BfiRKELEtN 
 
 jRARY 
 
 UN5VERSITY OF 
 CALIFORNIA 
 
 ■) 
 
CHAPTERS OF BIBLE STUDY 
 
 0& 
 
 A POPULAR INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF THE 
 SACRED SCRIPTURES 
 
 BT 
 
 THE REV. HERMAN J. HEUSER 
 
 PROF. OF SCRIPTURAL INTRODUCTION AND EXEGESIS, ST. CHARLES SEMINARY, 
 OVERBROOK, PA. 
 
 The Cathedral Library Association 
 123 B. 50th Street 
 
 New York % 
 
 1896 
 
•Wtbil iS)bstat: 
 
 D. J. McMAHON, 
 
 Censor Librorum, 
 
 imprimatur : 
 
 lii MICHAEL AUGUSTINE, 
 
 Archbishop of New York, 
 
 LOAN STACK 
 
 Copyright by Joseph H. McMahon, 1895. 
 

 . PREFACE. 
 
 The following pages are printed from notes used in a 
 series of lectures before the ^''Catholic Summer School 
 of America ^^ at Plattsburgh. They are neither an ex- 
 haustive nor a scientific exposition, but are meant as a 
 suggestive introduction, in popular form, to the intelli- 
 gent reading of the Bible. Some of the answers to 
 questions proposed by members of the '^ School " during 
 the course have been inserted where it seemed most 
 suitable. 
 
 I take occasion here to express my deep appreciation 
 of the courtesy shown to its visitors by the Directors 
 of the ^^ Catholic Summer School/^ Their self-sacrific- 
 ing spirit has secured to the organization the earnest 
 co-operation of many gifted men and women animated 
 by that refined Catholic feeling which constitutes the 
 highest type of a truly cultured society. Nothing could 
 have placed the institution on a firmer basis, or could 
 better have given it that guarantee of success to which 
 the last session has borne witness. 
 
 H. J. H. 
 
 405 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 
 in 2007 with fundi^ng from 
 
 IVIicrosoft Corporation 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/chaptersofbiblesOOheusrich 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Page 
 
 I. The Ancient Scroll, . . . . ? 
 
 II. Strange Witnesses, . ... 19 
 
 III. The Testimony of a Confession, . . 25 
 
 IV. The Stones Cry Out, . . . . 27 
 y. Heavenly Wisdom, . . . .31 
 
 VI. The Vicious Circle, . ... 40 
 
 VII. The Sacred Pen, . . . . .41 
 
 VIII. The Melody and Harmony of the ''Vox 
 
 Coelestis,"' 48 
 
 IX. The Voice from the Eock, . . 50 
 
 X. A Source of Culture, . . . . 52 
 
 XI. The Creation of ISTew Letters, . . 63 
 
 XII. English Style, 66 
 
 XIII. Friends of God, .... 69 
 
 XIV. The Art of Prospecting, . . .72 
 XV. Using the Kodak, .... 75 
 
 XVI. The Interpretation of the Image, . . 82 
 
Page 
 XVII. " Deus Illuminatio Mea/' ... 89 
 
 XVIII. Rush-Lights, . . . . .92 
 
 XIX. The Use and the Abuse of the Bible, . 96 
 
 XX. The Vulgate and the '' Revised Version/' 115 
 
 XXI. The Position of the Church, . .132 
 
 XXII. Mysterious Characters, .... 140 
 
 XXIII. Conclusion, . . ' . . .147 
 
 XXIV. Appendix, 151 
 
CHAPTERS OF BIBLE STUDY. 
 
 THE ANCIENT SCROLL. 
 
 If a mysteriously- written document were brought to 
 you, and its bearer assured you that it contained a secret 
 putting you in possession of a great inheritance by estab- 
 lishing your relationship to an ancient race of kings, of 
 which you had no previous knowledge, how would you 
 regard such a document? 
 
 You would examine its age, the character of the manu- 
 script, the quality of the paper or parchment; you would 
 ask how it had come fco you, and by whom it had been 
 transmitted through successive generations before it 
 reached you. And when, after careful inquiry, you had 
 established the age and authenticity of the document, 
 then you would study its contents, examine the nature 
 of its provisions, and, having clearly understood its 
 meaning, ask yourself: How can I carry out the condi- 
 tions laid down in this testament, in order that I may 
 obtain the full benefit of the generous bequest left by 
 my noble ancestor? 
 
 It is on similar lines that I propose to treat our sub- 
 ject. We shall take up the Bible just as we would take 
 up any other written work, requiring, for the time be- 
 
8 Chapters of Bible Study, 
 
 mg, simply so much faith — no more, but also no less than 
 we would exact in the fair examination of any other 
 work, whether of fact or of fiction. 
 
 When we have assured ourselves that the Bible is really 
 as old and as truthful a record of history as it pretends 
 to be, and that it has for it such human testimony as 
 leads us to admit historic facts in general, we shall 
 occupy ourselves with its contents, with the influence 
 which this wonderful book, this ancient testament of 
 our royal Sire, exercises upon the heart, the mind, the 
 general culture, by which it leads us to our inheritance, 
 and enables us to assume our place in our destined home. 
 
 The Bible, looking upon it as a merely human produc- 
 tion, is a collection of documents of various antiquity, 
 containing historic records of successive generations, 
 going back to a very remote period. It relates the val- 
 iant deeds of valiant men and women, written either by 
 themselves or by men of their own race. It contains, 
 furthermore, a great number of principles, doctrines, 
 rules, and laws for the moral and external government 
 of individuals and communities, particularly of the fam- 
 ilies and tribes of the Hebrew nation. Finally, we find 
 in this ancient scroll certain predictions and prophecies 
 which, if we can show that they were definitely made long 
 in advance of the events foretold by them, become a 
 strong argument in favor of the supernatural origin of 
 the work. However, this last point we shall leave en- 
 tirely out of view for the present. 
 
The Ancient Scroll, 
 
 It is very clear that the book which we have in our 
 hands^ and which we call the Bible^ or The Book jpar ex- 
 cellence, has been printed and reprinted during four hun- 
 dred years^ in millions of copies, all of which agree sub- 
 stantially, not excepting the Bible of the so-called ^' re- 
 formers/^ with whom, on the whole, we differ rather in 
 the interpretation than in the wording of its contents. 
 There are indeed some disagreements on subjects touch- 
 ing religious doctrines, which, whilst very important if 
 we accept the Sacred Scriptures as the inspired word of 
 God, hardly count for anything in a merely historical 
 work; and this is the light in which we regard the Bible 
 just at present. 
 
 The Bibles which are printed to-day are practically 
 and substantially the same as those which were printed 
 four hundred years ago. A great number of copies of 
 first editions in different languages may still be found in 
 public and private libraries. The New Testament ver- 
 sion, from which Luther principally made his translation, 
 was an edition by the well-known humanist, Erasmus. 
 All the modern European translations, including that 
 made into English five hundred years ago by Wiclif, had 
 for their original an ancient Latin version which was 
 employed in the service of the churches, and of which 
 copies in manuscript, made over a thousand years ago, 
 are still extant. One of the oldest uncial Latin manu- 
 scripts is the ^' Vercelli Gospels, ^^ attributed to the hand 
 of Eusebius. The Corpus Christi College Library at Cam- 
 
lo Chapters of Bible Study. 
 
 bridge has a manuscript copy said to have been made by 
 St. Augustine. Of Greek copies we have a very famous 
 one in the Vatican Library, probably the oldest preserved 
 in the world — about 350; another manuscript, called the 
 Codex Sinaiticus, is in the Imperial Library of St. Pe- 
 tersburg; and a third, of nearly the same age (IV. cen- 
 tury), is the ^^ Codex Alexandrinus,^^ at present in the 
 British Museum. Manuscripts older than these are 
 wanting, not only of the Bible, but of any other book, 
 except fragments of writings on parchment and certain 
 manuscripts rescued from Egyptian tombs, and papers 
 discovered in the recent excavations of Herculaneam, 
 near Naples, in Italy. Parchment, on account of the ex- 
 pensive preparation required to make it suitable material 
 for writing, was sparingly used by the ancients at any 
 time. They preferred to employ the so-called papyrus, 
 made of the fibrous pith of a kind of rush growing 
 abundantly in Egypt, and brought to Europe by Eastern 
 merchants. This, and other kinds of vegetable fibre 
 from which paper suitable for writing was prepared 
 since the days when Moses, as we must presume, prac- 
 tised the art of writing in the schools of Egypt, do not 
 withstand the destructive influence of time. Experience 
 proves that the ordinary atmosphere has completely cor- 
 roded cotton paper of nine hundred years ago; the same 
 is true of the linen paper made in the time of Albertus 
 Magnus and St. Thomas. Those exceptional treasures 
 of Egyptian papyrus referred to above, which have been 
 
The A ncient Scroll, 1 1 
 
 found of late years^ owe their preservation to the fact 
 that they were enclosed in almost air-tight tombs, in a 
 singularly dry climate; the same is the case with regard 
 to the manuscripts discovered in Herculaneum, which 
 have been kept hermetically sealed by the tight lava- 
 cover from Mount Vesuvius for a space of more than 
 seventeen hundred years. 
 
 However, among such manuscripts as have been pre- 
 served under ordinary conditions, by far the -^greatest 
 number are copies, in various tongues, of the Bible, 
 and some of these carry us back to the fourth century. 
 We have Bible manuscripts written on paper in Hebrew, 
 Syriac, Greek, Latin, in the dialects of the Copts, the 
 Arabs, the Armenians, the Persians, the Ethiopians, 
 the Slavs, and the Goths, who were among the earliest 
 nations converted to Christianity. Now all these man- 
 uscript Bibles, more than fourteen centuries old, sub- 
 stantially correspond to our Catholic Bibles of this day. 
 
 The early Christian missionaries who introduced the 
 word of God to the pagan nations speaking a strange 
 tongue must have had some uniform source whence to 
 make their translations. So many persons in different 
 parts of the world, unacquainted with one another^'s lan- 
 guage, could not, except by some incredible miracle, 
 have composed out of their fancy so large a book, agree- 
 ing page for page, nay, line for line. They must have 
 had some original at their disposal whence to make a 
 uniform copy. The fact is, we find that original book 
 
12 Chapters of Bible Study, 
 
 in the churches of Italy, Greece, Asia, and Africa. 
 The apostolic Fathers speak of it as known to every- 
 body; they read from it on Sundays and festivals; they 
 quote long passages, and the young candidates for Holy 
 Orders are taught, like the Hebrew levites of old, to 
 memorize the psalms and moral books of the Bible. 
 Among these witnesses is St. Clement of Eome. Ac- 
 cording to Tertullian, who lived near his time, he was or- 
 dained by St. Peter the Apostle; at any rate, St. Paul 
 speaks of him in his Epistle to the Philippians. Other 
 disciples of the Apostles were St. Ignatius, Bishop of An- 
 tioch, St. Poly carp, the friend of St. John. These are 
 followed by St. Justin, who wrote a famous defence of 
 the Catholic faith called the " Apology,'''' which he pre- 
 sented to the Emperor Antoninus. The latter, con- 
 vinced of the young convert's sincerity, put a stop to 
 the cruel persecutions which were then going on against 
 the Christians. The Emperor Marcus Aurelius also re- 
 ceived a copy of the ^^ Apology '' from St. Justin. In 
 this well-known work the Saint states that '' the Gospels, 
 together with the writings jof the prophets, are publicly 
 read in the asseiyiUies of the Christians J' ' He also af- 
 firms that they were written in part by the Apostles 
 themselves and partly by their disciples. This was 
 shortly after the year 138, when men were still alive 
 who had conversed with St. Paul, and who could well 
 remember the sweet admonitions of brotherly love given 
 
 » Apolog., 1. 67. 
 
The Ancient Scroll, 13 
 
 by the aged St. Jolm^ who tells us that he had: seen 
 with his own eyes the things which he writes.* The 
 chain of apostolic writers from St. Peter to St. Augus- 
 tine^ z. e., from the first century to the fourth or fifth, 
 bears witness that this wonderful book was used in 
 every Christian community from the regions of the Jor- 
 dan, whence St. Justin came, to the confines of Spain, 
 where Isidore of Cordova wrote his commentaries; from 
 the northernmost part of Dalmatia, where Titus had 
 preached the doctrine delivered him by St. Paul, to the 
 limit of the African desert, whence one of the oldest 
 Latin versions of the Scriptures was brought to St. 
 Ambrose. 
 
 It is interesting to be able to cite the testimony of 
 pagan as well as of Jewish writers concerning the great 
 events which the Christian Gospels record. We have 
 the historic fact of Christ's person and work attested in 
 the ^^ Annals'' of Tacitus, the greatest of Eoman his- 
 torians,'^ who was consul of Rome in 97. His state- 
 ments are corroborated by Suetonius, secretary to the 
 Emperor Adrian, by Pliny, the Viceroy of Bithynia and 
 friend of the Emperor Trajan, by the Jewish writers 
 Philo of Alexandria, a contemporary of Christ, and the 
 historian Flavins Josephus, and by the rabbis who col- 
 lated the traditions of the Talmud. All these, whilst 
 they wrote but briefly of the subject, bear indirect 
 witness to the belief and to the practice by the earliest 
 
 1 Ep. St. JohD, chap. i. 1. '^ Tacit., Annal.^ xv. 38-44. 
 
14 Chapters of Bible Study, 
 
 Christians of the Gospel precepts, although the books of 
 the New Testament had not at that time been formed 
 into a definite canon. Thus the unbroken evidence of 
 the existence of the Christian Scriptures goes back to the 
 very time of their first composition. 
 
