Hey everybody this is Steve and, as a Christian, how do you know what the Bible means?
One of the cool things about making Be the Bee has been engaging with people who aren’t
Orthodox Christians and are curious to learn more about the Church.
This has been especially true since we released 10 Fun Facts About the Orthodox Church this
past summer.
As of today, that video’s been watched over 55,000 times.
Some people who’ve watched that video have commented that the Orthodox Church is somehow
unbiblical, somehow at odds with the teaching of Scripture.
And, as we’ve seen with reactions to some high profile people who’ve recently been
welcomed into the Orthodox Church, there are quite a few people who share this view.
The truth is there are a lot of different, and even contradictory, interpretations of
Scripture out there.
You may even come across some atheists, people who don’t even believe in God, who have
their own twist on what they think the Bible says.
So how do we move beyond what we think the Scripture means and get to the heart of what
it actually means?
There’s a lot to cover.
Stick with me.
We’ve already touched on the Scripture back in episode #45, and we’ll again do what
we do best and try to clear up some misconceptions so people can see things with the eyes of
a bee.
In the Book of Acts, chapter 8, we read about an Ethiopian eunuch who was reading the Scripture.
Specifically, the Book of Isaiah in the Old Testament.
God spoke to the Apostle Philip, and told him to approach the man.
When Philip did, he asked the eunuch: “Do you understand what you’re reading?”
And this man, who held a very important position under the queen of the Ethiopians, answered
with incredible wisdom and humility: “Do I understand?
How can I, unless someone guides me?”
He realized that, without proper instruction, it was very possible to misunderstand the
Scripture.
And he wouldn’t have been the first person to misunderstand the Bible.
In fact, some of the disciples did, too.
In the Gospel according to Luke, chapter 24, we read about two disciples walking on the
road to Emmaus.
They were heartbroken.
Jesus Christ, their beloved teacher and friend, was crucified just a few days before.
A third person approached the two disciples, and asked why they were so sad.
So the disciples talked about everything that had happened to Jesus, who they called a mighty
prophet.
They talked about how they hoped He would be the one to redeem Israel; instead, He was
crucified, which was incredibly disappointing.
And, as if that wasn’t confusing enough, they said that some of the disciples had gone
to Christ’s tomb, and some didn’t find His Body.
Then the third man, who was Jesus Himself, resurrected from the dead, said something
powerful:
“O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken!
Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory?”
And then, the Gospel account says that Christ opened the Scripture to the disciples, showing
to them all the things concerning Him.
In other words, Christ Himself said that, if the disciples understood the words of the
prophets, if they understood what we today call the Old Testament, they would know know
that He came to suffer on the cross and enter into His glory.
Yet to understand the words of Scripture, they would need a special interpretive key:
Christ Himself.
In His classic work, Against the Heresies, St Irenaeus says that the Scripture is like
the mosaic of a king.
However, it’s possible to take apart the gems and stones of the mosaic and rearrange
them so they create a different image: that of a dog.
It’s the same pieces, understood through a different interpretive key: a dog, rather
than a king.
The key to understanding Scripture is Jesus Christ Himself.
The key to understanding the Word of God is the Word of God Himself, in the flesh, Christ
Himself.
The Ethiopian Eunuch of Acts chapter 8 understood this.
He realized that all the verses and chapters and books of the Scripture couldn’t make
sense to him unless someone taught him how to understand them.
Unless someone gave him the interpretive key.
The Church received that key on the Road to Emmaus from Christ Himself.
And the Church has been using that key ever since.
It’s that key that the Evangelists and Apostles used to compose the Gospels and Epistles that
make up the New Testament.
It’s the key that the Church used to tell the difference between which books should
and should not appear in the Bible.
So how exactly do we receive this interpretive key?
Is it enough to simply “have a personal relationship with Jesus,” and then approach
the Scripture on our own?
Well, no.
And the Bible itself gives us clear examples of that.
For example, we celebrate Sts Peter and Paul, and even call them pillars of the Apostles.
And even though they both had a relationship with Christ, their own understanding of who
He was and what the Scriptures said about him still needed the wisdom and guidance of
the Church.
St Peter, for instance, knew Christ for years, he was one of the Lord’s disciples.
Yet, in Galatians chapter 2, we read about a time that St Paul had to confront St Peter
and correct him.
A time when St. Peter misunderstood what Scripture was saying about the people of God.
And St Paul, though he encountered the risen Lord on the Road to Damascus in perhaps the
most dramatic conversion in the New Testament, also needed to be sacramentally joined to
the Body of Christ and receive instruction from those who were already within its fold.
In Acts 9, we read about Paul’s conversion experience and how the Lord sent him to Ananias
and the other disciples in Damascus, to be baptized and stay with them a few days.
As important as they both were, neither Peter nor Paul were independent Christians whose
personal relationship with Christ could somehow guarantee that what they preached or taught
was the fullness of the Truth, without it also being brought within and tested by the
Body of the Church,
Neither Peter nor Paul were infallible.
No single person is infallible.
Peter and Paul worshipped with their fellow Christians in the Church, and ministered as
members of the Church.
And, as we’ve talked about before, when disputes arose early on, the Apostles gathered
together in Council to open themselves to the Holy Spirit.
To determine the truth, not as isolated individuals, but as one Body.
The Body of Christ.
And this gathering, this connecting we share as the one Body of Christ, the Word of God,
is critical when it comes to reading and interpreting Scripture, the Word of God.
As Fr Andrew Stephen Damick points out in his book, Orthodoxy and Heterodoxy,: “The
whole church gathered around the bishop is the proper context of scriptural interpretation,
and this holy gathering is the locus of Holy Tradition, the life in faith given by Christ
to His apostles and then passed down through the generations.”
So this key, the key given to us by Christ and passed down (literally traditioned) in
the Church is what we continue to use today as we work to approach Christ in the Scripture,
as we try to encounter the Word of God in the Word of God.
And this key is critical because, without it, we can run into serious errors.
And because the Scripture is so important in the life of the Church, this is going to
be our next project.
As we’ve already announced, we’re going to bring Be the Bee to a close in June.
And we’ll be back in September for a new weekly series on the Scripture, on encountering
the Word of God in the Word of God.
May our loving Lord Jesus Christ, together with His beginningless Father and His all-holy
Spirit, bless that new project and help us all to approach Scripture with the eyes of
a bee.
So let's be the bee, and encounter the Word of God in the Word of God.
Be the Bee, and Live Orthodoxy.
Remember to like and subscribe, and share.
I'll see you all next week.
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