More than three centuries have passed since the church schism of the 17th century, and most still do not know how the Old Believers differ from Orthodox Christians.
Terminology
The distinction between the concepts of “Old Believers” and “Orthodox Church” is quite arbitrary. The Old Believers themselves admit that their faith is Orthodox, and the Russian Orthodox Church is called New Believers or Nikonians.
In the Old Believer literature of the 17th - first half of the 19th century centuries, the term “Old Believer” was not used.
Old Believers called themselves differently. Old Believers, Old Orthodox Christians...The terms “orthodoxy” and “true Orthodoxy” were also used.
In the writings of Old Believer teachers of the 19th century, the term “true Orthodox Church” was often used. The term “Old Believers” became widespread only end of the 19th century century. At the same time, Old Believers of different agreements mutually denied each other’s Orthodoxy and, strictly speaking, for them the term “Old Believers” united, on a secondary ritual basis, religious communities deprived of church-religious unity
Fingers
It is well known that during the schism the two-finger sign of the cross was changed to three-finger. Two fingers are a symbol of the two Hypostases of the Savior ( true God and true man), three fingers - a symbol of the Holy Trinity.
The three-finger sign was accepted by the Ecumenical Orthodox Church, which by that time consisted of a dozen independent Autocephalous Churches, after the preserved bodies of the martyrs-confessors of Christianity of the first centuries with the folded fingers of the tripartite were found in the Roman catacombs Sign of the Cross. There are similar examples of the discovery of the relics of saints of the Kiev Pechersk Lavra.
Agreements and rumors
The Old Believers are far from homogeneous. There are several dozen agreements and even more Old Believer rumors. There is even a saying: “No matter what a man is, no matter what a woman is, there is agreement.” There are three main “wings” of the Old Believers: priests, non-priests and co-religionists.
Jesus
During the Nikon reform, the tradition of writing the name “Jesus” was changed. The double sound “and” began to convey the duration, the “drawn-out” sound of the first sound, which in the Greek language is indicated by a special sign, which has no analogy in the Slavic language, therefore the pronunciation of “Jesus” is more consistent with the Universal practice of sounding the Savior. However, the Old Believer version is closer to the Greek source.
Differences in the Creed
During the “book reform” of the Nikon reform, changes were made to the Creed: the conjunction-opposition “a” was removed in the words about the Son of God “born, not made.”
From the semantic opposition of properties, a simple enumeration was thus obtained: “begotten, not created.”
The Old Believers sharply opposed the arbitrariness in the presentation of dogmas and were ready to suffer and die “for a single az” (that is, for one letter “a”).
In total, about 10 changes were made to the Creed, which was the main dogmatic difference between the Old Believers and the Nikonians.
Towards the sun
By the middle of the 17th century, a universal custom had been established in the Russian Church to perform a procession of the cross. The church reform of Patriarch Nikon unified all rituals according to Greek models, but the innovations were not accepted by the Old Believers. As a result, New Believers perform anti-salt movements during religious processions, and Old Believers perform religious processions salt.
Ties and sleeves
In some Old Believer churches In memory of the executions during the Schism, it is forbidden to come to services with rolled up sleeves and ties. Popular rumor associates rolled up sleeves with executioners, and ties with gallows. Although, this is only one explanation. In general, it is customary for Old Believers to wear special prayer clothes (with long sleeves) to services, and you can’t tie a tie on a blouse.
Question of the cross
Old Believers recognize only eight-pointed cross, whereas after Nikon’s reform in Orthodoxy four and six-pointed crosses were recognized as equally honorable. On the crucifixion tablet of the Old Believers it is usually written not I.N.C.I., but “King of Glory.” On body crosses Old Believers do not have an image of Christ, since it is believed that this is a person’s personal cross.
A deep and powerful Hallelujah
During Nikon's reforms, the pronounced (that is, double) pronunciation of “halleluia” was replaced by a triple (that is, triple). Instead of “Alleluia, alleluia, glory to you, God,” they began to say “Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, glory to you, God.”
