The Catholic Church and the Bible

8/6/2019 The Catholic Church and the Bible

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The Catholic Church and the bible

The word "Bible" comes from the Latin and Greek word "biblia;" the plural of"biblion" which means book. The name comes from the city of Byblos wherepapyrus was produced to make scrolls and later codices from which our modernbooks developed.

The Bible is divided into two major sections or books: the books of the OldTestament and the books of the New Testament. The word "testament" (Latin= testamentus, Greek diatheke, and Hebrew = berit) means "covenant" or oath.Moses wrote the first 5 books of the Old Covenant. He began writing thesebooks at Mt. Sinai (Ex. 24:7). As time went by other men, divinely inspired byGod, added to the books of the Old Covenant. In addition to the Pentateuch (first

5 books by Moses) were added the books of the Prophets and the Writings(poetry and wisdom texts). No official list of holy books was set until Ezra set thecanon of the Old Covenant books circa 444 BC (some scholars date 425BCothers 458BC). After Ezra set the text of the Old Covenant with the return of theChildren of Israel after the rebuilding of the second Temple, other books wereadded to the Sacred Scripture: 1 & 2 Maccabees, Tobit, etc. Some were writtenin Hebrew, some in Aramaic and others in the Greek language which became theinternational language after the conquests of Alexander the Great in 332BC(Alexander died 323BC).

In 250 BC the Hebrew Old Covenant was translated for the first time into Greek.

This translation was called the Septuagint (named for the 70/72 Hebrew scholarswho worked on the translation). 1 & 2 Maccabees were added after this firstGreek translation. All 46 books that we have in our modern Old Testamenttranslations were the same 46 books that Jesus read and studied. Saint Peterand the first century Church adopted the Septuagint translation and the 46 booksof the Old Testament (Covenant) as the official Bible of the New CovenantCatholic (Universal) Church. In the early years of the Catholic Church, theApostles began to write letters back and forth to the various churches but no NewTestament, as such, existed. The writings, the Gospels which were an accountof the life, ministry and mission of Jesus the Messiah, St. Paul's letters, and theletters of St. Peter, St. James, St. John, and St. Jude which gave instruction in

the New Covenant faith, began to be copied and shared between the churches. Ibelieve that all the Gospels and Paul's letters were written before 70AD. None ofthese documents mention the destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem whichoccurred in 70AD, an event prophesized by Christ and an event the Apostleswould surely have pointed to as proof of the powers of Jesus as the ultimateprophet of Yahweh. I believe that the four Gospels and the letters of Paul werewritten between years 35-45AD and that The Catholic Letters, James, Jude,Peter, John and John's Revelation, were written before 68AD. Many scholarsplace these dates as much later but I believe these later dates, which becamepopular within this century, are in error.


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Shortly after they were written, these books were read in the assembly of theEucharist, just as they are read today at Mass. Other documents from the firstcentury show that the unsurpassed quality of the fourfold Gospel was alreadyrecognized'and only these four Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John wereaccepted as inspired. However, a number of other books were also read duringthe worship service on the Lord's Day, different ones in different places, at thediscretion of the local bishop. There was evidently some standard of doctrinalpurity imposed, but nobody saw much need to work up an official "canon" orexclusive list of books acceptable for reading at Mass in the earliest years of theChurch. Then in about 140AD, a controversy arose which illustrated the need foran official New Covenant canon. A priest named Marcion began interpretingScripture outside the traditions passed down by the Apostles; he started teachingthat the Apostles had misunderstood Christ completely. He relied on his privateinterpretation of Scripture aside from the teachings of the universal, Catholic

