By Metropolitan Isaiah of Denver Strictly speaking, there never
was a ‘Bible’ in the Orthodox Church, at least not as we
commonly think of the Bible as a single volume book we can hold
in our hand. Since the beginning of the Church, from the start
of our liturgical tradition, there has never been a single book
in an Orthodox church we could point to as ‘the Bible’. Instead,
the various ‘Books’ of the Bible are found scattered throughout
several service books located either on the Holy Altar itself,
or at the chanter's stand. The Gospels (or their pericopes) are
complied into a single volume — usually bound in precious metal
and richly decorated — placed on the Holy Altar. The Epistles
(or, again, their pericopes) are bound together in another book,
called the Apostolos, which is normally found at the chanter's
stand. Usually located next to the Apostolos on the chanter's
shelf are the twelve volumes of the Menaion, as well as the
books called the Triodion and Pentekostarion, containing various
segments of the