According to New Believers, the triple utterance of alleluia symbolizes the dogma of the Holy Trinity.
However, Old Believers argue that the strict utterance together with “glory to Thee, O God” is already a glorification of the Trinity, since the words “glory to Thee, O God” are one of the translations into Slavic language the Hebrew word Alleluia (“praise God”).
Bows at the service
At services in Old Believer churches, a strict system of bows has been developed; substitution is prohibited. prostrations to the waist ones. There are four types of bows: “regular” - bow to the chest or to the navel; “medium” - in the waist; small bow to the ground - “throwing” (not from the verb “to throw”, but from the Greek “metanoia” = repentance); great prostration (proskynesis).
A person with little church faith or little knowledgeable about history Orthodoxy is sometimes difficult to distinguish from the New Believer (Nikonian). Sometimes a passer-by accidentally enters a church and tries to perform prayer and ritual actions “in the new style” (for example, he rushes to kiss all the icons), but it turns out that this church is an Old Believer church and similar customs exist here are not approved. An uncomfortable, embarrassing situation may arise. Of course, you can ask the gatekeeper or candle maker about the ownership of the temple, however, in addition to this, you need to know some of the signs that distinguish an Old Believer temple.
External architecture of the Old Believer temple. Bezpopovsky churches
External architecture Old Believer Church in the overwhelming majority of cases it does not differ in any way from the architecture of New Believer, Uniate and other churches. This could be a building built in the Novgorod or New Russian styles using elements of classicism, or maybe even a small house or even an impromptu temple in a wooden trailer.
The exceptions are Old Believers priestless churches. Some of them (mainly in the Baltic states, Belarus and Ukraine) do not have an altar apse, since there is no altar itself.
The eastern part of such Old Believer churches does not have an altar ledge and ends with an ordinary wall. However, this is not always visible. Whether there is an altar or not - you can definitely tell only once you are inside the temple. In Russia and some other places, Bezpopovites continue to build churches with apses, maintaining the tradition of antiquity.
Concerning internal view, then in non-priest churches, in all without exception, there is no altar. The iconostasis covers the wall, but not the altar; the altar is placed on the solea. In some non-priest churches, a large altar cross is installed in the center of the solea, opposite the royal doors.
The doors to the altar have a decorative function and do not open. However, in most non-priest churches there are no royal or deacon doors at all. There are several non-priest churches, the buildings of which were built in ancient times, such altars are present, but are used as additional premises: baptismal places, small prayer houses, repositories of icons and books.
Eight-pointed cross
All Old Believer churches have eight-pointed crosses without all kinds of decorations. If there is a cross of some other shape on the temple, incl. and with the “crescent”, “anchor”, then this temple not Old Believer. And the point here is not that the Old Believers do not recognize four-pointed or other forms of crosses, but that due to the persecution of the eight-pointed cross, it was he who received a preferential position in the Old Believers.
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Inside the Old Believer Church. Candles and chandeliers
Once inside the Old Believer church, you need to look around. In Old Believer churches, practically no electric light is used during services (with the exception of the choir). Lamps in candlesticks and chandeliers burn using natural vegetable oil.
Candles for use in Old Believer churches are made from pure wax of a natural color. The use of colored candles - red, white, green, etc. - is not allowed.
Inside the Old Believer Church. Icons
An important feature of an Old Believer church is its special icons: copper-cast or handwritten, written in the so-called. "canonical style".
If the temple contains icons of famous New Believer saints - Tsar Nicholas II, Matrona, Seraphim of Sarov, then the temple is definitely not Old Believer. If there are no such icons, then you should take a closer look at the headdresses of the saints and saints depicted on the icons. If they are crowned with black or white hoods in the shape of “buckets”, then this temple is clearly not an Old Believer one. Such hoods came into fashion after the reforms of Patriarch Nikon; in the ancient Russian church, monks and saints wore completely different headdresses.
