Needle eye for "camel. “Zhe”, or “the eye of a needle the size of a camel It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than
Everyone, of course, knows the amazing words of Christ in the final part of the episode with the rich young man: “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God” (Matt. 19:24).
The meaning of the saying is obvious: a rich man, if he does not leave his wealth, cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven. And the further narration confirms this: “Hearing this, His disciples were very amazed and said: Who then can be saved? And Jesus, looking up, said to them: With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible” (Matthew 19:25-26).
The Holy Fathers understood “needle ears” literally. Here, for example, is what St. John Chrysostom: "Having said here that it is inconvenient for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven, he further shows that it is impossible, not just impossible, but also extremely impossible, which he explains by the example of a camel and needle's eyes" / VII:.646 /. If the rich were saved (Abraham, Job), it was only thanks to the Lord's personally given special grace.
However, some, because of their weakness, thirsty for wealth, this conclusion is extremely disliked. And so they persistently try to challenge it.
And in modern times, an opinion appeared: “needle ears” are a narrow and uncomfortable passage in the Jerusalem wall. “Here, it turns out how! - people rejoiced, - otherwise they caught up with fear: will a camel ever crawl through the eye of a needle. But now the rich can still inherit the Kingdom of Heaven!” However, the situation with these gates is extremely ambiguous. On the one hand, “needle ears” are a reality. They are located on a fragment of the Jerusalem Wall discovered by archaeologists, which is now part of the architectural complex of the Alexander Compound in Jerusalem. This beautiful building was built by archim. Antonin (Kapustin) at the end of the 19th century. and now belongs to ROCOR. So even now pilgrims can safely go there and climb into a narrow passage accessible only to a thin person, about which they say that these are the very “needle ears” - they say, the main gates were closed at night, but travelers could enter the city through this hole. The German archaeologist Konrad Schick, who carried out the excavations, dated this fragment of the wall to the 3rd-4th centuries. to r.H. But the trouble is that such a gate is not mentioned in any ancient source, all the early commentators of the Gospel do not know about such an interpretation, and the Evangelist Luke, citing this saying (Luke 18:25), generally uses the term “belone”, meaning a surgical needle ... So this is just a hypothesis, and a very shaky one. But it is very desirable, so now you can read about these gates in the Jerusalem wall in any book that touches on the property teaching of the Church.
However, the joy of those who like to combine God and mammon turns out to be premature. Even if the Savior meant “needle eyes” precisely in the sense of the gate, then they turned out to be so narrow that in order for a camel to pass through them, it must be unloaded, freed from all the loads on its back, in other words, “give everything to the poor.” But in this case, the rich, loaded like a camel with his wealth, turns into a poor man, free from wealth, which means he has the audacity to ascend to the mountains. In other words, all the same, there is one way for salvation: “sell everything that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven, and come, follow me” (Luke 18:22).
However, many more attempts were made to weaken the Lord's statement. Inventive theologians, leaving alone “needle ears” (by the way, there is no plural in the Greek text), turned to “camel” and, replacing one letter, decided that it was a rope (“camel” and “rope” - kamelos and kamilos) . Moreover, the Aramaic word "gamla" means both "camel" and "rope". And after that they made a “rope” out of the rope, then even into a “thread of camel hair”. But even in the latter case, it was not possible to change the meaning of the Savior's statement - the camel turned out to have such coarse wool that the thread made from it is more like a rope and will not fit into any needle's eye.
Wouldn't it be better to leave alone this amazing hyperbole, which is so amazing that it is immediately remembered for a lifetime.
Nikolai Somin
An expression from the Bible, from the Gospel (Matthew 19:24; Luke 18:25; Mark 10:25).
The meaning of the expression is that great wealth is rarely achieved honestly. Apparently this is a Hebrew proverb.
Vadim Serov, in the book Encyclopedic dictionary of winged words and expressions. - M .: "Lokid-Press". 2003 writes:
"There are two versions of the origin of this expression. Some interpreters of the Bible believe that the reason for the appearance of such a phrase was an error in the translation of the original biblical text: instead of "camel" one should read "thick rope" or "ship's rope", which in fact cannot be passed through needle eye.
On the other hand, some scholars dealing with the history of Judea, accepting the word "camel", interpret the meaning of the words "eye of a needle" in their own way. They believe that in ancient times this was the name of one of the gates of Jerusalem, through which it was almost impossible for a heavily laden camel to pass.
