I was Protestant for over 39 years, and even went to a Protestant Bible college and have an undergraduate degree in Biblical studies, so when I became Catholic, I thought Catholics viewed the Bible like i did,esp when it came to scholoarly matters of interpretation, but I recently read in the preface of my new Catholic Bible that Catholics do not interperet the Creation story as literal, that the words of Paul and Jesus may or maynot have been theirs and in the end, it doesnt matter if they said those exact words, but as long as the reader gets the truth in those statements, that’s what matters, etc. Needless to say, I am very shocked, for the way I view sacred Scripture seems to be very different from the Catholic Church, and I just cannot give up how I interpret Scripture.
The Catechism states that figurative language was sometimes employed in Genesis to convey literal truths. The literal truths include the important ones- such as that we all share a single pair of first parents who literally disobeyed God, committing the Original sin.
Nowhere does the Catechism state that Paul and Jesus’ words were not there own, regardless of the opinion of non-official exegesis wherever it may be found. OTOH, the Church does hold a different opinion about Scripture. Her people were already proclaiming the faith before the NT was written after all so we don’t view Scripture as the sole authority-the Church, herself, actually has that role.
You should consider the teachings in the Catechism on Scripture beginning at par. 101. Here are some excerpts:
**107 The inspired books teach the truth. "Since therefore all that the inspired authors or sacred writers affirm should be regarded as affirmed by the Holy Spirit, we must acknowledge that the books of Scripture firmly, faithfully, and without error teach that truth which God, for the sake of our salvation, wished to see confided to the Sacred Scriptures."72
108 Still, the Christian faith is not a “religion of the book.” Christianity is the religion of the “Word” of God, a word which is “not a written and mute word, but the Word which is incarnate and living”.73 If the Scriptures are not to remain a dead letter, Christ, the eternal Word of the living God, must, through the Holy Spirit, "open [our] minds to understand the Scriptures."74
The Second Vatican Council indicates three criteria for interpreting Scripture in accordance with the Spirit who inspired it.
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.
- 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
- 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
- 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**