Inside the Old Believer Church. Helpers
In Old Believer churches you can also find hand tools— special mats for prostrations. Handicrafts, as a rule, are folded into neat piles on the benches of an Old Believer church.
Contrary to popular belief, supposedly in Old Believer churches there are never chairs or seats (like Catholics or Uniates), in fact, such seats are available in many (but not all) Old Believer non-priest churches in the Baltic countries.
Unison singing and clothing of believers
If a divine service takes place in a church, then an Old Believer church can be easily distinguished by its characteristic unison singing of singers. Chords, triads and generally any harmonic modes are prohibited at Old Believer Divine services. Also, certain information about the identity of the temple can be given by the clothes of believers, which are distinguished by their severity.
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In the 17th century, Patriarch Nikon carried out reforms that were caused by the need to bring the liturgical practice of the Russian Church to a single model. Some of the clergy, along with the laity, rejected these changes, saying that they would not deviate from the old rituals. They called Nikon’s reform “a corruption of the faith” and declared that they would preserve the previous charters and traditions in worship. It is difficult for an uninitiated person to distinguish an Orthodox from an Old Believer, since the difference between representatives of the “old” and “new” faith is not so great.
Who are Old Believers and Orthodox Christians?
Old Believers – Christians who left the Orthodox Church due to their disagreement with the reforms carried out by Patriarch Nikon.
Orthodox Christians - believers who recognize the dogmas of the Orthodox Church.
Comparison of Old Believers and Orthodox Christians
What is the difference between Old Believers and Orthodox Christians?
Old Believers are more detached from the world than Orthodox Christians. In their everyday life, they preserved ancient traditions, which, in essence, became a certain ritual. The life of Orthodox Christians is devoid of many religious rituals that burden it. The main thing that should never be forgotten is prayer before every task, as well as keeping the Commandments.
In the Orthodox Church, the three-fingered sign of the cross is accepted. It means the unity of the Holy Trinity. At the same time, the little finger and ring finger are pressed together into the palm and symbolize faith in the divine-human nature of Christ. Old Believers put their middle and index fingers together, professing the dual nature of the Savior. The thumb, ring finger and little finger are pressed against the palm as a symbol of the Holy Trinity.
It is customary for Old Believers to proclaim “Alleluia” twice and add “Glory to Thee, O God.” So, they claim, proclaimed ancient church. Orthodox Christians say “Alleluia” three times. This word itself means “praise God.” Pronunciation three times, from the point of view of the Orthodox, glorifies the Holy Trinity.
In many Old Believer movements, it is customary to wear clothes in the Old Russian style to participate in worship. This is a shirt or blouse for men, a sundress and large scarf for women. Men tend to grow a beard. Among Orthodox Christians, a special style of clothing is reserved only for the priesthood. Lay people come to the temple in modest, not provocative, but ordinary secular clothing, women with their heads covered. By the way, in modern Old Believer parishes there are no strict requirements for the clothing of worshipers.
During worship, Old Believers do not keep their arms at their sides, like the Orthodox, but crossed over their chests. For both some and others, this is a sign of special humility before God. All actions during the service are performed synchronously by the Old Believers. If you need to bow, then everyone present in the temple does it at the same time.
Old Believers recognize only the eight-pointed cross. This is the form they consider perfect. Orthodox, in addition to this, also four-pointed and six-pointed.
During worship, Old Believers bow to the ground. Orthodox Christians wear belts during services. Earthly ones are performed only in special cases. Moreover, on Sundays and holidays, as well as Holy Pentecost, bowing to the ground is strictly prohibited.
Old Believers write the name of Christ as Jesus, and Orthodox Christians write it as I And sus. The topmost marks on the cross are also different. For the Old Believers, this is TsR SLVY (King of Glory) and IS XC (Jesus Christ). On the Orthodox eight-pointed cross it is written INCI (Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews) and IIS XC (I And sus Christ). There is no image of the crucifixion on the eight-pointed cross of the Old Believers.
