02: The Christian Bible
The Christian Bible (The Written Word of God)
Question of Inspiration: Who wrote the Bible - God or man?
A. Inspiration Theories
1. "Divine Dictation" Theory
God alone is responsible for the content of the Bible. The human authors were merely recording machines, or robots, who wrote down what God, in some unknown way, dictated to them. Or, the human authors were caught up in some mystical trance and reproduced God's Word without any consciousness of what they were writing.
2. "Negative Assistance" Theory
The human authors were alone responsible for the writing of the books except when they were about to fall into error. Then, God, in some way, intervened and directed the author to the truth. So, the divine influence is only present negatively. This theory does not allow for the unique character of the Bible as the Word of God.
3. "Subsequent Approbation" Theory
God approved of the Bible only after it was completed. He thereby made it his own. This theory may, indeed, assure us that the Bible contains the truth about God and his relationship to the world. But, if this is the case, how would we speak of such Scriptures as "inspired by God" (2 Tim 3:16).
Two Guiding Principles for Inspiration Theory
While the Church has rejected these theories of inspiration, she has not officially adopted any one explanation as her own. We can, however, point to two elements that must be guarded in any explanation that is given.
FIRST: That God is actively present, in a unique manner in the composition of the biblical books. This gift of presence to the communities of Israel and to the early Church is demanded both by those passages which do speak of inspiration in the Bible (e.g., 2 Tim 3:15-17; 2 Pt 1:20-21) and by the constant tradition of the Church.
~ 2 Tim 3:15-1 - “Likewise, from your infancy you have known the sacred Scriptures, the source of the wisdom which through faith in Jesus Christ leads to salvation. All Scripture is inspired of God and is useful for teaching - for reproof, correction, and training in holiness so that the man of God may be fully competent and equipped for every good work.” The Bible is, in a real sense, the Word of God.
SECOND: The freedom of the human authors in making use of their own talents and recourses, in cooperation with the Spirit of God, in composing the sacred books. This is demanded both by the many references to the human efforts expended in writing the books (e.g., Jer 36:17-18; Lk 1:1-4; Gal 6:11) and by the statements of the Church.
~ Jer 36:17-18 - “Then they asked Baruch: 'Tell us, please, how you came to write down all these words.' ' Jeremiah dictated all these words to me,' Baruch answered them, 'and I wrote them down with ink in the book.”
It is because of the first element, the divine activity, that we can only appreciate the fullness of the biblical Word when we approach it in faith. It is because of the second element, the human factor, that we must make use of all possible sciences to understand the meaning intended by the authors.
B. The Effects of Inspiration
First Effect: Revelation and the Bible
a. Correct Interpretation. The first is that the history in which God revealed himself has to be correctly interpreted. It is obvious, for example, that the Egyptians and the Hebrew people would have interpreted the events of the Exodus differently. The biblical authors, through inspiration, recorded an interpretation of the Exodus event which we believe to contain a true understanding of God. The Bible, therefore, can be described as an inspired interpretation of God's revelation of himself in the history of Israel and in the life and destiny of his Son, in the person of Jesus Christ. here are two principal reasons why God's self-revelation had to be written.
b. Patrimony. Moses, the prophets, priests and wise men, Jesus, the preachers and teachers of the early Church - all of these used the spoken word to interpret God's self-revelation. But it would have been difficult, if not possible, for this oral interpretation to have been safely and surely preserved for future generations unless it was put down in written form. This, then, is the second major reason for the Bible, the record of revelation.
Second Effect: The Unity of the Bible
The human factor cannot be discounted. This account for the varied expressions of a single reality, God. The human authors varied greatly in their background, education, social and cultural insights, and even, to an extent, in their religious perspectives. As to be expected, there are differing pictures of God, but not conflicting pictures of God. E.g., there is a noticeable development in the picture of God from the beginning of biblical revelation to the end, i.e., from the Judge-God of the O.T. to the Merciful Father of N.T.
