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com

III. MAN'S RESPONSE TO REVELATION

God's Revelation expects a response from man. If God reveals himself to man for his
good and for his salvation, then man's response to this Revelation is decisive for his life and
his future. It is by faith that man adheres to divine Revelation.
The act of believing is not easy to define. Because faith is a gift, and presents itself in
different epistemological and psychological aspects. The act of faith comes in three forms
designated by the following Latin expressions:Credere Deum, credere Deo, creder in Deum;the act
of faith is distinguished amongfides qua creditorAndfides quae creditor1.

1. The different aspects of the act of faith

has)Credere Deum, credere Deo, credere in Deum

Credere Deum(believe in God): this dimension of believing designates the object of faith;
believe that God exists. It is a mark of credibility. For example, the world is not the result of chance. It is a
question here of the content of faith.
Credere Deo(believe God): it is the acceptance of divine authority as a source of truth; God
as the reason for faith. This act of faith refers to the witness. Believing that the word of God is the
expression of truth. It is an act of trust in the revelation expressed in Scripture. We believe that
Christ is the eternal Word made flesh, the Truth in person who reveals himself and who gives
himself.
Credere in Deum(believe in God): designates God as the end2. Believing with a view to
God is essential to the dynamism of faith. This means that by his personal faith adherence to the
Word of God the believer consents to the sovereign attraction exerted on him by the filling and
absolute Good that is the blessed Trinity. It is in fact the desire for beatitude, which puts the
human spirit under tension and leads it to fulfill itself in the confident surrender of all its life to
the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is a total trust, a surge of love and abandonment
that we find in the words of the Psalmist (Ps 32). As Saint Augustine says, “You make us Lord and
our Heart is restless until it abides in You3".

b)“Fides qua”And“fides quae”

Theology distinguishes betweenfides qua(the act in which faith is expressed) andfides quae
(the content we believe in)4. Therefides quarefers to the dynamic aspect of faith. It designates the
singular act of faith which transforms me, puts me in communion with God; the faith by which

1See AugustineFrom Trinitate,XIII, 2, 5. See: Olivier Riaudel, “Fides qua creditorAndFides que
creditor. Return to a distinction which is not in Augustine",Louvain Theological Review,Year
2012, 43-2, p. 169-194.
2See Hans Waldenfels,Manual of the fundamentalology,Coll. “Cogitatio Fidei” 159, Paris, Cerf,

2010, p. 472.
3 “Fecisti nos ad Te et worryum est cor nostrum, donec requiescat in Te” (Cf. Augustine,Confessions, I, 1)

4 See Hans Waldenfels,Fundamental Theology Handbook, p. 473.

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I believe. It is located on the existential level. It is a relationship we have with divinity, made of
trust, hope and adoration. Therefides quaerefers to the noetic aspect (knowledge). It places
faith on the level of the orthodoxy of the Church, a collective, objective and communicable
reality. It relates to the doctrine, the beliefs by which I believe.
It is a question of distinguishing between “believing in God” (fides qua) and “believe God” (
fides quae). To believe in God means to live according to God. Therefides quaimplies the fides quae
:believing in God obviously implies the belief that God exists: “The”fides quae“without the”fides qua"is
dead; the"fides qua“without the”fides quae"is blind. It's only like "fides qua“that the”fides quae"is
alive; it is only like"fides quae“that the”fides qua"can see5". As Benedict XVI points out, it is a question
of

understand in a deeper way not only the contents of faith, but with these also the act by which
we decide to entrust ourselves totally to God, in complete freedom. Indeed, there is a
profound unity between the act by which we believe and the contents to which we give our
assent.6.

2. The properties of the act of faith

a) The act of faith is supernatural

Faith is one of the three theological virtues. The theological virtues have God as their
origin and their finality. They come to us from God and bring us back to Him. Thus, the faith
which is in us, which dwells in us and possesses us, is notour thing(Cf. Lk 17:5-6; Mt 17:20). Faith
cannot be bought in supermarkets. Faith does not depend on our wealth and our means; faith is
not linked to our titles and functions. Faith is a gift from God. Faith is like sunlight. Sunlight
belongs to no one. And no one can stop the sun from shining either. But if anyone wants to have
sunlight in his home, he must open his windows. Faith is not a conquest, nor a human will. Faith
is the humble reception of a gift, of a grace. Faith is the heavenly light that illuminates us. We
must open ourselves to it through prayer to welcome it. Our faith does not belong to us and it
cannot awaken in us any feeling of superiority7. The purpose of man's life is so high that he
needs God to achieve it.8. The characteristic of the movement of faith is to carry us, beyond
visible realities, to their invisible and supernatural foundation: “faith is the guarantee of the
goods that we hope for, the proof of the realities that we do not hope for. see not” (Heb 11:1).

The life of faith is based on promise and appears like a bet on the future. It is
the example of Abraham. By faith, he obeyed the call to go to a land that he was to receive as an
inheritance, and he left not knowing where he was going (cf. Heb 11:8). Faith manifests a paradoxical
reality: "the man of faith, although he does not see the presence of God nor his action, acts

5 Ibid.,p. 666.
6Benedict XVI,Porta fidei,No. 10.
7Henri de Lubac, “A double task proposed to the theologian by “Gaudium et Spes”,Theology of today and

tomorrow, P. Burke, H. De Lubac, J. Danielou, Y. Congar, E. Schillebeecks, J.-B. Metz, C. Davis, A. Schmemann, G.
Lindbeck, J. Sittler, Paris, Cerf, 1967 , p. 17.
8 Communion, Faith,n°XIII, 2 – March-April 1998, p. 49.
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as if he clearly discerned them beyond appearances9". Faith refers to the intelligence
which, by receiving the light of faith, is elevated to divine truth.

b) The act of faith is free

Faith is willing to reveal truths. It is in Jesus Christ, Son of God, that Christians have
placed their faith10. Faith is not a particular sector of man, it concerns the entire being of
man and penetrates him entirely in each of his actions, in the infinite multiplicity and
variety of his personal, family, professional commitments.11. Knowing God is not just an
intellectual affair, it is a personal adhesion. It is a constitutive aspect of man to be religious,
that is to say capable of recognizing through intelligence and ratifying through love the
Revelation of God12.
The Christian faith must always dare, that is to say, move outward to draw from the
source of salvation. Sacred Scripture, re-read in each generation of the Church for two thousand
years, reveals its own meaning only gradually, thanks to the light that the present moment
projects on the past when the past and the present meet, open to the future13. If we seek to
conform to the Word of God, then we will allow ourselves to be shaken, exposed, wounded and
healed by that Word; we will be transformed, shaped, molded and brought to contemplate the
true face of God and to read the events of history with his eyes. We will discover that God's
thoughts are not our thoughts, those of men (Is 55:8-9). The discovery of the face of God must
lead the believer to freely let go of his opinions in order to listen to the voice of the Lord.

In the journey of faith, baptism marks entry into the community of faith, into the Church.
Baptism gives the Holy Spirit, making us children of God in Christ. We do not believe by
ourselves, without the thoughtfulness of grace; and we do not believe alone, but in the Church.
From baptism, every believer is called to relive and make the confession of faith their own, with
their brothers and sisters in Christ.
The affirmation of faith as a gift does not exempt believers from reflecting on what they
believe.

9Charles-André Bernard,Treatise on spiritual theology,Paris, Cerf, 1982, p 134. Furthermore, the act of faith
is not a metaphysical abstraction. To believe is to perform a more complex act: it is to adhere to a word
which testifies to divine activity in the world, to perceive at the same time historical reality in itself and as a
divine manifestation, to finally unite with God itself as the active foundation of all and eternal act in which all
subsists.
10Better than the noun “faith”, the verbal form “believe in” translates the free movement of total
donation of man to God, in a pure impulse of love and total trust. (SeeCommunion, Faith,No. XIII, 2
– March-April 1998, p. 14).
11Ibid., p. 38.

12Cf. Jean Daniélou, “Christianity and non-Christian religions”,Theology of today and tomorrow, P.

Burke, H. De Lubac, J. Danielou, Y. Congar, E. Schillebeecks, J.-B. Metz, C. Davis, A. Schmemann, G.

Lindbeck, J. Sittler, Paris, Cerf, 1967 , p. 66.
13Cf. Edouard Schillebeeckx, “Intelligence of faith and self-interpretation”,Theology of today and tomorrow, P.
Burke, H. De Lubac, J. Danielou, Y. Congar, E. Schillebeecks, J.-B. Metz, C. Davis, A. Schmemann, G. Lindbeck, J.
Sittler), Paris, Cerf, 1967, p. 136.