An excerpt from the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 19:
"16 And behold, one came up and said unto him, Good teacher, what good shall I do, that I may have eternal life?
17 And he said to him, Why do you call me good? Nobody is good but God alone. If you want to enter into life eternal, keep the commandments.
18 He says to him, What kind? Jesus said: do not kill; do not commit adultery; do not steal; do not bear false witness;
19 honor your father and mother; and: love your neighbor as yourself.
20 The young man said to him, All this I have kept from my youth; what else am I missing?
21 Jesus said to him, If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor; and you will have treasure in heaven; and come and follow me.
22 Hearing this word, the young man departed with sorrow, because he had a large estate.
23 But Jesus said to his disciples, Truly I say to you, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven;
24 and again I say to you: It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God.
25 When his disciples heard this, they were greatly amazed and said, Who then can be saved?
26 But Jesus looked up and said to them, With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.
An excerpt from the Gospel of Luke, chapter 18
18. And one of the rulers asked him: Good teacher! what should I do to inherit eternal life?
19. Jesus said to him: why do you call me good? none is good but God alone;
20. you know the commandments: do not commit adultery, do not kill, do not steal, do not bear false witness, honor your father and your mother.
21. And he said, All this I have kept from my youth.
22. When Jesus heard this, he said to him, There is one more thing you lack: sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven, and come follow me.
23 And when he heard this, he was sad, because he was very rich.
24. Jesus, seeing that he was sad, said: How difficult it is for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God!
25. for It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God.
An excerpt from the Gospel of Mark, chapter 10
17. When He went out on the road, someone ran up, fell on his knees before Him and asked Him: Good teacher! what should I do to inherit eternal life?
18. Jesus said to him: why do you call me good? Nobody is good but God alone.
19. You know the commandments: do not commit adultery, do not kill, do not steal, do not bear false witness, do not offend, honor your father and mother.
20. He said to Him in answer: Master! all this I have kept from my youth.
21. Jesus, looking at him, fell in love with him and said to him: You lack one thing: go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me, taking up the cross.
22. But he, embarrassed at this word, went away in sorrow, because he had a large property.
23. And looking around, Jesus said to His disciples: How difficult it is for those who have riches to enter the Kingdom of God!
24. The disciples were horrified at His words. But Jesus again says to them in answer: Children! How difficult it is for those who trust in riches to enter the Kingdom of God!
25. It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God.
Examples
“Yakov began to read and sing again, but he could no longer calm down and, without noticing it himself, he suddenly thought about the book; although he considered his brother’s words to be trifles, but for some reason lately it also began to come to his mind that it is difficult for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven that in the third year he bought a stolen horse very profitably, that even during the time of his dead wife, some drunkard once died in his tavern from vodka ... "
Letter to A. S. Suvorin May 18, 1891 Aleksin-Chekhov, having settled in a dacha in Bogimovo, writes to his rich friend:
“Rochefort has two floors, but you wouldn’t have enough rooms or furniture. Besides, the message is tiresome: from the station you have to go there by a detour of almost 15 versts. next year, when both floors are completed. easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich and family man to find a dacha. For me, there are as many dachas as you like, but for you, not a single one.
Roman Makhankov, Vladimir Gurbolikov
In the Gospel there are words of Christ that confuse modern man - "It is more convenient for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God." At first glance, this means only one thing - just as it is impossible for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, so a rich person cannot be a Christian, cannot have anything in common with God. However, is everything so simple?
Christ uttered this phrase not simply as an abstract moral teaching. Let's remember what immediately preceded it. A wealthy Jewish youth approached Jesus and asked, “Master! What good can I do to have eternal life? Christ answered: “You know the commandments: do not commit adultery, do not kill, do not steal, do not bear false witness, do not offend, honor your father and mother.” He lists here the ten commandments of the Law of Moses, on which the entire religious and civil life of the Jewish people was built. The young man could not know them. Indeed, he answers Jesus: "All this I have kept from my youth." Then Christ says: “You lack one thing: go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come and follow me." The Gospel says about the reaction of the young man to these words: “Having heard this word, the young man departed with sorrow, because he had a large estate.”
The frustrated young man leaves, and Christ tells the disciples those very words: “It is difficult for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven; And again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.”
