Reading the Old Testament with the Ancient Church: Exploring the Formation of Early Christian Thought

by Ronald E. Heine

The contemporary church dismisses Christianity's foundational Scriptures at its own peril. However, the teachings of the Old Testament are less and less at the center of congregational preaching and conversation. The early church fathers--visionaries such as Augustine, Origen, and Tertullian--embraced the Hebrew Scriptures, allowing the Old Testament to play a central role in the formation of their beliefs. As today's Christians struggle to relate to concepts such as the Jewish law and the prophets, pastors and laypersons benefit from looking through the lenses of these thoughtful pioneers. This latest volume in the Evangelical Ressourcement series helps the Old Covenant to come alive.

Genres: Biblical Studies, Old Testament, Theology, Church History

204 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2007

About the author

Ronald E. Heine (PhD, University of Illinois) is professor of Bible and Christian ministry at Northwest Christian University in Eugene, Oregon. He is the author of Reading the Old Testament with the Ancient Church and several books on Origen.

Reviews

[Allison Wise · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was pretty good! I enjoyed it!! I read this for Old Testament, but it was definitely helpful that I am also in Patristics and recognize/have read things by everyone that is mentioned in this book. Time to write a paper on it:)

[Mark Sequeira]

This is easily one of the most important and inspiring books I have ever read, and I read a lot! Somewhat academic and in some ways similar to 'Exploring the Origins of the Bible' by Evans and Tov in it's discussion of the early church's reliance on the Septuagint, it also deals with the 1st and 2nd century church's use of the Scriptures (read O.T.) in affirming the gospel and deity of Jesus and His ministry and plan. When we read in the Bible, "In accordance with the scriptures..." or "As it is written..." we have to realize that the only Bible the 1st century believers had to study or understand Jesus was the Old Testament. Even in the second century the assertion is made that believers still relied on the O.T. almost exclusively as the Scriptures even though they accorded great respect to the written gospels, later accepting them as equal to the O.T. inasmuch as they recorded the words of Jesus and lastly, gave equal respect to the epistles, yet until 300 or so, even though most agreed to the canon of N.T. 'books' we have today, some others were included (Shepherd of Hermas, The Epistle of Barnabas, Clement to the Romans) while others were excluded (Jude, Hebrews, James, sometimes Peter...) and all did not have circulation due to persecution and lack of the printing press. regardless of these later claims, (for which a good case is made) we are left to understand that the early church relied heavily on the Old Testament when reading, learning of, and following Jesus under the guidance and direction of the Holy Spirit inside them. (This later case is not made strongly enough IMHO)
The book then launches into the understanding of the gospel and N.T. writers as well as some of the church fathers in their understanding and interpretation of the Scriptures (read O.T.) in understanding Christ. On this, all I can say is "Did not my heart jump within me as he explained the Scriptures?!"

Without understanding that the early church did not have a New Testament as we have today, or even reliable access to the apostles themselves except for short periods, and that the spoken testimony was considered more crucial to them than writings (which could be misunderstood without being able to ask the writer his thought), the O.T. was the touchstone, prover, and the ender of arguments as to who Jesus was and what He came to do...Without understanding this, we show less respect or value to the Old Testament than we should. We also misunderstand the N.T. writers' use of the texts, their interpretation and the proper use of the O.T. under the new covenant. That record which speaks of Christ and that Jesus used to explain His coming and said testified of Himself. That record that the first disciples relied on to learn of Him. Those Scriptures that the early church used to affirm their theology and orthodoxy. This is a long review and not clear enough to validate this book. Ronald Heine has done a great service to the church in the writing of it. Do yourself a great service in reading it, meditating on it, and sharing it with others!

Without understanding the

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

(3.5 stars)

I've been interested in the post-apostolic early church for awhile now, if for no other reason than that they were much closer to apostolic Christianity than we are both culturally and temporally. This is a good book, although ultimately not what I was hoping it would be. I was hoping it would be more focused on how the early Christians understood and used the Old Testament in their preaching and teaching and there is some of that here.

