From Morals to Mystery by Patrick Henry Reardon

As It Is Written . . .

From Morals to Mystery

by Patrick Henry Reardon

I have long esteemed the ancient and traditional lectionaries of the Church, in which the biblical readings chosen for special days and seasons are sometimes juxtaposed by reason of some perceived affinity between them. Because of the readings prescribed for the Holy Saturday vigil, for instance, my deepest memory of the parting of the Red Sea associates that event with the Creator's dividing the water above the firmament from the waters below the firmament.

Such juxtapositions, a feature of the old Christian lectionaries, are apparently rooted in the earlier lectionaries of the synagogue. Indeed, the most primitive Christian assemblies surely followed the scheduled sequences in those Jewish lectionaries to which they were accustomed; there are notable traces of this in the apostolic corpus. Many decades ago, Philip Carrington, relying especially on the format of the Codex Vaticanus, argued that the Gospel of Mark was structured to correspond to the seasonal synagogue readings.

THIS ARTICLE ONLY AVAILABLE TO SUBSCRIBERS.
FOR QUICK ACCESS:


Patrick Henry Reardon is pastor emeritus of All Saints Antiochian Orthodox Church in Chicago, Illinois, and the author of numerous books, including, most recently, Out of Step with God: Orthodox Christian Reflections on the Book of Numbers (Ancient Faith Publishing, 2019).

subscription options

Order
Print/Online
Subscription

Get six issues (one year) of Touchstone PLUS full online access including pdf downloads for only $39.95. That's only $3.34 per month!

Order
Online Only
Subscription

Get a one-year full-access subscription to the Touchstone online archives for only $19.95. That's only $1.66 per month!

bulk subscriptions

Order Touchstone subscriptions in bulk and save $10 per sub! Each subscription includes 6 issues of Touchstone plus full online access to touchstonemag.com—including archives, videos, and pdf downloads of recent issues for only $29.95 each! Great for churches or study groups.

Transactions will be processed on a secure server.


more on bible from the online archives

32.3—May/June 2019

Editing Jesus

on the Implications of Changing the Pater Noster by John M. McCarthy

31.4—July/August 2018

Listening to Eve

on the Brevity & Theology of Her Recorded Words by Judith Anderson

24.3—May/June 2011

God's English

The Making & Endurance of the King James Bible, 1611-2011 by Barton Swaim


more from the online archives

22.3—April 2009

Wasted by Watching

Neil Postman's Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business by J. Daryl Charles

31.4—July/August 2018

Listening to Eve

on the Brevity & Theology of Her Recorded Words by Judith Anderson

19.1—January/February 2006

As If We Were to Be Immortal

on Death & Seven of the Last Words of Socrates by Graeme Hunter

calling all readers

Please Donate

"There are magazines worth reading but few worth saving . . . Touchstone is just such a magazine."
—Alice von Hildebrand

"Here we do not concede one square millimeter of territory to falsehood, folly, contemporary sentimentality, or fashion. We speak the truth, and let God be our judge. . . . Touchstone is the one committedly Christian conservative journal."
—Anthony Esolen, Touchstone senior editor

Support Touchstone

00