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Interpreting Scripture

Revelation: Sources and Transmission

  • CCC 74 God "desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth": that is, of Christ Jesus. Christ must be proclaimed to all nations and individuals, so that this revelation may reach to the ends of the earth: God graciously arranged that the things he had once revealed for the salvation of all peoples should remain in their entirety, throughout the ages, and be transmitted to all generations.
  • CCC 76 In keeping with the Lord's command, the Gospel was handed on in two ways:
    • orally "by the apostles who handed on, by the spoken word of their preaching, by the example they gave, by the institutions they established, what they themselves had received — whether from the lips of Christ, from his way of life and his works, or whether they had learned it at the prompting of the Holy Spirit";
    • in writing "by those apostles and other men associated with the apostles who, under the inspiration of the same Holy Spirit, committed the message of salvation to writing".
      • Scripture and Tradition are both sources of revelation and have one common source → have the same goal of communicating the revelation of Christ to all.
      • Continued through apostolic succession and the guidance of the Holy Spirit → “I will be with you to the close of the age.”
  • CCC 82 “the Church does not derive her certainty about all revealed truths from Holy Scripture alone. Both Scripture and Tradition must be accepted and honored with equal sentiments of devotion and reverence.”
    • They are distinct modes of transmission
    • The magisterium is the teaching office of the Church, charged with the task of interpreting scripture, communicating it, and defending the Truth of scripture.
    • 1 Tim 3:15 “God’s household, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth.
    • “Yet this Magisterium is not superior to the Word of God, but is its servant. It teaches only what had been handed on to it.”

Inspiration of Sacred Scripture

  • CCC 101 In order to reveal himself to men, in the condescension of his goodness God speaks to them in human words.
    • God expresses himself completely in one Utterance, in one Word.
  • CCC 103 The Church has always venerated the Scriptures as she venerates the Lord’s Body. She never ceases to present to the faithful the bread of life, taken from the one table of God’s Word and Christ’s body.
  • God is the author of Sacred Scripture. What has been written down is under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, teaching truth for the sake of our salvation.
  • God chose men who made full use of their own faculties and powers so that, though he acted in them and by them, it was as true authors that they consigned to writing whatever he wanted written, and no more.
    • Cooperation between the human author and God → no competition between God and his creation.

Dei Verbum

  • Chapter IV - The Old Testament
    • God’s self-revelation begins in the Old Testament, with the Israelites → prepares the way to extend salvation to the whole human race. 
    • Spoke through prophets, established covenants, prepared the way for Christ.
    • “God, the inspirer and author of both Testaments, wisely arranged that the New Testament be

hidden in the Old and the Old be made manifest in the New. 

  • Chapter V - The New Testament
    • The Gospels have a special preeminence, they are the principal witness for the life and teaching of Jesus, the Word of God, the full and complete self-communication of God. 
    • The Gospels are of apostolic origin → handed on what Jesus said and did after the Ascension → composed the Gospels as a synthesis, with an awareness of who it was being written to → paragraph 19.
  • Chapter VI – Sacred Scripture in the Life of the Church
    • Venerates the Scriptures just as we venerate the body of the Lord.
    • Sacred Theology is based in Sacred Scripture, along with Sacred Tradition → Scripture has primacy, it is the height of theology.
    • We must hold fast to Sacred Scripture in order to fill our hearts with God.

Senses of Scripture

  • Literal – what the author intended, what the facts/narrative are that is being communicated.
  • Spiritual sense
    • Allegorical- typology, events prefigure/foreshadow and fulfill one another → Suffering servant, Job → types of Christ, crossing of the red sea, the flood → baptism.
    • Tropological- trepein- “to turn” → refers to conversion, to a change in how you live. This is the moral sense of scripture → what moral truth is this passage communicating to me, how is it teaching me how to live? Teaches us how to act and live justly.
    • Anagogical – anagoge- “leading” – interpreting/viewing realities and events in terms of their eternal significance, leading us toward our true homeland → the Church as a sign of the heavenly Jerusalem.

Historical Critical Method (Diachronic)

  • Treat the text as a human document, consider the author and his setting, cultural situation.
  • Read the text diachronically → through/across time
    • Source Criticism → trace the development of the text, interpret it in connection with the ancient historical setting → Genesis 1-2 written against Babylonian Creation accounts.
    • Literary Criticism → attempts to distinguish the different sources of the text → documentary hypothesis → traces the different sources of the Old Testament.
    • Textual Criticism → seeks to establish a biblical text as close as possible to the original → focuses on grammar, syntax, language, etc.

Synchronic Method

  • To synchronize, consider the text as a whole, not historical. Looks to the final form of the text.
  • Concerned with the “now-word” of scripture → how is the text speaking to you now, in the present → typology/moral sense.
  • The Word, through whom all things were made, created you. What we encounter in the Scriptures, especially the Gospels, is the one who made you.
    • There is always the opportunity to learn about yourself through these books.
    • Lectio Divina/Praying with Scripture

Criteria for Interpreting Scripture

  1. Be especially attentive to the content and unity of the whole Scripture
  2. Read the Scripture within the living Tradition of the whole Church
  3. Be attentive to the analogy of faith → the coherence of the truths of faith among themselves and within the whole plan of revelation

Summary/Main points

  1. The goal of revelation/Why it is important
  2. How it is transmitted/its source
  3. How it is inspired
  4. Senses of Scripture
  5. Criteria for interpreting scripture