Psychological Interpretation of Psalm 1

The religious life, explained in detail throughout the Bible, is summarized in a single, short passage, namely Psalm 1. Further, the essential message is conveyed in just the first two or three verses. Noting this and studying the psalm will therefore greatly assist ones spiritual progress, in a very direct way, and with comparatively little [...]

Origen – Scripture is sealed; the analogy of rooms and keys

Origen – Scripture is sealed; the analogy of rooms and keys
From Commentary on the 1st Psalm as cited in The Philocalia of Origen
CHAP. II. — That the Divine Scripture is closed up and sealed. From the Commentary on the 1st Psalm.
1. The Divine words say that the Divine Scriptures have been closed up and sealed [...]

St Athanasius on Psalm 1

From an Easter letter by Saint Athanasius, bishop
The Paschal sacrament brings together in unity of faith those who are far away
Brethren, how fine a thing it is to move from festival to festival, from prayer to prayer, from holy day to holy day. The time is now at hand when we enter on a new [...]

Philo – the Rivers of Eden in On the Posterity of Cain

ON THE POSTERITY OF CAIN AND HIS EXILE 32.127
XXXVII. (127) On which account it is said in Genesis, “And a fountain went up from the earth, and watered all the face of the Earth.”{55}{#ge 2:6.} For since nature has allotted the most excellent portion of the whole body, namely the face, to the outward senses, [...]

Philo on the temptation of Adam and Eve

ALLEGORICAL INTERPRETATION, II{*}
II. (4) …”For I will make him,” says God, “a help-meet for him.” And, in the second place, is younger than the object to be helped; for, first of all, God created the mind [i.e., Adam], and subsequently he prepares to make its helper [Eve, as we shall see]. But all this [...]

Exegesis of the Fall of Adam and Eve in Lombard’s Sentences

Exegesis of the Fall Adam and Eve in Lombard’s Sentences
Book 2, Distinction 24
Chapter IV.
On (man’s) sensuality.
For the sensuality is a certain inferior force of the soul, out of which there is a movement, which is intended for [intenditur in] the senses of the7 body and the appetite for things pertaining to the body; but the [...]

Commentary on Psalm 71 (72)

Psalm 71 (72)
This is a magnificent psalm. Here an interpretation is offered following depth-psychological framework developed in several of these posts.
To begin, we recall a primary principle of depth-psychological exegesis: that every element in the scripture corresponds to some element of the  self, psyche, or personality.
The Messiah’s royal power
Give the king your [...]

2 Peter 3: 8 – 14

2 Peter 3: 8 – 14
8 But do not ignore this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.
9 The Lord is not slow about his promise as some count slowness, but is forbearing toward you, not wishing that any should perish, [...]

Daily Scripture Readings

Isaiah 25: 6 – 10
6 On this mountain the LORD of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of fat things, a feast of wine on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wine on the lees well refined.
7 And he will destroy on this mountain the covering that is cast over [...]

On Philo’s Allegorical Exigesis of Genesis

On Philo’s Allegorical Exigesis of Genesis
While this shorter explanation in a catechetical form [Questions and Answers on Genesis] was intended for more extensive circles, Philo’s special and chief scientific work is his large allegorical commentary on Genesis [Allegorical Interpretation I-III]…
These two works frequently approximate each other as to their contents. For in the Quaestiones et [...]