Divine Revelation

RCIA presentation December 9, 2015

Ways of Coming to Know God

• The world: starting from movement, becoming, contingency, and the world’s order and beauty, one can come to a knowledge of God as the origin and the end of the universe (CCC 32)

• The human person: With his openness to truth and beauty, his sense of moral goodness, his freedom and the voice of his conscience, with his longings for the infinite and for happiness, man questions himself about God’s existence. In all this he discerns signs of his spiritual soul. The soul, the “seed of eternity we bear in ourselves, irreducible to the merely material,” can have its origin only in God. (CCC 33)

We Need Divine Revelation

• Our intellects are limited and we suffer the consequences of sin

• Man’s faculties make him capable of coming to a knowledge of the existence of a personal God. But for man to be able to enter into real intimacy with him, God willed both to reveal himself to man and to give him the grace of being able to welcome this revelation in faith (CCC 35)

God Comes to Meet Man

• By natural reason man can know God with certainty, on the basis of his works. But there is another order of knowledge, which man cannot possibly arrive at by his own powers: the order of divine Revelation.

• Through an utterly free decision, God has revealed himself and given himself to man. This he does by revealing the mystery, his plan of loving goodness, formed from all eternity in Christ, for the benefit of all men. God has fully revealed this plan by sending us his beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit (CCC 50, see also Eph 1)

Why God Reveals• God, who “dwells in

unapproachable light,” wants to communicate his own divine life to the men he freely created, in order to adopt them as his sons in his only-begotten Son. By revealing himself God wishes to make them capable of responding to him, and of knowing him, and of loving him far beyond their own natural capacity. (CCC 52)

How God Reveals

• Gradually, in stages God reveals Himself and His plan for man in deeds and words… [this divine pedagogy] prepares him (man) to welcome by stages the supernatural Revelation that is to culminate in the person and mission of the incarnate Word, Jesus Christ CCC 53.

• St. John informs us that Jesus Christ is the Word of God.

• We are a people of the Word…we are Christians!

• There are two sources by which we come into contact with the Word of God:– Sacred Scripture – Sacred Tradition

• “The revelation of God in Jesus Christ is transmitted through Scripture and Tradition as one common source” (p. 6 in text).

The Word of God

Jesus is the Mediator & Fullness of Divine Revelation

• Tradition – transmits in its entirety the Word of God which has been entrusted by Christ and the Holy Spirit to the apostles.

• “the Church, in her doctrine, life, and worship perpetuates and transmits to every generation all that she herself is, all that she believes.” CCC 78,DV8

• Tradition includes Sacred Scripture, which is a privileged expression of Tradition– Privileged because it is inspired by the HS

• Tradition has been handed down orally and in writing.• St. Paul tells the Thessalonians to hold fast to the traditions that

the apostles have passed down either in writing or by word of mouth (2 Thess 2:15)

Sacred Tradition

Sacred Scripture is the speech of God as it is put down in writing under the breath of the Holy Spirit.

• Collection of many works by many authors

• Many genres: Poetry, History, Apocalyptic, Factual Data, Narrative

• The ultimate Author is God!– Human authors use their own

style and ways of writing and God mysteriously made sure they wrote all He wanted written for the sake of our salvation.

How the Bible was Written

• Inspiration

– “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness…”(2Tim 3:16).

• Because God, the Holy Spirit is the Author of all of Scripture, Scripture contains No Error!

– “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 for the sake of salvation” (DV 11).

– Unlike any human book the Bible is completely free from error.

• Incarnational Principle

– Like the Person of Christ, who is fully human & fully divine, Sacred Scripture is both full human and fully divine.

– Just as Christ is sinless man, Scripture is the Word of God expressed in human word, but without error.

– CCC 102

• The Holy Spirit guided the Church, through the Liturgy, to recognize the inspired books.

• Canon – comes from a Greek word meaning measuring rod or rule.

• If a book is divinely inspired (i.e. God-Breathed) it is included in the Canon (2 Tim 3:16)

• Inspired gets a book in; Not inspired equals no admittance.

How the Canon came to be

It took centuries for the Church, guided by the HS, to decide the final Canon

46 OT & 27 NT

Synod of Rome (382 AD) Lists the books followed by the Council of Hippo 393AD, and Carthage 397AD & 419AD

Nicea II (787 AD) = first ecumenical council to ratify the canon listed at Rome, Hippo & Carthage.

The Council of Florence in 1441 gives the same list

The Council of Trent in 1546 solemnly defined the canon.

46 OT & 27 NT

• Ever notice that Catholic bibles have more books in them then Protestant bibles?

• The seven books missing from Protestant bibles are:– Wisdom

– Tobit

– Judith

– Sirach

– Baruch

– 1Maccabees

– 2Maccabees

– *Parts of Daniel and Ester are also omitted

• Catholics call these books the Deuterocanonicals

Deutero Canon = 2nd canon

• Approx. 250bc 70 Jewish scholars in Alexandria, Egypt translated the Scriptures into Greek. This translation is known as the Septuagint (abbreviated LXX). It contained the Deuterocanonical books.

• Another group of Jews in Palestine used a Hebrew version of the Scriptures (Later known as the Masoretic text). They rejected the LXX because they rejected all things Greek. And they thought some of the texts were written after the date they saw as the end of revelation

• Scholars have demonstrated that the early Christians mainly used the LXX, including the NT writers. Palestinian Jews had another reason for rejecting the Greek texts now i.e. reject what the Christians use

Why the missing books?