As a rule, eight-pointed crosses with a gable roof, the so-called cabbage rolls, are placed on the graves of Old Believers - a symbol of Russian antiquity. Orthodox Christians do not accept crosses covered with a roof.
TheDifference.ru determined that the difference between Old Believers and Orthodox Christians is as follows:
Adherents of the old faith are more detached from the world in everyday life than Orthodox Christians.
Old Believers make the sign of the cross with two fingers, Orthodox Christians make the sign of the cross with three fingers.
During prayer, the Old Believers usually shout “Hallelujah” twice, while the Orthodox say it three times.
During worship, Old Believers keep their arms crossed on their chests, while Orthodox Christians keep their arms down at their sides.
During the service, the Old Believers perform all actions synchronously.
As a rule, to participate in worship, Old Believers wear clothes in the Old Russian style. The Orthodox have a special type of clothing only for the priesthood.
During worship, Old Believers bow to the ground, while Orthodox worshipers bow to the ground.
Old Believers recognize only the eight-pointed cross, the Orthodox - eight-, six- and four-pointed.
Orthodox and Old Believers have different spellings of the name of Christ, as well as the letters above the eight-pointed cross.
On the pectoral crosses of the Old Believers (eight-pointed inside a four-pointed one) there is no image of the crucifixion.
Category: Religion
Text: Russian Seven
Terminology
The distinction between the concepts of “Old Believers” and “Orthodox Church” is quite arbitrary. The Old Believers themselves admit that their faith is Orthodox, and the Russian Orthodox Church is called New Believers or Nikonians.
In the Old Believer literature of the 17th - first half of the 19th centuries, the term “Old Believer” was not used.
Old Believers called themselves differently. Old Believers, Old Orthodox Christians... The terms “orthodoxy” and “true Orthodoxy” were also used.
In the writings of Old Believer teachers of the 19th century, the term “true Orthodox Church” was often used. The term “Old Believers” became widespread only towards the end of the 19th century. At the same time, Old Believers of different consents mutually denied each other’s Orthodoxy, and, strictly speaking, for them the term “Old Believers” united, on a secondary ritual basis, religious communities deprived of church-religious unity.
Fingers
It is well known that during the schism the two-finger sign of the cross was changed to three-finger. Two fingers are a symbol of the two Hypostases of the Savior (true God and true man), three fingers are a symbol of the Holy Trinity.
The three-finger sign was adopted by the Ecumenical Orthodox Church, which by that time consisted of a dozen independent autocephalous churches, after the preserved bodies of the martyrs-confessors of Christianity of the first centuries with the folded fingers of the three-finger sign of the cross were found in the Roman catacombs. There are similar examples of the discovery of the relics of saints of the Kiev Pechersk Lavra.
Agreements and rumors
The Old Believers are far from homogeneous. There are several dozen agreements and even more Old Believer rumors. There is even a saying: “Whatever a man is, it’s a good idea, whatever a woman is an agreement.” There are three main “wings” of the Old Believers: priests, non-priests and co-religionists.
Jesus
During the Nikon reform, the tradition of writing the name Jesus was changed. The double sound “and” began to convey the duration, the “drawn-out” sound of the first sound, which in the Greek language is indicated by a special sign, which has no analogue in the Slavic language, therefore the pronunciation of “Jesus” is more consistent with the Ecumenical practice of sounding the Savior, however, the Old Believer version is closer to the Greek source .
Differences in the Creed
During the “book reform” of the Nikon reform, changes were made to the Creed: the conjunction-opposition “a” was removed in the words about the Son of God, “born, not made.” From the semantic opposition of properties, a simple enumeration was thus obtained: born, not created.
The Old Believers sharply opposed the arbitrariness in the presentation of dogmas and were ready to suffer and die “for a single az” (that is, for one letter “a”).
In total, about 10 changes were made to the Creed, which was the main dogmatic difference between the Old Believers and the Nikonians.
Towards the Sun
By the middle of the 17th century, a universal custom had been established in the Russian Church to perform a religious procession in salting. The church reform of Patriarch Nikon unified all rituals according to Greek models, but the innovations were not accepted by the Old Believers.
