www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life Scripture and Patristic Writings Impact of the Scriptures

As a proponent of sola scriptura I obviously have a firm, day by day reliance on the scriptures.

I am curious as to what part the Bible plays in the daily lives of those who do not hold the same view as I do, to those who hold that the scriptures are tempered by the teachings of the Church.

Those of you who know me know that I am not asking this to cause ANY trouble.

Thoughts?

The Ancient Christian Churches place a lot of emphasis on the Scriptures. There are daily lections from Scripture which are read at the various daily offices. In addition to this, the Psalms are read regularly. If you visit a Coptic parish, for example, you will hear several readings at Liturgy. (Go to my homepage and you'll see a link for the Coptic Lectionary towards the bottom under "other liturgical traditions." These readings change on a daily basis.) So, Scripture is a major part of our worship.

I rather like the way Professor Blosser referred to the Scripture and Tradition tension recently on his blog:

While the Ancient Christian Churches may not believe in sola scriptura, they do believe in what could be called prima scriptura. Scripture holds the first place within Sacred Tradition.

Interesting thought - I had never heard of prima scriptura before. Thank you.

One explanation by Catholic apologist James Akin:

http://www.cin.org/users/james/files/inspirat.htm

In a nutshell: The Bible is the divinely inspired Word of God (II Timothy 3:16), and is a crucial part of God's self-revelation to the human race. The Old Testament tells the history of that revelation from Creation through the Age of the Prophets. The New Testament records the birth and life of Jesus as well as the writings of His Apostles. It also includes some of the history of the early Church and especially sets forth the Church's apostolic doctrine. Though these writings were read in the Churches from the time they first appeared, the earliest listings of all the New Testament books exactly as we know them today is found in the 33rd Canon of a local council held at Carthage in 318, and in a fragment of St. Athanasius of Alexandria's Festal Letter in 367. Both sources list all of the books of the New Testament without exception. A local council, probably held at Rome in 382, set forth a complete list of the canonical books of both the Old and the New Testaments. The Scriptures are at the very heart of Orthodox worship and devotion.

On a more personal note: The Holy Scriptures are the very CENTER and backbone of the prayerlife of every Eastern Christian. The daily Office is made is 90% Holy Scripture and 10% hymns and readings about the Holy Scriptures. So one could say that THE prayerbook of the Eastern Churches is 100% scripturally based. Christ is the Word of God spoken to mankind to bring about our reconciliation with the Father and the free gift of the Father is Eternal Life to all who believe that Word...and live it in their daily lives.

Hope that helps a little?

Your brother in Christ,
+Fr. Gregory

Thank you. This was more of the kind of thing I was looking for, the personal use of the Bible in daily life.

I wasn't quite sure...but I thought that's what you might be asking. An Eastern Christian who prays all the daily Office or the principal parts of the Office...would be spending anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours each day with the Holy Scriptures. In addition there are daily readings for all devout Eastern Christians to do daily. One reading from St. Paul and one from one of the four Gospels. The Holy Scriptures (especially the psalms) are the VERY center of our prayerlife in the Eastern Churches as they were for Our Blessed Lord, His Holy Virgin Mother, St. Joseph, and the Apostles.

Your brother in Christ,
+Fr. Gregory

Welcome back, Berean!

This is an excellent question. What strikes me first is that the Scriptures bring a great stability to my daily life.

My daily prayer is centered on the Lord�s Prayer and the Psalms. To these I usually add the readings of the day from the lectionary and a few other prayers (mostly the �Jesus Prayer�).

Yes, there is the daily learning experience by reading the Bible, but the stability offered by a regular relationship with the Holy Scriptures seems to be more than that. Who has not read a passage for the hundredth time and suddenly realized that it suddenly speaks to something you never realized? But what I am calling stability is even more than that.

