The Bible Where Did It Come From?

What Is Truth?

Saint Mark RCIASept 20, 2021

Dennis Pettit

The Bible

• What is Our Purpose? Why Are We Here?

• Does God Really Exist – Truth?

• Knowing God

• Loving God

• Revelation

• The Bible – The Church – Authority

Catechism of The Catholic Church

Where to find this in the Catechism

• Part One: The Profession of Faith: ¶26

• The Desire for God ¶27-49

• God Comes to Meet Man ¶50

• Revelation of God & Transmission ¶51-100

• Sacred Scripture ¶101-141

Purpose for Life…Why Are We Here?

Happiness

• When something achieves its purpose

• Our perfection is happiness

• Face to face with God in Heaven.

How Do We Achieve Happiness (Our Purpose)

• Knowing God

• Loving God

• Serving GodIn This World

Why Are We Here?

Created in God’s Image

• We were made for God…In God’s Image. **

• Body & Soul

• Natural and supernatural

• Soul – Supernatural/Eternal (Intellect and Will)

• Essence – who we are…the soul contains the body

• God gave us an intellect to come to KNOW the TRUTH… EYES OF THE SOUL

• God gave us a free will so that we could LOVEfreely… HANDS & FEET OF THE SOUL

Knowing & Loving God

Who Is God?

• “Being itself” St Thomas Aquinas

• “God is Love” 1 John 4

• “I am who am” Exodus 3

• “God is a being that which nothing greater can be conceived.” St Anselm

• “Happiest of beings who longs to share His happiness with you.” St Augustine

• “Si Comprehendis non est deus” St Augustine

• “We cannot LOVE what we do not KNOW” St. Thomas Aquinas

Knowing God

Can We Know God? Is God Truly Real?

• Definition of truth:

• “What Is” – How something conforms to reality.

• Objective vs Subjective

• Objective – What is…objectively/absolutely

• Subjective – My perception/feelings.

• The trouble…we tend to blur these lines…

• Things become “relative”

• This is especially the case in matters of faith

Knowing God

Who Is God?

• How does God reveal Himself to us so that we might KNOW Him? So That we might believe…

• Is God Real? How do we KNOW.

How God Reveals Himself to us:

• In Nature

• Through Human reason

• In Sacred Scripture (and through the Church)

Knowing God

God - Truth

• Is God Objectively True? Reasonable?

• Existence of God

• We can know God by His Creation (His affects)

• Romans 1:20; “Ever since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes of eternal power and divinity have been able to be understood and perceived in what he has made.”

God in Nature - Reasoning

CCC 31 Created in God's image and called to know and love him, the person who seeks God discovers certain ways of coming to know him. These are also called proofs for the existence of God, not in the sense of proofs in the natural sciences, but rather in the sense of "converging and convincing arguments," which allow us to attain certainty about the truth.

Knowing God

God Exists - Using Human Reason Alone

• Is God Objectively True?

• Ancient Philosophy

• Love of wisdom. (science)

• The cause of ALL things.

• Plato & Aristotle in ~400 BC.

• Physical and metaphysical TRUTHS (spiritual reality)

• There must be a first cause of all things.

• God found via Reason alone

Knowing God

Knowing God through Human Reason Alone

• St. Thomas Aquinas took this one step further

• 5 Ways to Prove God Exists and is Reasonable

• First Mover (un-moved mover)

• The efficient cause.

• Necessary Being

• Scale of perfection

• Intelligent design

Knowing GodGod – Truth – “Reasonable”?

• YES…

• What’s the alternative? Is No God “reasonable”?

• Big Bang.

• Everything is an evolutionary result (randomness).

• Reasonable? There would be NO MEANING to anything

• Good and evil why?...the meaning of life.

• Free will?

• Human ethics

• Atheism or “No God” is simply unreasonable.

Knowing God

• Questions???

• Happiness – Face to Face with God

• Objective Truth

• God’s existence is objective and reasonable

• But how do we come to know God in a spiritual way?

Law & Freedom

Can’t be free without boundaries.

• River finds its strength in its banks.

• Golf swing – Musical instruments

• God’s law (Thomas Aquinas)

• God’s eternal law (within the mind of God)

• Natural law (God’s law infused in us)

• Human law (flows from natural law; common good)

• Divine law (revealed directly by God)

• This Requires an authority

Loving God – Living Free

Loving God

If You Love Me, You will Keep My Commandments.” John 14:15

• There must be an Objective moral truth.

• There is absolute right and wrong.

• How do we KNOW??? Who is the Authority?

• “As the Father sent me, so I now send you” John 20:21

Knowing -> Loving God

How Did God Reveal Himself to Us – Divinely?

God has revealed Himself to us so that we might come to know him, objectively, enable us to Love Him. One story

• Sacred Scripture (One story of Salvation)

• Old Testament = Imperfectly

• New Testament = Perfectly (Christ perfectly fulfills the Old)

• Sacred Tradition

• The Church, instituted by Christ through the Apostles is the authority! (the Mystical Body of Christ)

• “The Spirit of Truth will come and teach you all of the Truth” John 16:13

• “The pillar and foundation of the Truth” 1 Tim 3:15

The BibleOld Testament/Covenant

• 46 books, originally written for the most part in Hebrew and some Greek

• History of Israel and God’s first covenants with humanity (chosen people)

• “old” meaning first & foundational (NOT out of date/irrelevant)

• Jesus fulfills the OT

• OT foreshadows the NT (typology)

• Human writers, inspired by the Holy Spirit to be co-authors (inerrant)

• Several literary types – but It IS a SPIRITUAL book!!!

