What is Scripture?

Besides writing these articles for Catholic365.com, part of the ministry that we do online is to read the articles written by others on the various Catholic blogs/websites and respond to some of the questions raised by the Protestants that tend to lurk around Catholic pages… especially on the Facebook side. Sometimes they say the oddest things, but since I spent 40 years as an Evangelical Christian (and a good part of that in ministry), I know where they are coming from when they say them.

One such encounter occurred the other day on the Catholic Fundamentalism website’s Facebook portal. The person in question, in reply to the historical fact of the history of the development of the New Testament, said “Scripture was scripture when it was written. The Church had nothing to do with defining it.” In other words, from the time that the author wrote the epistle or the Gospel everyone knew it was God inspired and relied upon it for sound doctrine. This, of course, is an absolutely essential belief if one is to give credence to Sola Scriptura. The problem is that it neither matches up with the history of the Church in the first 300 years of her existence, nor with how God had done things prior to the time of Christ.

What is Scripture?
The simplistic answer is that it is God’s revelation to man through human authors under the influence of the Holy Spirit. That’s all well and good, but it leaves a couple of questions unanswered. First, how do we know what documents are truly inspired and which ones aren’t? Secondly, who has the authority to declare a document as “scripture”? After all, the Bible doesn’t define itself with an inspired “table of contents” to tell us which books are sacred and which are spurious.

The answer to both questions is the same: men appointed by God to spiritually guide His people. The appointed shepherds of Israel were the Levites. Part of these were the Scribes and Pharisees… scholars of the Old Testament. They compiled the writing of the patriarchs and prophets of Israel into what is generally called “The Septuagint” (also called the LXX after the 70 scholars involved). They determined what was “scripture” and what wasn’t in regard to the Old Testament.

In the Church Era God’s method is the same. The Lord Jesus Christ appointed Apostles to guide His Church who then appoint successors to carry on the work after their deaths. The Holy Spirit guided the selection of these men just as surely as He guided the authors of the epistles that would one day become what we know as the New Testament. These letters were copied and copied and distributed throughout the Church over the first 300 years of her existence. But there were hundreds, if not thousands, of other letters many purporting to be written by an Apostle. Who made the decision what letters were scripture and which were spurious? Once again, the men appointed by God (not by themselves, as was the case later in Protestantism) to do so.

What is Scripture? Whatever those God has appointed to say so say it is. Of course, Protestants deny that and think the Bible produced itself… that the canon of Scripture was some mystical, preordained thing merely “discovered” by the Councils. But that has never been God’s way and it still isn’t.

The Birth of the Bible

Beginning in the late 4^th Century Councils of the Church began studying the issue and eventually issued a list of books considered to be inspired. This we now call the New Testament. Later, manuscripts were assembled and the first Bible as we know it was translated into Latin by Saint Jerome…the Latin Vulgate.

There was some debate and discussion around the time of Saint Jerome concerning the Deuterocanonical Books (what the Protestants call “The Apocrypha”). The Books had been included in the Septuagint (LXX) that was in use at the time of the Lord and were considered canon by the Jews until after the Fall of Jerusalem in 70 AD. Around the turn of the century, however, the Jewish leaders supposedly held a “council” (this is debated and itself considered “myth” by some historians) that eliminated those Books. Their motivation was the same as that of Martin Luther. Simply put, they support doctrines of the Catholic faith and were inconvenient to their personal theology.

Although the Bible was translated into many other languages, the Latin Vulgate was the Bible officially used by the Church from about 600 AD. Erasmus drew heavily upon it in preparing what is called “The Textus Receptus” that became the basis for many early translations into other languages. It was the source document for the Douay-Rheims as well as the King James Version (KJV) along with the Reina-Valera Spanish Bible of 1602 AD. Our own Tagalog Ang Biblia 1905 (Filipino Bible) was based on both the KJV and the Reina-Valera.

Better manuscripts than those available to Erasmus or the translators of those Bibles came to light in recent centuries and are the source document for most of the modern translations and paraphrases, such the NIV (a translation) and the Living Bible (a paraphrase). Some translations went for improved readability (thought for thought) and others for more accurate handling of the original phrases (word for word). Which translation is “best” depends on the purpose you intend for it. For many people, casual reading is best done with a “thought for thought” translation or even a paraphrase. Serious study should be done with a “word for word” translation or at least comparing the latter with the former.

Scripture Is Part of “God’s Word”

“But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them; And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.” (2 Timothy 3:14-17 KJV)

Notice that Saint Paul says that Scripture is “profitable”, but at no point says that it is the sole source of sound doctrine. It is PART of God’s Word to us, but it is not ALL of His Word. He established a Church and entrusted her with the guidance of His people from the Day of Pentecost until now. As the Head of the Church He has empowered and guided her leadership down through the centuries. The Sacred Tradition that their writings passed on to us, along with the guidance of the Teaching Magisterium, ensure that “the man of God” will “accurately handle the Word of Truth” (2 Timothy 2:15) and become that mature (the word translated “perfect” here) person as Saint Paul tells us. As he tells Saint Timothy (and through him us):

“Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” (2 Timothy 2:15)