In the second place, we should receive and interpret
Scripture through the Church and in the Church. Our approach to the Bible is
not only obedient but ecclesial.
It is the Church that tells us what is
Scripture. A book is not part of Scripture
because of any particular theory about its dating and authorship. Even if it
could be proved, for example, that the Fourth Gospel was not actually written
by John the beloved disciple of Christ, this would not alter the fact that we
Orthodox accept the Fourth Gospel as Holy Scripture. Why? Because the Gospel of
John is accepted by the Church and in the Church.
It is the Church that tells us what is Scripture,
and it is also the Church that tells us how Scripture is to be understood.
Coming upon the Ethiopian as he read the Old Testament in his chariot, Philip
the Apostle asked him, "Understandest thou what thou readest?"
And the Ethiopian answered, "How can I, unless some man should guide
me?" (Acts 8:30-31). We are all in the position of the Ethiopian. The
words of Scripture are not always self-explanatory. God speaks directly to the
heart of each one of us as we read our Bible. Scripture reading is a personal
dialogue between each one of us and Christ - but we also need guidance.
And our guide is the Church. We make full use of our own personal
understanding, assisted by the Spirit, we make full use of the findings of
modern Biblical research, but always we submit private opinion - whether our
own or that of the scholars - to the total experience of the Church throughout
the ages.
The Orthodox standpoint here is summed up in the
question asked of a convert at the reception service used by the Russian
Church: "Do you acknowledge that the Holy Scripture must be accepted and
interpreted in accordance with the belief which has been handed down by the
Holy Fathers, and which the Holy Orthodox Church, our Mother, has always held
and still does hold?"
We read the Bible personally, but not as isolated
individuals. We read as the members of a family, the family of the Orthodox
Catholic Church. When reading Scripture, we say not "I" but "We."
We read in communion with all the other members of the Body of Christ, in all
parts of the world and in all generations of time. The decisive test and
criterion for our understanding of what the Scripture means is the mind of
the Church. The Bible is the book of the Church.
To discover this "mind of the Church,"
where do we begin? Our first step is to see how Scripture is used in worship.
How, in particular, are Biblical lessons chosen for reading at the different
feasts? We should also consult the writings of the Church Fathers, and consider
how they interpret the Bible. Our Orthodox manner of reading Scripture is in
this way both liturgical and patristic. And this, as we all realize, is far
from easy to do in practice, because we have at our disposal so few Orthodox
commentaries on Scripture available in English, and most of the Western
commentaries do not employ this liturgical and Patristic approach.
As an example of what it means to interpret
Scripture in a liturgical way, guided by the use made of it at Church feasts,
let us look at the Old Testament lessons appointed for Vespers on the Feast of
the Annunciation. They are three in number: Genesis 28:10-17; Jacob's dream of
a ladder set up from earth to heaven; Ezekiel 43:27-44:4; the prophet's vision
of the Jerusalem sanctuary, with the closed gate through which none but the
Prince may pass; Proverbs 9:1-11: one of the great Sophianic passages in the
Old Testament, beginning "Wisdom has built her house."
These texts in the Old Testament, then, as their
selection for the feast of the Virgin Mary indicates, are all to be understood
as prophecies concerning the Incarnation from the Virgin. Mary is Jacob's
ladder, supplying the flesh that God incarnate takes upon entering our human
world. Mary is the closed gate who alone among women bore a child while still
remaining inviolate. Mary provides the house which Christ the Wisdom of God (1
Cor. 1:24) takes as his dwelling. Exploring in this manner the choice of
lessons for the various feasts, we discover layers of Biblical interpretation
that are by no means obvious on a first reading.
Take as another example Vespers on Holy Saturday,
the first part of the ancient Paschal Vigil. Here we have no less than fifteen
Old Testament lessons. This sequence of lessons sets before us the whole scheme
of sacred history, while at the same time underlining the deeper meaning of
Christ's Resurrection. First among the lessons is Genesis 1:1-13, the account
of Creation: Christ's Resurrection is a new Creation. The fourth lesson is the
book of Jonah in its entirety, with the prophet's three days in the belly of
the whale foreshadowing Christ's Resurrection after three days in the tomb (cf.
Matthew 12:40). The sixth lesson recounts the crossing of the Red Sea by the
Israelites (Exodus 13:20-15:19), which anticipates the new Passover of Pascha
whereby Christ passes over from death to life (cf. 1 Corinthians 5:7; 10:1-4).
The final lesson is the story of the three Holy Children in the fiery furnace
(Daniel 3), once more a "type" or prophecy of Christ's rising
from the tomb.
Such is the effect of reading Scripture
ecclesially, in the Church and with the Church. Studying the Old Testament in
this liturgical way and using the Fathers to help us, everywhere we uncover
signposts pointing forward to the mystery of Christ and of His Mother. Reading
the Old Testament in the light of the New, and the New in the light of the, Old
- as the Church's calendar encourages us to do - we discover the unity of Holy
Scripture. One of the best ways of identifying correspondences between the Old
and New Testaments is to use a good Biblical concordance. This can often tell
us more about the meaning of Scripture than any commentary.
In Bible study groups within our parishes, it is
helpful to give one person the special task of noting whenever a particular
passage in the Old or New Testament is used for a festival or a saint's day. We
can then discuss together the reasons why each specific passage has been so
chosen. Others in the group can be assigned to do homework among the Fathers,
using for example the Biblical homilies of Saint John Chrysostom (which have
been translated into English). Christians need to acquire a patristic mind.
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