The Catholic Church and Bible Interpretation - The BAS Library
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The Catholic Church and Bible Interpretation

Major Catholic report endorses modern critical scholarship, condemns fundamentalist biblical interpretation

The historical-critical method of Bible interpretation is “indispensable”, declares a remarkable new report of the Pontifical Biblical Commission of the Roman Catholic Church.1 “Proper understanding [of the Bible] not only admits the use of this method but actually requires it.” Holy Scripture is the “word of God in human language”; in short, the Bible “has been composed by human authors in all its various parts,” states the report issued late last year by a 20-person committee, all men and all leading Roman Catholic scholars. One of the most valuable aspects of the Commission’s report is its careful, yet succinct descriptions […]

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Endnotes

1.

The Pontifical Biblical Commission is a commission of Roman Catholic scholars who take positions on important problems of Scriptural interpretation. This report was published by the Vatican in late 1993; all quotations are from the Vatican’s English translation.