Rich Hardisty

St. Cecilia Parish in Beaverton, OR

Feb 8, 2011

Sacred Scripture – How to Read The Bible

A. Introduction
• Start Reading 1 Cor 1:26-31
• The Bible is Sacred Scripture
• Dei Verbum
◦ Document of Vatican II
◦ Means “Word of God”
◦ Basically tells us how to read the Bible
• Important as Catholics to know how to read the Bible
◦ Point of this evening is to explain simply how to read the Bible using the structure
Dei Verbum gave us
• Introduce 6 chapters of Dei Verbum
◦ Divine Revelation Itself
◦ Transmission of Divine Revelation
◦ Inspiration & Interpretation of Sacred Scripture
◦ The Old Testament
◦ The New Testament
◦ Sacred Scripture in the Life of The Church
• Each of the chapters could be a semester long course at a college
◦ Goal is to at least get introduced to the concept of reading the Bible and understand
how to do it correctly

B. Divine Revelation Itself

• God gradually revealed himself to us
◦ We see stages of revelation in the Old Testament
▪ First to our first parents, Adam & Eve
▪ After the fall, he buoyed us up with the promise of salvation
▪ Continued through Noah, Abraham, Moses, The Prophets
◦ Culmination of this is the Word, Jesus Christ, the living Word of God
• God communicates himself to us in his Word
◦ The Bible is somebody, not something: Jesus
◦ Jesus came to us, what did he teach? Himself
▪ Relate to a teacher teaching their specialty (Math, Science, History, etc.)
◦ God revealed himself to us in Christ
◦ The Word of God is not just the Bible
 • "The obedience of faith is to be given to God who reveals, an obedience by which man
commits his whole self freely to God, offering the full submission of intellect and will to
God who reveals," and freely assenting to the truth revealed by Him
▪ (Dei Verbum Para 5)
◦ The Holy Spirit must assist you, move your heart
◦ Through his gifts, the Holy Spirit makes clear a deeper understanding of revelation
• There is a method to reading the Bible
◦ But must be done in the right way to gain desired result
◦ Important to note that you can not make personal interpretations
▪ Must be seen as it was written, with the help of the Holy Spirit
◦ Worst errors: Studying as an exercise, not prayerfully
▪ Doesn't allow us to unify ourselves
◦ Point of knowing the Word of God that you become unified with Him
• God made it easy to understand his word so that we all might understand what he
wishes to tell us
◦ Most of what you read in the Bible is literal, cut and dry
◦ What is not must be sought through the assistance of the Holy Spirit (explained
next)

C. Handing On Of Divine Revelation

• Can't see God; Transmits himself to us on our level, through created things
• Jesus taught us through words and actions
◦ Jesus taught us himself
• Apostles were commissioned to be preachers
◦ Common men (i.e. Peter, James, John; best friends of Christ) to preach the Gospel
▪ Peter: Kind of a thug, cut a mans ear off
▪ James & John: Going through the Samaritan village and the Samaritan's
refused to take Christ in, they wanted to call in an air strike “Lord, do you want
us to bid fire to come down from heaven and consume them?”; (Lk 9:54)
◦ These men were to preach good news, it was not hard for others to see its the work
of God
• Passed to apostles entrusted to preach the Gospel in two ways (CCC 76)
◦ Tradition: Oral Transmission; Done through Apostolic preaching, through a Spirit of
truth to pass on what was not written
▪ —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'
▪ Also See John 21:25
◦ Scripture: The written word and speech of God
▪ —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."
• In the church, Tradition carries the same weight as Scripture, as they share the same
source, Christ
 • Must have an authentic & authoritative interpreter
◦ This is done through the magisterium teaching of the Church
▪ Made up by the Pope & Bishops; direct descendants of the Apostles
▪ Not superior to the Word of God, but is its servant
◦ Bible was determined by the Catholic Church, it's a book of the Church
▪ Martin Luther: "We are obliged to yield many things to the Papists [Catholics]-
that they possess the Word of God which we received from them, otherwise we
should have known nothing at all about it." (Commentary on St. John, ch. 16)
• Scripture, Tradition, Magisterial Teaching – essential to reading and understanding the
Bible
◦ “This happens through the contemplation and study made by believers who
treasure these things in their hearts through a penetrating understanding of the
spiritual realities which they experience and through the preaching of those who
have received through episcopal succession the sure gift of truth.” (Dei Verbum
Para 8)
▪ Can not have one with out the light of the other other two
• Relate this to the Holy Trinity
• Counter the Protestant view of Sola Scriptora
• Without these three things, we have bad teaching and preaching, which leads to
ignorance, which leads to those leaving the faith

