"People of the book" (not)

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It’s an odd statement, it is, in paragraph 108 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

It says that we, Catholics, are NOT “people of the book.” Rather we are people of the living Word of God

So, why did the Bishops of the world “go negative” in this paragraph? Who are they arguing with?

I’m reading a Jewish Publication Society Commentary on the Torah: Deuteronomy written by Jeffrey Tigay.

This contains an essay on the Jewish interpretation of Deuteronomy 31:10ff, in which Moses writes down his instruction for the Israelite people, giving them the direction to read this instruction to the people every seven years.

He points out that it was “Arabs” in the middle ages who, commenting on this command of Moses, referred to Jews and Christians as “people(s) of the book.”

So, the Catholic Church takes exception to this idea, that we are slaves to the “dead letter” of the book (Bible), and asserts instead that we are committed to the living Word of the Scriptures, reading them as we do, invoking the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

Nonetheless, the Jews are proud of the appellation People of the Book, as much as they are committed to fulfilling the direction of Moses (under the inspiration of God). Again, the scripture calls for reading it to the people every seven years. In practice, the Jews used to read the Torah once a year, and now have the current practice of reading it on a three-year cycle.

Interestingly, Tigay remarks that Moses’ command is to the people. It’s not specifically or exclusively addressed to the Jewish priests. SO…this is his explanation for the fact that the scripture authority in Judaism resides in non-priests, the rabbis.

I just wrote a post yesterday, alleging that the development of Jewish rabbinism was not Biblical. So, today I learned of the claim that rabbinic Judaism is the quintessential response to Moses’ statement in Deuteronomy.
 
A different perspective:

“She lived her own life, which had been handed down to her as such, before the texts and together with them, in the texts and, yet, not limited to them, independently of them. She was the Church from the time of the apostles and not the product of their writings;”
The Meaning of Tradition by Yves Congar, O.P.
 
…and, in the Divine economy, all that was written down was all that needed to be written down.
 
Our religion is not founded on a “book”, but on a Person, Jesus, the incarnate Word; we do not place our faith in a “book”, but in Jesus; we do not trust a “book” to save us, but Jesus.

Keeping that in mind, paragraph 108 makes perfect sense.
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. 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.”
 
The Catholic Church is like a three legged stool consisiting of, i.e. The Pope and Magisterium, Sacred Tradition, and The Scriptures. To declare we are the “people of the book” negates two very important legs of that stool, and sets the precedence of making the Church more “protestant”. Father Martin Luther eventually denied the autority of the Pope and Tradition, which left him solely with “the book”.
The Catholic Church will never walk away from the full authority of the Pope and Magisterium as well as Sacred Tradition.
 
I presume they are responding to people who think Catholicism is just another denomination with a certain take on the Bible. Protestant denominations are more “of the book.” They do not predate the writing or assembly of the NT. They are “based” on their interpretations of the Bible.
 
Crumpy said:
It’s an odd statement, it is, in paragraph 108 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

It says that we, Catholics, are NOT “people of the book.” Rather we are people of the living Word of God
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Not odd, really. Catholics don’t believe in a book. Catholics believe in God.
 
And Catholics likewise believe in one God. And that God incarnate became the son of man and walked amongst us breaking NOT ONE LETTER of the law, and fulfilling and completing that same law and establishing a new covenant with humanity by his sacrifice on the cross for us.

Thus indeed it is fallacious and blatantly untrue to say that Catholics are a “people of the book”. We believe in Christ and Christ did not come down and write a book, he started a Church. The Church compiled the new testament. It existed before it ever came into being. Thus reason determines the nature of the Church and of the Catholic Faith is not merely an enslavement and unchangeing legalistic conformity to an unchangeable text nor an enslavement to varying wordly human interpretations of a book which alone is held as the font of truth. But instead we believe that in a living faith which as we are taught is held up by a threefold authority.

This authority is of course Sacred Tradition, Sacred Scripture and Sacred Magisterium. All of these are interdependant on the other and sustain the greater whole, take away one and they all fall. A certain case point which emerged in the latter half of the second millenium being evident of that truth.
 
Crumpy said:
Nonetheless, the Jews are proud of the appellation People of the Book, as much as they are committed to fulfilling the direction of Moses (under the inspiration of God). Again, the scripture calls for reading it to the people every seven years. In practice, the Jews used to read the Torah once a year, and now have the current practice of reading it on a three-year cycle.
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Click to expand...
Just a quick note. Many, if not most, jewish congregations read through the Torah once a year. Some congregations, usually in the Conservative or Reform movement, are on a three-year cycle.
 
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