(Word-for-)Word of God?

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Epistemes

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I am really finding a number of questionable remarks made within the context of this article, of which I’ve already made another thread entirely.

In it, the author claims

*The Catholic Church teaches that God is the author of Sacred Scripture such that each and every word in it is written primarily by Him. *

However, I have always been under the opinion that the Bible was not a word-for-word dictation by God to the writers, otherwise the Bible could be levelled by similar accusations made against other such books, like the Qur’an; instead, it has been my impression that Sacred Scripture was, in truth, inspired by God, through the Holy Spirit, but that God, through the Holy Spirit, allowed the sacred writers to dictate according to their own linguistic abilities and devices? The above article appears to contend none of this, and appears to take the stance of a literal fundamentalist, with papal evidence.

Am I wrong in thinking that the Bible was not dictated word-for-word by the Holy Spirit and written accordingly by the authors? Or is the author of this article, which is located on a Catholic Apologetics site (which should carry some level of authority), wrong in suggesting that the Bible was dictated as such?
 
I’ve reading more of this article and find it surprising that the author of the article rejects the whole notion of the “Yahweh” and “Priestly” sources for composing Genesis. Is this also the stance of the Church??
 
Can anyone respond to this for me, please?

I really don’t understand the Church’s position on the Bible.
 
Epistemes said:
I’ve reading more of this article and find it surprising that the author of the article rejects the whole notion of the “Yahweh” and “Priestly” sources for composing Genesis. Is this also the stance of the Church??
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No, it’s not.​

CAI does not much care (shall we say) for untraditional positions as to the composition, authorship, & interpretation of the Bible. Fair enough. However, the documentary hypothesis is not forbidden territory to Catholics. It was a hundred years ago, but not now. No-one “has to” accept the DH - equally, it is wrong to attack the Catholic scholars who, like most other OT scholars, hold it, as though to do so were a sign or proof of being unsound.

That it is perfectly allowable to Catholics, is shown by the fact that plenty of books on the Bible by Catholics who adopt it have received the Imprimatur - which means, not the censor agrees with the author’s views, but that no doctrinal error has been found in the book. If it were doctrinally objectionable to hold the DH, those books could not have received the Imprimatur

Hope that helps 🙂 ##
 
Epistemes said:
I am really finding a number of questionable remarks made within the context of , of which I’ve already made another thread entirely.

In it, the author claims

*The Catholic Church teaches that God is the author of Sacred Scripture such that each and every word in it is written primarily by Him. *

However, I have always been under the opinion that the Bible was not a word-for-word dictation by God to the writers, otherwise the Bible could be levelled by similar accusations made against other such books, like the Qur’an; instead, it has been my impression that Sacred Scripture was, in truth, inspired by God, through the Holy Spirit, but that God, through the Holy Spirit, allowed the sacred writers to dictate according to their own linguistic abilities and devices? The above article appears to contend none of this, and appears to take the stance of a literal fundamentalist, with papal evidence.

Am I wrong in thinking that the Bible was not dictated word-for-word by the Holy Spirit and written accordingly by the authors? Or is the author of this article, which is located on a Catholic Apologetics site (which should carry some level of authority), wrong in suggesting that the Bible was dictated as such?
Click to expand...

You’re not wrong 🙂 If the books of the Bible were not fully human productions, the differences of style would be inexplicable. The Greek of the Book of Revelation is the worst in the New Testament - if it had been all but written by God, the Greek of St. John ought to be as good as that of (say) St. Paul.​

In 1 Corinthians, St. Paul first says he baptised no one at Corinth, then corrects himself. If the Holy Spirit had (in effect) dictated the book, this is not easy to understand, to say the least. For the books to be fully human, just like any other books, does not in the slightest stop them being fully Divine too - “the Word of God, in the words of men”. ##
 
thank you for following good form and posting a link to the article you are discussing. which all our members would do the same.

the first question to ask when entering an allegedly Catholic website (or reading an allegedly Catholic publication) is who is producing it, who is writing it, what are his credentials, and by what authority does he write and teach?

there are dozens of threads here discussing this self-styled “Catholic apologist” which seriously call into question his orthodoxy and obedience, so that might be a place to start in evaluating the worth and relevance of anything he writes.
 
Hi Epistemes,

The Church does not teach that the Bible was “dictated” by God. It teaches that is was “inspired” by Him.

To understand the true mind of the Church, you should read Dei Verbum, a document of the Sacred Council of Vatican II. You will find it at this address :

ewtn.com/library/COUNCILS/v2revel.htm

Here is a quote that may answer your question :
  1. Those divinely revealed realities which are contained and presented in Sacred Scripture have been committed to writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. For holy mother Church, relying on the belief of the Apostles (see John 20:31; 2 Tim. 3:16; 2 Peter 1:19-20, 3:15-16), holds that the books of both the Old and New Testaments in their entirety, with all their parts, are sacred and canonical because written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, they have God as their author and have been handed on as such to the Church herself.(1) In composing the sacred books, God chose men and while employed by Him (2) they made use of their powers and abilities, so that with Him acting in them and through them, (3) they, as true authors, consigned to writing everything and only those things which He wanted. (4) (…)
  2. However, since God speaks in Sacred Scripture through men in human fashion, (6) the interpreter of Sacred Scripture, in order to see clearly what God wanted to communicate to us, should carefully investigate what meaning the sacred writers really intended, and what God wanted to manifest by means of their words.
Click to expand...
Verbum
 
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