This episode is easiest to interpret in this way. First, a rich person cannot be a true Christian. And secondly, in order to be a truly true Christian - a follower of Christ - one must be poor, give up all property, "sell everything and distribute to the poor." (By the way, this is how these words of Jesus are read in many organizations that call themselves Christian, calling for a return to the purity of evangelical ideals. Moreover, the leaders of these religious organizations).
Before finding out why Christ makes such a categorical demand, let's talk about the "camel and the eye of a needle." The interpreters of the New Testament have repeatedly suggested that the “eye of a needle” was a narrow gate in a stone wall through which a camel can pass with great difficulty. However, the existence of these gates is apparently conjecture.
There is also such an assumption that initially the text contained not the word “kamelos”, a camel, but very similar to it “camelos”, a rope (especially since they coincided in medieval pronunciation). If you take a very thin rope and a very large needle, maybe it will still work out? But such an explanation is also unlikely: when manuscripts are distorted, a more “difficult” reading is sometimes replaced by an “easier” one, more understandable, but not vice versa. So in the original, apparently, there was a "camel".
But still, one should not forget that the language of the Gospel is very metaphorical. And Christ, apparently, had in mind a real camel and a real eye of a needle. The fact is that the camel is the largest animal in the east. By the way, in the Babylonian Talmud there are similar words, but not about a camel, but about an elephant.
In modern biblical studies there is no generally accepted interpretation of this passage. But whatever interpretation one accepts, it is clear that Christ is here showing how difficult it is for a rich man to be saved. Of course, Orthodoxy is far from the extremes of the aforementioned sectarian reading of the Bible. However, we in the Church also have a strong opinion that poor people are closer to God, more precious in His eyes than rich people. In the Gospel, the idea of wealth as a serious obstacle to faith in Christ, to the spiritual life of a person runs like a red thread. However, nowhere in the Bible does it say that by itself wealth is a reason to condemn a person, and poverty by her own able to justify it. The Bible in many places, in different interpretations, says: God does not look at the face, not at the social position of a person, but at his heart. In other words, it doesn't matter how much money a person has. It is possible to wither - spiritually and physically - both over gold and over a few coins-lepta.
No wonder Christ valued the widow's two mites (and the "lepta" was the smallest coin in Israel) more expensive than all the other, large and rich contributions placed in the church mug of the Jerusalem Temple. And, on the other hand, Christ accepted a huge monetary sacrifice of the repentant tax collector - Zacchaeus (Gospel of Luke, chapter 19, verses 1-10). It was not for nothing that King David, praying to God, said: “You do not want a sacrifice, I would give it; but you are not pleased with the burnt offering. A sacrifice to God is a contrite and humble heart” (Psalm 50:18-19).
As for poverty, Paul's letter to the Corinthians has a clear answer to the question of the value of poverty in the eyes of God. The apostle writes: “If I give away all my possessions, but do not have love, it does not profit me at all” (). That is, poverty only has real value for God when it stands on the basis of love for God and neighbor. It turns out that it doesn't matter to God how much a person puts in a donation mug. Another thing is important - what was this sacrifice for him? An empty formality - or something important that it hurts to take away from the heart? Words: "My son! Give me your heart” (Proverbs 23:26) – this is the criterion of a true sacrifice to God.
But why then is the Gospel negative about wealth? Here, first of all, we must remember that the Bible does not know the formal definition of the word "wealth" at all. The Bible does not specify the amount from which a person can be considered rich. The wealth that the Gospel condemns is not the amount of money, not the social or political position of a person, but his attitude to all these blessings. That is, who does he serve: God or the Golden Calf? Christ's words, "Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also" illustrates this condemnation.
When interpreting the gospel episode with a rich young man, there is a risk of a literal, dogmatic understanding of what Christ said - said to this particular person. We must not forget that Christ is God, and therefore the Knower of the Heart. The eternal, enduring meaning of the words of the Savior in the case of the young man is not at all that a true Christian should distribute all his possessions to the poor. A Christian can be poor or rich (by the standards of his time), he can work both in a church organization and in a secular one. The bottom line is that a person who wants to be a real Christian must give to God first of all my heart. Trust Him. And be calm about your financial situation.
Trusting God does not mean immediately going to the nearest train station and handing out all the money to the homeless, leaving your children hungry. But having trusted Christ, it is necessary to strive in one's place, with all one's wealth and talent, to serve Him. This applies to everyone, because everyone is rich in something: the love of others, talents, a good family or the same money. This is very difficult, because you so want to set aside at least a part of these riches and hide it for yourself personally. But it is still possible for the “rich” to be saved. The main thing is to remember that Christ Himself, when necessary, gave everything for us: His Divine Glory and omnipotence and Life itself. Nothing is impossible for us in the face of this Sacrifice.