 We come to the Old Testament. That the Jews in 
 the time of Christ possessed a collection of sacred books 
 is recorded on every page of the New Testament, of 
 whose authentic source there can be no reasonable doubt. 
 There are altogether about two hundred and seventy 
 passages in the New Testament books which are quota- 
 tions from the Old Testament. There are innumerable 
 references in the Gospels and Epistles, and in the early 
 Christian writers, to the sacred law of the Jews, among 
 whom the first converts were made; for these converts 
 continued to use the Mosaic writings and the prophet- 
 ical books. Christ Himself had beautifully illustrated 
 this practice, from the first, in His teaching. " H-e 
 came to Nazareth, ^^ St. Luke tells us, '^ where He was 
 brought up; and He went into the synagogue, according 
 to His custom, on the sabbath day; and He rose up to 
 read. And the Book of Isaias the Prophet was delivered 
 unto Him. And as He unfolded the book He found 
 the place where it was written: The spirit of the Lord 
 is upon me, tvherefore He hath anointed me; to preach 
 the gospel to the poor He hath sent me ; to heal the con- 
 trite of heart. To preach deliverance to the captives, 
 and sight to the blind; to set at liberty them that are 
 
The A ncient Scroll, 1 5 
 
 bruised; to preach the acceptable year of the Lord, and 
 the day of reivard. And when He had folded the book 
 He restored it to the minister and sat down. And the 
 eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on Him. And 
 He began to say to them: This day is fulfilled this 
 Scripture in your ears. And all gave testimony to 
 Him/^ ' 
 
 Any attempt to corrupt the Old Testament writings, 
 or to change and destroy them, even in part, became im- 
 possible after the Gospels had been written. It would 
 at once have aroused marked attention among both 
 Jews and Christians, who with equal reverence regarded 
 the Book as the sacred and inviolable word of God, 
 however mutually hostile their feelings were regarding 
 the interpretation of its meaning. For if ever there 
 existed a document whose authority was sanctioned and 
 whose preservation was guaranteed by the severest laws 
 and most minute precautions, it was the code of sacred 
 writings known to the Jews as the '^ Law and the Proph- 
 ets. ^^ "It was read in every synagogue on the sabbath 
 and festival days. Every Jew above the age of twelve 
 was obliged to repeat certain parts of the Sacred Book 
 each day, morning and night. Thrice dispersed among 
 the Gentile nations, north, west, and south, the Jews 
 carried with them the book of the Law and the Proph- 
 ets, and we find them repeat its sweet words of hope 
 and trust in Jehovah by the rivers of Babylon as under 
 
 » St. Luke iv. 16-22. 
 
l6 Chapters of Bible Study. 
 
 the glimmer of the torchlights in the caverns of Sa- 
 maria or rocky Arabia. Their faces were forever turning 
 towards Jerusalem. Nay, when the language of their 
 fathers had ceased to be spoken during generations 
 of enforced exile, the children still repeated the Hebrew 
 words of the Law in the temple, even though they had 
 versions made for the people by rabbis who were under 
 sacred vow not to change an iota of the Lord^s written 
 word. We have in the present Hebrew Bibles some 
 remnant of the traditional care with which the Jew 
 guarded the letter of the Law, whatever might be the 
 spirit in which he interpreted it. In order that the 
 Sacred Text might never be tampered with, even by 
 the addition or omission of a single letter or word, the 
 scribes were obliged to count the verses, words, and 
 characters of each book. They knew by heart every 
 peculiarity of grammatical or phonetic expression. Thus 
 the young rabbi must verify that the Book of Genesis 
 contains 1,534 verses; that the exact middle of the book, 
 counting every letter from the beginning and from the 
 end, occurs in chapter xxvii. 40. He knew that there 
 were ten verses in the Scriptures beginning and ending 
 with the letter J (nun) (as in Lev. xiii. 9); two in which 
 every word ends with the letter Q {mem). The letter j; 
 {ayin), in Ps. Ixxx. 14, is the exact middle of the Psal- 
 ter. The letter J»^ {alepli) occurs 42,377 times, 3 {heth) 
 38,218 times, J (ghimel) 29,537 times, and so of every 
 letter in the alphabet. These, and a thousand other 
 
The Ancient Scroll, ly 
 
 peculiarities which made the corruption of the Hebrew 
 text an almost absolute impossibility, were in later ages 
 collected into a glossary called the Masorah, which forms 
 a sort of separate commentary to the Bible. If you open 
 the Hebrew volume of the Old Testament, just as it is 
 printed to-day, you will find many of these warnings in- 
 serted in the very text. Thus at the end of the Book of 
 Chronicles we have this sentence: ^' The printer is not 
 at fault, for the sum total of verses in the whole Book 
 of Chronicles is 1656.^^ Then, lest the reader might 
 forget this number, a verse is attached which contains 
 the letters representing the same number. The verse, 
 which is taken from the I. Samuel vi. 13, reads: ^^ They 
 saiv the arh and rejoiced in seeing it,'' Just as the words 
 '^ MeDiCaL Virtue'' might stand in English for the 
 same number. 
 
 Many other peculiarities in the manner of copying the 
 Hebrew text have been transmitted for ages without 
 change. Thus in the Book of Numbers xi. 1 we find 
 the letter J {nun) written backward C, to express more 
 emphatically the meaning of '^ perversity,^^ mentioned 
 in the verse. In Job xxxviii. 13 the letter ^ {ayin) in 
 the word D*'^5i^*"l {reshachim), ^^ ungodly, "" is raised 
 above the line, to indicate how God will shake up into 
 the air, like chaff, the ungodly of whom the Prophet 
 speaks. 
 
 But it is needless to point out in detail all the odd 
 
1 8 Chapters of Bible Study, 
 
 precautions which were invented by the rabbis that they 
 might exercise a most rigorous control over the Hebrew 
 text; and although these methods are the results of a 
 later school of Hebraists, they go to show the sense of 
 responsibility which the Jews must always have felt re- 
 garding the preservation of the ancient Testament. 
 Even at this day you can hardly discover a substantial 
 departure from the original in the numerous manu- 
 script copies extant. Kennicott, an English Biblical 
 scholar, brought together five hundred and eighty He- 
 brew manuscripts of the Bible which, after careful 
 study and comparison, revealed scarcely any differences 
 of the text. An Italian, Prof, de Eossi, who died in 
 1831, had collected seven hundred and ten manuscripts, 
 and had seen in various libraries one hundred and thirty- 
 four more, all of which he examined critically without 
 finding any notable differences. I am speaking, re- 
 member, of such differences as would affect the histori- 
 cal identity of these manuscript copies with their ori- 
 ginal. It would be folly to assert that these manu- 
 scripts, which reached the number of over 1,600, are 
 copies made by the same scribes; for some of them were 
 discovered in Arabia, others in old Jewish settlements in 
 China; one, the oldest in existence, as some believe, 
 was found in a synagogue in the Crimea, by a Jewish 
 rabbi named Abraham Firkeowlcz. 
 
II. 
 
 STRANGE WITNESSES. 
 
 If there remained no trace of the original writings of 
 the Old Testament books preserved for us in the He- 
 brew tongue, we should still possess very reliable wit- 
 nesses of ancient date to testify to their existence in sub- 
 stantially the same form in which 'we have them; for 
 the children of Jewish exiles, who were forced gradually 
 to substitute the language of their conquerors for their 
 mother tongue, had well authenticated translations for 
 their use in the synagogues. The most remarkable of 
 such translations is the so-called Greek Septuagint, com- 
 monly believed to have been made for the Alexandrian 
 Library by seventy Jewish rabbis at the request of 
 King Ptolemy Philadelphus. We shall have occasion, 
 later on, to revert to the significance of this Greek ver- 
 sion. For the present it is only necessary to mention 
 that it was so highly esteemed by the Jews themselves 
 that they used it for several centuries in their reading to 
 the people, many of whom understood only the Greek. 
 
 Even the enemies of the Jews bear witness to the 
 unchanged character of the oldest portion of the He- 
 brew Bible for centuries before the coming of our 
 Lord. 
 
 19 
 
20 Chapters of Bible Study, 
 
 About the year 536 B. C, on the return of the Jewish 
 exiles from Babylon, the Samaritans, a mixed race of Jew- 
 ish and Aramaic stock, sought from the temple author- 
 ities at Jerusalem the privilege of worshipping with the 
 rest of the Jews in the holy city. This was refused. 
 Shortly afterwards one of the priests at Jerusalem was 
 excommunicated for having married the daughter of a 
 Samaritan prince. He sought refuge in Samaria, and 
 having built a temple on Mount Garizim, induced 
 the people to worship according to the Mosaic Law. 
 They were found to possess a copy of the Pentateuch, 
 which they had transcribed in Samaritan characters; and 
 whilst the Jews of Southern Palestine held no communi- 
 cation with them, and the Samaritans on their part 
 looked upon the Jews as schismatics who had changed 
 the ancient observances of the Law, yet both recognized 
 the same sacred code as the rule of their conduct and 
 religion. 
 
 A copy of this valuable version, which at a later date 
 was translated into the actual Samaritan dialect, was dis- 
 covered at Damascus in 1616, and has since been printed 
 in several editions at Paris and London. It is of great 
 importance, as it establishes a perfect accord with the 
 reading of the Jewish Hebrew text. These versions, 
 made at different times, in places widely apart, and by 
 men who were decidedly hostile to each other on relig- 
 ious as well as on national grounds, force us to admit a 
 well-fixed, universally known, and trusted original of the 
 
Strange Witnesses, 21 
 
 books of Moses; for where there is a copy there must be 
 something copied from^ just as when we see the well-de- 
 fined shadow of an object we know that the object itself 
 exists. 
 
 The antiquity of the Hebrew Bible is indeed attested 
 by many no less conclusive arguments than those we 
 have given^ which^ from the historian^s point of view, 
 stamp it as the most important monument of antiquity 
 which we have, and whose genuine character is proved 
 by the most trustworthy documentary evidence. There 
 is no page of historical account in existence to-day that 
 has such overwhelming testimony in favor of its authen- 
 tic origin as these books of the Bible. Known by gen- 
 erations as the inviolable law of God, guarded with 
 scrupulous solicitude as their greatest religious treasure, 
 read sabbath after sabbath in the synagogues, not alone 
 of Palestine, but of Arabia, Assyria, Egypt, Asia Minor, 
 Greece, and Rome— in short, wherever the sons of Abra- 
 ham had been dispersed in the course of more than twenty 
 centuries — who was it, friend or foe, that could have 
 dared to change this royal mandate of the Most High to 
 His chosen people! If a man were to-day to print a copy 
 of the Constitution, or a history of the formation of 
 the American Eepublic, introducing some hitherto un- 
 heard-of statements, or omitting some important words or 
 facts, how long would such imposition remain unnoticed 
 or unchallenged? Yet it would be infinitely easier 
 in our times, and under our conditions, for such change 
 
22 Chapters of Bible Study, 
 
 to pass unnoticed than it would have been among the 
 Jews. The Oriental races are intensely averse to any- 
 thing that threatens to alter their traditions. The cus- 
 toms of the Eastern peoples to-day are the same as they 
 are described by Isaias seven hundred years before Christ, 
 and the Jew of Isaiah^s time reflects in every act the 
 manners of another seven hundred years before, when 
 Moses describes his people as imitating the domestic 
 virtues and habits of Abraham's day, a time which car- 
 ries us back still another seven centuries. A thousand 
 years make no perceptible change in Oriental civilization. 
 You may see it every day. Take as a ready instance 
 Algeria, visited annually by many Americans, who go to 
 Europe by the southern route. It is a coast city, lying 
 in the full glare of European civilization; nay, modern 
 life has forced itself upon this town with the captivating 
 aggressiveness of French manners, French magnificence, 
 French soldieyy, and a system of commerce which, within 
 the last sixty years, has caused the European population 
 to outnumber the original Arab inhabitants of Algiers 
 by two-thirds. Yet the daily and forced contact, for 
 two whole generations, between the Arab and the Eu- 
 ropean has produced hardly any change in the habits 
 of the former. The Mussulman passes through the 
 splendid streets of the French portion of the town when 
 necessity urges him, in silence and with apparent dis- 
 dain. He prefers his cavern-like habitation, with small 
 square holes for windows, and an iron grating instead 
 
Strange Witnesses. 23 
 
 of glass, to the spacious and lightsome palaces built by 
 the French and English colonists. The Arab woman 
 feels no desire for the pretty vanities of modern fashion, 
 for the graceful freedom and intellectual intercourse 
 with men; she conceals her form in the traditional wide 
 robe of the East, with a veil over her head, a row of shin- 
 ing coins or beads hanging down from the forehead, and 
 a kerchief over her face hiding all but the gazelle-like 
 eyes. You see in that one city, open to the constant 
 changes arising from the innumerable relations of trav- 
 el and commerce, two worlds of men: one busy, fit- 
 ful, gay, and splendidly modern; the other silent, im- 
 movable, almost scornful, and in dwelling and dress, in 
 manner and language, just the same as you might have 
 observed them ages ago. 
 
 Such precisely were the people who guarded and de- 
 livered to us the books of the Old Testament. Their 
 religious, civil, and domestic practices, everywhere and 
 at all times of their history, correspond so perfectly with 
 what we read in any part of this volume that, even if 
 portions of the Bible were lost, we should have the liv- 
 ing tradition to witness to the omission, since we know 
 that the life of the Hebrew was ever subject to the reg- 
 ulations of the law of Jehovah, which was to him the 
 supreme expression of all that is great and good and wise. 
 
 ^' Uniformity of belief and ritual practice,''^ says the 
 Protestant Geikie,^ ^' was the one grand design of the 
 
 1 " Life of Christ," chap. xvii. 
 
24 Chapters of Bible Study, 
 
 founders of Judaism; the moulding the whole religious 
 life of the nation to such a machine-like discipline as 
 would make any variation from the customs of the past 
 well-nigh impossible. A universal^ death-like conser- 
 vatism, permitting no change in successive ages, was es- 
 tablished as the grand security for a separate national 
 existence. . . . For this end, not only was that part of 
 the Law which concerned the common life of the people 
 — their sabbaths, feast-days, jubilees, offerings, sacri- 
 fices, tithes, the Temple and Synagogue worship, civil 
 and criminal law, marriage, and the like — explained, 
 commented on, and minutely ordered by the Eabbis, but 
 also that portion of it which related only to the private 
 duties of individuals in their. daily religious life.^^ And 
 to this day the orthodox Jew observes the same rites 
 and ceremonies which marked the service of his forefa- 
 thers, whether in Judea or Samaria, on the banks of the 
 Nile under the Ptolemies, at Babylon under the Seleu- 
 cides, or at Niniveh under Nabuchodonoser. '^ What 
 event of profane history, ^^ writes the Abb6 Gainet, '' can 
 boast of an unbroken succession of 3,500 anniversaries 
 such as those of which we have assurance in the history 
 of the Jews?''* 
 
 La Bible sans la Bible, vol. I., Etude pr^liminalre. 
 
IIL 
 
 THE TESTIMONY OF A CONFESSION. 
 
 The argument of the last chapter leads us to another 
 evidence which points to the historical authenticity of 
 the Hebrew Bible. It is plain, even upon superficial 
 examination of this book, that it contains, beside the 
 severest penalties for sin, the most stinging accusations of 
 infidelity against the people of God, and the most scorch- 
 ing rebukes of their crimes; it relates the transgressions 
 of their kings and princes and priests; in short, it records 
 everything which the Jewish nation and their rulers 
 must have been anxious to keep silent, or to mitigate 
 where it was necessary to write it down. Every reason of 
 prudence and national self-love must have suggested to 
 them to destroy such records where they existed, be- 
 cause they made their vaunted glory a story of everlast- 
 ing shame. Compare this historical record of the Jew- 
 ish people with the contemporary annals of the Assyrian, 
 Persian, Greek, or Roman monarchs. These are full of 
 extravagant laudations, of royal deeds of valor, of the 
 splendor of their victories over other nations; whereas 
 the statements of the Bible are simple, the narrative of 
 heroic acts and signal divine favors is constantly mingled 
 with incidents deeply self-humiliating for a race that 
 called itself chosen of God above all the Gentiles. The 
 
26 Chapters of Bible Study, 
 
 Jews record numerous defeats, shameful treacheries, and 
 errors of their most beloved kings. They rebel, they 
 commit every crime forbidden by the Law; yet whilst 
 they kill the prophets who charge them with ingratitude, 
 they patiently suffer the record of it all to go into the 
 books which they know will be read to all the people for 
 their shame. They make no attempt to minimize or 
 to excuse themselves to their children, however much 
 they love the glory of Israel and the splendor of Jeru- 
 salem as the one nation and city worthy of the most ex- 
 alted patriotic praise. Other nations made themselves 
 a religion in harmony with their passions, so as to soothe 
 the conscience. But the Jew finds a law of life given 
 him in the great book of Moses. He may fall from his 
 ideals, he may worship idols, but he never ceases to rec- 
 ognize that this is wrong because it is contrary to the 
 law of Jehovah. 
 
