БІБЛІЙНІ НАРАТИВИ У ТВОРЧОСТІ ГРИГОРІЯ СКОВОРОДИ

Abstract

The article reveals the place of the Bible in the formation and confirmation of Grigory Skovoroda's worldview. It occupied a special place among the sources of knowledge of the surrounding world in the life and work of a prominent Ukrainian philosopher, our national pride. Biblical themes, quotations from the Bible are present in all works of Grigoriy Skovoroda, including in his private letters. In his explanations, questions or answers, he always referred to the biblical text. Despite the fact that the thinker knew the Holy Scriptures perfectly, he constantly read and studied them, thought about every word, every detail of the text, interpreted and said that in the simplest, at first glance, statement very often hidden a deep meaning that is not accessible to everyone and understanding. H. Skovoroda, seeing symbolic images in the Bible, expressed the opinion, which is the basis of his philosophy, about the need for a higher, spiritual, allegorical understanding of the Bible and advised to read it without haste, to carefully consider what was read, so as not to mindlessly perceive the stories and sayings contained in long past times. His position on the interpretation of the Holy Scriptures was based on allegorical-symbolic concepts, based on the method of early Christian exegesis. In view of this, G. Skovoroda did not accept either a dogmatic, once-and-for-all established interpretation of Biblical texts, or its literal understanding, considering such an approach to be far from the search for the precious truth contained in the Bible. He expressed the opinion, which is the basis of his philosophy, about the need for a higher, spiritual, allegorical understanding of the Bible. In his works, the philosopher also reinterprets biblical images, giving them a different meaning. Thanks to biblical characters, the author reveals such human traits as truthfulness, sincerity, kindness, mercy, love for one's neighbor. The philosopher believed that the Bible is a "field of God's signs", where each sign is a symbol. It is these symbols, according to Grigory Skovoroda, that open the best part of our mind, prompting it to know the fullness of divine Truth. It was the Bible that became for him an important source of knowledge, a spiritual imperative that determined the development of H. Skovoroda as a philosopher and religious thinker.