St. John Chrysostom
St. Cyril of Alexandria
And again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.
St. Hilary Pictavisky
And again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.
Rev. Maxim the Confessor
And again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.
What do the words mean: It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven
It is easier, says Jesus, to the twisted [nature] of the Gentiles - after all, this is camel- pass the narrow [gate] and narrow [path](Matthew 7:14) which means ear into the Kingdom of Heaven than the people of the Jews, who have the law and the prophets. Just as a needle passes through two pieces of cloth and makes one of them, so our Lord Jesus Christ, who is a needle, united two peoples, according to the Apostle, making both one(Eph. 2:14) . However, [according to another interpretation], who has exhausted and twisted himself [like a thread] by abstinence, it is easier for him to pass through the narrow gates to the Kingdom of Heaven than for a rich man who constantly fattens himself with food and human glory.
Questions and difficulties.
Rev. Justin (Popovich)
And again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.
Right. John of Kronstadt
And again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.
It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God, that is, it is extremely difficult for the rich to leave their whims, their luxury, their hardness of heart, their stinginess, their earthly pleasures and begin a life according to the Gospel, a life always temperate, full of good fruits: mercy, meekness, humility, gentleness, - pure and chaste. Life in repentance and incessant tears. Is it not amusements, is it not luxury, is it not games, is it not trading turnovers that occupy them all their lives? And the eternal pride, like a necklace that surrounds them, and their inaccessibility to the poor, and their exorbitant contempt?! Do you think that these are the mortals who were created from dust and will return to dust!
A diary. Volume XIX. December 1874.
Blzh. Hieronymus Stridonsky
Art. 24-26 And again I say to you: it is more comfortable for a camel(camelum) to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. When His disciples heard this, they were very astonished and said, Who then can be saved? And Jesus looked up and said to them, With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.
These words already show that it is not [only] difficult, but also impossible [to enter the Kingdom of Heaven for the rich]. Indeed, if a camel cannot pass through the eye of a needle, and if likewise a rich man cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven; then none of the rich will be saved. However, if we read in Isaiah about how the camels of Midian and Ephah will arrive in Jerusalem with gifts and treasures (Is. 60: 6), and also that those who were originally bent and twisted by the ugliness of vices enter the gates of Jerusalem, then we we will see that even these camels, with which the rich are compared, after they lay down the burden of sins and are freed from all bodily ugliness, can enter the narrow gate and enter the narrow path leading to life (Matt. 7). And when the disciples ask a question and marvel at the severity of what has been said [saying]: Who will be saved in this way? He mercifully softens the severity of His sentence, saying: What is impossible with humans is possible with God.
Blzh. Theophylact of Bulgaria
And again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.
Evfimy Zigaben
Still, I say to you: it’s more convenient to eat a velbud through a needle to go through the ears, rather than rich in the Kingdom of God
Having said that this is a difficult task, he calls it impossible, and even more than impossible. It is impossible for a camel, an animal, to pass through the eye of a needle, or even more impossible than that. Of course, the speech is somewhat exaggerated in order to arouse fear in the covetous. Some here understand a camel as a thick rope used by sailors. With these words, Christ condemns not wealth, but predilection for it. Great example! Just as the eye of a needle does not contain a camel because of its tightness and its fullness and pomposity, so the path that leads to life does not contain wealth because of its tightness and its arrogance. Therefore, one must lay aside all pride, as the Apostle teaches (Heb. 12:1), and humble oneself through voluntary poverty.
Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew.
Lopukhin A.P.
And again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.
