This essay explores the theological view of the Early Church Fathers on the Septuagint. The Septuagint, commonly abbreviated LXX, was the first translation made of the Hebrew Bible into the Greek. Its origin of the translation is written in the Letter of Aristeas, a document that appeared in around 2C–3C B.C. The Torah was translated first, and other books of the Scripture including the Prophetic Books and Wisdom literature were included progressively. The Septuagint was the Bible used by Apostles and the early Christians. The use of the Greek Bible provided spiritual soil for the universal Christianity which successfully incorporated Jewish ideas into the teaching of Jesus in the Hellenistic settings. On the contrary, the Jewish religious leaders that would later form the Masorates rejected the value of the LXX as Canon by upholding only the Hebrew texts. In return, church fathers pointed out the intentional blurs of the Hebrew Old Testament, by claiming that, in the text, some of the passages representing the Messianic type of Jesus were altered or taken out. The essay analyses the writings of Justin the Martyr who defended the historical value of the letter of Aristeas and the supreme place of the Septuagint as Canon of the church. Irenaeus of Lyon also claimed the LXX as the Scripture of the “catholic” church. Most of the church Fathers including Clement of Alexandria supported the inspirational translation of the Septuagint, with firm faith on the legendary tradition gradually added to the Letter. While Origen was the first Christian scholar who compared the LXX with other translations including the Hebrew text then, it was Jerome who insisted canonical value of Hebrew text over the LXX. The outcome was his Latin Vulgate. Augustine, however, persistently opposed Jerome’s translation and use of the Hebrew text. The essay focuses mainly on the debates between the bishop of Hippo and the hermit of Bethlehem.

American women missionaries in Korea had specific works for Korean women in the mission field. Traditionally, Korean women had less opportunity to be educated, to participate in social activity and self-achievement. Women mission changed the life of the Korean Christian women. The women religious education is the most important element to lead the women’s life. This is the study on the manual of weekly Prayer meeting by women missionaries of the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. South. These documents were published in 1936, 1938 and 1939. The authors of each book were Meta L. Biggar, Talmage Eliza and Josephine Hounshell. These books show everyday piety and spirituality of Korean Christian women in the 1930’s. The most important goal of prayer was to improve Christian faith and to encourage discipleship of Jesus Christ. When they taught prayer, they had to read and study the Bible. They studied the bible to learn the life and teaching of Jesus Christ. In the prayers, they wished to participate in the way of Jesus Christ. These regulations of the prayer meetings displayed the pious heritage of evangelical protestant tradition. The modern Korean church has to develop the noble tradition rather than accept contemporary secularity.

Although Apostle Paul said that Jesus Christ became the end of the law for the justification of all believers(Rom 10:4), the ancient church took up the laws of the OT in introducing the institutions. Whence did the double-faced attitude of the ancient church toward the OT laws result? The first question is how much the OT laws influenced the life and canons of the ancient church, in other words, how much the OT laws were taken up in the canons and customs of the ancient church. The second question is why the ancient church took up the OT laws. 1. The ancient church was not simply negative toward the OT laws in spite of the Paulinism. The Pauline assertion that men couldn't be justificated by the good deeds but by the faith, was already reduced and distorted by his disciples as Luke and Hegesippus. As a result the Paulinism compromised with the Jewish legalism. 2. Even if Jesus was critical about the legalism, his posterity could not neglect the OT laws paradoxically. While the ancient church interpreted some OT laws allegorically, it interpreted some laws verbally. The ancient church was not able to interpret all the OT laws from the point of view of prophesy and fulfillment. This was already foreseen, sofar as the christianity took up the OT as its canon. 3. The Judaizing tendency was found in the Sabbath observance, the offering of tithes and firstfruits, the dietary rules, the female ordination and the problem of easter date. The sources which we surveyed, indicated how the greatly Judaism influenced the ancient church life. I conclude that the double-faced attitude of the ancient church toward the laws had something to do partly with the flourishing of Gnosticism and Montanism and partly with the need of the age. The Paulinism which underrated the OT laws, was not useful for the great church to attack the Gnostics. Therefore the great church either rejected the Paulinism or distorted it by mixing it with legalism. The ancient Christianity which had not its own theology and tradition depended necessarily on the Jewish canon and tradition. Therefore the Christianity became the religion of canon. The Christianity needed the clergy order like Jewish priests. Maybe the early monarchic episcopacy developed under the influence of the Jewish male priesthood. And in this trend women were excluded step by step from the church ministry.