D. Inspiration and Interpretation of Sacred Scripture

• All of the the Canon of the Bible is inspired; all of it is the Word of God, Christ
◦ All divine scripture speaks of Christ and all is fulfilled in Christ
• His word is given to us for the sake of salvation; reminds us that hell is there
◦ Extenuate the positive, be aware of the negative
• When reading scripture, it is vital to understand what the writer is trying to say
◦ Not every book is written in the same literary form
▪ Some are historical, some poetic, some prophetic, but all convey the Word of
God
• Reason being God uses certain men to convey what he wanted using their particular
modes:
◦ (Speaking on the Old and New Testaments) “...they have God as their author and
have been handed on as such to the Church herself. 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.”
(Dei Verbum Para 11)
◦ God speaks to us in human fashion to clearly communicate to us what his
intentions are
• Sometimes it necessary to do internal criticism
◦ That is look at modes of speech in that day, language, etc. to understand the
meaning correctly
◦ Can not be interpreted internally alone, and we must be careful on how we interpret
scripture
▪ Konrad Adenauer: “God has placed obvious limitations on our intelligence, but
none what-so-ever on our stupidity”
 • Scripture must be read in the same Spirit as the one who wrote it (CCC 112-114):
◦ 1. Be especially attentive "to the content and unity of the whole Scripture". Different
as the books which compose it may be, Scripture is a unity by reason of the unity of
God's plan, of which Christ Jesus is the center and heart, open since his Passover.
▪ Don't take it out of context, know the whole Bible
◦ 2. Read the Scripture within "the living Tradition of the whole Church". According to
a saying of the Fathers, Sacred Scripture is written principally in the Church's heart
rather than in documents and records, for the Church carries in her Tradition the
living memorial of God's Word, and it is the Holy Spirit who gives her the spiritual
interpretation of the Scripture ("...according to the spiritual meaning which the Spirit
grants to the Church").
▪ Read the Scriptures prayerfully and humbly
◦ 3. Be attentive to the analogy of faith. By "analogy of faith" we mean the coherence
of the truths of faith among themselves and within the whole plan of Revelation.
▪ If it is against what the faith teaches, it is false
▪ Catechism and the Bible will NEVER contradict each other
• Cite Galatians 1:6-9, focus on ve. 8
• Also important to note the sense it is written in
◦ The literal sense is the meaning conveyed by the words of Scripture and
discovered by exegesis, following the rules of sound interpretation: "All other
senses of Sacred Scripture are based on the literal."
◦ The spiritual sense. Thanks to the unity of God's plan, not only the text of Scripture
but also the realities and events about which it speaks can be signs.
▪ 1. The allegorical sense. We can acquire a more profound understanding of
events by recognizing their significance in Christ...
▪ 2. The moral sense. The events reported in Scripture ought to lead us to act
justly. As St. Paul says, they were written "for our instruction".
▪ 3. The anagogical sense (Greek: anagoge, "leading"). We can view realities and
events in terms of their eternal significance, leading us toward our true
homeland: thus the Church on earth is a sign of the heavenly Jerusalem.
▪ A medieval couplet summarizes the significance of the four senses:
• The Letter speaks of deeds; Allegory to faith;
The Moral how to act; Anagogy our destiny.
• The Church, through tradition and magisterial authority, has final judgment over the
interpretation of Sacred Scripture, for interpretation must be done according to these
rules to gain firmer explanation of the meaning God intends for us.

