Why Don’t Catholics Read the
Bible?
Christianity Magazine
By Dwight Longenecker
The independent Evangelical church I went to
as a boy gave me a fantastic amount of Bible knowledge. There
were Bible drills in Sunday School classes, Bible memory
contests and Bible quizzes, not to mention a complete grounding
in all the Bible stories—illustrated with those wonderful
flannelgraph figures. As I got older I listened to long Bible
sermons, went to home Bible studies, youth Bible camps and
a Bible holiday club. I ended up going to a Christian University
where Bible study was part of our everyday schedule.
Our Christian home wasn’t particularly anti-Catholic,
but some of our preachers were, and the general impression
I got was that Catholics not only didn’t read the Bible,
but that they weren’t allowed to. They didn’t go to church
with their big black Bibles under their arm. They didn’t
have long Bible sermons or home study groups or youth Bible
camps. How could Catholics believe the Bible if they didn’t
read it and study it like we did?
Its true that many Evangelicals know their Bible upside
down and backwards, and compared to them Catholics sometimes
seem ignorant of the Bible. But that's only an appearance.
The truth is simply that Catholics and Evangelicals use
the Bible in different ways and therefore have different
kinds of Bible knowledge. Evangelicals use the Bible as a
source book for doctrine and right moral teaching, and that's
good. 2 Timothy 3.16 says the Scriptures are 'useful for
teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness.'
Evangelicals also use the Bible for personal devotions and
inspiration. This too is Biblical. Psalm 119.27 says, 'Let
me understand the teaching of your precepts; then will I
meditate on your wonders.'
Ordinary Catholics might not be so adept at quoting chapter
and verse, but they do know and use Scripture regularly.
Its just that they use it in a different way. For a Catholic,
Scripture is not so much a book to be studied as a book to
worship with. (Ps. 119.7) For Catholics the Bible is almost
always used in the context of worship. Did you know that
a survey was done to check the amount of Scripture used in
the Catholic Mass? The Catholic service was almost 30% Scripture.
When the same writer checked his local Bible-based Evangelical
church he was surprised to find the total amount of Scripture
read took just 3% of the service.
When Catholics go to mass they
hear a reading from the Old Testament, they say or sing
one of the Psalms, then they
listen to a reading from the epistles, then a gospel reading.
The whole structure fits together so the communion service
if focused on Christ in the gospels. Catholics follow a three
year cycle of Scripture reading so a Catholic who goes to
church faithfully will--over the three years--hear almost
all of the Bible read. Furthermore, the responses, and the
words of the communion service are almost all from Scripture. So
a church-going Catholic does know and use Scripture--its
just that he uses it primarily for meditation and worship
(Ps.119.48)--not for personal information and instruction.
And when you think about it, isn't this actually the way
Scripture is meant to be used? The Jews recite the Old Testament
law in their worship daily. The psalms were the hymn book
of the Jews. In the New Testament church they read the letters
of the apostles, recited the psalms and used portions of
Scripture to praise and worship God just as Catholics do
today.(Eph.5.19) We know from the records of the early church
that Scripture was used primarily for worship, and only secondarily
for study.
Of course, like Evangelicals, Catholics also use the Scripture
to determine doctrine and moral principles--its just that
the Catholic lay person or pastor doesn't do so on his own.
As Paul gave Timothy the apostolic authority to 'rightly
divide the word of truth' (2 Timothy 2.15), so Catholics
believe their bishops have inherited the authority of the
apostles to teach doctrinal and moral truth faithfully. They
base this on Paul’s clear instructions to Timothy, ‘the things
you have heard me say …entrust to reliable men so that they
man in turn teach others.’ (2 Timothy 2.1-2) Therefore, it
is the bishops—living, praying and working in a direct line
from the apostles-- who use the Bible to determine Christian
doctrine and moral principles. That Catholic doctrine and
moral teaching is biblically-based is easy to see. Try reading
any official Catholic teaching documents and you will find
they are--and always have been--permeated and upheld with
Scripture.
Nevertheless, memories are long.
Some extreme Protestants like to say that the Catholic
church not only forbade people
to read the Bible, but they deliberately kept the Bible in
Latin, chained it up in churches and even went so far as
to burn popular translations of the Bible. Its true Bibles
were chained in churches. Before the days of printing presses
books were precious items. They were chained for security
reasons—the way a phone book is secured in a phone booth—to
make it available to everyone. The Catholic Church allowed
translations into the vernacular from the beginning. The
earliest English version of the Bible for instance, is a
paraphrase version of Genesis dating from the year 670. In
a few places the authorities did burn some translations of
the Bible which were deliberately faulty or which carried
heretical notes, but this was an attempt to preserve the
purity of the scriptures, not to keep it from God’s people.
Remembering that in the Middle Ages most people were illiterate,
the pastors and teachers of the Catholic Church instructed
the people about the biblical stories in many creative and
dramatic ways—not unlike my Sunday School teacher’s use of
the flannelgraph.
But in saying all this, ordinary modern Catholics could
learn a few lessons from Evangelicals about Bible knowledge.
We Catholics need more Bible scholars amongst our pastors.
We need more resources for personal Bible reading. We need
to understand the Scriptures better to see how our faith
is rooted and grounded in the Bible. Our own official teachings
encourage us to read, study and learn the Scriptures. Dei
Verbum--a document about the God's Word from Second Vatican
Council says, "...all clergy should remain in close
contact with the Scriptures by means of reading and accurate
study of the text...similarly the Council earnestly and expressly
calls upon all the faithful...to acquire by frequent reading
of holy Scripture the excellent knowledge of Jesus Christ
(Phil 3.8) for as St.Jerome said, "Ignorance of the
Scriptures is indeed ignorance of Christ."'
Ecumenism is a two way street.
If we have lessons to learn from Evangelicals, many Evangelicals
could learn fresh ways
of using the Scriptures from us too. Singing the psalms in
worship is something Catholics can share with Evangelicals,
using a lectionary helps pastors choose Biblical readings
which harmonise Old Testament and New Testament, taking the
congregation on a logical process through each year of worship.
Finally, using chosen readings from the Old Testament, the
epistles and then the gospels helps focus the worship on
Jesus Christ. Using the Scriptures like this is a practical
way for the whole word of God in Scripture to point to the
Word of God in the flesh-- our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
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Catholics and the Bible
-
The
Catholic Church finally agreed on which writings should
go into the Bible at the Council of Rome in 382 AD
during the time of Pope Damasus.
- Damasus
encouraged St Jerome to translate the Scriptures into
Latin since Latin was the common language of all educated
people.
- In
the mid-1400s the Bible started to be translated
into European languages
- Some
Reformers published Bibles with bits missing, faulty
translation work and subversive notes
-
The
authorities tried to regulate which Bibles were acceptable
in order to control erroneous teaching
-
Throughout
the years the Catholic Church encouraged Bible
reading, but kept control of the interpretation of
the Bible
as part of her inspired authority to teach the
truth and preserve the unity of the church
-
Pope
Leo XIII published a letter in 1893 encouraging
Bible study.
-
Pius
XII in 1943 also encouraged the faithful to study
and love the Bible
- The
second Vatican Council in the 1960s encouraged all
the clergy and people to study the Bible faithfully
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