The most basic source of unity and the one unifying theme of biblical revelation is he one God himself. Second, the unifying intention is to disclose one central reality: the mystery of Christ hidden in God from eternity, prepared for in the history of the people of Israel, and disclosed to the human race in the fullness of time. Because of this underlying and unifying theme of a mystery or divine plan, scholars have frequently referred to the Bible as the record of "salvation history."
Third Effect: Completeness of the Bible
This means the degree of self-disclosure of that God planned to provide in the Bible has been perfectly and completely achieved. This seems clear enough. God must have felt that these books contain, in some way, all that he has to say of himself to the human race.
It is because of this completeness of the Bible that it is sometimes referred to as "constitutive revelation," i.e., the Bible is the constitution of, or the essential basis for our understanding of God and his will for salvation. It contains the basis of revelation, what we must know about God if we are to respond as perfectly as possible to his loving concern = constitutive phase of His Self-Revelation.
But, God may continue to reveal himself to the world in the period after the Bible, although not in the form of biblical inspiration. He reveals himself in the Church through the Councils, or through the Magisterium, and through the lives of our people (sensus fidelium) = explicative or continuing phase. In the Catholic faith this has been called Sacred Tradition.
Fourth Effect: Sacramentality of the Bible
For the Jews, the “word” was thought to be a reality residing within the person, and that it goes out from that person when spoken or written and then resides within the person to whom it is directed. Anyways, the word takes on its concreteness through the person (proclaimer/receiver). It will have an effect on that person in accord with the strength of spirit of the one who utters it,
e.g.: Is 55:10-11 - “For just as from the heavens the rain and snow come down, and do not return there till they have watered the earth, making it fertile and fruitful, giving seed to him who sows and bread to him who eats, so shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth; it shall not return to me void, but shall do my will, achieving the end for which I sent it.”
Hence there is power in the spoken or written word of God.
By this is meant that the biblical Word is likened to a sacrament, i.e., a material sign behind which is a hidden, Divine message. Therefore, the Bible, as the written Word of God is readable because it is composed of human words, but behind these human words or expressions, is a Divine message. Here, we have to distinguish between reality, concept and term.
Fifth Effect: The Inerrancy of the Bible
This is the most problematic. Old manuals of Theology describe inerrancy as an effect of inspiration whereby the Bible whose God is the Truth, is free from error. However, why are there inconsistencies or contradictions, to say the least, rampant in the Bible?
Why this effect is quite difficult to accept is evident from scriptural, inconsistent statements of the following kind: Biblical self-contradictions,
e.g., Noah's flood lasting 40 days and nights in Gn 7:17, but 150 days in Gn 7:24; Errors in natural science, e.g., the universe enwrapped in waters held back by a solid bell-shaped barrier called the firmament; Errors in history, e.g., the inaccuracies of Dn 5; Moral errors, e.g., here, total destruction of an enemy people or group, considered as carrying out of the will of Yahweh (Jos 11:14-15).
The most difficult to accept among these effects. Despite this, the bases for including this are the following reasons, among others:
- Jews believe that the words of the Torah were put oracularly into the prophet's mind
- The N.T. does not explicitly refer to the inerrancy of Scripture, but the doctrine is the foundation for statements like the following: Scripture cannot be invalidated (Jn 10:35); Scripture must be fulfilled (Lk 24:44; Acts 1:16); no iota of the Law will pass away (Mt 5:18); and "It is written," when used to introduce Scripture as an absolutely unanswerable argument (e.g., Mt 4:4; Acts 15:15; Rom 1:17; 1 Pt 2:6).
C. The Question of Canonicity of the Bible
“Canonicity” means the Church has recognized the books and acknowledge them officially to be inspired. It asks the question. Is the book inspired? If so, let us include it as part of the Bible. On this issue, the Catholic & Protestant Churches do differ one from the other.
Catholics ~ protocanonical books = those whose claims have never been doubted in the Church.
Protestants ~ apocrypha = O.T. deuterocanonical books + 3, 4 Esdras and the prayer of Manasseh, i.e., “books which are it held equal to the sacred Scriptures, and nevertheless are useful and good to read” (Luther). Catholics ~ apocrypha = certain Jewish and Christian writings which made some pretension to divine authority, but which, in fact, are not inspired Scripture.
