http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,13509-1811332,00.html
Catholic Church no longer swears by truth of the Bible
By Ruth Gledhill, Religion Correspondent
THE hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church has published a teaching
document instructing the faithful that some parts of the Bible are
not actually true.
The Catholic bishops of England, Wales and Scotland are warning
their five million worshippers, as well as any others drawn to the
study of scripture, that they should not expect total accuracy
from the Bible.
We should not expect to find in Scripture full scientific accuracy
or complete historical precision, they say in The Gift of
Scripture.
The document is timely, coming as it does amid the rise of the
religious Right, in particular in the US.
Some Christians want a literal interpretation of the story of
creation, as told in Genesis, taught alongside Darwins theory of
evolution in schools, believing intelligent design to be an
equally plausible theory of how the world began.
But the first 11 chapters of Genesis, in which two different and at
times conflicting stories of creation are told, are among those
that this countrys Catholic bishops insist cannot be historical.
At most, they say, they may contain historical traces.
The document shows how far the Catholic Church has come since the
17th century, when Galileo was condemned as a heretic for flouting
a near-universal belief in the divine inspiration of the Bible by
advocating the Copernican view of the solar system. Only a century
ago, Pope Pius X condemned Modernist Catholic scholars who adapted
historical-critical methods of analysing ancient literature to the
Bible.
In the document, the bishops acknowledge their debt to biblical
scholars. They say the Bible must be approached in the knowledge
that it is Gods word expressed in human language and that proper
acknowledgement should be given both to the word of God and its
human dimensions.
They say the Church must offer the gospel in ways appropriate to
changing times, intelligible and attractive to our
contemporaries.
The Bible is true in passages relating to human salvation, they
say, but continue: We should not expect total accuracy from the
Bible in other, secular matters.
They go on to condemn fundamentalism for its intransigent
intolerance and to warn of significant dangers involved in a
fundamentalist approach.
Such an approach is dangerous, for example, when people of one
nation or group see in the Bible a mandate for their own
superiority, and even consider themselves permitted by the Bible to
use violence against others.
Of the notorious anti-Jewish curse in Matthew 27:25, His blood be
on us and on our children, a passage used to justify centuries of
anti-Semitism, the bishops say these and other words must never be
used again as a pretext to treat Jewish people with contempt.
Describing this passage as an example of dramatic exaggeration, the
bishops say they have had tragic consequences in encouraging
hatred and persecution. The attitudes and language of
first-century quarrels between Jews and Jewish Christians should
never again be emulated in relations between Jews and
Christians.
As examples of passages not to be taken literally, the bishops cite
the early chapters of Genesis, comparing them with early creation
legends from other cultures, especially from the ancient East. The
bishops say it is clear that the primary purpose of these chapters
was to provide religious teaching and that they could not be
described as historical writing.
Similarly, they refute the apocalyptic prophecies of Revelation,
the last book of the Christian Bible, in which the writer describes
the work of the risen Jesus, the death of the Beast and the wedding
feast of Christ the Lamb.
The bishops say: Such symbolic language must be respected for what
it is, and is not to be interpreted literally. We should not expect
to discover in this book details about the end of the world, about
how many will be saved and about when the end will come.
In their foreword to the teaching document, the two most senior
Catholics of the land, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-OConnor, Archbishop
of Westminster, and Cardinal Keith OBrien, Archbishop of St
Andrews and Edinburgh, explain its context.
They say people today are searching for what is worthwhile, what
has real value, what can be trusted and what is really true.
The new teaching has been issued as part of the 40th anniversary
celebrations of Dei Verbum, the Second Vatican Council document
explaining the place of Scripture in revelation. In the past 40
years, Catholics have learnt more than ever before to cherish the
Bible. We have rediscovered the Bible as a precious treasure, both
ancient and ever new.
A Christian charity is sending a film about the Christmas story to
every primary school in Britain after hearing of a young boy who
asked his teacher why Mary and Joseph had named their baby after a
swear word. The Breakout Trust raised £200,000 to make the
30-minute animated film, Its a Boy. Steve Legg, head of the
charity, said: There are over 12 million children in the UK and
only 756,000 of them go to church regularly.
That leaves a staggering number who are probably not receiving
basic Christian teaching.
BELIEVE IT OR NOT
UNTRUE
Genesis ii, 21-22
So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while
he slept he took one of his ribs and closed up its place with
flesh; and the rib which the Lord God had taken from the man he
made into a woman and brought her to the man
Genesis iii, 16
God said to the woman [after she was beguiled by the serpent]: I
will greatly multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall
bring forth children, yet your desire shall be for your husband,
and he shall rule over you.
Matthew xxvii, 25
The words of the crowd: His blood be on us and on our
children.
Revelation xix,20
And the beast was captured, and with it the false prophet who in
its presence had worked the signs by which he deceived those who
had received the mark of the beast and those who worshipped its
image. These two were thrown alive into the lake of fire that burns
with brimstone.
TRUE
Exodus iii, 14
God reveals himself to Moses as: I am who I am.
Leviticus xxvi,12
I will be your God, and you shall be my people.
Exodus xx,1-17
The Ten Commandments
Matthew v,7
The Sermon on the Mount
Mark viii,29
Peter declares Jesus to be the Christ
Luke i
The Virgin Birth
John xx,28
Proof of bodily resurrection
