“What the Bible is and what it isn’t”

[Cal_Catholic]

Bishop of Santa Rosa issues guidance on reading of sacred scriptures

Full article…

“What the Bible is and what it isn’t”

Bishop of Santa Rosa issues guidance on reading of sacred scriptures

From the website of the Diocese of Santa Rosa.

October 2009

My Dear People,

http://www.calcatholic.com/newsimages/BishopWalsh071609.jpgOne of the challenges we face as disciples of Jesus is to deepen our knowledge of our faith. So often as we grow up into adulthood, our knowledge of the faith remains on a child’s level. With the secular world we live in it is necessary for each of us to have an adult faith that is able to withstand and reject the false values and the pressures of the secular society we live in. One way to a mature faith is the prayerful reading of the Scriptures. It is in prayerful reading of the Scriptures that we learn to embrace the gospel values that Jesus proclaimed.

Today’s Catholic is called to take an intelligent, spiritual approach to the Bible. Here are some suggestions to help in developing an understanding approach to daily, prayerful Scripture reading.

Begin and end the reading of the bible with prayer. Reading the Bible is not like reading a novel or a history book. It should begin with a prayer asking the Holy Spirit to open our hearts and minds to the Word of God. Scripture reading should end with a prayer that this Word of God will bear fruit in our lives, helping us to become holier and more faithful disciples of Jesus.

 

[EnterCanaan]

Prayer is very good, however there is a hermenutic(sp?) to reading the bible, meaning, there are established principals that need to be followed in order to discern. Prayer is a good way to ask God if you are on the right track, But God already tells us EXACTLY how to study His word.

Rule1:Compare Scripture to Scripture.
Is 28:10 For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little.
Is 28:13 But the word of the Lord was to them, “Precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little there a little,” That they might go and fall backward, and be broken and snared and caught.
1 Cor 2:13 These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches, but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual.

Rule2:The Word is given as parables.

Ps 78:2 I will open my mouth in a parable; I will utter dark sayings of old.
Matt 13:34 All these things Jesus spoke to the multitude in parables; and without a parable He did not speak to them,
Matt 13:35 that is might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying: “I will open My mouth in parables; I will utter things which have been kept secret from the foundation of the world.”
Mark 5:33 And with many such parables He spoke the word to them as they were able to hear it.
Mark 5:34 But without a parable He did not speak to them. And when they were alone, He explained all things to His disciples.
Luke 12:41 Then Peter said to Him, “Lord do you speak this parable only to us, or to all people?”
Luke 12:42 And the Lord said, “Who then is that faithful and wise steward, whom his master will make ruler over his household, to give them their portion of food
in due season?”

Rule3:When God repeates Himself, the thing is establsihed.

Gen 41:32 And the dream was repeated to Pharaoh twice because **the thing is established **by God, and God will shortly bring it to pass.

 

[Chesster]

Let us not forget what the CCC says with regards to Scripture reading:

**III. THE HOLY SPIRIT, INTERPRETER OF SCRIPTURE

**109 In Sacred Scripture, God speaks to man in a human way. To interpret Scripture correctly, the reader must be attentive to what the human authors truly wanted to affirm, and to what God wanted to reveal to us by their words.75
110 In order to discover the sacred authors’ intention, the reader must take into account the conditions of their time and culture, the literary genres in use at that time, and the modes of feeling, speaking and narrating then current. "For the fact is that truth is differently presented and expressed in the various types of historical writing, in prophetical and poetical texts, and in other forms of literary expression."76
111 But since Sacred Scripture is inspired, there is another and no less important principle of correct interpretation, without which Scripture would remain a dead letter. "Sacred Scripture must be read and interpreted in the light of the same Spirit by whom it was written."77
The Second Vatican Council indicates three criteria for interpreting Scripture in accordance with the Spirit who inspired it.78
112 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.79

The phrase “heart of Christ” can refer to Sacred Scripture, which makes known his heart, closed before the Passion, as the Scripture was obscure. But the Scripture has been opened since the Passion; since those who from then on have understood it, consider and discern in what way the prophecies must be interpreted.80
113 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"81).
114 3. Be attentive to the analogy of faith.82 By “analogy of faith” we mean the coherence of the truths of faith among themselves and within the whole plan of Revelation.

The senses of Scripture
115 According to an ancient tradition, one can distinguish between two *senses *of Scripture: the literal and the spiritual, the latter being subdivided into the allegorical, moral and anagogical senses. The profound concordance of the four senses guarantees all its richness to the living reading of Scripture in the Church.

116 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."83
117 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; thus the crossing of the Red Sea is a sign or type of Christ’s victory and also of Christian Baptism.84
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”.85
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.86