The Living Word of God

Then and Now

Shaped our belief from the beginningShaped the Church’s beliefInspired the early ChurchInspires us todayWill inspire the generations that follow usEven though life’s details change, the

basic needs of human nature do not.The Bible grows with us in time and

continues to guide us in God’s ways.

Some Major Events Scientific discoveries

◦ Sun is at center, Earth revolves around it◦ Evolution ◦ Big Bang Theory(discovery by a Catholic priest/scientist)

Protestant Reformation◦ Change scripture to vernacular

Printing press◦ Possibility of having a Bible to read

Vatican II◦ “Dei Verbum” The Word of God, encouraged the personal reading of

scripture Rosetta Stone

◦ Helped in translation of ancient languages Dead Sea Scrolls

◦ Portions of the Hebrew Scripture,; it showed the accuracy of our modern translations

Gospel of Thomas◦ Interesting comparisons and contrasts to our four Gospels

How to Read & Interpret Scripture

Biblical Exegesis

How to Read the Bible

How to find Bible texts

◦Citation: The format for looking up and finding bible texts.

Bk. Chap: verse(s)◦Example Gen. 1: 13-14*

You read the last numbered verse. Do not stop at that verse.

Practice

1.Ps. 91: 4

2.Joshua 6:27

3.Is. 32:18

4.Ex. 12:37

1. He will cover you with his feathers…

2. So the Lord was with Joshua and his fame spread…

3. My people will live in peaceful dwelling places…

4. The Israelites journeyed from Ramses to Sukkoth

A Vocation to Interpret & TeachMagisterium

◦ The living, teaching office of the Church The Pope and the Bishops

◦ Given the sole authority to authentically interpret the Words of the Sacred Scripture

◦ Guards and explains the truths

Exegetes ◦ Biblical scholars

Called on to do biblical interpretation Responsible to the judgment of the Magisterium

Us◦ Prayerfully listen to the Spirit who inspired the

writers of the Bible◦ Understand and share the teachings◦ Apply the teachings to our daily lives

Why do we read Scripture?

Exegesis: the process used by biblical scholars to discover the meaning of the text.

Read, understand, apply

We read scripture to discover what God wants to reveal to us and to put that

message into use in our lives.

Interpreting Scripture

We must understand what the human authors were attempting to say and what God wanted to reveal by their words.

The reader must take into account the historical and cultural context of the writing.◦The culture, history of the time◦The literary form or type of the writing ◦Evidence from artifacts and archeological finds

How to Interpret ScriptureThree Necessary Practices1. Pay attention to the Bible as a whole – See the

unity of God’s plan with Christ at the center. 2. Read the Bible in the light of the living Tradition

of the Church – from the perspective of the Church rather than individualistically.

3. Be attentive to the analogy of faith – Scripture understood within the entire plan of God’s Revelation.

***Sacred Tradition is key in the interpretation of Scripture. The Magisterium, the teaching office of the Church, consisting of the

Pope and the bishops, sheds light on what the Bible’s message is. It proclaims as teachings that which it determines is God’s

message.

TextualScholars attempt to recover the most original version of biblical books, because no originals exist, only copies. These scholars compare different translations of the Scriptures to understand more clearly the meaning of a given passage.

SourceScholars attempt to identify if the biblical authors used an existing story, myth, or other literature as the basis for their work

HistoricalScholars work to uncover the historical situation, or “Sitz im Leben”, of the writer at the time a particular book or story was written.

Literary (Form)Scholars look at the Scriptures and seek to understand them as a work of literature.

Redaction (Editing) Investigates the motivation and historical setting in which the text was edited

Biblical Criticism

Archeology

The study of the past through the finding of ancient artifacts◦Artifacts: articles or objects of the past that

are found by archeologists that give us an idea of the lives of ancient people and insight into their times.

◦Helps us with reading of scripture by giving us some proof of what we read.

Critical ReadingCritical Reading is like

pealing an onion.It has many layers and to get to the center you must peal away each layer

Spiritual Sense

Literal sense

Critical Reading of Scripture: Reading and analyzing the literal words to get the message God intended for us.

Senses of Scripture

Biblical text has two senses. ◦ Literal sense: The actual meaning of the words.

◦ Spiritual sense: The spiritual sense goes beyond the literal sense of the words to consider what the words signify. The message is determined from a critical reading of the words. Allegorical Sense

◦ How do the people, events and things in the literal sense point to the mystery of Christ?

Moral Sense◦ How does the passage instruct us to live a just and

ethical life? Anagogical Sense

◦ How does the account lead us toward our future heavenly home?

Literal sense:

Spiritual sense:Allegorical sense

Moral sense

Anagogical sense

Ex.14: 10-31

Literal sense:

Tells us that God saved the Israelites by opening the Red Sea. God did this so the Israelites could cross, and then He closed the sea to drown the Pharaoh and his army

Spiritual sense:

Allegorical SenseMoses, through God’s power, led the Israelites from slavery

to freedom. Jesus, the New Moses, frees us from slavery of sin and death by the power of God in him.

Moral SensePharaoh’s sinful power is destroyed in the water of the Red

Sea just as Original Sin is destroyed by the water of Baptism so that we can live good moral lives guided by the new Law and Beatitudes

Anagogical SenseIsraelites enter the Promised land through the Red Sea as

we enter the New Promised Land through Baptism

Ex.14: 10-31

Bible & Science

Since we take a *conceptual approach to reading and interpreting scripture, that is we read for the message, there is NO conflict between what we read in the Bible and what is discovered through scientific investigation.

The literalistic or fundamentalist approach looks at the Scripture text as word for word how the event actually happened

From God

Reason and science come from God and cannot lead us away from God.

Original sin hampers our ability to see the truth in all things

God is truthIf science seeks the truth it seeks GodThe Bible is not a “science” book

◦Tells us that God is the Creator does not tell us how creation happened

Council of TrentEcumenical Council called by Pope Paul IIIHeld in the city of Trent, 1545-1563Response to the Protestant Reformation and

the allegations of Martin Luther

1. Set about to its own agenda for reform in relation to the Protestant Reformation.

2. Solidified the Canon of Scripture3. The Latin Vulgate was used exclusively4. The Magisterium has the final say as to the

interpretation of Scripture, but Catholics are called to apply the Scripture in their own lives

Vatican II

Ecumenical Council called by Pope John XXIIIHeld in Vatican City, 1962-1965Purpose was to bring the Church into modern

time◦Led to an increased and renewed interest on

Scripture◦Bishops approved “Dei Verbum” the word of God

Emphasized the importance of scripture and the use of the vernacular at liturgies

The Church and Scripture are inseparably linked, “The Church lives on the Word of God and the Word of God lives through the Church, in her teachings and throughout her life”

New DiscoveriesRosetta Stone

◦Enabled scripture scholars to compare the Hebrew language and biblical stories with those of their closest neighbors

Gospel of ThomasDead Sea Scrolls