Archdiocese of Philadelphia Permanent Diaconate Program

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Archdiocese of PhiladelphiaPermanent Diaconate
Program
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Overview of Topics

• Overview of the Bible
• Old Testament
• New Testament
• Ecclesial Guidelines for Biblical Interpretation
• Periods of Biblical Interpretation (Overview)
• Providentissimus Deus
• Divino Afflante Spiritu
• Sancta Mater Ecclesia
• Dei Verbum
• Interpretation of the Bible in the Church

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IntroductionBible Sacred Scriptures
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The Old Testament

• TaNaK
• Torah - Law
• Nebiim - Prophets
• Ketubim - Writings

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The Law (Torah)

• Genesis
• Exodus
• Leviticus
• Numbers
• Deuteronomy

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The Prophets

• The Historical Books
• The Deuteronomic History
• Joshua, Judges, I II Samuel, I II Kings
• The Chroniclers History
• I II Chronicles
• Ezra, Nehemiah
• Ruth, and Esther
• Judith, Tobit, I and II Maccabees
• Major Prophets
• Isaiah
• Jeremiah
• Baruch
• Lamentations
• Ezekiel
• (Daniel)

• Minor Prophets
• Amos
• Hosea
• Joel
• Obediah
• Jonah
• Micah
• Nahum
• Habbakuk
• Zephaniah
• Haggai
• Zechariah
• Malachi

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The Writings

• The Wisdom Books
• Proverbs
• Job
• Ecclesiastes (Qoheleth)
• Ecclesiasticus
• Wisdom of Solomon
• Song of Songs
• Psalms

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The New Testament

• Gospels
• Matthew, Mark, Luke and John
• Acts
• Letters
• Pauline Corpus Romans, I Corinthians, II
  Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Phillipians,
  Colosians, I Thesolonians, II Thesalonians, I
  Timothy, II Timothy, Titus, Philemon, Hebrews
• Catholic Letters I Peter, II Peter, I John, II
  John, III John, James and Jude
• Revelation

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Synoptic Gospels

• Synoptic View Together
• Matthew, Mark, Luke
• An example of scholarly study Compositional
  Theory
• Two Source Theory
• Mark was written first
• Matthew and Luke both used Mark independently
  (source 1)
• Matthew and Luke both used an un-named sayings
  source which scholars refer to as Q (source 2)
• Matthew and Luke had access to or composed
  additional material unique to each Gospel

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(No Transcript)
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Ecclesial Guidelines for the Study and
Interpretation of the Scriptures
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Major Periods of Interpretation

• Israel and Infancy Church
• Patristic Period
• Scholastic Period
• Renaissance and Humanism
• Modern Period
• Contemporary Period

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Israel and Early Church

• Writing, Editing, Distribution, Acceptance,
  Recognition, Collecting
• Readings and Re-Readings
• OT on OT Deuteronomy and Chronicles
• I Kings 1
• I Chronicles 2922b-25
• NT on OT Luke and Isaiah
• Luke 416-19
• Isaiah 611-2 586

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Patristic Period

• Alexandria
• Clement, Origin, Philo
• Allegorical Interpretation
• Antioch
• Chrysostom
• Literal Interpretation

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Middle Ages/Scholastic Period

• Senses of Scripture
• Multiple listings
• Four spiritual, literal, moral, anagogical

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Renaissance/Humanism

• Re-discovery of the classics
• Ancient Languages studied
• Printing Press
• Historical documents studied

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Modernity

• Decartes and methodical doubt
• Rise of skepticism coupled with humanism
• Deism as a religious movement
• Ancient Manuscripts discovered and investigated
• Textual studies inaugerated
• Archeological excavations and study begins

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Ecclesial Pronouncements

• Provendentissimus Deus (1893) Leo XIII
• Pontifical Biblical Commission Statements
  (1905-1915)
• Divino Afflante Spiritu (1942) Pius XII
• Sancta Mater Ecclesia (1964) PBC
• Dei Verbum (1965) Vatican Council II
• Interpretation of the Bible in the Church (1993)
  PBC

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Providentissimus Deus

• Textual studies developing
• Studies of ancient Semitic languages and texts
  making advances
• Rise of rationalism and decline of biblical
  authority
• Consequences for Biblical Studies
• Paulus Life of Jesus angels are
  phosphorescense, miracle stories omit natural
  causes
• Schliermachers Leben Jesu resurection as
  recovery from lethargy and ascension genuine death

