and the Eastern Bible. Hundreds of other books were excluded from the two sets and those copies not destroyed remained buried in archive shelves. With the Muslim raid on Alexandria the world's greatest library was burned to the ground and more than 6 000 scrolls, along with many theological works now unknown to us, were finally destroyed.

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 Revised: 10/29/03. www.churchoftheeast.ca