The Orthodox Study Bible: Orthodox Tradition & The Scriptures (Brief)

The Orthodox Study Bible, New Testament and Psalms, (1993) Saint Athanasius Orthodox Academy,Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, Tennessee.

Purchased from my employer, the Canadian Bible Society @ Cafe Logos, Vancouver.

This text review continues...

Five sources of Christian tradition (iv)

In this entry I will deal with the first (1) 

1. The Holy Scriptures 

Paraphrased:

The Old Testament and New Testament are viewed as the written record and experience of God's people via God's revelation to them. (iv).

I agree.

It is understood that the Church, therefore, wrote the bible. (iv).

I agree, but I hold to the view that the Holy Spirit, guided human writers to produce inspired, inerrant scripture. Admittedly, with the original autographs which are not extant. But thousands of copied manuscripts of biblical books in whole, or in part, are extant.

Basically, my Reformed view agrees with Orthodoxy in a denial of dictation theory, in regard to biblical inspiration.

The Orthodox Bible states that the scripture was inspired by God, but was not written directly by God. (iv).

This disagrees with segments of Christian fundamentalism and dictation theory. A dictation theory reasoning the scribe/writer merely writes/transmits what God has dictated; but the denial of dictation theory is very reasonable considering the human aspects in writing the scripture. For example, the Apostle Paul, as a Hebrew Bible scholar, was chosen to write many of the more theological sections and books of the New Testament, such as Romans.

The Orthodox Study Bible explains that the scriptures did not fall from heaven, completed. (iv).

Agreed. Nor are the original autographs maintained supernaturally, but the scripture is maintained, reasonably via copying and scholarship.

They were written by human beings that were inspired by God. (iv).

Agreed.

The scriptures were written by God's people. (iv).

Agreed. As I have noted in my writings, the scriptures were written by those within the Christian Church community.

These scriptures need to be interpreted within the context of the Christian Church. (v).

Agreed. This same principle was taught to me with my Bachelor of Arts, degree in Biblical Studies at Columbia Bible College, within the Mennonite Brethren tradition.

For Orthodoxy, the Bible is the first source within the Christian tradition. (v). For example, Many conservative, Protestant traditions would also see the Bible as the first source, and final authority of religious truth, but would not generally emphasize tradition to the same extent as the Orthodox Church and Roman Catholic Church.

Tradition, in my view, is especially downplayed in many modern, evangelical, charismatic and non-denominational contexts, that attempt to not be 'religious'. As if philosophically, the gospel cannot be presented within a religion, that is the true religion.

As I have noted online, I prefer the designation of Christianity as a religion as it provides credibility to Christianity within Religious Studies as an academic discipline. An academic discipline as is Philosophy of Religion, Theology, the Sciences, etcetera.

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