LESSON 3
THE BIBLE AND TRADITION
DIRECTIONS TO THE STUDENT
Most people who begin these instructions in religion love the Holy Bible. You should thank God that you, too, love the Bible. Throughout these instructions we will refer to the Bible and use it often to prove what we teach you.
In this instruction we will prove that what the Bible says must be accepted as the Word of God. We hope that this lesson will increase your love for the Bible.
In this lesson we will teach you another source of God's teachings -Tradition.
A. GOD IS THE AUTHOR OF THE BIBLE
The Bible is a collection of books written under the inspiration of God.
God is the author of the Bible. For this reason the Bible is the greatest of all books. The men who wrote the words were only instruments in the Hand of God, something like the chalk is an instrument in your hand when you write on the blackboard. If I ask you, "Who is writing?" you answer immediately, "1 am." The chalk is only an instrument in your hand. The chalk must be guided by you. So in a somewhat similar manner with the Bible: God is the author. The men were instrument the Hand of God. God is the real author.
B. HOW DO WE KNOW THAT GOD IS THE AUTHOR OF THE BIBLE?
Christ, the Apostles, and the Catholic Church have always taught that the Bible had God as its author.
Christ Himself used the Bible as the Word of God; the Jews believed that the Bible was the Word of God, and Christ approved their belief.
Christ said to the Jewish people: " Search the scriptures: for you think in them to have life everlasting. And the same are they that give testimony of man." (John 5:39) See also Luke 24:27; John 10:31-36; Acts 4:25.
St. Peter tells us that the b-books in the Bible came from God the Holy Ghost: "For prophecy came not by the will of man at any time: but the holy men of God spoke inspired by the Holy Ghost." (2 Peter 1 :21 )
Down through the ages the Catholic Church has taught that God is the Author of the Bible.
For example, in the year 393 the Church officially declared the Bible to be the "divine Scriptures"; that means that God is the author. The Catholic Church has constantly repeated this teaching. In the year 1893 Pope Leo XIII taught: "For, by supernatural power, He (God) so moved and impelled them (the human writers) to write. He was so present to them that the things which he ordered and those only, they first rightly understood. then willed faithfully to write down and finally //y expressed in apt words and with infallible truth." (Pope Leo XIII- Nov. 18,1893)
C. HOW MUCH OF THE BIBLE IS FROM GOD?
The whole Bible is from God. Therefore you cannot ignore the parts of the Bible you don't like.
For example, if the Bible says there is only one b-true Church made by God, you must accept this b-truth. If the Bible gives us definite laws about marriage and the married life, you must live according to those laws. You must accept everything contained in the Bible as the teaching of God Himself.
Everything in the Bible is b-true. There are no errors in the Bible because God is its author and God cannot deceive us.
D. THE CATHOLIC BIBLE
The Bible used by Catholics today is the same Bible that has been preserved down through the ages by the Catholic Church. Before the invention of printing priests and religious brothers in monasteries copied the Bible by hand and thus preserved it for mankind.
The Church has translated the Bible into various languages, so that everyone can read the Bible. Besides, she gives special spiritual favors to those who read the Bible.
The Catholic Church has set up the Biblical Commission under the Pope to preserve intact the Bible amidst the confusion of Bibles which are incomplete or have been changed. You can see why it is important to have the complete Bible and the original Bible, just as it was given to us by God. Besides guaranteeing that we have the complete and original Bible, the Biblical Commission helps us to understand difficult and obscure parts of the Bible. A Catholic Bible has the bishop' s signature with the word lmprimatur. This means that the Catholic Church declares officially that this is the original and complete Bible.
E. THE PROTESTANT BIBLES: The so-called Protestant Bible leaves out seven whole books or sections of the complete Bible: Tobias, Judith, Wisdom, Baruch. Ecclesiasticus, First and Second Machabees as well as parts of Esther and Daniel. Incomplete Bibles were printed in the sixteenth century by various groups that left the Catholic Church. These new religious groups tampered with the ancient Bible. The King James version used by most Protestants in the United States is an incomplete Bible. Several well-known Protestant scholars deplore the fact that the Protestant Bible commonly used in America is incomplete. Doctor Godspeed and Sir Frederick Kenyon, eminent Protestant biblical scholars, are most disturbed that the Protestant Bibles have omitted whole books of the original Bible. One Protestant group recently edited a Bible and called it "The Holy Bible Containing the Old and New Testaments." This finally gives the Protestant people the whole Bible-it contains the seven books which Catholics have always had.
