ARTICLE 3 - SACRED SCRIPTURE
I. CHRIST - THE UNIQUE WORD OF SACRED
SCRIPTURE
101 In order to reveal himself to men, in the condescension of his goodness God speaks
to them in human words: "Indeed the words of God, expressed in the words of men, are
in every way like human language, just as the Word of the eternal Father, when he took
on himself the flesh of human weakness, became like men."[63]
102 Through all the words of Sacred Scripture, God speaks only one single Word, his
one Utterance in whom he expresses himself completely:[64]
You recall that one and the same Word of God extends throughout Scripture, that it is
one and the same Utterance that resounds in the mouths of all the sacred writers, since
he who was in the beginning God with God has no need of separate syllables; for he is
not subject to time.[65]
103 For this reason, the Church has always venerated the Scriptures as she venerates the
Lord's Body. She never ceases to present to the faithful the bread of life, taken from the
one table of God's Word and Christ's Body.[66]
104 In Sacred Scripture, the Church constantly finds her nourishment and her strength,
for she welcomes it not as a human word, "but as what it really is, the word of God".[67]
"In the sacred books, the Father who is in heaven comes lovingly to meet his children,
and talks with them."[68]
II. INSPIRATION AND TRUTH OF SACRED
SCRIPTURE
105 God is the author of Sacred Scripture. "The divinely revealed realities, which are
contained and presented in the text of Sacred Scripture, have been written down under
the inspiration of the Holy Spirit."[69]
"For Holy Mother Church, relying on the faith of the apostolic age, accepts as sacred
and canonical the books of the Old and the New Testaments, whole and entire, with all
their parts, on the grounds that, 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."[70]
106 God inspired the human authors of the sacred books. "To compose the sacred
books, God chose certain men who, all the while he employed them in this task, made
full use of their own faculties and powers so that, though he acted in them and by them,
it was as true authors that they consigned to writing whatever he wanted written, and no
more."[71]
107 The inspired books teach the truth. "Since therefore all that the inspired authors or
sacred writers affirm should be regarded as affirmed by the Holy Spirit, we must
acknowledge that the books of Scripture firmly, faithfully, and without error teach that
truth which God, for the sake of our salvation, wished to see confided to the Sacred
Scriptures."[72]
108 Still, the Christian faith is not a "religion of the book". Christianity is the religion of
the "Word" of God, a word which is "not a written and mute word, but the Word which
is incarnate and living".[73] If the Scriptures are not to remain a dead letter, Christ, the
eternal Word of the living God, must, through the Holy Spirit, "open [our] minds to
understand the Scriptures."[74]
III. THE HOLY SPIRIT, INTERPRETER OF
SCRIPTURE
109 In Sacred Scripture, God speaks to man in a human way. To interpret Scripture
correctly, the reader must be attentive to what the human authors truly wanted to affirm,
and to what God wanted to reveal to us by their words.[75]
110 In order to discover the sacred authors' intention, the reader must take into account
the conditions of their time and culture, the literary genres in use at that time, and the
modes of feeling, speaking and narrating then current. "For the fact is that truth is
differently presented and expressed in the various types of historical writing, in
prophetical and poetical texts, and in other forms of literary expression."[76]
111 But since Sacred Scripture is inspired, there is another and no less important
principle of correct interpretation, without which Scripture would remain a dead letter.
"Sacred Scripture must be read and interpreted in the light of the same Spirit by whom it
was written."[77]
The Second Vatican Council indicates three criteria for interpreting Scripture in
accordance with the Spirit who inspired it.[78]
112 Be especially attentive "to the content and unity of the whole Scripture". Different
as the books which compose it may be, Scripture is a unity by reason of the unity of
God's plan, of which Christ Jesus is the center and heart, open since his Passover.[79]
The phrase "heart of Christ" can refer to Sacred Scripture, which makes known his
heart, closed before the Passion, as the Scripture was obscure. But the Scripture has
been opened since the Passion; since those who from then on have understood it,
consider and discern in what way the prophecies must be interpreted.[80]
113 2. Read the Scripture within "the living Tradition of the whole Church". According
to a saying of the Fathers, Sacred Scripture is written principally in the Church's heart
rather than in documents and records, for the Church carries in her Tradition the living
memorial of God's Word, and it is the Holy Spirit who gives her the spiritual
interpretation of the Scripture (". . . according to the spiritual meaning which the Spirit
grants to the Church"[81]).
