According to the account in the Acts of the Apostles, when
the Apostle Philip met one of Queen Candace's eunuchs on the road and saw the
book of the Prophet Isaiah in his hands, he asked the eunuch, Understandest
thou what thou readest? He replied, How can I except some man should guide me?
(Acts 8:30-31). Philip instructed him in the Christian understanding of what he
had been reading, with the result that this reading from the Old Testament was
followed immediately, there on the road itself, by the eunuch's baptism. As the
Apostle interpreted in the light of the Christian faith what the eunuch had
been reading so we also must approach reading the Old Testament from the
standpoint of the Christian Faith. It needs to be understood in a New Testament
way, in the light which proceeds from the Church. For this purpose the Church
offers us the patristic commentaries on the Holy Scriptures, preferring that we
should assimilate the contents of the sacred books through them. It is
necessary to bear in mind that the Old Testament is the shadow of good
things to come (Heb. 10:1). If the reader forgets this, he may not receive
the edification he should, as the Apostle Paul warns. Concerning the Jews he
writes that even unto this day, when Moses is read, the veil is upon their
hearts: with them it remaineth untaken away in the reading of the Old Testament,
that is to say, they are not spiritually enlightened unto faith. Nevertheless,
when they shall turn to the Lord, the Apostle concludes his thought,
the veil shall be taken away (2 Cor. 3:14-16). So
we must also read these books from a Christian point of view. This means to
read them while remembering the Lord's words: ... They [the Scriptures] are
they which testify of Me. They require not simply reading, but
searching. In them are contained the preparation for the coming of Christ,
promises, prophecies, and types or antitypes of Christ. It is according to this
principle that the Old Testament readings are chosen for use in the church
services. Furthermore, if the Church offers us moral edification in them, she
chooses such passages as are written, as it were, in the light of the Gospel,
which speak, for example, of the "eternal life" of the righteous
ones, of "righteousness according to faith," and of Grace. If we
Christians approach the books of the Old Testament in this light, then we find
in them an enormous wealth of edification. Even as drops of dew on plants shine
with all the colors of the rainbow when the sunlight falls on them, even as
twigs of trees that are covered with ice are iridescent with an the tints of
color as they reflect the sun, so these scriptures reflect that which was
foreordained to appear later: the events, deeds, and teaching of the Gospel.
But when the sun has set, those dew drops and the icy covering on the trees
will no longer caress our eyes, although they themselves remain the same as
they were when the sun was shining. It is the same with the Old Testament
Scriptures. Without the sunlight of the Gospel they remain old and decaying, as
the Apostle said of them, as the Church has also called them, and that which
decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away, as the Apostle expresses
it (Heb. 8:13). The Kingdom of the chosen people of old has come to an end, the
Kingdom of Christ has come: the law and the prophets were until John;
from henceforth the Kingdom of God is proclaimed (Luke 16:16).
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