F. MISUNDERSTANDING THE BIBLE
The Bible contains no errors, because it is from God. But even though it contains no errors, men can still misunderstand it. Some draw high ideals and noble courage from this sacred book. But others misunderstand the Bible and get strange and even perverted notions of what they should do.
Because of these misunderstandings some people gouge out their eyes, others allow themselves to be stung by poisonous
G. PRIVATE INTERPRETATION OF THE BIBLE. People misunderstand the Bible because of the false principle of private interpretation. According to this principle the individual who reads the Bible is inspired by God so that he cannot make a mistake.
But this principle is utterly false. The Bible makes no such guarantee. Rather it warns us that some will twist it to their own destruction.
" As also in all his (Paul's) epistles, speaking in them of these things in which are certain things hard to be understood. which the unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures. to their own destruction.'. (2 Peter 3:16)
Many parts of the Bible are mysterious and difficult to understand. A priest studies the Bible for many years in the seminary; but even after these years of study, he must go to scripture scholars to find out the correct meaning of certain texts. And even scripture scholars, who spend a great part of their lives studying the Bible, find it difficult to understand certain sections.
Around the year 375 St. Jerome, a great scripture scholar and Catholic priest, translated the Bible into Latin. He became very angry with unlettered, unstable and foolish men who misread, misinterpreted, or misquoted the Bible.
"You cannot make your way into the Holy Scriptures without having someone to go before you and show you the road. .. The science of the scriptures is the only one which all persons indiscriminately claim as their own! This science the babbling old woman, the doting old man. the wordy sophist take upon themselves. They tear it to tatters and teach before they themselves have learned Coming by chance to the study of the Scriptures... they fancy what they utter is the law of God. not deigning to learn what the prophets and the Apostles taught. Rather they accommodate to their interpretation the most incongruous passages as if this were something great instead of a faulty method of teaching. distorting sentences and forcing the reluctant scripture to their own whims."
(Epistola 53 De Paulinum. n 7)
H. THE BIBLE NEEDS AN OFFICIAL TEACHER
Any difficult book requires a teacher. Without a teacher you cannot learn astronomy or calculus-you need more than a book. The Bible has many teachings which are difficult to understand and interpret. Therefore, the Bible needs an official teacher and interpreter appointed by Almighty God, Who is the author of the Bible. God has given us such a teacher and interpreter of the Bible-The Catholic Church.
I. TRADITION
There are many teachings of God which are not found in the Bible.
"But there are also many other things which Jesus did, which, if they were written every one, the world itself/.I think. would not be able to contain the books that should be written." (John 21 :25)
Tradition is a compilation of those teachings of God not written in the Bible. Some of God's teachings have been handed down by word of mouth since the time of the Apostles. These teachings of Tradition are just as true and authoritative as the explicit teachings of the Bible.
Our Lord wished many of His teachings to be brought to the world by word of mouth. Christ did not tell the Apostles to write books.
He told them to teach and preach: "Going therefore, teach ye all nations: baptizing them in the name of the F ather and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. And behold I am with you all days. even to the consummation of the world." (Matthew 28:19-20)
The Apostles carried on their work by ordaining priests.
" And when they had ordained to them priests in every church and had prayed with fasting , they commended them to the Lord. in whom they believed." (Acts 15 :22)
The priests PREACHED. Neither Christ nor the Apostles intended to convert the world by distributing books.
All the teachings of Christ which you will learn in these instructions are found either in the Bible or in Tradition. Some of these truths cannot be found in the Bible, but only in Tradition. A good example of a truth found only in Tradition is the substitution of Sunday for Saturday as the Lord's Day. You cannot find this practice in the Bible; it comes only from Tradition.
GO TO LESSON 4 - GOD AND THE BLESSED TRINITY
