For many early Christians, good Bible reading was more about posture than technique. Getting it right was more about the dispositions and habits of the reader, and about becoming like the thing you are studying. For most early Christians, good readers read for transformation. Interpretation served God's plan of transformation, and knowledge and virtue (ethics) were not separated.
Jeff Childers, in his lesson at Teleios, quoted Athanasius and Augustine, and some Eastern early Christians like Aphrahat and Ephrem. Here are some summaries of the points he made from these early Christian fathers.
Aphrahat, "Demonstration" (17.7)
-This quote makes the point that Adam prematurely seized knowledge for himself serving his pride and undermining transformation into God's image. So the Adam and Eve story becomes about a prioritization of knowledge over love for God/obedience/transformation into God's image.
Personal note: I think this reading of Adam and Eve makes a lot of sense.
Ephrem, "Hymns on Paradise" (12.15)
-This quote from Ephrem says the restriction to the tree of knowledge was temporary and a test of trust. From this perspective, receiving knowledge itself was not the problem, but it's about how and why we seek or receive knowledge.
Personal notes: Combined with the previous quote from Aphrahat, I think we get an interpretation of Adam and Eve's temptation that is about what our priorities are. The appeal of more knowledge is attractive, but can become idolatrous before God when it is sought at the expense of trust in God or embodied action leading to transformation. I think it's interesting that before this, God did not give Adam much information. Instead, he gave him an embodied test/experiment to discover things for himself. He had him name the animals so that he could find out what he really needed. God's form of education was experimental and embodied, whereas the serpent offered instance knowledge that promised becoming "like God." But God never seemed to be against Adam and Eve becoming God-like; his way of leading them to this transformation was just very different from the serpent.
From both Ephrem and Aphrahat, Childers points out their perspectives about pursuing knowledge. For these Eastern thinkers, there are wrong reasons to pursue knowledge that will in some sense "taint" the knowledge you receive because of your lack of transformation. These include:
-Ego, or thinking we have the ability to understand it all.
-Success, or seeking knowledge for the purpose of our own personal success
-Trying to master knowledge in order to use it against others (this is a big one for many of us nowadays)
-Just looking for novelty. In other words, we are seeking knowledge just for the sake of new knowledge, but we don't actually care how this knowledge might affect or character or the lives of others.
For Aphrahat and Ephrem, the practice of humility includes:
-Admitting we are wrong
-Affirming other's accomplishments
-Seeking the lower places
-Living below our means
-Fasting/self-renunciation
-Being open to new discoveries and correction
-Good and humble readers read in community. They end up seeing things from other angles and revealing their blind spots.
-Good and humble readers read on their knees.
Quotes: "Contentiousness cannot build up." "I have learned from all my teachers."
So good readers, to Aphrahat and Ephrem read in humility, but they also read in wonder:
-We expect to meet God in scripture. In other words, scripture reading has a sacramental nature to it: it is God meeting us through a physical act.
-It's a matter of great wonder that God bent down to dust and became man. This is just one thing in our reading of scripture that ought to fill us with wonderment.
-Because of this, faithful reading becomes an act of worship. We take time to sit down in silence and praise. Rhythms of modest (humble) silence, praise and thanksgiving cultivate wonder.
Personal notes: Childers message challenges me to think about what my rhythms are. Do I spend time in silence? Do I spend time in praise and thanksgiving? Do I spend time "wondering"? I think wondering comes from a place of humility because it assumes we don't know everything, so we must wonder about it. This makes me think of the book Perhaps by Joshua McNall. This was a good reader on holy speculation. McNall argues that speculation about our faith, when done well, can actually be an act of faith.
Good readers are guided by love:
-Biting and devouring is a good indication that we have not read scripture well. (Gal. 5)
-It's possible to be off track technically (or even doctrinally) but to he on track overall in love. We teach and preach in ways that serve the aims of building up in love. (Augustine)
Quote: "Truth and love are wings that cannot be separated..."
Good readers read from the center:
-Jesus teaches there are "weightier matters of the law" and "greater commandments"
-There are also "weightier stories"
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