CHRISTIAN LIVING EDUCATION 11

MODULE 4

FOUNDATION OF CHRISTIAN FAITH AND LIFE

The Catholic Understanding of the Bible

Content Standards Performance Standards

The learner will be able to know and The learner will actualize in daily life
understand the catholic the teachings of the Bible by loving
understanding of the Bible. They will God and others.
also appreciate the significance of
the Bible in our daily lives.

COMPETENCIES
Doctrine: Moral: Worship:
- The student - Have - The learners are
will: fun learning the able to show
- The learners veracity of the respect and
are able to Bible reverence to the
discover the Bible through a
organization Bible enthronement
and content of and bible sharing.
the books of
the Bible and
its divisions of
Law, History,
and Poetry .
 Catholic
Understanding of
the Bible
What is the Bible?

The word “Bible” comes from the Latin and Greek words Ta Biblia meaning
“book,” a fitting name, since the Bible is the book for all people, for all time. It’s a
book like no other, in a class by itself. Sixty-six different
books comprise the Bible. They include books of law,
such as Leviticus and Deuteronomy; historical books,
such as Ezra and Acts; books of poetry, such as Psalms
and Ecclesiastes; books of prophecy, such as Isaiah
and Revelation; biographies, such as Matthew and
i
John; and epistles (formal letters) such as Titus and Hebrews.

The Authors
About 40 different human authors contributed to the Bible, which was written over
a period of about 1500 years. The authors were kings, fishermen, priests,
government officials, farmers, shepherds, and
doctors. From all this diversity comes an incredible
unity, with common themes woven throughout.
The Bible’s unity is due to the fact that, ultimately,
it has one Author—God Himself. The Bible is
“God-breathed” (2 Timothy 3:16). The human
authors wrote exactly what God wanted them to
write, and the result was the perfect and holy Word of God (Psalm 12:6; 2 Peter
ii
1:21). GGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG
The Divisions
The Bible is divided into two main parts: the Old Testament and the New
Testament. In short, the Old Testament is the story of a
nation, and the New Testament is the story of a Man. The
nation was God’s way of bringing the Man—Jesus Christ
—into the world. The Old Testament describes the
founding and preservation of the nation of Israel. God
promised to use Israel to bless the whole world (Genesis
12:2-3). Once Israel was established as a nation, God raised up a family within
that nation through whom the blessing would come: the family of David (Psalm
89:3-4). Then, from the family of David was promised one Man who would bring
the promised blessing (Isaiah 11:1-10). The New Testament details the coming
of that promised Man. His name was Jesus, and He fulfilled the prophecies of the
Old Testament as He lived a perfect life, died to become the Savior, and rose
from the dead. iii

The Central Character

Jesus is the central character in the Bible—the whole book is really about Him.
The Old Testament predicts His coming and sets the stage
for His entrance into the world. The New Testament
describes His coming and His work to bring salvation to our
sinful world.
Jesus is more than a historical figure; in fact, He is more
than a man. He is God in the flesh, and His coming was the
most important event in the history of the world. God Himself
became a man in order to give us a clear, understandable
picture of who He is. What is God like? He is like Jesus; Jesus is God in human
form (John 1:14, 14:9).ivKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK
HOW IS THE BIBLE INSPIRED? 
The most elaborate and authoritative explanation of how the Church understands
biblical inspiration was given by Pope Leo XIII in his encyclical on Sacred
Scripture published in 1893. Providentissimus Deus remains
the Church’s standard on the subject to this day. With the rise
of biblical rationalism, Leo saw the devastating consequences
of a mentality that treats the sacred text of the Bible as it
would any other merely human writing. First Pope Leo
identified the two most glaring errors in rationalist biblical
circles, namely: with faith and morals; * that the sacred writers have erred
anywhere in the Bible. Then he went on to declare just what the Church means
by teaching that God is the primary Author of the
Bible. Because the Holy Spirit employed men as His
instruments, we cannot therefore say that it was these
inspired instruments who, perhaps, have fallen into error
and not the primary Author. For, by supernatural power, He
so moved and impelled them to write – He was so present
to them – that the things which He ordered and those only, first might be
understood, then willed faithfully to write down, and finally expressed in apt
words and with infallible truth. Otherwise it could not be said that He was the
Author of the entire Scriptures.v 

CANON OF THE BIBLE

Most people are not used to the expression, Canon of the

Bible. Yet a correct understanding of what the Church
means by the Canon, and how the biblical Canon came
into existence, is of the essence of understanding the
Bible. From the earliest days
of the Church, the term “canon” was used by the ancient Fathers to identify the
inspired books. Literally the word is derived from the Greek canon, and means a
rule or standard. You might say the Scripture Canon is the official list of books,
which the Church recognizes as having the Holy Spirit for their principal Author.  If
we further press the question and ask in what sense the Canon is a standard,
two answers may be given. First of all, the canonical writings are the sole rule or
standard for what is to be used by the Church in her liturgy and teaching. This
was the generally accepted meaning by the earliest ecclesiastical writers.
Another meaning of Canon is to say that the Bible is a norm or standard for the
faith and for the practice of virtue by all believers. It might be well to add that the
word is used to identify Canon Law as a standard for all the Church’s legislation.
Moreover, we speak of a person as canonized by the Church because he or she
is a living norm by which others may guide their lives in order to attain eternal
glory. vi

The Bible is the account of God’s action in the

world, and his purpose with all creation. The writing of the
Bible took place over sixteen centuries and is the work of
over forty human authors. It is quite an amazing collection
of 66 books with very different styles, all containing the
message God desired us to have. This compilation of
booklets contains an astonishing variety of literary styles. It
provides many stories about the lives of good and bad
people, about battles and journeys, about the life of Jesus,
and about early church activity. It comes to us in narratives
and dialogues, in proverbs and parables, in songs and
allegories, in history and prophecy. The accounts in the
Bible were not generally written down as they occurred.
Rather they were told over and over again and handed
down through the years, before eventually being written
down. Yet the same themes may be found throughout the
book. Along with the diversity, there is also remarkable
unity throughout.

To sum up everything all Sacred Scripture is one

book, and this one book is Christ, "because all divine
Scripture speaks of Christ, and all divine Scripture is
fulfilled in Christ" The Sacred Scriptures contain the
Word of God and, because they are inspired, they
are truly the Word of God" God is the author of
Sacred Scripture because he inspired its human
authors; he acts in them and by means of them. He
CLOSING PRAYER: We really want to thank you Lord for all we've done today. Thank
you for the fun times, the laughter and the play. Thank you for the meal times, the
writing and the drawing, For each and every child that's here, all the learning and the
growing. Come take us by your loving hand, and hold us through the night, And when
the morning sunshine comes, please fill us with your light. Amen.

Great Job! If you are done reading the module, studying

the materials provided, and answering the questions in
the module, you are now going to take the assessment
to check your understanding of the topic. Please look for
worksheet #4 for your assessment.

REFERENCES
i
A Catholic Guide to Understand the Bible
ii
Compendium of the Catechism (#18)
iii
Vatican II, Dei Verbum (Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation), (#11)
iv
https://bit.ly/2ZmUJY2
v
Catholic Study of Bible History
vi
Catholic Encyclopedia (https://bit.ly/2ZsM3zu)