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For Advent: Why Don’t Catholics Read the Bible? (They Do!)
HolySpiritInteractive.net ^ | not given | Dwight Longenecker

Posted on 12/18/2014 5:00:17 PM PST by Salvation

Why Don’t Catholics Read the Bible?

by Dwight Longenecker

The independent Evangelical church I went to as a boy gave me a fantastic amount of Bible knowledge. There were Bible drills in Sunday School classes, Bible memory contests and Bible quizzes, not to mention a complete grounding in all the Bible stories—illustrated with those wonderful flannelgraph figures. As I got older I listened to long Bible sermons, went to home Bible studies, youth Bible camps and a Bible holiday club. I ended up going to a Christian University where Bible study was part of our everyday schedule.

Our Christian home wasn’t particularly anti-Catholic, but some of our preachers were, and the general impression I got was that Catholics not only didn’t read the Bible, but that they weren’t allowed to. They didn’t go to church with their big black Bibles under their arm. They didn’t have long Bible sermons or home study groups or youth Bible camps. How could Catholics believe the Bible if they didn’t read it and study it like we did?

Its true that many Evangelicals know their Bible upside down and backwards, and compared to them Catholics sometimes seem ignorant of the Bible. But that's only an appearance.

The truth is simply that Catholics and Evangelicals use the Bible in different ways and therefore have different kinds of Bible knowledge. Evangelicals use the Bible as a source book for doctrine and right moral teaching, and that's good. 2 Timothy 3.16 says the Scriptures are 'useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness.' Evangelicals also use the Bible for personal devotions and inspiration. This too is Biblical. Psalm 119.27 says, 'Let me understand the teaching of your precepts; then will I meditate on your wonders.'

Ordinary Catholics might not be so adept at quoting chapter and verse, but they do know and use Scripture regularly. Its just that they use it in a different way. For a Catholic, Scripture is not so much a book to be studied as a book to worship with. (Ps. 119.7) For Catholics the Bible is almost always used in the context of worship. Did you know that a survey was done to check the amount of Scripture used in the Catholic Mass? The Catholic service was almost 30% Scripture. When the same writer checked his local Bible-based Evangelical church he was surprised to find the total amount of Scripture read took just 3% of the service.

When Catholics go to mass they hear a reading from the Old Testament, they say or sing one of the Psalms, then they listen to a reading from the epistles, then a gospel reading. The whole structure fits together so the communion service if focused on Christ in the gospels. Catholics follow a three year cycle of Scripture reading so a Catholic who goes to church faithfully will--over the three years--hear almost all of the Bible read. Furthermore, the responses, and the words of the communion service are almost all from Scripture. So a church-going Catholic does know and use Scripture--its just that he uses it primarily for meditation and worship (Ps.119.48)--not for personal information and instruction.

And when you think about it, isn't this actually the way Scripture is meant to be used? The Jews recite the Old Testament law in their worship daily. The psalms were the hymn book of the Jews. In the New Testament church they read the letters of the apostles, recited the psalms and used portions of Scripture to praise and worship God just as Catholics do today.(Eph.5.19) We know from the records of the early church that Scripture was used primarily for worship, and only secondarily for study.

Of course, like Evangelicals, Catholics also use the Scripture to determine doctrine and moral principles--its just that the Catholic lay person or pastor doesn't do so on his own. As Paul gave Timothy the apostolic authority to 'rightly divide the word of truth' (2 Timothy 2.15), so Catholics believe their bishops have inherited the authority of the apostles to teach doctrinal and moral truth faithfully. They base this on Paul’s clear instructions to Timothy, ‘the things you have heard me say …entrust to reliable men so that they man in turn teach others.’ (2 Timothy 2.1-2) Therefore, it is the bishops—living, praying and working in a direct line from the apostles-- who use the Bible to determine Christian doctrine and moral principles. That Catholic doctrine and moral teaching is biblically-based is easy to see. Try reading any official Catholic teaching documents and you will find they are--and always have been--permeated and upheld with Scripture.

Nevertheless, memories are long. Some extreme Protestants like to say that the Catholic church not only forbade people to read the Bible, but they deliberately kept the Bible in Latin, chained it up in churches and even went so far as to burn popular translations of the Bible. Its true Bibles were chained in churches. Before the days of printing presses books were precious items. They were chained for security reasons—the way a phone book is secured in a phone booth—to make it available to everyone. The Catholic Church allowed translations into the vernacular from the beginning. The earliest English version of the Bible for instance, is a paraphrase version of Genesis dating from the year 670. In a few places the authorities did burn some translations of the Bible which were deliberately faulty or which carried heretical notes, but this was an attempt to preserve the purity of the scriptures, not to keep it from God’s people. Remembering that in the Middle Ages most people were illiterate, the pastors and teachers of the Catholic Church instructed the people about the biblical stories in many creative and dramatic ways—not unlike my Sunday School teacher’s use of the flannelgraph.

