Sacred Scripture

Christ is the Word of God in Scripture. God speaks to us in words to reveal Himself to us.

Through all the words of Sacred Scripture, God speaks only one single Word, one speech. God inspired the human authors of the sacred books, but He is the author of them. The Church has always venerated the Scriptures as she venerates the Lord’s Body. In Sacred Scripture, the Church constantly finds her nourishment and her strength, for she welcomes it not as a human word, “but as what it really is, the word of God”.

Inspiration and Truth

The Sacred Scripture has been written down under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. The inspired books teach the truth. Christianity is the religion of the Word of God, not a written and mute word, but incarnate and living.

The reader must consider the conditions of the author’s time and culture. Sacred Scripture must be read and interpreted in the light of the same Spirit by whom it was written.

Scripture is a unity by reason of the unity of God’s plan, of which Christ Jesus is the centre and heart, open since his Passover. Read the Scripture within the living Tradition of the whole Church and be attentive to the coherence of the truths of faith among themselves and within the whole plan of Revelation.

All that has been said about the manner of interpreting Scripture is ultimately subject to the judgement of the Church which watches over the interpretation of the Word of God.

Canon of Scripture

It was by the apostolic Tradition that the Church discerned which writings are to be included in the list of the sacred books. This complete list is called the canon of Scripture. It includes 46 books for the Old Testament (45 if we count Jeremiah and Lamentations as one) and 27 for the New.

The Old Testament is an indispensable part of Sacred Scripture. Its books are divinely inspired and hold a permanent value and teachings on God and of wisdom on human life and prayers. In them the mystery of our salvation is present in a hidden way. The Church has always opposed the idea of rejecting the Old.

The Gospels are the heart of all the Scriptures because they are our principal source for the life and teaching of the Incarnate Word, Jesus.

Life of the Church

The Church has always illuminated the unity of the divine plan in the two Testaments through typology, which discerns in God’s works of the Old Covenant prefigurations of what He accomplished in the fullness of time in the person of his incarnate Son.

Christians therefore read the Old Testament in the light of Christ crucified and risen. Besides, the New Testament must be read in the light of the Old. The New Testament lies hidden in the Old and the Old Testament is unveiled in the New.

Access to Sacred Scripture ought to be open wide to the Christian faithful. The study of it should be the soul of theology. The Church exhorts all the Christian faithful to learn the knowledge of Jesus Christ, by frequent reading of the divine Scriptures. Ignorance of the Scriptures is ignorance of Christ.