Chapter II — On Sacred Scripture

I. For the human infirmity just described, God has provided two kinds of remedies by which it may be healed: one internal, the other external. The former is called divine grace, which by its own power dissipates the darkness of the mind, raises up the will, moves it, applies it, and out of one unwilling makes one willing; blots out the stains of the soul and heals its wounds; and is infused by God alone. The latter is external, namely the doctrine divinely revealed, which illumines the mind from without, directs it, forms morals, and opens the way by which we must proceed to our Fatherland. This doctrine is enclosed in the divine Books of which sacred Scripture consists.

II. Question I. What is sacred Scripture? Answer: It is the written word of God, or the letter of God to men, as the Fathers teach. In manifold ways has God spoken to men. First, he published the book of nature, as the Apostle Paul says in Romans, chapter 1, where he states: For the invisible things of him, from the creation of the world, are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made. Second, he himself wrote his law on the tablets of hearts, imbuing men inwardly. Third, he consigned to Moses the two tablets of the Decalogue written with his own finger, as is found in Exodus. Fourth, he wrote not only by himself, but also through his Prophets, Apostles, and the other sacred writers, to whom he dictated the whole of sacred Scripture. This sacred Scripture is sometimes called the word of God, because dictated by God; sometimes the Testament of God, because in it he pledges to us an infinite inheritance and declares his will; sometimes divine Scripture, because it was inspired by the Spirit of God; sometimes holy Scripture, because all things contained in it are ordered to sanctification. It is called also the divine Law, because it sets forth the law given to the Jews and to Christians; and finally it is named the Bible — that is, the books par excellence, from the Greek word Βιβλίον.

III. This divine Scripture consists, by the definition of the Church, of seventy-four books, of which forty-seven constitute the old Testament, and the remaining twenty-seven compose the new Covenant. The former are distributed into legal, historical, sapiential, and prophetical books. In the first class is placed the Pentateuch of Moses. To the second belong the books of Josue, Judges, Ruth, the four books of Kings, the two of Paralipomenon, the two of Esdras, the one of Tobias, Judith, Esther, Job, and the two of the Machabees. To the third pertain the Psalter, Proverbs, the Canticle of Canticles, Ecclesiastes, Wisdom, and Ecclesiasticus. In the fourth are placed Isaias, Jeremias, Baruch, Ezechiel, Daniel, and the twelve minor Prophets. By a similar partition the new Testament is divided: for to the legal books are referred the four Gospels; to the historical, the Acts of the Apostles; to the sapiential, the fourteen epistles of St. Paul, the two of St. Peter, the three of St. John, the one of St. James the Apostle, and the one of St. Jude the Apostle; to the prophetical, the Apocalypse of St. John the Apostle. That these books are canonical was defined in the Council of Trent, Session IV — entire, with all their parts, as they have been accustomed to be read in the Church, and as they are contained in the old Latin Vulgate edition.

IV. Question II. How manifold is the sense of divine Scripture? Answer: Twofold — the literal, and the spiritual or mystical. The spiritual is divided into the allegorical, the tropological or moral, and the anagogical. The literal sense is that which is signified immediately by the words themselves. The spiritual or mystical is that which the things signified by the words convey. The allegorical is that according to which certain deeds of the old Testament signify something to be done in the new — as the lifting up of the serpent in the desert portended Christ to be lifted up upon the cross. The tropological, or moral, regards integrity of morals. The anagogical signifies those things which look to eternal glory. Of the literal sense, one kind is the grammatical, as in this text, The letter killeth, which is sometimes false, because not intended by the Holy Spirit; the other is the theological, which Theologians consider as intended by the Holy Spirit, and which can never be false. The metaphorical or figurative sense is contained under the improper literal sense. The proper literal sense is that which the words, strictly taken, signify — such as these: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God. The improper, or metaphorical, is that whose words are transferred from their proper to an improper signification — such as these: My sheep hear my voice; the sheep metaphorically represent the faithful people. Again, one allegory is of words, another of things. The four senses recounted are comprehended in these two verses:

The letter teaches deeds; allegory, what you are to believe; > the moral sense, what you are to do; anagogy, what you are to hope.

