If you wish to attain to true knowledge of the Scriptures, hasten to acquire first an unshakeable humility of heart. That alone will lead you, not to the knowledge that puffs up, but to that which enlightens, by the perfecting of love.
- St. John Cassian, Conferences, XIV, 10
Hello again dear friend,
The Presentation of the Most Holy Theotokos at the Temple comes to us from the Tradition. Virgin Mary was taken —presented—by her parents Joachim and Anna into the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem as a young girl, where she lived and served as a Temple virgin until her betrothal to St. Joseph. One of the earliest sources of this tradition is the non-canonical Protoevangelion of James, also called the Infancy Gospel of James.
Indications that this Feast was observed in the first centuries of Christianity are found in the traditions of Palestinian Christians, which say that the holy Empress Helen (May 21) built a Church in honor of the Entry of the Most Holy Theotokos into the Temple.
I hope this helps a little,
God bless you!
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sebastianmorris said: It is so important to remember that Scripture exists as one part (albeit a very important part) of the Tradition of the Church. Not as many Protestants would have it, the other way around.
One very interesting question, never asked, is this: ‘If scholars are willing to assemble an eclectic text out of Scripture fragments from various sources — often of unknown doctrinal origin or authority — why haven’t they ever considered the living archeological evidence of Scripture segments that have been repeated faithfully for ages in the Orthodox Liturgy?’ Why haven’t serious modern scholars considered the incredible ‘coincidence’ that 72 Hebrew scholars could all translate the Old Testament in exactly the same manner into the Septuagint Greek? Why haven’t they examined the translation of the Scriptures done a thousand years ago from Greek into Slavonic, which has preserved exactly, accurately, and precisely the meaning of the Greek original? And, more to the point, if errors have crept in and accumulated as texts were copied over the years, why aren’t the existing copies of these Greek and Slavonic Scriptures divergent?
Non-Orthodox scholars cannot answer these questions because, to do so honestly and truthfully, they would have to admit that in fact the Orthodox Church, through the guidance of the Holy Spirit, has preserved intact and correctly the Holy Scriptures. And, moreover, this preservation is in part assured by the dogma and doctrine of the Church which both draw from the Scripture and provide evidence and support of its truth.
…The Holy Apostle Paul says that all the essence of the gospel message is found in hope, faith and love. Consequently, it is necessary that we have a strong and steadfast faith for us to be Christians and inheritors of divine grace. If you believe that the electron exists without seeing it, then by what right do you say that our faith in God, Who also has not been seen by anyone, is unreasonable? I will say that we too know God by His energies; by the manifestations of His power; by how He acts in our hearts; by the grace that we feel. Not anyone can prove faith. Many have tried to prove that God exists and many that He does not exist. ‘But never has anyone been able to prove one or the other. Only with a pure heart can one see God…
Faith is the most valuable treasure on Earth and we must guard it more than anything else.
-Blessed Surgeon St. Luke, Archbishop of Simferopol
WE BELIEVE THAT THE SCRIPTURES constitute a coherent whole. They are at once divinely inspired and humanly expressed. They bear authoritative witness to God’s revelation of Himself—in creation, in the Incarnation of the Word, and the whole history of salvation. And as such they express the word of God in human language. We know, receive, and interpret Scripture through the Church and in the Church. Our approach to the Bible is one of obedience.
We may distinguish four key qualities that mark an Orthodox reading of Scripture, namely
