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US Conference of Catholic Bishops recommendations for Bible study
Examiner.com ^ | 7/22/09 | Denise Hunnell, M.D.Go to Denise's Home Page

Posted on 07/22/2009 10:39:38 PM PDT by bdeaner



The US Conference of Catholic Bishops web site recently posted recommendations for Catholics reading the Bible:

1. Bible reading is for Catholics. The Church encourages Catholics to make reading the Bible part of their daily prayer lives. Reading these inspired words, people grow deeper in their relationship with God and come to understand their place in the community God has called them to in himself.

2. Prayer is the beginning and the end. Reading the Bible is not like reading a novel or a history book. It should begin with a prayer asking the Holy Spirit to open our hearts and minds to the Word of God. Scripture reading should end with a prayer that this Word will bear fruit in our lives, helping us to become holier and more faithful people.

3. Get the whole story! When selecting a Bible, look for a Catholic edition. A Catholic edition will include the Church's complete list of sacred books along with introductions and notes for understanding the text. A Catholic edition will have an imprimatur notice on the back of the title page. An imprimatur indicates that the book is free of errors in Catholic doctrine.

4. The Bible isn't a book. It's a library. The Bible is a collection of 73 books written over the course of many centuries. The books include royal history, prophecy, poetry, challenging letters to struggling new faith communities, and believers' accounts of the preaching and passion of Jesus. Knowing the genre of the book you are reading will help you understand the literary tools the author is using and the meaning the author is trying to convey.

5. Know what the Bible is – and what it isn't. The Bible is the story of God's relationship with the people he has called to himself. It is not intended to be read as history text, a science book, or a political manifesto. In the Bible, God teaches us the truths that we need for the sake of our salvation.

6. The sum is greater than the parts. Read the Bible in context. What happens before and after – even in other books – helps us to understand the true meaning of the text.

7. The Old relates to the New. The Old Testament and the New Testament shed light on each other. While we read the Old Testament in light of the death and resurrection of Jesus, it has its own value as well. Together, these testaments help us to understand God's plan for human beings.

8. You do not read alone. By reading and reflecting on Sacred Scripture, Catholics join those faithful men and women who have taken God's Word to heart and put it into practice in their lives. We read the Bible within the tradition of the Church to benefit from the holiness and wisdom of all the faithful.

9. What is God saying to me? The Bible is not addressed only to long-dead people in a faraway land. It is addressed to each of us in our own unique situations. When we read, we need to understand what the text says and how the faithful have understood its meaning in the past. In light of this understanding, we then ask: What is God saying to me?

10. Reading isn't enough. If Scripture remains just words on a page, our work is not done. We need to meditate on the message and put it into action in our lives. Only then can the word be "living and effective."(Hebrews 4:12).


TOPICS: Catholic; Ministry/Outreach; Prayer; Worship
KEYWORDS: bible; bishops; catholics; scriptures
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To: Zionist Conspirator

You wrote:

“I doubt that.[that Jesus loves ZC]”

I don’t doubt that Jesus loves ZC for a single second.

“Is there a “Catholic bible” in existence that contains traditional commentary from fathers or doctors of the church rather than “modern scholarship?” I doubt it.”

You need to stop doubting.

Haydock DRV: http://www.catholictreasures.com/cartdescrip/11341.html?gclid=CJm9j5P07psCFSQeDQodj1cKAA

The notes, by the way, are online here: http://haydock1859.tripod.com/

And there’s always this new DRV: http://www.tanbooks.com/news/holy-bible-douay-rheims.htm

Both of these Bibles are currently in print. The TAN DRV Bible is due to be released soon.

There’s also this: http://www.baroniuspress.com/category.php?wid=58&cid=1


41 posted on 07/24/2009 10:55:58 AM PDT by vladimir998
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To: Zionist Conspirator
The virgin birth is not only a mistranslation but something they borrowed from the pagans.


Isaiah 7  (Hebrew Names Version)
14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: behold, an almah shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanu'el.

from the Hebrew
5959 `almah al-maw' feminine of 5958; a lass (as veiled or private):--damsel, maid, virgin.
1)
virgin, young woman
a)
of marriageable age
b)
maid or newly married

++++
There is no instance where it can be proved that this word designates a young woman who is not a virgin. (TWOT)

However.... there is also no reason to disregard the other options for the use of the word almah, instead of the word bthuwlaw, which unlike the word used in Isaiah, has only one meaning.  Virgin!

from the Hebrew
1330
bthuwlah beth-oo-law' feminine passive participle of an unused root meaning to separate; a virgin (from her privacy); sometimes (by continuation) a bride; also (figuratively) a city or state:--maid, virgin.
1)
virgin

Had the author of Isaiah wanted to make sure that everyone knew the young woman was a technical virgin, he would have used the word that actually meant, a technical virgin, instead of a word that could be taken to mean, young woman, or lass.