Undoubtedly the most interesting chapter for me was "Praying the Psalms," which the early church did so often as to be ubiquitous. This is not something that we evangelicals have emphasized until very, very recently, and one wonders if that isn't a gigantic oversight on our part. The Psalms are basically the only book of the Bible that you can literally apply straight from the text to our own day because they read so contemporarily. The early church prayed the psalms, why don't we?

The first chapter was very good also because when the New Testament writers refer to Scripture as in "all Scripture is inspired by God," they were referring to the Old Testament. This was the scripture Christ used and the Scripture that all the New Testament writers used. It would behoove us to know it and understand it well.

A good book, even though it wasn't quite what I was hoping it would be.

[Jason Albertson · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lovely volume! I think it accomplishes just what it sets out to do.

Ch. 1 summarizes the forms in which the early church had access to the OT. It's succinct and clear. If you're curious about the relationship of the LXX to other Greek OT versions and how they came about, this chapter walks through it really accessibly.

Ch. 2 summarizes the early church's debate about the usefulness of the OT for gentile NT believers. Also super clear and helpful.
Those two chapters originated as presentations, and it shows -- they're easy reading with no extraneous detail.

Ch. 3-5 outline how the fathers (of both Alexandria's and Antioch's interpretive traditions) applied the exodus, prophecies and the Psalms to the Christian life and to Christology. These chapters are a slog, but they rehabilitated Origen for me (following previous hermeneutics classes that depicted him and his Alexandrian school as problematic).

Ch. 6 wraps up by describing the fathers' approach to the Scriptures, both OT and NT: interpretation by saturation and whole-hearted devotion. It's a lovely send-off for the volume.

[Chandler Collins · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent! Over the years, I have developed a love for books on hermeneutics and historical theology. Much like Brevard Childs’s ‘The Struggle to Understand Isaiah as Christian Scripture’ and Mark Sheridan’s ‘Language for God in Patristic Tradition,’ this book is a discipline of both disciplines. I especially enjoyed Heine’s chapter on patristic readings of the Psalms.

[Andrew Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading this book has inspired me to keep a copy of the LXX open when reading any OT text as well as pay far closer attention to how the OT is used in the NT. Maybe it's one of those things my professors were trying to teach me and I just didn't understand, but I do now, at least.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good read and some helpful insights into appropriating Patristic readings of the scripture. I follow and generally agree with his argument that we should listen to how many of the early Christian interpreters approached the Old Testament and that this should inform our own reading of the text. Where this breaks down for me, is Heine avoids some of the difficulties inherent in patristic approaches.

For example, his ressourcement project points to the recovery of anological, tropological and allegorical
readings of the Old Testament, but as Heine seeks to portray these in a positive light, he neglects to mention the instances where these meanings are not derivative of the literal sense but diametrically opposed to it. It seems to me, that this needs to be wrestled with a little bit more directly if we are going to give patristics space in our hermeneutic.

With this small caveat, I enjoyed this book immensely and will happily refer back to it. Heine does a good job of describing the interpretive approaches of the early church, their use of the Septuagint, apologetic use of the law, readings of historical narrative, prophets and the psalms. All in all a good read.

[Shaun Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very helpful book on patristics exegesis of the church fathers. Heine demonstrates the need for contemporary Christians, particularly those who regularly preach and teach in churches, to better understand and apply pre-critical approaches to Scripture in our post-critical context.

My only quibble with Heine's book is that he at times summarizes different approaches of different church fathers to reading the psalms or understanding the law, but does not say which individual approach or approaches he finds preferable to others.

Despite that, I highly recommend Heine's book.

[Tyson Guthrie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Patristic exegesis of the Old Testament is a very complex issue. Heine offers evangelicals a helpful, readable survey of the landscape.