Troublesome passages of the Old Testament
It is important when reading the Old Testament, to remember that it was written as an account of a peoples journey to God. As the Israelites journey continued, they came to know God, little by little, through God’s self-revelation to their prophets, and their understanding of God expanded. Christ, as the Logos (the Word of God), was from the very beginning, and identified Himself as the Alpha and the Omega. Thus, the Old Testament can only be properly understood in reference to Christ’s resurrection.
The God of the Old Testament can only be understood in light of the New Testament, so we should not take too seriously the troublesome accounts of God telling His people to kill their neighbors, and bash their enemies children against the rocks. Alleged historical accounts of the wrath of the Old Testament God should not be an issue with us, for it is only in light of Christ’s revelation that we can truly comprehend Truth.
Various Church Fathers saw the dashing of infants in these Old Testament accounts as representing the passions, and the rock representing Christ. As believers we dash our thoughts on the Rock, as the way of making sure our passions do not return to overwhelm us. Many of the psalms have similar allegories as an invitation to guard the walled city of our hearts and preserve the spiritual treasures we have received from Our King and Our God.
Historical literalism is not important when confronting the revealed true nature of God, and our turning from a literalism in our interpretation of Scripture, is not a capitulation to modernism. The Church has always known how we should read the Scriptures, for the Truth of the biblical account can only be known in light of Christ, as revealed by His Church.
The Fathers of the Church recognized the human component in the Scriptures, since the Holy Spirit enlightened the human authors without them ever losing themselves, as a sort of trans-medium. These writers of the Scriptures were not some sort of conduit of the Holy Spirit, for they wrote within the context of their human experience of God, within the context of their cultural and tribal experience.
There was a certain synergy happening, as they attempted to cooperate with God. The Old Testament writers were speaking to the people of their times, and their tribal culture, all within their own identity as people of their age. Accounts of a brutal and angry God, as perceived by these writers, must be taken into account as reflective only of the age in which they lived.
“God did not invent death, and when living creatures die, it gives Him no pleasure. He created everything so that it might continue to exist, and everything He created is wholesome and good. There is no deadly poison in them. No, death does not rule this world (Wisdom I:12-14).” This God of the Old Testament did not command governments and armies to kill, otherwise He would be contradicting the Ten Commandments, wherein He told His people they should not kill.
References to capital punishment say nothing of His people killing anyone, but only that consequences of sin was death. The accounts of stoning sinners, bashing the heads of children against rocks, and slaughtering their neighbors, originated in the sin and darkness of a people who were only beginning to receive the revelation of God’s love. This love had it’s crescendo in the Resurrection of Christ from the dead, and the banishing of the power of death, once and for all.
With love in Christ,
Abbot Tryphon
Photo: Entrance road to the Monastery.
Friday October 27, 2017 / October 14, 2017
21st Week after Pentecost. Tone three.
Fast. Food with Oil
Martyrs Nazarius, Gervase, Protase, and Celsus of Milan (1st c.).
Venerable Parasceva (Petka) of Epibatima, Thrace, whose relics are in Iasi, Romania (11th c.).
New Hieromartyr Michael priest (1921).
New Hieromartyr Peter priest (1937).
New Hieromartyr Maximilian (1938).
Venerable Nikola Sviatosha, prince of Chernigov and wonderworker of the Kiev Caves (1143).
Hieromartyr Silvanus of Gaza (311).
“Yakhrom” (15th c.) Icon of the Mother of God.
Venerable Cosmas, abbot of Yakhroma (1494).
Venerable Euthymius the New of Thessalonica, confessor (889) (Greek).
St. Ignatius, metropolitan of Mithymna (1566) (Greek).
Martyr Peter Apselamus of Eleutheropolis in Palestine (309).
St. Burchard, first bishop of Wurzburg, English missionary to Germany (754).
St. Cosmas the Hymnographer, bishop of Maiuma (787) (Greek).
Venerable Manacca, abess of Cornwall.
The Scripture Readings
Colossians 2:1-7
Not Philosophy but Christ
2 For I want you to know what a great conflict I have for you and those in Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh, 2 that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, and attaining to all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the knowledge of the mystery of God, both of the Father and of Christ, 3 in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
4 Now this I say lest anyone should deceive you with persuasive words. 5 For though I am absent in the flesh, yet I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good order and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ.
6 As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, 7 rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving.
Luke 9:12-18
12 When the day began to wear away, the twelve came and said to Him, “Send the multitude away, that they may go into the surrounding towns and country, and lodge and get provisions; for we are in a deserted place here.”
13 But He said to them, “You give them something to eat.”
And they said, “We have no more than five loaves and two fish, unless we go and buy food for all these people.” 14 For there were about five thousand men.
Then He said to His disciples, “Make them sit down in groups of fifty.” 15 And they did so, and made them all sit down.
16 Then He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, He blessed and broke them, and gave them to the disciples to set before the multitude. 17 So they all ate and were filled, and twelve baskets of the leftover fragments were taken up by them.
Peter Confesses Jesus as the Christ
18 And it happened, as He was alone praying, that His disciples joined Him, and He asked them, saying, “Who do the crowds say that I am?”