Reflections in Christ

In earlier posts we spoke of the challenges to be faced in understanding the Bible in all its rich complexity.  We spoke of the necessity of recognizing that the Bible contains many literary genres and that it is a very old book.  We conclude this series by suggesting that to fully grasp the Bible’s meaning, we need to recognize Christ there when…

In an earlier post we spoke of the necessity of recognizing literary genre as one of the essential keys to understanding the Bible.  A second key to understanding the Bible is recognizing its antiquity—that is, acknowledging that the Bible is a very old book—and therefore very different than our modern books.

This would seem to be too obvious…

Odd as it sounds, the first step to understanding the Bible is to realize that there is no such thing as The Bible.  Or, to state it somewhat less paradoxically, we must realize that the Bible is not a single book written by a single author, but a library of books written over a number of centuries by many authors.  The word “bible”, though…

There is one woman in the Bible who is consistently ignored.  That is perhaps not unexpected, since her name is not given.  Her presence can be first detected by the exegetically keen-sighted in Isaiah 7.  On the eve of an expected invasion of Judah by a northern coalition of Israel and Syria, the prophet Isaiah went to visit his king, Ahaz, who was…

The Book of Judith is a war story.  It may be difficult for us to appreciate it fully, since most of us have never experienced the danger and horrors attending the invasion of one’s country—especially the dangers and horrors for women during such invasion.  My own nation Canada has never really been invaded.  The last time America was invaded,…

Rahab has the distinction of being one of the few Biblical figures who was the object of an attempted moral make-over—or, more bluntly, of a well-intentioned white-wash.  In Hebrews 11:31 and James 2:25 she is referred to as “Rahab the porne”—in quaint English, “Rahab the harlot”, in more common English “Rahab the prostitute”—and…

The Book of Ruth, a little tale of only four chapters, is arguably the sweetest book of the Bible and perhaps in all literature.  Its sweetness is accentuated by its position within order of the books of the Septuagint and of the Christian versions dependent upon it, for there it comes immediately after the Book of Judges and immediately before the…

If ever a Biblical story cried out to be made into a Hollywood movie, it would be the story of Esther.  The story has everything that Hollywood values in a movie:  rags-to-riches, gorgeous scenery, sex, intrigue, a creepy villain, attempted murder, violence, plot twists, a cast of thousands, and a happy ending.  It even centers upon a strong female…

One of my favourite hymns from my old Anglican days is Be Thou My Vision. Based on a sixth century Irish poem attributed to Saint Dallan Forgaill, it was translated by Mary Byrne in 1905, and versified by Eleanor Hull in 1912.  I was trying to find a version of the hymn to download, but had trouble finding the entire version which I used to sing…

When the spies that Joshua sent out to reconnoitre the land returned to camp, they came with bad news:  “The people who live in the land are strong and the cities are fortified and very large; and moreover we saw the descendants of Anak there.  We are not able to go up against the people, for they are too strong for us.”  The spies were quite…

Several times a week I drive past a certain church, and recently I was moved by curiosity to find out what their services were like. Since our province is currently under lockdown and gathering for Christian worship inside is currently against the law (yes, you heard that right), many churches make their services available through live-stream. This…

Significantly the story of the salvation of the world began in a pagan place far away from what would eventually become the Promised Land.  That is, it began in Ur of the Chaldeans with the emigration of the family of Terah (Genesis 11:31).  What prompted Terah to uproot his family from a prosperous city and to wander afar from all the security he…

Recently I was reading a foreign-language newspaper (well, the English part of it) and there was an article in it about the church.  My eyes were first attracted to the article by a photo of an old priest in a stole, having a long white beard, and holding a prayer rope.  The article accompanying the photo read as follows:  “The monk priest Father…

Not so long ago I was asked by a very young child at church the question, “Fr. Lawrence, does God have a body?”  She was not thinking of the incarnate Christ our God, but of God in the Old Testament, Yahweh, the pre-incarnate deity, the Father (though she did not express it in those terms).  The answer, of course, is:  No, God does not have a…

In discussions about hell and the sad fact that not everyone will be saved (as is clear from the words of Christ, the writings of His apostles, the consensus of the Fathers, and the consistent teaching of the Church throughout the centuries) one quickly encounters the objection that this teaching is too much to bear.  Some affirm that the teaching…

Zacchaeus lives in the Church, abiding as an image of us all.  In some sense, everyone of us is Zacchaeus, for everyone of us is a sinner at heart.  That is why Zacchaeus is invoked and his example recalled every time the priest enters someone’s home to invoke the presence and blessing of Christ upon it (such as at the Theophany season, and when a…

We conclude this series by examining the role of the Fathers in Christian Scriptural interpretation and by offering a threefold summary of our study.

The Role of the Fathers

The Church Fathers were a varied lot.  They lived in a number of different centuries, had very different personalities and gifts, spoke different languages, and wrote to…

We now turn to a look at how Christians read the Old Testament.

The Christian Exegesis of the Old Testament

The Christian approach to the Old Testament shared with the Second Temple interpreters their approach to the Scriptures in that the Christians combed through the texts carefully to find hidden meanings—i.e. meanings not immediately…

To really appreciate and understand the Old Testament, one needs to place it in the religious and cultural context of the Ancient Near East.  Having done this, one can then see how much the Old Testament shares with that world and also how much it differs.

Take, for example, the Tabernacle that Yahweh commanded Moses to construct, the house and…

We continue our study by a look at Scriptural exegesis during the period of the Second Temple.

Second Temple Exegesis

It is important to understand how the Scriptures were read during this period.  Because the Scriptures functioned as the repository of Israel’s poignant and sometimes desperate hopes, people read and re-read them carefully,…