We begin with some general clarifications about the Bible through which we approach it. The first clarification deals with its definition: What is the book?
To put it simply and powerfully: The book is a (strange) book: it is not the greatest book, nor the deepest, nor the wisest book, but rather it is that The other thing Different from all human books: it is the book that leads us beyond human speech to bring us directly into the word of God, into the mystery of God. All the features and attributes of the Bible result from this main characteristic: The book is different from other people's books.
In front of this book, one feels himself attracted and puzzled at the same time: Attracted How could it not be, when this is something (other) than this world? And confused Because we cannot reach it as it is: it fundamentally exceeds man's natural capabilities, so man cannot approach it as he approaches the rest of the books. If we want to read a book We must first prepare to understand it: In order to read, I must first learn to read. In order to read and understand a book on medicine or mathematics, I must study medicine or mathematics. Also, in order to read God's book, I have to become, in a way, God. Otherwise, the Bible remains closed to me and I am closed to it. I do not understand it according to what its author intended, and it may even confuse me sometimes. All the difficulties we encounter in understanding the book result from this basic matter: The necessity of transcending ourselves When reading the book. We are helped to achieve this transcendence by the Holy Spirit, which we received through baptism. It is the same spirit that inspired the book. In this same spirit we will see what the book is:
First: The Book is the word of God Basically this is the most fundamental thing. The book is the word of God revealing to us His secret, His works, and His purposes. but rather He is God himself, He reveals himself to us. However, this revelation of God adapted to our way of understanding is called the word of God. Man understands through speech. He uses words even when he is thinking inwardly. He does not communicate to others except through words. Therefore, it is through words that God comes to us.
Second: The book, The Sacred History of Mankind He reveals to us its beginning, destiny, and end: it is the history of salvation. In the previous paragraph, we pointed out the divine aspect of the book, but now on the human aspect, on the book as a human document that concerns man at his core more than anything else. Because throughout this sacred history, humanity knows itself, its principle, and its purpose. It is history, meaning it includes the history of all humanity and at every time. It does not only record local events, but everything recorded in it relates to a situation for all people in every place and at every time. We read in the Book of Genesis (In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth) (Genesis 1:1), and we read in the Book of Revelation: (I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away) (Revelation 21:1). The book talks about everything that is visible and what is unseen. In the beginning, it tells us the beginning of creation, and in the end, its end and the appearance of the new earth and the new heaven: everything Included between these two verses.
Third: The book is a place of meeting and union between the Creator and the created This is very important: its meaning is that the book has an internal meaning, and therefore it relates directly to me. It is not only the history of all humanity, but the history of every soul, personally, from its birth until its union with God. This is the aspect of personal spiritual life at the heart of the book. Therefore, we must read the book, but rather contemplate it as a mirror. A mirror of every soul And every creation. We must read it with this awareness, not only as the word of God spoken in ancient times or as the history of those who heard it at that time, but with a real-time and internal awareness: It is my secret, God’s will for me, for me to discover myself in the book. This is a difficult but fruitful struggle. I don't know myself, I'm not sure of God's will Grammatically, the book in this regard is a source and a source that does not make mistakes. It allows me to dialogue with God the Creator and unite with Him.
Now we will return to the three points above to explain them in more detail.
First: The Book is the word of God
This means first that God speaks That is, he takes the initiative: he begins to speak, so I must listen and obey.
It therefore means that God is a living God وهذه نقطة مهمة: إن الإنسان بالخطيئة الجدية لم يفقد إيمانه بالله بل- وهذا أكثر خطراً- شوه الله وقتله. أصبح هو الله كما أوحت إليه الحية فخلق هو الله على صورته ومثاله. نحن لا نعني ذلك ولكن الله وعاه أولاً فأعلنه لنا في الكتاب: إن الإنسان (خلق) الله بواسطة مواد الأرض في المنحوتات والأصنام، ثم خلقه بالعقل والذكاء فكلما ارتقى العقل صنع لنفسه إلهاً أرقى وأجمل: الفكر، الجمال، العلم، الخير… ولكن هذا خطأ. هذه أيضاً تصبح أصناماً. إنها False gods Which the book talks about, but (the sword of God) destroys it (see Revelation 17). Opposite false gods we find The living God. A God who speaks: Until now each of us has created his own God, his own mortal God who appears in each of us. The God of politics, for example, or the idea of human progress, or money. We love ourselves in it, we love our idea... I speak in truth when my God speaks... As for the fact that the book is the word of God, this is a new and strange thing to the extreme, a truly great thing: for the first time in history. From the first sin, God's initiative appears, so you know that He is not comparable to anything else and that He is the first and absolute.
