THEO LOGY 2ND SEM

• Scriptural Basis: Old Testament

  • Deut 4:2, 13:1 — prohibition of adding or subtracting anything from the Word of God
  • Jer 36 — burning of the scroll of Scripture is a crime against the Word of God
  • Eze 2:3-3:11 — Ezekiel was asked to eat the scroll on which the oracles of God were written. It was a sign of appropriating the Word of God
  • 1 Mac 12:9; 2 Mac 8:23 — Scripture is referred to as the Holy Book
• The Bible is not only an account of the words of God nor does it contain revelations made by God... it is really the Word of God!
• Inspiration

  Through the Spirit, God comes to man and moves him beyond himself. "Inspiration" in Latin is inspirare, a compound of in + spirare, "breathed into"
• The inspiring action of the Holy Spirit continues even up to now but is no longer that of scriptural inspiration but that of understanding and living out of what has been revealed
• The New Testament formally announces the divine inspiration of the Sacred Scripture


  • It declares the divine origin not only of the contents of the bible but also of the privileged instrument that conserves and transmits this revelation; The Spirit of God guided not only the writing down but also the living and the proclamation of the message; Spiritual inspiration is the last moment of a long series of actions by the Spirit of God
• The Spirit of God moved certain men to act and to speak on behalf of God

  Pastoral inspiration - the inspiration to act; Prophetical inspiration - the inspiration to speak; Scriptural inspiration - the inspiration to write
• Canonicity: The Church, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, recognizes the tr
• There is only one effect of inspiration, i.e., the Bible itself; but there are aspects of the one effect of inspiration: Revelation, Unity, Completeness, Sacramentality, Inerrancy
• Sacramentality


  • The Bible offers men the opportunity to encounter God in Christ
• kanon (Gk)

  • Originally, a reed was used for measuring
  • Came to mean as the measurement, the norm, the rule
  • First three centuries: the word designated the rule of tradition or the rule of faith which Christians must live
  • 4th century: the word acquired the meaning of the list of inspired books that contained the normative faith of the people
• Canonicity


  The Church, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, recognizes the traces of God and of the Spirit in some books, of which she has made a precise list, called the Canon of Scriptures
• Inerrancy

  • The Bible is free from error
• Since the Bible is inspired, it is inerrant
• Catholic vs. Protestant Bibles

  • The Protestant Bibles have a smaller number of books than the Catholic Bibles
  • The books common to both Protestant and Catholic Bibles are called protocanonical books
  • The books found in Catholic Bibles but not in the Protestant counterparts are called deuterocanonical books by Catholics while the Protestants call them apocryphal books
• The degree of self-disclosure that God planned to provide in the Bible has been perfectly and completely achieved, no other new revelation is needed
• The Church relies on the Canon


  The creation of the Canon is dependent upon the judgment of the Church
• Philo Judaeus: '"The words of the Torah were placed in the manner of oracles in the mind of the prophet by God himself. No error therefore is to be attributed to it"'
• Canonical books


  Books recognized by the Church as inspired and proposed to the faithful as the source of the norms of faith and Christian life
• Deuterocanonical Books

  • Tobit
  • Judith
  • 1 & 2 Maccabees
  • Baruch
  • Sirach
  • Wisdom
  • Daniel 13-14
  • Parts of Esther
  • Letter to Jeremiah
• Contested books appear only at the OT; in the NT section, Catholics and Protestants agree on the same Canon
• John: '"The Scripture cannot be set aside" -John 10:35'
• St. Justin: '"I can never dare to think or to say that there are contradictions in the Sacred Writings. If there are instances that seem to be such in Scripture, I must confess that I do not yet understand what they mean, and I will try to persuade anyone who has the suspicion that there are contradictions in the Scripture to have the same mind as I have" -St. Justin, Dial. C. Triph., 65'
• Luke: '"The Scripture must be fulfilled" -Luke 24:44; Acts 1:16'
• Saint Augustine to Saint Jerome: 'If in these Scriptures I meet something that seems contrary to truth, without any hesitation, I would think that either the text which I am reading is defective, or that the translator was not capable to render the thinking of the original faithfully, or that I do not understand anything - Letter of Saint Augustine to Saint Jerome (Epist. 82, 1, 3: PL 33, 277)'
• St. Justin: 'If there are instances that seem to be such in Scripture, I must confess that I do not yet understand what they mean, and I will try to persuade anyone who has the suspicion that there are contradictions in the Scripture to have the same mind as I have - Dial. C. Triph., 65'
• St. Thomas Aquinas: 'Anything in the Sacred Scripture is true - Summa Theologiae II-II, q. 171, a6'
• These are not "errors" or "cracks," they are simply read wrongly. Though we do not concede that there could be "mistakes" in the Bible, such as grammatical, historical or geographical references, we do not subscribe to the idea that the Bible is absolutely inerrant
• List of Books in the Bible: The Old Testament

