Hearing the Scriptures: A Conversation with the Rev. Eugen Pentiuc

“Faith comes by hearing,” St. Paul (Rom 10:17). Accordingly, the Orthodox faith is taught, proclaimed, and celebrated in the many hymns of the Church. They are not only important to worship; the hymnographic tradition is key to Orthodox theology. They have a great deal to teach us about the scriptures: how they are interpreted and how, in the life of the Church, the scriptures guide and exhort the faithful on the path to salvation. Join the Rev. Eugen Pentiuc, Ph.D., and Michael Legaspi for a discussion of Father Pentiuc’s exciting new book, Hearing the Scriptures: Liturgical Exegesis of the Old Testament in Byzantine Orthodox Hymnography, in which he illuminates the subtle, profound, and beautiful way the scriptures are interpreted, enacted, and experienced in the hymns of the Church.

About the Speakers
The Rev. Eugen J. Pentiuc, Ph.D. (Harvard University), Th.D. (Bucharest University), D.D. (Babes-Bolyai University), is Archbishop Demetrios Chair of Biblical Studies and Christian Origins and Professor of Old Testament and Semitic Languages at Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology in Brookline, Massachusetts. His scholarly focus is on Old Testament biblical exegesis and theology, as well as reception history (patristic and Byzantine liturgical interpretation). He is the author of many books, including West Semitic Vocabulary in the Akkadian Texts from Emar (Eisenbrauns Press, 2001), Long-Suffering Love: A Commentary on Hosea with Patristic Annotations (Holy Cross Press, 2002), Jesus the Messiah in the Hebrew Bible (Paulist Press, 2005), The Old Testament in Eastern Orthodox Tradition (Oxford University Press, 2014), Hosea: The Word of the Lord That Happened to Hosea (Peeters Press, 2017), and Hearing and Seeing the Scriptures: Liturgical Exegesis of the Old Testament in Eastern Orthodox Tradition (Oxford University Press, 2021). Father Pentiuc also edited The Oxford Handbook of the Bible in Orthodox Christianity (Oxford University Press, 2022).

Michael Legaspi is associate professor of scripture (Old Testament) at St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary in Yonkers, New York. He has taught at Creighton University, Penn State University, and Phillips Academy. He is the author of The Death of Scripture and the Rise of Biblical Studies (Oxford University Press, 2010), Wisdom in Classical and Biblical Tradition (Oxford University Press, 2018), and various reviews and journal articles, as well as contributions to edited volumes.