(S4-12-13)

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The Bible, Sacred Scripture and the Word of God

references/resources

• Dei Verbum -Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revalation

• CCC 53-133
• Pontifical Biblical Commission, The Interpretation of the Bible in the Church. Rome: 1993
• Frend, The Rise of Christianity. pp 244-250.
• other Catholic Church Documents related to Biblical Studies
• Hahn, S. Letter and Spirit. NY: Doubleday, 2005. Chapter 3.

Content

Revelation, what is it all about? ...Who is it all about?

• CCC 65 ff
  • In giving us his Son, his only Word (for he possesses no other), he spoke everything to us at once in this sole Word - and he has no more to say ... because what he spoke before to the prophets in parts, he has now spoken all at once by giving us the All Who is His Son. Any person questioning God or desiring some vision or revelation would be guilty not only of foolish behavior but also of offending him, by not fixing his eyes entirely upon Christ and by living with the desire for some other novelty. (St. John of the Cross, The Ascent of Mt. Carmel )

• CCC 102
  • "You recall that one and the same Word of God extends throughout Scripture, that it is one and the same Utterance that resounds in the mouths of all the sacred writers, since he who was in the beginning God with God has no need of separate syllables; for he is not subject to time." (St. Augustine)
  • Hb. 1:1-2 - "In many and various ways God spoke of old to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son."
  • This very person-based approach to understanding Scripture is sometimes at odds with a more sterile purely academic understanding.
  • Readers today, in order to appropriate the words and deeds of which the Bible speaks, have to project themselves back almost 20 or 30 centuries--a process which always creates difficulty. Furthermore, because of the progress made in the human sciences, questions of interpretation have become more complex in modern times. Scientific methods have been adopted for the study of the texts of the ancient world. To what extent can these methods be considered appropriate for the interpretation of holy Scripture? For a long period the church in her pastoral prudence showed herself very reticent in responding to this question, for often the methods, despite their positive elements, have shown themselves to be wedded to positions hostile to the Christian faith. But a more positive attitude has also evolved, signaled by a whole series of pontifical documents, ranging from the encyclical Providentissimus Deus of Leo XIII (Nov. 18, 1893) to the encyclical Divino Afflante Spiritu of Pius XII (Sept. 30, 1943), and this has been confirmed by the declaration Sancta Mater Ecclesia of the Pontifical Biblical Commission (April 21, 1964) and above all by the dogmatic constitution Dei Verbum of the Second Vatican Council (Nov. 18, 1965). (-Pont. Bibl. Comm., Introduction.)
  • With reference to the larger scheme of salvation history covered in the last meeting - The word created all and re-creates all, redeeming us by his saving death and resurrection.

Stages of Revelation as recorded in the Bible

• Genesis and the Patriarchs
• The Pentatuch and Historical Books
• Prophets
• Sapiential Literature
• The Gospels
• Acts and the Letters

• CCC 120 - The Canon of Scripture
  • Guided by the Holy Spirit and in the light of the living tradition which it has received, the church has discerned the writings which should be regarded as sacred Scripture in the sense that, "having been written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, they have God for author and have been handed on as such to the church" (Dei Verbum, 11) and contain "that truth which God wanted put into the sacred writings for the sake of our salvation" (ibid.).
  • The discernment of a "canon" of sacred Scripture was the result of a long process The communities of the Old Covenant (ranging from particular groups, such as those connected with prophetic circles or the priesthood to the people as a whole) recognized in a certain number of texts the word of God capable of arousing their faith and providing guidance for daily life; they received these texts as a patrimony to be preserved and handed on. In this way these texts ceased to be merely the expression of a particular author's inspiration; they became the common property of the whole people of God. The New Testament attests its own reverence for these sacred texts, received as a precious heritage passed on by the Jewish people. It regards these texts as "sacred Scripture" (Rom. 1:2), "inspired" by the Spirit of God (2 Tm 3:16; cf. 2 Pt. 1:20-21), which "can never be annulled" (Jn 10:35).
  • To these texts, which form "the Old Testament" (cf. 2 Cor. 3:14), the church has closely associated other writings: first those in which it recognized the authentic witness, coming from the apostles (cf. Lk. 1:2; 1 Jn. 1:1-3) and guaranteed by the Holy Spirit (cf. 1 Pt. 1:12), concerning "all that Jesus began to do and teach" (Acts 1: 1) and, second, the instructions given by the apostles themselves and other disciples for the building up of the community of believers. This double series of writings subsequently came to be known as "the New Testament."
  • Many factors played a part in this process: the conviction that Jesus--and the apostles along with him--had recognized the Old Testament as inspired Scripture and that the paschal mystery is its true fulfillment; the conviction that the writings of the New Testament were a genuine reflection of the apostolic preaching (which does not imply that they were all composed by the apostles themselves); the recognition of their conformity with the rule of faith and of their use in the Christian liturgy; finally, the experience of their affinity with the ecclesial life of the communities and of their potential for sustaining this life.
  • In discerning the canon of Scripture, the church was also discerning and defining her own identity. Henceforth Scripture was to function as a mirror in which the church could continually rediscover her identity and assess, century after century, the way in which she constantly responds to the Gospel and equips herself to be an apt vehicle of its transmission (cf. Dei Verbum, 7). This confers on the canonical writings a salvific and theological value completely different from that attaching to other ancient texts The latter may throw much light on the origins of the faith. But they can never substitute for the authority of the writings held to be canonical and thus fundamental for the understanding of the Christian faith. (Pont. Bibl. Comm. III,B,1.)

Assembling the Bible as we know it today

• Recall... it's a personal document... focused on the person of the Word... intended for human persons.
• Oral tradition
  • The texts of the Bible are the expression of religious traditions which existed before them. The mode of their connection with these traditions is different in each case, with the creativity of the authors shown in various degrees. In the course of time, multiple traditions have flowed together little by little to form one great common tradition. The Bible is a privileged expression of this process: It has itself contributed to the process and continues to have controlling influence upon it. (Pont. Bibl. Comm. III.A.)
• Inspired writers
  • CCC 105-ff
  • Constant use by the Church
  • Councils (finalized at Trent)

Interpreting Scripture

• CCC 109 -ff
  • The Spirit is, assuredly, also given to individual Christians, so that their hearts can "burn within them" (Lk. 24:32) as they pray and prayerfully study the Scripture within the context of their own personal lives. This is why the Second Vatican Council insisted that access to Scripture be facilitated in every possible way (Dei Verbum, 22; 25). This kind of reading, it should be noted, is never completely private, for the believer always reads and interprets Scripture within the faith of the church and then brings back to the community the fruit of that reading for the enrichment of the common faith. (Pont. Bibl. Comm. III.B.3)

• The senses of Scripture
  • Literal, spiritual, allegorical, moral
• Commentaries
• Patristic, academic, spiritual - e.g. Cataena Aurea, New Interpreters, JPII and BXVI on Psalms.

Living the Scriptures

• Hahn on Scripture and Liturgy (Letter and Spirit ch. III)