But in saying all this, ordinary modern Catholics could learn a few lessons from Evangelicals about Bible knowledge. We Catholics need more Bible scholars amongst our pastors. We need more resources for personal Bible reading. We need to understand the Scriptures better to see how our faith is rooted and grounded in the Bible. Our own official teachings encourage us to read, study and learn the Scriptures. Dei Verbum--a document about the God's Word from Second Vatican Council says, "...all clergy should remain in close contact with the Scriptures by means of reading and accurate study of the text...similarly the Council earnestly and expressly calls upon all the faithful...to acquire by frequent reading of holy Scripture the excellent knowledge of Jesus Christ (Phil 3.8) for as St.Jerome said, "Ignorance of the Scriptures is indeed ignorance of Christ."'

Ecumenism is a two way street. If we have lessons to learn from Evangelicals, many Evangelicals could learn fresh ways of using the Scriptures from us too. Singing the psalms in worship is something Catholics can share with Evangelicals, using a lectionary helps pastors choose Biblical readings which harmonise Old Testament and New Testament, taking the congregation on a logical process through each year of worship. Finally, using chosen readings from the Old Testament, the epistles and then the gospels helps focus the worship on Jesus Christ. Using the Scriptures like this is a practical way for the whole word of God in Scripture to point to the Word of God in the flesh-- our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

Catholics and the Bible

  • The Catholic Church finally agreed on which writings should go into the Bible at the Council of Rome in 382 AD during the time of Pope Damasus.
  • Damasus encouraged St Jerome to translate the Scriptures into Latin since Latin was the common language of all educated people.
  • In the mid-1400s the Bible started to be translated into European languages.
  • Some Reformers published Bibles with bits missing, faulty translation work and subversive notes.
  • The authorities tried to regulate which Bibles were acceptable in order to control erroneous teaching.
  • Throughout the years the Catholic Church encouraged Bible reading, but kept control of the interpretation of the Bible as part of her inspired authority to teach the truth and preserve the unity of the church.
  • Pope Leo XIII published a letter in 1893 encouraging Bible study.
  • Pius XII in 1943 also encouraged the faithful to study and love the Bible.
  • The second Vatican Council in the 1960s encouraged all the clergy and people to study the Bible faithfully.


TOPICS: Apologetics; Catholic; History; Theology
KEYWORDS: bible; catholic
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To: BlueDragon; Salvation
"Hey you got in before the Catholic bashers."

As far as I can tell, at time of your having submitted the above comment, there could not have been any "Catholic bashers" prior....

On a related note, some people don't bring me flowers any more.

41 posted on 12/18/2014 8:11:53 PM PST by Alex Murphy ("the defacto Leader of the FR Calvinist Protestant Brigades")
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To: vladimir998

Thanks - I’ll check them out. I watched Max McLean do Genesis and it was amazing. I also loved him in The Screwtape Letters. His company is now working on The Great Divorce which is probably my favorite CS Lewis book.


42 posted on 12/18/2014 8:15:21 PM PST by Mercat ("The sisters did not want to save the world. Someone already had.")
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To: FamiliarFace
Hmmm, I find myself singing the psalm that I heard on Sunday for the rest of the week. So while I may not know which chapter and verse I am singing, I remember the words. I don’t guess that matters to Protestants though, because I don’t remember which psalm it is.

How do you know it was an actual psalm, if you don't actually know which of the psalms it is?

Case in point:
Shakespeare, Aesop, or King James? Which of the following phrases are from the K J Version?
Quiz - Shakespeare or Scripture?

43 posted on 12/18/2014 8:17:44 PM PST by Alex Murphy ("the defacto Leader of the FR Calvinist Protestant Brigades")
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To: Salvation

Until I stopped going to Catholic Church, I never read a Bible, nor was encouraged to read a Bible, not by the Priest and not by the Catechism class I used to take (that was what it was called at the time).

I still remember how stupid I felt when I went to a denominational Christian church for Sunday School...and all the kids had Bibles to study with and they’d have to help me, for quite some time, even find the book in the Bible we’d be reading that Sunday.


44 posted on 12/18/2014 8:19:45 PM PST by nicmarlo
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To: Salvation

My mother was a Catholic and I never saw a bible in our house. My first bible was a King James II and I still have it 43 years later.


45 posted on 12/18/2014 8:29:06 PM PST by AlaskaErik (I served and protected my country for 31 years. Progressives spent that time trying to destroy it.)
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To: tioga
I have been to protestant funeral services that barely mentioned God, let alone scripture.

Weddings, too.