114 3. Be attentive to the analogy of faith.[82] By "analogy of faith" we mean the
coherence of the truths of faith among themselves and within the whole plan of
Revelation.
The senses of Scripture
115 According to an ancient tradition, one can distinguish between two senses of
Scripture: the literal and the spiritual, the latter being subdivided into the allegorical,
moral and anagogical senses. The profound concordance of the four senses guarantees
all its richness to the living reading of Scripture in the Church.
116 The literal sense is the meaning conveyed by the words of Scripture and discovered
by exegesis, following the rules of sound interpretation: "All other senses of Sacred
Scripture are based on the literal."[83]
117 The spiritual sense. Thanks to the unity of God's plan, not only the text of Scripture
but also the realities and events about which it speaks can be signs.
1. The allegorical sense. We can acquire a more profound understanding of events by
recognizing their significance in Christ; thus the crossing of the Red Sea is a sign or type
of Christ's victory and also of Christian Baptism.[84]
2. The moral sense. The events reported in Scripture ought to lead us to act justly. As
St. Paul says, they were written "for our instruction".[85]
3. The anagogical sense (Greek: anagoge, "leading"). We can view realities and events in
terms of their eternal significance, leading us toward our true homeland: thus the
Church on earth is a sign of the heavenly Jerusalem.[86]
118 A medieval couplet summarizes the significance of the four senses:
The Letter speaks of deeds; Allegory to faith;
The Moral how to act; Anagogy our destiny.[87]
119 "It is the task of exegetes to work, according to these rules, towards a better
understanding and explanation of the meaning of Sacred Scripture in order that their
research may help the Church to form a firmer judgement. For, of course, all that has
been said about the manner of interpreting Scripture is ultimately subject to the
judgement of the Church which exercises the divinely conferred commission and
ministry of watching over and interpreting the Word of God."[88]
But I would not believe in the Gospel, had not the authority of the
Catholic Church already moved me.[89]
IV. THE CANON OF SCRIPTURE
120 It was by the apostolic Tradition that the Church discerned which writings are to be
included in the list of the sacred books.[90]
This complete list is called the canon of Scripture. It includes 46 books for the Old
Testament (45 if we count Jeremiah and Lamentations as one) and 27 for the New.[91]
The Old Testament: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua,
Judges, Ruth, 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, 1 and 2 Chronicles, Ezra and Nehemiah,
Tobit, Judith, Esther, 1 and 2 Maccabees, Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, the Song
of Songs, the Wisdom of Solomon, Sirach (Ecclesiasticus), Isaiah, Jeremiah,
Lamentations, Baruch, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah,
Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zachariah and Malachi.
The New Testament: the Gospels according to Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, the Acts
of the Apostles, the Letters of St. Paul to the Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians,
Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 and 2 Thessalonians, 1 and 2 Timothy, Titus,
Philemon, the Letter to the Hebrews, the Letters of James, 1 and 2 Peter, 1, 2 and 3
John, and Jude, and Revelation (the Apocalypse).
The Old Testament
121 The Old Testament is an indispensable part of Sacred Scripture. Its books are
divinely inspired and retain a permanent value,[92] for the Old Covenant has never been
revoked.
122 Indeed, "the economy of the Old Testament was deliberately SO oriented that it
should prepare for and declare in prophecy the coming of Christ, redeemer of all
men."[93] "Even though they contain matters imperfect and provisional,[94] the books
of the OldTestament bear witness to the whole divine pedagogy of God's saving love:
these writings "are a storehouse of sublime teaching on God and of sound wisdom on
human life, as well as a wonderful treasury of prayers; in them, too, the mystery of our
salvation is present in a hidden way."[95]
123 Christians venerate the Old Testament as true Word of God. The Church has
always vigorously opposed the idea of rejecting the Old Testament under the pretext
that the New has rendered it void (Marcionism).
