FERDINAND S.

ABING

June 25, 2016

TH202
Reflection on Dei Verbum
It has been said that the Bible is the best seller book of all times. It is the most translated
book, having a translation of almost all languages in the whole world and even so many different
local dialects in their own translations of it. Although it has been translated and revised for so
many times yet a diligent student of the Bible can clearly see that the content of the book remain
intact. We can even safely say that what we can read and understand from the Bible today is
the same words that the readers of the Bible 2,000 years ago have read and understood it.
Maybe it was written in other languages back then as compared to ours today, but its content is
just the same. The messages of the written word in the Bible even transcend from generation to
generations so that when we read Moses words giving warnings to the Israelites on how they
should live as a community when they enter into the promise land as if that Moses is also telling
us on how we should live as a community of believers in todays world. How then all of these
were possible to simply a book called the Bible?
The Bible is the Word of God. It does not just contain the words of God but it is the very
Word of God. This then explains why although the book was written by some 40 different
authors who lived separately in different places and in different times yet the unity and
coherence of the book is unquestionable and it is simply because God Himself is the
overarching author of the book. But why and to whom was the Word of God given to? This then
is the essence of the Documents of Vatican II: On Divine Revelation all about.
God made it very clear to us through His written word that from the very beginning He
wanted to have a special connection to His creation especially man; perhaps because the bible
said that man was created according to the image of God. But when man fell into sin, he was
then separated from God. Sin creates a huge gap between God and man, so huge that it

became almost impossible for man to even know and recognize his creator, God. Then God, in
His unquestionable wisdom choose to made Himself known to man, thus, the written Word of
God was there for man to know his creator and rebuild that special connection of them that was
broken because of sin. Divine revelation as the bible scholars would say is the manner of God
revealing to His creation that He can be known but only to the extent where He allowed to be
made known by man.
Divine revelation is Gods sole initiative to make Him known to His creation, thus, if He
choose not to reveal Himself then we would not have any chance of knowing God. Our finite
mind can never have any capacity to comprehend an infinite God, but He made Himself known
to us. We may not know God to the fullest but at least we can know Him as much as He
revealed Himself to us.
He first revealed Himself to the people of old most especially to the prophets. The
prophets and other individuals then wrote and preserved this divine revelation perhaps for future
references or for whatsoever purposes. This written divine revelation of God was then pass on
from generation to generation until the time of Jesus and His disciples who later also became
writers of Gods divine revelation of truth. So much so that God wanted to reveal Himself to
man, Jesus then commanded His disciples to preach by the anointing of the Holy Spirit the
Word of God starting from Jerusalem into the whole world. Thus, the preaching of the Word and
the written record of Gods Word goes hand in hand in order to know God and His plan for His
creation.
As a student of the Word of God, we form part of this divine revelation if and only if we
faithfully reveal God to others by preaching the Word of God to them and showing the way to
knowing God and His purpose in our lives. By doing this it becomes our responsibility to
interpret the Word of God as faithfully as it is without applying any bias that may be influence by
our own culture. We need to be told and be reminded over and over again that it will not be our
own word but the Word of God handed down to us in which we preach to the people so that
2

they may know God and be connected back to Him. It is then a challenge for us to diligently
study the Bible and interpret it as how its writer would mean it to his original hearers. It may be
true that the church carries out the divine commission and ministry of guarding and interpreting
the word of God; hence, it is the church responsibility then to faithfully carry this mission as she
will be accountable to God if she fails to do it just like the churches in Asia in the book of
Revelation whom Jesus rebuked through a vision given to John the beloved when those
churches failed to live up to what is expected of them. May the Church be found faithful in this
task of interpreting the word of God rightly so that God may continue to reveal Himself to man
as what He is doing in the past through the prophets and His appointed Apostles.
Today lays a fact that people are more interested with something else other than the
Bible. The world has so much to offer just to divert the interest of a person so that he cannot see
the importance of knowing God and His plan for our lives. The enemy then seems to be so
effective with his mission from the very start which is to separate man from God and it is our
responsibility to continue on what the Apostles of Jesus did in showing to the people that God
had revealed Himself and that He wanted everyone to come back to Him. Just like the Holy
Spirit empowered the Apostles in preserving and interpreting the words of Jesus and put it into
writing, the same Holy Spirit is empowering us today for us to correctly interpret His words and
convince people that God is still speaking today through His written word.