The Lord of Glory

The sacred history of the Old Testament, which is the pre-history of Christianity, is not simply Hebrew history but world history. It is the history of the love of God, which shows how God prepared a group of people so that the Son and Word of God could become man to save the whole human race and to deliver human beings from death, sin and the devil.

Despite the fall of Adam, the Church existed even in the Old Testament period, as there were righteous people, the chosen remnant. They had God’s grace and struggled to restore their communion with God, and they were granted divine visions and revelations.

The difference between the Old and New Testaments lies in the fact that the Old Testament describes the appearances of the unincarnate Word, the Lord of Glory, whereas in the New Testament the incarnate Word appears.

The Old Testament should not be interpreted in an academic or a nationalistic way, nor through philosophy or comparative religion, but through the Christological and ecclesiological teaching of the Fathers of the Church, who interpret it through God’s revelation and through experience.