We read Scripture within the Church, not apart from it. The Bible isn’t a standalone text that anyone can pick up and interpret on their own. It’s the Church’s book, written by the Church, preserved by the Church, and understood through the Church’s living memory, what we call Holy Tradition.
If you grew up Baptist or at one of the big non-denominational churches around Beaumont, this probably sounds strange. You’re used to “the Bible alone” as the rallying cry. Just you, your Bible, and the Holy Spirit. That’s not how it works in Orthodoxy. We don’t believe the Holy Spirit guides every individual to correct interpretation. He guides the Church, and we interpret Scripture within that communal, centuries-deep understanding.
Scripture and Tradition Aren’t Two Different Things
Here’s what trips people up. When we say “Scripture and Tradition,” it sounds like we’ve got two sources of truth competing with each other. We don’t. Scripture is the written part of Holy Tradition. Tradition includes the liturgy, the writings of the Fathers, the decisions of the councils, the Church’s worship and sacramental life. It’s all one unified revelation handed down from the apostles.
Think of it this way. Your grandmother’s gumbo recipe might be written down somewhere, but you really learn to make it by cooking with her. She shows you how much “a little bit” of this means, when the roux is the right color, what it should smell like. The recipe and her teaching aren’t two different things. The written recipe only makes sense within the living tradition of your family’s kitchen.
Scripture works the same way. The apostles didn’t just hand out Bibles and say “good luck.” They established churches, appointed bishops, celebrated the Eucharist, baptized, taught, worshiped. The New Testament was written within that context and can’t be ripped out of it.
The Fathers Show Us How to Read
When we want to understand a passage, we look at how the Church Fathers interpreted it. Not because we’re stuck in the past, but because the Fathers lived closer to the apostles and participated in that same Tradition. St. John Chrysostom, St. Athanasius, St. Basil the Great, these men knew how the Church had always read these texts. They weren’t making it up as they went.
And here’s the thing: they read Scripture as being about Christ. All of it. The Old Testament isn’t just historical background or moral lessons. It’s full of types and prophecies pointing to Jesus. When we read about the Passover lamb or the bronze serpent or Jonah in the whale, we’re reading about Christ. The Fathers taught us to see Him everywhere in Scripture, and that’s how the liturgy uses these texts.
We Hear Scripture in Church
Most Orthodox Christians encounter the Bible primarily in the Divine Liturgy, not in private Bible study. Every Sunday we hear the Epistle and Gospel. The Psalms are woven throughout our services. Feast days have their own readings. The lectionary shapes how we understand Scripture because we hear it in the context of worship, surrounded by icons, receiving the Eucharist.
This isn’t anti-intellectual. Many of us read Scripture at home too. But the liturgical context is primary. We don’t treat the Bible like a manual you study alone to extract principles. It’s the living word proclaimed in the assembly, interpreted by the hymns and prayers that surround it.
What This Means Practically
So when you ask an Orthodox priest about a Bible verse, don’t be surprised if he references a Church Father or points you to how the Church uses that passage liturgically. He’s not dodging your question. He’s answering it the way the Church has always answered it.
We also use the Septuagint, the Greek Old Testament, because that’s what the apostles used and quoted. Sometimes it differs from the Hebrew text behind most Protestant Bibles. Those differences matter. The theology embedded in the Septuagint shaped how the early Church understood the Old Testament.
You’ll find we read some passages very differently than your Baptist uncle or your Catholic coworker. When we read “This is my body,” we mean it literally, that’s the Eucharist. When we read about the Theotokos in prophecy and type, we see Mary’s role more clearly than Protestants typically do. When we read about being “partakers of the divine nature,” we’re talking about theosis, not just moral improvement.
The Church Decides, Not Individuals
Here’s the hard part for people coming from a “me and my Bible” background. In Orthodoxy, you don’t get to decide what Scripture means based on your own reading. The Church, through her bishops, councils, and Tradition, interprets Scripture authoritatively. Private interpretation is subject to the Church’s teaching.
That doesn’t mean you can’t read and think and ask questions. It means your conclusions have to align with what the Church has always taught. If your interpretation contradicts the Fathers, the councils, and the liturgy, you’re wrong. That sounds harsh, but it’s actually freeing. You’re not alone trying to figure everything out. You’ve got two thousand years of wisdom to draw on.
Fr. Thomas Hopko used to say the Fathers are the Church’s teachers who lived in the Tradition and help us read Scripture within it. That’s what we mean by interpreting the Bible Orthodox-style. We’re reading it the way the Church has always read it, in the company of the saints, within the liturgy, guided by the Holy Spirit working through the whole Body of Christ.
If you want to see this in action, come to Vespers on Saturday evening or Liturgy on Sunday morning. Listen to how the readings are proclaimed, how the hymns interpret them, how everything points to Christ and His kingdom. The Bible makes sense here in a way it never quite did when you were reading it alone at your kitchen table.