Church, the name by which the Church was already known at this time. Marciontaught that he understood exactly what Jesus taught and Paul understood a little.To support his heresy, he told his followers to use only 10 of the Epistles of Pauland to each of these he added his own commentary. He allowed St. Luke'sGospel which he considered for some reason the only acceptable Gospel but herewrote it to suit himself. St. Irenaeus [martyred c. 200AD] says that Marcion'scorrections to Luke's Gospel resulted in his "removing all that is written about thegeneration of the Lord; and he removed much of the teaching of the Lord. Heconvinced his followers that he himself was more truthful than the Apostles whohave handed down the Gospel; and he furnished them not with the Gospel butwith a small part of the Gospel." Marcion's teachings, of course, scandalized the

faithful Bishops and laity within the Church. Bishop St. Polycarp (a disciple of St.John) was so enraged by Marcion's teachings that he denounced him to his faceas "the first-born of Satan." To set up an acceptable standard in response toMarcion's heresy the Church Fathers developed a universal list or "canon" of theNew Testament, including 22 or 23 of the 27 books now in the New Testament.The formulation of this first approved list occurred in approximately 140AD but itwas acknowledged that is was not a definitive list approved by the entire body ofthe universal Church. Persecution by the Roman Empire made the possibility offorming such a world-wide assembly too dangerous.

The problem continued as the debate increased over books like the Epistles of

St. James and St. Jude, 2 Peter and 2 and 3 John. Some bishops accepted themas sacred Scripture, inspired by the Holy Spirit, but others while accepting themas works of genuine value for study but did not believe them to be "Godbreathed" and therefore not eligible for inclusion into the canon of sacred texts.Just as the Church was working to address these issues another greatpersecution under the Emperor Diocletian broke out in 303AD. Diocletian sawChristianity as the one single greatest treat to the continuation Roman Empireand decided to wage a war to stamp out Christianity. Assuming that anybodywho founded a new religion spread that religion most effectively through thewritten word, Diocletian ordered that all the books of the Christians that could be


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found must be destroyed. He used torture and the execution of priests and thefaithful to find and destroy the works of faith produced by the early Church. Hewas ruthless but he was not successful.

As soon as the persecutions died down in 313AD with the Emperor Constantine'sdeclaration that Christians were no longer to be persecuted (Edict of Milan), thedebate began again over which books to include in the New Testament(Covenant) canon. The Church decided to settle the issue once and for all. Allof the greatest Catholic scholars concentrated on the question and by 367AD St.Athanasius of Alexandria published for the first time the definitive list, including all27 books that we know today. These are the ones, he said; "let no one add tothem or take anything away from them." St. Athanasius's canon was greetedwith enthusiasm and was accepted with the approval of the Church. It wasadopted by Pope St. Damasus I in the Decretal of Gelasiusin 382AD, and it was

confirmed by every subsequent council that took up the question of the officialcanon. Finally in 419AD, Christian scholars from all over the world came togetherat the Second Council of Carthage and again confirmed the canon. PopeBoniface adopted it officially by papal decree. It is, therefore, the CatholicChurch and no other church which has given us the 27 book canon of the NewTestament which all Christian Churches recognize as the Testament of JesusChrist.

While the Hebrew Bible was divided into books and sometimes into verses forreadings in the Synagogue before the Christian era, it was Stephen Langton(circa 1228) who had been a professor of Biblical studies in Paris before he

became the great Archbishop of Canterbury who gave us the modern divisionsand numbered chapters. (Langton is also believed to be the principal author ofthe Magna Charta 1215). Others over the years would improve upon Langton'ssystem but he deserves the credit. For over a thousand years these 73 books ofthe Old and New Testament which form the Catholic Bible, were the acceptedbooks until the Catholic priest Martin Luther broke away from the Catholic Churchand founded the Lutherans. Like Marcion before him, Luther had decided thatonly he and Paul really understood Jesus and like Marcion, he often thought thathe knew better than Paul. Luther translated the Bible himself, altering itsubstantially to suit his own views on theology. He published his Bible in 1523and 1534. The Council of Trent in 1546, prompted by this heresy, gathered

together in a world-wide council to define and clarify to the world what wassacred Scripture and the doctrine of the Body of Christ and what wasn't. As timewent on, however, other Protestant Churches published their own Bible versions,altering sacred Scripture to suit their beliefs and following Jewish scholars of theMiddle Ages who reset their Hebrew Testament canon by dropping the 7 booksand parts of the books Daniel and Esther which were either written betweenEzra's canon and the 1st century or which had not been written in Hebrew. EvenLuther didn't dare do that. He simply placed those books between the Old andNew Testaments and called them the "Apocrypha," which means hidden. Wecall them Deuterocanonical or second canon: the sacred scripture added after


