Where should we begin in order to discover the teaching of the Church? The first step is to find out how the Holy Scriptures are used in Divine Services How, in particular, are the Bible readings chosen for various feasts? We must also turn to the writings of the Holy Fathers of the Church and take into account the way in which they interpret the Bible

As an example of what the liturgical method of interpreting Scripture consists of, guided by the way it is used during church feasts, let us consider the paremias – readings from the Old Testament that rely on the vespers of the feast of the Annunciation of the Most Holy Theotokos – March 25 (April 7 in the civil calendar) There are three of them: 1) from the Book of Genesis, 28:10-17 – Jacob's dream about the ladder ascending from earth to heaven; 2) from the book of the prophet Ezekiel, 43:27 - 44:4 — the prophet's vision of the Jerusalem sanctuary with closed gates, through which no one except the prince can pass; (3) Proverbs 9:1-11 — beginning with the words, "Wisdom has built herself a house"

All these Old Testament texts chosen for the services of March 25 (April 7) and other feasts of the Mother of God should be understood as prophecies about the incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ from the Virgin. The Most Holy Virgin Mary is the ladder of Jacob, who gave flesh to the incarnate God, Who entered our human world The Most Holy Virgin Mary is a closed gate; She is the only woman who conceived in virginity and remained immaculate. The Most Holy Virgin Mary is the house that Christ "the Wisdom of God" (1 Corinthians 1:24) accepts as a dwelling place. If we trace in this way how the readings for various holidays are selected, we reveal the versatility of biblical interpretation, through the comparison of images and examples that are not at all obvious at the first reading

Let us take as another example the Vespers of Great Saturday, which many centuries ago was the first part of the Paschal All-Night Vigil. It contains no less than 15 readings from the Old Testament To our great regret, in very many churches most of them are omitted, and therefore the people of God are deprived of the opportunity to be satiated with their Biblical meaning. These 15 paremias, one after the other, reveal to us the entire plan of sacred history, at the same time revealing the deep meaning of the resurrection of Christ. The first of the readings, from Genesis 1:1-13, is about the first three days of Creation. The Resurrection of Christ is a new Creation. The fourth reading is the entire book of the holy prophet Jonah, which describes how the prophet was in the belly of the whale for three days, which anticipates the three-day resurrection of Christ (cf. Matthew, 12:40). The sixth reading tells of the Israelites' crossing of the Red Sea (Exodus 13:20-15:19), which heralds Christ's new Passover transition from death to life (cf. I Corinthians 5:7; 10:1-4). The last reading is the story of the three holy youths thrown into a fiery furnace (Daniel, 3), another prototype of Christ's resurrection from the tomb.

Such is the effect of the conciliar reading of Holy Scripture in the Church and together with the Church. Studying the Old Testament in parallel with the liturgics of the Holy Church and resorting to the works of the Holy Fathers, we everywhere discover new guiding signs leading us to the knowledge of the great mysteries surrounding the Lord Jesus Christ and His Most-Pure Mother. By reading the Old Testament in comparison with the New and the New Testament in comparison with the Old (which is indicated by our church calendar), we discover the unity of Holy Scripture.

In parish Bible study circles, it is helpful to assign someone a special activity: to find out on which feasts a particular passage from the Old or New Testament is read during worship. Then you can discuss together why this particular passage was chosen Other members of the group can be given an assignment on the works of the Holy Fathers of the Church, using primarily the sermons and teachings of St. John Chrysostom But it should be remembered that it will take diligence in the search before you find what you are looking for Holy Fathers of the Church addressed people of a different time, Archpriest George Florovsky used to say that modern Orthodox Christians need to acquire a patristic way of thinking. And in order to achieve this, we must penetrate deeper than a superficial understanding of the words of the Holy Fathers, into the very essence of their inner meaning.

THE SOUL OF THE BIBLE IS CHRIST

The third feature of our Bible reading is that Christ must be the center. If at the Moscow Conference of 1976 it was said that "the books of the Holy Scriptures are one inseparable whole," then in what can we find this unity and inseparability? In the person of Christ, He is the connecting thread that runs through the entire Holy Scriptures, from the first verse to the last. We have already mentioned how beliefs about Christ arise on the pages of the Old Testament There was a history teacher in my school who liked to sum up with the words: "Everything is interconnected" This rule is perfect for the study of the Holy Scriptures. Look for interconnected, repeating chords and gradually everything will unfold Often, Western critical studies of Scripture employ a methodology of analysis in which each book is broken down into different source units. What we need to see is both the heterogeneity and the integrity of Scripture—a comprehensive conclusion on a par with the split primary sources. The Holy Scriptures are considered by us as a single whole, in which the constant presence of Christ is a constant connecting principle

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 foreshadowing all aspects of His earthly life and preaching, throughout the Old Testament. but already in the New Testament itself by His apostles (Heb. 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, the person of the righteous Joseph occupies such an important place in the readings of the Old Testament from the Book of Genesis.7 Why do we read the Book of the Saints of Righteous Job during Holy Week? For both Joseph and Job are innocent sufferers, and in their long-suffering are types of the Lord Jesus Christ, whose innocent sufferings on the Cross the Church is preparing in those days to glorify "All things are connected"

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 the Christian who knows the Bible, and it is he who, wherever he looks, 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 Mark, "humble in thought and engaged in spiritual work, will, when reading the Bible, attribute everything to himself, and not to his neighbor" We, as Orthodox Christians, should strive throughout the Holy Scriptures to apply his words to ourselves personally. 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, Adam is me. (Genesis 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?" (Genesis 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.