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 c) The act of faith is reasonable

The believer does not escape the vicissitudes of history, the questions or temptations inherent
to the human condition. The man of faith “knows, like every man, the temptation of despair and can
experience doubt about the existence of God to the point of dizziness, to say nothing of the Mysteries of
the Christian faith: the Incarnation of God, the conception virginity of Jesus, his real presence in the
Eucharist, etc.14". The faith which excludes the reason of man cannot be the faith of the whole man15; it
would not be a total gift such as God wants and such that he alone is worthy of God and man. Only an
intellectually sincere and responsible faith can please God and only this is worthy of man16. We understand
why the Church condemned fideism as well as rationalism17. Saint Augustine had already grasped this
conflicting relationship between faith and thought when he suggested believing in order to understand or
understanding in order to believe (Is 7:9)18. Faith purifies the heart and illuminates the reason, thus making
possible a new and profound understanding of Revelation. Dogmas are at the service of this religious
relationship between God and man, the authenticity of which they specify and protect, on certain delicate
questions.19.

3. The relationship between Revelation and faith at the I and Vatican II Councils

The theme of faith is one of the most fruitful of the last two Councils. Having in mind,
the conception of faith inDei Filius(Vatican I), the Fathers of the Second Vatican Council understand faith
in these terms:

To God who reveals is due “the obedience of faith” (RM16, 26; cf.RM1.5;2 Co10, 5- 6), by which man
entrusts himself entirely and freely to God in "a complete homage of intelligence and will to God who
reveals" and in a voluntary assent to the revelation that he makes. To exist, this faith requires the
prevenient and adjuvant grace of God, as well as the interior help of the Holy Spirit who touches the
heart and turns it towards God, opens the eyes of the spirit and gives "to all the sweet joy of consent
and believe in the truth. In order to make the understanding of this Revelation ever deeper, we
continue, through our gifts, to make the faith more perfect.20.

Dei Verbum5 establishes a correspondence between the understanding of revelation and

the understanding of faith. If revelation is understood as the event of an interpersonal encounter
between God and man, which occurs in history and is accomplished

14Communion, Faith,n°XIII, 2 – March-April 1998, p. 27.

15Cf. John Paul II, EncyclicalFides and ratio, n°1.
16Communion, Faith,n°XIII, 2 – March-April 1998, p. 54.

17Against fideism first (Lamenais, Bonald, Bautain), against rationalism then, the Catholic magisterium

proclaimed the natural capacity of human intelligence to encounter God from created reality” (Cf. Yves MJ
Congar,Faith and Theology,Paris, Desclée, 1962, p. 11).
18Cf. Saint Augustine,Semo43, c.7, n. 9;Sermo18, n.3. It is in this sense that St Augustine often

interprets the passage from Is 7.9 in the Septuagint version: “If you do not believe, you will not
understand” (Cf.From Trinitate,vs. 2, n. 2;Ep.120, c. 3)
19Yves Congar,Faith and Theology,Paris, Desclée, 1962, p. 71.
Dei Verbum 5.
20

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in a manner both theoretical and practical, in words and in deeds, faith is perceived, as
man's response to God's revelation, as a total personal surrender of man to God, and
therefore as the human side – itself under the action of God – of the God-man
encounter which takes place in revelation. And if revelation is accomplished in history,
the same goes for faith. Thus, to the address of God in his revelation corresponds, on
the part of man, faith as a response to revelation or rather – to use the expression that
Dei Verbumtakes its turn toDei Filius–the obedience of faith (Rm 1.5; 16.26; Cf. 2 Cor
10.5f).
The capital affirmation of the Second Vatican Council is indeed that according to
which through faith, man entrusts himself entirely to God in freedom. It must also be said
that the foundation and existential form of the obedience of faith reside in the obedience of
Christ. What is decisive is man's trust in the God who reveals himself, the devotion with
which the latter loves God. Furthermore, the conciliar text, when speaking of the obedience
of faith, takes care – and this unlikeDei Filius–to point out that the obedience of faith does
not refer to “revealed»but rather to the “revelation".In other words, unlike n°5 ofDei Verbum,
Dei Filiusis more strongly interested in the presentation of faith as an act of the
understanding and the will referring to the truths revealed by God. Indeed, with his mode of
understanding revelation as theoretical instruction,Dei Filiustend to equate revelation with
“the deposit of entrusted faith” (or “the doctrine of revealed faith”). On the other hand, for
Dei Verbum, it is not about adherence to a revealed truth. In fact, the text ofDei Verbum
wants to preserve the dialogic and interpersonal pattern of n° 2-4.

Furthermore, in the same line as 2eSynod of Orange (529), the Council of Trent and the
First Vatican Council,Dei Verbum5, defines faith as a gift of the Holy Spirit, without which man
could not welcome the revelation of God. By referring faith to the action of the Holy Spirit, the
Second Vatican Council opposes an overestimation of man's natural capacity. For the council
therefore, without the “preventive and helping or stimulating grace of God” and the assistance of
the Holy Spirit, who moves the heart of man to adhesion, opens the “eyes of the human spirit”,
faith could not be realized.
And whenDei Verbum5, stipulates in conclusion that faith is perfected by the Holy
Spirit, this obviously shows that the council here again moves in the language game of the
Catholic doctrine of grace. Thus, so that the understanding of revelation is ever deeper, the
Holy Spirit constantly perfects faith through his gifts.

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 IV. REVELATION, WRITING AND TRADITION

The Christian faith confesses that God has revealed himself in Jesus Christ, Lord and Savior of
humanity (Acts 2, 36). This confession is the testimony of the Apostles, those who lived with Christ, as
Saint John says in his first epistle:

That which was from the beginning, that which we have heard, that which we have seen with our eyes,
that which we have contemplated, that which our hands have touched of the Word of life, for Life has
manifested itself: we have seen, we bear witness (…) we announce to you, so that you also may be in
communion with us21.

In fact, the First Witness is Christ himself (Rev. 1, 2. 5). He bore witness to the Truth of God.
The most important testimony in human history is that which Jesus gave to God, his Father, and he is
the only one who can give this ultimate testimony: “He who has seen me has seen the Father” (Jn
14:9). This is why the testimony of those who knew Jesus Christ has become the essential starting
point of the Christian faith. The witnesses of these events are the Apostles. The Apostles transmitted
Christ, the Word of God, to the Church. This Word is recorded in the Bible.

1. The process of canonization of the Bible

Canon comes from the Greek word “Kanon»which means “rule”. In theology, the “Canon of
Scripture” designates the selection of texts, writings and books from the Judeo-Christian tradition and
established according to the rule of the truth of the faith. So-called canonical books therefore have, in
their nature and function, a normative quality. For the community of faith which lives from a
constituted tradition, the Holy Scriptures are the “norma normans non normata» (the non-normative
normative norm), and as such, source of divine Revelation and the economy of salvation.

a) The Canon of the Septuagint LXX

According to Tradition 72 (or 70) elders of Palestine went to Alexandria to

translate the Hebrew Bible into Greek. Although the translators worked separately, the
translations were identical. But historically, the translation was done gradually towards the
IIIecentury BCE until the 1stecentury AD. This translation was to allow Jews in the diaspora,
many of whom no longer knew Hebrew, to read the Bible. However, the Septuagint will
present itself as a Hellenization of the Bible. This caused the Jewish community to adopt a
new translation.

b) The Jewish Canon or Tanak: Torah, Nevi'im, Ketubim

There were several Canons among the Jews of Palestine, for example the Bible of the Sadducees,
the canon of the Essenes. But around the year 100 AD, when the Sadducees and the Essenes had
disappeared, it was the group of Pharisees who, in Jamnia (or Jabne) constituted the Jewish Conon by
applying the criterion of the Writings in Hebrew ormasoretic(according to the method

1 John 1:1-3.
21

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ofMassore or Massorah22). The Jewish Canon also incorporates the “Targumim»23. These writings are
divided into three “corpora”, known by the acronym of Tanak: The Law (Torah), the Prophets (Nevi'im),
the writings (Ketuvim).

c) The Christian Canon

The “Christian Canon” assumes the “Jewish Canon” in the Christ perspective. The (oral)
teaching of the Apostles is called the Kerygma. Its essential content can be summarized in four
points:
1°) Jesus whom Christians call Christ was put to death; 2°)
God resurrected him;
3°) For the forgiveness of sins and the salvation of
men; 4°) We are witnesses to it.
It was only around the 50s of our era that the first writings which would constitute the
New Testament appeared, in the form of letters addressed to Christian communities by Paul.24.
The Gospels appear between the 60s and 70s: first that of Mark, then those of Matthew and
Luke came 10 or 20 years later and, finally, the fourth, that of John, between 90-100. It's in IIe
century that the names of Apostles were attributed to the Gospels to show the apostolic origin
of the message of the New Testament in relation to the writings of Judaism considered as Old
(or First) Testament.
For Christians, Jesus Christ is the total fulfillment of the writings of Judaism. Two
major facts pushed the Church to fix the canon of Scripture:
1°) the rejection of the OT and some writings of the NT by the theologian Marcion (the
Marcionism). It is also necessary to note the abundance of all kinds of writings, called apocryphal
25. The criteria set by the Christian Community for the recognition of holy books were:
- real or supposed apostolic origin (apostolicity),
- the importance of the ecclesial and liturgical community for which the writing is
intended (catholicity),
- conformity with the rule of faith or correctness of Christian doctrine
(orthodoxy).