IV. 
 
 THE STONES CRY OUT. 
 
 The chain of documentary and circumstantial evidence 
 which points to the preservation, substantially intact, 
 of the Bible as an historic record of the highest pos- 
 sible trustworthiness is completed by the daily increasing 
 store of monuments which are brought to light, espe- 
 cially in Palestine, Assyria, and Egypt. Up to the mid- 
 dle of the present century the largest part of our knowl- 
 edge of the ancient nations was drawn from the Bible. 
 It was the one great treasure-house wherein the history 
 of the East was to be found. We had Greek and Eoman 
 and some Egyptian historians, but their knowledge was 
 confined to their own people, and needed to be supple- 
 mented by the details related in the Pentateuch, in Josue, 
 Judges, Kuth, the two Books of Samuel, the Books of 
 Kings, Paralipomenon, Esdras, Tobias, Judith, Esther, 
 and the Machabees, all of which are historical books 
 containing facts, statistics, constitutions, and dynastic 
 lines, without which profane history would still be a 
 doubtful and barren field of study. 
 
 But, lately, the studious industry of scholarly men 
 has gone over the ground of the old events, to test with 
 the instruments of historic criticism the veracity, and, 
 incidentally, the authenticity of the Bible record. Aid- 
 
 27 
 
28 Chapters of Bible Study. 
 
 ed by the royal munificence of governments and pri- 
 vate corporations, scholars went to search out and exam- 
 ine the monuments of antiquity in those parts where the 
 Jewish race had dwelt during the periods recounted in 
 the Bible. They found, mostly below the earth, and 
 sometimes beneath the flood-beds of streams and lakes, 
 traces in stone or clay or metal which pointed to fcheir 
 containing valuable information regarding the Persian, 
 Assyrian, Egyptian, and other nations with whom the 
 Hebrew people had come in contact. These traces were 
 sometimes in signs and languages not understood or 
 wholly unknown in our learned world, but with assid- 
 uous study the mysteries came, in course of time, to be 
 unravelled. The story of these discoveries is in various 
 ways extremely interesting, and we shall speak of them 
 more in detail later on. 
 
 Besides the primitive inscriptions just referred to, a 
 number of cities have been discovered which lay buried 
 for many centuries beneath the ground upon which after- 
 wards other races dwelt and built their homes. Exca- 
 vations in Palestine go, day by day, to explain, where 
 they do not simply corroborate, the statements of the 
 Bible. The diggings about the supposed ancient site of 
 Nineveh, in Babylonia, have unearthed the rains of an 
 immense library. Sir A. H. Layard, and subsequently 
 Mr. George Smith and Hormuzd Rassam, have brought 
 together a number of clay tablets which open an im- 
 mense world of Assyrian and Babylonian literature, 
 
The Stones Cry Out, 29 
 
 whose existence was hitherto known only by the indica- 
 tions given in the Book of Daniel and other historical por- 
 tions of the Bible concerning the conquerors of the Jews. 
 These discoveries^ as Mr. A. H. Sayce remarks in his 
 '' Fresh Lights from Ancient Monuments ^^ (page 17), 
 have not only '' shed a flood of light on the history and 
 antiquity of the Old Testament, but they have served to 
 illustrate and explain the language of the Old Testa- 
 ment as well.''^ 
 
 The evidence brought to light by these monuments 
 has left no doubt in the minds of scientific men as to the 
 facts that occurred three and four thousand years ago. 
 We read the inscriptions which bear witness to the work 
 of the Chaldean king IN'imrod, to Zoroaster the Elam- 
 ite, to Khamu-rabi, the Arab of the days of Moses; we 
 treasure as of primary historical importance the account 
 of Herodotus, who visited Babylon at the time when 
 Esdras and Nehemias, who were both ministers at the 
 court of Artaxerxes, wrote their continuation of the 
 Book of Chronicles for the Jewish brethren in Palestine. 
 When we read the works of Tacitus and Suetonius, of 
 Cicero and Virgil, all of whom indicate that they had 
 some knowledge of the Jewish sacred books, ^ we enter- 
 tain no doubt as to their existence or the authenticity 
 of their writings; yet men under the guise of scientific 
 criticism have sought to cast doubts upon the Biblical 
 records which have in their favor a documentary evi- 
 
 1 Cf. Hettinger-Bowden» *' Revealed Religion," page 158. 
 
*30 Chapters of Bible Study, 
 
 dence a hundred times more accurate and trustworthy 
 than any work of antiquity without exception in the 
 whole range of history. If apologists were silent, the 
 very stones would begin to cry out in behalf of the 
 authenticity and antiquity of the Biblical records. 
 Every day is bringing this truth into stronger relief. 
 ^' Discovery after discovery/' says Prof. Sayce, ''has 
 been pouring in upon us from Oriental lands, and the ac- 
 counts given only ten years ago of the results of Oriental 
 research are already beginning to be antiquated. . . . The 
 ancient world has been reawakened to life by the spade 
 of the explorer and the patient skill of the decipherer, 
 and we now find ourselves in the presence of monu- 
 ments which bear the names or recount the deeds of 
 the heroes of Scripture.^^ 
 
V. 
 
 HEAVENLY DOCTRINE. 
 
 "Whence but from heaven could men, unskilled in arts, 
 
 In several ages born, in several parts. 
 
 Weave such agreeing truths?" 
 
 (Dryden, Religio Laid.) 
 
 The Bible, regarded as a work of history which offers 
 us proofs of credibility beyond those of any secular work 
 of the same kind, has in its composition and style a re- 
 finement and loftiness of tone far superior to other writ- 
 ings of equal age which have come down to us. The 
 Jews ^^ attributed to these books, one and all of them, 
 a character which at once distinguishes them from all 
 other books, and caused the collection of them to be re- 
 garded in their eyes as one individual whole. This dis- 
 tinguishing character was the divine authority of every 
 one of those books and of every part of every book.^^* 
 This belief of the Jews was so strong, so universal, 
 so unchanging that, as has already been said, it per- 
 vaded and regulated their entire religious, political, and 
 social life during all the eventful centuries of Israelitish 
 history. 
 
 That our Lord knew of this belief, that He endorsed 
 it, preached and emphasized it repeatedly, is very evident 
 from the authentic narrative of the Gospels. Expres- 
 
 1 " The Sacred Scriptures," Humphrey. 
 
 31 
 
32 Chapters of Bible Study, 
 
 sions indicating this are to be found everywhere in the 
 writings of the evangelists: " Have you never read in the 
 Scriptures?'' He says to the Scribes in referring to the 
 words of the Psalmist (cxvii. 22): The stone which the 
 builders rejected, etc. (St. Matthew xxi. 42.) Again, a 
 little later on. He charges the Sadducees who say there is 
 no resurrection: ^^You err, not knowing the Script- 
 ures'' (Ibid. xxii. 29). In the Garden of Olives He 
 bears witness to the prophetic character of the Book of 
 Isaiah: "How then shall the Scriptures be fulfilled" 
 (Ibid. xxvi. 54)? And the historian, a friend and Apos- 
 tle of Christ, adds: "Now all this was done that the 
 Scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled " (Ibid. 
 56). St. John's Gospel, especially, abounds in references 
 like the foregoing, which point to the intimate relation 
 between the Messianic advent of Christ and the figures 
 of the Old Law, and assure us that the books of the 
 Prophets, as well as the accompanying historic accounts 
 of the Scriptural books generally, were regarded as the 
 sacred word of God, not only by the Jews, but by the dis- 
 ciples of Christ. 
 
 This sacred collection was generally spoken of as con- 
 sisting of three parts, namely, the Law, the Prophets, and 
 the Psalms. Philo and Josephus, both trained in the 
 schools of the Pharisees, mention the division as one well 
 understood among the Jews of their time. Christ Him- 
 self speaks of the Sacred Scriptures, in different places, 
 with this same distinction. 
 
Heavenly Doctrine, 3 3 
 
 I^ow the testimony of Christ, who proved Himself to 
 be the Son of God, and therefore unerring truth, is ex- 
 plicit in so far as it appeals with a supreme and infalli- 
 ble authority to the Jewish Scriptures as to a testimo- 
 ny not human, hut divine. '^ Have you not read that 
 which was spoken hy Godf He says, referring to the 
 Mosaic Law in Exodus iii. 6 (St. Matt. xxii. 31). Many 
 times He speaks of the Scriptures ^' that they may be 
 fulfilled,^^ thus indicating that they contain that which 
 lay in the future, and whose foreknowledge must have 
 come from God. This testimony of Our Lord is strength- 
 ened by the interpretation of His Apostles in the same 
 sense. 
 
 Yet although the testimony of Christ and the Apos- 
 tles regarding the fact that the Books of the Law and 
 the Prophets and the Psalms are divinely inspired, is 
 very explicit, we have nowhere a clear statement or a cat- 
 alogue which might assure us what books and parts of 
 books are actually comprised in this collection of the 
 Sacred Scriptures of which our Lord speaks. Christ 
 approves as the word of God those writings which were 
 accepted as such among the Jews of His day, but He 
 does not give us any definite security by this general en- 
 dorsement that every chapter, every verse, much less 
 every word of the Bible, as we have received it, is actually 
 inspired. We are not therefore quite sure from the evi- 
 dence thus far given that the Old Testament, as we 
 have it, has in every part of it the sanction of Christ^s 
 
34 Chapters of Bible Study, 
 
 testimony to its being truly the word of God. As to the 
 New Testament, we know that, however accurate and 
 trustworthy as a history of the times in which it was 
 composed it may be, yet it could not have had the ex- 
 plicit approval of our Lord, simply because it had not 
 been written and was not completed for about a hundred 
 years after His death and glorious resurrection. 
 
 Yet we accept the New Testament as also inspired 
 in just the same authoritative way as we receive the 
 Hebrew writings of the Old Law. And nothing but a 
 divine testimony, such as that of Christ, could assure us 
 sufficiently that in the Sacred Scriptures we have the 
 word of God. 
 
 What criterion have we by which to determine precise- 
 ly what books and parts belong to this collection of 
 Old Testament writings of which Christ speaks as the 
 word of God? What authority have we, moreover, for 
 believing the entire New Testament inspired, since it 
 was written after the time of Christ? If Luther and 
 other reformers, so-called, threw out some portions of 
 the sacred text, by what standard or criterion were they 
 guided? Some have answered that we need not the testi- 
 mony of Christ or any other equally explicit proof to 
 determine what parts belong to this collection of writ- 
 ings representing the inspired word of God. They hold, 
 with Calvin, that a certain spiritual unction inherent in 
 the Sacred Scriptures determines their source, and pro- 
 duces in the devout reader an interior sensation which 
 
Heavenly Doctrine, 35 
 
 gives him an absolute conviction of the truth. But 
 common experience teaches that devout feelings may be 
 produced by books which are not inspired, nay, by posi- 
 tively irreligious books, which appeal to our better sen- 
 sitive nature in some passages whilst they destroy a prop- 
 er regard for virtue in others. Moreover, the " abso- 
 lute conviction of the truth ^^ to be deduced from the 
 reading of the Sacred Scriptures is belied by a similar 
 experience, since various sects draw opposing conclusions 
 from the same texts. As truth cannot contradict it- 
 self, and as Christ prayed that His followers all be of 
 one mind, we do not feel safe in admitting mere subjec- 
 tive feeling and judgment as a test of what is God^s word. 
 
 Therefore we must look for some other criterion. 
 Indeed, if our Lord wished us to accept the Sacred 
 Scriptures, including the New Testament, which was 
 written many years after His time, and for .a long time 
 was known only to very much separated portions of the 
 faithful, we may be quite sure that He provided a means, 
 an authoritative and clear method, which would lead 
 us to an unerring conclusion in regard to what is and 
 what is not the inspired word of God. This would be 
 all the more necessary for those who regard the Bible as 
 the principal rule and source of their faith. 
 
 It is a well-established historical fact that Christ 
 taught some '^ new doctrines, ^^ as they were called, and 
 that He gave a commission to His followers, which they 
 repeated and carried out at the sacrifice of their lives. 
 
36 Chapters of Bible Study. 
 
 There is no obscurity whatever about certain words and 
 precepts given by our Lord, historically recorded by six 
 of His Apostles and by many of His disciples who had 
 heard and seen Him, who honestly and intelligently be- 
 lieved in Him, and who were prepared to die, and in some 
 cases actually did suffer martyrdom for the assertions 
 they made. He bade them teach all nations the things 
 He had taught them. He did not give them a book, as 
 He might have done, nor did He tell them to write 
 books; for some of the Apostles never wrote anything; 
 and of those who did write in later days, some had actu- 
 ally never seen our Lord. Such is the common belief 
 regarding St. Paul, who wrote more than any other of the 
 evangelical writers. St. Luke, in the very opening of his 
 Gospel, tells us that he wrote what had been delivered 
 to him by those who were eye-witnesses and ministers of 
 the word. Our Lord did not, therefore, give His dis- 
 ciples a book, but He was very explicit in making them 
 understand and feel that He gave them an unerring 
 Spirit, who would be just the same as Himself, verily 
 identical with their living Master and Teacher, Christ, 
 who would abide with them to the end of time. " Be- 
 hold, I am with you all days, even to the consummation 
 of the world J' To the consummation of the world? 
 And were they never to die? "Were they actually to go, 
 as some believed of St. John, to perpetuate the kingdom 
 Ox Christ, wandering over the earth until all the nations 
 were converted? Not so. They were to deliver His 
 
Heavenly Doctrine, 37 
 
 doctrine to their successors, and the Holy Spirit, the Para- 
 clete, would watch over it until the end of ages. St. Peter 
 would live, in this sense, forever, and all the opposing 
 forges of error, the mighty gates of hell, would not over- 
 come that Spirit any more than they would triumph over 
 Christ, who had ^^ overcome the world. ^'' To St. Peter 
 He said: ^^To thee I give the keys of the kingdom of 
 heaven; '^ '' Confirm thou thy brethren. ^^ All this was 
 to go on and on, so that every human creature could 
 come into possession of truth through this unerring 
 Spirit that presided over the Christian doctrine. And 
 this perpetual transmission of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit 
 of Truth, who would guide the future teachers and 
 preside over their councils as at the first councils of 
 Antioch and Jerusalem, — this perpetual transmission 
 through a body like the apostolic body, ever living, 
 ever guarded from error, ever triumphant amid humili- 
 ations, what else is it but the Church, that glorious heri- 
 tage of ages, which we recognize through all time in 
 every land, holding every class and condition with the 
 wondrous power of its unity of doctrine and discipline! 
 Kow it is this body, this ever-living and unchanging 
 organism, this grand apostolic tribunal, which Christ es- 
 tablished, and without which His mission to men would 
 really have remained incomplete, that tells us that the 
 things which some of the Apostles and some of the dis- 
 ciples wrote for our instruction and edification are in- 
 spired by the same holy and infallible Spirit which 
 
38 Chapters of Bible Study. 
 
 guided the Apostles in their oral teaching. Not all 
 things were written there, as St. John tells us, but many 
 things which they had taught, and which would keep the 
 people, with whom the Apostles could not be ever pres- 
 ent, in mind of that doctrine. The written things were 
 not intended to replace the spoken word of doctrinal 
 jurisdiction, for the evangelical teaching of the spoken 
 word was to go on to the end; besides, there were many 
 who could not read, and many who might listen but 
 would not read. Futhermore, there would be need of a 
 living apostolic tribunal, since a written doctrine, like 
 a written law, is liable to various and sometimes contra- 
 dictory interpretations. We have constitutions and 
 laws, but we need judges and courts to decide the mean- 
 ing and application, and if it were not that men forget 
 the order of justice, or are too remote from the centres 
 of jurisdiction, we should not need any written laws at 
 all. Communities may be governed by a wise superior 
 without any written laws, and in no case does the writ- 
 ten law dispense with the necessity of a discretionary liv- 
 ing authority. It is quite evident that in the matter of 
 truth God wished His Apostles to use all the instrujnents 
 by which that truth might be safely and rightly com- 
 municated, and thus the written word was added to the 
 living teaching which the Holy Ghost was ever to direct 
 and safeguard. 
 
