Abstract
This valuable account of the theological interpretation of the Sacred Scriptures recalls and interprets ways in which the Fathers of the Church expounded eight key sections/themes of the Old Testament. The book dedicates separate chapters to the creation accounts of Genesis; the theophany of Genesis 18; the Exodus story (where Christians found types of baptism and the Eucharist in the Red Sea crossing and the manna, respectively); the historical narrative of Joshua; the music of the Psalms; the Wisdom of Proverbs 8; the bridal couple of the Song of Songs; and the servant songs of Isaiah (with Christ the sacramental reality already present in the suffering servant). The work ends with a chapter on three Church Fathers’ interpretation of the beatitudes in Matthew 5. For the historical narrative of Joshua, only Origen is examined; the study of Proverbs 8 engages with Athanasius and Gregory of Nyssa; the chapter on the Song of Songs draws on Hippolytus, Origen, and Ambrose of Milan; five Church Fathers supply reflections on the Psalms, especially as “the word about Christ (vox de Christo)” (in which they were supported unanimously by all the Fathers); and eight Church Fathers feature in the chapter on Isaiah’s servant songs. Origen appears in five chapters; Augustine and Gregory of Nyssa are each cited in four chapters. Melito of Sardis and Clement of Alexandria are the earliest writers to be studied, while Leo the Great is the latest.
The book investigates, above all, how the theology of history embraced by Greek (eleven major examples) and Latin (four major examples) authors enabled them to read christologically the Scriptures of the Old Testament. They recognized the mystery of the Christ-event as already present in the Law and the Prophets. Their sacramental exegesis detected the presence of Christ “hidden within the outward sacrament of the biblical text” (12). The inspired Scriptures that Christians inherited, as well as those they were to compose, shared mysteriously in the life of Christ and can prove the life-giving Word for individual believers and the church at large. The Psalms—the Old Testament Scriptures most quoted in the New Testament and the heart of all Christian prayer—are perhaps the most striking case in point for supporting the sacramental exegesis of the Fathers endorsed by B.
B. invites readers to share the early church’s sacramental reading of the Scriptures, for which the visible sign of the Bible conveyed the invisible, yet very real, presence of Christ himself. A sacramental exegesis was persistently a christological exegesis. Finding Christ in the inspired Word of the Old Testament also became an exercise in finding oneself.
A great advantage of this book is the possibility it holds out to those who may still doubt the value of a sacramental (others speak of “typological,” “spiritual,” and “allegorical”) reading of the Old Testament Scriptures. Any doubters can select the case studies offered by specific chapters and see for themselves the enriching insights found in the sermons and commentaries of leading Fathers of the Church. Much of the work of the patristic authors can be summed up as an extensive christological commentary on the Old Testament Scriptures. A rigidly historical approach to exegesis risks losing the treasures which writers of the early church developed in their sacramental, christological fashion—not least when expounding Christ’s presence in the Psalms. B.’s work makes a superb case for attending to and drawing on patristic exegesis.