The New Testament
124 "The Word of God, which is the power of God for salvation to everyone who has
faith, is set forth and displays its power in a most wonderful way in the writings of the
New Testament"[96] which hand on the ultimate truth of God's Revelation. Their
central object is Jesus Christ, God's incarnate Son: his acts, teachings, Passion and
glorification, and his Church's beginnings under the Spirit's guidance.[97]
125 The Gospels are the heart of all the Scriptures "because they are our principal
source for the life and teaching of the Incarnate Word, our Saviour".[98]
126 We can distinguish three stages in the formation of the Gospels:
1. The life and teaching of Jesus. The Church holds firmly that the four Gospels,
"whose historicity she unhesitatingly affirms, faithfully hand on what Jesus, the Son of
God, while he lived among men, really did and taught for their eternal salvation, until
the day when he was taken up."[99]
2. The oral tradition. "For, after the ascension of the Lord, the apostles handed on to
their hearers what he had said and done, but with that fuller understanding which they,
instructed by the glorious events of Christ and enlightened by the Spirit of truth, now
enjoyed."[100]
3. The written Gospels. "The sacred authors, in writing the four Gospels, selected
certain of the many elements which had been handed on, either orally or already in
written form; others they synthesized or explained with an eye to the situation of the
churches, the while sustaining the form of preaching, but always in such a fashion that
they have told us the honest truth about Jesus."[101]
127 The fourfold Gospel holds a unique place in the Church, as is evident both in the
veneration which the liturgy accords it and in the surpassing attraction it has exercised
on the saints at all times:
There is no doctrine which could be better, more precious and more splendid than the
text of the Gospel. Behold and retain what our Lord and Master, Christ, has taught by
his words and accomplished by his deeds.[102]
But above all it's the gospels that occupy my mind when I'm at prayer; my poor soul has
so many needs, and yet this is the one thing needful. I'm always finding fresh lights
there; hidden meanings which had meant nothing to me hitherto.[103]
The unity of the Old and New Testaments
128 The Church, as early as apostolic times,[104] and then constantly in her Tradition,
has illuminated the unity of the divine plan in the two Testaments through typology,
which discerns in God's works of the Old Covenant prefigurations of what he
accomplished in the fullness of time in the person of his incarnate Son.
129 Christians therefore read the Old Testament in the light of Christ crucified and
risen. Such typological reading discloses the inexhaustible content of the Old Testament;
but it must not make us forget that the Old Testament retains its own intrinsic value as
Revelation reaffirmed by our Lord himself.[105] Besides, the New Testament has to be
read in the light of the Old. Early Christian catechesis made constant use of the Old
Testament.[106] As an old saying put it, the New Testament lies hidden in the Old and
the Old Testament is unveiled in the New.[107]
130 Typology indicates the dynamic movement toward the fulfilment of the divine plan
when "God [will] be everything to everyone."[108] Nor do the calling of the patriarchs
and the exodus from Egypt, for example, lose their own value in God's plan, from the
mere fact that they were intermediate stages.
V. SACRED SCRIPTURE IN THE LIFE OF THE
CHURCH
131 "And such is the force and power of the Word of God that it can serve the Church
as her support and vigour, and the children of the Church as strength for their faith,
food for the soul, and a pure and lasting fount of spiritual life."[109] Hence "access to
Sacred Scripture ought to be open wide to the Christian faithful."[110]
132 "Therefore, the study of the sacred page should be the very soul of sacred theology.
The ministry of the Word, too - pastoral preaching, catechetics and all forms of
Christian instruction, among which the liturgical homily should hold pride of place - is
healthily nourished and thrives in holiness through the Word of Scripture."[111]
133 The Church "forcefully and specifically exhorts all the Christian faithful... to learn
the surpassing knowledge of Jesus Christ, by frequent reading of the divine Scriptures.