As a result, New Believers perform the anti-salting movement during religious processions, and Old Believers perform anti-salting processions during religious processions.
Ties and sleeves
In some Old Believer churches, in memory of executions during the schism, it is forbidden to come to services with rolled up sleeves and wearing ties; popular rumor associates rolled up sleeves with executioners, and ties with gallows. Although this is only one explanation.
In general, it is customary for Old Believers to wear special prayer clothes (with long sleeves) to services, and you can’t tie a tie on a blouse.
Question of the cross
Old Believers recognize only the eight-pointed cross, while after Nikon’s reform in Orthodoxy four- and six-pointed crosses were recognized as equally honorable; on the crucifixion tablet of the Old Believers it is usually written not I.N.C.I., but “King of Glory”, on the pectoral crosses of the Old Believers there is no image of Christ, since it is believed to be the person's personal cross.
A deep and deep hallelujah
During Nikon's reforms, the pronounced (that is, double) pronunciation of “halleluia” was replaced by a triple (that is, triple). Instead of “Alleluia, alleluia, glory to Thee, O God,” they began to say “Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, glory to Thee, O God.”
According to New Believers, the triple utterance of hallelujah symbolizes the dogma of the Holy Trinity.
However, Old Believers argue that the strict pronunciation together with “glory to Thee, O God” is already a glorification of the Trinity, since the words “glory to Thee, O God” are one of the translations into the Slavic language of the Hebrew word “hallelujah” (“praise God”).
Bows at the service
At services in Old Believer churches, a strict system of bows has been developed; replacing prostrations with bows from the waist is prohibited. There are four types of bows: “regular” - bow to the chest or to the navel; “medium” - in the waist; small bow to the ground - “throwing” (not from the verb “to throw”, but from the Greek “metanoia” = repentance); great prostration (proskynesis).
Throwing was prohibited by Nikon in 1653; he sent out a “memory” to all Moscow churches, which said: “It is not appropriate to do throwing on the knee in the church, but you should bow to the waist.”
Hands cross
During services in the Old Believer church, it is customary to fold your arms with a cross on your chest.
Beads
Orthodox and Old Believer rosaries are different. In Orthodox rosaries there may be different quantities beads, but most often rosaries with 33 beads are used, according to the number of earthly years of Christ’s life, or a multiple of 10 or 12.
In the Old Believers of almost all agreements, the lestovka is actively used - a rosary in the form of a ribbon with 109 “beans” (“steps”), divided into unequal groups. Lestovka symbolically means a ladder from earth to heaven.
Full immersion baptism
Old Believers accept baptism only by complete threefold immersion, while in Orthodox churches baptism by pouring and partial immersion is allowed.
Monodic singing
After the split of the Orthodox Church, the Old Believers did not accept either the new polyphonic singing style or new system musical notation. Kryuk singing (znamenny and demestvennoe), preserved by the Old Believers, got its name from the method of recording a melody with special signs - “banners” or “hooks”.
More than three centuries have passed since the church schism of the 17th century, and most still do not know how the Old Believers differ from Orthodox Christians. Do not do it this way.
Terminology
The distinction between the concepts of “Old Believers” and “Orthodox Church” is quite arbitrary. The Old Believers themselves admit that their faith is Orthodox, and the Russian Orthodox Church is called New Believers or Nikonians.
In the Old Believer literature of the 17th - first half of the 19th centuries, the term “Old Believer” was not used.
Old Believers called themselves differently. Old Believers, Old Orthodox Christians...The terms “orthodoxy” and “true Orthodoxy” were also used.
In the writings of Old Believer teachers of the 19th century, the term “true Orthodox Church” was often used. The term “Old Believers” became widespread only towards the end of the 19th century. At the same time, Old Believers of different agreements mutually denied each other’s Orthodoxy and, strictly speaking, for them the term “Old Believers” united, on a secondary ritual basis, religious communities deprived of church-religious unity
Fingers
It is well known that during the schism the two-finger sign of the cross was changed to three-finger. Two fingers are a symbol of the two Hypostases of the Savior (true God and true man), three fingers are a symbol of the Holy Trinity.