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Ezra set the Old Testament canon in the 5th century BC, just as the book ofDeuteronomy is the "second" book of laws of Moses.

What is the Catholic Church's position on the inerrancy of the Bible?The Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation, issued by the bishops atVatican II, says: "Since everything asserted by the inspired authors or sacredwriters must be held to be asserted by the Holy Spirit, it follows that the books ofScripture must be acknowledged as teaching firmly, faithfully, and without errorthat truth which God wanted to put into the sacred writings for the sake of oursalvation."This means that when the Bible says Jesus performed a certainmiracle, the Church believes He genuinely performed that miracle which cannotbe explained by our understanding of nature of by modern science. The Churchhas always maintained that the Bible is trustworthy and true'written without errorfor all generations of Christian believers. This is a teaching that has been

consistent throughout the history of the Church beginning with the NewTestament writers who regularly quote an Old Testament text with theintroduction, "The Holy spirit says", as in Hebrews 3:7; and as Jesus Himselftestified in Matthew 5:18 that "not an iota, nor a dot" would pass away from theLaw of Moses and the prophets before it was fulfilled. Nor has the modernChurch stepped away from this established commitment to belief in the inerrancyof Sacred Scripture. Pope Leo XIII [1878-1903] stated in thedocument Providentissimus Deus, 20: "it is absolutely wrong and forbidden eitherto narrow inspiration to certain parts only of Holy Scripture or to admit that thesacred writer has erred." In addition to Pope Leo condemnation those whoviewed difficult passages in Scripture as an indication that some of the text was

Holy Spirit inspired while other parts of the text were not when he wrote that theChurch condemned, "the system of those who, in order to rid themselves ofthese difficulties, do not hesitate to concede that divine inspiration regards thethings of faith and morals, and nothing beyond." Continuing the doctrine thatSacred Scripture is without error the great council of Vatican I [1870] affirmedin De Fide Catholic, 2:7 that "the canon of the Bible is sacred and canonical, notbecause having been composed by human industry they were afterwardsapproved by her [the Church's] authority; nor only because they containrevelation without error; but because, having been written under the inspiration ofthe Holy Ghost, they have God for their author." Pope Pius the XII [1939-1958]in the document Divino Afflante Spiritu, 1, citing this passage from Vatican I in De

Fide Catholica, stated that this passage was a "solemn definition of Catholicdoctrine. By which such divineauthority is claimed for the entire books with alltheir parts as to secure freedom from any error whatsoever." He condemnedthose who would dare to "ventured to restrict the truth of Sacred Scripture solelyto matters of faith and morals"thereby limiting the accuracy of the entire body ofSacred Scripture. Vatican II, the most recent Great Council of the UniversalChurch reaffirmed the doctrine of the inerrancy of Scripture in the document DeiVerbum, 11 which teaches: "In composing the sacred books, God chose menand while employed by him they made use of their powers and abilities, so thatwith him acting in them and through them, they, as true authors, consigned to


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writing everything and only those things that he wanted. Therefore, sinceeverything asserted by the inspired authors or sacred writers must be held to beasserted by the Holy Spirit, it follows that the books of Scripture must beacknowledged as teaching solidly, faithfully, and without error that truth that Godwanted put into sacred writings for the sake of salvation."

Michal Hunt, Copyright 1998, revised 2005 Agape Bible Study. Permissions All Rights Reserved.

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The Catholic Church and the Bible