Catholic Replies

2 years ago

Editor’s Note: This column begins a series on the Bible from the book Catholicism & Scripture. Please feel free to use the series for high schoolers or adults. We will continue to welcome your questions for the column as well. You can send them either to the postal mailing address or to the email address below, and we will interrupt this series to answer them.

Special Course On Catholicism And Scripture (Chapter 1)

Any study of Holy Scripture should begin with answering some questions about the origin and nature of the Bible. First of all, who wrote the Bible? God is the true author of the Bible, but He entrusted the writing of the Scriptures to human authors who, over a period of a thousand years and under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, wrote down those religious truths that God wanted to communicate to us. In the words of Vatican II, “the books of Sacred Scripture must be acknowledged as teaching firmly, faithfully, and without error that truth which God wanted put into the sacred writings for the sake of our salvation” (Dei Verbum, n. 11).

How do we know the Bible is the Word of God? Because the Catholic Church, which was founded by Jesus to teach us the truth, says so. We know from the writings of Jewish and secular historians, as well as from archaeological findings in the Middle East, that the Bible gives us an accurate account of many persons, places, and events.

This includes the life and teachings of Jesus, who said that He was God and proved it by many amazing miracles. The Gospels say that Jesus founded a Church (cf. Matt. 16:18), promised it would last until the end of the world (cf. Matt. 28:20), and said it would always teach the truth (cf. John 14:16-17). At the end of the fourth century, two Councils of the Catholic Church (at Hippo and Carthage) declared that there were 73 books in the Bible, 46 in the Old Testament and 27 in the New Testament. Without the Catholic Church, there would be no Bible.

What do we mean by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit? This means that the Holy Spirit exerted a special influence on the human writers of the Bible so that they accurately expressed only the ideas that God wanted expressed while using their own human abilities. This special influence of the Holy Spirit kept the writers from making any errors or teaching anything that God did not want taught.

What is meant by the use of “types” in Scripture? Typology means that certain persons or things prefigure or foreshadow other persons or things. For example, Adam and Moses point toward Christ; the manna in the desert foreshadows the Holy Eucharist; the blood of the lamb that saved Israelite children from death at the time of the Passover prefigures the blood of Jesus (the “Lamb of God”) shed on the cross that saved us from eternal death; the three days that Jonah spent in the belly of the great fish point toward Jesus’ three days in the tomb. This is what St. Augustine meant when he said that the New Testament lies hidden in the Old, and the Old Testament is unveiled in the New.

Should individuals try to interpret Bible passages on their own? No, because the meaning of some passages is not clear or the passages are open to misinterpretation. That is why there are thousands of Christian communities today, all differing on the meaning of the Bible. Catholics don’t rely on the Bible alone for the truth, but also on Sacred Tradition, which consists of the teachings of Christ as passed down to us, either in writing or orally, by the Church, Popes, and saints through the centuries, and on the teaching office of the Church made up of the Pope and those bishops in union with him. Confusion would not have happened, said St. Augustine, “unless men had read good Scripture badly and rashly asserted their own mistakes to be the truth.”

What are the Gnostic Gospels? These are false writings from the second and third centuries that claimed to be authentic gospels. But instead of portraying Jesus as the historical God-man of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, the Gnostics portray Him as a spiritual phantom who speaks in words that only the Gnostic elite can understand. They also reject Jesus’ Passion, death, and Resurrection, have Him romantically involved with Mary Magdalene, and say that the early Church was led by Magdalene, not by St. Peter. These “gospels” are bogus.

How should one read the Bible, start on page one? No, you would be bored before you got through the first five books. Start with, say, the Gospel of Mark or Luke, and then perhaps the Acts of the Apostles. You could then go to the Old Testament and read Genesis or the Book of Exodus or perhaps First and Second Samuel. In other words, jump back and forth between the two Testaments, delving into the Books of Proverbs and Psalms, as well as some of the letters of Saints Paul and Peter. Take your time.

List of Words:

AUGUSTINE

CARTHAGE

ERROR

GNOSTIC

HIPPO

HOLY SPIRIT

INSPIRATION

TEACHING

TYPOLOGY

TRADITION

WORD

Quiz:

Human authors wrote the Bible under the inspiration of the ______________.
The Bible is also known as the ________ of God.
The number of 73 books in the Bible was settled by the Councils of _________ and ___________ in the fourth century.
_____________________ means that the Holy Spirit assisted the authors in writing accurately and truthfully all that God wanted written.
The Holy Spirit prevents the Bible from teaching ___________________.
___________________ refers to certain persons, events, and things that prefigure or foreshadow other persons, events, and things.
St. _________________________ said that the New Testament lies hidden in the Old Testament and the Old Testament is unveiled in the New Testament.
The _________________ office of the Church helps us to understand the meaning of various passages in the Bible.
Sacred ___________ refers to oral or written teachings that are not in the Bible.
The _______________ Gospels purport to be reliable accounts of the sayings of Jesus, but they bear no resemblance to the true Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.