|
Proper
Interpretation of Scripture |
"...a humble and devout frame of mind is
conducive to the understanding of Holy Scripture." (Pope
Benedict XV, "Spiritus Paraclitus", 1920 A.D.)
"[W]hen discussing Holy Scripture it
is not words we want so much as the meaning of words." (St. Jerome,
Doctor of the Church) "And
let them remember that prayer should accompany the reading of Sacred
Scripture, so that God and man may talk together, for 'we speak to Him
when we pray; we hear Him when we read the divine saying'." (Second
Vatican Council)
"For
all of what has been said about the way of interpreting Scripture is
subject finally to the judgment of the Church, which carries out the
divine commission and ministry of guarding and interpreting the word of
God." (Second Vatican Council)
Error
CONDEMNED by Pope St. Pius X in "Lamentabili": The Church's interpretation of the Sacred Books is by no
means to be rejected; nevertheless, it is subject to the more accurate
judgment and correction of the exegetes." (Pope St. Pius X,
This proposition was condemned in "Lamentabili",
1907 A.D.)
"The whole series of the divine
Scriptures
is interpreted in a fourfold way. In all holy books one should
ascertain what everlasting truths are therein intimated, what deeds
are narrated, what future events are foretold, and what commands
or counsels are there contained." (St. Bede the Venerable,
Doctor of the Church)
"I earnestly warn the prudent reader
not to pay attention to superstitious interpretations such as are
given cut and dried according to some interpreter's fancy. He
should study the beginning, middle, and end, and so form a
connected idea of the whole of what he finds written." (St. Jerome,
Doctor of the Church)
"As for methods of expounding Holy
Scripture - 'for amongst the dispensers of the mysteries of God it
is required that a man be found faithful' - St. Jerome lays down
that we have got to keep to the 'true interpretation, and that the
real function of a commentator is to set forth not what he himself
would like his author to mean, but what he really does
mean.'" (Pope Benedict XV, "Spiritus Paraclitus",
1920 A.D.) "[T]he
rule so wisely laid down by St. Augustine - not to depart from the
literal and obvious sense, except only where reason makes it untenable
or necessity requires; a rule to which it is the more necessary to
adhere strictly in these times, when the thirst for novelty and
unrestrained freedom of thought make the danger of error most real and
proximate." (Pope Leo XIII, "Providentissimus Deus",
1893)
"Furthermore,
in order to restrain petulant spirits, It decrees, that no one, relying
on his own skill, shall, - in matters of faith, and of morals pertaining
to the edification of Christian doctrine, - wresting the sacred
Scripture to his own senses, presume to interpret the said sacred
Scripture contrary to that sense which holy mother Church, - whose it is
to judge of the true sense and interpretation of the holy Scriptures, -
hath held and doth hold; or even contrary to the unanimous consent of
the [Church] Fathers; even though such interpretations were never (intended) to
be at any time published. Contraveners shall be made known by their
Ordinaries, and be punished with the penalties by law established."
(Council of Trent)
"But, since the rules which the holy Synod of Trent
salutarily decreed concerning the interpretation of Divine
Scripture in order to restrain impetuous minds, are wrongly explained by certain men, We, renewing the same decree, declare
this to be its intention: that, in matters of faith and morals
pertaining to the instruction of Christian Doctrine, that must be
considered as the true sense of Sacred Scripture which Holy Mother
Church has held and holds, whose office it is to judge concerning
the true understanding and interpretation of the Sacred
Scriptures; and, for that reason, no one is permitted to interpret
Sacred Scripture itself contrary to this sense, or even contrary
to the unanimous agreement of the [Church] Fathers." (Vatican Council
I, 1870 A.D.)
"But
the task of authentically interpreting the word of God, whether written
or handed on, has been entrusted exclusively to the living teaching
office of the Church, whose authority is exercised in the name of Jesus
Christ. This teaching office is not above the word of God, but serves
it, teaching only what has been handed on, listening to it devoutly,
guarding it scrupulously and explaining it faithfully in accord with a
divine commission and with the help of the Holy Spirit, it draws from
this one deposit of faith everything which it presents for belief as
divinely revealed. It is clear, therefore, that sacred tradition, Sacred
Scripture and the teaching authority of the Church, in accord with God's
most wise design, are so linked and joined together that one cannot
stand without the others, and that all together and each in its own way
under the action of the one Holy Spirit contribute effectively to the
salvation of souls." (Second Vatican Council)
"It
always was, and is today, the usual practice of Catholics to test
the true faith by two methods: first, by the authority of the
divine Canon, and then, by the tradition of the Catholic Church.
