CHAPTER III SACRED SCRIPTURE, ITS INSPIRATION
AND DIVINE INTERPRETATION
11.
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
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. 3:16-17, Greek text).
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.
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
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
13.
In Sacred Scripture, therefore, while the truth and holiness of God always
remains intact, the marvelous "condescension" of eternal wisdom is
clearly shown, "that we may learn the gentle kindness of God, which words
cannot express, and how far He has gone in adapting His language with
thoughtful concern for our weak human nature." 11 For the words of
God, expressed in human language, have been made like human discourse, just as
the word of the eternal Father, when He took to Himself the flesh of human
weakness, was in every way made like men.
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