Lesson 1 Reading Scripture with the Church
10 July 2021

A: It's not inappropriate or bad in itself, knowing that God had also worked through that 'method' to enkindle people's hearts and minds.

Let's just say that it's not the usual way of reading the Bible, because the Bible is not just a collection of disconnected verses to be put in a raffle 'tambiolo'. At times a verse could contain a complete idea that one could already work with, but it won't always be like that (e.g. it's just one more phrase in a narrative or explanation, or in a paragraph).

Besides, the division in chapters and verses in the Bible was done much later, already in the middle ages. The Jews of old 'divide' the Scriptures more according to paragraphs and the ideas contained within; and the fathers of the Church did not have the possibility of including the precise 'reference' when they cite Scripture (and they usually just cite from memory), and yet they knew Scripture so well, and put that wisdom to good use.

So the important thing is to have a more unified outlook on the Bible. Each book has a structure, and that should be respected. Instead of just 'pointing to one verse', what could be done instead is to read several verses in a spirit of prayer, and see how these verses are related to each other; and after identifying the bigger context, pick one or two verses from there that could serve as one's "take-away" for the day, for use in personal prayer and practical application in one's own circumstances.

A: Let's just call this process as 'growing on the inside', meaning to grow deeper in our own understanding of this great treasure that God has entrusted to us. It would be difficult to dialogue with other religions if we're not well-founded in our own. And what we're learning here in these 12 sessions is one key aspect of it.

And to have stronger foundations, it requires the necessary teamwork between God's grace and our own correspondence. On the one hand, like what we're trying to do during these weeks: taking time to study and read Scripture along with the insights of the saints, the teachings of the Church, and the initiative of many good Catholics out there who try and help us understand and live the Faith better. And on the other hand: to foster a deep and sincere prayer life, and a close personal contact with Jesus through the Sacraments, especially the Eucharist and Confession.

That way, we do our best to allow God to work in, with, and through us, so that we could bring Christ's light to everyone. “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.” (Matt 5:14–16)

A: Yes; listening to podcasts is a good way to make better use of travel time or time spent doing manual tasks at home, to also nurture our spiritual life. But we do not let these resources be a 'substitute' for one's own personal growth in wisdom and understanding, and growing in closeness to God.

Meaning, it's important to be aware of the risk of passivity in listening to these resources; that way we can do something about it. In school one attentively listens to lectures because there are exams coming up. But obviously we don't feel a similar 'pressure' when we listen to podcasts. That's why it really depends on us personally to have the motivation to take good advantage of those moments, and be prepared to make the extra (and worthwhile) effort to be proactive as we listen, and to personally process and assimilate as best as we can.

A: Translating the Bible is a big responsibility, and takes a looooot of time and effort. And being such an important document, the quality of the translation has to be ensured by Church authority. It's a good thing that by today we already have some old but good translations to compare new translations to.

The basis for checking for fidelity in content is always how the translation matches up to its expression in the original languages the Bible was written in: Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek.

So to be a competent Bible translator one has to be competent in Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek (and the historical and cultural nuances related to them), as well as the language that one would translate to. And to translate the Bible with great respect for the content, it's a matter of translating from the original languages to the target language, and not just from one other language to another.

Though no translation is 'perfect', it should always try as much as possible to faithfully transmit the original culture described in the Bible. The words, names, maybe even flora and fauna, and places and customs in the Bible might of course be unfamiliar to distant cultures. But to 'explain' these things is not the task of the translation itself (because that would risk changing the text/content), but through key auxiliary means such as footnotes, guides and commentaries (thereby explaining the text/content while keeping it intact).

So to finally answer the question: if a Bible translation is duly authorized, especially for use in the liturgy, then we could take that as a guarantee that the contents are not affected.

A: I have very little experience in dialogue with protestants. But at least what I can say on my part is that such dialogue is better made in an atmosphere of friendship, where people are more open to what the other has to say, and try to understand each other's point of view; and not in polemic or debate, where both parties would generally be closed and defensive, if not aggressive.

As per the question, I think it would be best to learn from those who have known the protestant position well. Scott Hahn himself would be a good source; in his book "Rome Sweet Home" (co-authored with his wife Kimberly) he also narrates how he had to tackle this question even while he was still a protestant. Or to give it a more Pinoy touch, Bernz Caasi (also easily searchable in the web) might also be a good source of insights.

A: The Dead Sea Scrolls ('Qumran' -the name of the archeological site- is also used as a synonym) are a combination of biblical and non-biblical texts that date back to around 1st century BC, discovered (practically by accident) only in the mid 20th century. Very few of these texts are intact, and the biggest piece surviving is the 'great Isaiah scroll' [4QIsa(a)], which is on exhibit in the Israel Museum. It is the oldest surviving copy (and a complete one at that, save some few damaged areas) of the complete text of the book of Isaiah. I had the fortune of getting to see it up close, as well as having it as an object of study for my licentiate thesis in the Biblicum.

Other biblical texts that are found among the DSS are bigger or smaller fragments of the Psalms, the Pentateuch (Genesis to Deuteronomy) and prophetic books (e.g. Isaiah, Jeremiah, etc.) and some others.

The great importance they have for biblical studies is that they are so far the most ancient manuscripts of biblical texts in Hebrew (and related texts in Aramaic) that we have available. Before the DSS, the oldest copies of the Hebrew bible came from around the 10th century AD. The DSS are around 1st century BC, bringing us a whopping 11 centuries further back, even before the birth of Jesus. And even then, the contents of the biblical texts were already well transmitted.

There are also non-biblical texts, but some are nevertheless related to the Bible because they are commentaries or interpretations of biblical texts, or narratives and prayers that mention biblical names or events. In the Biblicum I was also able to study a non-biblical DSS text, the 'prayer of Nabonidus' (4Q242), which some relate to events narrated in the book of Daniel.

And as for 'codex', the term refers more to the material format of the text. It's the 'book' format that we know today, as an alternative to the older, more rudimentary 'scroll' format. The codex format could be more easily consulted, because you could just flip the pages, instead of rolling and unrolling a scroll to find the place you'd like to read from.

The more ancient versions of 'the Bible' (i.e., as already one book) are already in codex format (for practical reasons: it would already be too much text to fit in just one scroll); the ones in Greek are as old as 4th century AD, while the ones in Hebrew are from the 10th century AD. Older existing manuscripts are in fragments, and are much older than the codices.

A: It's a way of saying how the Mass is where the fulfillment of the biblical message is brought to us. Because in the Mass we don't just read and meditate on Scripture; there we also receive, in sacramental communion, the very person in whom all Scriptures finally receive their fulfillment (cf. Lk 24:25-27), Jesus Christ.