~ O.T. apocrypha = the products of Judaism, attributed to various patriarchs and prophets and reflect the religious and moral ideas of the Jewish world from the second century B.C. to the first century A.D.
~ N.T. apocrypha = works of Christian origin, attributed to the apostles reflecting the beliefs, doctrines, and traditions of certain circles, both orthodox and heretical, in the first centuries of the Church.
In biblical studies, the term pseudepigrapha typically refers to an assorted collection of Jewish religious works thought to be written c. 300 BCE to 300 CE. They are distinguished by Protestants from the deuterocanonical books (Catholic and Orthodox) or Apocrypha (Protestant), the books that appear in extant copies of the Septuagint from the fourth century on, and the Vulgate but not in the Hebrew Bible or in Protestant Bibles. The Catholic Church distinguishes only between the deuterocanonical and all the other books, that are called biblical apocrypha, a name that is also used for the pseudepigrapha in the Catholic usage.
After the destruction of Jerusalem (70 A.D.) that a group of Jewish doctors, seeking to preserve what remained of the past met at Jamnia (=Yavne, 30 miles west of Jerusalem) about 90 A.D. and formally accepted the strict Pharisaic canon. On various grounds, including the fact that the Greek Bible had been adopted by Christians, certain of the books that formed part of that Bible (in effect the Catholics’ our deuterocanonical books) were rejected. Those rejected but nonetheless included in the Catholic canon are referred to as deuterocanonical. The Protestant followed this Palestinian canon. The Catholics did not.
D. The Versions of the Bible
A “version” = “translation.” There are many versions or translations of the Bible because the Bible was originally written in Hebrew and Greek, and was originally used only by Hebrew-speaking and Greek-speaking; later, however, other people who did know neither Hebrew nor Greek, like most of us, wanted the Bible translated in their own language.
Versions or translations made by Catholics or approved by the Catholic Church are "Catholic Bibles," while versions or translations made by Protestants and officially used only by them are Protestant Bibles.
The Greek “version” of the Hebrew Bible used by Catholics and Orthodox Christians alike is known as the Septuagint (supposedly written by 70 scribes). The version approved for Catholics by the Council of Trent in 1546 was the Vulgate but this was in Latin. Soon, English Catholics had the Douay-Rheims version. The New Testament was finished in Rheims (France) in 1582 and the Old Testament was finished in Duoay in 1609. English Protestants got their King James version or Authorized version in 1611. It was updated as the Revised Version in 1881-1885. American Protestants came up with the Revised Standard Version 1946-1952.
Today, since 1985 when Vatican II ended, main Catholic versions English are:
1. (A) The Jerusalem Bible, (JB), 1966
(B) The New Jerusalem Bible, (NJB), 1988
2. (A) The New American Bible (NAB), 1970
(B) NAB, Revised New Testament, (inclusive language), 1988.
- Douay-Rheims - This is the oldest English translation available and is frequently compared with the King James version because of its use of "Thee", "Thou" and other older forms of words. This translation is considered highly accurate but can be more difficult to read for some people.
- Revised Standard (RSV) - This was a joint translation project between American Protestants and Catholics with the Catholic Church completing the translation of the Apocrypha. This translation is considered the most accurate modern translation but still contains "Thee" and "Thou" when referring to God. This translation along with the New American Bible was approved for liturgical use in the United States.
- Revised Standard 2nd Edition - This version is almost identical to the regular Revised Standard but updates the language by getting rid of "Thee" and "Thou".
- New American Bible (NAB) - This version is the most common American translation. It was written for an eighth grade reading level and contains the most "modern" language of the primary Catholic translations. The New American Bible is available in more versions than any other Catholic Bible.
- Jerusalem Bible - The Jerusalem Bible, completed in 1966, is very similar to the Revised Standard Version 2nd edition in that it is a modern English language translation. It was produced under the direction of the Dominican scholars at the reknowned Ecole Biblique de Jerusalem.
