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Saturday, March 13, 2010 The Prodigal Son, New Life and Sacramental Imagery This Sunday the Church reads the story of the Prodigal Son in the Liturgy (unless youÂ’re doing the RCIA cycle, in which case you will read from John 9). Here I thought IÂ’d offer a few thoughts on the story. YouÂ’re Dead to Me Jesus begins by telling the story of a man who had two sons. The parable begins with the younger brother going to the father and asking for his inheritance. Of course, an inheritance is usually bestowed upon offspring after the death of the one...

The early church Fathers on the Scriptures These words are the Word of Godby Origen, c. 185-254 The Scriptures that prophesy about Christ, the words that announce his coming and his teaching are inspired by God.  They were proclaimed with power and authority and it is for this reason they have conquered so many people's hearts. However, only with the coming of Christ have the divine character of the prophetic writings and the spiritual meaning of the books of the Mosaic Law become apparent.  Before Christ it was not possible t produce decisive arguments for the inspiration of the Old...

The Circle of Protection radio advertisements being broadcast in three states right now make their arguments, such as they are, from a quotation of the Bible and a federal poverty program that might be cut in a debt ceiling compromise. But the scriptural quotation is a serious misuse of the Book of Proverbs, and the claims about heating assistance programs are at best overblown: the ads are really not better than their goofy contemporary piano track.The Circle of Protection, of which the group Sojourners that produced the ads is a founding member, enjoyed the high honor of a meeting at...

If every committee did such impressive work, committees wouldn’t have a bad name. Four hundred years ago, King James of England commissioned several dozen scholars to update and improve on prior translations of the Bible into English. Their handiwork — known as the King James Version — put an indelible stamp on the English language and on the Anglo-American mind. The prodigious task took roughly six years. Just printing it was an undertaking. Initially, a typo appeared on average once every ten pages of text. One edition was called the “Wicked Bible” when the word “not” was accidentally left out...

The Early Church Fathers on the Scriptures These Words are the Word of Godby Origen, c. 185-254 The Scriptures that prophesy about Christ, the words that announce his coming and his teaching are inspired by God.  They were proclaimed with power and authority and it is for this reason they have conquered so many people's hearts. However, only with the coming of Christ have the divine character of the prophetic writings and the spiritual meaning of the books of the Mosaic Law become apparent.  Before Christ it was not possible t produce decisive arguments for the inspiration of the Old...

The Early Church Fathers on the Scriptures Guide to the Discovery of Scriptureby Origen, c. 185-254 By what principle ought one to read and interpret the Scriptures?  It is a fact that a number of errors have had their origin in an inability to understand a sacred text in the right way. For example, many Jews have not believed in our Savior, because they have been attached to the literal meaning of the prophecies made about him and have not sen them physically fulfilled.  They have not seen the prisoners set free, (Isa. 61:1) nor the city of God built...

Reading Scripture with the Early Church Fathers   The Nourishing Bread of Scriptureby Servais Pinckaers Patristic ExegesisIt will be helpful to consider the manner in which the Fathers read the Scriptures, drawing from it their moral doctrine. They did not have at their disposal the resources of modern historical exegesis, but they did possess a method of interpretation that enabled them to discover the rich spiritual substance their works contain and that still nourishes us today. Patristic exegesis might be described as a “real” reading of Scripture, as contrasted with a literary or positivist approach. The main object of the...

Featured Term (selected at random):BEATITUDES The promises of happiness made by Christ to those who faithfully accept his teaching and follow his divine example. Preached in the Sermon on the Mount, they are recorded in St. Matthew (5:3-11) and in St. Luke (6:20-22).?26? In Matthew there are eight (or nine) blessings of a spiritual nature, applicable to all Christians; in Luke there are four blessings of a more external character, addressed to the disciples. Luke's version also includes four maledictions threatened on those who do the opposite. In both versions, the beatitudes are expressions of the New Covenant, where happiness...

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)--Six years after the evangelical world debated the merits and appropriateness of making Bible translations more gender inclusive for words dealing with people, the divide is becoming evident once again. At issue is the 2011 translation of the New International Version (NIV), which is being released six years after the full version of the 2005 TNIV translation -- which never gained wide support -- was published. Zondervan later discontinued the TNIV (Today's New International Version). Critics said the TNIV's gender inclusivism went so far that it changed the core meaning of passages. LifeWay Christian Stores refused to carry...

Inspired animation to promote Christian living!