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Providentissimus Deus

• Questions arise as to biblical inerrancy and
  inspiration
• Some theories
• Parts inerrant
• Inerrancy only in reference to faith and morals
• Diderot attacks magisterial authority in
  interpretation

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Providentissimus Deus

• Vatican Is Dei Filius - 1870
• The church holds (the biblical texts) to be
  sacred and canonical, not because, having been
  carefully composed by mere human industry, they
  were afterwards approved by her authority, nor
  merely because they contain revelation with no
  admixture of error, but because, having been
  written by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit,
  they have God for their author and have been
  delivered as such to the Church

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Providentissimus Deus

• Leos Pontificate
• 1878 encourages the study of history and
  archeology
• 1879 encourages the study of scholastic
  philosophy
• 1892 authorizes the foundation of the Ecole
  Biblique in Jerusalem (Pere Lagrange)
• 1893 Providentissimus Deus

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Providentissimus Deus

• Polemic Against Rationalism
• Presuppositions questioned
• Inspiration Inerrancy Authorship
• God is author through inspiration so no error can
  be taxed to the text
• Book of the Spirit and Book of the Church
• Understanding will only come with the Holy Spirit
  since it is through the Spirit that the text was
  written
• Scripture Study in the Church
• Language studies, texual criticisim and
  manuscript studies encouraged/demanded

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Providentissimus Deus

• There can never, indeed, be any real discrepancy
  between the theologian and the physicist, as long
  as each confines himself within his own lines,
  and both are careful, as St. Augustine warns us,
  "not to make rash assertions, or to assert what
  is not known as known."(51) . To understand how
  just is the rule here formulated we must
  remember, first, that the sacred writers, or to
  speak more accurately, the Holy Ghost "Who spoke
  by them, did not intend to teach men these things
  (that is to say, the essential nature of the
  things of the visible universe), things in no way
  profitable unto salvation."(53) Hence they did
  not seek to penetrate the secrets of nature, but
  rather described and dealt with things in more or
  less figurative language, or in terms which were
  commonly used at the time, and which in many
  instances are in daily use at this day, even by
  the most eminent men of science. Ordinary speech
  primarily and properly describes what comes under
  the senses and somewhat in the same way the
  sacred writers-as the Angelic Doctor also reminds
  us - went by what sensibly appeared,"(54) or put
  down what God, speaking to men, signified, in the
  way men could understand and were accustomed to.
  (17)

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Between PD and DAS

• PBC established in 1902
• Lagrange and Loisy
• Lamentabili and the defense against modernism
• 1905-1915 PBC decrees
• 1909 PBI established by St. Pius X
• 1920 Spiritus Paraclitus historical events
  explained in similar way as scientific phenomena

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Divino Afflante Spiritu 1942

• Scientific studies of the biblical texts increase
  among Protestant scholars
• Source theory (Documentary Hypothesis Two
  Source Theory) gaining much acceptance
• Traditional authorship comes into question
• Catholic scholars using critical methods in
  limited manner

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Divino Afflante Spiritu

• Rise of fundamentalism in United States spreads
  to Europe (1900 -)
• Reaction to Liberal Protestant Theology
• Literalistic tendencies
• Letter to the Bishops of Italy A Most Grave
  Danger for the Church and for Souls. The
  Critical-scientific System of Studying and
  Interpreting the Holy Scripture

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Divino Afflante Spiritu

• Inspiration- Inerrancy-Authorship
• Affirms divine role in the scriptures
• Elaborates on the role of the human author
• Human author described as a living and
  reasonable instrument of the Holy Spirit who
  uses his faculties and powers, (so) that from
  the book composed by him all may easily infer
  the special character of each one and, as it
  were, his personal traits. (

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Divino Afflante Spiritu

• Nevertheless no one, who has a correct idea of
  biblical inspiration, will be surprised to find,
  even in the Sacred Writers, as in other ancient
  authors, certain fixed ways of expounding and
  narrating, certain definite idioms, especially of
  a kind peculiar to the Semitic tongues, so-called
  approximations, and certain hyperbolical modes of
  expression, nay, at times, even paradoxical,
  which even help to impress the ideas more deeply
  on the mind. For of the modes of expression
  which, among ancient peoples, and especially
  those of the East, human language used to express
  its thought, none is excluded from the Sacred
  Books, provided the way of speaking adopted in no
  wise contradicts the holiness and truth of God,
  as, with his customary wisdom, the Angelic Doctor
  already observed in these words "In Scripture
  divine things are presented to us in the manner
  which is in common use amongst men."30 For as
  the substantial Word of God became like to men in
  all things, "except sin,"31 so the words of
  God, expressed in human language, are made like
  to human speech in every respect, except error.
  (37)

