How does the Church view Scripture?

[Agios_Irineos]

Maria is quite right that the Church interprets the Scripture. Yet we do encourage the faithful to read the Scripture. But it is not reading for private interpretation. The Scripture can only be understood within the context of the Church that gave us the Scripture. Rather than flipping through the Bible looking for passages that "move" us, we can look at the writings of the Fathers and see where they direct us. We can read the passages and then see how the Church understands them. The Explanation of Blessed Theophylact is wonderful for this. Or visit with a priest and see if they can direct you to readings that will help you in your personal struggle.

[Handmaiden50]

Orthodox Christians believe that the Church is the one who interprets the Holy Scriptures. That is why the Apostles and those who followed them, the Bishops, would explain the scriptures to the people in the form of homilies and encyclicals.

However, we are to take encouragement from reading the scriptures. For example, Psalm 27:14 is encouraging us to have courage and be strong in the Lord, no matter what our problems are. We all struggle with sin, whether it be our own sins or those of others because we live in a fallen world.

Agreed (that the Church interprets Scripture). And, we are on the same page with regards to what I meant by saying that God "speaks to us" through Scripture and you say we are to take encouragement from reading Scripture - those where my thoughts. Thank you, Maria

[Handmaiden50]

Maria is quite right that the Church interprets the Scripture. Yet we do encourage the faithful to read the Scripture. But it is not reading for private interpretation. The Scripture can only be understood within the context of the Church that gave us the Scripture. Rather than flipping through the Bible looking for passages that "move" us, we can look at the writings of the Fathers and see where they direct us. We can read the passages and then see how the Church understands them. The Explanation of Blessed Theophylact is wonderful for this. Or visit with a priest and see if they can direct you to readings that will help you in your personal struggle.

Thank you for your insight, Father!

[Barbara]

Not that this is going to add here to what the others have excellently expressed, but I was reading of an apostate
Russian princess [she doesn't get a capital on her title as a result] from the 19th century. She apostasized while in Switzerland to the Anglican sect. However, her arguments were much more close to Calvinists, Methodists and other Protestant groups. Her husband, Prince Michael, was distraught at her behavior. She had taken their eldest daughter who also converted to the same abomination and the 2 were residing outside of his reach. So he asked a nimble-minded English theologian to attempt to bring his wayward family members to their senses.

The princess, a clear case of histrionic personality disorder, was reveling in the barrage of negative attention she received from her apostasy.
She staged drama after drama to keep her name in the public eye, inbetween claiming to be 'persecuted', 'a martyr', etc.

Here is the point of this vignette. She told the Englishman how he was not permitted by her to use arguments based on Church Councils, the writings of various Bishops and those of the Early Church Fathers : these were all invalid.
She insisted that only the Bible was an authority for her; all the rest were false.

That was shocking to me that even a personage born into Orthodoxy could be so intolerant of Church Councils and dismissive of prominent theologians and the Fathers. This Russian woman was so stubborn on this point that the Englishman only succeeded in bringing back the eldest daughter, Princess Zinaida, to Orthodoxy. That in itself was a remarkable achievement, the talk of "tout St Petersburg" in the early 1840s. The story has a happy ending in this respect. But the mother, who seemed to be more of an evangelical than an Anglican, was unmoved by any deft arguments that did not originate in Scripture directly. Strange...