How Early Christians Interpreted Scripture
Early Christians taught that Scripture should be read with the Spirit, in the faith of the Church, and in line with the whole Bible. Origen, Irenaeus, Tertullian, and Clement all stress careful reading instead of private guesswork. They also warn that hard passages can be twisted if read badly. That makes the main lesson clear: Scripture is trusted, but it must be read the right way.
131 early-church witnesses · 233 source quotations · compared with Scripture
What did early Christians believe about interpreting Scripture?
Early Christian writers taught that Scripture should be read with care, in line with the whole Bible, and under the guidance of the Holy Spirit rather than private guesswork. Origen, Irenaeus, Tertullian, Clement of Alexandria, and Novatian all stress that right reading depends on the faith of the Church, the context of the passage, and the unity of Scripture.
They also warn that hard texts can be twisted, so readers should compare passage with passage and not force a meaning that breaks the whole message. The evidence is broad and strong for Scripture being inspired, unified, and interpreted by sound rule; it is thinner for one single fixed method because the writers use both literal and spiritual readings in different places.
Many more early Christian quotations, Bible passages, and source links are gathered below so you can study the evidence for yourself.
Key Takeaways
- Early Christians said Scripture should be read in the light of the whole Bible, not by private guesswork.
- Origen and Clement favored spiritual reading when the plain reading missed the deeper point.
- Irenaeus and Tertullian tied right interpretation to the Church’s rule of faith.
- The Bible passages most often used for this topic stress hard texts, public reading, and Scripture pointing to Christ.
Questions Answered by the Sources
How did early Christians say Scripture should be interpreted?
The strongest sources say Scripture should be understood by the Holy Spirit’s mind, compared with Scripture itself, and read without breaking its unity or forcing a private meaning. They also connect interpretation with apostolic teaching and the church’s rule of faith.
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Origen, De Principiis (On First Principles) Direct teaching
And therefore, to those who believe that the sacred books are not the compositions of men, but that they were composed by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, agreeably to the will of the Father of all things through Jesus Christ, and that they have come down to us, we must point out the ways (of interpreting them) which appear (correct) to us, who cling to the standard of the heavenly Church of Jesus Christ according to the succession of the apostles.
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Origen, Commentary on John Direct teaching
we must approach the whole of Scripture as one body, we must not lacerate nor break through the strong and well-knit connections which exist in the harmony of its whole composition, as those do who lacerate, so far as they can, the unity of the Spirit that is in all the Scriptures.
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Irenaeus, Against Heresies: Book III Supporting witness
But when they came together in the same place before Ptolemy, and each of them compared his own interpretation with that of every other, God was indeed glorified, and the Scriptures were acknowledged as truly divine.
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Tertullian, Against Marcion Supporting witness
But the Scripture offers me further information, even in the interpretation of the Lord Himself.
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Novatian, Treatise Concerning the Trinity Supporting witness
Why shall the truth of faith hesitate in that wherein the authority of Scripture has never hesitated?
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Victorinus, Commentary on the Apocalypse Supporting witness
Why shall the truth of faith hesitate in that wherein the authority of Scripture has never hesitated?
More related quotations from this section 24 shown of 29
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Origen, Against Celsus Direct teaching
For it belongs only to those who are wise in the truth of Christ (and to all them it does belong) to unfold the connection and meaning of even the obscure parts of prophecy, comparing spiritual things with spiritual, and interpreting each passage according to the usage of Scripture writers.
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Hippolytus, Refutation of All Heresies Direct teaching
And as many parts of Scripture bearing on this view of the subject as he could collect, be so interpreted.
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Clement of Alexandria, The Stromata (Miscellanies) Supporting witness
And this signified that the Scripture is clear to all, when taken according to the bare reading;
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Julius Africanus, Extant Writings Supporting witness
4. As far, then, as is in our power, we have taken the Scripture, I think, correctly;
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Apostolic Constitutions, Apostolic Constitutions Supporting witness
XXXI. Do you first ordain bishops worthy of the Lord, and presbyters and deacons, pious men, righteous, meek, free from the love of money, lovers of truth, approved, holy, not accepters of persons, who are able to teach the word of piety, and rightly dividing the doctrines of the Lord.
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Gregory Thaumaturgus, A Sectional Confession of Faith Supporting witness
and it is right that our conceptions should follow the inspired and apostolic doctrines, and not that our impotent fancies should coerce the articles of our divine faith.
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Clement of Alexandria, The Stromata (Miscellanies) Supporting witness
2 Timothy 2:1-2 And again: Study to show yourself approved unto God, a workman that needs not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
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Apostolic Constitutions, Apostolic Constitutions Supporting witness
Therefore, O bishop, together with your subordinate clergy, endeavour rightly to divide the word of truth.