This also means that God reveals Himself When he speaks: When we speak, we announce ourselves to a certain extent, to a very simple extent. Only saints at the height of their holiness sometimes reveal themselves with their words, but human speech is usually incapable of that. As for the words of God, God reveals them. Therefore, we can approach Him without the risk of misguidance or deception.
Then when God speaks, His words are powerful: Human speech is also power. By the power of my words, I force someone to adopt an idea or take action. As for the word of God So he does: It not only moves the mind, but also the entire human entity, and sometimes even the entire creation. Creation was created with that same word, so when it is repeated, everything created trembles and is affected.
Then the word of God does it. It does not happen randomly, but rather Guidance Towards a goal. The goal is the word itself. It moves the listeners towards itself, towards God. So God speaks, acts, directs, and leads to Him.
What also does it mean that the book is the word of God?
I open the book and see the letters written on the paper. So where is the word of God and how should I understand it? When we say that a book is the words of a person, what we mean is that this person wrote it, authored it. This means that he first depicted it inside himself, he had something to say, then he said it in the letters of the book, so the book became a representation of him. So how is God the author of the book? The book is the book of Moses, Joshua, Mark, and others. But nevertheless, God is the author, the one who ImpliesI have thoughts, feelings, and will, so I express them when I speak. I express the depths of myself. But when God speaks in the Book, He puts His own thoughts and His own will into His (instrument).
The person who receives God's revelation writes it. But man is not a mortal tool like a pen, but a living person. Man is a free thinking being. Therefore, he conveys God's revelation through his own words His method and ability. God's words are truly God's revelation, but they pass through man and are united with His words. So I read in the book words written by a human being, but I have to enter where God is present in His chosen words.
Some people think they are honoring the Bible by saying that every word in it is from God. Honoring crafts is a kind of idolatry. Letter versus spirit. For example, the icon is a piece of wood, the saint is a person, and the Gospel is letters. But when we honor the icon, the saint, and the Gospel, we do not honor the material of the icon, the person of the saint, or the letter of the Gospel, but rather the presence of God, which is hidden and revealed at the same time in each of the icon, the saint, and the Gospel. The letter of the book is the “appearances” of God through which God appears. It is a sign for the believer indicating a divine presence through human speech. It does not take away from the book his freedom as a thinking person, but it gives him the power and ability to express the word of God in his human words. In fact, we must all become, like the words of the Bible, both human and divine: human circumstances must become a place for God’s presence and action. God’s words are always a secret of compromise (that reconciles man with God and God with man), according to the words of Saint Irianus.
Second: The book, The Sacred History of Mankind
There is another meaning of God’s words that brings us to the second aspect of the book, which is that The history of mankind: عندما يتكلم الله لا يعلن فقط عن ذاته بل أيضاً وفي آن واحد ينادي ويدعو، يطلب ويوجد جواباً من الإنسان: كلام الله لا يبقى باطلاً دون جواب لأنه خلاق بحد ذاته. الله يتكلم فيخلق لأنه كيان في ذاته وينبوع كل وجود، وكلمة الله الأولى كانت بالضبط كلمة خلق:(في البدء خلق الله السماوات والأرض.. قال الله ليكن نور فكان نور…) (تكوين 1:1 وما بعده). غير أنها كانت خليقة مادية أول الأمر، في حين أن كلام الله يحتاج إلى جواب. فإنه إنما يتكلم محركاً بدافع المحبة: يريد أن يوجد أحداً يقبله ويجاوبه، أحداً يستطيع أن يقبل محبته. إن المحبة المتجهة نحو ذاتها ليست بمحبة بل هي أفظع تحريف لها. Love comes out of itself Looking for an answer. If a person gives, he receives wealth, light, and joy. The first answer to God’s words was to create the universe, the animals, etc., as we have seen, but it was not sufficient. Man was created in his image and likeness: love seeks love. Man is able to give a free response to the words of God.
