What's the coolest Bible connection or tradition you've learned since becoming Orthodox?

ArmyMatt · Oct 4, 2015

jckstraw72 said:
there is even a chapel dedicated to Adam underneath Golgotha

that's cool. I did not know that one.

Ioustinos · Oct 4, 2015

prodromos said:
The healing of the blind man who was born blind. Learning that the man was actually born without eyes made everything else in that story suddenly become clear. No wonder people couldn't recognise him or couldn't believe it was the same man.

Also, the fact that they have to replace Saint Spyridon's footwear every year on his feast day because he wears them out with all his travelling.
The fact that Saint Mary Magdalan's left hand is not only incorrupt, but maintains body temperature.
And my favorite, the relics of Saint Demetrios of Thessaloniki (and some others) continue to exude fragrant myrrh.

Without derailing the thread, does anyone know of any hagiographic books about St. Spyridon that the would recommend (in English)? So far the only one I can find is here on Amazon (http://amzn.to/1PduXLj)

Shieldmaiden4Christ · Oct 5, 2015

Isaac32 said:
Atonement models that aren't based on penal substitution.

I was going to mention this, but you already stated it!

Other than that, there's a pretty long litany of what made sense to me in reading the Bible and patristic writings that Orthodoxy fulfills, that my protestant friends and family disagree with or don't quite understand. I guess I like the holistic approach the Church takes towards Scripture, Tradition and spirituality.

~Anastasia~ · Oct 5, 2015

Shieldmaiden4Christ said:
I was going to mention this, but you already stated it!

Other than that, there's a pretty long litany of what made sense to me in reading the Bible and patristic writings that Orthodoxy fulfills, that my protestant friends and family disagree with or don't quite understand. I guess I like the holistic approach the Church takes towards Scripture, Tradition and spirituality.

"Holistic" ... That's a VERY good way of putting it! And I agree. So many things make perfect sense now precisely because they fit together like pieces of a puzzle, or threads in a tapestry. And I especially appreciate that spirituality and practice has a purpose tied perfectly to theology and belief. It's not a lot of separate academic ideas plus moral behavior, or any other distinction such as that.

ArmyMatt · Oct 5, 2015

I also like the Orthodox teaching that God would have been made man, even if man had not fallen. humanity was created to be united to the Divine

Nikti · Oct 8, 2015

ArmyMatt said:
it's also where, according to Tradition, Adam was buried. that is why the skull is on the bottom of our Crosses, it's Adam's skull.

it's also the same mountain where Abraham was about to sacrifice Isaac. Isaac (the son) carries the wood (the Cross) up the mountain. when the angel stays Abraham's hand, he says God will provide the lamb for sacrifice, but it is a ram that they kill. the Lamb would come to that spot later.

I always thought Abrahams sacrifice was at Mt Moriah (inside the city, around or under the Temple Mount). The crucifixion was outside the city im pretty sure...

ArmyMatt · Oct 8, 2015

Nikti said:
I always thought Abrahams sacrifice was at Mt Moriah (inside the city, around or under the Temple Mount). The crucifixion was outside the city im pretty sure...

hmmmm, I was taught that Mt Moriah was renamed Calvary. you are right that Calvary was outside the city. maybe I goofed

gzt · Oct 9, 2015

Mt Moriah had a set of deep mines, but going too deep awakened an ancient evil, the Balrog.

ArmyMatt · Oct 9, 2015

gzt said:
Mt Moriah had a set of deep mines, but going too deep awakened an ancient evil, the Balrog.

wow, that was fantastic

gurneyhalleck1 · Oct 10, 2015

The Balrog of Morgoth no less! He.....shall not.....pass!

gzt said:
Mt Moriah had a set of deep mines, but going too deep awakened an ancient evil, the Balrog.

Shieldmaiden4Christ · Oct 10, 2015

This isn't about Orthodoxy and the Bible, but I must say, I enjoy the exchanges that go on here in TAW!

gzt · Oct 10, 2015

gzt said:
Mt Moriah had a set of deep mines, but going too deep awakened an ancient evil, the Balrog.

Note that Tolkien was asked about whether this was intentional, since he was Catholic and it influenced his world-building immensely. He said it wasn't, it just happened that the language he made up had, for the concept he wanted for that place, that homonymic word.

Mary of Bethany · Oct 21, 2015

gurneyhalleck1 said:
I know, crazy thread idea, but here's what I mean.

