Catholic Tract 1
Some Christians following Martin Luther’s erroneous belief at the
time of the Reformation, claim that the “Bible alone”(Latin: “Sola Scriptura”),
is the sole source of revealed Christian truth. That is not correct.
Authentic Christian revelation has been entrusted by Christ to his
Church through the process of Sacred Tradition. This does not mean “human
tradition” which nullifies the Word of
God(Mt 15:6-9). However, nowhere does the Bible state that it is the sole rule
of faith. In fact, 1 Tim 3:15 states that the Church is “the pillar and
foundation” of the truth.
2 Tim 3:17, which some Christians quote to
prove the Bible as the sole rule of faith, does not say that the Bible is all
we need for salvation. Although it is profitable for four ends, the text does
not say that Scripture is sufficient. It says that the Bible is indeed
inspired, but it does not say that ONLY the Bible is inspired. Also the text
refers to the Old Testament.
The aid of Sacred Tradition(the Oral Word,
that is not in the Bible, the “ written Word”) is also required. See 2 Thess
2:15.
When Paul, in writing in 2 Tim 3:15 refers
to the Scriptures which Timothy was taught from infancy, he is referring to the
Old Testament. A good part of the New Testament was not written when these
words were written by St Paul, and none of the New Testament books were placed
in the Canon(official list) of the Bible yet.
The first official Canon of the Bible was
only discerned ), by St Athanasius in his “Festal Letter” of 367 AD, by the
bishops of the Catholic church at a Council held probably at Rome in 382 AD
under Pope Damasus, and at the 4th century Councils of Hippo(393 AD)
and Carthage(397 AD. The Catholic
Church was preaching the good news of salvation for about three centuries before it discerned from among the many
manuscripts in circulation which ones were truly inspired and were to become
part of what we call the New Testament. Very few people could read at that time
so the Bible was not of much use to believers.
John tells us that not everything concerning Christ’s work is in
Scripture(Jn 21:25). Paul writes in 2 Tim 2:2 : “What you have heard
from me before many witnesses, entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach
others also. “ Nowhere is there any mention of writing the truths down for
posterity.
That is not to say that the Bible is not important.
It is God’s love letter, given to us by the Church. It was the 4th
century biblical scholar, St Jerome, who wrote: “Ignorance of Scripture is
ignorance of Christ”.
The Church in the person of the apostles
was given the authority by Christ to teach(Mt 28:19). This was done by
preaching – oral instruction: “See how faith comes from hearing through
Christ’s Word(written and oral) (Rom 10:17). It is a mistake to limit Christ’s
Word to the Written Word only, or to suggest that all the teachings were
reduced to writing. God, through Isaiah, promised a living voice in the
Church(Is 59:21): “And this Word is none other than the gospel which has been
preached to you”(1 Peter 1:25).
Note the word “preached”, that is, oral.
It would not be “supplanted” by a written word like the Bible. Supplemented,
yes, but not supplanted. The New Testament is a “reflection” of what the
Catholic Church had been teaching for the previous four centuries.
The truths have been given primarily to
the teachers of the Church(Eph 3:5), who with Christ form the foundation of the
Church(Eph 2:20). The Church is guided by the Holy Spirit who protects her
teaching from corruption(Jn 14:16).
The “traditions” referred to by Jesus in
Mt 15:3 were “human customs”, as were those mentioned by Paul in Col 2:8. In Mt
15:6-9 Jesus was condemning the Pharisees who were making pretended dedication
of their goods to the Temple so that they could avoid using them to support
their aged parents. By doing this they dodged the commandment to “honour your
father and your mother”(Ex 20:12).
Elsewhere Jesus instructed us to abide by
traditions that are not contrary to God’s commandments: “Do and observe what they(the
Pharisees, the leaders occupying the chair of Moses) tell you, but do not
imitate their (hypocritical) actions.”(Mt 23:2-3). Of Sacred Tradition, Paul,
in 2 Thess 3;6, tells us: “…. Live according to the Traditions we have
passed on”. Also 1 Cor 11:2: “You have done well ….. maintaining the traditions
just as I passed them on to you.”
The Jews of old also believed in Sacred
Tradition. There is no mention of the “chair of Moses” in the Old Testament,
yet the disciples knew exactly what Jesus meant in referring to it(Mt 23:2-3).