The three-finger sign was adopted by the Ecumenical Orthodox Church, which by that time consisted of a dozen independent Autocephalous Churches, after the preserved bodies of the martyrs-confessors of Christianity of the first centuries with folded fingers of the three-finger Sign of the Cross were found in the Roman catacombs. There are similar examples of the discovery of the relics of saints of the Kiev Pechersk Lavra.
Agreements and rumors
The Old Believers are far from homogeneous. There are several dozen agreements and even more Old Believer rumors. There is even a saying: “No matter what a man is, no matter what a woman is, there is agreement.” There are three main “wings” of the Old Believers: priests, non-priests and co-religionists.
Jesus
During the Nikon reform, the tradition of writing the name “Jesus” was changed. The double sound “and” began to convey the duration, the “drawn-out” sound of the first sound, which in the Greek language is indicated by a special sign, which has no analogy in the Slavic language, therefore the pronunciation of “Jesus” is more consistent with the Universal practice of sounding the Savior. However, the Old Believer version is closer to the Greek source.
Differences in the Creed
During the “book reform” of the Nikon reform, changes were made to the Creed: the conjunction-opposition “a” was removed in the words about the Son of God “born, not made.”
From the semantic opposition of properties, a simple enumeration was thus obtained: “begotten, not created.”
The Old Believers sharply opposed the arbitrariness in the presentation of dogmas and were ready to suffer and die “for a single az” (that is, for one letter “a”).
In total, about 10 changes were made to the Creed, which was the main dogmatic difference between the Old Believers and the Nikonians.
Towards the sun
By the middle of the 17th century, a universal custom had been established in the Russian Church to perform a procession of the cross. The church reform of Patriarch Nikon unified all rituals according to Greek models, but the innovations were not accepted by the Old Believers. As a result, New Believers perform the anti-salting movement during religious processions, and Old Believers perform religious processions during salting.
Ties and sleeves
In some Old Believer churches, in memory of the executions during the Schism, it is forbidden to come to services with rolled up sleeves and ties. Popular rumor associates rolled up sleeves with executioners, and ties with gallows. Although, this is only one explanation. In general, it is customary for Old Believers to wear special prayer clothes (with long sleeves) to services, and you can’t tie a tie on a blouse.
Question of the cross
Old Believers recognize only the eight-pointed cross, while after Nikon’s reform in Orthodoxy four and six-pointed crosses were recognized as equally honorable. On the crucifixion tablet of the Old Believers it is usually written not I.N.C.I., but “King of Glory.” Old Believers do not have an image of Christ on their body crosses, since it is believed that this is a person’s personal cross.
A deep and powerful Hallelujah
During Nikon's reforms, the pronounced (that is, double) pronunciation of “halleluia” was replaced by a triple (that is, triple). Instead of “Alleluia, alleluia, glory to you, God,” they began to say “Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia, glory to you, God.”
According to New Believers, the triple utterance of alleluia symbolizes the dogma of the Holy Trinity.
However, Old Believers argue that the strict pronunciation together with “glory to Thee, O God” is already a glorification of the Trinity, since the words “glory to Thee, O God” are one of the translations into the Slavic language of the Hebrew word Alleluia (“praise God”).
Bows at the service
At services in Old Believer churches, a strict system of bows has been developed; replacing prostrations with bows from the waist is prohibited. There are four types of bows: “regular” - bow to the chest or to the navel; “medium” - in the waist; small bow to the ground - “throwing” (not from the verb “to throw”, but from the Greek “metanoia” = repentance); great prostration (proskynesis).
Throwing was banned by Nikon in 1653. He sent out a “memory” to all Moscow churches, which said: “It is not appropriate to do throwing on your knees in church, but you should bow to your waist.”