OTHCC Chapter 13: items 241 - 260

The Old Testament in the Heart of the Catholic Church < > All Chapters

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Christ himself

a.   ignored the Old Testament as much as possible.
b.   made constant use of the Old Testament.
c.   trivialized and denigrated the Old Testament.

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What are the very first words in the Old Testament? (The book of Genesis, chapter 1, verse 1 [Gen 1:1]) (Yes, you have to look it up).

a.   ''In the beginning a proto-atom of infinite density expanded within nanoseconds.''
b.   ''In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.''
c.   ''In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.''

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The word ''Genesis'' means

a.   beginning.
b.   ending.
c.   love.

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The abbreviation Gen 1:2 means

a.   ''the book of Gen, Chapter 1, verse 2''
b.   ''the book of Genesis, Chapter 1, verse 2''
c.   ''the book of Genesis, Chapter 2, verse 1''

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Gen 2:1 begins (Yes, you have to look it up)

a.   ''Now the Lord said to Abram...''
b.   ''The earth was without form...''
c.   ''Thus the heavens and the earth were finished...''

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The first words of the Gospel according to John (Jn 1:1) are (Yes, you have to look it up)

a.   ''In the beginning a proto-atom of infinite density expanded within nanoseconds.''
b.   ''In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.''
c.   ''In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.''

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''In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.'' [Gen 1:1]
''In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.'' [Jn 1:1]

Hidden - though certainly not directly stated - in the very first line of the Bible is the truth that God's Son was there ''in the beginning.'' We can only find this genuine truth in the words of the book of Genesis when we read the Old Testament

a.   as if the sacraments were not real and the New Testament were not true.
b.   knowing that the sacraments are real and the New Testament is true.
c.   not knowing whether the sacraments are real or the New Testament is true.

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Knowing that the sacraments are real and the New Testament is true

a.   expands and clarifies the true meaning of the Old Testament.
b.   makes the meaning conveyed by the Old Testament no longer true.
c.   warps and distorts the true meaning of the Old Testament.

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The meaning that the human authors of Sacred Scripture intended to convey, as discovered by scholarship and as clarified and corrected in the light provided by the Holy Spirit working in and through the sacraments, is called the

a.   allegorical sense.
b.   literal sense.
c.   spiritual sense.

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''All other senses of Sacred Scripture are based on the literal.'' [CCC 116, quoting St. Thomas Aquinas.] This means that

a.   every passage in Scripture must be taken literally.
b.   the literal sense of a passage can be ignored.
c.   the literal sense of a passage is always true.

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The literal sense of a passage of Sacred Scripture is, of course, the meaning that is immediately obvious to you.

a.   Yes.
b.   No.

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People who study the Bible for a living are now able to find the literal sense of every single scripture passage.

a.   Yes.
b.   No.

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All scholars who study the Bible agree on the literal sense of each scripture passage.

a.   Yes.
b.   No.

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The Bible is not a newspaper. Remember that the ''literal sense'' of Sacred Scripture is what the human authors of Sacred Scripture intended to convey as discovered by scholarship and as clarified and corrected in the light provided by the Holy Spirit working in and through the sacraments.

Sometimes the human authors intended to convey a poem, or a song, a story, or something else besides ''newspaper truth.'' The literal sense of the Bible is always true. That doesn't mean that the Bible is a newspaper.

Also, it is very important to remember that NO ONE today may actually know the literal sense of a particular scripture passage. The 'literal sense' is not necessarily the meaning that you yourself might get out of the passage when you read it. You might be completely misunderstanding what the sacred author is trying to convey.

Turn this around for a minute. Imagine what a person 3000 years ago might think if you wrote, ''In this electronic book, it is a good idea to use the mouse.'' First of all, the word 'electronic' would completely baffle him. Also, he would have a picture of a small, furry mammal in his mind (the mouse!). Not knowing the context in which you live, he might start to develop theories about the important role that small, furry mammals played in the 21st century study of the Old Testament! >>

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Now turn that around and imagine all the things in the world of the sacred authors that might be totally unfamiliar to you. Just imagine how far off the track you might get if you did not understand the living context in which the sacred authors wrote.

Multiply your estimate by about a thousand, and that's how far you might be from the 'literal sense' of at least some passages in Sacred Scripture. The 'literal sense' of a passage is not necessarily the meaning that is 'obvious' from your perspective.

The meaning that is 'obvious' to you might in fact be the literal sense, but on the other hand, what you understand from the passage might be a million miles off the track. What's worse, you, living thousands of years later and not knowing the context in which the sacred author wrote, have absolutely no way to tell the difference.

Some people have turned to scholars to solve all these problems about establishing the literal sense of passages in Sacred Scripture. This turns out to help. Over about the last hundred years, scholars have been able to piece together a better understanding of the literal sense of many passages.

However, scholarship also does not provide the complete solution. For one thing, very reputable scholars quite often disagree about the literal meaning of passages in Sacred Scripture (and keep disagreeing). Also, scholars freely admit that they still do not have a clear idea of what the sacred author intended in some scripture passages. >>

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Finally, scholars who do not leave the final judgment about the meaning of the Bible to Jesus, acting in and through the judgments of the Holy Father and bishops in communion with him, may also come to erroneous conclusions about the literal sense of a particular passage.

To the extent that it can, this course will teach you what the majority of reputable scholars today think might be the literal sense of many passages in the Old Testament. It will cue you that it is doing this by writing that 'most scholars' or that 'many scholars' think something.

In twenty or a hundred years, other scripture scholars may think that 'most scholars' today were full of baloney when they told us what the literal sense of a particular passage was. These future scholars may also think that our scripture scholars were exactly right about the literal sense of some other passages.

All this course can do is tell you what most of our scholars today think, and ask you to take everything they say seriously, but also with a little grain of salt. Our scholars are only human, and so are we. What else can we do but our best, with the information we now have? >>

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You may have thought that the 'literal sense' of a passage was a simple concept. To an extent, you are correct. For centuries, people did think that.

Sometimes when we progress in knowledge, things get simpler. To account for the motion of the planets in the sky, people used to have a very, very complicated and elaborate system. Now, a few basic equations do the same work much better.

However, sometimes we realize that things are much more complicated than we previously had thought. Not so very long ago, even highly educated people thought that everything in the physical universe was made up of combinations of only four basic things: earth, air, fire, and water. Now we understand that it's much, much more complicated than that.

The 'literal sense' is like that. We understand its meaning better now, and that meaning is much more complicated than we had thought.

That's life! <<

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Re-read Gen 3. The meaning of Gen 3 (that's Genesis, Chapter 3 to those who aren't lucky enough to be in this course) is that

a.   it may be a story, but it nonetheless conveys the truth that the Fall was a real event.
b.   it definitely is a story that should be read as a story, not as a description of a real event.
c.   it is absolutely not any sort of story but is an exact, precise account of a real event.

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How do we know that that is the meaning of Gen 3?

a.   We look deep within ourselves, make certain that our hearts are pure, then pray for guidance from the Holy Spirit, who will inform us by giving us a special feeling for the correct answer.
b.   If there is a tradition of the Catholic Church's judgment on the matter, we study that, or we find out if the present Holy Father, or the present Catholic bishops in union with him, have made a judgment.
c.   We study the works of the most distinguished scholars in the most reputable universities, carefully examine the evidence pro and con, and form a mature judgment based on the facts.

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In any particular passage in the Old Testament, there

a.   can be a meaning that contradicts the meaning the human author intended to convey.
b.   can be more meaning there, even beyond the meaning the human author intended to convey.
c.   can not be more meaning there, beyond the meaning the human author intended to convey.

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