22Criticalwork (punctuation and reading marks, marginal notes, etc.) carried out by Jewish doctors on the
Hebrew text, aiming at its exact preservation in order to avoid alterations in its transmission. The recognized
version of the text is called the Masoretic text.
23TEATargumis the Aramaic translation of the Hebrew Bible which was developed for the needs of the

synagogical liturgy.
24It should be noted that not all of his writings were written directly by Paul. Some are the work of

pseudopigraphs: from the Greekpseudepígraphos(which falsely bears the title of). The pseudepigraph is a text
falsely attributed to an author who did not write it. Pseudepigraphy is the literary system which consists of placing
a writing under the authority of a great figure who has marked (religious) history such as Paul and other authors
of the writings of the NT. Among the Jews, one could also insert a text into a work already written by an author.
Here, the sacred writer steps aside behind the authority of the Apostle of whom he is a disciple and affirms the
words which are the Word of God to be transmitted.
25The termapocryphalcomes from Greekapókryphoswhich means “hidden”, “secret”. An apocryphal writing is a

writing whose authenticity has not been established or recognized by religious authorities.
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 2°) The controversy aroused by Protestantism led the Catholic Church to establish, at the
Council of Trent, the canon of the Bible, approving 73 books in all, including 46 from the OT and 27 from
the NT as inspired and canonical.
For the Christian tradition, it was a matter of establishing acorpusselective capable of
founding and fully accounting for the rule of faith and the tradition of Judeo-Christian Revelation.
We can, therefore, say that the Christian tradition completes and finalizes the Old Testament.
This “assumption” of the Old Testament tradition by the Christian tradition will take place in the
mode of a continuity-discontinuity. So, for example, while the Jewish Bible has only 22 books, the
Old Testament of the Christian Bible (Catholic and Orthodox) has 46. This difference is mainly due
to two reasons. First, the difference of opinion as to which books belong to the Holy Scriptures
and which do not. The Jews, in fact, will not recognize certain books that the primitive Church will
count among the biblical books. These are the following books:

Tony
Judith,
First book of Maccabees,
Second Book of Maccabees,
Book of Wisdom,Ecclesiastic
or Sirac Book of Baruch

Exceptions fromEsther
Exceptions fromDaniel

These books are called, in Catholic language,deuterocanonical books26(or

seconds in the canon)27in comparison to the books which appear in the first “Jewish
Canon”, and which are calledprotocanonical books(Greekprotos:first)28.

d) The Vulgate or the Latin translation of the Bible

The Vulgate is the Latin version of the Bible. Just as the Slide or Greek-speaking Jews
needed a translation of the Bible into Greek, the Christians of the Latin world had resorted to
Latin translations of the Bible.Septuagint(the Greek version of the OT) as well as the NT, originally
written in Greek. These translations were calledLatina dress(“old Latin”). In IVecentury, this Latin
Bible is considered unsatisfactory. It will be the work of Jerome of Stridon (347-420) to perfect
Latina dressby completing it with his own translations. Other subsequent improvements will be
made in the following centuries, until the

26 Greek,deuteros(two).
27Protestants and Jews believe that these books are not inspired, they consider them to be
apocryphal.
28In fact, it was Athanasius of Alexandria who was the first to draw up a canon comprising the 27 books of
the New Testament. Hippolytus is also attributed with fixing, in the 2nd century, the canon of New
Testament books. This Canon is saidMuratori Cannonin reference to the scholar's nameMuratori who
discovered this list of books in the 18th centuryecentury. This Canon already included: the 4 Gospels, the
epistles of Paul and other writings of the NT.
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VIIecentury. From the 13thecentury, the Latin translation of the Bible is referred to as
vulgata versio(“commonly used text)29.

During the Protestant Reformation, a controversy almost undermined the canonicity of certain books,
accepted by the (Catholic) Church. Which forced the Fathers of the Council of Trent to re-specify the list of holy
books.

e) The Protestant controversy and the canon of the Council of Trent

The Reformed Churches, unlike the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church, have
preferred the Jewish list of Old Testament books, and therefore do not hold certain books as
canonical, calling them apocryphal. This led the Fathers of the Council of Trent to definitively
establish the “Christian Canon” which is as follows:30:
-The Old Testament contains:
- the Pentateuch:Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy;
- historical books:the Book of Joshua, the Book of Judges, the Book of Ruth, Books 1 and
2 of Samuel, Books 1 and 2 of Kings, Books 1 and 2 of Chronicles (or Paralipomena),
the Book of Ezra, the Book of Nehemiah , Tobit, Judith, Esther, the first and second
Books of Maccabees.
- Poetic and wise books:Job, the Psalms, the Proverbs, Ecclesiastes (or Qohelet), the
Song of Songs, the Book of Wisdom, Ecclesiasticus (or Sirac).
- The prophetic books:Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Book of Baruch, Ezekiel, Daniel and the
twelve little prophets:Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk,
Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi.

-The current New Testament contains:

- 4 Gospels: according to Saint Matthew, according to Saint Mark, according to Saint Luke, according to Saint John.

- The Acts of the Apostles.

- 13 Epistles of Saint Paul: to the Romans, First and Second to the Corinthians, to the
Galatians, to the Ephesians, to the Philippians, to the Colossians, First and
Second to the Thessalonians, First and Second to Timothy, to Titus and
Philemon.
- Epistle to the Hebrews
- 7 so-called “Catholic” epistles: of Saint James, First and Second of Saint
Peter, First, Second and Third of Saint John, of Saint Jude.
- The apocalypse.

ThereVulgatewill be declared authentic translation by the Council of Trent (4thsession, April 8, 1546). A
29

modern Latin version, calledNova Vulgata (or Neo-Vulgata), was promulgated by John Paul II in 1979. A
second edition was published in 1986.
30 Dz1502-1503.
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 We had to wait until the XXecentury so that, thanks to the efforts of theologians,
Catholics and Protestants could agree on a version of the Bible.

f) Ecumenism at the Second Vatican Council and the TOB

The Fathers of the Second Vatican Council, in the Decree on Ecumenism31,recalled that
the division between Christians “is an object of scandal for the world and is an obstacle to the
most holy cause: the preaching of the Gospel to every creature»32. Since this awareness at
Vatican II, efforts have continued to be made to join and support the ecumenical movement,
after centuries of quarrels, hardening of points of view, distrust, arrogance, even conflicts
between the disciples of Christ who were pitted against each other within their own home: the
Church. Concerning Holy Scripture, the Council Fathers write:

The love and veneration – almost worship – of our brothers for the Holy Scriptures leads them to the
constant and diligent study of the sacred text: the Gospel "is in fact the force of God working salvation for
every believer, for the Jew first and then for the Greek" (cf.RM1, 16). Invoking the Holy Spirit, it is in the Holy
Scriptures themselves that they seek God as the one who speaks to them in Christ whom the prophets had
announced and who is the Word of God incarnate for us. There they contemplate the life of Christ, as well
as the teachings and the deeds accomplished by the divine Master for the salvation of men, especially the
mysteries of his death and resurrection. But, if Christians separated from us affirm the divine authority of
the Holy Books, they have an opinion different from us (and different also from each other), concerning the
relationship between Scripture and Church. In this, according to the Catholic faith, the authentic
magisterium occupies a particular place for the explanation and proclamation of the written Word of God.
However, the sacred words are, in the dialogue itself, signal instruments in the powerful hand of God to
achieve this unity that the Savior offers to all men.33.