 I repeat: Christ did not give His disciples a book, but 
 a living, infallible spirit, abiding with them to the end of 
 
Heavenly Doctrine, 39 
 
 time, as He said; and since the Apostles were not to re- 
 main on earth to the end of the world, what else could 
 our Lord have meant but that others would take their 
 place on the same conditions, with the same prerogatives! 
 That He wished and said this is written over and over 
 again in the sacred volume, and by men who, if they 
 had held this grand trust only for themselves, would 
 have had every reason to say so. But they state the con- 
 trary. St. Peter ordains St. Paul; St. Paul sends Tim- 
 othy and Titus to the new converts on the same condi- 
 tions, bidding them to preserve intact the grace that is 
 in them ^^ through the imposition of hands. ^^ And the 
 successive generations of Pontiffs who take the place of 
 Peter and Paul and Timothy and Titus are the grand 
 tribunal for the transmission of Christ^s doctrine. 
 
 That tribunal, from St. Peter down to Leo XIIL, is 
 the authority: ^^ Christ having sent them, even as the 
 Father had sent Him/^ which tells us that the books of 
 the Sacred Scriptures, such as we have them, and as 
 they are singly defined in what is called the Catholic 
 Canon of Biblical Books, are truly and really the word 
 of God, and were written under the impulsion of the Holy 
 Spirit. 
 
VI. 
 
 THE VICIOUS CIRCLE. 
 
 In the preceding chapter it was said that the Sacred 
 Scripture of the New Testament contains Christ^s state- 
 ments according to which He founded an ever-living 
 tribunal of doctrine which decided the question of what 
 books are, and what books are not inspired, whenever 
 there is any doubt about such books. Perhaps you will 
 say: '' But is this not arguing in a circle — a vicious cir- 
 cle, as philosophers say? You prove the existence of 
 the Church as the tribunal to determine what books be- 
 long to the Sacred Scriptures from the words of the 
 Bible; and then you turn about and prove the inspira- 
 tion of the Bible from the authority of the Church/^ 
 Now mark the difference. When in my first argument 
 I refer to the Bible as containing Christ^s statement and 
 the commission given to His Apostles, 1 am taking the 
 testimony of the Bible, not as an inspired or divine 
 book, but simply as a trustworthy historical record which 
 tells us the fact, repeated by several eye-witnesses and 
 sincere men, such as the evangelists and apostolical 
 writers, that Christ, of whose divinity they were con- 
 vinced, had said and emphasized the fact that He meant 
 to found a Church. And as that Church was to have 
 the divine spirit abiding in it, guiding its decisions, it 
 
 40 
 
The Sacred Pen, 4 1 
 
 came naturally within the province of that Church to 
 define whether certain booJis were to be regarded as 
 really inspired by that Holy Spirit. Thus the Church 
 placed upon these books the mark and sign-manual of 
 that commission which she had unquestionably received. 
 But I am constrained^ for the sake of completing our 
 present aspect of the subject, to say something on the 
 character and extent of that divine element which Jews 
 and Christians recognize when they accept the Sacred 
 Scriptures as the word of God. 
 
 VII. 
 
 THE SACRED PEN. 
 
 We have seen that the Biblical writings bear the un- 
 mistakable impress of a divine purpose. The nature 
 of that purpose is likewise clearly enunciated on every 
 page of Holy Writ. Man in his fallen condition stands in 
 need of law and example, of precept and promise. These 
 God gives him. We read in Exodus (Chap, iii.) that He 
 first speaks to Moses, giving him His commands regard- 
 ing the liberation and conduct of His people out of 
 Egypt. Later on, in the desert on Mount Sinai, '' Moses 
 spoke, and God answered him '^ (Chap. xix. 19); and 
 ^' Moses went down to the people and told them all '^ 
 (Ibid. 25). N^ext we read (Chap. xxiv. 12) that the 
 Lord said to Moses: '^ I will give thee tables of stone, and 
 
42 Chapters of Bible Study. 
 
 the law, and the commandments which I have written, 
 that thou may est teach them." 
 
 Here God announces Himself as the writer of ^^ the 
 Law and the Commandments/^ although we receive 
 them in the handwriting of Moses. Is Moses a mere 
 amanuensis, writing under dictation? No. He is the 
 intelligent, free instrument, writing under the direct in- 
 spiration of God. In this sense God is the true author 
 or writer of the Sacred Scriptures, making His action 
 plain to the sense and understanding of His children 
 through the medium of a man whom He inspires to ex- 
 ecute His work. 
 
 How does this inspiration act on the writer who os- 
 tensibly executes the divine work? We answer: God 
 moves the will of the ivriter, and illumines his intellect, 
 iminting out to him at the same time the subject-matter 
 ivhich he is to write down, a7idpreservi7ig him from er- 
 ror in the completion of his committed task. 
 
 Looking attentively at this definition of Scriptural in- 
 spiration, a number of questions arise at once in our 
 minds. God moves the will, enlightens the mind, and 
 points out the subject-matter which the inspired writer 
 commits to paper. Is the writer under the influence of 
 the divine impulsion so possessed by the inspired virtue 
 that he acts without any freedom, either as regards the 
 manner of his expression or the use of previously ac- 
 quired knowledge concerning the subject of which he 
 writes? 
 
The Sacred Pen, 43 
 
 I answer: No. God moves the will of the writer; He 
 does not annihilate it or absorb it, unless in the sense 
 that He brings it, by a certain illumination of the intel- 
 lect, to a conformity with His own. Hence the manner 
 and method of expression retain the traces of the indi- 
 viduality of the writer, that is to say, of his views and 
 feelings as determined by the ordinary habits of life and 
 the range of his previous knowledge. The idea of the 
 divine authorship of the Sacred Scriptures by no means 
 requires that the truths which God willed to be con- 
 tained therein could not or should not have been other- 
 wise known to the inspired writers : '' Their use of 
 study, their investigation of documents, their interroga- 
 tion of witnesses and other evidence, and their excuses 
 for rusticity of style and poverty of language show this 
 only, that they were not inanimate, but living, intelli- 
 gent, and rational instruments — that they were men, and 
 not machines. . . . They were employed in a manner 
 which corresponded to, and which became the nature, 
 the mode, and the conditions of their being. Previous 
 knowledge of certain truths by men can be no reason 
 why God should not conceive and will such truths to be 
 communicated by means of Scripture to His Church. 
 . . . Hence the idea of inspiration does not exclude hu- 
 man industry, study, the use of documents and wit- 
 nesses, and other aids in order to the conceiving of such 
 truths, so long as it includes a supernatural operation 
 and direction of God, which effects that the mind of the 
 
44 Chapters of Bible Study. 
 
 inspired writer should conceive all those truths^ and 
 those only which God would have him communicate/^ ^ 
 And herein lies the diiference between inspiration and 
 revelation, the latter being the manifestation of some- 
 thing previously unknown to the writer. 
 
 The second question, which naturally occurs in con- 
 nection with the one just answered, is whether we are to 
 consider that the words, just as we read them in the 
 Bible, are inspired in such wise that we may not con- 
 ceive of the sacred text having any other meaning than 
 that to which its verbal expression limits it. 
 
 There are many reasons why we need not feel bound 
 to accept the theory of literal or verlal inspiration of 
 the Bible, although such opinion has been defended by 
 eminent theologians, who wished thereby to defend the 
 integrity of the sacred volume against the wanton inter- 
 ference with the received text on the part of innovators 
 and so-called religious reformers. 
 
 In the first place, the theory of verbal inspiration is 
 not essential to the maintenance of the absolute integ- 
 rity of a written revelation. That revelation proposes 
 truths and facts, and whilst the terms employed for the 
 expression of these truths and facts must fit adequately 
 to convey the sense, they admit of a certain variety 
 without thereby in the least injuring the accuracy of 
 statements. This is applicable not only to single words, 
 
 1 Vid. " The Sacred Scriptures ; or. The Written Word of God." By William 
 Humphrey, S. J.— London, Art and Book Co., 1894. 
 
The Sacred Pen, 45 
 
 but to phrases and forms of diction, and to figures of il- 
 lustration. 
 
 Secondly, the sacred writers themselves abundantly 
 indicate the freedom which may be exercised or allowed 
 in the verbal declaration of divinely inspired truths. 
 Many of them repeat the same facts and doctrines in 
 different words. This is the case even with regard 
 to events of the gravest character, such as the insti- 
 tution of the Blessed Eucharist, in which there can be 
 no room for a difference of interpretation as to the true 
 sense. 
 
 St. Matthew (xxvi. 26-28), for example, records the 
 act of consecration by our Lord on the eve of His pas- 
 sion in the following words: ^' Take ye and eat: This is 
 My Body. . . . Drink ye all of this, for this is My Blood 
 of the new Testament, which shall be shed for many for 
 the remission of sins.^^ 
 
 St. Mark (xiv. 22-24) writes: ^^Take ye. This is My 
 Body. . . . This is My Blood of the new Testament, which 
 shall be shed for many.^^ 
 
 St. Luke (xxii. 19-20) says: '' This is My Body, which 
 is given for you. . . . This is the chalice, the new Testa- 
 ment in My Blood, which shall be shed for you.^^ 
 
 St. Paul (I. Cor. xi. 24-25) has it: " This is My Body, 
 which shall be delivered for you. . . . This chalice is the 
 new Testament in My Blood. ^^ 
 
 These four witnesses cite very important words spoken 
 by our Lord on a most solemn occasion. St. Matthew 
 
46 Chapters of Bible Study. 
 
 was present at the Last Supper. He wrote in the very 
 language employed by our Lord, and we have every rea- 
 son to believe that he could remember and wished to re- 
 member exactly what our Lord had said on so impor- 
 tant a subject, especially when he, with the other Apos- 
 tles, was told to do the same act in remembrance of their 
 Master when He should be no longer with them in visi- 
 ble human form. St. Mark, St. Luke, and St. Paul never- 
 theless vary the expression of this tremendous mystery 
 in all but the words: '' This is My Body.^^ They drew 
 their knowledge of the form of the institution of the Bles- 
 sed Sacrament from St. Peter; at least we know that St. 
 Peter revised and approved of St. Mark^s Gospel,^ and 
 St. Paul and St. Luke evidently obtained their knowl- 
 edge of the Christian faith from a common source, 
 which the chief of the Apostles controlled. They had 
 every opportunity to consult St. Mark, and there might 
 have been reason for doing so since they wrote in Greek, 
 whereas St. Matthew retained the Hebrew idiom, but 
 evidently neither they nor St. Peter deemed a literal or 
 verbal rendering of the sacramental form essential, pro- 
 vided the true version of our Lord's action was faithfully 
 given. 
 
 Furthermore, the claim of verbal inspiration implies 
 a necessity of having recourse to the original language 
 in which the inspired writers composed their works, 
 
 1 Clement Alex.— Euseb., H. E., H. xv. 1 ; VI. xi?. 6 ; XX. clxxii. 552. Also 
 Hieron., De Vir. 111., VIII. xxlii. 621, etc. 
 
The Sacred Pen, 47 
 
 since it is quite impossible that translations can in every 
 case adequately render the exact meaning conveyed by 
 an idiom no longer living. ■ But the necessity of refer- 
 ring to the Hebrew, Chaldee, or Greek text in order to 
 verify the true sense of an expression would place the 
 Bible beyond the reach of all but a few scholars, for 
 whose exclusive benefit the generally popular style of 
 the Bible forbids us to think they were primarily in- 
 tended. 
 
 Finally, we have the indication by writers of both the 
 Old and New Testaments that what they wrote was not 
 conveyed to them by way of dictation, but that the di- 
 vine thought conceived in their own minds was rendered 
 by them with such imperfections of expression as be- 
 longed wholly to the human element of the instrument 
 which God employed, and could in nowise be attributed 
 to the Holy Ghost, who permitted His revelation to be 
 communicated through channels of various kinds and 
 degrees of material form. Thus the writer of the sacred 
 Book of Machabees (11. Mach. ii. 24, etc.) apologizes 
 for his style of writing. St. Paul (I. Cor. ii. 13; II. 
 Cor. xi. 6) gives us to understand that his words fall 
 short of the requirements of the rhetorician, but that he 
 is satisfied to convey 'Hhe doctrine of the Spirit/' 
 
VIII. 
 
 THE MELODY AND HARMONY OF THE "VOX 
 CCELESTIS." 
 
 But, you will say, whilst it is plain that we need not 
 adhere to the text of Holy Writ so strictly as to suppose 
 that each single word is the only exact representation 
 of the thought or truth with which God inspired the 
 writer, it seems difficult to see where you can draw the 
 line between the teaching of God and its interpretation 
 by man who is not bound by definite words. In other 
 words, if verbal inspiration is not to be admitted, how 
 far does inspiration actually extend in the formation of 
 the written text? 
 
 I should answer that inspiration extends to the truths 
 SLiid facts contained in the Bible, absolutely; that it ex- 
 tends to the terms in which these truths and facts are ex- 
 pressed, relatively. The former cannot vary ; the lat- 
 ter may vary according to the disposition or the circum- 
 stances of thewriter. It may be allowable to express this 
 distinction by a comparison of Biblical with musical in- 
 spiration. Taking music, not as a mechanical art, but 
 as an expression of the soul, or, as Milton puts it, of 
 ^ ' Strains that might create a soul, " 
 
 we distinguish between the conception of the melody 
 and its accompaniment of harmonious chords. The 
 
 48 
 
The Melody and Harmony of the '* Vox Coolest is.'' 49 
 
 former constitutes^ so to speak, the theme, the truth, 
 or motive of the artistic conception, which the com- 
 poser seizes under his inspiration. When he goes to 
 communicate the expression of this musical truth or 
 melody through the instrument he at once and instinc- 
 tively avails himself of the chords which, by way of ac- 
 companiment, emphasize the musical truth which his' 
 soul utters through the instrument, according to the 
 peculiar nature or form of the latter. These chords of 
 the accompaniment are not the leading motive or truth 
 of his theme, but they are equally true with it. They 
 may vary, even whilst he uses the same instrument, but 
 the melody must ever observe the exact distances be- 
 tween the sounds in its finished form, and cannot be al- 
 tered without changing the motive of the piece. 
 