Paul is clear in 2 Thess 2:15: “So then brethren, hold on to the traditions you
have been taught, either by word of mouth or what is written.
The teaching authority, or “Magisterium” of the Catholic Church is
at the service of the Word of God, not above it. For “there are many things in
Scripture that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people
distort, as they do the other Scriptures to their destruction” (2 Peter 3:16)).
The Book of Proverbs states: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean
not unto your own understanding”.(Prov 3:5-6). See also Luke 10:16. In 2 Peter
1:20 we read: “…. We must be most careful to remember that the interpretation
of scriptural prophecy is never a matter for the individual.” In Acts 8:30-31,
St Luke writes: “When Philip ran up he heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and
asked: ‘Do you understand what you are reading?’ ‘How can I’, he replied,
‘unless I have someone to guide me?’” And Neh 8:8 has it: “And Esra read the
law of God, translating and giving the sense, so that the people understood
what was read”.
This has been the practice of the Catholic Church since the time
of the Fathers of the Church(generations of holy men immediately following the
apostles, such as St Clement(third bishop of Rome after St Peter(see his
“Epistle to the Corinthians, 42:1-5, 80 AD).
The text from John 5:39: “Search the
Scriptures” is no proof that the Bible is to be the sole rule of faith. With
these words, Jesus was referring the Pharisees to the Messianic prophecies of
the Old Testament, pointing to him as the Messiah.
The fact that the Bereans “welcomed the
Word with all eagerness and examined the Scriptures day by day”(Acts 17:11) is
no proof that all Christian truths are in the Bible. They had been taught
Christianity orally in the normal way and were checking to see its claims
matched the Old Testament prophecies. The text does not mean that early
Christians were using the Bible as a check list for Christian truths.
The notion of “the Bible only” was
invented by the 15th century Reformers who, in rejecting the papacy
had nowhere else to look for a “sole rule of faith”.
Contrary to what some say, the Catholic
Church has never forbidden its members to read the Bible. However, the Church
has at times forbidden the reading of certain erroneous translations, such as
the Tyndale and Wycliff translations which even Protestants never refer to
today.
The Bible is a Catholic book nurtured
within the influence of the Catholic Church who discerned the Canon. The first
Bibles were all produced by Catholics. The first person to translate any part
of the Bible into English was the priest, Bede, in the 8th century.
Years later, even Martin Luther admitted that without the Catholic Church we
would not even have a Bible.
The “extra” books at the back of the
Catholic Old Testament, known as “deuterocanonical” or the Apocrypha(by Protestants),
are not “extra” at all, but have beeen removed from Protestant Bibles.
Catholics and Protestants agree on the number of books in the New Testament.
The early Church Fathers followed the lead
of the apostles in using the “Septuagint” version of the Old Testament(Greek
translation of the Jews of the dispersion made in Alexandria).
The Fathers peppered their writings with
references from the so-called “apocryphal” Old Testament books because Jesus, his
Apostles, the New Testament writers and the early Church all used a Bible(Old
Testament) that included the “Apocrypha” or deuterocanonical books. The
Palestine Canon, which excluded these books, and which Protestant Christians
use, had not been invented yet.
Interestingly, among the Dead Sea Scrolls
discovered near Qumran in 1947, fragments of the deuterocanonical Old Testament books found in Catholic
Bibles, but not in those Protestants use, have been uncovered in Hebrew.
Especially since the Second Vatican Council(1962-1965), more than
ever, Catholics have been encouraged to read the written Word of God. Today
there are study groups in many Catholic parishes.
Some will be surprised to learn that of a survey made in America, it
was found that in most Evangelical churches 6% of their Sunday services were
devoted to Scripture. The fundamentalist church surveyed was found to spend 2%
of its Sunday service in Scripture. In Catholic parishes, which use a Sunday
Missal containing the Scripture readings, countrywide and indeed worldwide, the
use of Scripture was approximately 26% on a Sunday. During weekday celebrations
of the Mass, it would be approximately 20%.
What is evident is that the Catholic
Church holds the Scripture in very high regard. And individual Catholics are
more and more studying the Scriptures, unlike some other unfortunate periods of
history. All would be better served if non-Catholic Christians would freely
acknowledge the fact.
introductory
page Selected Catholic tracts available in this
series