Isaiah 7 (Good News Translation)
7:14Well then, the Lord himself will give you a sign: a young woman F11 who is pregnant will have a son and will name him "Immanuel.' F12 R14
F11: young woman: [The Hebrew word here translated "young woman" is not the specific term for "virgin," but refers to any young woman of marriageable age. The use of "virgin" in Mt 1.23 reflects a Greek translation of the Old Testament, made some 500 years after Isaiah.]

'parthenos' is not used exclusively for 'a virgin', the LXX verse below refers to Dinah as 'parthenos' after she was raped by Shechem in Gen 34:3.

Genesis 34:3(LXX Greek)

English Translation -- from the Greek 3933 virgin
Original Word -- parqevnoß
Transliterated Word -- parthenos

parthenos 1 from an online greek dictionary (you'll have to scroll down towards the bottom)
* I. a maid, maiden, virgin, girl, Hom., etc.
* 2. Parthenos, as a name of Athena at Athens, of Artemis, etc.
* II. as adj. maiden, virgin, chaste, parthenon psuchên echôn Eur.: metaph., p. pêgê Aesch.; parthenoi triêreis maiden, i. e. new, ships, Ar.
* III. as masc., parthenos, an unmarried man, NTest.
[deriv. uncertain] 1 parqe/nos, h(,

Not only that, but:

Justin Martyr admits that christianity offers nothing new, that the pagans and their pagan gods didn't already have.

And when we say also that the Word, who is the first-birth45 of God, was produced without sexual union, and that He, Jesus Christ, our Teacher, was crucified and died, and rose again, and ascended into heaven, we propound nothing different from what you believe regarding those whom you esteem sons of Jupiter. For you know how many sons your esteemed writers ascribed to Jupiter: Mercury, the interpreting word and teacher of all; Aesculapius, who, though he was a great physician, was struck by a thunderbolt, and so ascended to heaven; and Bacchus too, after he had been torn limb from limb; and Hercules, when he had committed himself to the flames to escape his toils; and the sons of Leda, and Dioscuri; and Perseus, son of Danae; and Bellerophon, who, though sprung from mortals, rose to heaven on the horse Pegasus.

But far be such a thought concerning the gods from every well-conditioned soul, as to believe that Jupiter himself, the governor and creator of all things, was both a parricide and the son of a parricide

Moreover, the Son of God called Jesus, even if only a man by ordinary generation, yet, on account of His wisdom, is worthy to be called the Son of God; for all writers call God the Father of men and gods. And if we assert that the Word of God was born of God in a peculiar manner, different from ordinary generation, let this, as said above, be no extraordinary thing to you, who say that Mercury is the angelic word of God. But if any one objects that He was crucified, in this also He is on a par with those reputed sons of Jupiter of yours, who suffered as we have now enumerated.

And if we even affirm that He was born of a virgin, accept this in common with what you accept of Perseus. And in that we say that He made whole the lame, the paralytic, and those born blind, we seem to say what is very similar to the deeds said to have been done by Aesculapius.

Justin Martyr gives a point, by point, by point, accounting of the similarities between paganism and the 'new religion'. Its the same thing under a new name.


42 posted on 07/24/2009 11:05:32 AM PDT by ET(end tyranny)
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To: bdeaner
Your charges of hypocrisy and other over-inflated rhetoric makes it difficult to have a reasonable, sincere discussion with you about these issues. Can you have a conversation with me that gives me some benefit of the doubt, and in which you listen with some generosity before jumping to conclusions? I am not asking you to agree with me, just to hear me out. It seems to me that you box me into straw man positions that do not represent what I am actually stating. How do you suggest I deal with that problem so that you can understand where I’m coming from? Do you want to understand? I’m not asking for agreement, just an understanding before you disagree, so that you are clear about what you are disagreeing with.

There is absolutely nothing reasonable or to be heard out about your absurd inconsistency according to which, apparently, the Creation was a natural/scientific event but later miracles were "singular exceptions" to the natural law that G-d couldn't interfere with during the Creation! I'm sorry.

