Bible can only be understood with the Church, Pope tells scholars

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Comments: 28

Vatican City, Apr 23, 2009 / 11:00 am (CNA).- On Thursday morning, Pope Benedict addressed representatives of the Pontifical Biblical Commission following their plenary assembly and said that a correct understanding of Scripture does not come from "the individualistic illusion that biblical texts can be better understood outside the community of believers" but rather rises from the Tradition of the Church.

"Inspiration and truth in the Bible," the theme of the Pontifical Biblical Commission’s plenary assembly, is one that touches on a topic that biblical scholars have vigorously debated during the last century. Much of biblical scholarship, Catholic and non-Catholic, has developed into an academic study separated from the living memory of the Church.

This morning the Pope received thirty representatives of the Pontifical Biblical Commission who just held their full assembly, under the leadership of Cardinal William Joseph Levada, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

Benedict XVI began by underlining the importance of the chosen theme, which "concerns not only believers, but the Church herself, because the Church's life and mission necessarily rest upon the Word of God … ."

Recalling that the Constitution 'Dei Verbum' (The Word of God) affirmed that God is the author of the Bible, and that in Sacred Scripture God speaks to mankind in a human manner, the Holy Father laid out the three criteria that the Second Vatican Council prescribed for correctly interpreting Scripture.

"For a correct interpretation of Scripture we must, then, carefully examine what the hagiographers really sought to say and what God was pleased to reveal with their words," he explained.

First, "Sacred Scripture is one by virtue of the unity of God's plan, of which Jesus Christ is the center and the heart."

Second, "Scripture must be read in the context of the living Tradition of the entire Church. ... In her Tradition the Church carries the living memory of the Word of God, and it is the Holy Spirit Who provides her with the interpretation thereof in accordance with its spiritual meaning.

"The third criterion concerns the need to pay attention to the analogy of the faith; that is, to the cohesion of the individual truths of faith, both with one another and with the overall plan of Revelation and the fullness of the divine economy enclosed in that plan."

The task of scholars, the Holy Father said, "is to contribute, following the above-mentioned principles, to a more profound interpretation and exposition of the meaning of Sacred Scripture."

Pope Benedict, himself an academic, also warned Catholic biblical scholars that the study of Sacred Scripture cannot be reduced to a purely academic exercise but must involve a perception of "the Word of God in these texts."

"The interpretation of Sacred Scriptures cannot be a merely an individual academic undertaking, but must always be compared with, inserted into, and authenticated by the living Tradition of the Church.

"This norm is essential in order to ensure a correct and reciprocal exchange between exegesis and Church Magisterium," the Pope stated.

But the Holy Father went further, offering a corrective reminder to biblical scholars, saying, "Catholic exegetes do not nourish the individualistic illusion that biblical texts can be better understood outside the community of believers. The opposite is true, because these texts were not given to individual scholars 'to satisfy their curiosity or to provide them with material for study and research'. The texts inspired by God were entrusted to the community of believers, to the Church of Christ, to nourish the faith and to guide the life of charity."

The Pontiff also summarized the Church's understanding of Scripture and Tradition.

"Sacred Scripture is the Word of God in that it is written down under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Tradition, on the other hand, integrally transmits the Word of God as entrusted by Christ the Lord and by the Holy Spirit to the Apostles and their successors so that they, illuminated by the Spirit of truth, could faithfully conserve, explain and spread it through their preaching."

Benedict XVI closed his address to the commission by emphasizing the need to harmonize the Magisterium and academic scholarship. "Only within the ecclesial context can Sacred Scripture be understood as the authentic Word of God which is guide, norm and rule for the life of the Church and the spiritual development of believers. This means rejecting all interpretations that are subjective or limited to mere analysis [and hence] incapable of accepting the global meaning which, over the course of the centuries, has guided the Tradition of the entire people of God."

Comments: 28

Subscriber comments:

Published by: Francis
Sydney 11/20/2009 12:50 AM EST

The Holy Spirit is given to those who obey (God's one and only Church to whom He has given all authority). Acts 5:32 Rebels and Protesters are influenced by a spirit that is opposite of holy. Proof? 30,000 "churches" with confused, conflicting and contradictory doctrines! Is that the work of the Holy Spirit? Simple as! Quit arguing, surrender your proud egos and come home! Quit playing gods as Adam and Eve tried to! Else, reject eternal life!