Catholic Translations
- Released in parts between 1913–1935 with copious study and textual notes. The New Testament with condensed notes was released in 1936 as one volume.
- NT released in 1941. The OT contained material from the Challoner Revision until the entire OT was completed in 1969.
- New Testament only; Gospels by James Kleist, rest by Joseph Lilly.
- Second Catholic Edition released 2006.
The Bible common to Catholics and Protestants are the ff.:
1. (A) A Revised Standard Version, Cath. Ed. (imprimatur given by Archbishop Gray of Scotland, 1965; by Bishop Bartholome of St. Cloud, Minn., 19667 and by Card. Cushing of Boston, 1966
(B) New Revised Standard Version, Cath. Ed. (N.T., 1989, O.T.., 1993, inclusive language)
2. Good News Bible/Today's English Version (Imprimatur given by Archbishop John Francis Whealon of Hartford, 1978; N.T. 1966; O.T. 1976, Deuterocanonicals/Apocrypha 1979 (Philippine Cath. Ed since 1980)
3. Contemporary English Version (Inclusive language)
~ New Testament with Psalms and Proverbs (Imprimatur given by Most Rev. Daniel E. Pilarczyk, President (USA) National Conference of Catholic Bishops, 1991.
~ Old Testament and New Testament, 1995.
The modern Protestant Bibles in English which so far have no official Catholic approval are:
1. (A) New English Bible (NEB) (N.T. 1961; O.T. 1970) – 2001
(B) Revised English Bible, (REV) 1989 (with Cath. Collaboration)
2. New American Standard Bible (NASB), 1971
3. New International Version (NIV), 1978
- NIV – Men’s Devotional Bible (1993)
- NIV – Study Bible (10th Anniversary Ed) (1995)
4. *New King James Version, 1979.
*King James Version of 1611 still has an immense following, a number of different attempts to update or improve upon it. The Revised Version and its derivatives also stem from the King James Version.
Note: Inclusive language avoids the term "man" or the male gender where the thought being expressed actually includes women as for example in Mt 4:4.
E.g., ~ No one can live only on food - Contemporary English Version (CEV)
~ People cannot live on bread alone - Christian Community Bible (CCB).
Translation Comparison Charts
Development of Modern English Bible Versions
The Authorized King James Version of 1611 was sporadically altered until 1769, but was not thoroughly updated until the creation of the Revised Version in 1885. These formal equivalence or literal translations have been continued with further modifications to the King James and Revised Versions, including the Revised Standard Version (1952), the New Revised Standard Version (1989), and the English Standard Version (2001).
In the late twentieth century, Bibles increasingly appeared that were much less literal in their style. In 1946, the New English Bible was initiated in the United Kingdom, intended to enable readers to better understand the King James Bible. In 1958, J. B. Phillips (1906–1982) produced an edition of the New Testament letters in paraphrase, the Letters to Young Churches, so that members of his youth group could understand what the New Testament authors had written. Others followed suit. The Living Bible, released in 1971, was published by its author Kenneth N. Taylor, based on the literal American Standard Version of 1901. Taylor had begun because of the trouble his children had in understanding the literal (and sometimes archaic) text of the King James Bible. His work was at first intended for children, but was later positioned for adults wishing to better understand the Bible. Like Phillips' version, the Living Bible was a dramatic departure from the King James version.
Despite widespread criticism, the popularity of The Living Bible, itself a paraphrase rather than a translation, created a demand for a new approach to translating the Bible into contemporary English called dynamic equivalence, which attempts to preserve the meaning of the original text in a readable way. Realizing the immense benefits of a Bible that was more easily accessible to the average reader, and responding to the criticisms of the Living Bible, the American Bible Society produced the Good News Bible (1976), a new English Bible translation in this more readable style. This translation has gone on to become one of the best selling in history. In 1996, a new revision of Taylor's Living Bible was published. This New Living Translation is a full translation from the original languages rather than a paraphrase of the Bible.
