Father Matta El-Meskine : How To Read The Bible

			How To Read The Bible The Bible in Relation to the Reader The Bible is different from all other books. Other books are written by people; the Bible, however, not only contains the sayings and commandments of God but was also written entirely under His divine inspiration. So we might say that it is God's book that was given to us to lead us into everlasting life. Although the dialogue, events, history, and stories in the Old and New Testaments center on man, it is in fact God who is veiled in them, for the Bible describes God and reveals Him through events. Yet we were not given a complete picture in one generation, or one book, or even over the whole extended period; it is with great difficulty that the Bible struggles to give us a simplified mental image of God by relating His direct dealings with His people over a period of five thousand years. This is so that no one in any age need be deprived of perceiving something about God that will satisfy a need, so much so that each one experiences such a flood of joy that he believes he has come to know God and completely comprehended Him. But whoever has the intellectual audacity to try to supersede his human limitations by searching within himself to perceive a perfect image of God is doomed to failure and loses the ability to attain even the small things appropriate to his stature. It is immeasurably difficult for us to comprehend God, whose days have neither beginning nor end, for He is perfect and, while it is true that we may perceive Him, His perfection is unfathomable, and so it is with all His works. As well as revealing God and introducing Him to us, the Bible tries in many ways to prepare us inwardly to receive Him. Although it may appear outwardly that we make our way toward God, the joyful and wonderful truth is that it is God who comes to us, as a lover and deeply loving father. "If any man loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him and we will come and make our home with him" (Jn. 14:23). This is why the Lord commands us to prepare our hearts for His blessed coming. "My heart is steadfast, O God. My heart is steadfast" (Ps. 57:7). So we see that the Bible as a whole reveals God mysteriously and prepares us to receive Him in our hearts, that we may live with Him from this moment on as a preparation for what will be at the end of time, when God will be revealed openly and we shall meet Him face to face to live with Him forever. The Reader in Relation to the Bible There are two ways of reading: The first is when a man reads and puts himself and his mind in control of the text, trying to subject its meaning to his own understanding and then comparing it with the understanding of others. The second is when a man puts the text on a level above himself and tries to bring his mind into submission to its meaning, and even sets the text up as a judge over him, counting it as the highest criterion. The first way is suitable for any book in the world, whether it be a work of science or of literature. The second is indispensable in reading the Bible. The first way gives man mastery over the world, which is his natural role. The second gives God mastery as the all-wise and all-powerful Creator. But if man confuses the roles of these two methods, he stands to lose from them both, for if he reads science and literature as he should read the Gospel, he grows small in stature, his academic ability diminishes, and his dignity among the rest of creation dwindles. And if he reads the Bible as he should read science, he understands and feels God to be small; the divine being appears limited and His awesomeness fades. We acquire a false sense of our own superiority over divine things—the very same forbidden thing that Adam committed in the beginning. Spiritual understanding and intellectual memorization Thus in reading the Bible we aim at understanding and not at research, investigation, or study, for the Bible is to be understood, not investigated. It is therefore appropriate here to point to the difference between spiritual understanding and intellectual memorization. Spiritual understanding centers on the acceptance of a divine truth, which gradually reveals itself, rising on the horizon of the mind till it pervades all. If the mind and its reactions are brought into willing obedience to that truth, the divine truth continues to permeate the mind even more and the mind develops with it endlessly. "To know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God" (Eph. 3:19). It is clear from this verse that the knowledge and love of God and divine things in general are immeasurably above the level of knowledge, that is human knowledge. It is therefore futile and foolish for us to try to "investigate" the things of God in an attempt to grasp them and make them yield to our intellectual powers. On the contrary, it is we who must yield to the love of God so that our minds may be open to the divine truth. It is then that we will be prepared to receive surpassing knowledge. That "being rooted and grounded in love, [you] may have power to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth" (Eph. 3:17,18). Intellectual memorization demands that we pass from a state of submission to the truth (through understanding) to a state of mastery over it and possession of it. It requires that the mind progress step by step through investigation until it is on a level with the truth, then little by little rise above it until it can control it, recalling it and repeating it at will as if the truth were a possession and the mind its owner. Thus, memorization is a matter of determining