Published by: Pamela
Nashville, TN USA 10/21/2009 08:30 AM EST

To Wayne if you still read here: You speak of the 'truth', yet you repeat lies that are easily refuted. Please learn something about the Holy Catholic Church before you bring condemnation on yourself for calumny. No Catholic worships the saints or the mother of our Lord, though we certainly honor them and ask for their prayers of intercession. The reason people are leaving the Church is that they are led by the Devil into thinking they can interpret things for themselves, believe and do whatever they like and they don't like the Church telling them they are wrong. When people think they can interpret the Bible on their own, you get heresy such as a recent prominent claim that the Sermon on the Mount advocates homosexual relationships. Your view leads to moral relativism. Every interpretation is correct because God wants us to decide for ourselves.... Jesus said to Peter, and Peter alone, "Do you love me?...Feed my sheep." He knew that there would be devisions, and so established the primacy of Peter for such occasions, and in turn, the Holy Catholic Church under the authority given by Him to decide what should be bound, etc.... I pray that you will find the wisdom to stop attacking, and join the Church, founded by Jesus and which holds the keys to the fullness of the Truth. Peace.

Published by: Catherine
Carrollton, Tx. USA 09/22/2009 08:22 PM EST

The point is the veil is now removed! The priest no longer has to enter the Holy of Holies for us! We can now enter into relationship with God and receive revelation of the scriptures!

Published by: Dan
Rensselaer, NY USA 08/28/2009 04:33 AM EST

Most American Roman Catholics have no relationship with Christ or belief in Him because the RC church does not teach the bible. This is an offense to God. Most of the prior comments were written by the same person.

Published by: Wanda Vargas
Chicago, IL. USA 08/01/2009 11:53 AM EST

The GOD gave people a free will to choose, , to believe or not to believe. DO NOT TRY TO BE A GOD. There is only ONE Apostolic Catholic Church established by JESUS CHRIST ALONE and gave the authority to PETER 'the rock'. JESUS said 'on this rock I will build my church and the gates of Hades Will not overcome it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heave'. All other self established churches will twist around the GOD'S word and teaching to fit their proclamation and life style. IT IS HARD TO BE A CATHOLIC, BUT IT IS EASIER TO DIE.

Published by: O Mejia
Los Angeles 06/05/2009 12:00 AM EST

Well it is obvious that Bible only people fail to ask Where do the bible come from, Who give it to us...
And why Latin is the official language of the Church
Today few people may speak Latin but at one time this was the language of educated world
It is because the Church That That was before the Bible that we actually have it.
Those ho read it should be in gratitude to Holy Mother Church for it.
And is the Church Only Authority in the correct interpretation of the sacred text.
Simple as that.. or keep doing it on our own and keep breaking away from the Family of God as he intended it
The task of giving an authentic interpretation of the Word of God, whether in its written form or in the form of Tradition, has been entrusted to the living teaching office of the Church alone. Its authority in this matter is exercised in the name of Jesus Christ." This means that the task of interpretation has been entrusted to the bishops in communion with the successor of Peter, the Bishop of Rome.

Published by: Wayne
Europe 05/18/2009 12:19 PM EST

Rate: Bad

How can a church claim to hold to correct interpretation of the Bible when it encourages idolatry, worship of another god (Mary), trust in other gods (Mary and the saints) and denies that the Word of God should be open for all to read. Latin is a language understood by extremely few people and the church expects the Latin mass and the Latin Bible to be accepted by all. Talk about the blind leading the blind. If you want to control people this is the way to do it. The problem is that people no longer accept being led around in such a way. The reason that people are leaving the catholic church is that they are reading the Bible for themselves and the Holy Spirit is setting them free. The Protestants protest to the blatant lies and miss-use of the power wielded by the church of Rome. Many millions of people have been miss led. People.....read the Bible and let the Holy Spirit set you free for eternal life. Salvation is not the property of the church. You must be born again of the Spirit of God! The truth will set you free and you will be free indeed!

