Tertullian offers this typological explanation for Jesus’ conception and birth from a virgin: “Since he came to give us a new life it was fitting that he himself should be born in a new manner. But this newness, as always, is prefigured in the Old Testament, the Lord’s birth of a Virgin being of a fore-ordained plan. The soil was still virgin, neither harrowed by the laborer, nor sown by the sower when the Lord formed from it a living... Read more
If you click the “Downloads” link above, you’ll find a fine structural analysis of the Song by a student, Donny Linnemeyer. Read more
Cyril of Jerusalem gets the typology of Joshua just right: “Jesus, the son of Nave, in many ways offers us a figure of Christ. It was from the time of the crossing of the Jordan that he began to exercise his command of the people: this is why Christ also, having first been baptized, began His public life. The on of Nave established twelve to divide the inheritance: Jesus sent twelve apostles into the whole world as heralds of the... Read more
Danielou summarizes the liturgical allegory of Theodore of Mopsuestia: “the offertory procession is a figure of Christ led to His Passion, the offerings placed on the altar are figures of Christ place in His tomb . . . , the altar-clothes are the burial-cloths, the deacons who surround the altar are figures of the angels who guarded the tomb.” In sum, “instead of relating wholes to one another, [Theodore] forces himself to try to establish relationships between the details of... Read more
In his classic study of Bible and the Liturgy , Jean Danielou asks how we are to interpret sacramental signs. Do they “possess only the natural significance of the element or of the gesture . . . water washes, bread nourishes, oil heals”? Or do they “possess a special significance.” He argues that since Christian sacraments and liturgy was rooted in Jewish worship, the signs and gestures of Christian worship take their meaning of that Jewish context. Working with a... Read more
Athanasius ends his treatise on the incarnation with this wonderful statement of the qualifications for the biblical interpreter: “But for the searching of the Scriptures and true knowledge of them, an honorable life is needed, and a pure virtue, and that virtue which is according to Christ; so that the intellect guiding its path by it, may be able to attain what it desires, and to comprehend it, in so far as it is accessible to human nature to learn... Read more
Matthew 5:23: If you are presenting your offering at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your offering there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and present your offering. Jesus says that whoever is angry with his brother will be guilty before the court, and whoever insults his brother will go to fiery hell (Matthew 5:22). Yet, Jesus never forbids anger. Instead, Jesus tells us what... Read more
Isaiah 42:2-3: When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they will not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be scorched, nor will the flame burn you. For I am the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. As Pastor Sumpter has emphasized, life is deadly serious. At the end, we will all stand before God’s throne of judgment to give account for “every careless... Read more
God breathed into Adam the breath of life and he became a living soul. To say we are living souls is not to say that we have a ghost hiding inside the machine of our bodies. Living souls are bundles of desires, creatures moved by hungers and thirsts. Our desires don’t lead us in the right direction. (more…) Read more
In his excellent The Orthodox Church: An Introduction to its History, Doctrine, and Spiritual Culture , John McGuckin gives this brief, dispassionate account of the dynamics of Western Christology in the fifth century: “The Archimandrite Eutyches in the fifth century misunderstood [the Eastern notion that immortality was given to the body of Jesus] to mean that the humanity was so flooded with the divinity that it was almost magically transformed. He called it a ‘heavenly body’ and suchlike. The church... Read more
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