(Mark 10:24-25; Luke 18:25). According to Mark, the Savior first repeated the saying He had said about the difficulty for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven, about the fact that the disciples were “horrified at His words,” and only after that did he add the teaching common to all weather forecasters. Here, obviously, Christ only explains His former saying by means of an example. All weather forecasters have χαμηλός - a camel. But in some manuscripts χάμιλος is read, which is explained as παχύ σχοίλον - a thick ship's rope. Differences in the transfer of further expression “through the needle ears” (among Matthew Δια τροπήματος ραφίδος; in Mark Δια τρνπήματος ταφίδος; in Luke Δια τοπήματος; all these expressions are the same meaning) . There has been a lot of controversy about the meaning of these expressions. Lightfoot and others have shown that this was a proverb found in the Talmud for some kind of difficulty. Only the Talmud does not speak of a camel, but of an elephant. So, in one place it is said about dreams that during them we cannot see what we have not seen before, for example, a golden palm tree or an elephant passing through the eye of a needle. One person who did what seemed ridiculous or even unbelievable was told: “You must be one of the Pombedites (Jewish school in Babylon) who can make an elephant go through the eye of a needle.” Similar expressions are found in the Koran, but with the replacement of an elephant by a camel; and even in India there are proverbs: “an elephant passing through a small door” or “through the eye of a needle.” In this sense, many of the latest interpreters understand the saying of the Savior. The opinion that by the "eyes of the needle" one should understand the narrow and low gates through which camels cannot pass, is now considered generally erroneous. Still less probable is the opinion, which appeared already in antiquity, that a camel here should be understood as a rope. Changing χαμηλός into χάμιλος is arbitrary. Κάμιλος - a word so rare that in Greek it can even be considered non-existent, it does not occur in good Greek dictionaries, although it must be said that the metaphor of a rope that is difficult to pull through the eye of a needle could be somewhat more natural than about a camel which cannot pass through the eye of the needle. (Apparently, the ancient interpretation of the eye of a needle as a gate, which is made in the fortress wall for the entrance of night caravans, has a completely real basis. Until now, in the East, to enter a camel for the night in a caravanserai, they put it on their knees, remove part of it load and he goes on his knees through the door. excessive care for earthly things - and you will enter the kingdom of heaven. Note. ed.)
But whatever interpretation we may adopt, the main difficulty lies not in this, but in the purpose for which such a strange metaphor is used here. Did Christ want to point out here the complete impossibility for the rich to enter the Kingdom of Heaven? Did He mean to say that just as it is impossible for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, so it is impossible for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God? But Abraham was very rich in cattle, silver and gold (Gen. 13:2) and yet, according to the Savior Himself, this did not prevent him from being in the Kingdom of God (Luke 13:28; cf. 16:22, 23, 26 ; John 8:56 etc.). It is difficult, further, to suppose that the speech of the Savior referred only to this a rich man who has just departed from Him; πλούσιον would then be delivered with a member that all three evangelists do not have. If, finally, we accept the words of the Savior in their literal meaning, then it will be necessary to recognize that they must serve (and, it seems, serve) as a stronghold for all kinds of socialist doctrines and the proletariat. Anyone who owns any property and has not enrolled in the ranks of the proletarians cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven. In the comments, we generally do not find the answer to these questions; they must be considered hitherto unresolved, and the words of Christ not clear enough. Perhaps this is a general New Testament view of wealth, which serves as an obstacle to the service of God (cf. Matt. 6:24; Luke 16:13). (What are the latest interpretations? Note ed.) But it seems that the most likely explanation is as follows. The New Testament puts the service of God and Christ in the foreground; the result of this may be the enjoyment of external goods (Matt. 6:33). But for a rich man who puts in the foreground the service of mammon and only in the last place - following Christ and serving Him, or even does not do this at all, indeed, it is always difficult to become an heir to the Kingdom of Heaven.
Explanatory Bible.
The history of this place began more than two thousand years ago. At that time, there was the outskirts of the ancient one, and one of the corner watchtowers with the city gates was located. These walls were built by King Herod. And today you can see here the ancient masonry with a characteristic Herodian trimming along the edges of the stones.
For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.
The Alexander Compound was built on a site acquired by the Russian Empire, which was located in close proximity to. Initially, it was planned to build a consulate on this site, but during the clearing of the area, the remains of ancient structures were discovered.
Direct systemic excavations were started by the Imperial Orthodox Palestine Society in 1882. The patron was its chairman, Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich. Archimandrite Antonin (Kapustin), who headed the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in Jerusalem from 1865 to 1894, was entrusted with supervision and leadership in this matter. The excavations were carried out directly by the German architect and archaeologist, a brilliant connoisseur of Jerusalem antiquities Konrad Schick.
During the excavations, the remains of the city's outer and inner walls, an arch with two columns, the remains of a church built by the Holy Empress Helena in the 4th century BC were found. Konrad Schick determined the shape of the gate in the wall. This immediately entered the system of Christian shrines, as the "threshold of the Judgment Gate", through which Jesus Christ left the city, following to Golgotha.