Published by: Eric
lake inthe hills,il ,usa 05/10/2009 06:57 PM EST

My understanding of this is that the Pope wants a universal, Holy Spirit interpeted teaching. Us Catholics and protestants then could use this in our daily reading of the Bible. Now we will be one not only in Bastism but in God's word too. All of this is to get out the corrupt teachings that that plauge all Christians, and together we can joyfully evangilize the world for the Glory of Jesus Christ!

Published by: dAVID LARSEN
scituate Mass. USA 05/10/2009 10:13 AM EST

The word of God is revealed in"Tradition",throughout all of scripture. The Bible is to me a Revelation and specifically in Jesus Christ,as He is the"Incarnation",or the word made flesh. All that Christ did was to glorify God and bring salvation to all for the forgiveness of sins. It is the power of the Holy Spirit acting in the Holy Catholic Church that enables salvation. The Church is the authority that interprets all scripture so that it doesn't lose it's meaning. Scripture was written according to people "Divinely Inspired and Authorized by God". This authorization is passed on by generation after generation and in"Tradition" so the message remains intact and undiluted by time.
We all live in the time of the Holy Spirit and the Church presents a clear and concise interpretation of scripture so that the "Faithful" can be of one mind in Christ for the Glory of God,so as to act with pure conviction,through the power of the Holy Spirit.
We simply have another great Pope who is gifted and can help the Church to unity through a valid interpretation of all Holy Scripture.

Published by: Johnny Wallace
London, UK 05/08/2009 11:26 AM EST

The 7th day Sabbath is God's holy day of rest. It has been tampered with God does not change. Read Revelation 14:6-12 We are living in the hour of God's judgment.Sunday is not the Sabbath,Saturday is.

Published by: zimmerk
KY 04/28/2009 08:25 PM EST

Protestants are protestants due to a lack of faith in Christ and ignorance of the Bible and history. Faith in that He knew what He was doing when He formed the Church and gave the keys to Peter. In the Bible, giving keys was a sign of giving authority as seen in the Old Testament.Protestants accuse Christ of knowingly leading the Church into 1500 years of heresy as He would have foreseen the Apostles misunderstanding Him before they started ordaining bishops, until all of a sudden Luther was given 'divine inspiration' by the “holy spirit” and then the next man after him who received the same power of HS though the HS was saying something contradictory to each individual.It is no surprise that since they have given up the Church Christ founded that they are ever increasingly deviating from Christ's teaching.Homosexual acts, abortion, etc.They change words such as 'tradition' for the word 'teaching', and do the same thing to the word 'works' and 'bishop' in verses that would indicate Catholic teaching. They do not consider that they have translated Bibles not holding to the precise meaning of the words in the original languages (translator bias against the Church.)They then take isolated verses to defend themselves without the context of the entire Bible itself (very often ignoring the verses right before and after the verse they use),and often end up in circular arguments.They hold to sola scriptura while they have the audacity to remove books from the Bible.

Published by: H.J.D'Cruz
Karachi 04/28/2009 05:16 AM EST

The church is needed to interpret and guide its flock on the bible. Because no proper guidence is given on the interpretation there are so many sects and Right Reverends are using it to make it a gospel of prosperity.More and more sects and more and more condfusion.

Published by: Sherry
Calhoun, GA 04/27/2009 07:39 AM EST

He [Jesus] said to them [Pharisees and scribes], “All too well you reject the commandment of God, that you may keep your TRADITION...and making the word of God of no effect through your TRADITION which you have handed down. And many such things you do.” Mark 7:9, 13
Are we, as Jesus's followers, to keep the tradition of the Catholic Church, or the Word of God, as Jesus Himself did? He foresaw what would happen in the church and knew it would replace God's commandments with the non-biblical traditions of men.

Published by: jane doe
baltimore 04/26/2009 09:06 PM EST

Rate: Regular

you don't need the catholic church or the pope to understand the Bible.he is ONLY a regular man. Pray and ask God to help you understand it and He will.

Published by: Thabo
Newfoundland 04/26/2009 09:05 AM EST

"To the law and to the testimony, if they speak not according to this word it is because there is no light in them. - Isaiah 8:20

Published by: Joe
Oregon/Ohio/U.S.A. 04/25/2009 09:13 PM EST

Bravo Papa Benedito!!

