Church Teachings & Interpreting the Bible

Mark S. Roberti, Director of Stewardship

Heartland Parishes of Ellis County

 

When discussing Christianity with other Christians the most frustrating obstacle can be the Bible itself.  We use different Bibles and we have different interpretations about what is beings said.  Today, I will attempt to explain why this is, why we should have the utmost confidence in the teachings of our Church, and why we should count our blessings for having a teaching church to guide us in understanding Scripture!

 

You may want to cut this article out and put it some place accessible for future reference.  It might just come in handy for you someday.

 

I will start with a suggestion.  Go out and buy two books:  The Catholic Answer Bible (New American Bible)  & Catholicism and Fundamentalism (by Karl Keating).  You can get them at your local Catholic bookstore.  When reading the second book, start at chapter 9.  Read though the end, then read chapters 1 – 8. Both books do an excellent job at scripturally explaining the lion’s share of Catholic teachings that are repeatedly challenged by our separated brothers and sisters.   

 

Below, in bullet form, are some historical facts about the Bible:

 

  1. The Old Testament was first translated into Greek sometime between 250 B.C. and 100 B.C. in Alexandria Egypt.  They translated 46 Hebrew and Greek books, now called the “Alexandrian” Canon.  Those books are still used as the Catholic Old Testament today. 
  2. Around the year 100 A.D., as a result of a perceived threat by certain rabbis concerned with a rapidly growing Christian community, a Jewish council was held in Jamnia, Palestine.  These rabbis agreed upon 39 books, now called the “Palestinian Canon.”  They rejected seven O.T. books from the Alexandrian  canon including Wisdom, Sirach, Judith, Baruch, Tobit, 1st & 2nd  Macabees, and parts of Esther and Daniel, primarily because they did not have copies in Hebrew.  The 39 books of this canon are used in Protestant Bibles.  
  3. The Alexandrian Canon contains about 300 of the 350 Old Testament quotes used in the New Testament…which is substantially more than that of the Palestinian Canon.   
  4. The entire Christian Church used the Alexandrian Canon as its basis for the Old Testament until the 16th  century.  The 39 books originally in Hebrew are called “proto-canonical, means first canon.   The other seven books originally just in Greek (Hebrew manuscripts had not been located) are called deutero-canonical, meaning second canon.  Until that time, there was never a serious question as to which books comprised the Bible.  Since that time manuscripts in Hebrew of most, if not all, of the deutero-canonical books have been found. 
  5. The Catholic Church formally approved the 73 book canon of the Bible (i.e. the Old and New Testaments) at the 4th Council of Rome in 382.  This was affirmed by several other church councils throughout the ages.  The Council of Trent, 1545-1563, affirmed this dogmatically as a response to the Protestant Reformation.
  6. Between the 4th and 16th century Catholic monks reproduced all copies of the Bible by hand.  The Church oversaw the accuracy of those Bibles.  The faithful were taught orally and in a number of other ways.  Most could neither afford, nor read, a Bible.  Only the very wealthy and the Church had copies.   They were taught the faith through homilies, creeds, catechesis, popular prayers and devotions, paintings, sculpture, stained glass, music, architecture, etc.
  7. In 1517, Martin Luther initiated the Protestant Reformation.  Within 25 years, he was suggesting that the Palestinian Canon be used for the Old Testament.  That was clearly necessary, because his some of his doctrines did not square with the Bible itself.  He even recommended dropping the New Testament Epistle of James (which he called an “epistle of straw”) and the Book of Revelation.  
  8. What is probably the most important things to understand is that although many Christians believe the Bible is the foundation of all truth, that is not what the Bible, itself, teachers.  The Bible calls the Church the pillar and foundation of the truth (1 Tim 3:15). As shown in points 1 – 7, above, historically, the Bible flows from the Church, not visa versa.

 

End of history lesson.  The questions that beg for an answer, however, are: 1) Where did Luther and the reformers get the authority to change the Bible after 1100 years?  2) Was the inspired Word of God wrong all those years? 3) Did Jesus not keep his promise to the Church in the last verse in the Gospel of Matthew (which is about the establishment of the Church and its teaching authority), that He would be with her until the end of the time? 4) If a new Martin Luther type person came along today and eliminated seven more books of the Bible, would we still have the whole truth and be able to come to the same scriptural conclusion about our faith?

 

Now think about this: since the Reformation, Christianity has divided into thousands of different professions, each teaching its own doctrine while proclaiming to follow the Bible alone.  Catholic’s on the other hand believe that just as there is only one divinely inspired Bible, there is only one divinely inspired interpreter, the Church from which she flows.  The Magesterium of the Church  -- the pope and the bishops in union with him -- are charged with the proper interpretation of Scripture. 

 

The magisterium is to be understood as all the popes and bishops who have lived, and ever will live.  Look at the continuity of Church teachings throughout history!  They have remained true and consistent for 2000 years.  That is the Holy Spirit in action.  Otherwise this would be an impossibility.  Where many Christian denominations of today are either imploding, or springing up left and right, the teachings of the Catholic Church remain constant and sure with a living magesterium that can respond to the social, medical, scientific, etc., concern of the modern age which were never addressed in the Bible.  

 

We should each read Scripture and try to understand God’s Word and what it means to us.  That’s a very good thing.  The Church encourages it.  We also need to work and pray as closely as possible with our Christian brothers and sisters.  But understand that individual interpretations cannot be relied up.  That’s why God left us a teaching Church which produced the Bible and is the divinely appointed protector and interpreter of God’s Word.  Understanding that is good stewardship.  It results in unity, not division.