A Call for an Orthodox Approach to Scripture

by Fr. Lawrence Farley This excellent article by Fr Lawrence has complete harmony with the Orthodox Tradition and is quite a distant thing from what is often passing for ‘Biblical Studies’ today – within the Orthodox Church today and without. We’ll be bringing you more along these lines shortly. The much needed ‘return to the Fathers’, Fr. Alexander Schmemann said, “means, above all, the recovery of their spirit, of the secret inspiration which made them true witnesses of the Church” (quoted in Liturgy and  [Read more...]

“In The Beginning…” Bible Study Begins Sept. 14th

In the beginning…  BIBLE STUDY ON THE PENTATEUCH Beginning Wed. Sept. 14th, immediately after Vespers, we will begin a lengthy, in-depth study on the Books of the Torah – the Five Books of Moses, beginning with Genesis. This study will be done with the eye of the Church, which means we will pay close attention to elements which in nature are Trinitarian, Christological and Ecclesiological. We will also be highlighting and explaining how these readings are utilized in the Church’s Festal Menaion and  [Read more...]

Death By Torah

by Fr. Patrick Henry Reardon One of the major ideas—and perhaps the culminating idea—in the second chapter of Ephesians is the unity of gentiles with Jews to form a single people for God. These two, formerly estranged, have been united, Paul says, through the blood of Christ: “He himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation . . . that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross,  [Read more...]

Expiation, Blood & Atonement

by Fr. Patrick Henry Reardon Senior Editor of Touchstone Magazine, and archpriest of All Saints Orthodox Church in Chicago, IL, Fr. Patrick is, perhaps, the most erudite writer in the Orthodox Church in North America today. This article, one of his Pastoral Ponderings, was published by Orthodoxtoday.org. Among the biblical concepts supporting St. Paul’s theology of atonement, one of the most important, surely, is that of expiation. What does the Apostle mean when he writes, “God set forth [Jesus Christ] as the expiatory  [Read more...]

Christ of the Folded Napkin

by Fr. Patrick Henry Reardon Another gem of Scripture and sense from Fr. Patrick, this one comes to us from Orthodoxytoday.org. Using the narrative third-person, the evangelist John describes his arrival with Peter at the tomb of Jesus: “So they both ran together, and the other disciple outran Peter and came to the tomb first. And he, stooping down and looking in, saw the linen cloths lying; yet he did not go in. Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the  [Read more...]

The 2010 Advent New Testament Challenge!

As we enter into the month of November, it is time for us think about what we are planning to do to make spiritual progress this year before Christmas. I mean, do something, or more of something, than you have done before. Yes, it is time once again for our annual Advent New Testament Challenge! Using the schedule listed below (you can click on the image to get a PDF version of it!), you can decide whether to do the 40 day challenge,  [Read more...]

Why Orthodox Christians Prefer The Septuagint: Part 4

6. THE CASE OF THE MISSING VERSE Psalm 144 (Ps. 145 in the Masoretic text) is an “acrostic Psalm” in Hebrew, that is, each of its verses begins with a letter of the Hebrew alphabet. But there is a problem in today’s Hebrew Masoretic text. The verse that should begin with the Hebrew letter “N” is missing. At the same time, people have noted that in the Greek version of the Book of Psalms (i.e. the Septuagint text), there is an “extra” verse  [Read more...]

Why Orthodox Christians Prefer The Septuagint: Part 3

3. THE CASE OF THE MISSING PROPHET We have written in a previous article (“The Neutralization of the Netherworld”) that the Septuagint translation of the Old Testament represents an ancient and authentic Hebrew tradition. Due to the fact that there were variances in the Hebrew texts, the textual tradition that the Septuagint translation presents often differs widely from the Masoretic Hebrew text of today. But there are also some surprises. In very ancient times, it seems some anonymous rabbis felt that they needed  [Read more...]

Why Orthodox Christians Prefer The Septuagint: Part 2

2. THE NEUTRALIZATION OF THE NETHERWORLD “Isn’t that what Adolph Hitler did to Holland in World War II?” This, indeed, is the sort of reaction you might expect to get if you were speaking to someone about the “neutralization of the Netherworld.” He really wouldn’t know what you were talking about. On the other hand, if you were to refer to it as the “Harrowing of Hell,” people might or might not understand. Orthodox Christians know it as the “Descent into Hades.” Most  [Read more...]

Why Orthodox Christians Prefer The Septuagint: Part 1

by Metrpolitan Ephraim of Boston Preface The purpose of these articles was to explain to our faithful, in a simple and easily-understood manner, some of the differences that exist between the Old Testament (Masoretic) text used by most of today’s Roman Catholics and Protestants and the Septuagint Old Testament used by Orthodox Christians since the time of Christ. All told, there are some 300 textual differences between the Masoretic and the Septuagint texts, some of them important and some of them insignificant. These  [Read more...]

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