Catholic Epistles (Navarre Bible, RSV)

239 Pages·2016·0.85 MB·English

by  Faculty of Theology

Catholic Epistles

General Introduction to the Catholic Epistles
Canonicity
Common characteristics

Introduction to the Epistle of St James
The author
Canonicity
Date of composition
Addressees
Content
Doctrinal and moral questions
The Epistle of St James

Introduction to the First Epistle of St Peter
St Peter the Apostle
The author
Addressees and background
Content
Trials
Baptism
Other doctrinal aspects
The First Epistle of St Peter

Introduction to the Second Epistle of St Peter
The author
Addressees and date of composition
Links between 2 Peter and the Epistle of St Jude
Content
The final coming of the Lord
The false teachers
Moral conduct
The Second Epistle of St Peter

Introduction to the First Epistle of St John
Original addressees
Date of composition
Occasion of the letter
Content
Teaching
The First Epistle of St John
Introduction to the Second and Third Epistles of St John
The author
Special introduction to 2 John
Special introduction to 3 John
The Second Epistle of St John
The Third Epistle of St John

Introduction to the Epistle of St Jude
The author
Authenticity
Canonicity
Addressees
Background and purpose
Plan and content
The Epistle of St Jude
Preface

In providing both undergraduate and postgraduate education, and in the research
it carries out, a university is ultimately an institution at the service of society. It
was with this service in mind that the theology faculty of the University of
Navarre embarked on the project of preparing a translation and commentary of
the Bible accessible to a wide readership—a project entrusted to it by the
apostolic zeal of the University's founder and first chancellor, Monsignor
Josemaría Escrivá de Balaguer.
Monsignor Escrivá did not live to see the publication of the first volume, the
Gospel according to St Matthew; but he must, from heaven, continue to bless
and promote our work, for the volumes, the first of which appeared in 1976,
have been well received and widely read.
This edition of the Bible avoids many scholarly questions, discussion of which
would over-extend the text and would be of no assistance to the immense
majority of readers; these questions are avoided, but they have been taken into
account.
The Spanish edition contains a new Spanish translation made from the
original texts, always taking note of the Church's official Latin text, which is
now that of the New Vulgate, a revision of the venerable Latin Vulgate of St
Jerome: on 25 April 1979 Pope John Paul II, by the Apostolic Constitution
Scripturarum thesaurus, promulgated the editio typica prior of the New Vulgate
as the new official text; the editio typica altera, issued in 1986, is the Latin
version used in this edition. For the English edition of this book we consider
ourselves fortunate in having the Revised Standard Version as the translation of
Scripture and wish to record our appreciation for permission to use that text, an
integral part of which are the RSV notes, which are indicated by superior letters.
The introductions and notes have been prepared on the basis of the same
criteria. In the notes (which are the most characteristic feature of this Bible, at
least in its English version), along with scriptural and ascetical explanations we
have sought to offer a general exposition of Christian doctrine—not of course a
systematic exposition, for we follow the thread of the scriptural text. We have
also tried to explain and connect certain biblical passages by reference to others,
conscious that Sacred Scripture is ultimately one single entity; but, to avoid
tiring the reader, most of the cross-references are given in the form of marginal
notes (the marginal notes in this edition are, then, those of the Navarre Bible, not
the RSV). The commentaries contained in the notes are the result of looking up
thousands of sources (sometimes reflected in explicit references given in our
text)—documents of the Magisterium, exegesis by Fathers and Doctors of the
Church, works by important spiritual writers (usually saints, of every period)
and writings of the founder of our University. It would have been impertinent of
us to comment on the Holy Bible using our own expertise alone. Besides, a
basic principle of exegesis is that Scripture should be interpreted in the context
of Sacred Tradition and under the guidance of the Magisterium.
From the very beginning of our work our system has been to entrust each
volume to a committee which then works as a team. However, the general editor
of this edition takes ultimate responsibility for what it contains.
It is our pleasant duty to express our gratitude to the present chancellor of the
University of Navarre, Bishop Alvaro del Portillo y Diez de Sollano, for his
continued support and encouragement, and for reminding us of the good our
work can do for the Church and for souls.
"Since Sacred Scripture must be read and interpreted with its divine
authorship in mind," we pray to the Holy Spirit to help us in our work and to
help our readers derive spiritual benefit from it. We also pray Mary, our Mother,
Seat of Wisdom, and St Joseph, our Father and Lord, to intercede that this
sowing of the Word of God may produce holiness of life in the souls of many
Christians.
Rules for Biblical Interpretation

