This four part series is based on the teaching of the Roman Catholic Church
By DeLisle Callender & Ivo Corazza
The Bible or Sacred Scripture is comprised of books which
contain the truth of God’s Revelation and were composed by human authors
inspired by the Holy Spirit.[1]
Since Sacred Scripture is inspired, there is another and no
less important principle of correct interpretation; “Sacred Scripture must be
read and interpreted in the light of the same Spirit by whom it was written.”[2]
The Second Vatican Council indicated three criteria for
interpreting Scripture in accordance with the Holy Spirit who inspired it.[3]
1.
Be especially attentive “to the content and
unity of the whole Scripture.” Scripture is a unit by reason of the unity of
God’s plan, of which Christ Jesus is the center and heart, open since his
Passover.[4]
2.
Read the Scripture within “the living Tradition
of the whole Church.” According to a
saying of the early Church Fathers, Sacred Scripture is written principally in
the Church’s heart rather than in documents and records, for the Church carries
in her Tradition the living memorial of God’s Word, and it is the Holy Spirit
who gives her the spiritual interpretation of the Scripture (“according to the
spiritual meaning which the Spirit grants to the Church”).[5]
3.
Be attentive to the coherence of the truths of
faith individually and working in concert with each other, and within the whole
plan of Revelation. These truths are
called “analogy of faith”.[6]
The earliest accounts of God’s self-revelation to man were
handed on from generation to generation in songs, narratives, and poetry. Moses recounting and recording the Creation
story 2,000 years after it began to be circulated is evidence of this. Over time, these accounts were written down,
influenced by the ‘theology’ of the time.
It was by the Apostolic Tradition that the Church discerned
which writings were to be included in the list of the sacred books. This complete list is called the Canon of
Scripture. It is a collection of 73
writings (books) compiled over a period of more than 1,000 years. It includes 46 books for the Old Testament
(45 if we count Jeremiah and Lamentations as one) and 27 for the New Testament.[7]
Jews and Protestants recognize only 39 books in the Old
Testament as inspired. The other six books
are referred to as the Apocrypha (hidden) and are not considered divinely
inspired.
The inspired writers use different kinds of imagery and
methods that were popular in their time to tell their stories. As readers, we should try to understand what
the inspired writers were trying to say.
We should not just interpret the writing literally, using the filters of
our current geographic and social setting.
We should have some understanding of the historical and social settings
of that time. Therefore, it would be
beneficial to apply “Historical Analysis” or “Historical Criticism” to move us
in the right direction. Historical
analysis gives us some understanding of the history - the period in world
history, the literature – what literary form is being used, and the archeology
–the conditions they were living under.[8]
The Bible is a collection of stories about the realities of
human life; the triumphs and failings that occur over and over during the
course of each of our lives as God reveals Himself to us and invites us to obey
Him. Obedience will lead to the
fulfillment of the life God planned for us.
The Bible encourages the reader to be introspective, to ask the
question, “am I obedient to God’s will for me?”
The books of the Bible are not listed in chronological order. The books allow the reader to see the hand of
God at work in the lives of the people of God from the days of Noah to the
coming of Jesus Christ the Messiah. Using
a Catholic Bible with good explanatory notes, and using a bible commentary
approved by the Catholic Church will increase your understanding of what the
author is trying to convey.
Biblical history’s main focus is to interpret the meaning of
historical events with the purpose of showing how God is active in the lives of
His people as His self-revelation unfolds.
Within that context, events take on meaning because of belief, and events
take on meaning because of faith.
There were great civilizations existing before God revealed
Himself to Abram (Abraham). The
Egyptians, Sumerians, Persians (Iranians), Babylonians, Assyrians, Hittites
were all great powers of antiquity. Abraham’s family lived in the city of Ur in
Sumer before his father Terah moved the family to the city of Haran. Haran was a major city in upper Mesopotamia,
an area that is in modern Turkey. Ur was
an extremely ancient city of the Sumerians in Southern Mesopotamia.
These civilizations of antiquity worshipped many deities who
were not the “only true God,”[9]
as described in the Bible. In the Book
of Genesis, the wife of Jacob, one of the three Patriarchs, stole her father’s
household images.[10] The concept of one god, one supreme God, the
Creator and Lord of the world, was not introduced until later.
Some of the ancient gods worshipped were Baal, Ashtoreth, and Moloch by whom the Israelites were
seduced to their peril. The Israelites
forgot the first commandment God gave them, “I am the Lord your God, who
brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall
not have other gods beside me.”[11]
Baal was the general
name for a variety of local deities.
Baal was a deity whose worship sometimes included the sacrifice of
children by fire.[12] Ashtoreth (Astarte) was a deity associated
with sexuality, fertility, and sometimes war.
Moloch (Molech) was a deity similar to Baal who was worshipped with
sexual rituals and child sacrifice.
Early Israelite worship to Moloch can be traced back to Solomon when he
erected a temple for Moloch. The Israelite
practice of worship to Moloch continued probably until the Babylonian captivity
in 597 B.C.[13] In the Book of Jeremiah God posed the
question, “Can human beings make for
themselves gods?”[14]
In the Book of Genesis, “Terah
took his son Abram, his grandson Lot, son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai,
the wife of his son Abram, and brought them out of Ur of the Chaldeans, to go
to the land of Canaan. But when they reached Haran, they settled there.”[15]
Then God told Abram, “Go forth from your land, your
relatives, and from your father’s house to a land that I will show you.”[16] Abram obeyed God and took his family and
possessions and went to Canaan, which was between Mesopotamia and Egypt.[17] God
changed Abram’s name to Abraham in Genesis.[18]
This was the beginning of God’s self-revelation to man. The Old Testament chronicles the Biblical
history of man’s relationship with God from the time of Abraham until just
before the birth of Christ.
