“...It’s a different, and far more vexatious, question to see if we have understood the texts correctly...”
Well Said!! This is the essential issue on most of these threads that end up in fruitless “debate”. Scripture proof texts are requested from Catholics to back up our position; we provide them and they are simply ignored - re- provided, ignored; asked for, provided, ignored, and asked for again as if they hadn’t been provided!
The issue at hand IS interpretation as you rightly point out, not lack of Catholic proof texts, which is the implication when scripture is requested. Scripture is always provided by one or another of the Catholic apologists here and then always ignored if another (perfectly reasonable) interpretation is presented that is not agreed with. The disgreement is automatic and based upon opinion of interpretation alone.
Thank you for being a voice of reason here.
One last thing - the entire article that was posted is full of scripture to back up its position and yet scripture is requested by the responders to the article as if the article contained none. (not directed towards you - just pointing out the obvious in a general sense)
“Scripture proof texts are requested from Catholics to back up our position; we provide them and they are simply ignored - re- provided, ignored; asked for, provided, ignored, and asked for again as if they hadn’t been provided!”
I’m surprised that Catholics even request Scripture proofs. My best friend and her hubby (ex priest) have told us many times they don’t believe the Bible generally. If the Pope or a priest dictates something that contradict the Bible, it takes precedence over anything in the Bible. They’re very clear about that.
The interesting questions then have to do with Xtian Epistemology. How can we know a thing? How do we know how to read the Bible? What different ways are there to read it, and what are the implications of those ways.
Can or should we read as the NT writers did? What would that mean? Could the conclusions we drew be discussed?
That's where my interest goes. And this is clearly not the forum for such questions.