• Because the Christians wouldn’t help the Jews fight the Romans and fled to the mountains (as Jesus told them to) the Jews hated them. They did not want to use the same scriptures the Christians used.

• Magisterium = The Living teaching office of the Church made up of the pope and the bishops in union with him.– It is the Magisterium’s task to

give authentic interpretation of the word of God (ST or SS)…it ensures the Church’s fidelity to the teaching of the Apostles in matters of Faith and Morals.

– Infallibility - The Holy Spirit protects the Magisterium from officially teaching error regarding faith or morals. (CCC 890-91)• The Pope (ex cathedra)• The Pope and all the bishops in

union with him.

• Without the HS we would have no way of knowing which books are inspired. We would also not have authoritative interpretations of the text.– Know this first of all, that there is no

prophecy of scripture that is a matter of personal interpretation (2 Pt 1:20)

• Human exegetes (Scripture scholars/interpreters) disagree often.

• The Magisterium, guided by the HS, has the final say on interpretation.

• Thank God that He made sure we had a trustworthy way of coming to know Him!

The Holy Spirit Guides the Church

The Holy Spirit

• “there is a third divine Person, the Holy Spirit of God, whom He promised to send to them as the Spirit of Truth to support their teaching the faith, as the Spirit of Life to animate the Sacraments of His religion, and as the Spirit of Holiness, to sustain the life of prayer and Gospel morality in His Church” (Kevane xvi)

Inspires Sacred Scripture

Animates Living Tradition

Guarantees the Magisterium

What is the Pillar & Bulwark of Truth?

• “I should be delayed, you should know how to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of truth” (1 Tim 3:15)

• “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth” (John 16:13)

• “He who hears you hears me, and he who rejects you rejects me, and he who rejects me rejects him who sent me” (Luke 10:16) See also Mt 10:40; LG 20; CCC 87, 858

Give attention to …• 1) Intention of the Human author(s) and God

• 2) Literary Genres & ways of thinking, speaking, & narrating that prevailed at the time.

• 3) The content and unity of the whole of Scripture (all of Scripture is one story)

– Scripture is one story, “a unity by reason of the unity of God’s plan, of which Jesus is the center and heart” CCC 112).

• 4) Living Tradition - the Bible must be interpreted within “the context of a community that treasures a ‘living tradition’” (introduction to the Ignatius Study Bible & CCC 113)

• 5) Analogy of Faith - Because the Scriptures are divinely inspired, “we must also believe them to be internally coherent and consistent with all the doctrines Christians believe” (Introduction to the Ignatius Study Bible & CCC 114)

Interpretation

• Two Senses of Scripture– Literal– Spritual

• The Literal (Literary) Sense– Is found by searching out the intended meaning of the

human author. It is what is conveyed by the words.– Exegetes must look at the language used, the genres

used, literary devices used, customs of the people of that particular region at that time…etc. • An example of a literary device or technique is found on page 11

of your textbook. Jeremiah sees the destruction of the temple as the end of the world so he uses language that communicates an undoing of creation. (see page 11 in textbook)

– All other senses are based on the literal (CCC 116)

Interpretation – Senses of Scripture

• Allegorical

– How does the text relate to Christ?

• Moral

– How does the text inform my own conduct & moral growth?

• Anagogical

– How does the text point or lead to the future or heaven?

– Viewing realities in terms of their eternal significance

Spiritual Senses (realities in SS can be signs that point to even greater

realities)

• Literal Sense – The Temple is the actual physical dwelling place of God as well as the house of worship and learning place of the people of God located in Jerusalem.

• Spiritual– Allegorical – Christ referred to Himself as the Temple.

“Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days“(Jn2:19).

– Moral – Our Bodies are Temples of the Holy Spirit. “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you…therefore glorify God in your body” (1Cor6:19-20).

Example:The Temple

• Anagogical – the temple can refer to the heavenly temple, our eternal dwelling place with God where we will worship Him forever. “I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband” (Rev 21:2, 22).

Senses con't

• Tupos in Greek means imprint. This is where we get the word Type from when we refer to certain people, objects, or events as “types” in the Bible.

• God providentially and mysteriously writes history like human authors write books.– A human author can see the whole story at once (beginning,

middle, and end) just as God’s view of all time is ever-present and complete.

– For example, human authors often write something in early chapters that will not be fully understood until the end of the book.

Typology

• “Therefore, just as through one person sin entered the world, and through sin, death, and thus death came to all, inasmuch as all sinned for up to the time of the law, sin was in the world, though sin is not accounted when there is no law. But death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who did not sin after the pattern of the trespass of Adam, who is the type of the one who was to come” (Romans 5:12-14 emphasis added).

St. Paul uses typology

Example of Typology –Noah & The Flood

• The Flood is a type of Baptism

– It washes away the sin on earth – sin dies in the flood

• Noah is a type of Christ

– Noah, a righteous man, obeys God’s command to build the ark & he saves his family by bringing them into the ark.

• The ark is a type of the Church

• The type is always less than the thing prefigured or foreshadowed. The antitype is greater than the type.

• Christ and or the Church are usually the antitype, but other figures are foreshadowed as well. Such as, Mary the mother of God, St. Joseph, and St. Peter.