But this free answer was given by Adam against love. Adam thought about himself, not about the words of God. He did not obey God, but rather directed love and obedience to himself, to his created being... and so he fell. Since the fall of Adam, the word of God continues to call man. There is always an answer, but the answer is not always positive. Rather, it is often a negative answer, rejection, or difficulty in obeying despite one’s desire to obey. This is because since the appearance of sin, man no longer knows how to listen to the word of God. The word of God must enter deep into the heart of the petrified person. (Your hearts are made of stone) says the book of the Old Testament, and words do not enter stone. But the word of God, despite this, is able to split rocks: All of this means that the book is a heartbreaking dialogue, a tragic opposition, between two contradictory wills. All of sacred history is nothing but this battle between God’s love for man and man’s response, which is closed in on itself and rebellious against God most of the time.
ولكن هذه المعركة تنتهي وتنفرج عندما يقوم إنسان ويجيب الله قائلاً:(هاأنذا أمة للرب فليكن لي حسب قولك) فيأتي حينئذ من يقول:(لم آت لأصنع مشيئتي بل مشيئة الذي أرسلني). إن الحوار المأسوي ينتهي وينفرج بشكل صليب أي إن الاتجاهين المضادين كلياً (العمودي والأفقي) يلتقيان في صليب عندما يتخذ الخلاف ويتبناه واحد تتفق فيه الإرادتان وتتحدان حتى موت الصليب. إن نصيب الإنسان وواجبه أن يجيب فقط لكلام الله. ولكن الإنسان قبل يسوع لا يجيب الله بشكل كلي مطلق. حتى الرجال المختارين خصيصاً من الله لإعلان كلمته، أعني الأنبياء، لا يجيبونه كلياً: إنهم يخضعون له ولكن بالرغم عنهم وهم متألمون، إننا نعرف قصة يونان النبي.. أما ارميا فنراه يقول:(قد خدعتني يا رب فانخدعت، ألححت علي فغلبت.. صار لي كلام البر عاراً وسخرة كل النهار فقلت لا أذكره ولا أتكلم باسمه من بعد لكنه كان في قلبي مثل نار آكلة قد حبست في عظامي فجهدني إمساكه ولم أقدر على ذلك) (ارميا 20: 7-9). وكذلك ابراهيم الخ.. كلهم كانوا بمثابة رسم سابق للذي امتثل وحده لله واتحد به كلياً. فابراهيم لم يدخل أرض الميعاد إنما دفن فيها فقط. وموسى أيضاً لم يدخل أرض فلسطين وبقيت عظامه في البرية. وداود الملك لم يعط أن يبني بيت الرب… إن واحد فقط، بالطاعة الكلية بالجواب الكلي، يدخل ملكوت السماوات بموته وقيامته.
Third: The book is a place of meeting and union between the Creator and the created
Finally, in the Holy Bible there is a secret of an inner encounter with God: not only at the level of the chosen people, but also at the level of the personal heart, meaning that each one of us finds a new life in it. Otherwise, for us, it would be incomplete and unfinished speech, speech that does not reach its goal. Therefore, we must live in our personal lives this secret, the secret of the encounter between the Word of God and ourselves. We have to be Abraham, Moses, David, Elijah, and the prophets... in order to achieve We can, by the grace of God To say with the Apostle Paul: (It is not I who live, but Christ lives in me). Internally, we must walk and follow again the path that God’s words reveal to us in the Bible. If we consider, for example, the fate of Israel in the book, we find that it did not accept the word of God until the end. The Word was incarnated and opened the Kingdom of Heaven, but Israel did not know Him. He preferred self-love and preferred earthly good. This very thing is repeated with us when God visits us with His grace. He created us in His image and likeness, called us, and gave us baptism and the Church. We must avoid thinking that all of this is our right, as Israel did, so we stop on the way. We must always humble ourselves before God's blessings and gifts. Only then will His gifts make us conform to Him. Otherwise, the gift stops and does not pass through us towards Him, and no longer leads us to Him. Therefore, we must keep within ourselves towards Him, so that it no longer leads us to Him. Therefore, we must always be careful, considering ourselves always on the path, walking and then walking, until the day when we will be with Jesus at the right hand of the Father.