Not that the Canon is insufficient in itself in each case. But,
because most [false] interpreters of the Divine Word make use of
their own arbitrary judgment and thus fall into various opinions
and errors, the understanding of Holy Scripture must conform to
the single rule of Catholic teaching - and this especially in
regard to those questions upon which the foundations of all
Catholic dogma are laid." (St. Vincent of Lerins)
"[T]he
Holy Fathers, We say, are of supreme authority, whenever they all
interpret in one and the same manner any text of the Bible, as
pertaining to the doctrine of faith or morals; for their unanimity
clearly evinces that such interpretation has come down from the Apostles
as a matter of Catholic faith. The opinion of the Fathers is also of
very great weight when they treat of these matters in their capacity of
doctors, unofficially; not only because they excel in their knowledge of
revealed doctrine and in their acquaintance with many things which are
useful in understanding the apostolic Books, but because they are men of
eminent sanctity and of ardent zeal for the truth, on whom God has
bestowed a more ample measure of His light. Wherefore the expositor
should make it his duty to follow their footsteps with all reverence,
and to use their labors with intelligent appreciation." (Pope Leo
XIII, "Providentissimus Deus", 1893)
"To return, however, to the question of the
formation of Biblical students. We must lay the foundations in
piety and humility of mind; only when we have done that does St.
Jerome invite us to study the Bible. In the first place, he
insists, in season and out, on daily reading of the text.
'Provided,' he says, 'our bodies are not the slaves of sin, wisdom
will come to us; but exercise your mind, feed it daily with Holy
Scripture.' And again: 'We have got, then, to read Holy Scripture
assiduously; we have got to meditate on the Law of God day and
night so that, as expert money-changers, we may be able to detect
false coin from true.'" (Pope Benedict XV, "Spiritus
Paraclitus", 1920 A.D.)
"However,
since God speaks in Sacred Scripture through men in human fashion, the
interpreter of Sacred Scripture, in order to see clearly what God wanted
to communicate to us, should carefully investigate what meaning the
sacred writers really intended, and what God wanted to manifest by means
of their words. To search out the intention of the sacred writers,
attention should be given, among other things, to 'literary forms.' For
truth is set forth and expressed differently in texts which are
variously historical, prophetic, poetic, or of other forms of discourse.
The interpreter must investigate what meaning the sacred writer intended
to express and actually expressed in particular circumstances by using
contemporary literary forms in accordance with the situation of his own
time and culture. For the correct understanding of what the sacred
author wanted to assert, due attention must be paid to the customary and
characteristic styles of feeling, speaking and narrating which prevailed
at the time of the sacred writer, and to the patterns men normally
employed at that period in their everyday dealings with one
another." (Second Vatican Council)
"[St.]
Jerome then goes on to say that all interpretation rests on the literal
sense, and that we are not to think that there is no literal sense
merely because a thing is said metaphorically, for 'the history itself
is often presented in metaphorical dress and described figuratively.'
Indeed, he himself affords the best refutation of those who maintain
that he says that certain passages have no historical meaning: 'We are
not rejecting the history, we are merely giving a spiritual
interpretation of it.' Once, however, he has firmly established the
literal or historical meaning, Jerome goes on to seek our deeper and
hidden meanings, as to nourish his mind with more delicate food. Thus he
says of the Book of Proverbs - and he makes the same remark about other
parts of the Bible - that we must not stop at the simple literal sense:
'Just as we have to seek gold in the earth, for the kernel in the shell,
for the chestnut's hidden fruit beneath its hairy coverings, so in Holy
Scripture we have to dig deep for its divine meaning.' When teaching
Paulinus 'how to make true progress in the Bible,' he says: 'Everything
we read in the Sacred Books shines and glitters even in its outer shell;
but the marrow of it is sweeter. If you want the kernel you must break
the shell.' At the same time, he insists that in searching for this
deeper meaning we must proceed in due order, 'lest in our search for
spiritual riches we seem to despise the history as poverty-stricken.'