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Divino Afflante Spiritu

• Hermeneutical Principles
• Literal Sense authors intention
• Spiritual Sense
• Importance of the Literal Sense stressed
• Need to understand the historical settings,
  literary styles, symbolic meanings, idiom,
  historical events, etc. so that the literal sense
  can be identified

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Divino Afflante Spiritu

• Being thoroughly prepared by the knowledge of the
  ancient languages and by the aids afforded by the
  art of criticism, let the Catholic exegete
  undertake the task, of all those imposed on him
  the greatest, that namely of discovering and
  expounding the genuine meaning of the Sacred
  Books. In the performance of this task let the
  interpreters bear in mind that their foremost and
  greatest endeavor should be to discern and define
  clearly that sense of the biblical words which is
  called literal. Aided by the context and by
  comparison with similar passages, let them
  therefore by means of their knowledge of
  languages search out with all diligence the
  literal meaning of the words all these helps
  indeed are wont to be pressed into service in the
  explanation also of profane writers, so that the
  mind of the author may be made abundantly clear.
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Between DAS and 1962

• Catholic scholars investigate texts with newer
  methods
• Theories and interpretations come into questions
• Bitter disputes among scholars, theologians and
  ecclesial leaders
• 1959 St. Pauls Outside the Walls

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VATICAN II

• Process solicitations of items for discussion
  (Ordinaries, Religious Superiors, Catholic
  Universities/Colleges)
• Description of Faith an issue
• Approaches to biblical study and interpretation
  an issue
• Biblical question tied to the document de
  fontibus revelationis

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VATICAN II

• De fontibus revelationis and biblical studies
• Inspiration in univocal sense
• Heavy emphasis on the divine author
• Final redactor seen as the inspired author
• Inerrancy expressed in absolute terms
• OT seen as proof for NT
• Gospels reproduce historical words and deeds of
  Jesus
• Vulgate is the authentic version

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VATICAN II

• De fontibus rejected at First Session through
  intervention of the Holy Father
• 62 voted to end discussion, 66 was needed
• John XXIII has document removed
• Five drafts later the new document is titled Dei
  Verbum

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Sancta Mater Ecclesia 1964

• Historicity of the Gospels
• Three Stages of Gospel Transmission
• Age of Jesus
• Age of the Apostles
• Age of the Evangelist

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Dei Verbum 1965

• Divine Revelation
• Transmission of Divine Revelation
• Sacred Scripture Inspiration and Interpretation
• The Old Testament
• The New Testament
• Sacred Scripture in the Life of the Church

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Dei Verbum

• Divine Revelation
• In His goodness and wisdom God chose to reveal
  Himself and to make known to us the hidden
  purpose of His will (see Eph. 19) by which
  through Christ, the Word made flesh, man might in
  the Holy Spirit have access to the Father and
  come to share in the divine nature (see Eph.
  218 2 Peter 14). Through this revelation,
  therefore, the invisible God (see Col. 115, 1
  Tim. 117) out of the abundance of His love
  speaks to men as friends (see Ex. 3311 John
  1514-15) and lives among them (see Bar. 338),
  so that He may invite and take them into
  fellowship with Himself. This plan of revelation
  is realized by deeds and words having in inner
  unity the deeds wrought by God in the history of
  salvation manifest and confirm the teaching and
  realities signified by the words, while the words
  proclaim the deeds and clarify the mystery
  contained in them. By this revelation then, the
  deepest truth about God and the salvation of man
  shines out for our sake in Christ, who is both
  the mediator and the fullness of all revelation.
  (2)

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• Transmission of Divine Revelation
• It is clear, therefore, that sacred tradition,
  Sacred Scripture and the teaching authority of
  the Church, in accord with God's most wise
  design, are so linked and joined together that
  one cannot stand without the others, and that all
  together and each in its own way under the action
  of the one Holy Spirit contribute effectively to
  the salvation of souls.

