Friday, March 9, 2018

14. God is the Author of Holy Scripture


God is the Author of Holy Scripture

YOUCAT Catechism + Catechism of the Catholic Church Lesson 14

Ave Maria Series

14.  Is Sacred Scripture true?

“The books of Scripture firmly, faithfully, and without error teach (the) truth…Written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, they have God as their author”  (Second Vatican Council, Dei Verbum  11).  [103-107]








Challoner Douai Bible (1749) First Corinthians ..... 14 ..... 491






The BIBLE did not fall from heaven in its final form, nor did God dictate it to human scribes who copied it down mechanically.  Rather “God chose certain men who…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”  (Second Vatican Council, DV 11).  One factor in recognizing particular texts as Sacred Scripture was their general acceptance in the Church.  In the Christian communities there had to be a consensus:  “Yes, through this text God himself speaks to us—this is inspired by the Holy Spirit!”  Which of the many original Christian writings are really inspired by the Holy Spirit has been defined since the fourth century in the so-called CANON of Sacred Scriptures.

INSPIRATION  (Latin: inspiration=breathing):  God’s influence on the human writers of the Bible, so that he himself should be regarded as the author of the Sacred Scriptures.

CANON  (Greek: Kanon=measuring rod, rule, norm):  the authoritative collection of Sacred Scriptures in the Old and New Testaments of the Bible.

 [103-107]

Christ--the unique Word of Sacred Scripture

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 (Dei Verbum 21). Catechism of the Catholic Church, Second Edition

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" (1 Thessalonians 2:13). "In the sacred books, the Father who is in heaven comes lovingly to meet his children, and talks with them (Dei Verbum 21) --CCC

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 (Dei Verbum 11). --CCC

"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 (Dei Verbum 11, John 20:31, 2 Timothy 3:16, 2 Peter1:19-21; 2 Pt 3:15-16). -- CCC

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 (Dei Verbum 11). --CCC

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 (Dei Verbum 11). -- CCC






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