Two things I never knew until the last couple years:

That St. Helen's team found several crosses, and she wanted to know which was the True Cross of Christ, so she had a corpse brought in and laid upon each cross. When they arrived at one of them, the dead man rose and lived again. This is how Helen and her men knew which was the True Cross of Our Lord.

That story blows my mind!

The other thing I never knew was that "Golgotha" doesn't technically just mean "place of the skull." Interestingly enough, when David fought Goliath of Gath the huge Philistine, he defeated him then cut off his head. He took the head of the evil Goliath back to Jerusalem according to Scripture. But since Goliath was an unclean gentile, his head could not be brought into the City of Jerusalem nor could it be buried there. As a result, David had it buried outside the city on a hill and it was called "Golgotha" was is a meshing together of "GOLiath" and "GATH" = Golgotha.

And the symbolism is rich. Jesus conquers Satan and crushes his head on the Cross there, David, Jesus's predecessor king and ancient ancestor, did the same in a temporal way. Both conquer evil there. So "place of the skull" doesn't tell the whole story.

I like facts like these. Powerful and illuminating.

Anyone else have some neat Bible or Tradition factoid they picked up sine going Orthodox that were eye-openers?

I love finding out "the rest of the story" of Biblical people, that I never heard before becoming Orthodox. Like the lives of the Apostles and Disciples that aren't in the Scriptures, and the relationships of Christ's earthly family and disciples. Those are very cool things.

Mary

Wryetui · Oct 21, 2015

I remember I realy freaked out when Tradition taught me the correlation between the burning bush and the Theotokos! Really awesome, a proof that the Fathers were inspired by the Holy Spirit.

ArmyMatt · Oct 21, 2015

Or her and Jacob's ladder

~Anastasia~ · Oct 21, 2015

Wryetui said:
I remember I realy freaked out when Tradition taught me the correlation between the burning bush and the Theotokos! Really awesome, a proof that the Fathers were inspired by the Holy Spirit.

I first saw that in an icon, and it did freak me out a little. I thought they were basically saying that the Theotokos existed pre-incarnate or something - it was very disturbing to me to misunderstand it ...

gurneyhalleck1 · Oct 21, 2015

I don't think I've heard either the Burning Bush or Jacob's Ladder connection to the Theotokos??

Wryetui · Oct 22, 2015

ArmyMatt said:
Or her and Jacob's ladder

What?

prodromos · Oct 22, 2015

ArmyMatt said:
Or her and Jacob's ladder

http://mostholytheotokos.com/tag/panagia/

The Church has always considered the following as prefigures or symbols of the role of the Theotokos in the Divine plan, and appoints them to be read on the eves of three of the feasts dedicated to her memory. The first is the story of Jacob’s ladder, which refers to her being the means by which God chose to enter into the world physically. “He saw in his sleep a ladder standing upon the earth, and the top thereof touching heaven, the angels also of God ascending and descending by it”. (Genesis 28:12) Then from the Prophecy of Ezekiel are the words concerning her perpetual virginity: “And the Lord said unto me: This gate shall be shut, it shall not be opened, and no man shall pass through it; because the Lord God of Israel hath entered in by it, and it shall be shut.” (Ezekiel 44:2) The same is true of the burning bush seen by Moses: Mary contained in her womb the God-man, Jesus Christ, the God who is a consuming fire, and was not consumed.

https://pemptousia.com/2015/09/“thy...-world…”-the-birth-of-the-all-holy-theotokos/

In the Old Testament there are many passages that foreshadow, prefigure, and prophesy Her. She is the completion, the fulfillment of the Old Testament pedagogical preparation of humanity for its acceptance of the incarnated Savior God. Our Panagia was prefigured by the burning bush in Moses’s vision, by the God-written plaques and the tabernacle of the Law, by the heavenly manna, by the golden seal, by the lamp and the altar, the blossoming rod of Aaron, by Jacob’s ladder, the wool of Gideon, Daniel’s uncut mountain, the fiery furnace which with its fire cooled the Three Children, as well as by the Holy of Holies in the tent of witness. The Theotokos is the borderline between the Old and the New Testament. For the Old Testament, she was the message of the prophets, the hope of the righteous; while in the New Testament she becomes the sweetness of the angels, the glory of the apostles, the courage of the martyrs, the delight of the venerable, the boast of humanity, which is why she is glorified by “every generation.”

Shieldmaiden4Christ · Oct 22, 2015

Ooh. I like those explanations! <3

What's the coolest Bible connection or tradition you've learned since becoming Orthodox?

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