Luke emphasizes the universality of Christ’s love and His all-embracing compassion that extends equally to Jew and Gentile. Matthew is the most “ecclesiastical” and the most Jewish of the four, with his special interest in the relationship of the gospel to the Jewish Law, and his understanding of Christianity as the “New Law.” Mark writes in less polished Greek, closer to the language of daily life, and includes vivid narrative details not found in the other gospels. Alongside the divine aspect, there is also a human element in Scripture, and we are to value both.Įach of the four Evangelists, for example, has his own particular stand point. Every writer of Scripture contributes his or her particular human gifts. The author of each book was not just a passive instrument, a flute played by the Spirit, a dictation machine recording a message. In the words of the second-century Letter to Diognetus, “God persuades, He does not compel for violence is foreign to the divine nature.” So it is precisely in the writing of inspired Scripture. Divine grace cooperates with human freedom: we are “fellow workers,” cooperators with God (1 Cor. For God does not abolish our created personhood but enhances it. Each work in the Bible reflects the outlook of the age in which it was written and the particular viewpoint of the author. We find God speaking here “at various times and in various ways” (Heb. It is an entire library of distinct writings, composed at varying times, by different persons in widely diverse situations. It is one book, one Holy Scripture, with the same message throughout one composite and yet a single story from Genesis to Revelation.Īt the same time, however, the Bible is also humanly expressed. We call it “the Bible,” “the Book,” in the singular. We do not refer to it as “the books” in the plural, ta biblia. Since it is divinely inspired, the Bible possesses a fundamental unity, a total coherence, because the same Spirit speaks on every page. The divine inspiration of the Bible is emphasized alike by Saint Tikhon and by the 1976 Moscow Conference: Scripture is “a letter” from “the King of Heaven,” writes Saint Tikhon “Christ Himself is speaking to you.” The Bible, states the Conference, is God’s “authoritative witness” of Himself, expressing “the word of God in human language.” Our response to this divine word is rightly one of obedient receptivity. Reading the Bible with Obedienceįirst of all, we see Scripture as inspired by God, and we approach it in a spirit of obedience. Second, it is ecclesial, in union with the Church. First, our reading of Scripture is obedient. Our approach to the Bible is one of obedience.”Ĭombining Saint Tikhon’s words and the Moscow statement, the four key characteristics which mark the Orthodox “Scriptural mind” may be distinguished. We know, receive, and interpret Scripture through the Church and in the Church. They bear authoritative witness to God’s revelation of Himself in creation, in the Incarnation of the Word, and in the whole history of salvation, and as such express the word of God in human language. They are at once divinely inspired and humanly expressed. This joint statement, signed by the delegates of both traditions, forms an excellent summary of the Orthodox view: “The Scriptures constitute a coherent whole. Two centuries after Saint Tikhon, at the Moscow Conference held in 1976 between the Orthodox and the Anglicans, the true attitude toward Scripture was expressed in different but equally valid terms. “Speak, for Your servant hears,” we reply to God as we read (1 Sam. Whenever we open our Bible, we are engaging in a creative dialogue with the Savior. The words are not intended merely for others, far away and long ago, but they are written particularly and directly to me, here and now. I am to see the Bible as God’s personal letter sent specifically to myself. Such exactly is our Orthodox attitude to the reading of Scripture. And while you read you are praying and talking to Him.” “Whenever you read the Gospel, Christ Himself is speaking to you. And yet you almost despise such a gift, so priceless a treasure.” To open and read this letter, Saint Tikhon adds, is to enter into a personal conversation face-to-face with the living God. “If an earthly king, our emperor,” wrote Saint Tikhon of Zadonsk (1724-83), “wrote you a letter, would you not read it with joy? Certainly, with great rejoicing and careful attention.” But what, he asks, is our attitude toward the letter that has been addressed to us by no one less than God Himself? “You have been sent a letter, not by any earthly emperor, but by the King of Heaven. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God (2 Tim.
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