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Apostolic Constitutions, Apostolic Constitutions Supporting witness
Let us pray for every episcopacy which is under the whole heaven, of those that rightly divide the word of Your truth.
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Apostolic Constitutions, Apostolic Constitutions Supporting witness
for every episcopate who rightly divides the word of truth.
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Origen, Commentary on John Supporting witness
We ought to give a liberal interpretation to such utterances of Scripture;
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Clement of Alexandria, The Stromata (Miscellanies) Supporting witness
He, then, who of himself believes the Scripture and voice of the Lord, which by the Lord acts to the benefiting of men, is rightly [regarded] faithful.
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Irenaeus, Against Heresies: Book III Supporting witness
3. Since, therefore, the Scriptures have been interpreted with such fidelity, and by the grace of God, and since from these God has prepared and formed again our faith towards His Son, and has preserved to us the unadulterated Scriptures in Egypt, where the house of Jacob flourished, fleeing from the famine in Canaan;
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Gregory Thaumaturgus, A Sectional Confession of Faith Supporting witness
albeit all through the inspired Scriptures numberless announcements are supplied us, all confirmatory of the apostolic and ecclesiastical faith.
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Cyprian, Epistles Supporting witness
3. Moreover, belief in divine Scripture declares to us, that among all, whether infants or those who are older, there is the same equality of the divine gift.
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Clement of Alexandria, The Stromata (Miscellanies) Supporting witness
interpreting the access by the senses into the first man as the addition of the soul.
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Mathetes, Epistle to Diognetus Supporting witness
For who that is rightly taught and begotten by the loving Word, would not seek to learn accurately the things which have been clearly shown by the Word to His disciples, to whom the Word being manifested has revealed them, speaking plainly [to them], not understood indeed by the unbelieving, but conversing with the disciples, who, being esteemed faithful by Him, acquired a knowledge of the mysteries of the Father?
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Theophilus of Antioch, To Autolycus Supporting witness
But before all let faith and the fear of God have rule in your heart, and then shall you understand these things.
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Polycarp, Connection to Jude 1:3 Supporting witness
Wherefore, forsaking the vanity of many, and their false doctrines, let us return to the word which has been handed down to us from
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Hermas, Connection to Romans 10:17 Supporting witness
" "Because," he said, "all the nations that dwell under heaven were called by hearing and believing upon the name of the Son of God.
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Didache, Connection to 2 Timothy 2:15 Supporting witness
approved, holy, not accepters of persons, who are able to teach the word of piety, and rightly dividing the doctrines of the Lord.
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Cyprian, Seventh Council of Carthage Supporting witness
Quietus of Baruch said: We who live by faith ought to obey with careful observance those things which before have been foretold for our instruction.
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Early Liturgies, Divine Liturgy of St. James Supporting witness
Remember also, O Lord, our holy fathers and brethren in it, and the bishops in all the world, who rightly divide the word of Your truth.
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Mathetes, Epistle to Diognetus Supporting witness
I minister the things delivered to me to those that are disciples worthy of the truth.
Did the early Christians read Scripture as pointing to Christ?
These sources consistently present Scripture as a witness to Christ, with Jesus and the apostles opening or explaining the Scriptures in relation to him. Early Christian writers then echo that pattern by reading the biblical story as fulfilled in Christ.
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Dionysius of Alexandria, Miscellaneous Fragments Supporting witness
...ht at once to begin their festival joy and gladness. But in what you wrote to me, you showed very clearly, and with an intelligent understanding of the Holy Scriptures, that they do not seem to give any exact statement of the hour when He rose. For the Evangelists describe differently the people who came one after another to the tomb, and all declare that they found the Lord already risen. Matthew says it was at the end of the Sabbath. John writes that it was early, while it was still dark. Luke says it was very early in the morning. Mark tells us it was very early in the morning, at the rising of the sun. So no one has shown us clearly the exact time when He rose. It is admitted, however, that those who came to the tomb at the end of the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, found that He was no longer lying in it. And let us not suppose that the Evangelists disagree or contradict one another. Even if there seems to be some small difficulty in the matter we are asking about, they all agree that the Light of the world, our Lord, rose on that one night, though they differ about the hour. So we may rightly try, with a wise and faithful mind, to bring their
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Irenaeus, Against Heresies: Book IV Supporting witness
But our faith was also prefigured in Abraham, and he was the patriarch of our faith and, in a way, its prophet, as the apostle clearly taught when he says in the Epistle to the Galatians: “So, the one who gives you the Spirit and works miracles among you, does he do it by the works of the law or by hearing with faith? Just as Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness. Know therefore, that those who are of faith are the children of Abraham. The Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, announced beforehand to Abraham that in him all nations would be blessed. So then those who are of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham.” For these reasons, the apostle declared that this man was not only the prophet of faith but also the father of those who believe in Jesus Christ among the Gentiles, because his faith and ours are the same: he believed in future things as if they were already accomplished, because of the promise of God; and similarly, we also, because of the promise of God, see through faith that inheritance stored up for us in the future kingdom.