The word Jerusalem expresses the aforesaid fourfold sense: literally it expresses the city of Palestine; allegorically, the Church; tropologically, the Soul; anagogically, the eternal Fatherland.

V. Question III. Which Scripture is authentic? Answer: No autographs of the sacred Scriptures are found today, but all are apographs, published in diverse languages — Hebrew, Greek, Latin, and the Vernacular. The Vulgate alone has been declared authentic by the Church, and from it the Theologian ought to draw his conclusions; although he is by no means forbidden to approach and weigh the original text as well, both for the sake of easier understanding and for the sake of refuting those who do not admit the authority of the Vulgate.

VI. Question IV. Is the understanding of holy Scripture open to all? Answer: The Lutherans and Calvinists contend that the understanding of holy Scripture is evident and perspicuous to each and every private person, even to mere women, in those things which regard the dogmas of faith and the precepts of morals. This is a delirium at war with the manifest experience of all ages. Has not every one of the innumerable Christian sects boasted that the holy Scriptures stand on its side? For God willed that many things in the divine Scriptures should be obscure and profound, that in searching and meditating upon them he might exercise human talents and repress the audacity and pride of men, and that he might procure veneration and majesty for the divine Scriptures. This first extreme being avoided, the other must be shunned — that of those who, under the pretext of obscurity, neglect the study of the divine Scriptures to the loss of their own salvation. Although some oracles of the Scriptures are obscure, nevertheless in those things which pertain to the rules of morals and of faith the divine Scriptures are commonly plain and perspicuous. Do not even human lawgivers themselves take pains to express their laws in perspicuous words and lucid phrase, that they may remove, so far as can be done, disagreements of interpretation? Do they not to this end select the more erudite and learned men, to consign the Laws to writing in such discourse and choice of words that they can be understood even by the very people for whose government they are enacted? Now to this end God gave his laws: that they might be grasped by the Faithful, who are bound to execute them. Why did the Apostle Paul, with the other sacred Writers, write his Epistles to the Romans, to the Corinthians, and to the other peoples, except to instruct them? He wrote, therefore, with that perspicuity which was suited to the understanding of the peoples, although some things are loftier.

VII. The contrariety of interpretations and opinions frequently declares, not the obscurity of the Scriptures, but the contrary desires and affections of those who opine and interpret, which twist minds into contrary senses. And indeed, what do you think is the reason why the books which they call spiritual agree so much among themselves? Run through Granada, Tauler, Scupoli, à Kempis, Rodríguez, and all the rest, whether Italians, or French, or Spaniards, or Germans: you will find in all absolutely the same doctrine; in these books no disagreement, no battle, but the same maxims, the same rules, precepts, exhortations; the same pronouncements, commands, and counsels. The reason is one alone: that their authors, with a mind empty of passions, sought out the truths, and by fervent prayer begged the knowledge of them, and delivered them with a certain heavenly unction. Hence so great an agreement among them: for they all explain the doctrine that is truly evangelical; they all interpret the Gospels sincerely, and with disputations set aside. Wherefore their doctrine is suited to all Christians. For they err who think that it serves only those souls which aspire to singular and sublime perfection and sanctity. Does not the Gospel comprehend all Christians — does it not bind them? Since, then, the doctrine of such books is evangelical, it obliges all in some measure. And indeed, that all Christians are bound by a most grave precept to yearn for evangelical perfection, I shall expound more fully below.

VIII. But whence, then, come the disagreements, battles, and interminable disputations, so frequent in the volumes of the Casuists? Because very many of them, the doctrine of the Scriptures being set aside, consult human reason, obscured by the fog of its diverse passions. They commonly search out, not what the Gospels teach, but what the earlier Casuists teach. This is the true cause why those books swarm with quarrels, entanglements, battles, and vain little distinctions, and teach not how to live morally, but how to cavil acutely. I except always those who in very deed teach the evangelical doctrine.

