What Do We See and How Do We See It?

 

Augustin’s Psalms is the third book I’d take with me on a desert island, the Bible and Chronicles of Narnia being the other two.

 

“Therefore here also let us perceive the Lord’s Passion, and let there speak to us Christ, Head and Body. So always, or nearly always, let us hear the words of Christ from the Psalm, as that we look not only upon that Head, the one mediator between God and man, the Man Christ Jesus…But let us think of Christ, Head and whole Body, a sort of entire Man. For to us it is said, “But you are the Body of Christ and members,” by the Apostle Paul. If therefore He is Head, we Body; whole Christ is Head and Body. For sometimes you find words which do not suit the Head, and unless you shall have attached them to the Body, your understanding will waver; again you find words which are proper for the Body, and Christ nevertheless is speaking. In that place we must have no fear lest a man be mistaken; for quickly he proceeds to adapt to the Head, that which he sees is not proper for the Body….” Augustin, Psalm 59 (2). NPNF (Hendrickson).

 

If our epistemology is wrong, our interpretation will be be wrong or limited – we will not see the fulness of Christ. (1 Cor. 1:17 – 2:16; John 16:12 – 15).

 

The exegesis of Jesus (if we can use such a term with regard to Him) is that of seeing Himself and His Body in the Scriptures (Luke 24:25 – 27; 44 – 46; John 5:39).

 

The Old Testament exegesis of the writers of the New Testament befuddle us when we apply our natural interpretive methods to their vision of Christ and His Body, the Church, the Temple, and the Eschaton – for they are looking for Christ and doing so in the koinonia of the Trinity. Their koinonia with God is inextricably linked with understanding Scripture, and so it must be with us (1 John 1:3). To teach exegesis and Biblical interpretation apart from holy living and devotion to Christ and His People is a thing to be avoided. Who may ascend in Biblical interpretation, in seeing Christ? See Psalm 15.

 

Patristic exegesis is Christological – always looking for Christ.

 

New Testament exegesis is Christological – always looking for Christ.

 

Jesus’s exegesis (if we can speak this way) is Christological – always seeing Himself and His Body.

 

How might this challenge us?