We must look to the Church for interpretation - but how?

hamburglar · Feb 9, 2008

Okay, I know private interpretation can be dangerous, and we are to look to the Church for interpretation. That’s great, but where can I find this interpretation? Surely I don’t want to ask on CAF whenever I need the Catholic Church’s interpretation.

LilyM · Feb 9, 2008

hamburglar said:
Okay, I know private interpretation can be dangerous, and we are to look to the Church for interpretation. That’s great, but where can I find this interpretation? Surely I don’t want to ask on CAF whenever I need the Catholic Church’s interpretation.

The good ol’ CCC (Catechism) is a very good place to start to look for the Church’s interpretation of different Bible passages.

stfrancisway · Feb 9, 2008

CCC start with par. 67 (that has to do with personal, “private” revelation) . If you want guidelines on how to interpret the bible, or how to the read the bible, then go to par. 74-141

Also, Dei Verbum is a great little read.

Nita · Feb 9, 2008

The Church has defined very few Scripture passages in an infallible sense. You are free to interpret Scripture as you read it - in a way that conforms with Catholic doctrine and teaching.

With that condition, you can see how critical it is to study the official teachings of our Church. They are like a safety hedge or fence that keep us from falling off the edge - into the abyss of error as we read Scripture and ponder its meaning. It is really very “freeing” to have the established boundaries of doctrine.

I’ll add my vote for the CCC to LilyM’s and stfrancisway’s. Another great book is “Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma”.

If you just want to check commentary on certain verses (beyond what is in your own Bible), you can check out the Geo. Haydock Bible on line.

haydock1859.tripod.com

Nita

jcrichton · Feb 10, 2008

hamburglar said:
Okay, I know private interpretation can be dangerous, and we are to look to the Church for interpretation. That’s great, but where can I find this interpretation? Surely I don’t want to ask on CAF whenever I need the Catholic Church’s interpretation.

***Hi, hamburglar!

You’ve gotten some excellent answers… you can also find the Church’s interpretation of Scriptures in her Doctrines, specifically the Holy Mass!

Maran atha!

Angel

PS: OK… this is waaaay off-topic… but I have to know… what happened to you? …I mean… one day there you were trying to get another burger… then, puff!.. I couldn’t even find you in those old clips of the olden commercials!***

COPLAND_3 · Feb 10, 2008

To echo what the others said, the Catechism. It defines the Sacred Doctrine of our Faith. But what I think you are asking, and correct me if I am wrong, is interpreting the Bible verse by verse or in selected passages, such as Bible study. The Church does not have an offical Bible commentary, though that would be quite interesting if She did. But we do have 2000 years of the best commentaries on Scripture. I prefer the Early Church Fathers and Doctors of the Church. They are available, and if you are interested in their commentaries then I will fix you right up with links to give you access, just ask!

If you are only interested in Sacred Doctrine, such as Trinity, Sacraments, Apostles Creed, etc etc, then all you need is the Catechism. If you are interested in commentaries on the Bible, then the Catechism is very limited in that area, but you can use the Scripture index in the back and find the verse you are interested in and then turn to the page number where the Catechism quotes it, sometimes you can strike gold that way. But if you want a patristic commentary on the Bible then go to the Fathers and Doctors of the Church.

hamburglar · Feb 10, 2008

COPLAND_3 said:
To echo what the others said, the Catechism. It defines the Sacred Doctrine of our Faith. But what I think you are asking, and correct me if I am wrong, is interpreting the Bible verse by verse or in selected passages, such as Bible study. The Church does not have an offical Bible commentary, though that would be quite interesting if She did.

Yes, that is what I am asking. I have a strong grasp on the basics of Catholic doctrine, but of course, I can still learn more.

Let’s say I don’t understand a certain part of scripture, maybe a couple of verses, and I don’t know how to interpret it. I guess I was looking for some commentary where you could look up verses of the Bible, and see what they mean. I know the NAB has footnotes, and that is nice (many of the times, sometimes they seem a bit, err, not in complete alignment with Catholic doctrine).

I don’t want someone ask “Hey, what does this verse mean for Catholics?” and I respond “I don’t know, but let me teach you a bit about the doctrine of Original Sin.”

jcrichton said:
PS: OK… this is waaaay off-topic… but I have to know… what happened to you? …I mean… one day there you were trying to get another burger… then, puff!.. I couldn’t even find you in those old clips of the olden commercials!

