Behind The Holy Bible

God in his great love towards man, whispers to the souls saying: "Let me see your face, Let me hear your voice; For your voice is sweet, And your face is lovely." (Song 2:14). The Spirit of God declared the Holy Bible to his saints, not to give us Divine orders to obey, or to record history and events, but to declare first of all His wonderful longing towards man. While, He is the creator of heaven and earth, He wants to see the face of man and to listen to his voice. I meet with Him who loves me not because He needs my goodness, but because He likes to see in me His living image and to reflect His magnificence in me, bestowing the communion of His eternal glory.

As much as God desire to see my face and to hear my voice, He also reveals His face to me to see by faith, to perceive His Divine knowledge, to approach His mysteries and to hear His voice inside me, till I meet with Him face to face and enjoy what "eye has not seen, nor ear heard,Nor have entered into the heart of man."(1Co 2:9) 

The Word of God and the word of man

Man’s written or said word, attain its power from his authority and capability, but its effectiveness is still limited. The Word of God, “The Logos” is the pronounced Divine mind, which is not an addition to the essence of God, but He is the Eternal Word that is of the same essence of God and one with Him. The goal of the Holy Book is to let me meet with the Divine Word, to recognize Him as a Person, communicate with Him, embrace Him and let Him embrace me. The Two Testaments of the Holy Bible, behind their letters, offer to me the Divine Word. It is not just written words, but through these words the Divine Person of God is declared with His unlimited love to man. The Divine Word of God is the creator as God says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God… All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.” (Jn. 1: 1-3). The Creator Word of God was not stop powerless towards the corruption of the human nature and its mortality y, “And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.”(Ph 2:8), “…loved me and gave Himself for me.” (Ga 2:20(.

The Old Testament refers to the coming of the Savior, the Word (Jn. 6:23-35, De. 8:3) from heaven to live with the people, to carry their death and to give them the eternal life. The New Testament confirm the fulfillment of all prophecies and types of the Old, in Christ the Word. My Christ who truly loves me and is concerned with my salvation is the heart of the Holy Bible.     

Fr. Tadros Malaty

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In the English section, we continue to publish the article by Fr. Tadros Malaty “Introduction to the Book of Psalms” No (4) The Literary Forms of The Psalms. The second article is “The Bible and its Interpretation” (3) Basic Principles of Interpretation by Fr. Duane Johnson(O.C.A). The Third article is “Saint Mary in the Coptic Lectionary” (1) by Fouad N. Youssef.

The Arabic section: The first Article “St. Mathew’s Gospel” (3) The Church & Israel, by Fouad N Youssef. The second article is continuation of “The Eucharist in the New Testament” by Dr. Rodolph Yanney.  In the third article, we continue our study of the Minor Prophets “Book of Hosea”, by Mrs. Nadia Monir.

The section of the “Patristic Interpretations of the Scriptures” by Professor, Fr. George Dragas shall be provided in future issues.

The Canadian Chapter of SMOF held its 2^nd Conference in Toronto, Ontario, 24-26th of last May. This was a Pan-Orthodox meeting in which the Armenian, Greek, and Syrian Orthodox Churches participated with the Coptic Church. The conference was blessed by H.G. Bishop Misael (Birmingham, UK) and H.G. Bishop Demian (Germany). H.G. Archbishop Derderian of the Armenian Church in Canada could not attend the conference because of an urgent travel, but Fr. Zareh, his delegate to the conference delivered his speech. From the Greek Church, Prof. Fr. Dragas delivered four lectures on different topics, and Fr. Pavlos talked of “Eucharist, the bedrock of Christian Unity”. Fr. John Yanny (Coptic Church, Birmingham), Fr. Zareh (Armenian Church), Fr. Estiphanos (Syrian Church), and Prof. Fayek Ishak (Toronto) delivered various speeches dealing with different aspects of Orthodox Unity. To extend the benefits of this conference to all its readers, the Word of Life magazine is planning to publish most of these lectures in a forthcoming special issue.   

We thank every person that offered help in the translation, transcription and revision, asking the Lord to reward them with His heavenly blessings. Also, we ask for your continued prayers for the success of this working serving the Word of God.