CANON OF THE SCRIPTURE.

 

We all would admit that carrying bible does not imply strong faith in God. In the past, the Church did not encourage the faithful to read the bible partly because the bible is not a literature which anyone can read and understand without the background history. This is because “no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation” (2Pt 1:20). Few people were educated in the community then and the clergy were the only ones that studied the sacred scriptures and so, the rightful people to give true meaning of the sacred words written therein.

 However, through the sacred liturgy, the Catholic Church offers the sacred words (bible) to the faithful. For instance, in every celebration of the Holy Mass there are readings from Old Testament, New Testament, the book of Psalm and other passages of the bible, which are read and explained. Think about the amount of bible passages anyone who attends the Holy Mass every Sunday for a year would be acquainted with and more, when you attend daily morning Masses for one year. Again, the bible readings and passages feature in the celebration of all the sacraments.

 In our society today, though many of us can read and write, we leave lawyers to interpret the laws, the medical doctors to give answers to our health problems, accountants to see to our monetary issues but, when it comes to interpreting the bible, it becomes a free for all and we all become experts. Think about the havoc many people have caused in their bid to interpret the bible, forgetting that some passages of the scriptures are difficult to understand (2Pt 3:16). Often we hear someone who hardly made it through High School claim to interpret the bible or some who experienced failures in their businesses pick up the bible as a last resort claiming that they have been called by God to preach. Worst still, these people to pay no heed to the priests and those who studied the sacred scriptures as their profession. Often these “expert” interpreters act like the mad man who picked a newspaper, turned it upside down and shouted: “What a lie!”. 

How often do we hear these self-acclaimed “men of God” mention that Catholics do not know the bibles; Catholics do not read the bible, etc? Now the questions are: How did we get the bible? When was it written and by whom? When was the bible codified and by whom? How were the books that formed our bible selected? What was in use before the bible? These and more are some of the questions that easily come to mind as we reflect on the bible story. The bible is a collection of books written by more than forty authors over a period of more than 1000years. These are separate books found in scrolls or parchments (Old and New Testaments alike). No place in the bible did we read about the books that are supposed to form part of the bible. Rather, the Catholic Church selected the books that formed the canon of the scriptures and this action is known as codification of the bible. The word canon is from a Greek word meaning Standard. The New Testament is entirely the production of the Church, which means, the church existed before the New Testament not vice versa. 

Although, some writers wrote early enough, like St. Peter wrote his epistle around 63AD, not until 382AD, during the 4th Lateran Council in Rome, did the Church decide on which books are to be included in the bible. This was confirmed both at the council of Hippo in 393AD and the council of Carthage in 397AD. The Catholic Church used her authority conferred by Christ to decide among the many scriptural writings the ones that are inspired and those that are not. For instance, Patristic writings (from Fathers of the Church) were considered authentic but not inspired. St. Augustine said that he would not have believed in the gospel had not the authority of the Catholic Church already moved him.

 It is important to realize that neither Christ nor the apostles used the bible to teach the gospel message. Early Christians transmitted the gospel message through oral traditions of the Church in accordance with the injunctions of Christ: “…observe all that I have commanded you” (Matt: 28:20). We also recall that the beginning of St. Luke’s gospel indicated that the people had already received the good news before his writing thus he mentioned that he was writing for them to “know the truth concerning the things of which you have been informed (Lk 1:4).

In sum, the bible was codified, printed and put to use in the Catholic Church from the 4th century far before the 16th century when Martin Luther broke away from the Catholic Church and reprinted the bible. So, those of other Christian denominations that accuse the Catholic Church of not knowing the bible are like the man who assumed that he begot a male child before his father.

 By Dike Patrickmary Afamefuna.