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Didache, Connection to John 5:39 Supporting witness
For the Lord Jesus says: "Search the Scriptures; for they are those which testify of me."
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Irenaeus, Against Heresies: Book I Supporting witness
...e of the Æons, which the Word later gave form to. Since he addresses the first origin of things, he rightly begins his teaching from the start, that is, from God and the Word. And he expresses himself like this: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God; the same was in the beginning with God.” Having first distinguished these three—God, the Beginning, and the Word—he again unites them, to show the production of each, that is, of the Son and the Word, and at the same time show their union with one another, and with the Father. For “the beginning” is in the Father and from the Father, while “the Word” is in the beginning and from the beginning. Very appropriately, then, did he say, “In the beginning was the Word,” for He was in the Son; “and the Word was with God,” for He was the beginning; “and the Word was God,” naturally, for what is begotten of God is God. “The same was in the beginning with God”—this clause reveals the order of production. “All things were made by Him, and without Him, nothing was made;” for the Word was the author of form and beginning to all the Æons that came into existence after Him. But “what was made in Him,” says
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Origen, Commentary on John Supporting witness
"And the Word was with God, and the Word was God." In the section before this, my revered brother Ambrosius, brother formed according to the Gospel, we discussed, as far as we are able at present, what the Gospel is, and what the beginning is in which the Word was, and what the Word is that was in the beginning. Now we come to consider the next point before us: how the Word was with God. For this purpose, it will help to remember that what is called the Word came to certain persons. For example, "The Word of the Lord," in Hosea 1:1, came to Hosea the son of Beeri; and "The Word," in Isaiah 2:1, came to Isaiah the son of Amos, concerning Judah and concerning Jerusalem; and "The Word which came to Jeremiah," in Jeremiah 14:1, was concerning the drought. We must ask how this Word came to Hosea, and how it also came to Isaiah the son of Amos, and again to Jeremiah concerning the drought. The comparison may help us find out how the Word was with God. Most people will simply look at what the prophets said, as if that were the Word of the Lord, or the Word, that came to them. But perhaps, just as we say that one person comes to another, the Son, the Word, of whom we are now speaking theol
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Irenaeus, Against Heresies: Book III Supporting witness
... in Canaan, and where our Lord was preserved when He fled from Herod's persecution—and because this interpretation of these Scriptures was made before our Lord's descent to earth, and before the Christians appeared (for our Lord was born around the forty-first year of Augustus's reign, but Ptolemy lived much earlier, during whose time the Scriptures were interpreted)—truly, these people are shown to be brazen and audacious, who now wish to create different translations, when we refute them using these Scriptures and lead them to believe in the coming of the Son of God. But our faith is steadfast, sincere, and the only true one, having clear proof from these Scriptures, which were interpreted as I have described, and the preaching of the Church is unaltered. For the apostles, being older than all these heretics, agree with this mentioned translation; and the translation aligns with the tradition of the apostles. For Peter, John, Matthew, Paul, and the rest, along with their followers, proclaimed all prophetic announcements just as the interpretation of the elders contains them.
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Novatian, Treatise Concerning the Trinity Supporting witness
...the flesh, and also see that before the foundation of the world he was the Word of God, and God, we rightly, according to the teaching of the Old and New Testament, believe and hold that Christ Jesus is both God and man. What if this same Moses presents God as saying, "Let us make man after our image and likeness"; and then below, "And God made man; in the image of God He made him; male and female He made them"? If, as we have already shown, it is the Son of God by whom all things were made, then certainly it was also the Son of God by whom man was formed, for whose sake all things were made. Moreover, when God commands that man should be made, he is called God who makes man. But the Son of God makes man, that is, the Word of God, by whom all things were made, and without whom nothing was made. And this Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. Therefore Christ is God. Therefore man was made by Christ as by the Son of God. But God made man in the image of God. Therefore he who made man in the image of God is God. Therefore Christ is God. So, with good reason, the testimony of the Old Testament does not waver concerning the person of Christ, since it is supported by the revelation
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Origen, Commentary on John Supporting witness
...not neglect this matter. Someone may say that John’s earlier testimony about Christ is found in the words, “He who comes after me exists before me, for He was before me,” and that the words, “For of His fullness we all received, and grace for grace,” are spoken by John the disciple. Now we must show that this explanation is forced and does violence to the context. It is quite a bold move to suppose that the Baptist’s speech is suddenly, and almost awkwardly, interrupted by the disciple. It is clear to anyone who can judge even a little about context that the speech continues without a break after the words, “This is He of whom I spoke, He that comes after me exists before me, for He was before me.” The Baptist gives a proof that Jesus existed before him because He was before him, since He is the first-born of all creation. He says, “For of His fullness all we received.” That is why he says, “He exists before me, for He was before me.” This is how I know that He is first and has higher honor with the Father: from His fullness both I and the prophets before me received the more divine prophetic grace, instead of the grace we had received before from His hands in regard to our elec
More related quotations from this section 4 shown
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Origen, Commentary on John Direct teaching
For how can any one be said in the full sense to believe the Scripture when he does not see in it the mind of the Holy Spirit, which God would have us to believe rather than the literal meaning?
