Catholic Church no longer swears by truth of the Bible - Times OnlineWorld view
Catholic Church no longer swears by truth of the Bible
By Ruth Gledhill, Religion Correspondent
THE hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church has published a teaching document
instructing the faithful that some parts of the Bible are not actually true. The
Catholic bishops of England, Wales and Scotland are warning their five million
worshippers, as well as any others drawn to the study of scripture, that they
should not expect “total accuracy” from the Bible. “We should not expect to find
in Scripture full scientific accuracy or complete historical precision,” they
say in The Gift of Scripture. The document is timely, coming as it does amid the
rise of the religious Right, in particular in the US. Some Christians want a
literal interpretation of the story of creation, as told in Genesis, taught
alongside Darwin’s theory of evolution in schools, believing “intelligent
design” to be an equally plausible theory of how the world began. But the first
11 chapters of Genesis, in which two different and at times conflicting stories
of creation are told, are among those that this country’s Catholic bishops
insist cannot be “historical”. At most, they say, they may contain “historical
traces”. The document shows how far the Catholic Church has come since the 17th
century, when Galileo was condemned as a heretic for flouting a near-universal
belief in the divine inspiration of the Bible by advocating the Copernican view
of the solar system. Only a century ago, Pope Pius X condemned Modernist
Catholic scholars who adapted historical-critical methods of analysing ancient
literature to the Bible. In the document, the bishops acknowledge their debt to
biblical scholars. They say the Bible must be approached in the knowledge that
it is “God’s word expressed in human language” and that proper acknowledgement
should be given both to the word of God and its human dimensions.
They say the Church must offer the gospel in ways “appropriate to changing
times, intelligible and attractive to our contemporaries”. The Bible is true in
passages relating to human salvation, they say, but continue: “We should not
expect total accuracy from the Bible in other, secular matters.” They go on to
condemn fundamentalism for its “intransigent intolerance” and to warn of
“significant dangers” involved in a fundamentalist approach. “Such an approach
is dangerous, for example, when people of one nation or group see in the Bible a
mandate for their own superiority, and even consider themselves permitted by the
Bible to use violence against others.” Of the notorious anti-Jewish curse in
Matthew 27:25, “His blood be on us and on our children”, a passage used to
justify centuries of anti-Semitism, the bishops say these and other words must
never be used again as a pretext to treat Jewish people with contempt.
Describing this passage as an example of dramatic exaggeration, the bishops say
they have had “tragic consequences” in encouraging hatred and persecution. “The
attitudes and language of first-century quarrels between Jews and Jewish
Christians should never again be emulated in relations between Jews and
Christians.” As examples of passages not to be taken literally, the bishops cite
the early chapters of Genesis, comparing them with early creation legends from
other cultures, especially from the ancient East. The bishops say it is clear
that the primary purpose of these chapters was to provide religious teaching and
that they could not be described as historical writing. Similarly, they refute
the apocalyptic prophecies of Revelation, the last book of the Christian Bible,
in which the writer describes the work of the risen Jesus, the death of the
Beast and the wedding feast of Christ the Lamb. The bishops say: “Such symbolic
language must be respected for what it is, and is not to be interpreted
literally. We should not expect to discover in this book details about the end
of the world, about how many will be saved and about when the end will come.”
In their foreword to the teaching document, the two most senior Catholics of the
land, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, Archbishop of Westminster, and Cardinal
Keith O’Brien, Archbishop of St Andrew’s and Edinburgh, explain its context.
They say people today are searching for what is worthwhile, what has real value,
what can be trusted and what is really true. The new teaching has been issued as
part of the 40th anniversary celebrations of Dei Verbum, the Second Vatican
Council document explaining the place of Scripture in revelation. In the past 40
years, Catholics have learnt more than ever before to cherish the Bible. “We
have rediscovered the Bible as a precious treasure, both ancient and ever new.”
A Christian charity is sending a film about the Christmas story to every primary
school in Britain after hearing of a young boy who asked his teacher why Mary
and Joseph had named their baby after a swear word. The Breakout Trust raised
£200,000 to make the 30-minute animated film, It’s a Boy. Steve Legg, head of
the charity, said: “There are over 12 million children in the UK and only
756,000 of them go to church regularly. That leaves a staggering number who are
probably not receiving basic Christian teaching.”
BELIEVE IT OR NOT:
UNTRUE
Genesis ii, 21-22
So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept he
took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh; and the rib which the
Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man
Genesis iii, 16
God said to the woman [after she was beguiled by the serpent]: “I will greatly
multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children, yet
your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you.”
Matthew xxvii, 25
The words of the crowd: “His blood be on us and on our children.”
Revelation xix,20
And the beast was captured, and with it the false prophet who in its presence
had worked the signs by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the
beast and those who worshipped its image. These two were thrown alive into the
lake of fire that burns with brimstone.”
TRUE
Exodus iii, 14
God reveals himself to Moses as: “I am who I am.”
Leviticus xxvi,12
“I will be your God, and you shall be my people.”
Exodus xx,1-17
The Ten Commandments
Matthew v,7
The Sermon on the Mount
Mark viii,29
Peter declares Jesus to be the Christ
Luke i
The Virgin Birth
John xx,28
Proof of bodily resurrection
If the Bible is unreliable so are the gospels. The Church is simply picking and
choosing what it wants to believe out of the Bible.
As they are the only accounts of Jesus’ life the four gospels, Matthew, Mark,
Luke and John, are the only places to look for evidence for believing
Christianity. Christians contend that Jesus is supposed to have been the saviour
and Son of God and God himself because he was sinless and so would not lie and
did miracles as a sign that God approved of him. But on what do the Christians
depend on for evidence that he was sinless and had miracle powers?