IX. Question V. What way is to be followed, that we may attain the genuine sense of holy Scripture? Answer: A profound abasement of soul, fervent prayers, and petitions for the divine light ought to precede the reading of the Scriptures. Prejudices and anticipations must be cast away, and the glory of God alone kept before the eyes, the applause of the world being spurned and every human respect cut off. For a false interpretation depraves the sincerity of Scripture no less than the style or pen with which one either takes words away from the divine Scriptures or adds them, says Tertullian in the book On Prescription, chapter 17: An adulterous sense obstructs the truth and the divine Scripture as much as a corrupting pen. You will object that it is heretics who are the corrupters of holy Scripture, not Catholics. Heretics, I answer, are obstinate depravers of the Scriptures, because they despise the definitions of the catholic Church; Catholics, however, submit their interpretations to the definition of the Church. For the rest, these too, taken singly, can be deceived in their private interpretations. Amid so great a contrariety of opinions in the moral order, more than one cannot be true. The Church tolerates many contrary interpretations. But this tolerance in no way prevents adulteration from being adulteration, and falsity from being falsity. Whether those who are deceived and interpret falsely are free from the crime either of negligence or of a most hidden pride, is known to God alone. When doubts occur, there must be consulted the Fathers of the Church, the definitions of the Councils and of the Roman Church, and the Bishops, whom God has placed to rule his Church.

X. St. Paul, in 2 Corinthians, chapter 2, says: Let us not be as very many, adulterating the word of God, but with sincerity. Not a few, but very many, even in the very time of the Apostles, were adulterating the word of God. If then very many, will they today be few? On this passage, lecture 3, St. Thomas has these words: Adulterating the word of God — that is, preaching either for gain or for the favor of praise ... If therefore your end is gain, if your intention is favor and your own glory, you adulterate the word of God. Both Preachers and Theologians who, in order to promote their own prejudged opinions, to catch the applause of the peoples, and to shine forth more eminently, study to draw the divine Scriptures to themselves by an artifice of distinctions, turn out adulterators of the word of God. Such men are called by the Apostle James, chapter 4, judges of the law, not doers of it, when he says: But if thou judge the law, thou art not a doer of the law, but a judge. No one boasts himself a judge of the divine law, though very many subject the holy law to their own judgment. Let us hear St. Augustine, who in the book On True Religion, chapter 31, wisely distinguishes these two things — to know the law, and to judge it: It is lawful, then, for clean souls to know the eternal law, but not lawful to judge it. And the difference is this: that for knowing, it is enough that we see that something is so, or is not so; but for judging, we add something whereby we signify that it could also be otherwise — as when we say: it ought to be so, or it ought to have been so, or it will have to be so, as craftsmen do in their works... But manifold is human delectation. Few, therefore, are they who, with clean souls, endowed with humility and a docile spirit, and stripped of self-love, strive to acknowledge the truth of the Scriptures; very many, on the contrary, who, their own passions leading the way, judge the law. For they judge the law as often, says Augustine, as they perversely decide that these opinions are, or ought to be, probable; that this is not, or ought not to be, a sin: and in order to confirm these preconceived opinions, they hunt after testimonies of the Scriptures and bend them to their own senses. The most illustrious Jesuit, Father Miguel de Elizalde, in Book 6, question 14, section 7, sets up this thesis as the title of a paragraph: But the Probabilists most of all become judges, and break asunder all the laws of rightly interpreting the holy Scriptures. This testimony is true, and he proves it by many weighty reasons,¹ and confirms it both by reason and by the authority of the Fathers. For the way of the Scriptures is narrow, and of truth alone; the way of Probabilism is broad and spacious, since it is the way both of falsity and of truth — concerning which St. John Chrysostom says, in Homily 18 on chapter 7 of Matthew: Their will is a law unto them; and they are not under the law, but the law is under them. But the way of life is all justice. And it is said to be narrow, because it is enclosed within the rule of truth and of discipline. The way of truth alone is the way of the Lord; and only they who walk this way are called blessed by David: Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord. Psalm 118.

¹ See Tome I, Apparatus, Book I, Disputation 2, chapter 4.