I’m auditing a Themes in Patristic Theology class at St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary with Dr. John Behr. A good portion of the first class was a reading of Melito of Sarids’ homily On Pascha. There is some controversy about whether Melito was anti-Semitic, but as Fr. Behr explained it, the references to “Israel” in this text are really references to us, the hearers, as we approach the table: we are the reason Christ died.
Here are some notes on on the lecture about the Fathers’ approach to scripture:
1. Scripture is cryptic. “If it were not cryptic, it wouldn’t be scripture.” “You don’t have to work at interpreting a shopping list.”
2. Scripture is harmonious. It all speaks about Christ.
3. Scripture is contemporary — it wasn’t written primarily for the benefit of the original hearers, but primarily for our benefit.
4. Scripture is inspired, and inspiration is inseparable from how Christ opens the book to us. It requires an “inspired” reading which turns on an ongoing encounter with Christ. Christ is not a “lens” through which we view scripture, but is already present in scripture. Scripture is a sort of thesaurus or treasury of Christ.
My sensibility as a theological interpreter who wants to be conversant with Biblical Studies might lead me to place more emphasis on the text’s reception by the original hearing community. But with the Fathers, and Barth, and all good theological interpreters, notice this sense that scripture’s power isn’t so much in its static content as in its life as the reader encounters Christ in and through the text.