THE SPECIAL NATURE OF SACRED SCRIPTURE
The books of the Bible have certain unique features. They are a collection of
writings which our faith tells us are not simply man-made: they are the Word of
God. They are sacred books because, "written under the inspiration of the Holy
Spirit, they have God as their author, and have been handed on as such to the
Church herself." They were written by individuals in the distant past, whose
names very often we do not know; our faith teaches us that God "acted in and
through" these writers ("hagiographers") in such a way that "it was as true
authors that they consigned to writing whatever he wanted written, and no
more."
The content of the Bible as it has come down to the Church from the Jewish
people and the Apostles is both divine and human and can be compared in a way
to the mystery of Jesus Christ, who is true God and true man. "The words of
God, expressed in the words of men, are like human language, just as the Word
of the eternal Father, when he took on himself the flesh of human weakness,
became like men." In order to grasp who Jesus is, we need first to look at Jesus
as man; from this we are drawn to ask who the Person of Christ is and we
discover that he is the Son of God become man. In a parallel way, to obtain a
profound understanding of Sacred Scripture we need to go beyond its "human"
dimensions (historical, literary, etc.) and, helped by those very dimensions, to
discover what God wants to reveal to us in the Bible.
Therefore, to interpret Scripture correctly, one needs to approach it with the
help of appropriate tools or principles. These principles must be imbued with,
and guided by faith in, the human and divine character of these books, in the
same way as aspects of Jesus' life (for example, the way he speaks, the way he
relates to others) are only fully appreciated in the light of faith in his being the
Son of God made man.
That is not to say that a person without faith cannot obtain true knowledge of
Jesus or cannot throw light on literary, linguistic or historical aspects of Holy
Scripture. What it does mean is that unless one's outlook is guided by faith one
cannot fit everything together to discover the full truth about the Saviour or the
totality of his message: it is not enough just to know biblical languages or
understand the structure of the texts. For the various principles of correct
biblical interpretation to work properly, they need to be imbued with faith in
Scripture as being divinely inspired. The study of these principles, the science of
biblical heuristics, is a sub-division of hermeneutics.

TWO KINDS OF PRINCIPLES FOR BIBLICAL INTERPRETATION
In a section dealing with interpretation of Scripture, the Second Vatican Council
teaches that because "in Sacred Scripture, God speaks through men in a human
fashion, it follows that the interpreter of Sacred Scripture, if he is to ascertain
what God has wished to communicate to us, should carefully search out the
meaning which the sacred writers had in mind, that meaning which God had
thought well to manifest through the medium of their words."
The aim, therefore, of biblical interpretation is not achieved merely by
determining what the human authors intended to transcribe and how they did so;
it also involves discovering what God is revealing to us through those words.
These two aspects, the divine and the human, cannot be separated; and yet they
are distinct.
When someone writes something, there is always a certain difference between
what he meant to say by expressing himself as he did and what the reader
actually takes the text to mean. A written text does not always manage to
express exactly what its author meant (because language has its limitations) and
certainly it is impossible for the author to know what meaning the reader may
take from it.
Moreover, a text that is read long after it was written and after many
interpretations have been made of it may say more than the author intended. For
example, a modem reader of Shakespeare might obtain insights into human
nature which Shakespeare himself was not conscious of conveying; but any
interpretation would be invalid if it failed to take account of what Shakespeare
intended to say, that is, if it distorted his original meaning. As St Jerome points
out, "it is the function of the commentator not to say what he pleases but to
expound the meaning intended by the author he is interpreting."
Applying this to Scripture, and bearing in mind that it is divinely inspired (cf.
Is 40:8; 55:10-11; etc.), it is obvious that there are two levels of principles
governing its interpretation—historical and literary research into what the
hagiographer intended to say, and our understanding of what God wants to
communicate through the words of Scripture as the Church reads it and delves
deeper into its meanings.
What are called "general" principles of interpretation fall into the first
category; principles specific to biblical hermeneutics fall into the second. These
two levels, however, cannot be separated from each other: what God wanted to
communicate in Scripture cannot be at odds with what the sacred writer meant;
God's message has to reach us through the writer's intention and the way he
expresses it in writing.
GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF INTERPRETATION
The general principles or rules of interpretation are applicable to the literary-and
historico-critical study of any type of text. Philology and linguistics come into
play, along with the allied disciplines of lexicography, semantics, semiotics etc.;
as do other things connected with putting the text into its proper historical
framework—history, archaeology, the personal circumstances of the writer, his
cultural background, the people he was writing for originally, the date of
composition, historico-literary criticism of his sources, the literary genre the text
fits into, and so forth. From this point of view, biblical criticism uses the same
cultural resources as are used for the study of any ancient text; and the student
needs to have some degree of sympathy with the author's world in order to
understand what he or she is reading.
Therefore, all the scholarly tools and disciplines which contribute to the
interpretation of any type of text may and even should be applied to the
interpretation of the Bible, provided they seem in any way relevant. In addition
to this, there are more subjective factors—for example, the reader's own
"equipment" (this will vary enormously depending on his or her intellectual
powers, psychology, spiritual and moral maturity, etc.). The different abilities
and qualities of the various interpreters of Scripture complement one another;
over the centuries biblical exegesis has built up a veritable treasure of
commentaries, all of which help towards a deeper understanding of Scripture.
a) Contemporary study of Scripture has advanced considerably as far as

