Can a reader read the same text twice?

This is a casual question, one that has been asked many times since the beginning of this postmodern era. Yet the thought behind it is as old as that pre-Socratic philosopher who asked whether a person can walk the same path twice. The question today, as then, is yes and no.

This is an important question for Bible readers because it provides us with a key to answering other related questions. How do these biblical writings carry meaning? And what exactly is this meaning?

Since the Enlightenment in the eighteenth century, people have tended toward one of two poles in the reading of the Bible. On the one hand, there are “literalists,” who read the Bible as if it were primarily a history book that presents us with a series of facts and events about everything that happened from the creation of the world (in six days by modern time) to the Second Coming (with a trumpet blast from heaven above). On the other hand, there are scholars who adopt a historical-critical approach that has little faith in the historical accuracy of biblical texts but focuses mostly on the content and summary of the text, the circumstances of its writing, and its role within the community of believers.

Although these two approaches seem like polar opposites, they are identical in one key respect. Both assume that the only possible meaning of the text is the literary meaning. This is usually defined as the meaning intended by the biblical author: the meaning he understood and tried to convey. Biblical interpretation, then, should focus on what the text actually says. From this perspective, the literary meaning of the text becomes its historical meaning in reality: either what actually happened (in the eyes of the literary) or what the text claims to have happened (as revealed by historical criticism).

In any case, the knowledge of the early Christian theologians was too good to limit the interpretive work to either of these extremes. For example, Origen in the third century, in response to a purely literary or historical approach, asked eloquently: “What sensible man would believe that the first, second, and third days, the evening and morning, existed without the sun, the moon, the stars… and the kingdom? And who is so naive as to believe that God planted a garden east of Eden, after the manner of the peasants?”

This is not skepticism. It is an assertion that biblical stories often have more than one meaning, and that the original meaning is rarely what is referred to as the “literary” or “historical” meaning.

Thus Origen continues: “When it is said that God walked in Paradise in the dampness of the day and that Adam hid himself behind a tree, I do not think that anyone will doubt that these are figurative expressions referring to some mystery through a resemblance in history and not through an actual event.”[1]

However, Origen and the entire patristic tradition saw the historical events, facts, characters, and symbolic images of the Bible as facts, including the virgin birth of Jesus, his miracles, and his resurrection from the dead. The commentators of the Bible in the early Christian eras understood virtually all the affirmations that make up the Nicene Creed in a literary and historical way. Moreover, these affirmations point beyond their literary meaning to a higher and spiritual meaning, to a mystical perception. These affirmations can be understood not simply as statements of what happened in history, but as images of what can filter into our personal life and into the life to come.

Thus, the Church Fathers often distinguished between several meanings of the book. A good example is how some of them read the Exodus tradition. In this account of Israel’s liberation from slavery in Egypt they found at least four levels of meaning: 1) the “literary/historical” meaning, which spoke of the Israelites’ exodus from Egypt to the Promised Land; 2) the “allegorical” meaning, which saw Old Testament images (e.g., Moses and Joshua, the manna and the rock in the wilderness) as symbols or models fulfilled in Christ and the sacraments of the Church; 3) the “moral” meaning, which saw in Israel’s journey an image of the soul’s transformation from sin and death to grace and “newness of life” (Rom. 6:4); and 4) the “mystical” meaning (anagogical, meaning upward) which spoke of the believer’s journey toward eternal glory.

This brings us back to our first question: Can a reader read the same meaning twice? On the one hand, the answer is yes. The text (as a biblical narrative) is itself an objective truth. It was produced at some point in the past and has come down to us, as a canon, in a fixed and unchangeable form. Although some translations may differ, the original text (Hebrew or Greek) remains the same. What we read once we read again every time we pick up the Bible. The words do not change.

In any case, the meaning of these words can and does change according to our present and personal circumstances and according to the message we seek, guided by the Spirit, in the written witness. This will determine, at that time, which words will affect us and therefore what the text will bring to us. If we read Psalm 22:23, for example, we will encounter Christ the Good Shepherd who leads to the waters of rest and restores our souls to his presence, grace and peace. If we read it in times of great anxiety or before a major operation, our attention may be drawn to the psalmist’s reassuring cry, “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, you are with me!” The psalm has not changed; rather, the way we read it has certainly changed.
So too, how we approach the accounts of Christ’s passion will determine whether we see in the cross the magnitude of Jesus’ physical and emotional suffering, an image of his redemptive sacrifice, a call to struggle and persevere in faithfulness to him through ascetic rule and works of charity, or a promise that “through the cross joy has come to all the world,” a joy that will be ours when the risen Lord receives us in the glory of his kingdom.

Can we read the same Gospel text twice or more? Yes, inasmuch as Jesus and his Word are the same today, yesterday and forever. However, no, inasmuch as the text is a living reality that constantly changes because it is burdened by the presence and inspiring power of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit rewrites the text at every moment of our life, at every step of the journey of suffering that leads us through our daily experience towards the fullness of the life to come.

This rewriting is what makes the Bible a living word that carries both truth and life, and not just a historical record or a document to be deciphered and analyzed.

Written by: Father John Breck
Translated into Arabic by Father Antoine Melki
Quoted from Orthodox Heritage Magazine

[1] On First Principles (ed. by G. W. Butterworth, NY: Harper & Row, 1966), p. 288.