CHAPTER 2: INTRODUCTION TO SACRED SCRIPTURE

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CHAPTER 2 INTRODUCTION TO SACRED SCRIPTURE

• Bible as an inspirational collection of writings,
  the written record of Gods Revelation
• What does it mean to be inspirational?
• Arouses confidence
• Challenges us to be the BEST we can be
• What does the Church teach us about the Bible?
• God is the author of the Bible
• The Holy Spirit inspired the writers
• The Bible (Sacred Scriptures) teach the truth
  

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• Bible is NOT a religious text
• Bible as a living book
• Readers have to open their minds to its Good
  News
• Human authors as instruments committed to writing
  those truths
• Drew on their own background, education, skill,
  talent, vocabulary
• Guided by the Holy Spirit
• End product inerrant (free from error) Word of
  God
• How To Read the Bible
• Be aware of how the history of their time and
  culture
• influenced the writers
• To identify the writers intention identify the
  literary form or genre (a particular style

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HOW TO LOCATE AND READ BIBLE REFERENCES

• Typical Bible Reference Jn 11-18
• Jn is an abbreviated title for the Gospel of
  John
• The first number is the chapter number the verse
  number follows the colon ()
• The hyphen (-) indicates several chapters or
  verses
• Gn 1-2 (Genesis, chapters 1 and 2)
• A semicolon () separates two distinct
  references a comma (,) separates two verses in
  the same chapter
• Is 91,3,8 (Isaiah, chapter 9, verses 1,3, and 8)
• The f means the following verse ff means
  several verses
• Prv 66f (Proverbs, chapter 6, verses 6 and 7)
• Prv 66ff (Proverbs, chapter 6, verses 6 and
  several verses after that)

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LITERARY FORMS

• Literary forms are also called literary genres
• They are particular styles of writing
• Bible with many different genres (73 books of the
  Bible)
• Biblical scholars explain the meaning of the
  difficult writings
• Exegesis process used by scholars to discover he
  meaning of the biblical text (literal sense)

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DIFFERENT LITERARY GENRES

• Allegory a comparison where many elements of the
  story have deeper meanings
• Biography a story of a persons life
• Creed a statement of beliefs
• Fable a story with a moral (uses animals)
• Prophecy an inspired statement made by a
  prophet
• Genealogy a family tree of ancestors
• Miracle Story a story of a powerful sign
  performed by Jesus
• Parable a story told by Jesus to make a
  religious point with a surprise ending

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UNDERSTANDING THE BIBLE

• There are 4 senses of Scripture
• Literal Sense the meaning of the words
• Allegorical Sense what you should believe
• Moral Sense how to live your life
• Anagogical Sense looks at earthly events and
  sees them as a way to lead us to Heaven

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BIBLICAL TRANSLATIONS

• Old Testament
• Most of the Old Testament written in Hebrew
• Small sections written in Aramaic
• Seven books written in Greek
• New Testament
• Entire NT written in Greek (Koine)
• Latin Version St. Jerome
• completed the Vulgate (Churchs official
  translation of the Bible from the original
  languages) known as a
• Church Father

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• Dead Sea Scrolls
• Discovered in caves near the Dead Sea (1947)
  belonged to a religious Jewish sect contained
  manuscripts that were written before the birth of
  Christ

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• Protestant Translations of the Bible
• King James Version (1611)
• Catholic Translations of the Bible
• Douay-Rheims Bible (1582-1609) a translation of
  the Latin Vulgate used until the 2oth century
• Translation of the Bible from original languages
• (Pope Pius XII) in 1943
• New American Bible used for readings at
  liturgies in the U.S.
• New Jerusalem Bible borrowed material from the
  French Bible

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MODERN APPROACHES FOR STUDYING SACRED SCRIPTURE

• Fundamentalists take a literalist approach
• Believing in the exact meaning of the words
• Catholic Church read Scripture prayerfully and
  interpret it critically
• Historical Criticism looks at the history
  behind the text uses archeology
• Source Criticism helps discover where the
  biblical authors got their material
• Form Criticism identifies the type or genre
  studying small units of a text to see how it took
  shape before it was written
• Redaction Criticism looks at how the biblical
  author arranged his work to give a particular
  theological insight