Bible Institute established

Based on the All-Russian State Library of Foreign Literature named after. Rudomino (VGBIL) a new creative association will be created - the Bible Institute, writes Blagovest-info . The tasks of the new organization, which will be headed by Archpriest Alexander Borisov, are to popularize the achievements of biblical studies, create an extensive network of scientific communication among biblical specialists, study the influence of the Bible on domestic and world culture, etc.

Director of VGBIL Ekaterina Genieva reported this at the conference “The Bible in the Traditions of Russian Culture.” The organizer of the conference, in addition to VGBIL, was the parish of the Moscow Church of Sts. unmercenaries Cosmas and Damian in Shubin, whose rector is Fr. Alexander Borisov.

Archpriest Alexander Borisov headed the Russian Bible Society (RBS) for two decades. Last September there was a radical change in leadership at RBO . “That RBO, which is associated with the names of Father Alexander Men, Sergei Sergeevich Averintsev, Father Georgy Chistyakov, Natalya Leonidovna Trauberg, no longer exists. Under the same banner, there exists today an organization that has a completely different focus. This RBO believes that the work on translating the Holy Scriptures has been completed and now all that remains is to commercially use what is available,” stated Mikhail Seleznev, the former editor-in-chief of the RBO and head of the translation group, not without bitterness.

O. Alexander responded with approval to the initiative of the VGBIL, emphasizing that libraries in modern Russia can take on the role of cultural and educational centers. “In 20 years, a new stage of biblical work is needed - not just publications and translations, but an in-depth study of texts in the context of the culture of modern Russia,” he said. Among the priority tasks of Fr. Alexander called the creation of a detailed commentary on the Old Testament. At the same time, the president of the Bible Institute emphasized that he places his main hopes in the implementation of this plan not on the learned clergy (“the time of learned monks has not yet come”), but on a galaxy of secular scientists who are members of the Church.