Ignorance of the Scriptures is ignorance of Christ.[112]
IN BRIEF
134 All Sacred Scripture is but one book, and this one book is Christ, ‘because all divine Scripture
speaks of Christ, and all divine Scripture is fulfilled in Christ’ (Hugh of St Victor, De arca Noe 2, 8:
PL 176, 642: cf. ibid. 2, 9: PL 176, 642-643).
135 "The Sacred Scriptures contain the Word of God and, because they are inspired, they are truly the
Word of God" (DV 24).
136 God is the author of Sacred Scripture because he inspired its human authors; he acts in them and by
means of them. He thus gives assurance that their writings teach without error his saving truth (cf. DV
11).
137 Interpretation of the inspired Scripture must be attentive above all to what God wants to reveal
through the sacred authors for our salvation. What comes from the Spirit is not fully "understood except
by the Spirit's action' (cf. Origen, Hom. in Ex. 4, 5: PG 12, 320).
138 The Church accepts and venerates as inspired the 46 books of the Old Testament and the 27 books
of the New.
139 The four Gospels occupy a central place because Christ Jesus is their centre.
140 The unity of the two Testaments proceeds from the unity of God's plan and his Revelation. The Old
Testament prepares for the New and the New Testament fulfils the Old; the two shed light on each
other; both are true Word of God.
141 "The Church has always venerated the divine Scriptures as she venerated the Body of the Lord"
(DV 21): both nourish and govern the whole Christian life. "Your word is a lamp to my feet and a
light to my path" (Ps 119:105; cf. Is 50:4).
ENDNOTES
1 Cf. Dei Filius DS 3015.
2 DV 2; cf. Eph 1:9; 2:18; 2 Pt 1:4.
3 I Tim 6:16, cf. Eph 1:4-5.
4 DV 2.
5 St. Irenaeus, Adv. haeres. 3, 20, 2: PG 7/1, 944; cf. 3, 17, 1; 4, 12,
4; 4, 21, 3.
6 DV 3; cf. Jn 1:3; Rom 1:19-20.
7 DV 3; cf. Gen 3:15; Rom 2:6-7.
8 Roman Missal, Eucharistic Prayer IV, 118.
9 Gen 10:5; cf. 9:9-10, 16; 10:20-31.
10 Cf. Acts 17:26-27.
11 Cf. Wis 10:5; Gen 11:4-6.
12 Cf. Rom 1:18-25.
13 Cf. Gen 9:16; Lk 21:24; DV 3.
14 Cf. Gen 14:18; Heb 7:3; Ezek 14:14.
15 Jn 11:52.
16 Gen 12:1.
17 Gen 17:5; 12:3 (LXX); cf. Gal 3:8
18 Cf. Rom 11:28; Jn 11:52; 10:16.
19 Cf. Rom 11:17-18, 24.
20 Cf. DV 3.
21 Dt 28: 10; Roman Missal, Good i Friday, General Intercession VI;
see also Ex 19:6.
22 Cf. Is 2:2-4; Jer 31:31-34; Heb 10:16.
23 Cf. Ezek 36; Is 49:5-6; 53:11.
24 Cf. Ezek 2:3; Lk 1:38.
25 DV 2.
26 Heb 1:1-2.
27 St. John of the Cross, The Ascent of Mount Carmel 2, 22, 3-5 in The
Collected Works of St. John of the Cross, tr. K. Kavanaugh OCD and O.
Rodriguez OCD (Washington DC: Institute of Carmelite Studies, 1979),
179-180: LH, Advent, week 2, Monday, OR.
28 DV 4; cf. I Tim 6:14; Titus 2:13.
29 1 Tim 2:4.
30 cf. Jn 14:6.
31 DV 7; cf. 2 Cor 1:20; 3:16 - 4:6.
32 DV 7; cf. Mt 28:19-20; Mk 16:15.
33 DV 7.
34 DV 7.
35 DV 7 # 2; St. Irenaeus, Adv. haeres. 3, 3, 1: PG 7/1, 848;
Harvey, 2, 9.