It's simple logic. If (lehavdil!) the "virgin birth" was a "singular violation of natural law," then how much the more so the event that brought "natural law" into existence from nothing in the first place?

Why you can't see the obvious illogic of your position escapes me. You must be so enslaved to the uniformitarian natural-supremacist worldview that you have partial intellectual blindness.

43 posted on 07/24/2009 11:54:30 AM PDT by Zionist Conspirator (Be`ever haYarden be'Eretz Mo'av; ho'iyl Mosheh be'er 'et-haTorah hazo't le'mor.)
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To: vladimir998
I actually have an old TAN D-R bible, you know. I was Catholic for six years and didn't want any of the garbage "bibles" they were promoting.

My point is that the article at the top of this thread--an article on how Catholics are supposed to read the Bible--is committed to "modern scholarship" which replaces traditional commentaries with blasphemies by Wellhausen and his followers.

44 posted on 07/24/2009 11:56:59 AM PDT by Zionist Conspirator (Be`ever haYarden be'Eretz Mo'av; ho'iyl Mosheh be'er 'et-haTorah hazo't le'mor.)
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To: ET(end tyranny)
Justin Martyr gives a point, by point, by point, accounting of the similarities between paganism and the 'new religion'. Its the same thing under a new name.

Preach it, Brother!

45 posted on 07/24/2009 11:59:14 AM PDT by Zionist Conspirator (Be`ever haYarden be'Eretz Mo'av; ho'iyl Mosheh be'er 'et-haTorah hazo't le'mor.)
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To: Zionist Conspirator

I do not think all modern scholarship can simply be lumped in with Wellhausen.


46 posted on 07/24/2009 12:34:53 PM PDT by vladimir998
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To: ET(end tyranny)

You wrote:

“The virgin birth is not only a mistranslation but something they borrowed from the pagans.”

Actually there’s no reason to believe it’s either.

“Justin Martyr admits that christianity offers nothing new, that the pagans and their pagan gods didn’t already have.”

No. What Justin Martyr did was try to show the pagan emperor that Christianity could be understood by someone who was already familiar with many pagan stories. Some would say that similar points can be made about the Old Testament as well.

“Justin Martyr gives a point, by point, by point, accounting of the similarities between paganism and the ‘new religion’. Its the same thing under a new name.”

No. The incarnation of the God man so that He could die on a cross and redeem all mankind and rise from the dead, is uniquely Christian. Yes, pagan religions reflect many or even most of those ideas. But no pagan religion has all that Christianity has.


47 posted on 07/24/2009 12:44:47 PM PDT by vladimir998
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To: Zionist Conspirator

End of discussion.


48 posted on 07/24/2009 1:31:50 PM PDT by bdeaner (The bread which we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? (1 Cor. 10:16))
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To: vladimir998
I do not think all modern scholarship can simply be lumped in with Wellhausen.

Most of the stuff in these Catholic bibles can.

I'll take the Perennial Tradition over "modern scholarship" of any type, thank you.

49 posted on 07/24/2009 1:36:21 PM PDT by Zionist Conspirator (Be`ever haYarden be'Eretz Mo'av; ho'iyl Mosheh be'er 'et-haTorah hazo't le'mor.)
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To: bdeaner
End of discussion.

Obviously, since you refuse to consider the Creation as a "miracle" that takes place outside the "laws of nature."

50 posted on 07/24/2009 1:38:11 PM PDT by Zionist Conspirator (Be`ever haYarden be'Eretz Mo'av; ho'iyl Mosheh be'er 'et-haTorah hazo't le'mor.)
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To: Zionist Conspirator

End of discussion because I asked you politely for a discussion with a mature, respectful tone, and you are unwilling to grant me that basic dignity. I am not willing to waste my time on someone who simply refuses to listen. Go ahead and rant all you want. I don’t care.

I try to talk with Christians who actually live the Word, not ones who use it as an excuse to abuse people.


51 posted on 07/24/2009 2:07:27 PM PDT by bdeaner (The bread which we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? (1 Cor. 10:16))
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To: bdeaner
I try to talk with Christians who actually live the Word, not ones who use it as an excuse to abuse people.

The "word" that isn't true because it contradicts what scientists say?

I'm not a chr*stian at all. Did I give you the idea that I was?

