First,
we read the Scriptures on our knees.
That is, we read with humility, knowing that the Bible is more alive than
we are. The Scriptures are God-breathed (Greek theopneustos; 2 Timothy
3:16), saturated with the Spirit of God. For this reason it is easier for the
heaven and earth to pass away than for one stroke of the Law to fail (Luke
16:17); for being God-breathed and spiritual (Romans 7:14), it partakes of the
eternity of God.
There
is always a temptation to make ourselves the measure of all things, and
therefore to regard the Scriptures as true when they agree with us and as false
when they disagree with us. We usually try to justify such disagreements with
the Bible by saying that the Bible is culturally conditioned, and that its
authors therefore spoke as men of their time. We seldom think that we are
culturally conditioned, or that we speak as people of our time.
In truth we all come to the Scriptures infected with the secular
presuppositions of our age, and read through these secular lenses. Given this,
we must expect that the Scriptures will sometimes clash with our cherished
ideas. If we read with true humility, we read to be confirmed in our views when
we are right, and corrected when we are wrong. Being corrected and having our
long-held errors contradicted may not be much fun, but it is the basis of all real
learning-whether of the Scriptures or of anything else.
When we come across something in the Scriptures that seems odd to us, we must
not immediately conclude that it is an error. As St. Augustine the Great wrote in his letter
to Jerome, "I most firmly believe that none of the authors [of Scripture] has
erred in anything that he has written. If I find anything in those writings
which seems to be contrary to the truth, I assume that either the codex [i.e.
the handwritten copy] is inaccurate, or the translator has not followed what
was said, or that I have not properly understood it." St. Augustine had learned to read on his
knees.
Second, we read the Scriptures to become more holy.
St. Paul
writes that the Scriptures were given "for reproof, for correction, for instruction
in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for
every good work" (2 Timothy 3:16, 17). With the
explosion of information in our age, we are conditioned to receive the
Scripture as information-as facts to be stuffed into our heads. But God gave
the Scripture for the purpose of transforming our hearts and transfiguring our
lives. On the Last Day, we will not be quizzed about our knowledge of the
Bible, but about the quality of our life and our deeds.
That means that we must read the Scriptures prayerfully, allowing the words to
soak into our hearts and begin their work of transformation. This does not mean
that we read the Scripture solely for its emotional impact. Its words are aimed
at our will, not our emotions. It does mean that we read the sacred text asking
ourselves the question, "What is this text telling me about how I am to live?"
This of course presupposes an intellectual study of the text, for before we can
know how the text relates to our life, we must first know what it means-and
that involves hard work. (That is where a good Bible commentary comes in!)
And all of this relates to our ongoing prayer life. Prayer should both precede
and follow our reading of the Scripture, since Scripture is the foundation of
our walk with God. It is through prayer that we access the life-changing power
of God. Our Bible reading is meant to support this life of prayer. A Bible
scholar who never prays is not an Orthodox Bible scholar!
Third, we read the Scriptures as part of the larger Tradition.
It is just here that the Protestant principle of sola Scriptura
utterly betrays. For the Scriptura was not written sola as if it
stood alone, but as part of the larger whole; and the Tradition predates the
writing of the New Testament itself. The apostles told stories about Jesus and
gave instruction to the churches before they wrote the Gospels and Epistles.
The Gospels and Epistles form a part of this overarching Tradition. This means
that if we read anything in the New Testament that seems to contradict the
Tradition, we know that we are actually misreading it, and missing its true
meaning.
We need therefore to immerse ourselves in the larger Tradition, feeding upon
the liturgical hymns and the writings of the Fathers. Foremost in this is our
experience of the Tradition in the Divine Liturgy. For in the Liturgy we do not
just read the words of Christ (as if He were absent), but rather hear His
living voice, since He is present. That is why we stand when the Gospel is
read, to greet the living Lord who abides in our midst. As St. John Chrysostom
writes, "The reading out of the Scriptures [in church] is the opening of the
heavens." There Christ reveals Himself to us, and this liturgical encounter
with Him forms the foundation for our private reading.
Finally, we read the Old Testament as Christians.
The Jews have a different way of reading the Hebrew Scriptures than we
Christians do. Our reading is Christological. That is, we read the Hebrew
Scriptures to find Christ there. That is why we call it the Old Testament, for
our reading presupposes a New Testament. The Old Testament is replete with
types and foreshadowing.
For example, consider the Flood of Noah. A Jew will see it simply as an early
cataclysm that engulfed the world. The Christian will also see it as a type of
baptism, through which we are saved (see 1 Peter 3:20-21). Or consider the city
of Jerusalem. A
Jew will see it simply as the holy city of Zion. A Christian will recognize it also as a
type of the Mother of God, the true daughter of Zion, the one to whom God came
to dwell in her midst (see Zechariah 2:10). For us, all of the Old Testament
speaks prophetically of Christ and His Church, and the truths of the New
Testament wait beneath the surface in the pages of the Law and the Prophets. In
all of our Scripture reading, we expect to encounter Christ.
Let me offer a few final counsels. Though we must read the Scriptures with the
heart, the head is not left out, for the Lord teaches us to worship God with
our mind also (Mark 12:30). That means that we must bring to our Bible reading
all the resources we can in order to understand its meaning. Not only a good
Bible commentary is helpful here, but Bible atlases and an appreciation of the
cultures in which the Bible was set. We approach our time of Bible reading not
only with such spiritual tools as humility and prayerfulness, but also with a
pen and paper, and perhaps a stack of books! We must really study it, and this
will involve work and time. It is no good simply dabbling. Bible reading is not
a form of recreation, but the foundation of our life. The study of Scripture
should be our life's work.
In our study, however, we must remember that, when all is said and done, we do
not study simply for our own sake, but also for the sake of others. St. John
Chrysostom said that ignorance of the Scriptures is a great abyss. Many
multitudes in our society are now falling into that abyss. By studying the
Scripture, we hope, with the help of God, to transform our lives. Then, through
the witness of our life, we may help others to avoid that abyss.
This is how an Orthodox Christian reads the Scripture-not as an isolated unit,
but as part of the Church-a Church that is open to God and out to save the
world.
Archpriest Lawrence
R. Farley is pastor of St. Herman of Alaska
Orthodox Mission (OCA) in Surrey, B.C., Canada. He
received his B.A. from Trinity College, Toronto, and
his M.Div. from Wycliffe College, Toronto.
A former Anglican priest, he converted to Orthodoxy in 1985 and studied for two
years at St. Tikhon's Orthodox Seminary in Pennsylvania. He is the author of the
Orthodox Bible Study Companion series, published by Conciliar Press.
This article is excerpted from "Reading
from the Heart," which originally appeared in AGAIN Vol. 27 No. 1, Spring 2005.
It is reproduced here courtesy of www.conciliarpress.com.
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