After collaborative work between Catholic and Protestant exegetes – desired by the
Council34– for the first time, in 1975, the Ecumenical Translation of the Bible (TOB) was
produced. In the TOB, the deuterocanonical books (called apocrypha by Protestants) are
judiciously placed between the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament, these texts not being
recognized by Jews and Protestants.
Since this first edition of the TOB, several editions have taken place, the latest being that of
2010 with a more active participation of the Orthodox part, until then more in the background.

2. The inspiration and inerrancy of Scripture

a) The Inspiration of the Scriptures

31Unitatis Redintegratio(UR).
32UR1.
33UR21.

34DV22.

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 The Fathers of the Second Vatican Council dedicated the third chapter ofDei Verbumto the
notion ofinspiration of Holy Scripture and its interpretation. Regarding inspiration, the Council
Fathers write:

The divinely revealed realities, which the books of Sacred Scripture contain and present, have been
recorded there under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Our holy Mother Church, by the apostolic
faith, holds as sacred and canonical all the books of both the Old and New Testaments, with all
their parts, since, written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit (cf.John
20, 31;2 Tm3, 16;2P1, 19-21; 3, 15-16), they have God as their author and that they were transmitted as
such to the Church itself. To compose these sacred books, God chose men to whom he had recourse in
the full use of their faculties and their means, so that, he himself acting in them and through them, they
put in writing, as true authors, all that which was in accordance with his desire, and that only35.

It is in these terms that the Council Fathers present the teaching of the Church on
the inspiration of the Scriptures. But this is not something new. The Council of Trent36already spoke of
God as the author of the Old and New Testaments, and the First Vatican Council defined the
inspiration of the Scriptures as the truth of faith in these terms:

And these books of the Old and New Testament must be recognized as holy and canonical in their
entirety, in all their parts, as they are enumerated in the decree of the Council of Trent and as they
are read in the ancient Latin edition from the Vulgate . The Church considers these books to be holy
and canonical, not because, composed by human skill alone, they were then approved by the
authority of the Church; and not only because they contain revelation without error, but because,
written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, they have God as their author and were delivered as
such to the Church itself37.

The question of the inspiration of the Scriptures is also treated in three encyclicals:
Providentissimus Deusof Pope Leo XIII, in 1893;Spiritus Paraclitusof Pope Benedict XV, in
1920;Divino Afflanteof Pope Pius XII, in 1943. But, just like the Fathers of the Church who
considered the holy books as letters sent by God to his Church, the sacred authors being
only the instrument or the pen wielded by the Holy Spirit, the conviction of a special
intervention of God in the composition of Scripture is so strong that there is a tendency,
until then, to minimize the part of the human author.
On the other hand, according to the Second Vatican Council, "under the inspiration of
the Spirit" suggests the influence of the Spirit of God on the human spirit of the writer of Sacred
Scripture, such that these writings, in their production and content are not just a purely human
reaction to the historically given Word of God, but that in they are given the Word of God itself
and its will for self-communication as truth and life through the mediation of human language
and the analogy of human knowledge.
In other words, inspiration means the presence of the Holy Spirit which marks man's
natural capacity for knowledge to the point that the witness of revelation recognizes, in the truly
and empirically graspable event, the Word of God, expressing himself therein, and puts it in
writing. It is therefore not a question of speaking of God as

35 Dei Verbum11.
Cf. Council of Tente, Session IV,Decree on the Canon of Scripture.
36

37Vatican Council I, Dogmatic ConstitutionDei Filius,Chapter II.

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“editor” or hagiographer (the sacred writer) as someone who would write “under the dictation” of
the Holy Spirit. Ecstasy and dictation do not agree well with what inspired authors tell us about
themselves, about their composition process (Lk 1, 1-3; 2 Mac 2, 23-31).

In fact, the editors have the charismatic gift of power, in reference to the first
Christian eyewitnesses and servants of the Word (Luke 1:2), and in the context of their
tradition, to listen, understand and translate the Word of God into human language from the
event framework of Revelation (auditus fidei-intellectus fidei-scriptura fidei).
In order for us to be able to speak of the Word of God (and precisely not only as a human
word about God), God must be the instigator of Scripture, just as he is the instigator of the event
of salvation, which it is present in the apostolic Kerygma and the first Christian writings. Divine
Revelation already has a historical form in Israel, which only finds a divinehuman realization in
Jesus Christ, so that precisely in the process of scriptural redaction the human factor is not
“minorized” in a monophysistic way.
God is theauctor primarius, the hagiographer is theauctor secundarius.And it would be
It is precisely an error to believe that to better ensure the action of God, we must diminish that of
the creature. The effectiveness of the first cause is internal to that of the second cause. God is
never so active in us as when he makes us act humanly, that is to say, intelligently and freely.
Through the mediation of the instrumental causality of the writer, God puts into writing whatever
he wants. But this is not done in such a way that man is only called an “instrument”. He is not a
passive instrument. He acts in accordance with his nature, indeed in spirit and in freedom, to the
extent of his personal gift and within the horizon of his spiritual and cultural context.

b) The inerrancy of the Scriptures

The inerrancy (or truth) of Scripture means, in theology, that the Bible contains no
error due to the doctrine of inspiration. In this sense,Dei Verbum11 states:
(…) since all the assertions of inspired authors or hagiographers must be considered assertions of
the Holy Spirit, it must be declared that the books of Scripture teach firmly, faithfully and without
error the truth that God wanted to see recorded in the Sacred letters for our salvation.

The inerrancy of Scripture means that it (Scripture) offers us fully and without error, all
the truth the knowledge of which is necessary for salvation. In other words, inerrancy is a quality
that refers to the formal object of Scripture. And this formal object is precisely that the sacred
writers never speak of anything, teach nothing except in relation to the mystery of salvation in
Christ. This mystery of salvation is realized in events as God's intervention in time. This is why
Revelation is historic. Scripture is nothing other than the written record of this history. God's
design is therefore inscribed in the facts, the events, before being expressed in the text. It is in
this sense that the reflections of theologians in response to the difficulties of modernists should
be understood.38,

38Modernism means, initially and fundamentally, “the need felt at the beginning of the 20thecentury, of a
revision of all the baggage of Christian traditions and scholastic thought according to the
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questioning the inerrancy of Scripture in relation to the scientific domain, notably history
and cosmology. These reflections were “consecrated” by the encyclicalDivino Afflante,in
which Pope Pius XII emphasizes in particular that God has used all the diversities of
human language in Scripture, and that Revelation is expressed there in a progressive
manner. Pope Pius XII thus draws attention to the question of literary genres in the Bible
as well as to that of the “pedagogy of God” (divine wisdom) in the implementation of the
economy of salvation.
Note that the question of literary genres was already addressed by Pope Leo XIII
in the encyclicalProvidentissimus Deus.Pope Leo XIII notes in particular that when the sacred
authors speak, for example, of the vault of the heavens, the locks of heaven, wine for the
stomach or the hare as a ruminating animal, they cannot be mistaken because they want
absolutely nothing teach resulting. They just talk like everyone else. Likewise when they
describe creation, they are not doing natural history or cosmology, but rather they want to
give a theological definition of man in a universe which is rightly presented as the creation of
God. The Bible does not do science. Just like science doesn't write the Bible. If it happens that
the two areas overlap, we should not take as scientific certainty what is only probability or
hypothesis. We must then determine the theological significance of the first chapters of
Genesis. This question of literary genres as well as that of “divine pedagogy” were taken up
in the same sense by inDei Verbuml to n°12 to 16.

3. Tradition and Revelation

a) Tradition and transmission of Revelation

The Council Fathers write:

(…) Apostolic preaching, which is specially expressed in the inspired books, was to be preserved by
uninterrupted succession until the consummation of time. The Apostles, therefore transmitting what they
themselves have received, exhort the faithful to firmly keep the traditions that they have learned either
orally or in writing (cf.2Th2, 15) and to fight for the faith which was once and for all transmitted to them (cf.
Jude3). As for the Tradition received from the Apostles, it includes everything which contributes to leading
the life of the people of God in a holy way and to increasing their faith; thus the Church perpetuates in its
doctrine, its life and its worship and it transmits to each generation, everything that it is itself, everything
that it believes39.

