By Archimandrite Kyrillos Kostopoulos
Study is an important element in man’s journey in search of truth.
To this end, from the earliest Christian times, believers were called to study the Law of God, the Old Testament. The Prophet David exclaimed: “How I love your law, O Lord! It is my study all day long” (Ps. 118:97).
Then the New Testament was added, in which the now revealed Truth is found, without the types and patterns of the Old Testament, insofar as our Lord Himself revealed about Himself that “I am the truth” (John 14:6).
Study is the voice of God to man, just as prayer is the voice of man to God. Saint Chrysostom tells us: “But the reading of the Scriptures is the speech of God” (PG 50, 90). He who loves the study of Holy Scripture, according to Clement of Alexandria, becomes a “theodidact” (cf. Stromata, Book 1, 20, 98, etc.).
However, this study of Holy Scripture must be kept away from two elements that hinder its correct understanding. The first is the scholastic logical analysis of its content and the second is emotional rambling. Therefore, whoever wishes to find the deepest and true meaning of what he studies in Holy Scripture must not remain in personal logical or emotional interpretations, but must reveal the word of the Holy Spirit. For the testimony of the Holy Spirit animates the written texts. And this can only be achieved within the space of the One Church, where the Apostolic and Patristic tradition is preserved.
The Holy Fathers, as the successors of the Holy Apostles and possessors of their succession, are the authentic interpreters of Holy Scripture. And this is because they lived and thought “in the Holy Spirit,” experiencing the unity of faith and the life of the Church, which is the organic unity of Holy Scripture and Holy Tradition. In this way, they demonstrate the timelessness of the texts of Holy Scripture and confirm its essential and basic teaching that the Triune God through it addresses the entire Church and aims at the redemption of every believer, through the Incarnation of God the Word. The Holy Fathers themselves have personal experience of living this revealed Truth within the Church.
Orthodox spirituality is Biblical. That is why the Holy Fathers not only lived by Holy Scripture, but also thought and taught with Holy Scripture. As a result, they identified with the Holy Gospel and became its authentic interpreters.
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