"And count the forbearance of our Lord as salvation. So also our beloved brother Paul wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, speaking of this as he does in all his letters. There are some things in them hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other scriptures. (2 Peter 3:15-16)

"if I am delayed, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and bulwark of the truth." (1 Tim. 3:15)

Published by: Steve Kal
shelby twp., mi 04/25/2009 08:12 AM EST

Hey Jack, Christ said we would be hated by the world. Why does the world hate us? Because we are not of the world but have been chosen out of the world. What the Holy Father said is the MOST unbelieved truth.

Published by: Paul Myers
Auburn,CA\USA 04/24/2009 10:00 PM EST

I cannot stop a cringe when I hear Scripture, [and the U.S. constitution] referred to as a 'living document'. Traditions of men are very powerful. Saint Augustine asserts the correctness of the word and the falibility of the reader.

Published by: Brian L Welch
Tulsa, OK 04/24/2009 07:02 PM EST

When Jesus said the Holy Spirit would "guide you into all truth," he was speaking to the apostles and referencing The Church he would build through them. I find it ironic that Mom2nine, in her comment, quotes 2 Peter to deny church authority in scripture interpretation, yet clearly uses her individual interpretation of scripture as a basis for this argument. Bottom line, if The Scriptures were open to interpretation by individuals all Protestant churches would believe the same, as they all agree on "sola scriptura," and disagree on pretty much everything else.

Published by: Vickie
Draper, VA USA 04/24/2009 04:38 PM EST

Before you give accolades--you better READ the scriptures for YOURSELF.
Matt. 15:9--you worship in VAIN, following the commandments of MAN. (See how the church has changed the laws, added, rejected, took out number 2 of the commandments written by God's own finger)
Mark 7:9-"Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own TRADITION. The church is big on TRADITION, but NOT Truth."
As for the Holy Spirit--the Bible which the pope says can only be understood by the church, through the Holy Spirit-----that Holy spirit is given to and lives IN you (2 Timothy 1:4, 1 Thessalonians 4:8
READ THE WORD, don't let ANYONE dictate it to you---God will reveal it to EVERYONE who reads with an honest, searching heart. This article is misleading, and keeps people just as chained to the papacy and error as the Dark Ages did! "Work out your OWN slavation with fear and trembling." Philippians 2:12
Want Truth?

Published by: Bobby Rajan
UK 04/24/2009 11:54 AM EST

Rate: Good

The Bible can be interpreted only with the help of the Holy Spirit. No man or group of believers is above the Holy Spirit.
Please see John 16:13. It is stark clear. He will guide one into ALL truth.

Published by: Mom2nine
Virginia 04/23/2009 07:13 PM EST

Rate: Good

"Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come." John 16:13

Would the pope presume to say that Jesus was wrong when He said the Holy Spirit would guide us into all truth?

"Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation." 2 Peter 1:19-21

Let Scripture and God speak for Himself without the arm of flesh to corrupt its understanding.

Published by: Bert
Los Angeles 04/23/2009 06:25 PM EST

"Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?" (1 Corinthians 1:20)

You have no idea, Paul! (He does)

John, the Holy Father did say, "it is the Holy Spirit Who provides her with the interpretation thereof in accordance with its spiritual meaning." And maybe he said more about that in the whole speech.

Published by: Dan
Santa Fe/NM/US 04/23/2009 03:22 PM EST

I agree. Amen

Published by: Jack
BC Canada 04/23/2009 02:18 PM EST

Now you know why the church is so hated. Truth is rejected by the lost.

Published by: John Tolo
Roseville 04/23/2009 02:01 PM EST

I appreciate and respect everything that Our Holy Father has to say. I mbelieve that the Churches role is to bring forth and protect the integrity of the Word as it is shared. What I see missing from here that I know that this is the also the teaching of the Church. I don't see the influence of the Holy Spirit mentioned here in understanding God Word to us.

Published by: Jack
NY 04/23/2009 12:17 PM EST

Rate: Good

Reading the Bible oustide fo the Church's guidance will lead many into error. The pseudo-scholars who have done nothing but attack and undermine the Truth of the Bible being the Word of God is herrendous. They are in many universities and use their posh positions as a platform attack the Church. Sacred Scripture is inspired by the Holy Spirit.

Published by: RRT
Weston, MA 04/23/2009 11:25 AM EST

Rate: Good

Awesome... Just as he wrote in Called to Communion, "the Word needs a witness," i.e., the apostolic tradition.

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