Reading the Bible
“Love the holy Scriptures, and wisdom will love you. Love wisdom, and she will keep you safe. Honor wisdom and she will embrace you” (Saint Jerome).
“In the sacred books the Father who is in heaven meets his children with great love and speaks with them; and the force in the Word of God is so great that it remains the support and energy of the Church, the strength of faith for her children, the food of the soul, the pure and perennial source of spiritual life” (Dei Verbum – Constitution on Divine Revelation of Vatican II -- #21).
John 1:1
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Today, more and more Catholics are interested in reading, studying, and understanding the Bible. Reflecting on the biblical tradition has become fundamental to Catholic evangelization and faith formation. And individually, more Catholics are turning to the Bible as a source of spiritual enrichment.
What is the Bible?
Think of the Bible as a collection of religious traditions that are inspired by God. These traditions have been deemed sacred and given official recognition by the believing community. They have “canonical” status. The word “canon,” signifies something that acted as a norm, a measuring stick. In Christian usage it refers to a model or rule.
How did the Bible acquire its present form? It’s origin and development is complicated, but think of it this way. The traditions incorporated into the Bible were dependent on choices made by persons and groups within the believing community who had authority to so choose.
Who were these people? Some names are mentioned in the text itself, prophets and teachers and the like. But there were also editors and compilers who refined the material and preserved what they thought were religious norms for the community. These unnamed persons exercised considerable authority with the community.
Why has the Bible endured over the centuries since it contains material from long, long ago and cultures much different from our own? The reason: believers throughout ages have continued to be convinced of its authority and value to the present time, and have attempted to shape their lives in accord with it.
What about today? Does the Bible still have authoritative value for people? Surely, it is still inspiring to many, but does it carry authority. As Catholic Christians, rooted in the biblical tradition, we hold that the Bible is much more than an historical source of inspiration, but also it remains a guiding source for living the Christian way of life.
Inspired by God
How is the Bible the word of God? How did God speak this word in the first place, and how does God speak this word today? These questions point to the topic of inspiration.
The communities of the Old Testament (ancient Israel) as well as the early Christian communities believed that God had been revealed through the events of their history. The Bible is a collection of the accounts of those revelations and the traditions of the community as a result of those revelations. By canonizing those accounts the community declared that there is an inspired relationship between revelation and these sacred Scriptures. This relationship is spoken of in terms of divine authorship. Those who in any way contributed to the writing of the Bible were inspired by God, and thus the Bible has both human and divine authorship.
Noted Scripture scholar Diane Bergant writes,
“Without denying the unique role played by certain individual members of the community, the present study has suggested that it was really the community itself that gave birth to the sacred traditions. If this is the case, and if these traditions are indeed inspired by God, then it is within the community, and not merely in select members of that community, that inspiration is operative. Those who first recognized the action of God within their history and then developed a tradition to testify to that action, those who later reshaped that tradition in order that it speak to a new community at a new time, and those who set the tradition down in its final form were all communities inspired by God” (Bergant).
Is It True?
If the Bible is inspired by God, surely it is truthful, yes? With this belief in mind, many have insisted that the Bible is free from all error, but that claim raises several difficult questions, not the least of which is the many inconsistencies in the text itself, i.e. two different creation stories in Genesis, or the timing of when Jesus cleansed the Temple. John has Jesus doing so at the very beginning of his ministry while the other Gospel accounts have him doing so just before his death. There are also many biblical inconsistencies with what we now know to be true about science and nature.
Efforts to explain these inconsistencies have yielded various methods of biblical interpretation. Fundamentalist interpretations have adopted a literal sense of the text claiming that God can do even the impossible if need be. Another approach takes the text literally until one comes upon a difficult passage, at which point one should interpret the passage allegorically.
A third method seeks to discern the kind of truth the Bible intends to reveal. Modern biblical scholars do just that. While not always easy, they seek to distinguish religious truth from historical and/or scientific truth. They seek to focus on what is truly theological (of God), which requires them to apply both literary and historical critical understanding to the text. More about historical criticism below.
The Bible claims not just theological truthfulness for communities of the past, the power of the message bears witness to truthfulness today as well. As Bergant writes, “The same Spirit that was operative in the formation of the Scriptures continues to bear witness to its truthfulness and to convince us of its inspired nature. Therein lies the authority of the Bible” (Bergant).
What Does It Mean?
Just what precisely does the Bible mean? Among the many conflicting interpretations, which one is right? Which school of interpretation or which particular scholar is one to follow? Determining the meaning of the text is what is called Hermeneutics: the tools and methods for interpretation. As more and more people want to learn the meaning of the Bible, it’s important to understand the ways of interpretation so that one can judge if the Bible is used appropriately.
Proper interpretation requires focus on the message of course, but also on the sender of the message, as well as the receiver.
Message. For centuries there have been four distinct types of interpretation of the message. They continue to influence the way people interpret the Bible today.
The literal sense of a text usually refers to a meaning that the words themselves convey. The text is accepted at face value.
In the allegorical sense of Scripture, the text really intends to say something other than that which its literal wording suggests. The contention is that deeper mystical meanings lie hidden beneath the words.