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Novatian, Treatise Concerning the Trinity Supporting witness
...ed, of whom it is said, "My heart has uttered forth a good Word." And because it is from God, it is rightly also with God. And since it was not uttered without effect, it rightly makes all things: "All things were made by Him, and without Him nothing was made." But this Word, by whom all things were made, is God. And, as he says, "the Word was God." Therefore God proceeded from God, because the Word that proceeded is God, who proceeded forth from God. If Christ is only man, how does He say, "If any man keeps my word, he shall not see death forever"? Not to see death forever! What is this but immortality? But immortality is the companion of divinity, because divinity is immortal, and immortality is the fruit of divinity. For every man is mortal, and immortality cannot come from what is mortal. Therefore immortality cannot arise from Christ as a mortal man. But He says, "Whoever keeps my word shall not see death forever." Therefore the word of Christ gives immortality, and by immortality gives divinity. And although it cannot be maintained that one who is himself mortal can make another immortal, yet this word of Christ not only declares immortality, but gives it. Certainly He is
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Victorinus, Commentary on the Apocalypse Supporting witness
...ng the man in his own struggle. And so that there might still be no hesitation, He Himself gave the interpretation by saying, "Because you have prevailed with God, and are powerful with men." For this reason the same Jacob, already perceiving the force of the Mystery and grasping the authority of Him with whom he had wrestled, called the name of that place where he had wrestled the Vision of God. He also added the reason for his interpretation of the Vision of God: "For I have seen," he said, "God face to face, and my soul has been saved." Moreover, he saw God, with whom he wrestled as with a man. But still, he held the man as a conqueror, though as an inferior he asked for a blessing as from God. Thus he wrestled with God and with man. And thus that struggle was truly prefigured, and in the Gospel was fulfilled, between Christ and the people of Jacob. In it, although the people had the mastery, yet it proved to be inferior by being shown to be guilty. Who, then, will hesitate to acknowledge that Christ, in whom this figure of wrestling was fulfilled, was not man only, but God also, since even that very figure of wrestling seems to have proved Him man and God? And yet, even afte
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Barnabas, The Epistle of Barnabas Supporting witness
...ovenant is theirs and ours.” But they ultimately lost it, even after Moses had received it. For the Scripture says, “And Moses was fasting on the mountain forty days and forty nights, and received the covenant from the Lord, stone tablets written with the finger of the Lord;” but by turning to idols, they lost it. For the Lord said to Moses: “Moses, go down quickly; for the people you brought out of Egypt have transgressed.” And Moses understood, and threw the two tablets from his hands; and their covenant was broken, so that the covenant of the beloved Jesus might be sealed upon our hearts, in the hope that comes from believing in Him. Now, wishing to write many things to you, not as your teacher, but out of love, I have taken care not to fail to write to you from what I possess, for your purification. We must be careful in these last days; for the entire past time of your faith will profit you nothing, unless now in this wicked time we also resist coming sources of danger, as befits the children of God. To prevent the Black One from entering, let us flee from every vanity, let us completely hate the works of wickedness. Do not live a solitary life, as if already justified; but
Common Questions
Did early Christians believe Scripture needed interpretation?
Yes. They said some passages are hard, and readers should use sound judgment, the Spirit, and the Church’s rule of faith.
Did they read Scripture only literally?
No. Writers like Origen also used spiritual reading, while still insisting that interpretation stay true to the whole Bible.
Did they think Scripture points to Christ?
Yes. Jesus and the apostles were read as showing that the Scriptures testify about Christ and teach faith.
Source Index for Interpreting Scripture
The guided sections above show the strongest quotations. This compact index highlights 160 ranked source links from 233 compiled sources for deeper study.
Source index 160 ranked links shown
Early Christian Writings 80 shown of 131
Primary-source quotations from early Christian writers and church documents.
Bible Passages 80 shown of 102
Related Bible passages saved for comparison with the early Christian quotations.
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Hermeneutics and Scripture Interpretation
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Interpretation of Scripture
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