How Does the Church Understand the Bible? | How to Read the Bible Semester Discussion Guide

Part 2: How does the Church understand the Bible?

The following should be read aloud as a group, with each person reading one paragraph before passing on to the next person. Afterwards discussion will follow with the provided discussion questions.

But should you meet with a person not yet believing the gospel, how would you reply to him were he to say, “I do not believe”? For my part, “I should not believe the gospel except as moved by the authority of the Catholic Church.”

St. Augustine of Hippo ¹

We know, receive, and interpret Scripture through the Church and in the Church.

The Moscow Agreed Statement of 1976 ²

Arguments about how to correctly interpret the Bible have been around as long as the Bible has. Even the first Church council, convened by the Apostle James in Jerusalem and recorded in the book of Acts, was ultimately a council about the implications of biblical interpretation for the Church’s practice (namely, if Gentile converts to Christianity were required to follow the law of Moses or not).³ Given that the Church is the community in which Scripture was written, read, and lived, it makes sense that the Church, the Body of Christ guided by the Holy Spirit, has always seen herself as the interpreter of Scripture. While trying to combat incorrect readings of Scripture in his own day, St. Irenaeus of Lyons (a second century bishop from Gaul and spiritual grandson of the Apostle John) gave an analogy about proper interpretation of Scripture involving the stones making up a mosaic:

Such is their [the heretics’] hypothesis…while they abuse the Scriptures by endeavoring to support their own system out of them.⁴

In short, in order to properly understand Scripture… Those who, in the absence of written documents, have believed this faith, are barbarians so far as regards our language; but as regards doctrine, manner and tenor of life, they are, because of faith, very wise indeed, and they do please God ordering their conversation in all righteousness, chastity and wisdom.⁵

The key to interpreting the Scriptures, for the Orthodox Christian, is itself the narrative of Christ preserved and taught in the Church. This leads us to another important point: all Scripture is about Christ and intended to lead us to Christ. The Apostle Paul, writing to the church of Corinth in the mid-first century, speaks of Christ as the key to unlocking and understanding the Old Testament Scriptures:

Since we have such a hope…but by the open statement of the truth we would commend ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God. And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled only to those who are perishing.⁶

For the Apostle Paul and the early Church… After his resurrection, Jesus appeared to two of his disciples on the road to Emmaus, and “beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.”⁷ When the risen Jesus appears to all his disciples later in the same chapter, he says to them:

“These are my words which I spoke to you… until you are clothed with power from on high.”⁸

To give one example of how all Scripture is about Christ… For this reason a man will leave behind his father and his mother and will cleave to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.⁹

The true meaning of this passage is fulfilled in the person of Jesus Christ… which comes out of his side in the form of blood and water as he sleeps in death on the cross.¹⁰ Whether or not the creation narrative is historical is secondary to the fact that Adam was, in the words of St. Paul, “a type of the One to come,” a foreshadowing of Christ.¹¹

Finally, the Church interprets the old from the perspective of the new… The Gospel of John, for example, says the following about Christ’s entry into Jerusalem… “It is written, ‘Fear not, daughter of Zion; behold, your king is coming, sitting on an ass’s colt!’ His disciples did not understand this at first; but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that this had been written of him and had been done to him.”¹²

May Christ enlighten us to understand his Scriptures through the prayers of his most pure mother and all the saints!

Discussion Questions:

1. What role do you think the Church plays in helping us understand the Bible?
2. St. Irenaeus compared Scripture to a mosaic that reveals Christ. What does that image suggest to you?
3. How might reading the Bible through the lens of Christ change the way we understand the Old Testament?
4. What does it mean for you personally to read Scripture “with the Church”?

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¹ St. Augustine of Hippo, “Against the Fundamental Epistle of Manicheaus,” Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, Vol. 4. Translated by Philip Schaff.
² The Moscow Agreed Statement of 1976. The Anglican Consultative Council.
³ Acts 15:1-35
⁴ St. Irenaeus of Lyons, Against Heresies, 1.8-1.9. Translation quoted from Fr. John Behr’s The Way to Nicea and Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 1.
⁵ Ibid.
⁶ 2 Corinthians 3:12-4:3 RSV.
⁷ Luke 24:27 RSV.
⁸ Luke 24:44-49.
⁹ Genesis 2:18-20, Lexham English Septuagint.
¹⁰ Cf. John 19:31-37.
¹¹ Romans 5:14 RSV.
¹² John 12:14-16 RSV.