 The inspiration of tlie Sacred Text offers an analogy 
 to that of the artist musician. The divine melody of 
 truths and facts is definitely communicated to the in- 
 spired composer of the Sacred Books. Sometimes he 
 sings loud and with strong emphasis, sometimes he barely 
 breathes his heavenly tones, yet they are no uncertain 
 notes; they allow of no alteration, addition, or omission. 
 But in the accompanying chords he takes now one set, 
 now another, remaining in the same clef, ever true to 
 the melody, yet manifold in the variety of expressing 
 that truth. Even the seeming discords, which, taken 
 by themselves, look like errors, prove to be part of the 
 great theme; when rightly understood they are buttran- 
 
50 Chapters of Bible Study, 
 
 sition chords which prepare us for the complete realiza- 
 tion of the succeeding harmony into which they resolve 
 themselves. 
 
 IX. 
 
 THE VOICE FROM THE ROCK. 
 
 Does the Church indorse the definition of Scriptural 
 inspiration which has been given in the two preceding 
 chapters? The Church has said very little on the sub- 
 ject of the inspiration of the Sacred Scriptures, but 
 enough to serve us as a definition and as an expression 
 of its limitations. The Councils of Florence and Trent 
 simply state that '^ the Sacred Scriptures, having been 
 written under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, have 
 God for their author.^^ How much may be deduced 
 from this was made clear by the late Vatican Council 
 ( Constit., de Fide, cap. ii. ), which holds that ^Hhe 
 Church regards these books (enumerated in the Tri- 
 dentine Canon), as sacred and canonical, not because, 
 having been composed through the care and industry of 
 men, they were afterwards approved by the authority of 
 the Church, nor simply because they contain revealed 
 truth without error, but because they were written under 
 the inspiration of the Holy Ghost in such a way as to 
 have God for their author. . .J^ * 
 
 1 See on this subject P. Brucker's recently published work " Questions Ac- 
 tiieUes (VEcriture Sainte,'"' par le B. P. Jos. Brucker, S, J.: Paris^ Victor 
 Retaux^ which treats admirably this part of our subject. 
 
The Voice from the Rock. 5 1 
 
 By this definition two distinct theories of inspiration 
 are censured as contrary to Catholic teaching. The first 
 is that which has been called subseque?it inspiration, 
 according to which a book might be written wliolly 
 through human industry, but receiving afterwards the 
 testimony of express divine apj)roval, might become the 
 written word of God. This teaching is not admissible 
 inasmuch as it exchides the divine authorship of the 
 Scriptures. 
 
 A second theory condemned by the above clause of the 
 Vatican Council as untenable on Catholic principles is 
 that which is called negative inspiration. Its defenders 
 hold that the extent of the divine action in tlie compo- 
 sition of the Sacred Scriptures is limited to the exclusion 
 of errors from the sacred volume. This would restrict 
 the value of the truth revealed in the Bible to a mere 
 exposition of human knowledge containing no actual 
 misstatements of fact. 
 
A SOURCE OF GENERAL INFORMATION AND CUL- 
 TURE. 
 
 Among the many interesting letters which St. Jerome 
 lias left us there is one to Laeta, a noble lady of Eome^ 
 regarding the education of her little daughter, Paula. 
 An aunt of the child was at the time in Bethlehem, 
 where, amid the very scenes where our Lord was born, 
 she studied the Holy Scriptures in the Hebrew and 
 Greek tongues, as was then the habit of educated Chris- 
 tian ladies. St. Jerome would have the child Paula trained 
 in all the arts and sciences that could refine her mind 
 and lead it to its highest exercise in that singularly 
 gifted nature. To this end he bids Laeta cultivate in 
 the child an early knowledge of the Sacred Scriptures. 
 With a touching simplicity the aged Saint enters into 
 minute details of the daily training, — how the childish 
 hands are to form the ivory letters, which serve her as 
 playthings, into the names of the prophets and saints 
 of the Old Testament; how later she is to commit to 
 memory, each day, choice sayings, flowers of wisdom 
 culled from the sacred writers, and how, finally, he is 
 to come to the Holy Land and learn from her aunt the 
 lofty erudition and understanding of the Bible, a book 
 which contains and unfolds to him who knows how 
 
 53 
 
A Source of General Information and Culture, 53 
 
 to read it rightly all the wisdom of ages^ practical and 
 in principle, surpassing the classic beauty of those re- 
 nowned Eoman writers of whose works St. Jerome him- 
 self had been once so passionately fond that they haunt- 
 ed him in his dreams. 
 
 It must not be supposed, however, that the judgment 
 of so erudite a man as St. Jerome in placing the study 
 of the Sacred Scriptures above all other branches of a 
 higher education was based upon a purely spiritual 
 view. He realized what escapes the superficial reader 
 of the inspired writings: that they are not only a li- 
 brary of religious thought, but, in every truest sense of 
 the word, a compendium of general knowledge. The 
 sacred volumes are a code and digest of law, of politi- 
 cal, social, and domestic economy; a book of history the 
 most comprehensive and best authenticated of all writ- 
 ten records back to the remotest ages; a summary of 
 practical lessons and maxims for every sphere of life; 
 a treasury of beautiful thoughts and reflections, which 
 instruct at once and elevate, and thus serve as a most 
 effective means of education. That this is no exagger- 
 ation is attested by men like the pagans of old, who, 
 becoming acquainted with the sacred books, valued 
 them, though they saw in them nothing of that special 
 divine revelation which the Jew and Christian recog- 
 nize. We read in history how, nearly three hundred 
 years before our Lord, Ptolemy Philadelphus, the most 
 cultured of all the Egyptian kings, and founder of the 
 
54 Chapters of Bible Study, 
 
 famous Alexandrian University, which for centuries out- 
 shone every other institution of learning by the renown 
 of its teachers, sent a magnificent embassy to the High- 
 priest Eleazar at Jerusalem to ask him for a copy of the 
 Sacred Law of the Jews. So greatly did he esteem its 
 possession that he offered for the right of translating 
 the Pentateuch alone six hundred talents of gold ($576,- 
 000), and liberty to all the Jewish captives in his do- 
 minion, to the number of about 150,000 (some histori- 
 ans give the number at 100,000, others at 200,000). 
 
 There exists a spurious account, ascribed to Aristeas, 
 one of Ptolemy's ministers, who is said to have accom- 
 panied the royal embassy to Jerusalem for the purpose 
 of urging the king's request. According to this story, 
 which is in form of a letter written by Aristeas to his 
 brother Philocrates, six rabbis, equally well versed in 
 the Hebrew and Greek languages, were selected by the 
 high-priest from each of the twelve tribes. The seven- 
 ty-two rabbis were invited to the palace of the king, who, 
 whilst entertaining them for some time, publicly asked 
 them questions relating to civil government and moral 
 philosophy, so that by this means he might test their 
 knowledge and judgment. Many of these questions, cu- 
 rious and quaint, have been preserved, and are intended 
 to show the wisdom of Ptolemy and his desire to raise 
 his government to a high level of moral and political 
 perfection. Among the guests who were present at the 
 king's table we find Demetrius Phalereus, the famous 
 
A Source of General Information and Culture, 5 5 
 
 librarian, Euclid, the mathematician, Theocritus, the 
 Greek poet philosopher, and Manetho, the Egyptian his- 
 torian, together with other equally learned and illus- 
 trious scholars and literary artists. 
 
 Later on the seventy-two translators, according to the 
 same tradition, which has come to us through some of 
 the old ecclesiastical writers, were brought to the island 
 of Pharos, where they went to work in separate cells, 
 undisturbed and living according to a uniform rule, un- 
 til the entire work of translation had been accomplished. 
 Then the results were compared, and it was found that 
 the translations of all agreed in a wonderful manner, and 
 the Jews accepted it as a work done under the special 
 protection of Jehovah. 
 
 Whatever we may hold as to the accuracy of the above 
 account and its pretended origin, it is certain that the 
 story was current before the time of Christ, it being 
 credited by Philo, who repeats it in his Life of Moses, 
 and by Josephus, as well as by St. Justin Martyr and 
 others of the early Christian Fathers. All agree that 
 the Septuagint translation was made about the time of 
 Ptolemy, and that the Jews of Alexandria and Palestine 
 held it in equal veneration as a faithful copy of the 
 Mosaic books, whilst the pagans regarded it in the light 
 of a wonderfully complete code of laws — civil, domestic, 
 and moral. 
 
 Eeference has already been made to the Sacred Script- 
 ures as constituting the oldest and best-authenticated 
 
56 Chapters of Bible Study. 
 
 record of ancient history. From it we draw the main 
 store of our information regarding the beginnings of hu- 
 man society in the Eastern countries of Mesopotamia, 
 early Chaldea, Assyria, Persia, Arabia, and Egypt, all of 
 which are grouped around the common centre, Palestine, 
 where the principal scenes of the Old and New Testa- 
 ment narrative are laid. 
 
 But it is not only in the departments of history and 
 geography that the Bible represents the most extensive 
 and reliable source of information hitherto open to the 
 student of mental culture. The sacred books, although 
 never intended to serve a purely scientific purpose, have 
 within recent years become recognized indicators which 
 throw light upon doubtful paths in the investigation 
 of certain scientific facts. Sir William Dawson, one of 
 the leading investigators of our day, has lately published 
 his Lowell lectures, in which he shows how science at 
 last confirms and illustrates the teaching of Holy Writ 
 regarding geology and the creation of man.' Similar 
 conclusions are being daily reached in different fields of 
 scientific research, and the words of Jean Paul regarding 
 the first page of the Mosaic record, as containing more 
 real knowledge than all the folios of men of science and 
 philosophy, are proving themselves true in other respects 
 also. We may be allowed to cite here from Geikie's 
 ^^ Hours With the Bible ^^ the testimony of the late Dr. 
 
 > " Meeting-place of Geology and History," 1894. Fleming H. Revell CJo., 
 New York. 
 
A Source of General Information and Culture. 57 
 
 McCanl, who gives us a legitimate view of the latest 
 results of science as compared with the Mosaic record of 
 the Bible. 
 
 ^^ Moses/^ he says, ^^ relates how God created the heav- 
 ens and the earth at an indefinitely remote period, before 
 the earth was the habitation of man: Geology has late- 
 ly discovered the existence of a long prehuman period. 
 A comparison with other Scriptures ( i, e., those written 
 after the Pentateuch, or Mosaic account) shows that the 
 ^^ heavens '' of Moses include the abode of angels and 
 the place of the fixed stars, which existed before the 
 earth: Astronomy points out remote worlds, whose light 
 began its journey long before the existence of man. Moses 
 declares that the earth was or became covered with water, 
 and was desolate and empty: Geology has found by in- 
 vestigation that the primitive globe was covered with a 
 uniform ocean, and that there was a long azoic period, 
 during which neither plant nor animal could live. Moses 
 states that there was a time when the earth was not de- 
 pendent on the sun for light or heat; when, therefore, 
 there could be no climatic differences: Geology has late- 
 ly verifed this statement by finding tropical plants and 
 animals scattered over all places of the earth. Moses 
 affirms that the sun, as well as the moon, is only alight 
 holder: Astronomy declares that the sun is a non-lumi- 
 nous body, dependent for its light on aluminous atmos- 
 phere. Moses asserts that the earth existed before the 
 sun was given as a luminary: Modern science proposes 
 
58 Chapters of Bible Study, 
 
 a theory which explains how this was possible. Moses 
 asserts that there is an expanse extending from earth to 
 distant heigh tS;, in which the heavenly bodies are placed: 
 Eecent discoveries lead to the supposition of some subtile 
 fluid medium in which they move. Moses describes the 
 process of creation as gradual, and mentions the order 
 in which living things appeared: plants, fishes, fowls, 
 land animals, man: By the study of nature, geolo- 
 gy has arrived independently at the same conclusion. 
 Whence did Moses get all this knowledge? How was it 
 that he worded his rapid sketch with such scientific accu- 
 racy? If he in his day possessed the knowledge which 
 genius and science have attained only recently, that 
 knowledge is superhuman. If he did not possess the 
 knowledge, then his pen must have been guided by 
 superhuman wisdom ^^ ( Aids to Faith, p. 232). 
 
 Some years ago much ado was made by certain scep- 
 tics about the chronology of the Bible, as if the discrep- 
 ancies of a few figures could undo the manifest authen- 
 ticity of the vast store of facts vouched in the grand col- 
 lection of Biblical books. These discrepancies are being 
 gradually explained. It may be that we err in proper- 
 ly understanding the Oriental habits of counting gene- 
 alogies, or that the method of the first transcribers led 
 to inaccuracy, despite the care used in the copying and 
 preservation of the text. When we remember that He- 
 brew signs, very closely resembling each other, denote 
 often great differences, clear enough, no doubt, at first. 
 
A Source of General Information and Culture, 59 
 
 but becoming indistinct in the course of time, we can- 
 not wonder that some words and expressions present to 
 the ordinary reader a mystery, or even seeming contra- 
 diction. It is not necessary to understand the ancient 
 tongue in order to realize this fact. In the first place, 
 the similarity of Hebrew characters which represent 
 great numerical differences must have easily led to er- 
 rors by the copyists, which caused difficulty to the later 
 transcribers unless they had a reliable tradition to correct 
 the mistake. Thus the letter ^ {Beth) represents two, 
 whilst^ {Kaph) rei[>Yesents twenty. By placing two small 
 dots above either of these two characters you multiply 
 them by a thousand, ^ representing two thousand and ^ 
 twenty thousand. The letter *| (Vav) is equivalent to 
 six, another letter very like it inform, ] (Zayin), h sev- 
 en, whilst both of these characters represent a variety of 
 meanings: oftenest ) ( Vav) is a copula, at other times it 
 stands at the beginning of a discourse, or introduces the 
 apodosis, oris simply an intensive, or adversative; some- 
 times it is prefixed to a future tense, and turns it into an 
 imperfect, etc. Again, there are special reasons why 
 certain combinations of letters stand for numerals, con- 
 trary to the ordinary rule. Thus fifteen is expressed by 
 ']^=9 + 6, instead of J^*', because the name of God com- 
 mences with the latter characters mn*' (Jehovah), etc. 
 Furthermore, many of the signs used as numerals had 
 fixed symbolical significations, and were not meant to be 
 taken as literal quantities. 
 
6o Chapters of Bible Study, 
 
 Moreover, in all the old Hebrew writings the conso- 
 nants only are expressed. Thus it happens that the same 
 written characters may denote different things, some- 
 times contradictory, unless living tradition could supply 
 the true signification. Thus the word "^ ^ nieans son 
 (Ps. ii. 12), or it may be an adjective signifying chosen 
 (Cant. vi. 9), or, again, clear (Cant. vi. 10), or empty 
 (Prov. xiv. 4). Besides these primary meanings it 
 stands for corn or graiii, for open fields or country, for 
 a /)'//, fov salt of lye (vegetable salt), and ior pureness. 
 The true signification in each passage is not always clear 
 from the context, and critics are frequently at a loss to 
 divine the sense intended by the writer. 
 
