Holy Bible

Chapter 2

Lesson 2

Please take out your Bible.

Find the Gospels.

Find the Psalms.

Find your favorite verse if you have one.

The Bible is important to each of us.

It is a guide on how to live so that we may be united with God forever in heaven.

History of the Bible.

Throughout the centuries, churches have been decorated with beautiful art, depicting stories from the Bible so that everyone could know and meditate upon them.

It was written by believers, for believers.

The Catholic Church defined which books would comprise Sacred Scripture by the early 400s.

Deuterocanonical Books

Tobit

Judith

1 and 2 Maccabees

Wisdom

Sirach

Baruch

The Protestant Bible does not have these books. Find these books in your Bible.

Scripture – How can it be interpreted?

LiteralThis requires you to

understand a passage as it is written, taking into account its historical setting.

For example, we read textbooks and instruction manuals in the literal sense.

SpiritualThis requires us to

seek the deeper significance of the text.

There are three spiritual senses.

1. Allegorical: the passage as it relates to Jesus

2. moral: the passage as it relates to each of us

3. Anagogical: the passage as it relates to the eternal

Jesus said he could rebuild the temple in three days.

Literal – The temple is the building in Jerusalem where the Jews worshiped God.

Allegorical- tells us that Christ is the Temple destroyed and rebuilt in the three days before the Resurrection.

Moral- reminds us that we are temples of the Holy Spirit.

Anogogical-reminds us that heaven is the Eternal Temple where Jesus reigns.

Saint Jerome

One of the greatest fathers of the Church is Saint Jerome. Inspired by eastern monasticism, he spent his first years as a Christian living in the eastern deserts as a hermit. During this time he began to study Greek and Latin. Around 380 he traveled to Rome and began to work for the Pope. His work was to translate the Bible from Greek and Hebrew into Latin, which was the common language of that time. His translation, know as the Vulgate, is still the standard Latin version of the Bible. He also used his knowledge of Scripture to argue for the perpetual virginity of Mary and other Catholic doctrines that were being denied by heretics at that time.