Understanding the Bible

A Catholic Guide To The Word of God

The Bible is uniquely important

The Holy Bible is unmatched in importance for learning about God; Gods plans for us, and how God has
worked through human history for our salvation.

Pope John Paul II wrote:

[Sacred Scripture] is truly divine, because it belongs to God truly and genuinely: God himself inspired it, God
confirmed it, God spoke it through the sacred writersMoses, the Prophets, the Evangelists, the Apostles
and, above all, through his Son, our only Lord, in both the Old and the New Testament.
It is true that the intensity and depth of the revelation varies [within the Bible], but there is not the least
shadow of contradiction [between different parts of Scripture].
(Pope John Paul II, Apostolic Letter Patres Ecclesiae, January 2, 1980)

Key principles for reading Scripture

These three points are essential to a basic understanding of the bible:
1. God is the author of Sacred Scripture.
2. God made use of specific people that wrote in a human language, and did so at a particular time and
place in history.
3. At times we have to work carefully to determine exactly what a sacred author is asserting to be true,
distinguishing that from something he's using as an image to help us understand the truth more
clearly.

God is the principal author of Scripture

God chose to reveal to us certain truths for the sake of our salvation. This message of salvation is the set of
revealed truths which we call the "deposit of faith," or Divine Revelation. The Bible is primarily concerned
with telling us these truths, which are without error.

The Second Vatican Council (Vatican II) said l: "everything asserted by the inspired authors or sacred writers
must be held to be asserted by the Holy Spirit" (Dei Verbum, #11).

God made use of people to write the Bible

God did not "dictate" the Bible, word for word, to people who just wrote down the words. God used
specific people to write the various sacred books of the Bible. And although God gave each author special
grace to aid this work, each author wrote in a way that was natural to him.

In composing the sacred books, God chose men and while employed by Him they made use of their powers
and abilities, so that with Him acting in them and through them, they, as true authors, consigned to writing
everything and only those things which He wanted.
(Vatican II, Dei Verbum (Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation), 11)

These writers used the language of their time, and they used words and wrote in a style that reflected their
own personalities and educations.
John Paul II made this point when he addressed the Pontifical Biblical Commission in 1979:
The language of the Bible is to some degree linked to language which changed over the course of time....
But this only reaffirms the paradox of the [Christian] proclamation of revelation: ...people and events at
particular points in history become the bearers of an absolute and transcendent message.
(Pope John Paul II, Address, April 26, 1979)

God was willing to work through people to tell us the saving truth. God revealed divine truths via historical
acts, using events and people of Gods choosing. And God did so using...

Human language and knowledge

God also used human language and knowledge to tell us eternal truths. God conveyed things to people
through words and actions that made use of the ways of speaking and thinking that were common at the
time. The people who experienced these events and received God's divine messages either wrote them
down later, or would pass them on in a reliable oral tradition that was later written down under the
inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

Unlocking the original meaning

We can easily put these principles to practical use when reading Scripture. We need to understand exactly
what the inspired authors meant when they wrote their words. A good Catholic commentary will help
explain any relevant language, concepts and cultural references.

Embrace the Word of God

The whole point of reading and understanding the Bible is to encounter God, understand the revelation he
has given us, and grow in faith.

Scripture is a living thing, meant for people in all times & places. God speaks through it now just as much as
he did when it was written.

To help our faith grow as we read Scripture, the Church gives us three important points for interpreting and
understanding the Bible:

1. "Be especially attentive 'to the content and unity of the whole Scripture'" (Catechism, 112). It all fits
together, so don't just look at parts in isolation.
2. Read the Bible within "the living Tradition of the whole Church" (Catechism, 113), since the Holy
Spirit guides the Church in interpreting Scripture. Especially helpful is seeing how the Saints, Popes,
and Church councils have commented on Scripture.
3. Pay attention to "the coherence of the truths of faith among themselves and within the whole plan
of Revelation" (Catechism, 114). Like point #1, above, the entire deposit of faith forms a wonderful
unitydoctrine sheds light on Scripture, and Scripture on doctrine.

Retrieved from: http://www.beginningcatholic.com/understanding-the-bible.html July 2015