Please join us in this Bible Study co-hosted by the Bucknell University Orthodox Christian community and St. John’s Russian Orthodox Mission Church in Lewisburg, PA. Our “live” Bible Studies usually convene on Sundays at 2:30 p.m. at the Bucknell University Barnes & Noble Bookstore Cafe (to confirm the schedule and to find links to weekly online video summaries, please see stjohnthewonderworker.com). All are welcome regardless of background and no homework or previous knowledge is needed!

Learn how the Church Fathers provide truths that go far deeply beyond the famous 1956 American film The Ten Commandments (which in many ways represented the high-water mark of what is called American “civil religion”), by drawing on tradition that dates back across cultures and geography and generations to the days of Moses in the 16th century BC, accounts from more than 3,600 years ago, which find their fulfillment in our Lord’s Orthodox Church today. For biblical study we as Orthodox Christians turn to the holy elders, saints, and prophets of the Church, seeing in the Old Testament the prefiguring of the full realization of its accounts in our Lord and God and Savior Jesus Christ (still the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, “He Who Is”), leading us out from the bondage of sin and death and freeing us from Pharaohs ancient and modern. We read the Bible both literally and symbolically under the guidance of the Holy Spirit in the Church, while we pray and struggle together to put into practice unworthily but with God’s grace what we learn.

As the Apostle Paul puts it: “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works” (II Timothy 3:16). And the Holy Prophet Solomon: “Every word of God is pure; He is a shield unto them that put their trust in Him. Add thou not unto His words, lest He reprove thee, and thou be found a liar” (Prov. 30:5-6). To which St. John Chrysostom adds: “This is the cause of all evils: the ignorance of the Scriptures. We go into battle without arms, and how ought we to come off safe?”

Here is a video summary of our most recent Bible Study in-person discussion.

See stjohnthewonderworker.com for more updates and links to video archives.