The BibleOld Testament

• 46 Books (at the time of Christ; Septuagint)

• Pentateuch – Torah (5)• Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Deuteronomy, Numbers

• Historical Books (16)• Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1Samuel, 2Samuel, 1Kings, 2Kings, 1 Chronicles,

2Chronicals, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, Tobit, Judith, 1Mac, 2 Mac

• Wisdom Books (7)• Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiaticus, Job, Song of Songs, Sirach, Wisdom

• Major Prophets (6)• Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Lamentations, Baruch

• Minor Prophets (12)• Jonah, Hosea, Joel, Zachariah, Amos, Zephaniah, Habakkuk, Haggai,

Nahum, Obadiah, Micah, Malachi

The Bible

New Testament/Covenant

• 27 books, originally written in Greek

• The story of Jesus & early Church

• Jesus as the fullness of salvation

• God’s plan now clearly revealed

• While the OT are also the Hebrew Scriptures, both the OT & NT together are the Christian Scriptures (not merely NT)

Loving GodNew Testament

• 27 Books (Authority of the Apostles-The Church)

• Gospels (4)• Matthew, Mark, Luke, John

• Beginnings of the Church/History (1)• Acts of the Apostles

• Pauline Letters (13)• Romans, 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians,

Philippians, Colossians, 1 Thessalonians, 2 Thessalonians, 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, Titus, Philemon

• Patristic/General Letters (8)• Hebrews, James, Judas, 1 John, 2 John, 3 John, 1 Peter, 2 Peter

• Revelation (1)• Revelations

The Bible

Bible Canonical Timeline

What is a Catholic Bible?

• Contains all 73 books (7 deuterocanonical books)• 46 OT

• 27 NT

• Translations• Translated from original languages (Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek to

English).

• Some are very literal, others less literal more ideological (into common language)

• Examples: NRSV, NAB, NIV, NKJV, NLB. NJB, NEB, NAS…...

• Catholic mass in the US uses the NABRE (New American Bible)

• There can be a Catholic version of any translation (containing the seven deuterocanonical books.

Bible Timeline

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Liturgy

Sacred Scripture is meant to be read in the Mass/liturgy

Old Testament and New Testament together

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One Canon since 382 AD; defended by One Authority

BaruchWisdom

SirachTobit

Judith1 Maccabees2 Maccabees

(Parts of Daniel and Esther)

KJV -1611

Latin Vulgate

405

The Bible (Canon)Canon (Standard/rule)

Old Testament Canon

• Already established by the time of Jesus (included Greek books=Septuagint; after Judaism and Christianity

• Greek vs Hebrew “authenticity” regarding the OT;—this is why Protestant and Catholic OT lists vary). (7 books)

• Also the Protestant reformers had a problem with some of the theology of these books (i.e. praying for the dead).

• These 7 books found in the Catholic, but not Protestant Bible, are called the Deuterocanonical (“2nd canon”)

• Christian Orthodox contains additional aprocypha• (1 Esdras, 3&4 Maccabees, Psalm 151, Prayer of Manasseh)

• Deuterocanonical and Apocrypha (“hidden books”) are often lumped into the title of “apocryphal books” by Protestants.

The Bible (Canon)

Canon (Standard/rule)

New Testament Canon

• Four Standards

1. From apostles or their companions

2. Universally accepted by all Christians

3. Use of the text in Christian liturgy.

4. Message is consistent with the rest of God’s revelation.

You need an authority to establish and enforce this…The Church

The BibleThe Church & The Bible

• Scripture Needs an Authority (2 Pt 1:20)

• Scripture is meant to be read in the Mass (Old with New)• 1st Reading (typically Old Testament)

• Psalm

• 2nd Reading (New Testament)

• Gospel

• Organized in the Catholic Lectionary in 3 yearly “Cycles” (2 cycles for weekday mass)• A Matthrew

• B Mark (and John 6)

• C Luke

• Catechism of the Catholic Church ¶ 26-141

• Dei Verbum; Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation 1965

• Verbum Domini; Apostolic Exhoration, Pope Benedict XVI 2010

Divine Revelation

The Bible According to The Church

• The inspired and inerrant Word of God.

• It is written by human writers, inspired by the Holy Spirit.

• It is without error.

• Meant to be read as one book; old and new; one story of salvation.

• We venerate the Word as we do the Body of Christ.

• God is present in the liturgy in both the Word and the Eucharist (as well in the priest and the congregation).

• The authority of the Church defends and preserves the Word.

The Bible

• What is Our Purpose? Why Are We Here? Happiness (know, love & serve God)

• Does God Really Exist – Truth? (YES)

• Knowing God (Spiritually) intellect

• Loving God (what are we to do?) will

• Revelation (Deeper understanding of God)

• The Bible – The Church – Authority