E. The Old Testament

• Some will try to diminish the Old Testament
◦ “Oh well, that's Old Testament...”
◦ That is a heresy (Marcionism) (See CCC 123)
◦ It is still divinely inspired and retains permanent value (CCC 121)
• The Old could not be understood without the light of the New
◦ A Jewish scholar could know and understand the ancient text of the Old Testament,
but not fully grasp the meaning of it without acknowledging the New
• The New Testament did not abolish the Old
◦ The Old prepares for the New; The New fulfills the Old
 • We begin with Genesis and the fall of our first parents
◦ Must begin there to understand the rest
• We continue on to see the prophets; those people of their day who were closest to God
◦ Many lived in the desert; To find God, but the Devil lives there too
▪ Cite Temptations in the Desert
◦ God spoke to them in the silence, so that they might come out of the silence and
preach to others
◦ The prophetic books point toward Jesus the Saviors coming
• What is prefigured is fulfilled in the New
◦ Manna in the desert – The Eucharist
◦ Moses – Prefigurement of Christ
◦ Moses strikes the rock with his wooden staff and gives water to his people – Jesus
is struck with the wood of the cross to life to us all
• Many woman in the Old point toward Mary
◦ i.e. Eve, Sarah, Rebekah, Rachel, etc.
• So in brief, the Old Testament gives us (CCC 122):
◦ Teaching on God
◦ Sound wisdom in human life
◦ Treasury of Prayers (Psalms)
◦ The mystery of our salvation presented in a hidden way
• All Christians should receive them with reverence

F. The New Testament

• The Apostles to the story of Christ's life
◦ The Apostles were those who knew Christ best, Christ revealed himself to them
◦ They watched everything Christ did or said
▪ Because everything Christ did or said was to teach us for our salvation
• Christ is the truth; Teaching the faith must be done in the light of this truth
• Gospels are the heart of the Scriptures
◦ The word “Gospel” itself means “Good News”
◦ Rosary is a good way to “Pray the Gospel”
▪ The Mysteries – All from the Gospels
▪ Lord's Prayer – Matthew 6:9-13
▪ Hail Mary:
• “Hail, Full of grace, the Lord is with you” (Luke 1:28)
• “Blessed art thou amongst women, and Blessed is the fruit of thy womb”
(Luke 1:42)
• The Gospels give us power to fight the Devil; call God into our corner
◦ We can't outsmart or defeat the Devil without God
◦ Devil can be like that big kid on the playground... bigger, strong, whole lot meaner
◦ You being the little have to just say “You ever met my daddy?”
 • So I tell you again, Jesus kept the lowest as his closest friends
◦ Peter, James & John his closest of friends, already kind of discussed the type of
people they were
◦ This should give us all hope as we all have our own issues, we are all sinners
◦ Jesus wants us most of all to walk with him
◦ God's gift to us was his Son, the living word
▪ Somebody, not something
◦ “Christ established the kingdom of God on earth, manifested His Father and
Himself by deeds and words, and completed His work by His death, resurrection
and glorious Ascension and by the sending of the Holy Spirit. Having been lifted up
from the earth, He draws all men to Himself” (Dei Verbum Para 17)
◦ We must learn to walk with him and learn more about him because we only know
so much

G. Sacred Scripture in the Life of the Church

• Use CCC 131-133
• 131 "And such is the force and power of the Word of God that it can serve the Church
as her support and vigor, and the children of the Church as strength for their faith, food
for the soul, and a pure and lasting fount of spiritual life." Hence "access to Sacred
Scripture ought to be open wide to the Christian faithful."
◦ Reading the Bible should be a spiritual thing
▪ Pray to invoke the Holy Spirit within you
◦ Us who hear his word must be able open to receive God through His Word
▪ Must be humble in doing so and read with humility
• 132 "Therefore, the study of the sacred page should be the very soul of sacred
theology. The ministry of the Word, too - pastoral preaching, catechetics and all forms
of Christian instruction, among which the liturgical homily should hold pride of place - is
healthily nourished and thrives in holiness through the Word of Scripture."
◦ Preaching should be done in the manner the Church has put forth
▪ Must preach the truth, the Word of God, Christ
◦ You must be filled with the Word to teach the Word, accept the Word
• 133 The Church "forcefully and specifically exhorts all the Christian faithful... to learn
the surpassing knowledge of Jesus Christ, by frequent reading of the divine Scriptures.
Ignorance of the Scriptures is ignorance of Christ.
◦ This word must be easily accessible to all
◦ The study of Scripture should not be an academic exercise
▪ It should be prayerful and stir the Spirit within you

H. Conclusion
• Read Luke 22:31-32, Explain the meaning of “you” when it is used
• Soon after I was confirmed, I turned my back on God and the Devil had me good. My
life was full of sin. God graced me with the strength to turn me back. See the Devil
wants to sift all of us like wheat, we are all inclined to sin, we are all sinners, I am a
sinner. But I pray for all of you... that for all of you, this sacrament not the end, but only
the beginning. That your faith may not fail and that you will always turn toward the
Lord. And when you walk into that beautiful kingdom, you will hear “My child, you have
listened to my word and I am well pleased, welcome to eternal paradise”