52 posted on 07/24/2009 2:18:02 PM PDT by Zionist Conspirator (Be`ever haYarden be'Eretz Mo'av; ho'iyl Mosheh be'er 'et-haTorah hazo't le'mor.)
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To: Zionist Conspirator
*Sigh*

I am already regretting the continuation of this discussion.

I tell you things, you take them and you distort them into a straw man, in addition to attacking them with exaggerated, hyperbolic and offensive language, which makes it completely pointless to have a conversation. A conversation is not possible with someone who is unwilling or unable to hear what you are saying on your own terms, but insists instead on distorting it for their own ego-gratification, so that they can hurl abuses at you. Why would I want to do that? I have better things to do with my time. When you are ready to have a mature, respectful conversation, let me know. Until then, have a nice life.
53 posted on 07/24/2009 3:08:25 PM PDT by bdeaner (The bread which we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? (1 Cor. 10:16))
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To: ET(end tyranny)

I was under the impression your were Catholic. If you were Catholic, clearly you are no longer one.


54 posted on 07/24/2009 3:11:21 PM PDT by bdeaner (The bread which we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? (1 Cor. 10:16))
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To: ET(end tyranny)

I was under the impression your were Catholic. If you were Catholic, clearly you are no longer one.


55 posted on 07/24/2009 3:11:33 PM PDT by bdeaner (The bread which we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? (1 Cor. 10:16))
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To: bdeaner
I tell you things, you take them and you distort them into a straw man

Excuse me, but no "straw man" is involved. You yourself said that "miracles" occur outside the laws and the purview of science. I merely point out the supreme logic of the Creation being the ultimate example of this. It took place outside any scientific laws (which were merely the productsw of the Creation) and is outside the purview of science.

Why you insist that ex-nihilation (as it has been called) is subject to scientific study while the "virgin birth" isn't is illogical.

56 posted on 07/24/2009 3:13:39 PM PDT by Zionist Conspirator (Be`ever haYarden be'Eretz Mo'av; ho'iyl Mosheh be'er 'et-haTorah hazo't le'mor.)
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To: Zionist Conspirator

You wrote:

“Most of the stuff in these Catholic bibles can.”

Not really. The NAB, granted it’s probably the worst Catholic Bible ever put together, still has some worthwhile info.

“I’ll take the Perennial Tradition over “modern scholarship” of any type, thank you.”

I agree with you there. That’s one of the reasons why I like the Orthodox Study Bible so much. No Bible edition is perfect, however.


57 posted on 07/24/2009 3:20:46 PM PDT by vladimir998
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To: Zionist Conspirator
I'm willing to give this one more try.

I DO believe the creation of the universe is a miracle! NO question about it! Something was created from nothing. The creation of the universe is not open to scientific investigation, because it is an event prior to the emergence of space and time, and science can only investigate events that occur in space and time. However, once the creation occurred, events unfolded that can be studied empirically, and when investigated, they very much support, circumstantially, the reality of a Creator.

One of the best books on this subject is Stephen Barr's Modern Physics and Ancient Faith. Reviewed here.

Highly recommended.
58 posted on 07/24/2009 3:24:59 PM PDT by bdeaner (The bread which we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? (1 Cor. 10:16))
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To: Salvation; Zionist Conspirator
Check www.newadvent.org/bible and www.newadvent.org/fathers

The Fathers organized around the verses of the New Testament is a so-called Catena, the most known of which is Catena Aurea put together by St. Thomas Aquinas. It is harder to find online, the only place I know of badly needs editing, it seems to be scanned and contains scanning errors. This is it: www.catecheticsonline.com/CatenaAurea.php. I use it daily to post commentary on the daily Gospel.

59 posted on 07/24/2009 9:19:58 PM PDT by annalex (http://www.catecheticsonline.com/CatenaAurea.php)
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To: annalex
It is harder to find online

Various scans and editions. You will need a djvu reader, like WinDjvu. You can download that from sourceforge.

Catena 3 part 1
Catena 1 part 2
Catena 1 part 2 (another scan)
Catena 4 part 2
Catena 2 (complete)
Catena 1
Catena 2
Catena 3
Catena 4
Catena 1 part 1 and 3
Catena 4
Catena 3
Catena 4
Catena Aurea
Catena 1
Catena 2
Catena 3
Catena 4

60 posted on 07/25/2009 12:34:06 AM PDT by Ethan Clive Osgoode (<<== Click here to learn about Evolution!)
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