What is the Catholic teaching about scripture?

[Melchior]

In all the Sola Scriptura threads people seem to be spending so much time addressing Protestant beliefs that I have not been able to determine the role and authority that Scripture has in the Catholic Church. I tend to think some folks are diminishing the role of scripture in an attempt to counter Sola Scriptura. In other words some people are making it look like scripture is not all that important or that it was somehow non-existent until 367 AD. I am sure the Catholic Church teaches neither (at least I hope). Could some of you explain the importance of Scripture from a Catholic perspective?

I would like to see the positive view of scripture the negative has been discussed ad nauseum.

Mel

 

[theMutant]

Then you need go no further than the documents of the Second Vatican Council. The Scripture is the inerrant Word of God written under divine inspiration. It contains nothing that is wrong (although it contains much that is frequently misunderstood) and does not contradict Catholic teaching in any way. Scripture is part of the Church’s sacred Tradition and all Catholics are reminded by the Church that to be ignorant of the Scriptures is to be ignorant of Christ.

 

[gmk]

From my understanding, there are 3 sources of “authority” in the Roman Catholic Church:

Scripture
Tradition (capital T)
The Magisterium (sp?)

They are not independant of each other, they never contradict each other. All 3 work together to interpret, teach and explain the others.

In the end we treat Scripture with the same respect as a Protestant, it is just that we believe Christ also gave us other trustworthy ways with which to learn about Him and Salvation.

 

[gmk]

By the way…the Church certainly doesn’t teach that Scripture didn’t exist prior to the councils in the 4th century.

What people are likely referring to are the councils in which the New Testament Canon was established. Clearly though the books that make up the Canon were written around the first and century.

This is often used to refute Sola Scriptura because the arguement is “if the Bible wasn’t even around then, how could people have lived by Sola”. In the end, this arguement doesn’t work, trust me I tried it!

What seems to help is showing the places in Scripture where we are clearly told to “hold fast” to Traditions…Also understanding the warnings that Christ gives about tradition. That He was not actually condeming tradition itself, but the use of man made traditions to over-rule or ignore God’s commands.

 

[JimG]

Scripture has always had a special place in Catholic faith and in our worship. Even before the canon of scripture was finalized, the church was circulating the letters of Paul, the gospels, and other new testament writings. These were read to congregations before the Eucharist, much as we do today. Old Testament writings were also used. During the next several centuries the church began to discern which writings should be permanently made a part of the canon of scripture, using the criteria of apostolicity, orthodoxy, and liturgical use.

(It is worth noting that the so-called “gnostic gospels” which are being resurrected today, were never even considered. From the beginning they were known to be heretical and fraudulent.)

The most recent issue of The Catholic Answer, published by Our Sunday Visitor press, has a good article about the development of the bible.

JimG

 

[ajcatholic]

First, the Church wrote the New Testament.

Second, the Church put all the books in the New Testament together (Note that we all have the same books in the New Testament)

Third, the Bible is the basis for all authority. The church cannot come up with a tradition that opposes the scritpures. You could say that the scriptures or Bible is the basis for truth. No teaching can be put forth by the church that opposes scripture.

Fourth and probably most important, the Holy Spirit leads the church in its teachings and in the inspiration of the Bible. Jesus did say:

John 14:
16 And I will pray the Father, and he will give you another
Counselor, to be with you for ever,

John 16:
12 "I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear
them now.
13 When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the
truth;

Hope this helps,

Buzz