How to Read Scripture

Biblical Exegesis

How to Read the Bible

• How to find Bible texts– Citation: The format for

looking up and finding bible texts.• Bk. Chap: verse(s)

–Example Gen. 1: 13-14*• You read the last numbered

verse. Do not stop at that verse.

What is the Old Testament About?

1. Ps. 91: 4 (13th word)

2. Judges. 10: 14 (10th word)

3. Is. 32:18 (2nd word)

4. Ex. 12:37 (1st & 2nd word)

A Vocation to Interpret & Teach• Magisterium

– The living, teaching office of the Church• The Pope and the Bishops

– Given the sole authority to authentically interpret the Words of the Sacred Scripture

– Guards and explains the truths• Exegetes

– Biblical scholars– Called on to do biblical interpretation– Responsible to the judgment of the Magisterium

• Us– Prayerfully listen to the Spirit who inspired the writers of the Bible– Understand and share the teachings– Apply the teachings to our daily lives

Why do we read Scripture?

Exegesis: the process used by biblical scholars to discover the meaning of the text.

Read, understand, apply

We read scripture to discover what God wants to reveal to us and to put that message into

use in our lives.

Critical Reading• Critical Reading is like

pealing an onion.It has many layers and to get to the center you must peal away each layer

Spiritual Sense

Literal sense

Critical Reading of Scripture: Reading and analyzing the literal words to get the message God intended for us.

Senses of ScriptureBiblical text has two senses.

• Literal sense: The actual meaning of the words.

• Spiritual sense: The spiritual sense goes beyond the literal sense of the words to consider what the words signify. The message is determined from a critical reading of the words.– Allegorical Sense

» How do the people, events and things in the literal sense point to the mystery of Christ?

– Moral Sense» How does the passage instruct us to live a just and ethical

life?– Anagogical Sense

» How does the account lead us toward our future heavenly home?

Literal sense:

Spiritual sense:Allegorical sense

Moral sense

Anagogical sense

Ex.14: 10-31

Literal sense:

Tells us that God saved the Israelites by opening the Red Sea. God did this so the Israelites could cross, and then He closed the sea to drown the Pharaoh and his army

Spiritual sense:

Allegorical SenseMoses, through God’s power, led the Israelites from slavery to

freedom. Jesus, the New Moses, frees us from slavery of sin and death by the power of God in him.

Moral SensePharaoh’s sinful power is destroyed in the water of the Red Sea

just as Original Sin is destroyed by the water of Baptism so that we can live good moral lives guided by the new Law and Beatitudes

Anagogical SenseIsraelites enter the Promised land through the Red Sea as we

enter the New Promised Land through Baptism

Ex.14: 10-31

Interpreting Scripture• We must understand what the human authors

were attempting to say and what God wanted to reveal by their words.

• The reader must take into account the historical and cultural context of the writing.– Taking into account the culture, history of the time

and the literary form or type of the writing.

Context- Literature• Literary Forms: Prose,

Poetry• Literary Types

– Etiology: Origin stories– Psalms– Oracles– History– Parables– Letters– Apocalyptic literature– Wisdom literature

• Proverbs• Moral stories

– Gospels

• Literary Techniques– Lists

• Persons- genealogies• Laws

– Metaphor– Simile– Parallelism– Imagery– Irony

How would you read…“Smoking is helpful”“Whip until peaked” “The alien took over her body”“Vote for Bloomberg”

“Giants shoot down Seahawks”“Redskins scalp Cowboys”

Editorial

Recipe

Novel

Political Pamphlet

Sports Headline

Archeology

• The study of the past through the finding of ancient artifacts– Artifacts: articles or objects of the past that are

found by archeologists that give us an idea of the lives of ancient people and insight into their times.

– Helps us with reading of scripture by giving us some proof of what we read.

TextualScholars attempt to recover the most original version of biblical books, because no originals exist, only copies. These scholars compare different translations of the Scriptures to understand more clearly the meaning of a given passage.

SourceScholars attempt to identify if the biblical authors used an existing story, myth, or other literature as the basis for their work

HistoricalScholars work to uncover the historical situation, or Sitz im Leben, of the writer at the time a particular book or story was written.

Literary (Form)Scholars look at the Scriptures and seek to understand them as a work of literature.

Redaction: Investigates the motivation and historical setting in which the text was edited

Biblical Criticism

Bible & Science

• Since we take a *conceptual approach to reading and interpreting scripture, there is NO conflict between what we read in the Bible and what is discovered through scientific investigation.

– *We read for the message and do not take what is written in a literalistic or fundamentalist view.

How to Interpret ScriptureThree Necessary Practices

• 1. Pay attention to the Bible as a whole – See the unity of God’s plan with Christ at the center.

• 2. Read the Bible in the light of the living Tradition of the Church – from the perspective of the Church rather than individualistically.

• 3. Be attentive to the analogy of faith – Scripture understood within the entire plan of God’s Revelation.

***Sacred Tradition is key in the interpretation of Scripture. The Magisterium, the teaching office of the Church, consisting of the Pope and the bishops, sheds light on what the Bible’s message is. It proclaims as teachings that which it determines is God’s message.