 But whilst these discrepancies and obscurities are a 
 momentary source of distraction, they arouse not only 
 zeal for the study of the sacred languages, by which 
 means philological mysteries are frequently cleared up, 
 but they give us often an insight into the wonderful 
 genius of the Semitic languages, with their peculiar im- 
 agery, which associates ideas and feelings apparently 
 wholly distinct from each other according to the use of 
 modern terms. 
 
 The last-made reflection suggests another advantage, 
 in an educational point of view, which the study of the 
 Sacred Scriptures opens to those who possess sufficient 
 talent and opportunity for its pursuit. I mean the 
 power of thought and reflection which comes with the 
 study of a foreign language. There are portions of the 
 
A Source of General Information and Culture, 6i 
 
 Old Testament which we cannot rightly read and under- 
 stand without some knowledge of the tongue in which 
 they were originally written. This is one of the several 
 reasons which the Church has for not sanctioning, 
 without certain cautions, the indiscriminate reading of 
 the Sacred Scriptures in the form of translation. Let 
 me give you a very good authority for this. 
 
 About the very time when Ptolemy Philadelphus, of 
 whom I have spoken 'in the beginning, sent to Jerusalem 
 in order to procure the Greek translation of the Thorah, 
 or Hebrew law (Pentateuch), a holy Jewish scribe was 
 inspired to write one of the later Scriptural books. It 
 appears that he was among the seventy learned scribes 
 who had been sent by the High-priest to Alexandria 
 for the purpose of making the translation for the king, 
 and that afterwards, whilst still there, he composed the 
 sacred book known as Ecclesiasticus. This book he 
 wrote in the Hebrew tongue. Many years after, a 
 grandson of this inspired writer, who is called Jesus son 
 of Sirach, came upon the book and resolved to translate 
 it into Greek, in order that it might be read by many of 
 his brethren in the foreign land, who no longer spoke 
 the Hebrew language, though they believed in the law of 
 their forefathers. To this translation he wrote a short 
 preface which, though it does not belong to the inspired 
 portions of the text, has been preserved and is found in 
 our Bibles. Let me read it to you, because it demon- 
 strates the truth of what I have just said, namely, that 
 
62 Chapters of Bible Study, 
 
 our understanding of the Bible is rendered difficult when 
 we are obliged to depart from the original language in 
 which it was written. The younger Jesus Sirach, who 
 spoke both the Hebrew and Greek tongues equally well, 
 at a time when they were still living languages, writes as 
 follows about the translation of his grandfather's work: 
 
 ^*The knowledge of many and great things hath been shown 
 us by the Law and the Prophets, and others that have followed 
 them, for which things Israel is to be commended for doctrine 
 and wisdom ; because not only they that speak must needs be 
 skilful, but strangers also, both speaking and writing, may by 
 their means become most learned. 
 
 My grandfather Jesus, after he had much given himself to 
 a diligent reading of the Law and the Prophets, and other 
 books that were delivered to us from our fathers, had a mind 
 also to write something himself pertaining to doctrine and 
 wisdom ; that such as are desirous to learn and are made know- 
 ing in these things may be more and more attentive in mind, 
 and be strengthened to live according to the Law. I entreat you, 
 therefore, to come with benevolence, and to read with attention, 
 and to pardon us for those things wherein we may seem, while 
 we follow the image of wisdom^ to come short in the composition of 
 words: for the Hebrew words have not the same force in them when 
 translated into another tongue. And not only these, but the Law 
 also itself and the Prophets and the rest of the hoo^s, have no small 
 difference when they are spoken in their own language. For in 
 the eighth and thirtieth year coming into Egypt, when Ptole- 
 my Euergetes was king, and continuing there a long time, I 
 found these books left, of no small and contemptible learning. 
 Therefore I thought it good and necessary for me to bestow 
 
The Creation of New Letters, 63 
 
 some diligence and labor to interpret this book; and with 
 much watching and study, in some space of time, I brought the 
 book to an end, and set it forth for the service of them that 
 are willing to apply their mind, and to learn how they ought 
 to conduct themselves, who purpose to lead their life according 
 to the Law of the Lord " (Prologue to Ecclesiasticus). 
 
 XL 
 
 THE CREATION OF NEW LETTERS. 
 
 It is a fact not generally known or realized that if it 
 were not for the Bible some of the richest and most 
 beautiful languages of antiquity would now be entirely 
 lost to us; nay, more, there are whole nations who would 
 in all probability never have had a written language or 
 literature except for the Bible. 
 
 Of the ancient Semitic tongues only two remain living 
 languages, that is, the Arabian, and, in a modified form, 
 the Syrian. The Chaldee, the Samaritan, the Assyrian, 
 the Phoenician, the Ethiopic are dead and would hard- 
 ly be known to us except for the remnants of them 
 which we trace through the sacred books of the Scripture. 
 We have no relic of the Hebrew tongue but the Bible; 
 and this language, with all its wondrous musical forms, 
 its strange capacity of eliciting and expressing the deep- 
 est feelings of the human heart, and its charming 
 touches of Oriental genius, would be entirely dead outs, 
 if we had not the Bible. 
 
64 Chapters of Bible Study. 
 
 Our own English tongue bears the traces of another 
 written language, now entirely dead, but which was act- 
 ually created by the study of the Bible. I mean the 
 Gothic, of which no other written document exists to-day 
 except some portion of the Holy Scriptures translated 
 by TJlfilas in the fourth century. When he came as a 
 missionary among the Goths he found them ignorant of 
 the art of writing. In order to Christianize the rude 
 people he invented for them an alphabet, gathered their 
 children into Christian schools, and taught them to write 
 and to read. The first book, and the last, too, of that 
 once powerful race was a Bible. When the Goths had 
 died out in the ninth century, their written copy of the 
 inspired word of God still continued to live, and we can 
 trace in our unabridged dictionaries to-day the original 
 meaning of many a Saxon word by reference to this sol- 
 itary copy of a part of the Sacred Scriptures. 
 
 What has been said of the Gothic is equally true of 
 the written language of the Armenians (for whom the 
 anchorite Miesrop devised an alphabet and translated 
 the Bible); also of the Slavonic nations (for whom SS. 
 Cyril and Methodius made an alphabet and Bible trans- 
 lation); and others — races who, like our own Indian 
 tribes, lived only long enough as representatives of a sep- 
 arate language to learn the rudiments of Christianity. 
 
 All this must convince us that those who have the re- 
 quired means should seek to master one or several of the 
 Biblical languages, since the ancient tongues, less sub- 
 
The Creation of New Letters, 65 
 
 ject to the caprice of political changes than those of 
 later ages^ open to the mind avenues of original thought 
 and sentiment which modern literature and education 
 have not been capable of retaining without them. 
 
 You will say that it is impossible for most, or per- 
 chance nearly all of you to give yourselves to the study 
 of Hebrew or Greek or Latin in order to gain that 
 profit from the intelligent reading of the Bible which it 
 yields to the man of learning. Very well; if so, the fact 
 of our deficiency must caution us in reading and rash- 
 ly interpreting according to our fancy what can only 
 be determined by the wisdom of those who act the legit- 
 imate part of divinely-appointed judges. As in the Old 
 Law the High-priest and the great council of the San- 
 hedrin were the infallible interpreters of the divine de- 
 crees, so the Church, which is the continuation and per- 
 fection of the Synagogue, completes the Messianic mis- 
 sion by interpreting for each succeeding generation the 
 meaning of the inspired words written in the sacred 
 volume. 
 
XII. 
 
 ENGLISH STYLE. 
 
 But there still remains for all of us the reading of the 
 English Bible, with the aids of interpretation which ren- 
 der it intelligible for a practical purpose, and in so far 
 as it is an expression of the natural moral law. This of 
 itself contributes very largely to the perfection of our 
 use of the mother tongue. For it is always true of this 
 sacred book, as Dryden says, that in 
 
 "... Style, majestic and divine, 
 It speaks no less than God in every line ; 
 Commanding words ! whose force is still the same 
 As the first ^a^ that produced our frame." 
 
 (Dryden, JRelig. Laic.^ i. 152.) 
 
 Yes, its frequent reading helps much to the formation 
 of good English. This is not simply fancy, but the ver- 
 dict of those who have experienced and proved the bene- 
 fit of frequent use of the Bible as a means of fashion- 
 ing and improving a beautiful style of English writing. 
 Some years ago Mr. Bainton, a lover of English litera- 
 ture, requested the best of living writers to give their 
 opinion as to what class of reading had most contributed 
 to their attaining the elegance or force of beauty for 
 which their writings were generally admired. To the 
 surprise of many it appeared in the answers that the 
 
English Style, 67 
 
 reading of the Bible was considered the secret of a 
 charming style^ even by authors who wrote in that light- 
 er, sparkling vein which seems so remote from the grav- 
 ity and solidity of the sacred books. To give one ex- 
 ample of this let me quote the words of Mr. W. S. Gil- 
 bert, the author of the delightful ^' Bab Ballads/^ and a 
 long series of light operas and sparkling plays. After 
 referring to the advantage of studying the English of the 
 late Tudor and early Stuart periods, he adds: ^^ But for 
 simplicity, directness, and perspicuity, there is, in my 
 opinion, no existing work to be compared with the his- 
 torical books of the Bible. ^^ 
 
 Mr. Marion Crawford, much read of late, and criti- 
 cized for fostering a faulty ideal, but whose vigorous 
 expression, power of analysis, and correct delineation 
 of character will hardly be denied by any one capable of 
 judging, gives his ideas of attaining to good English 
 style in the following words: ^^The greatest literary 
 production in our language is the translation of the Bible, 
 and the more a man reads it the better he will write 
 English.'^ Hg adds: '' I am not a particularly devout 
 person, though I am a good Roman Catholic, and I do 
 not recommend the Bible from any religious reason. 
 I distinctly dislike the practice of learning texts without 
 any regard to the context. . . . But if we were Eng- 
 lish Brahmans, and believed nothing contained there- 
 in, I should still maintain that the Bible should be the 
 first study of a literary man. Then the great poets. 
 
68 Chapters of Bible Study, 
 
 Shakespeare, Milton/^ etc. I have quoted Mr. Crawford 
 because he is not merely a good English writer, but a 
 real scholar, familiar with many languages, classic and 
 modern, and therefore all the better qualified to judge 
 of our subject. 
 
 There are, of course, instances in the Bible when the 
 grammatical rules of- Brown and Murray forbid satisfac- 
 tory parsing. The reason of this is the natural wish of 
 the translators, anxious to preserve the literal form of 
 the original, not to sacrifice accuracy to the nicety with 
 which they might round their phrases. They were in- 
 tent alone upon truth; and it is precisely in this elemient 
 that eloquence finds its first and most powerful incen- 
 tive. Beauty of language has two sources of inspiration. 
 One is that of truth, which arouses in the heart a love 
 lifting the mind with a burning enthusiasm into the re- 
 gions of all that is fair and chaste and grand; and the 
 language of him who has mastered it assumes the sound 
 and form of these lofty emotions. There is indeed anoth- 
 er source of inspiration. It is that from which eman- 
 ates the brilliant but ephemeral beauty of the literature 
 of the day. It is not love of unchanging truth, but the 
 captivating passion of the hour, which, as some one has 
 said, acts upon the brain '' like the foaming grape of 
 Eastern Prance — pleasant to the sense of taste, yet send- 
 ing its subtle fumes to the brain, and stealing away the 
 judgment. ^^ Truth in literature possesses a power of 
 eloquence of which fiction is but a shadow at best,. 
 
Friends of God, 69 
 
 varying in size, and dwarfed or magnified in propor- 
 tion as it approaches and recedes from the object which 
 occasions it. 
 
 XIII. 
 
 FRIENDS OF GOD. 
 
 And with this study of truth there is added to knowl- 
 edge and power and beauty of expression another vital 
 element, which gives these acquisitions an infinite value: 
 I mean the gift of wisdom a» distinct from Jinowledge. 
 Eead the Sapiential book of Solomon, and mark what he 
 there says. He had learnt all things that human indus- 
 try could suggest, but the science of things earthly was 
 as nothing to the wisdom which, as he says, " went be- 
 fore me; and I knew not that it was the mother of 
 all.''^ And when he had learnt wisdom in listening to 
 the breathing of that sacred voice whose words he re- 
 corded for our instruction, he describes it as a sacred 
 fire of genius, *^holy, one, manifold, subtle, eloquent, 
 active, undefiled, sure, sweet, loving that which is good, 
 quick, which nothing can oppose, beneficent, gentle, 
 kind, steadfast, assured — a breath of the power of God 
 — making friends of God, and prophets, for God loveth 
 none but him that dwelleth with wisdom— more beau- 
 tiful than the sun'' (Sap. vii. 22-29). 
 
 Surely, it makes us friends of God and prophets. 
 But not only this. It keeps high ideals before us, and 
 
yo Chapters of Bible Study. 
 
 we become like to the things we love. Look on Abra- 
 ham, whom the Arab calls even to this day by no other 
 name but El Klialil Allah — that is, ^^ the friend of 
 God^^ — chosen the father of a holy race whence eventu- 
 ally was to spring the Messias; look on Moses, the meek- 
 est of men, as he is called in Holy Writ, or on David, the 
 man '' according to God's own heart; " look on the later 
 prophets, whose words set the nations aflame, and made 
 kings tremble who had never felt fear of men or God. 
 AVe see Jeremiah, the youth at Anathoth, '' gentle, sen- 
 sitive, yielding, yearning for peace and love, averse by 
 nature from strife and controversy,^^ stepping forth at 
 the urging of motives such as speak to each of us from 
 these pages of the Bible. Boldly he announces the judg- 
 ments of God to his faithless people. ^^ During that 
 long ministry '^ of forty years, says Geikie, '' no person- 
 al interest, comfort, or ease, no shrinking from ridicule, 
 contumely, or hatred, could turn him from the task im- 
 posed upon him, with awful sanctions, by the lips of the 
 Eternal God.^'^ 
 
 Or take the noble women with whose lofty virtue 
 the inspired writers fill the sacred volumes, and whose 
 names some of the books bear. 
 
 There is the sacred Book of Ruth, she who is called 
 ^^ friend '' or ^^ lover ^^ in the Hebrew tongue, fair image 
 of filial affection as she walks beside the aged Noemi 
 along the weary roads north from Moab, to conduct her 
 
 1 Geikie, " Hours With the Bible," v. 134. 
 
Friends of God, 7 1 
 
 mother to her native land. There, at noon and eve, we 
 see her scan the fresh-mown fields for the gleanings 
 which the law of Moses allowed the poor, in order that 
 she might honorably keep the humble home of her wid- 
 owed parent. Another sacred book we have which bears 
 the name of Judith, the woman who, strengthened in 
 the loyal love of her father^s nation, by valiant deed 
 set herself to defend the children of Israel from igno- 
 minious captivity. In the Book of Esther we have the 
 history of her whose name signifies ^'^ myrtle, ^^ symbol 
 among the Jews of joyous gratitude. Full of that mod- 
 est wisdom of which Ecclesiasticus tells us that it '' walk- 
 eth with chosen women ^'.(i. 17), her influence is typical 
 of that which the Virgin Queen, fair Mother of the 
 Christ, in later day did exercise upon the children of 
 Eve. Ah, truly, ^' the word of God on high is the foun- 
 tain of wisdom, and her ways are everlasting command- 
 ments '' (Ecclesiastic). 
 