Analysis of the books of the Bible
Theologians have applied different types of analyses to the
books of the Bible to determine what the inspired writers were trying to
convey. This has led to the compilation
of many commentaries on the Bible that help readers to better understand the
general meaning of the texts.
Historical criticism is a method of historical analysis of
biblical literature that investigates the origins of ancient texts and tries to
distinguish the true from the false concerning facts of the past. It tries to understand the world, as it
existed when the text was written, and the historical situation of the author
and the recipients. It examines both the
documents that have been handed down to us, and the facts themselves. Three
sources are examined - written documents, unwritten evidence, and tradition.[19] This form of biblical analysis began in the
17th century and was refined over the centuries into the various
other methodologies used by biblical scholars today.
Traditions in Old Testament times and in the early Christian
Church were transmitted orally. In the
Old Testament God instructed the Israelites, “However, be on your guard and be very careful not to forget the things
your own eyes have seen, nor let them slip from your heart as long as you live,
but make them known to your children and to your children’s children.”[20] This instruction was handed down orally until
centuries later when the Book of Deuteronomy was written.
In the New Testament we read at the beginning of the Book of
Luke, “Since many have undertaken to
compile a narrative of the events that have been fulfilled among us, just as
those who were eyewitnesses from the beginning and ministers of the word have
handed them down to us.”[21]
The apostles immediately handed on what Jesus taught them by preaching, by their
example, and by the institutions they established.[22] Then, as time passed and some of the events
began to be written down, Luke wrote, “I
too have decided, after investigating everything accurately anew, to write it
down in an orderly sequence.”[23]
We also have to look at the structure of the writing. An understanding of the literary genre that
is being used will allow us to understand more fully the meaning of the
writing. We can then look at the Text without
using the filters of our current culture and historical period.[24]
A literary genre is a distinctive type or category of
literary composition characterized by a particular style, form, or content. For example, the creation story can be
considered a liturgical poem while the crossing of the Red Sea is considered an
epic.[25] In order to discover the sacred author’s
intention, the reader should take into account the conditions of that time and
culture, the literary genres in use at that time, and the modes of feeling,
speaking, and narrating of that period. The reader should also consider the kind of
truth the writer is trying to convey, “For the fact is that truth is
differently presented and expressed in the various types of historical writing,
in prophetical and poetical texts, and in other forms of literary expression.”[26]
Examples of the major literary genres found in the Bible are
- allegory, apocalypse, discourse, epic, epistle (letter), ethical instruction,
gospel, myth, narrative, parable, poetry, prophesy, wisdom literature.
One notable literary form used in the Old Testament to try to explain profound questions is the myth. The myth tries to answer questions such as where did the world come from? Why do we exist? Why is there suffering and death? The Bible tries to answer these questions through the creation story.[27] The Bible leads us to the conclusion that we must have faith in God alone who intervenes in our history and wills for us to be free.[28]
[1] Catechism
of the Catholic Church. para.105
[2] Catechism
of the Catholic Church. para.111
[3] Catechism
of the Catholic Church. para.111
[4] Catechism
of the Catholic Church. para.112
[5] Catechism
of the Catholic Church. para.113
[6] Catechism
of the Catholic Church. para.114
[7] Catechism
of the Catholic Church. para.120
[8] Charpentier,
E. (1993) How to Read the Old Testament
(p.12), New York, NY: (The Crossroad Publishing Company
[9] Jn. 17:3 New American
Bible Revised Edition
[10] Gen. 31:19
[11] Ex. 20:2-3
[12] Souvay,
C. (1907). Baal, Baalim. In The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert
Appleton Company. Retrieved August 29, 2016 from New Advent:
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02175a.htm
[13] Reid,
G. (1908). Captivities of the Israelites. In The Catholic Encyclopedia.
New York: Robert Appleton Company. Retrieved August 29, 2016 from New Advent:
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03315a.htm
[14] Jer. 16:20
[15] Gen. 11:31
[16] Gen. 12:1
[17] Gen. 12:5
[18] Gen 17:5
[19] De
Smedt, C. (1908). Historical Criticism. In The Catholic Encyclopedia.
New York: Robert Appleton Company. Retrieved August 29, 2016 from New Advent:
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04503a.htm
[20] Deut. 4:9
[21] Lk. 1:1-2
[22] Catechism
of the Catholic Church. para.76
[23] Lk. 1:3
[24] Charpentier,
E. (1993) How to read the Old Testament
(p. 13) New York, NY: (The Crossroad Publishing Company
[25] Charpentier,
E. (1993) How to read the Old Testament
(p. 25) New York, NY: (The Crossroad Publishing Company
[26] Catechism
of the Catholic Church. para.111
[27] Gen. Chapters 1-3
[28] Charpentier,
E. (1993) How to read the Old Testament
(p. 21) New York, NY: (The Crossroad Publishing Company
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