Another project aimed to create something in between the very literal translation of the King James Bible and the more informal Good News Bible. The goal of this was to create a Bible that would be scholarly yet not overly formal. The result of this project was the New International Version (1978).
The debate between the formal equivalence and dynamic (or 'functional') equivalence translation styles has increased with the introduction of inclusive language versions. Various terms are employed to defend or attack this development, such as feminist, gender neutral, or gender accurate. New editions of some previous translations have been updated to take this change in language into account, including the New Revised Standard Version (1989), the Revised English Bible (1989), and Today's New International Version (2005). Some translations have approached the issue more cautiously, such as the English Standard Version (2001).
A further process that has assisted in increasing the number of English Bible versions exponentially, is the use of the Internet in producing virtual bibles, of which a growing number are beginning to appear in print – especially given the development of "print on demand".
Today, there is a range of translations ranging from the most literal, such as the Young's Literal Translation to the most free such as *The Message and *The Word on the Street.
*The Message (MSG Bible)
Eugene Peterson states: “While I was teaching a class on Galatians, I began to realize that the adults in my class weren't feeling the vitality and directness that I sensed as I read and studied the New Testament in its original Greek. Writing straight from the original text, I began to attempt to bring into English the rhythms and idioms of the original language. I knew that the early readers of the New Testament were captured and engaged by these writings and I wanted my congregation to be impacted in the same way. I hoped to bring the New Testament to life for two different types of people: those who hadn't read the Bible because it seemed too distant and irrelevant and those who had read the Bible so much that it had become ‘old hat’.”
According to the Introduction to the New Testament of The Message, its “contemporary idiom keeps the language of the Message (Bible) current and fresh and understandable.” Peterson notes that in the course of the project, he realized this was exactly what he had been doing in his thirty-five years as a pastor, “always looking for an English way to make the biblical text relevant to the conditions of the people.”
It is published piecemeal over a nine year period: NT (1993); Wisdom Books (1998); Prophets (2000); Pentateuch (2001)(History Books) (2002); entire Bible (2002) following traditional Protestant Biblical canon.
*The Word on the Street
- The word on the street (formerly the street bible, 2003), a Bible-based book by Rob Lacey paraphrasing key Bible stories using modern language; published by Zondervan.
- Lacey's first major book, described as a "'dangerously real' retelling of Scripture," condensing the story of the Bible in less than 500 pages, paraphrasing the text in a distinctive, urban style inspired by Lacey's performances. Major biblical stories are recast as mini-blockbusters; individual psalms are rewritten as song lyrics; the letters of Paul become emails to the fledgling "Jesus Liberation Movement" (aka the church).
- At the same time the book was launched, Lacey partnered with musicians Bill Taylor-Beales and Rachel Taylor-Beales to produce an audio CD of his 75-minute performance of the Bible. The CD was nominated for an Audie Award by the Audio Publishers Association in 2004.
- After 2003 launch, became one of the bestselling religious books for the next two years, ultimately winning the Christian Booksellers Convention's Book of the Year award in 2004.
- In the US, Barnes & Noble recognized the word on the street as one of the ten best "religion & spirituality" books of 2004
- Lacey Theatre Company toured shows based on this book in 2004-5 and 2005-6
New Testament (Pinoy Version)
"Sobrang na-shock ako sa inyo. Ang dali n'yo namang tinalikuran ang Diyos. Imagine, sobrang bait n'ya at pinadala n'ya si Christ sa atin. Ang Diyos mismo ang pumili sa inyo, tapos ngayon, ine-entertain n'yo ang ibang Gospel?" (Galatians 1:6)
"Mga b**o ba talaga kayo? Nasimulan n'yo ngang maranasan ang kapangyarihan ng Holy Spirit sa buhay n'yo, tapos ngayon, aasa kayo sa sarili niyong lakas?!" (Galatians 3:3)
"Tapos, pinagtripan nila si Jesus. Sinaluduhan nila s'ya at sinabi, 'Mabuhay ang hari ng mga Jews!' Hinampas nila ng stick ang ulo ni Jesus at dinuraan siya." (Mark 15:18)
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