 But it would be a lengthy task to point out all the de- 
 tails of manifold utility in the intellectual and practical, 
 as well as the moral order, which come from the study 
 of the Sacred Scripture. We have seen in a limited meas- 
 ure what it does for history, for language, for the science 
 of government, for the development of general knowl- 
 edge, and the cultivation of a graceful and vigorous 
 style in writing. These books hold the key to true wis- 
 dom. ^^ All Scripture, ^^ writes St. Paul to the young 
 bishop Timothy, whom he himself had taught from the 
 
y2 Chapters of Bible Study. 
 
 day he took him to himself as a boy at Lystra, '' all 
 Scripture, inspired by God, is profitable to teach, to re- 
 prove, to correct, to instruct.'^ 
 
 Yet there are those, the same Apostle says, '' who, al- 
 ways learning, never attain to the knowledge of truth ^^ 
 (11. Tim. iii. 7). Why? Because they do not study 
 rightly. 
 
 XIV. 
 
 PROSPECTING. 
 
 ^^ Man is the perfection of creation, the mind is the 
 perfection of man, the heart is the perfection of the 
 mind,^^ says St. Francis de Sales. 
 
 Our aim is to become perfect in mind and heart, in 
 character and disposition. Books are the readiest means 
 of study to this end. They are at our command at all 
 times. When we have discovered a beautiful thought, 
 a strong chain of reasoning, which, whilst convincing, at- 
 tracts and leads us into the domain of truth, however 
 partial, we ponder it and make it our own, and we feel 
 stronger in the permanent possession of it. We desire 
 truth, and we look for it in books, mostly. Yet we may 
 be anxious for knowledge, and worry or dream out our 
 days in a course of reading without gaining any real ad- 
 vantage from it. Perhaps we fail in the proper choice 
 of books, or else we do not observe the right method in 
 reading and study. 
 
Prospecting , 73 
 
 Yet it is impossible for most men to go in search of 
 and test everything that is labelled ^' truth." Is there 
 no remedy provided against the danger of oft going 
 wrong in order to find the right? Yes. God has given 
 us a compendium of everything that fosters true knowl- 
 edge and wisdom in a book consigned to the direction 
 of an old^ experienced, and wise teacher. That book is 
 the Bible, and the teacher is the Church of Christ. In 
 the book we find a store of great truths, of all that is 
 beautiful and ennobling, an infallible manual in the 
 school of human perfection, which leads us so high that, 
 jjaving mastered its contents, we touch the very gates 
 of heaven, where we may commune with the Creator of 
 wisdom and of all that our souls are capable of knowing. 
 
 There are many who are thoroughly convinced of this. 
 They believe that the Bible is the most perfect book on 
 earth, that it is the book of books, as it has been called 
 from time immemorial; for the word Bible means simply 
 a book, the book of all others by excellence, as if there 
 were none so worthy of study,and none which could not 
 be dispensed with rather than this. And so it is. It 
 contains all knowledge worthy of the highest aspirations 
 and of the exercise of the best talents. 
 
 Yet, as a traveller in search of fortune may pass over 
 seemingly barren tracts of desert land or mountain ridge^ 
 which treasure beneath the surface richest mines of gold , 
 and caverns of splendid crystal and rarest marble, so 
 the reader of the sacred books, in search of knowledge. 
 
74 Chapters of Bible Study, 
 
 may wearily tread along the paths of Bible truths, his 
 eye bewildered by endless repetitions of precepts and 
 monotonous scenes and seemingly uninteresting facts, 
 unconscious of what wealth and beauty lie beneath him. 
 And the reason of this listless and tiring sense in scan- 
 ning over the pages of this book, which has from the 
 first captivated the admiration of the noblest minds of 
 every race and age, is the lack of sufficient preparation. 
 The traveller looks for mines of gold and diamonds, 
 but he has never learnt the art of prospecting. He 
 stumbles over the heavy, dark ore, and the clods of me- 
 tallic sand, and his feet toil along the path lined with 
 pebbles that, if polished, would rival the stars of heaven, 
 but they are a hindrance to him, for he does not know 
 tliai or liow he should examine and utilize their pre- 
 cious contents. He requires the previous training of 
 the prospector, the sharp eye of the skilled mining mas- 
 ter, and the unwearied courage to go down to examine 
 the often crude-looking stones. Without these qual- 
 ities he not only fails in his attainment of wealth, but 
 becomes discouraged and even sceptic of its existence. 
 
 In other words, there are certain essential conditions 
 required upon which depends the acquisition of that ex- 
 cellent knowledge which the Scriptures contain for every 
 sphere of life. They are conditions which affect us in 
 our entirety as men — I should say as the images of God, 
 in whose likeness we were created. Sin has tarnished 
 this image, and we are to restore it to its original beauty 
 
Using the Kodak, 75 
 
 by correcting it. Our model is God Himself. The Bi- 
 ble is the text-book containing the image of this Model, 
 drawn by Himself, and He has provided the preceptor 
 to explain the various meanings of lines, lights, and 
 shadows, and the use of the instruments which must be 
 employed in completing the process. It is a little tedi- 
 ous, as all art training is in its beginning. Sometimes 
 we copy with tracing-paper, and of late the kodak has 
 done much to help us by the aid of photography. 
 
 XV. 
 
 USING THE KODAK. 
 
 You know that through the art of photography a per- 
 fect picture of an object may be produced by the action 
 of light upon a smooth and sensitive surface. The 
 light reflected from the object which is to be photo- 
 graphed enters through a lens into the dark chamber of 
 the camera, and makes an impression upon the plate 
 which is rendered sensitive by a film of chloride (or ni- 
 trate) of silver. To produce a good picture, therefore, 
 three things are principally required: 
 
 1. A faultless sensitized plate on which the reflection 
 of the object is to be made; 
 
 2. A concentrated light; that is, the rays must enter 
 the camera through a lens, but be excluded from every 
 other part; 
 
^6 Chapters of Bible Study, 
 
 3. The right focus; that is to say, you must get the 
 proper distance of your object in order to preserve the 
 just proportions between it and its surroundings. 
 
 The same requisites may be applied to ourselves when 
 we wish to image in our souls the object of divine truth, 
 which is identical with God. 
 
 1. The sensitive plate of our hearts and minds must 
 be clean, without flaw, so as to admit the ray of heaven- 
 ly light, and let it take hold upon its surface. A tar- 
 nished mirror gives but a blurred and imperfect reflec- 
 tion. Just so the mind occupied with the follies and 
 vanities of worldliness, the heart filled with the chang- 
 ing idols of unworthy attachments, is no fit surface for 
 the delicate impressions of those chaste delineations of 
 truth which are nothing else but the image of God in 
 the human soul. To His likeness we were created, and 
 to His likeness we must again conform ourselves by a 
 right study of truth. 
 
 2. Next, in order to obtain a correct impression of 
 the sublime truth contained in the sacred volumes, we 
 must concentrate our lights. That is to say, we must 
 read with assiduity, must study with earnestness, and 
 also with prayer, to obtain the light of the Divine Spir- 
 it who caused these pages of the Bible to be traced for 
 our instruction — for, as one of our greatest English 
 writers, though not a Catholic, has beautifully said: 
 
 * * Within that awful volume lies 
 The mystery of mysteries ! 
 
Using the Kodak. 77 
 
 Happiest they of human race 
 To whom God has granted grace 
 To read, to fear, to hope, to pray, 
 To lift the latch and force the way ; 
 And better had they ne'er been born, 
 Who read to doubt, or read to scorn. " ' 
 
 This implies that all side-lights which may distract the 
 mind from this concentrated attention and reverend at- 
 titude should be excluded. To read the Sacred Script- 
 ures in a flippant mood, or even in an irreverent posture, 
 and without having previously reflected on the fact that 
 it is God^s word, is to lessen immeasurably one^s chance 
 of profiting by the reading. The Mahometan or Jew in 
 the East reverently lifts each piece of paper or parchment 
 which he finds upon the road, for fear that it might con- 
 tain the name of Allah or Jehovah, and be profaned by 
 being trodden under foot. We owe no- less to the in- 
 spired word of God, above all if we would gain the key 
 to its intelligence. 
 
 The concentration into a focus is obtained through a 
 perfectly-shaped, convex lens. Now this lens, which is 
 capable not only of bringing into one strong point all 
 the scattered rays of light, but under circumstances gath- 
 ers the particles to intensity of heat producing a flame, 
 is that centre of the affections commonly termed the 
 heart. There is a tendency among those who seek in- 
 tellectual culture to undervalue this quality of the heart. 
 
 * Scott, Tht Monastery, c. xil. 
 
yZ Chapters of Bible SUidy. 
 
 which nevertheless contains the secret power of gener^ 
 ating supreme wisdom. We are considering true wisdom, 
 not superficial, exclusively human wisdom, which is the 
 very opposite, and which debases man to a mere repository 
 of facts and impressions, like an illustrated encyclopedia, 
 or makes of him a shrewd egotist, whose cleverness we 
 may admire as we admire the antics of a dancing serpent 
 without wishing to come in contact with its slimy body 
 or its poisonous fangs. 
 
 ^'As in human things, ^^ says Pascal, '^ we must first 
 know an object before we can love it, so in divine things, 
 which constitute the only real truth at which man can 
 worthily aim, we must love them before we can know 
 them, for we cannot attain to truth except through char- 
 ity/' " In all our studies and pursuits of knowledge,'''' 
 says Watts, ^Het us remember that the conformation of 
 our hearts to true religion and morality are things of 
 far more consequence than all the furniture of our 
 understanding and the richest treasures of mere specu- 
 lative knowledge/^ 
 
 If it be true that ^^ nothing is so powerful to form 
 truly grand characters as meditation on the word of God 
 and on Christian truths,"'' then we must suppose an in- 
 clination, a love for the lofty ideals which Christianity 
 sets before us. ^^ To whom has the root of wisdom been 
 revealed?"" asks that wise and noble old rabbi, son of Si- 
 rach; and he answers: ^^God has given her to them that 
 love Him."" If the wise man in the sacred book tells us 
 
Using the Kodak, 79 
 
 that ^' wisdom walketh with chosen women/^ may we 
 not assume that it is because woman enjoys the preroga- 
 tive of those qualities of heart which make her counsels 
 so often far surer than the carefully pondered reasons of 
 men? 
 
 If the fear of the Lord is the heginning of wisdom, is 
 not charity or love its consummation? ^^ Blessed is 
 the man that shall continue in wisdom. With the 
 bread of life and understanding God^s fear shall feed 
 him, and give him the water of wholesome wisdom to 
 drink, and . . . shall heap upon him a treasure of joy 
 and gladness, and shall cause him to inherit an everlast- 
 ing name. But . . . foolish men shall not see her: for she 
 is far from pride and deceit. . . . Say not: It is through 
 God that she is not with me, for do not thou the things 
 that He hateth^^ (Eccles., ch. xiv. and xv.). 
 
 But there is no need of multiplying these sayings of 
 God. The knowledge we seek here is the knowledge 
 which comes from the Divine Spirit, source of all science 
 as of all goodness and beauty. What the fruits of that 
 spirit are we are told by St. Paul: Charity, joy, peace, 
 patience, etc.; and we know how the Apostle of the Gen- 
 tiles, who had learnt much in many schools, at the feet 
 of Gamaliel and in the halls of the Greek philosophers, 
 valued these fruits of wisdom above all the doctrines of 
 men. 
 
 Catholics are fortunate in this, that they may gain 
 from the study of the Bible that purest light of wis- 
 
8o Chapters of Bible Study, 
 
 dom which is only partially communicated to those who 
 find no way, through the sacraments, of cleansing their 
 souls, — that mirror in which God^s image can show 
 clearly only when it is polished and purified from the 
 dust-stains of our earthly fall. Whatever opportunities 
 for thorough study of the Bible we may have, there can 
 be no doubt that this is one of the most important con- 
 ditions for its proper and fruitful appreciation, because 
 the intelligence is always warped by sin. 
 
 A correct knowledge of our faith, as the primary rule 
 of our conduct, is, of course, supposed. We cannot 
 understand the written word of God unless we have be- 
 come accustomed to the language He speaks to the heart, 
 and that language is taught in our catechisms and text- 
 books of religion. Some need less of this knowledge 
 than others, so far as the difficulties and controversies 
 of religion are concerned. The Bible is a book of in- 
 struction for all, and hence the preparatory knowledge 
 required varies with the mental range and ability, and 
 the consequent danger of doubts and false views of each 
 individual. A child knows the precepts and wishes of 
 its parent often by a look or gesture, without receiv- 
 ing any explicit instruction, because love and the habit 
 of faith supply intelligence. Others require a certain 
 amount of reasoning to move their hearts to the ready ac- 
 ceptance- of divine precepts. This reasoning is supplied 
 by the study of popular theologies, of which we have 
 a good number in English. 
 
Using the Kodak. 8 1 
 
 3. Lastly, we must not only get a right glass, a good 
 lens, but we must likewise get the right focus for our 
 picture. We must know the distance of our objects 
 and their surroundings, the lights and shades, the color- 
 ing, natural and artificial. In other words, we must 
 become familiar with the circumstances of history, the 
 dates, the places, the customs and laws, national and 
 social, which throw light upon the meaning of the in- 
 cidents related in the Sacred Scriptures, and which 
 often aid us in the interpretation of passages mysteri- 
 ous and prophetic. Hence we have to give some atten- 
 tion to, and study what we can, of the ancient records 
 and monuments brought to light by the archaeologist 
 and the historian. We must likewise inquire into the 
 origin, history, authority, purpose, and general argu- 
 ment of each of the inspired books. All this is the ob- 
 ject of what is called Introduction to the Study of the 
 Sacred Scriptures, and is nothing else but a becoming 
 and essential preparation for the right use of the Bible. 
 
 Ah, may our understandiog ever read 
 
 This glorious volume which God's v^isdom made, 
 
 And in that charter humbly recognize 
 
 Our title to a treasure in the skies I 
 
XVI. 
 
 THE INTERPRETATION OF THE IMAGE. 
 
 The Bible is not only a text-book which leads us to 
 the acquisition of the highest of arts — that of fulfilling 
 the true purpose of life — but it is itself, as has already 
 been suggested, a work of fairest art inasmuch as it con- 
 tains a perfect delineation of the divine Beauty drawn 
 by the sovereign Artist Himself. 
 