The twelve Apostles as well as Paul and the other missionaries of early Christianity are
witnesses to the self-revelation of God in Christ, dead and resurrected. They played a
fundamental role in the transmission of Revelation, because mandated by the Lord (Cf. 1

new conditions created by the progress of natural and historical sciences. (Leonard Santedi Kinkupu, Dogma
and inculturation in Africa. Perspective of a theology of invention,Paris, Karthala, 2003, p. 31). According to
historian Pierre Pierrard, “it is in France, a country passionate about ideas, that modernism finds its
preferred terrain”. He lists a few figures: the priest, exegete and philosopher Alfred Loisy (1857-1940); Father
Lucien Laberthonnière (1860-1932), oratorian, director ofAnnals of Christian Philosophyin 1905; Marcel
Herbert (1851-1943); Maurice Blondel (1861-1949) and Édouard Le Roy (1870-1954).

39Dei Verbum8.
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Cor 15, 3-11). Indeed, God's action in the world always takes place through mediation; the
immediacy of the Word of God is only accessible in faith through the mediation of human
confession and testimony.
In the diversity of New Testament testimonies about Christ, different
linguistic formulations of the single original event therefore appear, namely faith in
Jesus as eschatological mediator of the reign of God. This is why the apostolic origin and
the apostolic “mediation” are essential for the transmission of divine Revelation.

To intelligently receive and transmit Revelation, one must interpret its content and
communicate to others with this interpretation which avoids the risk of distorting its
meaning. Tradition communicates a life, it is the complete opposite of dusting, sickling,
archaeology. It is a living actualization. But would the Tradition which carries and
interprets Revelation be more important than Scripture?

b) The question of the double source (Scripture/Tradition) at the Councils of Trent and
Vatican II

Sacred Tradition and Sacred Scripture are therefore linked and communicate closely with each other.
For both, springing from the same divine source, form, so to speak, one whole and tends towards the
same end. Indeed, Sacred Scripture is the Word of God insofar as, under the inspiration of the divine
Spirit, it is recorded in writing; as for Holy Tradition, it carries the Word of God, entrusted by Christ
the Lord and by the Holy Spirit to the Apostles, and transmits it in its entirety to their successors, so
that, illuminated by the Spirit of truth, in preaching it, they keep it, expose it and spread it with
fidelity: the result is that the Church does not draw its certainty on all points of Revelation from Holy
Scripture alone. This is why both must be received and venerated with an equal feeling of love and
respect.40.

These words from Vatican II reveal a tension between Tradition and Scripture. This is a
difficulty that dates back to the Protestant Reformation, when it affirmed theSola scriptura.The
Council of Trent emphasized that tradition is a living exegesis of Scripture in history. It is a
question of making the Word speak in history. The two-source theory raises the question of
where the truth lies: is it in Scripture or Tradition? For Vatican II, which advocates a unitary and
dynamic vision, there is no question of opposing or separating the two. Revelation as
communication is an act of Tradition. Some great Protestant minds have finally accepted that
Scripture cannot be separated from Tradition. In fact, Scripture remains in the Tradition of the
Church and the Tradition of the Church finds in Scripture its measure, the final verification of its
authenticity.

40Dei Verbum9.
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 V. GOD’S REVELATION DELIVERED TO THE CHURCH

The sacred heritage of the faith, contained in Sacred Tradition and in Sacred Scripture, was
entrusted by the Apostles to the entire Church. This will adopt an attitude of listening to the Holy
Spirit who alone is the true protagonist of the ecclesial mission. The proclamation of the Word of
God must also take into account the diversity of contexts, cultures and beliefs.

This chapter, the last of this course, aims to recall the dual responsibility of the Church in the
up-to-date conservation of the Gospel and the exercise of the magisterium in fidelity to the Gospel
message.

1. The responsibility of the Church in relation to Revelation

The Church must preserve with veneration, vigilance and wisdom the content of the
Revelation received from the Apostles (Apostolic College). Some magisterial texts better express the
attention and constant concern of the Church for the safeguarding of the Word of God contained in
the Holy Scriptures.

a) The encyclical letter “Providentissimus Deus” of Leo XIII (1893)

Published on November 18, 1893,Providentissimus Deusis the first encyclical that focuses on
the study of the Holy Scriptures. In this encyclical, Pope Leo XIII recalls the evolution of biblical studies
from the Fathers of the Church until the 19th century.ecentury through the Council of Trent. In the
16th centuryecentury, the Protestant Reformers rejected the authority of the Church hierarchy and
affirmed only that of Scripture (Sola scriptura). But, in the 19the
century (after the Age of Enlightenment), it is rather the very authority of the Holy Books which is
called into question by the rationalists. Thus, Pope Leo XIII wants to protect the Catholic interpretation
of the Holy Scriptures against the attacks of rationalism. He writes:

Previously, the Holy See had to deal mainly with those who, relying on their own particular judgment and
repudiating the various traditions and authority of the Church, affirmed that Scripture was the sole source
of revelation and the supreme judge of the faith.
Now our principal adversaries are the rationalists, who, sons and heirs, so to speak, of those men of whom
We speak above, likewise basing themselves on their own opinion, have entirely rejected even those
remnants of the Christian faith, still accepted by their predecessors. .
They deny, in fact, absolutely all inspiration, they deny Scripture, and they proclaim that all
these sacred objects are only inventions and artifices of men; they regard the Holy Books
not as containing the exact account of real events, but as inept fables, as lying stories. In
their eyes, there are no prophecies, but predictions made after events have occurred, or
presentiments due to natural causes; there are no miracles truly worthy of the name,
manifestations of divine power, but astonishing facts which in no way go beyond the
forces of nature, or even prestige and myths; finally the Gospels and the writings of the
apostles are not written by the authors to whom they are attributed. (…)

Furthermore, as most of them are imbued with the maxims of vain philosophy and
rationalism, they will not fear to exclude from the Holy Books prophecies, miracles, all
other facts which surpass the natural order. (…).
As these grievances relate to sensitive objects, they are all the more dangerous when they spread
among the crowd, especially among young people devoted to letters; as soon as she has lost

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 on some point respect for divine revelation, his faith, relative to all others, will not take long
to vanish.
Now, it is too obvious that as much as the natural sciences are capable of manifesting the
glory of the Creator engraved in earthly objects, provided that they are properly taught,
they are capable of extracting from the mind the principles of sound philosophy and
corrupt morals when introduced with perverse intentions into young minds. (…).

We must, in fact, be saddened by the fact that many men who study in depth the monuments of
antiquity, the customs and institutions of peoples, and engage in great work on this subject, too often
have for purpose of finding errors in the Holy Books, in order to completely invalidate and undermine
the authority of the Scriptures.

These few extracts fromProvidentissimus Deusunderlines the fears of Leo XIII of seeing the
foundations of the Christian faith shaken. It vividly recalls the doctrine of the inspiration of the
Scriptures which runs through the writings of the Fathers of the Church and will be approved at the
Council of Trent then recalled at the First Vatican Council. Leo XIII defines the standards for the study
of the Holy Scriptures and instructs on how to teach them in seminars and training centers. He does
not avoid the issue of the apparent contradiction between the Bible and physical science, as well as
certain biblical passages between them. For him, true science cannot contradict the Holy Scriptures
when they are explained correctly. It must be emphasized with John Paul II that

Providentissimus Deusappeared at a time marked by virulent polemics against the faith of the
Church. Liberal exegesis provided important support for these controversies, because it used
all the resources of the sciences, from literary criticism, the history of religions, archeology and
other disciplines.41.

Leo XIII's concern was therefore to safeguard the eternal value and incontestable
greatness of the Holy Scriptures and promote their sound interpretation. In 1902 he
created the Bible Commission42. Leo XIII assigned a triple function to this new
institution: 1°)effectively promote biblical studies among Catholics;2°)scientifically
challenge erroneous views regarding the Holy Scriptures; 3°) éstudy and illuminate
debated issues and emerging problems in the biblical field
43.

Fifty years laterProvidentissimus Deus, another encyclical will have to respond

more or less to the same concern of Leo XIII, but in a different sense.

b) The encyclical letter “Divino afflante Spiritu” of Pius XII (1943)

To celebrate fifty years ofProvidentissimus Deus,Pius XII publishes, on the feast of Saint
Gerome (September 30), the Encyclical LetterDivino afflante Spirituwhich marks a decisive turning point
in the evolution of the biblical exegesis of the Catholic Church. If Leo XIII was worried about the
misdeeds of liberal exegesis for the Catholic faith, Pius XII, without questioning

John Paul II, “Address on the Interpretation of the Bible in the Church”,Interpretation of the Bible in the
41

Church(Pontifical Biblical Commission), Roma, Librera Editrice Vatican, 1993, p. 5.