I don’t know. They phased me out. I think it’s because they got attacked for marketing unhealthy food to kids. Robble, robble, robble…

COPLAND_3 · Feb 10, 2008

hamburglar,

Commentaries is what you need! There are plenty of them. This thread has motivated me to search and find all the Patristic commetnaries that I can online. I will post what I have right now. Some people on here may give you some modern commentaries, hopefully Catholic ones, but I am going to post what I have found from the Doctors and Fathers of the Church. Some will be from the googlebooks search, which will have limited preview, but it does allow for some access to some hard to get material. If it by some chance does not show up very good on this board, then email and I will send you all the links. jlitteral5@roadrunner.com

COPLAND_3 · Feb 10, 2008

COPLAND_3 · Feb 10, 2008

1John
St. Augustine
newadvent.org/fathers/1702.htm

Revelation

St. Bede
apocalyptic-theories.com/theories/bede/bede.html

St. Victorinus
newadvent.org/fathers/0712.htm

Dionysius Syrus
tertullian.org/fathers/dionysius_syrus_revelation_01.htm

Crumpy · Feb 11, 2008

This thread subject hits the nail on the head, doesn’t it?

Don’t overlook reading Jesus of Nazareth by Pope Benedict XVI, to which he is supposedly writing a sequel.

And, don’t fail to watch for the Fall Synod of Bishops in Rome on the topic of Scripture in the Everyday life of the Church. I haven’t double checked this, but I think that’s the title of part 6 of Verbum Dei.

Benedict’s devotion to scripture as a theologian is what I think is driving him to set more precedents for the use and understanding of scripture, in this, the jubilee year of the birth of St. Paul.

In JON, though, Benedict gives a great and extended Bible study using what he calls the Patristic (I think that’s the word he used) method of bible study, which is to take the Bible as a unity.

As another illustration of this, in his other book “In the Beginning” Benedict uses the opening verses of the gospel of John to complement the first chapters of Genesis, regarding the topic of the biblical view of creation.

Since the CCC was published, it has sort of thrown down the standard for biblical interpretation according to the various “senses”. Sure, of course, we’d all like to find that one-stop shopping commentary that teases out the literal, allegorical, moral, and anagogical senses of the verses. Until that comes, we’re using all the resources mentioned in the previous posts.

In Rod Bennett’s “Four Witnesses” he discusses Bible controversies in the early Church. For several years, I used to express my conviction this way, that the Catholic Church is the best place to study scripture. Then, a couple months ago, I read Bennett’s explanation (in view of all the heresies of the early Church, based as they were on “interpretations” of teaching and traditions): “God’s word read by God’s people-- but read in God’s Church, God’s way.” “This was the rule of life followed by the earliest Christians–and it kept their faith sound through the centuries, in a world where the Bible was still being born and printed books were a dream for the distant future.” (pp259-260) Ignatius Press 2002.

PRAY TO THE HOLY SPIRIT (as Fr. Corapi says) Who inspired the Scripture, so that you can understand them for what He intended.

In JON, Benedict makes the point that Scriptures must be read with Faith (or you’ll miss the whole point).

thistle · Feb 12, 2008

hamburglar said:
Yes, that is what I am asking. I have a strong grasp on the basics of Catholic doctrine, but of course, I can still learn more.

Let’s say I don’t understand a certain part of scripture, maybe a couple of verses, and I don’t know how to interpret it. I guess I was looking for some commentary where you could look up verses of the Bible, and see what they mean. I know the NAB has footnotes, and that is nice (many of the times, sometimes they seem a bit, err, not in complete alignment with Catholic doctrine).

I don’t want someone ask “Hey, what does this verse mean for Catholics?” and I respond “I don’t know, but let me teach you a bit about the doctrine of Original Sin.”

I don’t know. They phased me out. I think it’s because they got attacked for marketing unhealthy food to kids. Robble, robble, robble…

Also you can read the D-R Bible, Haydock Commentaries:

haydock1859.tripod.com/

Joe_5859 · Feb 12, 2008

There isn’t an official Church position on every single verse of the Bible. Many passages have multiple interpretations, all of which a faithful Catholic can believe and still be a faithful Catholic.

That being said, looking at a few reliable Bible commentaries is key, Someone already linked to the Haydock. The Navarre Bible and the Ignatius Study Bible are also excellent.

The Vatican Congregation for the Clergy has also released Biblia Clerus. As Copland pointed out in the other thread, this is really a catena more than a commentary. If you click on any given passage in Scripture, it will link you to anywhere in the writings of the Early Church Fathers and magisterial documents that reference that passage. It’s really quite remarkable and definitely gives you an idea of what a given passage means (not, of course, that you can really exhaust the meaning of a passage in Scripture

).

We must look to the Church for interpretation - but how?

hamburglar

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LilyM

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stfrancisway

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Nita

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jcrichton

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COPLAND_3

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hamburglar

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COPLAND_3

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COPLAND_3

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Crumpy

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thistle

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