We are always looking for common ground between the Old Testament and the New, and we find them in Jesus Christ. In Orthodoxy, special importance is attached to the "typological" method of interpretation, built on the difference between the types of Christ, events and symbols that foreshadow all aspects of His earthly life and preaching, throughout the Old Testament. A striking example of this is Melchizedek, king of Selim, "priest of the Most High God", who offered Abraham bread and wine (Gen. 14:18) and who is considered as a prototype of Christ not only by the Holy Fathers of the Church, but already in the New Testament itself by His apostles (Hebrews 5:6; 7:1). Another example (as we have already seen) is the Old Testament Passover, which foreshadows the New Passover: Israel's deliverance from Pharaoh on the Red Sea, anticipating our deliverance from sin by the death and Resurrection of the Savior. This is the method of interpretation that we should apply to the entire Bible. Why, for example, in the second half of Great Lent, in the readings of the Old Testament from the Book of Genesis, does the personality of the righteous Joseph occupy such an important place? Why do we read the Book of St. Righteous Job during Holy Week? Because both Joseph and Job are innocent sufferers, and in their long-suffering they are types of the Lord Jesus Christ, Whose innocent sufferings on the Cross the Church is preparing to glorify in those days. "Everything is interconnected."

Archpriest Alexander Schmemann defines a Christian as a person who, wherever he looks, sees the Lord Jesus Christ and rejoices in Him. This can be said especially of a Christian who knows the Bible. It is he, wherever he looks, who sees Christ on every page of the Holy Scriptures.

Reading the Holy Bible is a purely personal process

In the words of the early ascetic writer of Eastern Christianity, the ascetic St. Mark, "humble in thought and engaged in spiritual work, will, reading the Bible, relate everything to himself, and not to his neighbor." We, as Orthodox Christians, must strive throughout the Holy Scriptures to relate his words to ourselves personally. The Scriptures are a personal conversation between the Savior and me: the Lord Jesus Christ speaks to me, and I answer. This is the fourth criterion for a correct reading of the Bible.

I should look at all the accounts of Scripture as part of my own personal life. Who is Adam? The name "Adam" means "man," and so the story of Adam's fall in Genesis is also a story about me. (Gen. 3:9). We often ask, "Where is God?" But what is really more important is the question that God in the person of Adam asks each of us: "Where are you?"

When, in the story of Cain's envy of Abel, we read the words of God to Cain: "Where is Abel your brother?" (Gen. 4:9), they are addressed to each of us. Who is Cain? And God asks the Cain in each of us: "Where is your brother?" The way to God is through love for other people, and there is no other way.

By renouncing my brother, I accept the seal of Cain instead of the image of God (Gen. 4:15) and thereby renounce my human nature.

The reading of the Holy Scriptures can be divided into three stages. First, to perceive the Holy Scriptures as sacred history, the history of the world from its creation, the history of the chosen people, the history of God Incarnate in Palestine, the history of the "great deeds" after the descent of the Holy Spirit on the apostles. The Christianity of which the Bible speaks is not an ideology, not a philosophical theory, but a historical religion.

Then let's take the second step. The history told in the Bible is the history of specific individuals. We see how God reveals Himself at certain times and in certain places, entering into conversation with individuals. He addresses everyone by name. We are confronted with concrete, individual calls coming from God to Abraham, Moses and David, to Rebekah and Ruth, to Isaiah and the prophets, and then to the Blessed Virgin Mary and the apostles. We see how God's action in history focuses on individuals and their destinies. God's love embraces the entire universe, but He still chooses a certain corner of the earth, a certain time and a certain Mother for His divine incarnation.

We must, therefore, feel as fully as possible in all the details of the special circumstances in which God's deeds take place according to the Holy Scriptures. A person who loves the Bible loves chronological and geographical details. Orthodox Christians zealously revere the Holy Land, those places where Christ Himself lived and taught, died and rose again. The best way to delve more deeply into what you read in the Holy Scriptures is to undertake a pilgrimage to Jerusalem and Galilee. Walk where the Lord Jesus Christ walked. Go down to the Dead Sea, sit alone on the rocks, be imbued with what the Lord Jesus Christ was surrounded by during His forty days of fasting in the wilderness. Drink water from the well at which He talked with the Samaritan woman. Go to the Garden of Gethsemane in the evening, sit in the dark under the ancient olive trees and look at the lights of the city glowing beyond the plain. Fully experience the concrete reality of this historical area and take what you have experienced with you, keeping it in your memory during the daily reading of the Holy Scriptures.

Then there is the third step. Having experienced the biblical story in all its features and everyday details, we must relate it directly to ourselves. One should say to oneself: "All these places and events are not just something distant and ancient, but part of my own personal rapprochement with the Lord Jesus Christ. I kind of become part of these events, these narratives."

Betrayal, for example, is part of everyone's biography. Have you not betrayed others at some time in your life, do you not know what it is to be betrayed, and does not the memory of these moments leave forever scars on yours, on every soul? So, reading about how the holy Apostle Peter betrayed – renounced the Lord Jesus Christ and was forgiven after His Resurrection, you can see yourself in the place of each of the participants in these events. Imagine what both the Apostle Peter and the Lord Jesus Christ experienced immediately after the betrayal, share their feelings and make them your own, I am Peter; can I be like the Lord Jesus Christ in a similar situation? As you ponder the path to reconciliation in this way, as you see the resurrected Christ lovingly and condescendingly bring Peter back into the ranks of His friends, as you see how Peter, for his part, has the courage to accept the restoration of their relationship, ask yourself: How much am I like Christ to those who have betrayed me? And after my acts of betrayal, am I able to accept forgiveness from others, am I able to forgive myself?

Or let us cite St. Mary Magdalene as another example. Do I see myself in it? Will I have the generosity, the spontaneity, the rush of love that she showed by pouring the precious myrrh from the alabaster vessel on the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ? "Her many sins are forgiven, because she loved much." Or am I timid, petty, always restrained, never completely surrender to anything - neither bad nor good? In the words of the desert fathers: "Better is a sinner who is aware of his sin and repents of it, than a non-sinner, who thinks of his righteousness."

Have I attained the courage of St. Mary Magdalene, her constancy and devotion, which were manifested when she went to anoint the body of the Lord Jesus Christ in the tomb (John 20:1)? Do I hear the resurrected Savior calling me by name, as He called her, and do I call out "Teacher" - with her simplicity and complete selflessness (John 20:16)?