36 DV 8 # 1.
37 DV 8 # 1.
38 DV 8 # 3.
39 DV 8 # 3; cf. Col 3:16.
40 DV 9.
41 Mt 28:20.
42 DV 9.
43 DV 9.
44 DV 9.
45 DV 10 # 1; cf. I Tim 6:20; 2 Tim 1:12-14 (Vulg.).
46 DV 10 # 1; cf. Acts 2:42 (Greek); Pius XII, Apost. Const.
Munificentissimus Deus, 1 November 1950: AAS 42 (1950), 756, taken along
with the words of St. Cyprian, Epist. 66, 8: CSEL 3/2, 733: "The Church
is the people united to its Priests, the flock adhering to its Shepherd."
47 DV 10 # 2.
48 DV 10 para 2.
49 Lk 10:16; cf. LG 20.
50 Cf.Jn 8:31-32.
51 Cf. Vatican Council I: DS 3016: nexus mysteriorum; LC 25.
52 UR II.
53 Cf. I Jn 2:20, 27.
54 Cf. .Jn 16:13.
55 LG 12; cf. St. Augustine, De praed. sanct. 14, 27: PL 44, 980.
56 LG 12; cf. Jude 3.
57 DV 8 # 2; cf. Lk 2:19, 51.
58 GS 62 # 7; cf. GS 44 # 2; DV 23; 24; UR 4.
59 DV 8 # 2.
60 DV 8 # 2.
61 St. Gregory the Great, Hom. in Ezek. 1, 7, 8: PL 76, 843D.
62 DV 10 # 3.
63 DV 13.
64 Cf. Heb 1:1-3.
65 St. Augustine, En. in Ps. 103, 4, 1: PL 37, 1378; cf. Ps 104; Jn
1:1.
66 Cf. DV 21.
67 Th 2:13; cf. DV 24.
68 DV 21.
69 DV 11;
70 DV 11; cf. Jn 20:31; 2 Tim 3:16; 2 Pt 1:19-21; 3:15-16.
71 DV 11.
72 DV 11.
73 St. Bernard, S. missus est hom. 4, 11: PL 183, 86.
74 Cf. Lk 24:45.
75 Cf. DV 12 # 1.
76 DV 12 # 2.
77 DV 12 # 3.
78 Cf. DV 12 # 4.
79 Cf. Lk 24:25-27, 44-46.
80 St. Thomas Aquinas, Expos. in Ps. 21, 11; cf. Ps 22:14.
81 Origen, Hom. in Lev. 5, 5: PG 12, 454D.
82 Cf. Rom 12:6.
83 St. Thomas Aquinas, S Th I, 1, 10, ad I.
84 Cf. I Cor 10:2.
85 I Cor 10:11; cf. Heb 3:1 -4:11.
86 Cf. Rev 21:1 - 22:5.
87 Lettera gesta docet, quid credas allegoria, moralis quid agas, quo tendas anagogia : Augustine of Dacia,
Rotulus pugillaris, I : ed. A. Walz : Angelicum 6 (1929) 256.
88 DV 12 # 3.
89 St. Augustine, Contra epistolam Manichaei 5, 6: PL 42, 176.
90 Cf. DV 8 # 3.
91 Cf. DS 179; 1334-1336; 1501-1504.
92 Cf. DV 14.
93 DV 15.
94 DV 15.
95 DV 15.
96 DV 17; cf. Rom 1:16.
97 Cf. DV 20.
98 DV 18.
99 DV 19; cf. Acts 1:1-2.
100 DV 19.
101 DV 19.
102 St. Caesaria the Younger to St. Richildis and St. Radegunde: SCh 345,
480.
103 St. Therese of Lisieux, Autobiography of a Saint, tr. Ronald Knox
(London: Collins, 1960), 175.
104 Cf. I Cor 10:6, 11; Heb 10:l; l Pt 3:21.
105 Cf. Mk 12:29-31
106 Cf. I Cor 5:6-8; 10:1-11.
107 Cf. St. Augustine, Quaest. in Hept. 2, 73: PL 34,623; Cf. DU 16.
108 1 Cor 15:28.
109 DV 21.
110 DV 22.
111 DV 24.
112 DV 25; cf. Phil 3:8 and St. Jerome, Commentariorum in Isaiam libri
xviii prol.: PL 24, 17B.
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