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Dei Verbum

• Interpretation
• Therefore, since everything asserted by the
  inspired authors or sacred writers must be held
  to be asserted by the Holy Spirit, it follows
  that the books of Scripture must be acknowledged
  as teaching solidly, faithfully and without error
  that truth which God wanted put into sacred
  writings (5) for the sake of salvation. Therefore
  "all Scripture is divinely inspired and has its
  use for teaching the truth and refuting error,
  for reformation of manners and discipline in
  right living, so that the man who belongs to God
  may be efficient and equipped for good work of
  every kind" (2 Tim. 316-17, Greek text).

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Dei Verbum

• 12. 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.

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Dei Verbum

• To search out the intention of the sacred
  writers, attention should be given, among other
  things, to "literary forms." For truth is set
  forth and expressed differently in texts which
  are variously historical, prophetic, poetic, or
  of other forms of discourse. The interpreter must
  investigate what meaning the sacred writer
  intended to express and actually expressed in
  particular circumstances by using contemporary
  literary forms in accordance with the situation
  of his own time and culture. (7) For the correct
  understanding of what the sacred author wanted to
  assert, due attention must be paid to the
  customary and characteristic styles of feeling,
  speaking and narrating which prevailed at the
  time of the sacred writer, and to the patterns
  men normally employed at that period in their
  everyday dealings with one another. (8)

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Dei Verbum

• But, since Holy Scripture must be read and
  interpreted in the sacred spirit in which it was
  written, (9) no less serious attention must be
  given to the content and unity of the whole of
  Scripture if the meaning of the sacred texts is
  to be correctly worked out. The living tradition
  of the whole Church must be taken into account
  along with the harmony which exists between
  elements of the faith. It is the task of exegetes
  to work according to these rules toward a better
  understanding and explanation of the meaning of
  Sacred Scripture, so that through preparatory
  study the judgment of the Church may mature. For
  all of what has been said about the way of
  interpreting Scripture is subject finally to the
  judgment of the Church, which carries out the
  divine commission and ministry of guarding and
  interpreting the word of God. (10)

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Dei Verbum

• Old Testament
• 16. God, the inspirer and author of both
  Testaments, wisely arranged that the New
  Testament be hidden in the Old and the Old be
  made manifest in the New. (2) For, though Christ
  established the new covenant in His blood (see
  Luke 2220 1 Cor. 1125), still the books of the
  Old Testament with all their parts, caught up
  into the proclamation of the Gospel, (3) acquire
  and show forth their full meaning in the New
  Testament (see Matt. 517 Luke 2427 Rom.
  1625-26 2 Cor. 1416) and in turn shed light on
  it and explain it.

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Dei Verbum

• New Testament
• The sacred authors wrote the four Gospels,
  selecting some things from the many which had
  been handed on by word of mouth or in writing,
  reducing some of them to a synthesis, explaining
  some things in view of the situation of their
  churches and preserving the form of proclamation
  but always in such fashion that they told us the
  honest truth about Jesus.(4) For their intention
  in writing was that either from their own memory
  and recollections, or from the witness of those
  who "themselves from the beginning were
  eyewitnesses and ministers of the Word" we might
  know "the truth" concerning those matters about
  which we have been instructed (see Luke 12-4).

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Dei Verbum

• Scripture
• Tradition
• Magisterium

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Interpretation of the Bible in the Church, 1993,
PBC
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Contents

• Methods and Approaches for Interpretation
• Hermeneutical Questions
• Characteristics of Catholic Interpretation
• Interpretation of the Bible in the Life of the
  Church

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Methods of Interpretation

• Disputes Crisis in Biblical Interpreation
• No one method is sufficient
• HCM is indispensible
• Critiques offered positive and negative

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Hermeneutical Questions

• Senses of Scripture
• Literal It is not only legitimate, it is also
  absolutely necessary to seek to define the
  precise meaning of texts as produced by their
  authors what is called the literal meaning
  that which is expressed by the human authors
• Spiritual texts understood when read under the
  influence of the Holy Spirit, in the context of
  the Paschal Mystery of Christ and of the new life
  which flows from it. flows from the literal
  sense
• Sensus Plenior deemed useless if the other two
  senses are understood properly

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Characteristic of Catholic Interpretation

• Attention to the Common Tradition in which the
  scriptures developed
• Re-readings
• Unity of the Testaments
• Tradition of the Church
• Patristic Interpretation

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Interpretation of the Bible in the Life of the
Church

• Actualization
• Hear the Word from within ones own situation
• Identify aspects of the present situation
  highligted in the text
• Draw from the fullness of meaning in the text
  those elements capable of advancing the present
  situation in a way that is consonant with the
  saving will of God in Christ
• Inculturization
• Liturgical Worship