42Cf. Leo XIII, Apostolic LetterStudio Vigilantiae, dated October 30, 1902.
A few years later, Pius X, with the Apostolic LetterScripturae Sanctaeof February 23, 1904, granted to the Biblical
43

Commission the faculty of issuing the academic degrees of license and doctorate in Biblical Sciences.

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question the prudence and vigilance of his predecessor, authorizes Catholic exegetes to
take possession of new methods and rational instruments such astextual criticism, there
historical-critical methodand other related disciplines.Pius XII states:
It is, in fact, up to the exegete to seek to grasp religiously and with the greatest care the smallest
details emerging from the pen of the hagiographer under the inspiration of the Divine Spirit, in
order to penetrate more deeply and thought more fully. May he therefore work diligently to ensure
an ever greater mastery of biblical and oriental languages, and may he support his exegesis with all
the resources provided by the different branches of philology (…)44

This art of textual criticism, which is used with great success and fruit in the edition of profane texts,
must be used today, even more so in truth, for the Holy Books, because of the respect which is due to
the divine word. The aim of this art is, in fact, to restore the sacred text, as much as possible, with the
greatest perfection (…)45.
Some, it is true, used criticism a few decades ago in a completely arbitrary manner, and often in such
a way that one could have said that they acted in this way in order to introduce into the sacred text
their preconceived opinions; but today, it is hardly necessary to notice it, criticism has laws so stable
and so assured that it has become an instrument of choice for editing the divine word with greater
purity and accuracy, any abuse being liable to be easily detected. It is not necessary to recall here –
because it is too obvious and too well known to all those who devote themselves to the study of
Sacred Scripture – how much the Church from the first centuries to the present day has honored
these works of critical art46.
To carry out his task, the exegete will benefit from a serious study of the works that the holy Fathers,
the Doctors of the Church and the most illustrious exegetes of past times have devoted to the
explanation of the Saints. Letters47.
The exegete must therefore endeavor, with the greatest care, without neglecting any of the light
provided by recent research, to discern the particular character of the sacred writer and his
conditions of life, the period in which he lived, the written or oral sources he used, finally his way of
writing48.

The content ofDivino afflante spiritutherefore presents itself as a change of view of the Holy See
on biblical studies which must henceforth benefit from all the achievements of modern exegesis, especially
historical criticism, without tainting the divine character of the Bible. All these advances made will be taken
into account at the Second Vatican Council.

c) The contribution of the Second Vatican Council: “Dei Verbum”

The Second Vatican Council dedicated a Constitution to the notion of Revelation.Dei Verbum
offers more or less a synthesis of the lessons and work accomplished since Providentissimus Deus.
The relationship between Sacred Scripture and the Church is developed in Chapter VI ofDei Verbum.
The Council Fathers write:

The Church has always venerated the divine Scriptures, as she also does for the very Body of the Lord, she
who does not cease, especially in the holy liturgy, to take the bread of life from the table of the Word of
God and from that of the Body of Christ, to offer it to the faithful. (…). In the Holy Books, in fact, the Father
who is in heaven comes tenderly to meet his sons and enters into conversation with them; However, the
strength and power contained in the Word of God are so great

Pius XII, Encyclical LetterDivino afflante Spiritu20.

44

45Ibid., 21.
46Ibid., 22.
47Ibid., 31.

48Ibid., 34

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 that they constitute, for the Church, its point of support and its vigor and, for the children of the Church, the solidity
of their faith, the nourishment of their soul, the pure and permanent source of their spiritual life. (…)49.

Access to Sacred Scripture must be widely open to the faithful of Christ. For this reason the
Church, from the beginning, adopted this ancient Greek version of the Old Testament,
called the Septuagint; it still holds in honor the other versions, Eastern and Latin, mainly the
one called the Vulgate. As the Word of God must be available at all times, the Church, with
maternal concern, ensures that appropriate and accurate translations are made into the
various languages, preferably from the original texts of the Sacred Books50.

Furthermore, the Fathers urge Catholic exegetes as well as all theologians to invest
themselves in the studies of the divine Letters and to be able to better present them to the faithful of
Christ.51. The Word of God must be a permanent foundation of theology52. The Council recommends
that clerics attach themselves to the Scriptures and that members of religious orders acquire, through
frequent reading of the divine Scriptures, “the eminent knowledge of Jesus Christ” (ph3, 8). As St.
Gerome of Stridon states, “ignorance of the Scriptures is ignorance of Christ” (In Isaiam, prol.). The
exhortation also concerns bishops to teach the faithful entrusted to them to make correct use of the
divine Books53. “Therefore, through the reading and study of the Holy Books, “the Word of God may
fulfill its course and be glorified” (2Th3, 1), and that the treasure of Revelation entrusted to the Church
fills the hearts of men more and more54".

After the Council, he returned to the Pontifical Biblical Commission55to continue the
awareness-raising work of the Council Fathers. The Commission carried out work on various
themes which resulted in publications, including the document already cited:Interpretation of
the Bible in the Church56.

d) The document of the Pontifical Biblical Commission on the interpretation of the Bible in
the Church (1993)

The document of the Pontifical Biblical Commission is a true charter for

the interpretation of the Bible and should serve as a guide for any reader-listener of the
Word of God, particularly the learner of theology. The document reviews theDifferent
Methods and Approaches to Interpreting the Bible(I), deals withQuestions

49Dei Verbum21.
50Dei Verbum22.

51SeeIbid.,23.

52SeeIbid.,24.

53SeeIbid.,25.

54Ibid.,26.

55A reform of the Commission was made by Paul VI. The Members are no longer Cardinals, assisted by advisors,
but teachers of biblical sciences from academic institutions and various nations. No longer made up of Cardinals,
on the model of the Roman Congregations, the new Biblical Commission becomes a consultative body, placed at
the service of the Magisterium and linked to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Prefect of which is
also the President of the Commission. (Cf. Motu proprioSedula curaof June 27, 1971).

Pontifical Biblical Commission,The interpretation of the Bible in the Church,Librera Editrice

56

Vaticana, Roma 1993.

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hermeneutics(II), underlines theCharacteristic dimensions of Catholic interpretation
(III) and outlines prospects forInterpretation of the Bible in the Church(IV) in this
case theupdateand theInculturation.
If the Church's role is to protect the Bible from the danger of hazardous
interpretations, it must also be said that its function is to exercise the magisterium in
conformity with the Gospel.

2. The Magisterium of the Church

The spiritual heritage, received from the Apostles, will always remain alive thanks to the effort
and intelligence of all the members of the Church to understand, explain and express well what must
be held as revealed truth. The faithful of Jesus Christ, theologians, the successors of the Apostles in
union with the successor of Saint Peter (Episcopal College) work to guarantee the truth of Revelation.
It must be clarified that the Magisterium of the Church, the Pope and the bishops, “is not above the
Word of God, but serves it57". The theologian also must participate in this service. It must be said that
it is the work of the Holy Spirit who always directs, enlightens and protects the Church from the errors
which can distance it from the mystery of God and its foundation. This is why the Church will always
adopt, throughout its history (already two (2) thousand years of existence and life), an attitude of
listening to the Holy Spirit who alone is the protagonist of the mission. ecclesial. This mission extends
to all dimensions of the life of the Church in diakonia, martyrdom and the liturgy. Which means at the
same time that Christ exercises throughout the Church his saving function as priest and his pastoral
function as king.58.

a) The community of believers and the apostolic mission

The revelation of God in Jesus Christ is present in the community of believers (lay people,
religious, priests, deacons and the college of bishops led by the Bishop of Rome) by means of the
“supernatural sense of the faith of the people of God” (sensus fidei, sensus fidelium59).
The notion ofsensus fideirefers to the sensitivity and intuitive sense of the origin,
context and correct explanation of statements of faith. Thissensusis a moment of subjective
faith to the extent that faith is an action of the creative Spirit and of the freedom of man, but
is also to be understood as an expansion by the Holy Spirit of the horizons of knowledge.
Expansion through which man takes part in an analogous way in the self-knowledge of God
through the mediation of the incarnation ofLogos(Verb).
Under the expressionsensus fidelium,we understand the entire ecclesial effectiveness of the
sensus fidei. The Church in its entirety is the subject, which listens to the word of God in faith, accepts it
and puts it into practice in the historical and social dimensions of the human reception of Revelation. The
community of believers is therefore the subject of the living transmission of the word of God in the
tradition of the Church. From this participation of all the people of

