Ioannis D.
Karavidopoulos
The
Interpretation of the New Testament in the Orthodox Church
From
Jesus Christus als die Mitte der Schrift. Studien zur Hermeneutik des
Evangeliums. Herausgegeben von Christof Landmesser, Hans-Joachim Eckstein
und Hermann Lichtenberger, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin-New York, 1997
A significant portion of the New Testament, the
Gospels which are its core, is permanently kept on the altar of every
Orthodox church. From the altar the priest takes the text, in liturgical use
known as a unified book "The Holy Gospel", in order to read it in the
liturgical gathering of the faithful. And he returns it to the altar after
the reading. This indicates the special position that the Word of God has in
the Orthodox Church as well as the close relationship which exists between
the Holy Scriptures and the Church. The Church does not merely keep its
Scriptures and read them to its faithful but it interprets them in a
responsible manner throughout the centuries. We shall now proceed to an
analytical presentation of: 1. the main features of Orthodox interpretation
of the Scriptures with specific reference to the New Testament, 2. more
briefly, the relationship between the Holy Scriptures and the Church, and 3.
we shall conclude with a dialectic correlation between fidelity to the
Tradition and the urgent need for a more efficient presentation of the
biblical word in our days.
I. Μain features of Orthodox interpretation of the
Holy Scriptures
II. The Church and the Bible
III. Tradition and revival
ΘΗΣΑΥΡΟΣ ΤΗΣ ΚΑΙΝΗΣ ΔΙΑΘΗΚΗΣ