It became clear that in such a place, valuable for the entire Christian world, as well as the only place on the Way of the Cross belonging to the Russian Orthodox Church, the construction of a Russian consulate was inappropriate. It was decided to build a temple here. But a number of problems arose, since the construction of a church in the courtyard required the consent of the Jerusalem Patriarchate, the Catholic clergy and the Turkish government. The head of the Ottoman Empire forbade any construction in the territories subject to him, the Catholics stood guard over their interests, and the Church of Jerusalem officially protested, fearing that the Russian church would be located next to the main shrine of Christianity - the Church of the Resurrection of Christ. One of the conditions of the Jerusalem Patriarch on the ownership of the church was a categorical statement that the church should belong to the royal family, and not to the Palestinian Society, in whose house it will be located.
Thanks to the diplomatic abilities of Archimandrite Antonin Kapustin and the entire diplomatic Russian mission in the East, an agreement was signed, and the church in the courtyard with a shelter for pilgrims with a total area of 1433 square meters was consecrated on May 22, 1896 in honor of the Holy Prince Alexander Nevsky.
The temple in the name of Prince Alexander Nevsky is the largest room in the courtyard. It is decorated with a wooden carved two-tiered iconostasis, leading its history back to Byzantine times. The height of the liturgical hall is 10 meters, the length is 22 meters. In the center of the church hall, in front of the iconostasis, there is a stone throne, which scientists and archaeologists attribute to the chapel of the basilica of Tsar Constantine, erected by him in the 4th century. At the end of the western wall hang 14 picturesque icons in black frames on stretchers, revealing to the faithful the holy faces of the ascetics of the faith of Christ.
On the eastern side of the temple there is a triple stained-glass window depicting the Crucifixion with the Mother of God and St. John the Evangelist.
The premises of the large two-story Alexander Compound were intended for a temple, rooms for pilgrims, reception halls, a library and a museum with a rich and interesting exposition.
On the first floor of the Metochion, immediately at the entrance, there is the Reception Room, or as it is called "Royal". It should be clarified that neither Emperor Alexander III nor Nicholas II have ever been here. Perhaps the name comes from the interior of this hall and the royal portraits.
An old wooden staircase leads to the second floor of the Alexander Compound, leading to a corridor and connecting rooms for clergy, a library and an archive.
In the basement of the Metochion, two corridors unite three small rooms that were previously intended for the residence of employees and a cistern that held 15,760 buckets of water.
11. On the longitudinal side walls of the Alexander Nevsky Church there are 18 pictorial images (3 meters high and 2 meters wide) by N. A. Koshelev, professor of the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts, member of the Imperial Orthodox Palestinian Society.
– Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane (1890s)
– Prayer for a cup (1891)
- The Kiss of Judas (1890)
– Leading Jesus Christ to Judgment (1892)
– Denial of the Apostle Peter (1892)
– Accusation of Christ (1894)
– Jesus Christ is led to Pilate (1893)
– Pilate washes his hands (1895)
- Jesus Christ being interrogated by Pontius Pilate (1895)
– Simon Carrying the Cross of the Savior (1900)
– Weep not, daughters of Jerusalem (1899)
– Before the Crucifixion (The Procession of Jesus to Golgotha) (1900)
– Crucifixion (Jesus' rib being pierced by a soldier) (1900s)
– Descent from the Cross (1897)
– Preparations for the burial of Jesus Christ (1894)
– The Virgin at the Holy Sepulcher (The Entombment) (1894)
– Myrrh-bearing women at the Holy Sepulcher (Resurrection of Christ) (1896)
– Descent into Hell (1900)
12. Along the northern and southern walls of the temple are 16 images of ascetics, the righteous and confessors. The images of the saints are executed in a strict pictorial manner full-length, in strict black monastic cassocks, with halos on a golden background. These are the holy Forerunner and Baptist of the Lord John, Andrew the First-Called, George the Victorious and the Monk Chariton the Confessor, John of Damascus and Porfiry, Archbishop of Gaza, the great Barsanuphius and Archbishop Cyril of Alevsky, the Monks John Chozevites and Theoctist the Faster, Gerasimus of Jordan and Hilarion the Great, Theodosius the Great and Savva Sanctified, Euthymius the Great and Great Equal-to-the-Apostles Emperor Constantine and his mother, Saint Equal-to-the-Apostles Helena.