57 Dei Verbum10.
SeeLumen gentium9-11.
58

59 Ibid.,12.
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God and the prophetic function of Christ result in an “infallibility” of the entire Church in the
transmission of Revelation. Thus, within the framework of the Church as a whole, the laity have their
own authority in the transmission of the faith, to the extent that they share in the infallibility of the
Church and express it.
However, we must reject as an misunderstanding any determination of the relationship
between laity and priests which would transpose socio-political and state models of power such as
democracy, monarchy or a sharing of power between people and authority in a constitutional
monarchy. The very essence of the Church, which is fundamentally different from the State or from a
political and ideological organization, requires an original determination of the relationships between
the different bearers of the unique mission of the Church: as it cannot be made understandable only
from an ecclesiology of biblical-patristic communion whose merits the Second Vatican Council so
much praised.

b) The authority of doctors of the Church

In the traditional history of Revelation appear the Fathers of the Church, in

Christian antiquity60, “theologians”, in scholasticism, the mysticism of the Middle Ages and
in the modern theology of new times, as particularly qualified bearers of the Tradition.
The transmission of teaching is entrusted to the disciples, not in their name (Cf. Mt
23:8-12), but in the name of Christ. They must be at the service of the interior construction
of the Church (Gal 6:2; Rom 12:7; 1 Cor 12:28) and bear witness to the saving presence of
God in the crucified and raised Christ before all peoples throughout the world. outside (Mt
28:20). The main task of the apostle is the announcement and teaching of the Gospel in
the power of the Spirit (1 Cor 2:4; 1 Peter 1:12).
The community functions of bishop, deacon (Phil 1:1) and priest (Rev 15:6),
linked to the apostolate, are, with the prophetic mission of the Word and the presidency of the
community, particularly endowed with the strength of the Spirit (2 Tim 1, 13; 2, 24; Ti 1, 5; Heb
13, 7) . Paul already knew himself to be “father and model of communities” through the
proclamation of the Gospel (Cf. 1 Cor 4:15). In the same sense, the great bearers – mostly
episcopal – of the development of dogmas in the theology of the Trinity, in Christology and in
the teaching on grace in the Church have been named “Fathers of the Church”. 'Ancient church.
Their writings were kept as documents of theChurch tradition. They are not bearers of the
original Revelation but only witnesses of Tradition.
As authentic witnesses of the faith and bearers of apostolic succession in the episcopal
function, bishops are also, in synods and councils, competent “judges” in debates around the
content and fair presentation of the faith. . An important criterion for this purpose is the
unanimous testimony of the Fathers (unanimis consensum patrum)61. On the other hand, their
private theological opinions and their particular teachings are not decisive in this regard. In
terms of the characteristics that should distinguish a Father from

60In the West, Isidore of Seville (ca. 560-ca. 636) is considered to be the last, while in the East it is
John of Damascus (ca. 640-ca. 750).
61See Council of Trent,Dz1507; Vatican Council I,Dz3007.

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the Church of a simple ecclesiastical writer, we can cite: the fact of remaining in teaching
consistent with the faith, holiness of life, belonging to the antiquity of the Church.
In fact, a gap was made with the birth of a scientific form of theology since the Middle
Ages62. However, the bishops remain the bearers of the current announcement. They are
responsible for the judgment of the teaching and the authentic presentation of the
confession of faith in councils and synods. They are, however, linked to the work of scientific
theology in the accomplishment of their task, to the extent that the testimony of Revelation
in Scripture and Tradition must be deciphered historically and systematically, in order to
deploy it in the current announcement in new spiritual and political contexts63.

c) The teaching function of bishops

The episcopal function was born from the development of the Apostolate in the primitive
Church, and represents an indispensable element in the being and mission of the Church of Christ. In
the person of the bishop the mission of the apostles is perpetuated in a personal way (Cf.
consecration of the episcopes and presbyters by the imposition of hands and the prayer of the
apostles: Acts 14, 23; 1 Tim 4,14; 1 Tim 5, 22; 2 Tim 1, 6; Ti 1, 5). Like the apostles, bishops exercise
their function “in the place of Christ” (cf. 2 Cor 5:20) or in the person of Christ, “the master, shepherd
and priest” of the Church.64. Bishops are particularly responsible for safeguarding "the true word of
teaching" and "the good of the Gospel entrusted to them, which by the power of the Holy Spirit" is
taught in an unfalsified manner (2 Tim 1:14). This is why the teaching and leadership of the Church
are part of the responsibility of the bishop (Acts 20:28; 1 Peter 5:1).

But this mission can only be perceived in a doctrinal orientation from

Revelation itself, as normatively recorded in Sacred Scripture and Tradition. The
teaching and governing function of the bishop in

62 SeeThe Introductionclasses.
63Jean-Marie Tillard defines the function of the theologian in connection with that of the bishop in these terms:
“The function of the bishop essentially concerns maintaining the link with the apostolic faith (…) recalling,
guarding and transmitting what the The Church believes. Its concern is therefore less the understanding of the
faith than its affirmation and maintenance (…). The theologian seeks above all to understand the content of faith.
It aims to know, critically, the weight of truth of traditional affirmations, to evaluate the density of doctrines, to
verify balances, to confront traditions, to analyze languages, to detect the authentic meaning of propositions of
faith (… ). Magisterium of the bishop and magisterium of the theologian both exist in the service of the People of
God. » (Cf. “Theology and ecclesial life”,Introduction to the practice of theology, Paris, Cerf, 1982, p. 175.

Eloi Messi Metogo observes that “it is equally difficult to make people understand that the role of the
theologian does not consist of repeating what the pope and the bishops say. The theologian is a
researcher. After years of teaching experience, the Cameroonian Dominican emphasizes that “a
widespread conception of theology, even within the Church, does not make the task easier for teachers. It
is presented as constituted knowledge, which simply needs to be transmitted. However, theology is a
reading of the word of God and the tradition of the Fathers of the Church based on the concerns of the
men and women of our time. And each generation must engage in this exercise” (Cf. “The teaching of
Christian theology and African culture”,Teaching of theology,GR PHIED 2000, Under ed. Gianna Pallante,
Yaoundé, PUCAC, 2010, p. 195).
64Lumen gentium 21.
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The framework of the particular church is formally linked to the apostolic mission of the whole Church and to the
sense of the infallible faith of the people of God.

In the person of the bishop the identity of the Church in its apostolic origin, the
continuity in its historical deployment and the unity in its present life are integrated and
concretized. This concerns its fundamental characteristics in doctrine, in life and in the
combination of all its charisms, ministries and missions.
In the theological illumination of the principle of Scripture, Tradition and Succession, and
in the era of the primitive Church according to the apostles (Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria,
Origen, Tertullian, Cyprian, Hyppolite), the bishop was, in relation to the Christological,
pneumatological and ecclesiological aspects of the episcopal function, designated as “the
successor of the apostles”. In the person of the bishop, in the sense of a personal mission and an
authorization of the Holy Spirit present in the Church, the apostolic essence of the Church is
concretized, without however being reduced to the sole episcopal function. From this arises the
specific but not exclusive responsibility of the bishop for the safeguarding of apostolic teaching,
the unity of the Church and the transmission of the faith.