academic techniques are concerned; philology and certain methods of literary
criticism have proved particularly useful. One result has been a better
knowledge of the literary genres of the Bible; we need to know the genre a
sacred writer is using if we are to understand what his intention was, for "the
fact is that truth is differently presented and expressed in the various types of
historical writing, in prophetical and poetical texts and in other forms of literary
expression."
b) In addition to identifying the literary form the writer is using, one also

needs to know as much as possible about "the patterns of perception, speech and
narrative which prevailed in the age of the sacred writer and the conventions
which the people of his time followed in their dealings with one another", that
is, the way they expressed themselves in ordinary speech. Thus, for example,
research has been directed towards clarifying how particular passages came to
be formed in accordance with the forms of expression used at different times
and places. Although the method known as "form criticism" sometimes tends to
neglect the overall unity of a book, it has helped to throw light on the
environment which saw the rise and development of small literary units such as
songs, blessings, oracles, exhortations, liturgical hymns and so forth.
c) Another branch of research, focusing on "textual criticism" of the various
books, attempts to discover how a book obtained its final form, that is, what
already existing literary sources the author used and how he used them or
interpreted them to serve his purpose, and what his own, original, contribution
was.
Although the two last-mentioned methods were at first applied in a clumsy
and harmful way (leading to philosophical and theological errors), they have
been gradually refined by Catholic exegetes to the point where they can be
helpful for discovering how certain books or series of books of the Bible
(especially the Pentateuch, the Psalms, and the Synoptic Gospels) came to be
written, and for highlighting the special features of the message they contain.
However, the enormous effort made by contemporary research in the area of
rational criticism has not (usually) been crowned by a parallel increase in
theological insight. The main reason for this is that faith has not been
sufficiently brought into play in the interpretation of the texts. Therefore, we
must now turn our attention to the criteria of interpretation which apply
specifically to the Bible.
SPECIFIC PRINCIPLES OF BIBLICAL HERMENEUTICS
The principles specific to biblical hermeneutics are based directly on the belief
that the text is inspired by God and entrusted by him to the Church. However,
we need to bear in mind that they are applied to the Bible insofar as it is a
written text and therefore open to different interpretations.
The matter is rendered even more sensitive (if that is possible) when the
books in question—Sacred Scripture—were written in the distant past and have
extremely important things to say, since they deal with God, man and the world
(cf. 2 Tim 3:16-17). These principles specific to biblical hermeneutics need to
be used if one is to avoid arbitrary interpretations which have nothing to do with
the author's intention.