|
702 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.72 io8 Still,
the Christian faith is not a religion of the
book. Christianity is the religion of the
Word of God, a word which is not a written
and mute word, but the Word which is incarnate and
living.73 If the Scriptures are not to remain a dead
letter, Christ, the eternal Word of the living God, must,
through the Holy Spirit, open [our] minds to
understand the Scriptures.74 III. The Holy Spirit, Interpreter of Scripture
109 In Sacred Scripture, God speaks to man in a
human way. To interpret Scripture correctly, the reader must
be attentive to what the human authors truly wanted to
affirm, and to what God wanted to reveal to us by their
words.75 i jo In order to discover
the sacred authors intention, the reader must
take into account the conditions of their time and culture,
the literary genres in use at that time, and the modes of
feeling, speaking and narrating then current. For the
fact is that truth is differently presented and expressed in
the various types of historical writing, in prophetical and
poetical texts, and in other forms of literary
expression.~6 i i i But since
Sacred Scripture is inspired, there is another and no less
important principle of correct interpretation, without which
Scripture would remain a dead letter. Sacred Scripture
must be read and interpreted in the light of the same Spirit
by whom it was written.77 The
Second Vatican Council indicates three criteria for
interpreting Scripture in accordance with the Spirit who
inspired it.78 112 I. Be especially
attentive to the content and unity of the whole
Scripture. Different as the books which compose it
may be, Scrip 128 ture is a unity by reason of the unity
of Gods plan, of which Christ
368 Jesus is the centre and heart, open since his
Passover.79 The phrase heart of
Christ can refer to Sacred Scripture, which makes
known his heart, closed before the Passion, as the
Scripture was obscure. |
|