What does Scripture say and what do the Early Church Fathers say?

"What if our modern ways of reading the Bible are nothing more than clever strategies to avoid Christ in the pages of scripture?" -  Jason Byassee

I am reading several books dealing with the early church fathers understanding of Scripture.  They were much more at home with mystery, paradox, and even saw scriptural difficulties as pointers to God rather than stumbling blocks to trip up Christian readers.  The early church fathers believed God's Word should be filled with riddles, enigmas, and difficulty.  Why?  Here are a list of a few reasons why the early church fathers though this and why we need to get back to doing the hard work of historical studies and not just contemporary ones.

1.  God wanted to conceal deeper truths of scripture from those who are unworthy.  To disclose the full magnificence of Scripture to all would be to cast pearls before swine.  Scripture is both to reveal and to conceal.  Only those who are willing to strive for virtue will succeed in unraveling the obscurities of Scripture.

2.  The fact that Scripture has hidden meanings allows for different levels of teaching to reach people at different levels of spiritual receptivity.  The more spiritual readers learn from the higher meanings which address the healing of the soul.  In fact, it can be harmful for people to take in teachings that are beyond their capacity to receive.  It is wise, therefore, for God to hide these more profound realities from those who are not ready for them.

3.  Obscure and enigmatic language is an effective means of communicating profound ideals.  Sacred texts speak obscurely precisely so that they may be explained in manifold ways.  Cryptic language was seen as a fitting medium to express deep mysteries (excerpts from "The Inspiration and Interpretation of Scripture: What the Early Church can teach us by Michael Graves, pp.61-63).

In other words, the difficulties within the Bible provoke the reader to dig deeper and work harder in understanding the Scriptures.  Searching, seeking, and digging become hidden ways of uncovering and discovering the depths and riches of God's Word.