In the moral sense, the text is understood primarily in terms of the spiritual life of every individual believer. For example, anyone and everyone is Abraham called into a new relationship with God.
Eschatological refers to the spiritual meaning of the text as this pertains to the future heavenly or eschatological realities. According to this sense, the “promised land” is neither historical Israel, as a literal interpretation would indicate; nor the church of Christ, as an allegorical sense might suggest, nor the soul of the redeemed Christian, as the moral sense would assert. It is the future kingdom of heaven.
Sender. Biblical scholarship has recognized the need to seek for the meaning of biblical text by pursuing a careful investigation and analysis of its historical background. This is referred to as the historical-critical method of interpretation. Diane Bergant writes of the value of this method,
“The results of this shift in method were numerous. The Scriptures, while always recognized as inspired, began to be appreciated as human expressions of the faith of a people. From this human perspective, contemporary women and men could now see their ancient counterparts as being engaged in the very same struggles of life as they themselves were and are. They began to read the biblical narratives with renewed enthusiasm. Biblical theology came to occupy a significant place in their lives. They sought to respond to God’s presence in their own history, as their ancestors of biblical times had done. The biblical revival ushered in by the historical-critical movement undoubtedly brought new life to the church” (Bergant).
Receiver. The historical-critical method assumes that an objective understanding of the original meaning is possible. However, one must remember that the interpreter comes to the text with historical and religious biases as well. The new methods of interpretation admit that the way the text is understood depends to a great degree perspectives of the interpreter. Thus, for example, people from a situation of political, economic, or religious oppression will view the Bible quite differently than will those from a secure and comfortable vantage point.
Multiple Versions
Anyone beginning the study of the Bible is quickly aware of the number of versions that are available. Why are there so many? Which one is the best?
The past few decades have seen a proliferation of new English versions of the Bible. Although the work was done under Protestant auspices, the Revised Standard Version, which appeared in 1946, received Catholic ecclesiastical approval in 1966 and has continued to be used by Catholics in educational as well as liturgical settings. The major American Catholic effort at translation has been the New American Bible (NAB). What was begun in 1941 as the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine (CCD) Version was eventually published in 1970 under the new title. The Revised Standard Version has been replaced by the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV), and the New American Bible will also soon be replaced by a new translation. These new versions are not revisions, but whole new translations from ancient texts. Thus, new and ever more accurate readings of the biblical texts are being produced in order to bring the word of God closer to the people of God.
* This article is based upon and adapted from: Bergant, D. 1989. The Collegeville Bible Commentary : Based on the New American Bible with revised New Testament. Previously published in 36 separate booklets. Liturgical Press: Collegeville, Minn. Direct quotes are also taken from this source.
Summary Page:
Today, more and more Catholics are interested in reading, studying, and understanding the Bible.
Think of the Bible as a collection of religious traditions that are inspired by God.
Believers throughout ages have continued to be convinced of the Bible’s authority and value to the present time, and have attempted to shape their lives in accord with it. As Catholic Christians, rooted in the biblical tradition, we hold that the Bible is much more than an historical source of inspiration, but also it remains a guiding source for living the Christian way of life.
The communities of the Old Testament (ancient Israel) as well as the early Christian communities believed that God had been revealed through the events of their history. The Bible is a collection of the accounts of those revelations and the traditions of the community as a result of those revelations. Those who in any way contributed to the writing of the Bible were inspired by God, and thus the Bible has both human and divine authorship.
If the Bible is inspired by God, surely it is truthful, yes? Modern biblical scholars seek to distinguish religious truth from historical and/or scientific truth. They seek to focus on what is truly theological (of God), which requires them to apply both literary and historical critical understanding to the text. The Bible claims not just theological truthfulness for communities of the past, the power of the message bears witness to truthfulness today as well.
Determining the meaning of the text is what is called Hermeneutics: the tools and methods for interpretation. Proper interpretation requires focus on the message of course, but also on the sender of the message, as well as the receiver.
The past few decades have seen a proliferation of new English versions of the Bible. The Revised Standard Version has been replaced by the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV), and the New American Bible will also soon be replaced by a new translation. These new versions are not revisions, but whole new translations from ancient texts.
Related Resources for Further Study
Catholic Updates
“The Bible: A User’s Guide” by Brian Singer-Towns. Youth Update, Saint Anthony Messenger Press.
“Choosing and Using a Bible: What Catholics Should Know” by Ronald D. Witherup, Catholic Update, Saint Anthony Messenger Press, July 2004.
“Interpreting the Bible: The Right and the Responsibility” by Sandra Schneiders, I.H.M., Scripture from Scratch, Saint Anthony Messenger Press.
“The Use and Abuse of the Bible” by Ronald D. Witherup, Scripture From Scratch, Saint Anthony Messenger Press.
Books
The Bible Documents: A Parish Resource. Chicago: Liturgy Training Publications, 2005.
The Bible from Scratch Catholic Edition. Winona: Saint Mary’s Press, 2004.
The Collegeville Bible Commentary. Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 2002.
Essential Bible Dictionary. Winona: Saint Mary’s Press, 2005.
The New Jerome Biblical Commentary. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1990.