the truth, summing it up, and defining it as closely as possible, so that the mind may absorb it and store it away. Thus, intellectual memorization is the reverse of spiritual understanding, for spiritual understanding expands with the knowledge of the truth, and the truth, in its turn, opens up into "all the fullness of God" (Eph. 3:19), to infinity. Intellectual memorization therefore weakens divine truth, and strips it of its power and breadth, so it is not a suitable way of approach to the Bible, and brings minimal results. Spiritual Memorization There is another way of memorizing the word of God, by which we may recall and review the text, though not whenever and however we wish, but rather whenever and however God wishes. This is spiritual, not intellectual, memorization, and God grants it by His Spirit to those who understand His words, "The Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you" (Jn. 14:26). Just as God gives spiritual understanding to those who ask sincerely and honestly to know Him, at which their minds are opened to understand the text (cf. Lk. 24:45), so also is spiritual memorization a spiritual work that God gives to those who have been granted to be witnesses for Him. When the Holy Spirit recalls certain words to us, He does so in depth and breadth, not simply reminding us of the text of a verse, but giving with it irresistible wisdom and spiritual power to bring out the glory of the verse and the power of God in it. A spirit of censure is also sent with the words to prick the heart. Thus there is a striking difference between intellectual memorization by rote and recollection through the Holy Spirit. Nevertheless, we must be prepared for this spiritual recollection by keeping our hearts conscious of the word of God through pondering upon it frequently and storing it up in our hearts out of love and delight. "Thy words were found, and I ate them" (Jr. 15:16) and they were "sweeter than honey to my mouth" (Ps. 119:103). We can constantly recite to ourselves: "on His law he meditates day and night" (Ps. 1:2), and every time we come across a profitable word we can impress it on our hearts: "I have laid up thy words in my heart, that I may not sin against Thee" (Ps. 119:11), just as God warns us to talk of them "when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. And you shall bind them as a sign upon your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes" (Dt. 6:7,8). Now there is a great difference between a man who recites and meditates on the word of God because it is sweet and beneficial to his soul and rejoices his heart and comforts his spirit, and one who meditates on it in order to repeat it to other people so that he can stand out as a teacher and skillful servant of the Gospel. For the first, the word remains, for it builds an awareness of heart or a relationship with God; for the second it simply passes into the intellectual memory where he can use it to build relationships with people! So if a man tries to read the Bible and memorize verses to use them to teach people and give a spoken witness, before submitting himself to the divine truth and acting according to it and opening his mind to receive spiritual understanding, he only gains knowledge and does not give a fruitful witness, no matter how many verses or orderly proofs he may present with great intellectual skill, for the Spirit will have left him. The worst use we can make of the Bible is to use it simply as a source of proof verses. Spiritual understanding of the sayings, commandments, and teachings of God is our entrance into the mystery of the Gospel: "To you it has been given to know the secrets of the Kingdom of God" (Lk. 8:10). And the sign of spiritual understanding is our sense that there is within us an inexhaustible spring of spiritual insights into the word of God, and that each truth is related to all the rest. In our hearts we are able to relate every verse we read to another verse and every insight broadens into harmony with another, so that the Gospel easily becomes a unified whole. This position is not attained only by those who have spent long years reading the Bible. It may be that someone who has only a few months' experience with it may be given this sense, so that using the few verses he is familiar with he is able to speak zealously of God with a sincerity and power that attract the hearts of others to God. For such a man it is enough to read a verse once for it to be indelibly imprinted on his heart forever, for the word of God is spiritual; it is even in some sense a spirit, as the Lord says: "The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life" (Jn. 6:63). From: The Communion Of Love by Matthew the Poor, St. Vladimir's Seminary Press, Crestwood, NY 1984 In the ancient monastery of Deir el Makarios in the desert 50 miles south of Cairo, a Coptic monk has drawn as many as 500 visitors a day. His name: Matta el Meskin, Matthew the Poor. Like the great anchorite St. Anthony, Matta el Meskin was once an affluent young man - a prosperous pharmacist. At age 29, heeding Jesus' call to 'sell what you have', he disposed of his two houses, two cars two pharmacies, gave to the poor, and keeping only a cloak, devoted himself to prayer and asceticism. From his cell, where he lives mainly on water and bread, he has written more than 40 books and pamphlets, and began a reformation of the Coptic monastic life that was so profound that he was one of three nominees to be Coptic pope in the 1971 election. http://www.lasvegasorthodox.com/library/Orthodox_Spirituality/HOW_TO_READ_THE_BIBLE.html
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