Lopukhin Explanatory Bible

At a Glance

The Lopukhin Explanatory Bible (Толковая Библия) is an early-twentieth-century Russian Orthodox commentary project published in St. Petersburg from 1904 to 1913. It was begun under the editorship of Alexander Pavlovich Lopukhin and completed after his death by a circle of scholars associated with the Russian theological academies.

What It Contains

The work comments on the biblical text passage by passage, drawing upon patristic interpretation, historical geography, textual variants, Greek and Hebrew vocabulary, and European biblical scholarship of its period. Its coverage includes the Old and New Testaments and books of the Orthodox deuterocanon.

Voice and Context

This is a Russian Orthodox academic voice, not a modern official commentary of the Russian Orthodox Church. It reflects the questions, sources, terminology, and scholarly assumptions of the theological academies before the Russian Revolution. Individual biblical books were prepared by different contributors, so the series should not be treated as though Lopukhin personally authored every note.

Translation Notice

StudyOrthodoxy currently presents Matthew 5 through a machine-assisted English working translation. It is intended for discovery and comparison, has not been reviewed by a Russian-speaking theologian, and must not be quoted as an authoritative English edition. The Russian text remains available beside every translated entry.

Orthodox Use and Caution

The commentary is much closer to StudyOrthodoxy's ecclesial setting than the Protestant historical corpus, but it is still a secondary work. Its historical claims, textual judgments, and borrowings from nineteenth-century Western scholarship require evaluation. Where a doctrinal conclusion depends on a translated phrase, consult the Russian original and the cited Fathers or primary sources.

Access

The Matthew 5 transcription is available through Azbyka. The underlying 1911 volume is preserved as a public-domain scan on Wikimedia Commons.