  • The Pentateuch
  • The Historical Books
  • The Wisdom Books
  • The Prophetic Books
• The Pentateuch

  • Genesis
  • Exodus
  • Leviticus
  • Numbers
  • Deuteronomy
• The Historical Books

  • 1st Book of Samuel
  • 2nd Book of Samuel
  • 1st Book of Kings
  • 2nd Book of Kings
  • 1st Book of Chronicles
  • 2nd Book of Chronicles
  • Joshua
  • Judges
  • Ruth
  • Tobit
  • Judith
  • Esther
  • 1st book of Maccabees
  • 2nd Book of Maccabees
  • Ezra
  • Nehemiah
• The Prophetic Books

  • Isiah
  • Jeremiah
  • Lamentations
  • Baruch
  • Ezekiel
  • Daniel
  • Hosea
  • Joel
  • Amos
  • Obadiah
  • Jonah
  • Micah
  • Nahum
  • Habakkuk
  • Zephaniah
  • Haggai
  • Zechariah
  • Malachi
• The Wisdom Books

  • Job
  • Psalms
  • Proverbs
  • Ecclesiastes
  • Song of songs
  • Wisdom
  • Sirach (Ecclesiasticus)
• The Gospels

  • Matthew
  • Mark
  • Luke
  • John
• The New Testament

  • The Gospels
  • The New Testament Letters
  • The Catholic Letters
• The Catholic Letters

  • Letter of James
  • 1st Letter of Peter
  • 2nd Letter of Peter
  • 1st Letter of John
  • 2nd Letter of John
  • 3rd Letter of John
  • Letter of Jude
  • Book of Revelation
• The New Testament Letters

  • Acts of the Apostles
  • Letter to the Romans
  • 1st Letter to the Corinthians
  • 2nd Letter to the Corinthians
  • Letter to the Galatians
  • Letter to the Ephesians
  • Letter to the Philippians
  • Letter to the Colossians
  • 1st Letter to the Thessalonians
  • 2nd Letter to the Thessalonians
  • 1st Letter to Timothy
  • 2nd Letter to Timothy
  • Letter to Titus
  • Letter to Philemon
  • Letter to the Hebrews
• Bible


  Not only an account of the words of God nor does it contain revelations made by God, it is really the Word of God
• Scriptural Basis (Old Testament)

  • Deut 4:2, 13:1 - prohibition of adding or subtracting anything from the Word of God
  • Jer 36 - burning of the scroll of Scripture is a crime against the Word of God
  • Eze 2:3-3:11 - Ezekiel was asked to eat the scroll on which the oracles of God were written, a sign of appropriating the Word of God
  • 1 Mac 12:9; 2 Mac 8:23 - Scripture is referred to as the Holy Book
• Inspiration


  In Latin is inspirare, a compound of in + spirare, "breathed into"
• Types of Inspiration


  • Pastoral inspiration - inspiration to act; persons were inspired to lead God's people and to act on their behalf
  • Prophetical inspiration - inspiration to speak; moved by God's Spirit, certain men spoke God's word to the people
  • Scriptural inspiration - inspiration to write is the logical sequence of the other inspirations; it is meant to preserve the revelation imparted through pastoral and prophetical inspiration