Bible Inerrancy - partial or total ?

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since thr publication of ‘The Gift of Scripture’,I am disturbed and dismayed as to whether accept the Bible as partially or totally inerrant - anyone else know for certain - twinc
 
twinc said:
since thr publication of ‘The Gift of Scripture’,I am disturbed and dismayed as to whether accept the Bible as partially or totally inerrant - anyone else know for certain - twinc
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The Bible, like any book, cannot stand alone. It must have an authentic and authoritative interpreter in order to get the real meaning out of it. Without that, there are countless errors, as shown by the tens of thousands of man-made Protestant denominations, all relying on personal interpretation of the Bible, with no final authority.

Furthermore, Jesus never wrote a book. He taught orally. He was called “Rabbi” (teacher). He taught orally and commanded the Apostles to teach, likewise. As far as we can tell, He never told anyone to write anything. So, His Word was spread orally by the Apostles and their successors, the bishops. SOME of what was spread orally was written down. That’s the New Testament. But not all. (See John 21:25). Yet, Jesus commanded the Apostles to go forth and teach “ALL.” (See Matt. 28:20). We Catholics hold the oral teaching, which we call Sacred Tradition, on an equal footing with Sacred Scripture (the Bible). And both must be authentically and authoritatively interpreted. Jesus provided us the Church to do this. The Magisterium of the Church (the Pope + the bishops in union with him) teach Christ’s truths authoritatively and authentically. That’s why we have the “fullness of Divine Revelation” in our teachings.
 
“Therefore, since everything asserted by the inspired authors or sacred writers must be held to be asserted by the Holy Spirit, it follows that the books of Scripture must be acknowledged as teaching solidly, faithfully and without error that truth which God wanted put into sacred writings for the sake of salvation.”

- 11Dei Verbum
 
Combining those two answers gives you that the Bible contains no errors when understood properly. What appears to be an error is actually a misunderstanding of what is being written or it is not being written for the purpose of fact so much as a spiritual truth. This is obviously a summary and does not include the issue with translations (which can include errors).
 
Joe_5859 said:
“Therefore, since everything asserted by the inspired authors or sacred writers must be held to be asserted by the Holy Spirit, it follows that the books of Scripture must be acknowledged as teaching solidly, faithfully and without error that truth which God wanted put into sacred writings for the sake of salvation.”

-Dei Verbum 11
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Yes, exactly. The truth that God wanted us to know for the sake of salvation.

Salvation. Not history necessarily, not astronomy, not physics, not medicine.

Salvation.

That which relates to salvation is inerrant. All else - the history, the astronomy, all else - is of its time and affected by the world in which the writers lived.
 
Scripture is completely inerrant, but it is NOT self-interpreting. In other words, individual persons can EASILY draw wrong conclusions from Scripture.

Any goofball can quickly recognize this. Read Song of Songs. Did Soloman REALLY have a lover with a neck “like an ivory tower” and breasts “like twin gazelle?” Yikes. No, those are poetic descriptions of how looking at her makes him feel.

People make the same mistake with Genesis 1 all the time. God didn’t give us the bible to jump start our study of astrophysics. He gave it to us to reveal crucial truths about our identity as humans, His identity as God and the relationship He desires us to have, versus the hash we’ve made of it. Attempting to mis-apply this intent as a physics lesson is about as foolhardy as attempting to draw a portrait of Soloman’s love from his descriptions.

From this, it is evident that humans need help interpreting the bible. As catholics, we’ve got that help readily at hand. Protestants, well, perhaps you’ve noticed how fractured they’ve become in just 500 years? Coincidence???
 
the simple question was partial or total - the simple answer required was ? - anyone still care or dare to simply answer this simple question simply - I am still not certain - twinc
 
manualman said:
Scripture is completely inerrant, but it is NOT self-interpreting. In other words, individual persons can EASILY draw wrong conclusions from Scripture.

Any goofball can quickly recognize this. Read Song of Songs. Did Soloman REALLY have a lover with a neck “like an ivory tower” and breasts “like twin gazelle?” Yikes. No, those are poetic descriptions of how looking at her makes him feel.

People make the same mistake with Genesis 1 all the time. God didn’t give us the bible to jump start our study of astrophysics. He gave it to us to reveal crucial truths about our identity as humans, His identity as God and the relationship He desires us to have, versus the hash we’ve made of it. Attempting to mis-apply this intent as a physics lesson is about as foolhardy as attempting to draw a portrait of Soloman’s love from his descriptions.

From this, it is evident that humans need help interpreting the bible. As catholics, we’ve got that help readily at hand. Protestants, well, perhaps you’ve noticed how fractured they’ve become in just 500 years? Coincidence???
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so are you bordering on saying that God perchance as a master scientist and historian has got His science and history wrong on the sayso of some inflated and elevated human - twinc
 
twinc said:
the simple question was partial or total - the simple answer required was ? - anyone still care or dare to simply answer this simple question simply - I am still not certain - twinc
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The simple answer is that the Bible is inerrant as God intended it. Errors only arise in our understanding of what it is saying. There are many factors that may introduce errors into scripture such as private interpretation, bad translation, improper application, etc. but the Bible itself contains no errors.
 
OchsFam said:
The simple answer is that the Bible is inerrant as God intended it. Errors only arise in our understanding of what it is saying. There are many factors that may introduce errors into scripture such as private interpretation, bad translation, improper application, etc. but the Bible itself contains no errors.
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the very notion or idea that we have to rely on the Church to interpret is neither reasonable,feasible,sensible or possible and so the Church,in her wisdom,has provided a rule that must be followed “not to depart from the literal or obvious unless reason or necessity dictate otherwise” - this is the ruling by St,Augustine and Pope Leo XIII - twinc
 
twinc said:
so are you bordering on saying that God perchance as a master scientist and historian has got His science and history wrong on the sayso of some inflated and elevated human - twinc
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John 3:12 If you do not believe me [Jesus] when I speak to you about earthly things, how will you believe me when I speak to you about heavenly things?

When Darwin creates his own universe, then I’ll believe him about how life came to be.
 
twinc said:
the very notion or idea that we have to rely on the Church to interpret is neither reasonable,feasible,sensible or possible and so the Church,in her wisdom,has provided a rule that must be followed “not to depart from the literal or obvious unless reason or necessity dictate otherwise” - this is the ruling by St,Augustine and Pope Leo XIII - twinc
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I’m not certain but I believe the Church’s position is that the Catholic Church alone, through the pope or the majisterium, is the only one who can infallibly interpret Scripture.
 
twinc said:
the simple question was partial or total - the simple answer required was ? - anyone still care or dare to simply answer this simple question simply - I am still not certain - twinc
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The Bible in itself (as God sees it) is totally inerrant. The Bible as human beings read it can be errant: we do not see the things face to face, er all need interpretation.
 
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