FF1

• The Great Commission


  Jesus asking his disciples to share the Gospel with the rest of the world & to baptize them & teach them to obey everything Jesus commanded them
• Apostolic Succession


  Before Jesus returned to Heaven, he commissioned the apostles to continue His mission to "share" the message of salvation to all people
• Tradition


  • The apostles fulfilled their mission by oral preaching, examples & by observances that were handed in & received from Christ
  • The living & lived faith of the Church
  • Tradere - to pass on; hand over (Latin)
• Oral Tradition


  Initially passed on by word of mouth
• Written Tradition


  Some of the oral tradition put into writing
• Sola Scriptura


  Scripture only, it is the Bible which is our final authority, not tradition or a church (from the Latin expression adopted by Reformers)
• Twice in his Gospel account, the evangelist John admits that books cannot contain everything
• The sacred Scriptures originated from oral tradition
• Not all traditions had been written down; hence the Bible does not contain the entirety of revelation
• Tradition does not stop when it is written down; it continues in the life of the Church
• 2 Thessalonians 2:15 teaches to stand firm to the traditions that were taught by the disciples whether it be through word of mouth or by letter
• 1 Timothy 3:15 says that the Church is the pillar & foundation of truth
• Even if we have textbooks, we still need school and a teacher that interprets the textbooks for us
• Deposit of faith


  Sacred tradition & sacred scripture from one sacred deposit of the Word of God, committed to the Church
• tradition

  Cultural traditions, could have arisen from particular needs of the Church at a particular time & place, can be changed, modified, or done away with or without destroying the integrity of our Christian faith
• Sacred Tradition (capital T)


  Doctrinal traditions, the living & lived faith of the Church, can never be changed, modified, or done away with, for doing so would harm the integrity of our Christian Faith
• Kinds of Sacred Traditions

  • Scriptural tradition
  • Apostolic tradition
  • Teachings of magisterium
• Scriptural tradition


  Traditions that take their roots in the Holy Bible, can be justified by quoting Sacred Scriptures
• Apostolic tradition


  Teaching which the apostles left us, not through written scripture but through the unbroken chain of succession of Popes, bishops, priests, & deacons, the unbroken chain is an assurance that the teachings of the Apostles are preserved intact
• Magisterium


  The teaching authority of the Church, the final authority of the interpreter, exercised by the Pope in making solemn definitions or by the Bishop in an Ecumenical Council like Vatican 2
• The unshakable tripod of the Catholic faith

  • Sacred scripture
  • Magisterium
  • Sacred tradition
• The Bible


  An account of life, preserved in memory, turned into a text, records events seen as designed & influenced by God, written by Believers for Believers
• Types of writings in the Bible

  • Narratives
  • Genealogies
  • Laws
  • Prophetic oracles
  • Poetry
  • Epistles
  • Drama
  • Apocalypses
  • Sayings
  • Biographical sketches
• Nihil Obstat


  An attestation that a book contains nothing damaging to faith or morals, given by a Censor Liborum
• Imprimi Potest


  Given by the major religious superior if the author is a member of a religious congregation, meaning "it may be printed"
• Imprimatur


  Given by the author's diocesan bishop or the bishop of the place in which the book is published, meaning "let it be printed"
• Byblos


  Papyrus (Greek)
• Biblion


  Scroll, book (Greek)
• Biblia


  Plural of biblion (Greek)
• People discovered that sheets of papyrus can be put on top of each other, folded in the middle, & bound, resulting in an easy-to-use book called a codex
• Bibliotheca divina


  Divine library, used by St. Jerome
• Emperor Constantine ordered the production of various translations of the Bible that emerged from non-Hebrew & non-Greek speaking communities
• Pope St. Damasus I authorized only one definitive translation of the scriptures - the Latin-Vulgate, translated by St. Jerome in 383 CE
• Archbishop Stephen Langton divided the books of the Bible into chapters
• Robert Estienne (Stephanus) divided the chapters of the Bible into verses
• Divisions of the Bible

  • Most sacred books
  • Historical narratives
  • Wisdom & poetry
  • Prophecy
• Divine Inspiration


  The special influence of the holy spirit upon the human authors so that they may write what God wanted them to write, the Holy Spirit is the principle cause & the human person is the instrumental cause
• The Word of God is written by men through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, it is 100% Word of God and 100% Word of Man
• Biblical inerrancy


  Freedom of error, the Bible contains no error but teaches no error; it teaches only the saving truth
• Formation of Scriptures


  1. Events and experiences

  2. Oral tradition

  3. Written tradition

  4. Edited tradition

  5. Canon of scriptures