The particular responsibility of the Bishop of Rome (papal primacy) does not result
from a specific function located above the episcopate. Papal primacy is nothing other than
the realization of the universal responsibility inherent in the apostolic ministerial function
for the continuity of teaching and the unity of ecclesial communion.
65. Thus, through the safeguarding of the unity of both communion and the same
confession of faith, may the Church be, with the Bishop of Rome, “one flock under one
pastor”66.

d) The infallibility of the Church in welcoming and announcing Revelation

The infallibility of the Church is based on this charisma with which God has endowed his
Church, so that it, in accordance with its mission, can speak the eschatological truth of God's self-
revelation through the cognitive mediation of the human word of unfalsified, untruncated and
definitive way both in faith and in teaching (in credendo and docendo). The subject of the
infallibility of the Church in the confession of faith and in the ministry of proclamation is:

- all believers67;
- the entire episcopate, to the extent that the bishops concretely say the content of
Revelation as witnessed by the sense of faith of believers or the general ecumenical
council, in which the bishops represent the universal Church68;
- the bishop of Rome, as head of the college of bishops, enjoys this infallibility “by the very fact
of his office when, as pastor and supreme doctor of all the faithful, and responsible for
confirming his brothers in the faith (cf.Lc22, 32), he proclaims, through a

65 SeeLumen gentium18.
66 Dz3060.
See. Lumen gentium12.
67

68See Ibid.,25.
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 definitive act, a point of doctrine affecting faith and morals. This is why the definitions he
pronounces are rightly said to be irreformable in themselves and not by virtue of the consent
of the Church, being pronounced under the assistance of the Holy Spirit promised to him in
the person of Saint Peter, not needing, therefore, the approval of others, just as they cannot
involve an appeal to another judgment. So, in fact, the Roman Pontiff does not pronounce a
sentence as a private person, but he expounds and defends the doctrine of the Catholic faith
insofar as he is, with regard to the universal Church, the supreme master in whom resides, in
a singular way, the charism of infallibility which is that of the Church itself69".

The object of the infallible declaration of the truth of Revelation is obviously not
the natural truths (as formulated in the various sciences), but rather the saving truths
of God's self-communication in his Word and in the historical realization of salvation
(questions of faith and morals).
Ecclesial infallibility is not the monstrous claim to have a faultless hold on natural and
supernatural truths outside the finite, limited and always fallible conditions of human reason.
This teaching is deduced much more as an internal accompanying moment of faith in the
eschatological and irreversible self-communication of God in the incarnation of his Word and its
definitive reception on the part of the man Jesus in the accomplishment of his mission and its
confirmation by the Resurrection. The Church's faith in God the Father and the Son rests on the
sending of the Holy Spirit. The task of the Church is to be “pillar and foundation of the truth” with
the strength of this Spirit (Cf. 1 Tim 3:15).

Finally, it must be remembered that the ecclesial function of teaching is in no way

limited to infallible doctrinal decisions. Also there is probably the possibility and just as
much the historically attested fact that errors can occur or have occurred in the exercise
of its function by the magisterial authority.

Ibid. See also Vatican Council I, ConstitutionPastor Aeternus(Dz3074).

69

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GENERAL CONCLUSION

Five chapters70furnished this course which ends with this conclusion of a

commemorative nature of the two magisterial acts which constitute important moments in the
(re)valuation of Revelation. This is the celebration of the Synod on the Word of God71
which gave rise to the publication, by Pope Benedict XVI, of the Apostolic ExhortationVerbum
Dominiand the institution of the Sunday of the Word of God by his successor Pope Francis.

1. The Apostolic Exhortation of Benedict XVI,Verbum Dominion the Word of God

Signed by Benedict XVI, September 30, 2010 (memory of Saint Jerome), the Apostolic
ExhortationVerbum Dominideals with the Word of God in the life and mission of the Church. In his
exhortation the pope emeritus wants to demonstrate the importance or the necessity of the Word of
God for our life and also to define the conditions and modalities of an exegetical practice making it
possible to bring to light the literal meaning and the theological meaning of the word. 'Writing. It
connectsVerbum Dominidirectly toDei Vebumas the fruit of his impulse72. The exhortation is divided
into three parts framed by an introduction (§1-§5) and a conclusion (§121-§124).

The first part (§6-§49) is entitled “Verbum Dei.The God who speaks.” For Benedict XVI, it is a
question of firstly emphasizing the importance of the Word of God in all its forms in the life of the
Church and the world. We would be tempted to think that the act of God speaking to men goes
without saying73. This idea is not correct. There is an originality to the Word of God. First, God spoke
from the beginning through creation, then he spoke in history, through the prophets and, finally, he
spoke definitively through his Son Jesus Christ. Christianity is therefore the religion of the Word of God
who is Jesus Christ. This in no way diminishes the role of the Holy Spirit who inspires the authors of the
Holy Scriptures74and without which it is difficult to understand them. Man must respond to the Word
of God, because he is the recipient and even the partner. The Pope invites us to cultivate the reading
of the Holy Scriptures every day, in order to always listen to the Word of God which must also be done
in the Church.
The second part (§50-§89) is entitled: “Verbum in Ecclesia.The Word of God and
the Church”. Benedict XVI recalls that the Church is an entity whose contours are drawn by the
reception of the Word of God. Thus, the liturgy is the place par excellence for this reception of the
Word of God. Concerning the homilies, the pope writes:

70After an Introduction which was at the same time discovery of (fundamental) theology, we defined the
notion of Revelation in general and, in particular, its meaning in theology (I). This allowed us to reread
synthetically the history of salvation in the Bible while being attentive to the theological meaning of the
Revelation that emerges there (II). We also studied man's capacity to respond to God who revealed himself
to him (III), before understanding the historical process of the canonization of the Bible as a support for
Revelation (IV). Finally, we showed how the Word of God is the eternal spiritual heritage entrusted to the
Church whose role is to preserve it, study it and teach it with intelligence, wisdom, courage and
determination (V).
71Celebrated in Rome from October 5 to 26, 2008.
SeeVerbum Domini3.
72

73SeeIbid.,4.
74SeeIbid.,15.

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 We must avoid vague and abstract homilies, which obscure the simplicity of the Word of God, as well
as useless ramblings which risk drawing attention more to the preacher than to the substance of the
evangelical message. It must be clear to the faithful that what is in the heart of the preacher is to
point to Christ, on whom the homily is centered. To do this, it is appropriate for preachers to have
familiarity and assiduous contact with the sacred text; that they prepare for the homily in meditation
and prayer so that they can preach with conviction and passion75.

The pope emeritus also emphasizes the importance of the word in the sacraments other
than the Eucharist, notably the sacrament of Reconciliation and the sacrament of the Anointing of
the Sick. For the pope, the Word of God must irrigate all ecclesial activity. Every Christian, every
family must practice the ancient practice ofLectio Divina.
The third part ofVebum Domini(§90-§116) is entitled “Verbum world".Benedict XVI
develops here the missionary aspect of the Christian faith which is called to communicate itself.
He recalls this in these terms: “We cannot keep for ourselves the words of eternal life, which
were given to us in the encounter with Jesus Christ : they are intended for everyone, for every
man. Everyone of our time, whether they know it or not, needs this announcement
76". It is our responsibility, as baptized people, to in turn pass on what we have received. The duty
of all disciples of Christ is to proclaim the Gospel. It is above all a question of the testimony of life
combining faith and morals, in solidarity with the poor.
Moreover, the apostolic exhortation of Benedict XVI,Verbum Dominiconstitute a
magisterial precision for the hermeneutics of Sacred Scripture. The three parts expose in a
systematic elegance that we recognize from the German Pope, the reality of the Word as a
person (Christ) who becomes familiar to us in the Church and makes us missionaries of itself in
the world. With Pope Francis, another step has been taken in insisting on the importance of the
Word of God.

2. The Sunday of the Word of God

At the end of the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy, celebrated during the Holy Year
2015-2016, Pope Francis hoped that "on one Sunday of the liturgical year, each community can
renew its commitment to disseminating, making known and delve deeper into Sacred
Scripture: a Sunday entirely devoted to the Word of God to understand the inexhaustible
richness that comes from the permanent dialogue between God and his people77". On
September 30, 2019, by the Apostolic Letter in the form ofmotu proprio Aperuit illis,Pope
Francis establishes the Sunday of the Word of God. François writes:

I therefore establish that IIIeSunday in Ordinary Time be devoted to celebration, reflection

and proclamation of the Word of God. This Sunday of the Word of God will thus come at an
opportune time during this time of year, when we are invited to strengthen ties with the
Jewish community and to pray for Christian unity. This is not a simple temporal
coincidence: celebratingSunday of the Word of Godexpress to

Verbum Domini59.
75

76 Ibid.,91.
Francis, Apostolic LetterMisericordia and misera, 7.
77

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 ecumenical value, because Holy Scripture indicates to those who listen the path to follow
to achieve authenticity and solid unity78.

The Word of God will only have meaning for our time, for each age, if it is
announced in a prophetic and significant way as a challenge and a light from God for
this time.

Apostolic Letter in the form ofmotu proprio Aperuit illis,3. See also: Pontifical Council for
78Francis,

Promoting the New Evangelization,Sunday of the Word of God, Liturgical and Pastoral Guide.

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