Consequently he repudiates many mystical interpretations alleged by
ancient writers; for he feels that they are not sufficiently based on
the literal meaning: When all these promises of which the Prophets sang
are regarded not merely as empty sounds or idle tropological
expressions, but as established on earth and having solid historical
foundations, then, can we put on them the coping-stone of a spiritual
interpretation." (Pope Benedict XV, "Spiritus Paraclitus",
1920)
"...the great error of those others as well
who boldly venture to explain and interpret the words of God by
their own judgment, misusing their reason and holding the opinion
that these words are like a human work. God Himself has set up a
living authority to establish and teach the true and legitimate
meaning of His heavenly revelation. This authority judges
infallibly all disputes which concern matters of faith and morals,
lest the faithful be swirled around by every wind of doctrine
which springs from the evilness of men in encompassing error. And
this living infallible authority is active only in that Church
which was built by Christ the Lord upon Peter, the head of the
entire Church, leader and shepherd, whose faith He promised would
never fail. This Church has had an unbroken line of succession
from Peter himself; these legitimate pontiffs are the heirs and
defenders of the same teaching, rank, office and power. And the
Church is where Peter is, and Peter speaks in the Roman Pontiff,
living at all times in his successors and making judgment,
providing the truth of the faith to those who seek it. The divine
words therefore mean what this Roman See of the most blessed Peter
holds and has held. For this mother and teacher of all the
churches has always preserved entire and unharmed the faith
entrusted to it by Christ the Lord. Furthermore, it has taught it
to the faithful, showing all men truth and the path of salvation." (Pope Pius IX, "Qui Pluribus", 1846 A.D.) "Therefore, let the interpreter with all
care and without neglect of the light which the more recent
investigations have shed, strive to discern what the real
character and condition of life of the sacred writer were; in what
age he flourished; what sources he used whether written or oral,
and what forms of expression he employed. Thus he will be able to
know better who the sacred writer was, and what he wished to
indicate by his writing. For it escapes no one that the highest
norm of interpretation is that by which what the writer intends to
say is perceived and defined, as St. Athanasius advises: 'Here, as
it is fitting to do in all other passages of divine Scripture, we
observe that it must be accurately and faithfully considered on
what occasion the Apostle has spoken; what is the person and what
is the subject on which he has written, lest anyone ignorant of
these things, or understanding something else besides them, wander
from the true meaning.' But what the literal sense is in the words
and writings of the old oriental authors is very often not as
clear as it is among the writers of our age. For what they wish to
signify by words is not determined by the laws of grammar or
philology alone, nor by the context of the passage alone; the
interpreter should by all means return mentally, as it were, to
those remote ages of the Orient, in order that rightly assisted by
the aid of history, archaeology, ethnology, and of other
disciplines, he may discern and perceive what so-called literary
genres the writers of that age sought to employ and in fact did
employ. For the old Orientals, to express what they had in mind,
did not always use the same forms and the same modes of speaking
as we do today, but rather those which were accepted for use among
men of their own times and localities... Indeed, let no one who
has a right understanding of Biblical inspiration, be surprised
that among the Sacred Writers, as among the other ancients,
certain definite ways of explaining and narrating are found;
certain kinds of idioms especially appropriate to Semitic
languages, so called approximations, and certain hyperbolic
methods of speaking, yes, sometimes even paradoxes by which events
are more firmly impressed upon the mind. For none of those methods
of speaking is foreign to the Sacred Scriptures which among
ancient peoples, especially among Orientals, human speech
customarily used to express its thought, yet on this condition,
that the kind of speaking employed be not at odds with the
sanctity and truth of God, just as with his usual perspicacity the
Angelic Doctor has noted in the following words: 'In Scripture
divine matters are made known to us in the manner we customarily
employ.' For just as the substantial Word of God was made like
man in all things 'without sin,' so also the words of God,
expressed in human language, in all things have been made like
human speech, without error, which Saint John Chrysostom has
already extolled with highest praise as the...condescension of
a provident God; and which he has asserted again and again is the
case in the Sacred Scriptures. Therefore, let the Catholic
exegete, in order to satisfy the present day needs of Biblical
matters, in explaining Sacred Scripture, and in showing and
proving it free of all error, prudently use this aid, to inquire
how the form of expression and the kind of literature employed by
the Sacred writer, contribute to a true and genuine
interpretation; and let him be convinced that this part of his
office cannot be neglected without great harm to Catholic
exegesis. For not uncommonly - to touch upon one thing only - when
some propose by way of rebuke that the Sacred Authors have strayed
away from historical truth, or have not reported events
accurately, it is found to be a question of nothing other than the
customary natural methods of the ancients in speaking and
narrating, which in the mutual intercourse among men were
regularly employed, and in fact were employed in accord with a
permissible and common practice. Therefore, intellectual honesty
requires that when these matters are found in divine speech which
is expressed for man in human words, they be not charged more with
error than when they are uttered in the daily use of life. "
(Pope Pius XII, "Divino afflante Spiritu", September 30,
1943 A.D.) Also
See: Authority
of Church Fathers / Scripture Interpretation | The
Church Existed Before the Bible | The
Church's Traditional Interpretation of Holy Scripture Is Not
Subject To Correction | Difficulty
of Scripture | The
Gospels Contain Only a Taste of Jesus' Teaching | Holy
Scripture is Truthful / Free From Error | Learning
From Holy Scripture | Literal
/ Spiritual Interpretation of Scripture | Misinterpretation
of Scripture | Praise
/ Benefits of Scripture | Private
Interpretation / Twisting Scripture | Those
Who Deny the Supernatural in Holy Scripture | Vernacular
Translations / Faulty Translations | Written
/ Oral Tradition
Note:
Categories are subjective and may overlap. For more items related
to this topic, please review all applicable categories. For more
'Reflections' and for Scripture topics, see links below.
Top |
Reflections: A-Z | Catg.
| Scripture: A-Z |
Catg.
| Help |