For the most part, my daily reading of Scripture is not a daily study of Scripture. Also, for the most part, I do not get any unique insights or a specific direction. Sometimes I read the appointed lessons for the day and move on. Sometimes something strikes me and I think about it, or pick up the phone and call a friend to discuss it with. Would it be too much if I described it as preventing thirst by drinking from the well on a regular basis? But even that doesn�t seem like it covers it.

Wow, that sounds amazingly similar to my own response to my daily "devotional time." I am writing a series of question through the four gospels, one for each day of the year. Last year I did the same in Psalms. I also read through the whole Bible, a section at a time, until it is done then I start again. As you mentioned, there are says when I just "do it" but keeping a journal of my daily thoughts forces me to think through until I can put something down on paper. In the evenings before bed I read the days reading from the "One Year Bible" which uses passages from the OT, NT, Pslams, and Proverbs to get through the Bible in a year.

Roger,

It is a daily scripture devotional and/or bible study for me too. Sometimes I linger on a word or phrase or chapter, and sometimes I try to picture a scene or two.

Over the years I have often used the Psalms as an aid to personal or communal prayer. I frequently use a prayer book which we call The Liturgy of the Hours. This includes many Psalms and scriptures which are organized in a prayerful manner and mode to be read at certain times of the day in order to sort of sanctify that particular day.

And... since our services are on what we call a liturgical cycle and this means we know in advance what scriptures will be read at our Sunday liturgical service I sometimes meditate either before or after Sunday on the scriptures of that day or week. Most pastors or deacons use those same scriptures as a basis for their sermons(homilies) as well. We have different weekly scripture readings in daily Liturgy (mass) as well. They are thematic and seem to follow a thread so to have continuity with the scriptures read on Sundays.

Presently I am doing something in the realm of study that I have wanted to do for years. I am reading slowly both scriptures and commentaries and taking notes on the book of Daniel Discussion recently on this website led me in that direction. I have read that book before but not in the depth I hope to be doing now. Seems timely to me and being retired now I do have more time to do it.

Thanks for the good question. Keep up the good asking.

God Bless you, brother in Christ.

Mary Jo +

Roger,

Would you consider sending me a copy of the questions you wrote on the Psalms? I�m always looking for something new and challenging. I'm sure they would provide food for thought after praying a Psalm.

Admin

When I am able to engage in a regular discipline with Scripture, I find the following reflective approach to be very fruitful.

I take a very brief passage of Scripture, no more than 2 or 3 verses, and simply sit with it. More often than not, a single word from the passage will emerge into the foreground, and I will sit with that word. Then I answer 3 questions:

• Where is God in this Word?
• What is God saying to me in this Word?
• What is God calling me to do?

I don't always have an answer for the last question, but there is often rich reflection in the first two.

Hope this helps.

-- Penthaetria, whose life has not allowed such disciplined time in a long time

Often, what I do is, like you, take a portion.

I read it once. Then I wait a few minutes while gazing at it in my mind... before it leaves my mind.. I read it again but very very slowly... allowing my own human nature to arrange (or perhaps identify with) the stage (so to speak). Rather than asking questions (and that is one way to do it) I try to sense the most natural human way, what I had read, would have happened.

Then I sit with that a long time. Feeling it (I guess) and letting it resonate in my own human nature. I think I balance head (thinking about) with being open.

Anyways - I liked your description.
-ray

I sent you January in a PM. Let me know if you want the rest. I thinkI found a couple of mistakes during the year that will need sorted.

Roger,

I don't have anything new or different to contribute to this thread, anything I would have said has been addressed by our brothers and sisters here. This is an aside.

I've observed in the past that when folks spend more than a couple of weeks in the land of Patrick, a bit of the brogue begins to appear in their speech, unaffected and unbidden, as do some peculiarities of Irish styling. I had to smile as I read your last post above and noted that you've adopted the Irishism of dropping the words "to be" . You sound just like my brother-in-law and my nephews, who were all born and bred there .

Many years,

Neil, whose day was made by the familiar phrasing