“The centurion said in reply, ‘Lord, I am not worthy to have you enter under my roof; only say the word and my servant will be healed’” (Matthew 8:5–11.)
Every Christian will recognize this reading this reading from the Gospels. It’s often known as the healing of the centurion’s servant, and it’s the Gospel reading for the Monday of the first week of Advent in liturgical year A.
These words also constitute the communion prayer following the Agnus Dei — but with one difference. “My servant” is replaced with “my soul.” This isn’t artistic license. “My servant” becoming “my soul” serves as an example of how the early Christians interpreted scripture.
St. John Chrysostom suggested that when we pray this Biblical text, we’re praying for “our servant” — our inner self, desires, heart, motivations — to be healed.
With this communion prayer, Christians approach Christ in the Eucharist asking him to heal our inner self from the deadly illness of sin. It’s a sign of trusting faith that Jesus will forgive and rightly direct our servant — our soul — in the way of holiness, goodness, justice, and mercy. In faith, Christians believe the Savior answers our prayer and will heal us, just as he healed the centurion’s servant.
But there’s another layer to reading this Biblical narrative.
It happens when the faithful see themselves as the servant. Christ becomes the centurion, and the Father is the healer. In this scenario, the Savior appeals to the Father on our behalf. We trust the Father hears the prayer, just as Jesus confidently prayed, “Father, I thank you for having heard me. I knew that you always hear me” (John 11:41–42).
These two spiritual and liturgical interpretations — there are certainly others— illustrate an essential component of reading scripture as scripture. Strict literal interpretations miss the point.
This methodology is found in the Bible itself. For instance, St. Paul applies it in places like Galatians 4 and 1Corinthians 10.
The most important early Christian scripture scholar was Origen of Alexandria. He followed this manifold procedure of understanding the Biblical text and passed it on to the foremost Christian theologians.
Among those who followed both Origen’s theological understanding and his methodology of studying scripture were the famous Cappadocian Fathers — Saints Gregory of Nyssa, Basil of Caesarea, and Gregory Nazianzus. The brothers Basil and Gregory of Nyssa learned theology from their sister St. Macrina the Younger, and she was taught by her grandmother Macrina the Elder. The older woman was a student of Gregory Thaumaturgus (Gregory the Wonderworker, c. 213–270), and he was a student of Origen and brought the Alexandrian’s teachings to Cappadocia. This Gregory credited Origen for teaching him everything in his Panegyric to Origen.
“And he himself became the interpreter of the prophets to us, and explained whatsoever was dark or enigmatical in them.”
Gregory celebrated Origen for modeling how to discover the hidden meanings in the Biblical texts.
“Some words [may be] really enigmatical, he explained all such, and set them in the light, as being himself a skilled and most discerning hearer of God.”
The Cappadocians shaped the Church’s most important Christology and were among the main protagonists at the Council of Nicaea. Throughout their writings, they insisted that the “literal” reading is just one level interpretation, the lowest. They affirmed we must pass beyond the literal if expect to understand the Bible’s meaning.
Before he was tortured by the Roman authorities and died for his Christian faith, Origen pointed out that the apparent errors in the Bible are intentionally provided by the Holy Spirit as signs pointing beyond the literal readings to the moral, spiritual, and theological. He would say the contradictions don’t mean the Bible is “wrong” or uninspired because inspiration of scripture is never limited to the literal.
Early theologians would also contend that discerning these deeper meanings is not simply a private matter. Gregory Thaumaturgus asserted that interpretation occurs in community. In his case, studying the spiritual meanings took place in a school of learners who joined Origen to study and pray together. Most importantly, they encouraged each other to live a virtuous life, for that is the only way to discern the deeper meanings.
Community includes those who built centuries of interpretative tradition. As today’s readers bring their understanding to the community for prayerful dialogue, the faithful of today reflect together with those who have already added their voices to the manifold understanding of scripture — like the early Church mothers and fathers.
Next time someone insists on “interpreting the Bible literally” or criticizes it for having errors and contradictions, remember the earliest theologians taught the Holy Spirit works on a higher and deeper level, and that’s how we should be reading the Bible today.
