How Catholics Should Read the Bible
"Ignorance of the Scriptures is ignorance of Christ" (St. Jerome).
Lectio Divina
Slow, thoughtful, prayerful, imaginative reading of the Bible.
Enter the Scriptures
Ignatian meditation: Place yourself in the scene.
Think with the Church
Stay within the bounds of dogma
The Creeds of the Church tell us how to interpret the Scriptures.
- Original Sin (requires monogenism).
- Authenticity of the Old Covenant (Abraham--Moses--David--prophets).
- Immaculate Conception of Mary in her mother's womb through the ordinary act of marriage (celebrated on December 8).
- Virginal Conception of Jesus in Mary's womb by the power of the Holy Spirit (celebrated on March 25).
- Perpetual Virginity of Mary.
- Divinity of Jesus: Trinity and Incarnation.
- Death and resurrection of Jesus.
- The foundation of the sacraments:
- Eucharist
- Marriage
- Reconciliation
- The infallibility of the Church.
Interpret the Old Testament in the light of the New
De-literalization of the Old Testament
Typological Interpretation
Re-definition of terms
To be a Christian is to take the death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus into glory as THE key to understanding what God was accomplishing in the Old Covenant. On the basis of what Jesus did, everything that came before Him looks entirely different from the way it did to those who did not know about His saving action. The words are the same but the meanings are dramatically different.
| Term | Old Covenant | New Covenant |
|---|---|---|
| Christ | A human being anointed with oil. | God, the Son, Incarnate as true man, anointed with the Holy Spirit. |
| King | Human being with a harem and children. | God, the Son, Incarnate as true man. |
| Kingdom | Geographic territory; external to us. | Spiritual relationship. |
| Enemy | Human beings. | Sin and death. |
| Victory | Achieved by wounding and killing human beings. | Achieved by accepting death on the Cross. |
| Temple | Built of rock in one location in one Holy Land. | Built of "living stones" and accessible everywhere. |
| Sacrifice | Killing and burning animals. | Joining Jesus in renewing His self-offering to the Father. |
| Sin | "Missing the mark." Remedied by animal sacrifice. | "Alienation from God." Cannot be remedied by the actions of sinners. |
Primacy of Tradition
Divino Afflante Spiritu
Vatican II
"Dogmatic Constitution on Revelation" (Vatican II, 1965).
Catechism of the Catholic Church
Studying the Scriptures
One of the categories on this wiki is "Scripture Studies." These are notes I have made for myself to get ready for or else to follow up on questions asked on the show.
- The Canon (official list of books) of the Bible
- A criticism of Martin Luther's theory of Sola scriptura.
- "Bible" in the Bible
- Transliteration
Some favorite verses
- "In times past, God spoke in partial and various ways to our ancestors through the prophets; in these last days, he spoke to us through a son, whom he made heir of all things and through whom he created the universe, who is the refulgence of his glory, the very imprint of his being, and who sustains all things by his mighty word. When he had accomplished purification from sins, he took his seat at the right hand of the Majesty on high, as far superior to the angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs" (Heb 1:1-4).
- "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came to be through him, and without him nothing came to be. What came to be through him was life, and this life was the light of the human race; the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it" (Jn 1:1-4).