Fr. Thomas M. Pastorius June 11, 2017 Spiritual Ponderings Sacred Scripture
St. Augustine wrote the following about Sacred Scripture: “If you believe what you like in the gospels, and reject what you don’t like, it is not the gospel you believe, but yourself”
3. Bible is actually a Library of Books When I was growing up Buffy the Vampire Slayer was a really big phenomenon. The show focused on a young girl who was chosen to be the “Slayer” (a super hero with a special talent for killing vampires). The vampires in the stories were horrible blood sucking soulless demons than when exposed to sunlight would turn to ashes. Fast forward about twenty years a series of books and movies came out called “Twilight.” These books were about a young girl who fell in love with a vampire. The author of the “Twilight” series changed two important characteristics about vampires in her book. She made a group of them good (which is impossible because they are traditionally soulless) and she declared that vampires sparkled when they encountered sunlight instead of bursting into flames.
I soon discover that when I was talking to people about vampires, that I could no longer assume that they meant the same thing I did when I used the word “vampire.” Context became very important.
In much the same way, we Catholics feel that context is the key when understanding the Bible. The Bible is in many ways not one book but seventy-three books and these books are not at all from the same genre. Some of the books are historical and others are law book. The book of Psalm is a Jewish hymnal and many of the New Testament writings are letters meant to be read out loud in community. Any one of the books of the Bible may be made up of more than one style of literature. For example, we do not read the passion accounts within the Gospel the same way we read a parable from the Gospel.
The Bible is in many ways more complicated and dynamic that we will ever know or be able to grasp and this is another reason why we should have a sense of awe when we approach it.
4. Translation At the end of my sophomore year, I was told by my high school French teacher that I spoke French like a Spanish speaking cow and that she would give me a “C” for French II if I agreed not to take French III my junior year. I quickly agreed and that pretty much ended my foreign language studies. Most of you reading this book are probably like me and read your Bible in English. This is fine but we must remember that doing this means we are reading from a translation. The original writing of the book in the Bible that you are reading from probably was Greek or Hebrew. This is important because sometimes there are words that do not translate neatly from one language to another. For example I have been told over and over again in my studies that the word we read as “repent” in our English Bibles comes from the Greek Word “Metanoia” which would more accurately mean “to put on a new mind or change one’s way of thinking. This is why reading the footnotes in one’s Bible and commentaries about the Sacred Scriptures can do a lot to enhance a person’s understanding of the Word of God.
5. Reader Response Another important thing to remember about the Bible is that the human authors had a particular audience in mind when they wrote their book of the Bible. Knowing this can help us gain more information behind the symbolism used in the stories. For example the story of the Good Samaritan becomes all the more shocking when you realize just how hated Samaritans were by the Jewish people of Christ time. The author hints at this by concluding his story with the God-fearing Jew who followed the Commandments refusing even to use the word Samaritan (Luke XX). The fact that Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey has deeper meaning when you learn that a Jewish King only rode a donkey during a time of peace. Otherwise He would have ridden in on his war horse. God literally was coming to his people in peace and what did we do to Him? If nothing else try imagine what it was like to be a first century Jew or Gentile hearing these stories for the first time. You will see that Jesus was a very controversial person and He was definitely anything but boring.