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Issue 80 : The First Bible Teachers

Originally published in 2003

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Table of Contents

Midwife of the Christian Bible

Irenaeus identified the books of the New Testament, then showed the church how they fit with the Old.

John Behr
The First Bible Teachers: Did You Know?

Interesting and unusual facts about the church's first Bible interpreters
The First Bible Teachers: From The Editor - The Founding Fathers We Never Knew

Chris Armstrong

Chris Armstrong
The Habits of Highly Effective Bible Readers

What we can learn from the church fathers that will enrich our own Bible study.

Christopher A. Hall
Why the Reformers Read the Fathers
The First Battle For the Bible

A century after Christ's death, a literalist and a spiritualizer forced the church to choose how it would read the Scriptures it inherited from the Jews

Joseph T. Lienhard
Origen: Friend or Foe?

By turns bizarre and insightful, Origen's allegorical forays remain fascinating reading today.
Too Racy for Bible Study

Origen could not believe the Song of Songs was a hymn to erotic love. So what did it mean?
The First Bible Teachers: Christian History Timeline

Traditions in Bible Reading
The Scholars at Antioch Rejected Allegory in Favor of History

But their interpretive method led some into heresy.

Steven Gertz
Scripture Saturation

To achieve holiness, believed the early monks, you must soak in the moral sense of the Word.

Patrick Henry Reardon
Origen's Monastic Legacy
Three Wise Men from the East

The Cappadocian Fathers brought the best gift of all: a powerful scriptural defense of the Trinity and Christ's divinity against the Arian heretics.

Edwin Woodruff Tait and Chris Armstrong
Early Voices on Bible Study

The Church Fathers faced two big questions: “What is Scripture?” and “How should we read it?”
Classical Ear-Training

What the church fathers heard in Homer and Virgil tuned them to the harmonies of Scripture

Christopher A. Hall
Augustine's Key

The West's foremost theologian offered a single principle by which even the unlearned could unlock Scripture's meaning.

Gerald Bray
Augustine vs. Literalism

Why he was so fond of spiritual Scripture interpretation

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Today in Christian History

April 15, 1415: Jerome of Prague, a friend of Bohemian reformer Jan Hus, is seized by church authorities meeting at the Council of Constance. Under duress, Jerome recanted his Wycliffe-influenced beliefs and accepted the authority of the pope. However, when a crowd was assembled to hear him repeat the recantation, he changed his speech and eloquently defended both Wycliffe's teachings and the recently executed Hus. Jerome was subsequently burned at the stake (see issue 68: Jan Hus).

April 15, ...

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Issue 80 : The First Bible Teachers

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