46 posted on 12/18/2014 8:39:37 PM PST by Jeff Chandler (Doctrine doesn't change. The trick is to find a way around it.)
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To: Old Yeller

You can’t say that anymore. More and more Catholics can quote you Bible verses.


47 posted on 12/18/2014 9:42:50 PM PST by Salvation ("With God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26)
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To: Slyfox

Great story!


48 posted on 12/18/2014 9:44:17 PM PST by Salvation ("With God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26)
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To: Alex Murphy

All you have to do is read. The chapter and verses are listed at the beginning.


49 posted on 12/18/2014 9:46:42 PM PST by FamiliarFace
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To: nicmarlo

You are still a Catholic and can come back at any time.


50 posted on 12/18/2014 9:47:25 PM PST by Salvation ("With God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26)
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To: Jeff Chandler

Sad, isn’t it?


51 posted on 12/18/2014 9:47:57 PM PST by Salvation ("With God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26)
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To: Alex Murphy

P.S. I love Psalms. My favorite is Psalm 139.


52 posted on 12/18/2014 9:51:29 PM PST by FamiliarFace
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To: Salvation
Of course Catholics read the Bible! : )

My grandparents were immigrants: Mom's parents had no formal education, but my Grandfather taught himself to read and write in both his native language and English. My Mom said he used to read aloud to my Grandmother from the Bible. He was a bit scandalized by some of the Old Testament stories, such as the one about Lot and his daughters, but continued with the wise, old-country mentality that some things just happen, and he moved on.

My Grandparents had passed, by the time I came along, but the Bible my Dad gave my Mom for a wedding present was well-used. She would read to me- Samson's was one of the stories, as was that of Joseph and his brothers- in nightly installments.

In 13 years of Catholic school, we never rote-memorized chapter-and-verse: we were taught meanings, and that can be two different things. I've read from several versions of the Catholic Bible (I, too, have a set of Navarre!), including the Ignatius, Jerusalem and of course, the Douay-Rhiems.

I'm older now, and don't always remember as well as I used to, but then there are times when the Word will come to mind, right when I need It most!

If I can cite where a verse is, it's usually because I recall the story or context it is in. That's a big help! The rest came from the practice of my Faith within the Church: I believe what the Magisterium of the Church teaches. That really is a lamp unto one's feet! When in doubt, check with Rome!

53 posted on 12/18/2014 11:10:36 PM PST by Grateful2God (preastat fides supplementum sensuum defectui)
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To: Salvation
Hey you got in before the Catholic bashers.

Theeeeryre heeere!

54 posted on 12/18/2014 11:18:35 PM PST by Grateful2God (preastat fides supplementum sensuum defectui)
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To: FamiliarFace
P.S. I love Psalms. My favorite is Psalm 139.

OK, I looked that one up. To my surprise I do understand it and it is nice!

55 posted on 12/18/2014 11:22:58 PM PST by steve86 (Prophecies of Maelmhaedhoc OÂ’Morgair (Latin form: Malachy))
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To: Tax-chick
As they grow up, I can’t make them believe, but I can make sure they understand what I believe is true, and why.

Very wise! Especially when they're in their teens and will tend to be rebellious. I got like that, and for once in my life, my parents didn't interfere. It hurt them, but they had the wisdom to continue to practice their Faith and allow me to explore other options. When I realized that what I'd been taught was the Truth, I returned and never looked back!

God bless you and your family!

56 posted on 12/18/2014 11:29:15 PM PST by Grateful2God (preastat fides supplementum sensuum defectui)
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To: Grateful2God

Thanks. I was a teenager once, too (and a real pain), so I’m reasonably calm about the stages.


57 posted on 12/19/2014 2:54:52 AM PST by Tax-chick (Un molino, la vida nos tritura con dolor.)
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To: Salvation

Source of online Bible:

http://www.usccb.org/bible/books-of-the-bible/index.cfm

http://www.newadvent.org/bible/gen001.htm
English side by side with Greek and Latin

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/index.html
Catholic Encyclopedia

There are many sources of daily Mass readings - including here on the FR.


58 posted on 12/19/2014 5:06:18 AM PST by ADSUM
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To: Salvation
Can we place bets on how many posts this thread gets? How many are completely off the subject, etc. :)

I used to go to a Bible study for years back in Indiana. Miss those folks. We had a evening one and a lunch time one. One year we did the DVD one with Scott Hahn. He made my head hurt with all the information but it was really good.

I have gone through Revelation with a priest and a group of others, it was awesome.

59 posted on 12/19/2014 5:12:22 AM PST by defconw (If not now, WHEN?)
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To: Grateful2God

I remember my Grandparents walking to Mass every day and I would see them everyday as I completed delivering newspapers.

Somehow that stuck with me and inspires me today.


60 posted on 12/19/2014 5:12:25 AM PST by ADSUM
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