Virgin Birth—or Prophetic Slip? by  A.P. Staff One of the first miracles recorded in the New Testament is the virgin birth of Jesus Christ. According to Matthew 1:22-23, Isaiah prophesied about the virgin birth in Isaiah 7:14. However, some in the scholarly community (particularly those within the atheistic and agnostic segments) deny that Isaiah was prophesying about a virgin birth. Isaiah 7:14 reads as follows in three separate translations: Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel (ASV, emp. added). Therefore the Lord himself...

OK, I admit it. I’m into this topic right now (see, in the past week, this and that). I had another exchange with a Protestant who believes that the meaning of Scripture is fairly plain, and—since Christ promised he would send the Holy Spirit to lead us into all truth (Jn 16:13)—then with a little application and study, we can decide rightly what the Word of God means all by ourselves.This is a common theory, and I haven’t been able to make any headway with my correspondent in raising the question of how we handle disagreements among those who are equally...

The Kingdom of God The Kingdom of God! Sounds kind of heavenly, doesn’t it.  But is it?  Or is it right here on earth now in the midst of us all?  Let’s see what the Holy Bible has to say about it.In Matthew 12:28, Jesus tells the Pharisees that the Kingdom of God has come upon them. In Mark 12:34, He also tells the scribe that he is not far from the Kingdom of God.  In Matthew 16:19, Jesus gives Peter the keys to the Kingdom, and then establishes His Church on Peter the Rock.  Jesus says that whatever this...

Deuterocanonical References in the New Testament by James Akin I get a lot of requests for a list of the references the New Testament makes to the deuterocanonical books of the Old Testament. Unfortunately, giving a list is not such a simple affair since it is not always obvious whether something is a genuine reference. Hebrews 11:35 is an indisputable reference to 2 Maccabees 7, but many are not so clear as there may be only a single phrase that echoes one in a deuterocanonical book (and this may not be obvious in the translation, but only the original languages)....

Translations Before the King James: The KJV Translators Speak!   taken from "THE TRANSLATORS TO THE READER" Preface to the King James Version 1611   Old habits die hard, and some who are use to thinking of the Reformation as being responsible for the existence of venacular translations of the Bible will deny that there were translations in the common language of the people before Protestantism arose. In fact, there were many of them, as the following excerpts from the original introduction to the King James Bible (1611) admit. This introduction, written by the translators of the KJV, is no...

Wherever we moved, one of the first things Dad did was build a waist-high planter box. He'd construct it along the back fence of each California tract home, then fill it with soil and plant a garden. At our last home, Dad paved the ground with brick and concrete, but the yard still brimmed with life. Dad built a trellis for red and green grapes. The vines grew into a shady canopy, dripping with grape clusters. He planted plum trees for color, learned to espalier apple trees against a side fence, and built a large box for an avocado. Mostly,...

EWTN has filled the time slot normally assigned to Fr. Corapi's lecture series with one given by Dr. Hahn and Jeff Cavins, entitled Our Father's Plan. This series is the precursor to Here is the background information on the series, followed by a link to the audio files, for those who do not have a tv or who prefer to get a head start. You could open up the Bible and start reading; but do you know where to start? Scott Hahn and Jeff Cavins will deal with this throughout the series as they discuss how to read the Bible...

There are many references to “the flesh” in New Testament Scripture, especially in the letters of St. Paul. The phrase confuses some who think it synonymous with the physical body. It is true that there are many times when Scripture uses the word “flesh” to refer to the physical body. However when the definite article “the” is placed before the word “flesh” we are dealing with something else. Only very rarely does the Biblical phrase “the flesh” (ἡ σὰρξ (he sarx), in Greek) refer only to the physical body (eg. John 6:53; Phil 3:2; 1 John 4:2) , but almost...

Father Corapi tells us how Catholics read the Bible   How Catholics Should Read the Bible There are a number of ways to read the Bible.  One of the first things Catholics should look for is good footnotes at the bottom of the page that are indexed to other similar texts in the Bible.  This helps the reader to understand the particular verse in context, rather than in isolation.  The Bible is meant to be read in its entirety, and never to be taken out of context. That is what satan tried to do to Jesus in the desert in...

In November 2009, the Roman Catholic website Called to Communion posted an article titled Solo Scriptura, Sola Scriptura, and the Question of Interpretive Authority, critiquing one of the claims of my book The Shape of Sola Scriptura (Canon Press, 2001). The article is attributed to Bryan Cross and Dr. Neal Judisch. According to their website, Cross is a graduate of Covenant Theological Seminary (M.Div.) and currently a Ph.D. student at Saint Louis University. He converted to Roman Catholicism in 2006. Judisch is a professor of philosophy at the University of Oklahoma and a 2008 convert to Roman Catholicism. Like the...