The Righteous Joshua
When the Israelites were on the verge of entering and conquering the promised land, under the leadership of Moses, the latter called the people to remind them of the events of the Exodus from the time they were prisoners in Egypt, and how God had freed His people from the shackles of slavery, bringing them into the desert, where He Himself took care of their welfare (Deut. 29, 1-12).
The Recumbent Lion
This is an iconographical type [usually known by its Greek title “Anapeson”], which represents Christ as a young child, recumbent on a cradle or cot, and symbolizes the fulfilment of the Messianic prophecy in verses 9-12 of chapter 49 of the book of Genesis. In these, the patriarch Jacob pronounces the prophecy which has to do with the tribe of Judah, from which will come the Messiah, and in this way foretells His advent, passion and resurrection.
The sign of the Cross in the Old Testament
In his first epistle to the Corinthians Saint Paul mentions that the “Jews seek a sign” (I Cor. 1, 22), that they wanted a supernatural sign, such as the resurrection of the dead, cure of the possessed, and so on that would allow them to believe in the teaching concerning the Cross. So they looked for some supernatural sign, ignoring and overlooking the signs and wonders that God had already shown them in the past, every time they were in danger.
God’s “Breathing Upon” Adam was the Holy Spirit
A very broadly propagated misconception is that the ‘blowing upon” referred to in the Book of Genesis (Genesis 2:7), was supposedly the ‘giving’ of a soul to a pre-fabricated, earthen, inanimate statue of a man. This cacodoxy (heretical opinion) has its roots in ancient Hellenistic ‘dualist’ anthropology, where the soul was considered as something pre-existent to the body, given that –by nature– the soul is timeless and immortal. This ‘life-giving’ to a body and soul within a time frame is idolatrous and absolutely anti-Christian, as is every other dimension generally pertaining to body and soul.
On the Identity of the Ancient of Days-Yahweh the Lord of Glory-Who Appeared to the Prophets
For readers of the Bible, the “prima facie” categories in connection with the identity of the Ancient of Days in the book of Daniel (7:13-14) can pose a major obstacle to an Orthodox understanding of the Prophet’s unique narration of his vision of God. We cannot begin to understand this or any prophetic vision unless […]
Lessons in Orthodox Faith and Theology-The Theology of Genesis
Lessons in Orthodox Faith and Theology by Fr.Vassilios Papavassiliou.
Where’s Mephibosheth?
The battle was fierce and bloody. Israel was at war again with their arch enemies, the Philistines. It was among the toughest battles for the young nation, and things had gone very wrong. Three of Israel’s princes were dead, including the beloved Jonathan. The king himself lay in a muddy field, gasping for breath. King […]
The Genocidal God of the Old Testament? Simple Thoughts on Some Difficult Passages
Thus says the Lord of hosts, ‘I have noted what Amalek did to Israel in opposing them on the way when they came up out of Egypt. Now go and strike Amalek and devote to destruction all that they have. Do not spare them, but kill both man and woman, child and infant, ox and […]
The Ancient of Days
The God of the New Testament in the Old Testament “The thrones were set and the Ancient of Days took His seat. His raiment was white as snow, and the hair of His head as pure wool. His throne was a flame of fire… A river of fire […]
Christ in the Old Testament
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God”. [John 1:1] It is no coincidence that St John begins his gospel in the same way as begins the first book of the Old Testament: “In the beginning…” (Gen. 1:1). Orthodox Christianity rests on the belief in “one […]