 Now true art needs, as a rule, an interpretation; for 
 the ©utward form which appeals to the senses may have 
 its deeper and real meaning disguised beneath the figure, 
 so as to be understood only by the finer perceptions of 
 the intellect and heart. Take, for example, a canvas 
 such as Millet^s popular picture entitled '^ The Angelus.''^ 
 It is a small, unpretentious-looking work, representing a 
 youth and a maid in a fallow field, a village church in 
 the distance, all wrapt in the gloom of eventide. Ask 
 a child looking at the picture what is the meaning of it, 
 and it will probably answer: '' Two poor people tired 
 of work.^^ Ask a countryman, without much education, 
 and he will say: ^^Two poor lovers thinking of home/^ 
 But to the poet who has perchance dwelt in some village 
 of fair Southern France, and knows the simple habits of 
 devotion among the peasant folk, the picture will awaken 
 memories of the sound of the Angelus: 
 
The Interpretation of the Image, 83 
 
 * ' Ave Maria, " blessed be the hour, 
 The time, the clime, the spot where I so oft 
 Have felt that moment in its fullest power 
 Sink o'er the earth, so beautiful and soft. 
 While swung the deep bell in the distant tower, 
 Or the faint dying day-hymn stole aloft, 
 And not a breath crept through the rosy air. 
 
 And the reflecting^ devout Catholic will see in that 
 picture even more than the thoughts it suggests to the 
 poet. It will speak to him of the angelic salute to a 
 Virgin fair at Nazareth; it will touch a chord of tender 
 confidence and hope in the Madonna^s help and sym- 
 pathy; it will arouse a feeling of gratitude for the mys- 
 tery of the Eedemption. And all this difference of 
 judgment arises from the varying degrees of intelligence 
 and knowledge with which we approach the image. 
 
 Now the Sacred Scriptures present just such a picture, 
 only larger, more comprehensive, truer, deeper, contain- 
 ing all the fair delineation of God's own image, the pat- 
 tern according to which we are to correct the same di- 
 vine likeness in our souls, spoiled somewhat and blurred 
 by sin. 
 
 Let us look at the outline. There are words and a 
 fact. In the words truth is enunciated, in the fact those 
 words are exhibited as being a divine utterance. In 
 their literal meaning the word affects us just as a picture 
 would at first sight. In the one case we have a precept 
 or an incident or a scene in the life of our Lord; in the 
 
84 Chapters of Bible Study. 
 
 other case we have an act of prayer or a scene from the 
 daily life of French peasants. But just as in the picture 
 we may, by reason of artistic and spiritual culture, rec- 
 ognize not simply an ordinary scene of peasant life, 
 but a poetic thought, or a practical moral lesson calling 
 for imitation, or, finally, a mystery of religion, so in the 
 Sacred Scriptures we may see below the literal sense one 
 tliat is internal, hidden, and in its character either sim- 
 ply figurative, or moral, or mystically spiritual. An 
 old ecclesiastical writer has given us a Latin hexameter 
 which suggests these various senses in which the sacred 
 text may at times be understood: 
 
 Litera gesta docet, quod credas allegoria ; 
 
 Moralis quid agas, quo tendas anagogia. 
 An example of the four different senses (namely, the 
 literal, the allegorical, which appeals to our faith, the 
 moral, and the mystic) in which a word or passage of 
 Holy Writ may be interpreted is offered in the term 
 '^ Jerusalem. ^^ If we read that '^ they went up to Jeru- 
 salem every year,''^ we understand the word Jerusalem 
 to represent the chief city of the Hebrews, situated on 
 the confines of Judah and Benjamin. K we happen 
 upon the passage of St. John where he says: '^ I, John, 
 saw a holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out 
 of heaven from God; . . . behold the tabernacle of God 
 with men, and He will dwell with them,^^ we know that 
 this 7ietv Jerusalem on earth can be no other than the 
 Church, where God has His tabernacle, dwelling with 
 
The Interpretation of the Image, 85 
 
 men. The word is used allegorically, that is to say, it 
 appeals to our faith; to the internal, not to our external 
 sense. Again, the word ^'^ Jerusalem ^^ may be used in 
 the sense which its etymology suggests without reference 
 to any city. Etymologically it consists of two words, 
 ^igmiymg foundation 2iTidi peace, A rabbi might, there- 
 fore, bid his disciples to strive to build up ^' Jerusalem,^^ 
 meaning that they should seek to lay solid foundations 
 of peace by conforming their lives to the law of Jehovah. 
 This would give the word Jerusalem simply a moral 
 signification. Finally, the word is used as a synonyme 
 for ^^heaven,^^ as in Apoc. xxi. 10: ''^ And He took me 
 up in spirit, . . . and He showed me the holy city Jeru- 
 salem, . . . having the glory of God.^^ Here we have the 
 term in its anagogical sense, that is, referring to the fu- 
 ture life. 
 
 Without entering into the various figures of speech 
 with which the language of the Hebrews abounds, let 
 me suggest some points which must be observed in order 
 that the true sense of the Sacred Scriptures may not es- 
 cape us so as to mislead the mind. 
 
 For the discovery of the literal sense we must, of 
 course, be guided by the rules of ordinary grammatical 
 construction. Where this proves insufficient we must 
 have recourse to the idiomatic use of language, the hab- 
 its of speech, which prevailed among the Hebrews or 
 those with whose utterances or history we are concerned. 
 This is very important in order that we may get a right 
 
86 Chapters of Bible Study. 
 
 understanding of the expressions employed. As an in- 
 stance of misconception in this respect may be cited the 
 words of our Lord to His holy Mother at the nuptials 
 of Cana, which literally sound like a reproof, yet are far 
 from conveying such a sense in their original significa- 
 tion. The like is true of the use of certain comparisons 
 which to our sense seem rude and cruel, yet which were 
 not so understood in the language in which they were 
 originally spoken or written. Thus when our Lord said 
 to the Canaanitish woman who followed Him in the re- 
 gions of Tyre and Sidon that it is not right to give the 
 bread of the children to '' dogs/"* He seemed to spurn the 
 poor mother, who prayed Him for the recovery of her 
 child, as a man spurns a cur. Yet such is not the sense 
 of the expression, which hardly means anything more 
 than what we would convey by '' outside of the pale of 
 faith.^^ 
 
 Besides the usage of speech peculiar to a people or dis- 
 trict or period of time, we must have regard to the in- 
 dividuality of the writer. His subjective state, his 
 temperament, education, personal associations, and hab- 
 its of thought and feeling necessarily influence the style 
 of his writing. Thus in the letters of St. Paul we recog- 
 nize a spirit which the forms of speech seem wholly in- 
 adequate to contain or express. He writes as he might 
 speak, impatient of words. His thoughts seem often 
 disconnected; he omits things which he had evidently 
 meant to say, and which the hearers might have supplied 
 
The Interpretation of the Image. 87 
 
 from the vividness of the image presented, but which 
 become obscure to the reader who only sees the cold 
 form of the written page. There is no end of paren- 
 thetical clauses in his discourses; often he begins a period 
 and leaves it unfinished. Sometimes there appears a 
 total absence of logical connection in what he intends 
 for proofs and arguments; then, again, there is a wealth 
 of imagery, which suggests the quick sense and power of 
 comparison peculiar to the Oriental mind, but slow to 
 impress itself on the Western nations. All this makes it 
 necessary to study St. Paul rather than to read him, if 
 one would understand the Apostle. Of this St. Peter 
 shows himself conscious when he writes that certain 
 things in the Epistles of St. Paul are ''liard to he binder- 
 stood, which the unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do 
 also the other Scriptures, to their own destruction " (II. 
 Pet. iii. 16). 
 
 Another element which contributes to the right inter- 
 pretation of the Sacred Text is the knowledge of what 
 may be called the historical background of a passage or 
 book. This includes the various relations of time, place, 
 persons addressed, and other circumstances which exer- 
 cise an influence upon the material, intellectual, and 
 moral surroundings of the writer. Accordingly, dif- 
 ferent parts of the Sacred Scriptures require different 
 treatment and different preparation on the part of the 
 reader. Thus to comprehend the full significance of the 
 Book of Exodus we must study the geographical and 
 
88 Chapters of Bible Study, 
 
 ethnographical condition of Egypt. For a right un- 
 derstanding of the Book of Daniel we should first have 
 to become acquainted with the history of Chaldea and 
 Assyria, especially as lit up by the recent discoveries of 
 monuments in the East. The Canticle of Canticles pre- 
 supposes for its just interpretation a certain familiarity 
 with the details of Solomon^s life during the golden period 
 of his reign. The Letters of St. Paul, in the New Testa- 
 ment, reveal their true bearing only after we have read 
 the life of the Apostle as it is described in the Acts; and 
 so on for other parts of the Sacred History. 
 
 Finally, a proper understanding and appreciation of 
 the inspired books depend largely on our realization 
 of the proximate scope and purpose, the character and 
 quality, of the subject treated by the sacred writer. The 
 Bible is a wondrous combination of historic, didactic, 
 and prophetic elements. Each of these goes to support 
 or emphasize the other, but each of them has its pre- 
 dominant functions in different parts of the grand struct- 
 ure. Hence we may not judge a prophecy as we judge 
 the historical narrative which introduces and supports 
 it; we may not interpret in its literal sense the metaphor 
 which is simply to convey a moral lesson to the mind. 
 
XVII. 
 
 "DEUS ILLUMINATIO MEA." 
 
 The subject-matter of the Bible obliges us, however, 
 to apply not only the various cautions and methods of 
 interpretation which are required for the. understanding 
 of the classics generally, but it exacts more. The Sacred 
 Scriptures, as a grand work of art, have not only a hu- 
 man, but primarily a divine conception for their basis. 
 Hence it does not suffice to have mastered the meaning 
 of the words and the outline of the subject, or the in- 
 dividual genius and human ideal of the writer who acted 
 merely as the instrument executing a higher inspiration. 
 We must enter into the conception of the divine mind. 
 If the principal and all-pervading motive of the great 
 Scriptural composition is a religious one, it stands to 
 reason that it can be comprehended only when judged 
 from a religious point of view. 
 
 N"ow the divine mind is so far above us that we can 
 reach it only if God Himself brings it down to us. He 
 has to descend, to lift the veil from His immensity, not 
 by opening to us, before the time, those sacred precincts 
 which ^^eye hath never seen,^^ but by emitting a ray of 
 light to clear up our darkness, to give us a glimpse of 
 the awful splendor which vibrates in those celestial 
 realms where light and sound and warmth of eternal * 
 
go Chapters of Bible Study, 
 
 charity mingle in the sweet harmony of the divine Beauty 
 whose tones speak now to our senses in separate forms. 
 God descends to our humility to interpret His own im- 
 age. First He came in human form, and told us all the 
 things we were to believe and do. Then He sent the 
 Paraclete, and under His direction men of God taught 
 the same things. Then they wrote them, or, as St. 
 John tells us, some of them. The Paraclete veils Him- 
 self, as our Lord had announced to His Apostles, in the 
 Church, whose divinely constituted earthly chief was to 
 be Peter — to the end of time. The Church, therefore, 
 founded by Christ, and an ever-living emanation of the 
 incessant activity of the Holy Spirit, although necessar- 
 ily speaking to men through men, is the first and surest 
 interpreter of the purpose and meaning of each and every 
 part of Holy Writ. 
 
 And because God cannot contradict Himself it follows 
 that every truth of the written word must correspond 
 with every truth of the spoken word. In doubtful cases, 
 therefore, as to the meaning of a word or text in the 
 Sacred Writings, we have recourse to the supreme, divine- 
 ly-guided judgment of the Church. Her doctrines, de- 
 fined, are the first and most important criterion of Script- 
 ural truth. 
 
 But the Church has not defined every expression of 
 truth, though she holds the key to all truth. She points 
 to the light which illumines our night; she declares the 
 stars whence that light issues directly or by reflection; 
 
'^ Deus Illuminatio MeaT 91 
 
 but she does not always indicate where the rays of the 
 one body begin to mingle with those of the other, or 
 what precise elements determine the motion or stability 
 of each. Only when there are conflicts or threatened 
 disturbances of the centres of attraction and repulsion 
 she reaches out her anointed hand, informed with the 
 magic power of her Creator and founder, and directs the 
 courses of bodies that otherwise would clash unto mutual 
 destruction. Hence the freedom of investigation allowed 
 the Catholic student of the Scriptures is limited only by 
 the rules of faith taught by the same divine Teacher who 
 watches over the spoken and written revelation alike. 
 And as, in cases where we have not the express command 
 of a superior, we interpret his will by his known desires 
 and views in other respects, so in the interpretation, of 
 those parts of Holy Writ regarding the meaning of which 
 we have no definite expression in the doctrinal code of 
 the Church, we follow the analogy of faith; which is 
 manifest from the general consent of the Christian Fa- 
 thers and Doctors, and from the teaching of learned and 
 holy commentators. These we may safely follow in all 
 doubtful cases, that is to say, where there is no evidence 
 to show that they were mistaken, either through want 
 of certain sources of information or proofs which we have 
 at our command presently, or because they accepted the 
 views of their time and people, feeling that any depart- 
 ure from the received tradition would make disturbance, 
 and fail of its intended good effect. 
 
92 Chapters of Bible Study. 
 
 It is safe to say that the conditions of one age and 
 the modes of thought and feeling of one generation are 
 not a just standard by which to judge the conditions 
 and views of another age or generation. This is an im- 
 portant fact to remember for those who are inclined to 
 look in every part of the Sacred Scriptures for a verifi- 
 cation of the sentiments which they feel, and of the 
 views and opinions of things which they hold. 
 
 XVIII. 
 
 RUSH-LIGHTS. 
 
 There is a method of interpreting the Bible which, 
 although it affords a temporary satisfaction to the heart, 
 is misleading to the mind. I mean private interpretation 
 in the sense in which it is generally practised and de- 
 fended by our Protestant brethren. To take a good 
 photograph you must have sunlight; candles, gas, even 
 electric lights, unless they be flash-lights, which don^t 
 suit all purposes of accurate reproduction, will not ac- 
 complish it. For vegetable growth you need sunlight; 
 artificial light will give neither healthy fruit nor even 
 color to the plant. So it is with the divine image 
 traced in the Sacred Scriptures. We cannot reproduce 
 it in our souls by any earthly light. Now human judg- 
 ment is an earthly light, because it is constantly influ- 
 enced by feelings, prejudices, attachments, and partial 
 
Rush-Lights. ' 93 
 
 views of things. Some of us accept an opinion because 
 it suits our conditions of life, is agreeable to our sense 
 of ease or vanity, relieves us from certain responsibilities 
 to God and our neighbor which a severer statement of 
 the case would exact. Others endorse a view because it 
 is held by a person whom they love or respect. Others, 
 again, maintain an opinion because it is contrary to the 
 one held by a person whom they dislike. And there is 
 a vast number of people who take a view simply because 
 it is the first that presents itself to them, and they are 
 ^s well pleased with it as with others which they don^t 
 know. It must be remembered, moreover, that man is 
 not naturally inclined toward the right. The world 
 loves darkness since its eyes were hurt by the wanton 
 efPort to see God and to be like Him in a way which was 
 against His law. Amid this darkness, intellectual and 
 moral, which surrounds man, and which for the moment 
 pleases him because it relieves him of a strain, we need a 
 guide. We must follow a leader who knows all the 
 ways and enjoys the full light of heaven. 
 
 The defence in favor of private interpretation of the 
 Bible usually rests in the assumption of God^s goodness, 
 who must needs furnish an inward light to man lest 
 he go wrong in his search after truth. But God^s good- 
 ness gives you a guide, well accredited with testimo- 
 nials from Himself, against whose efficiency the inward 
 light compares like a rush-light against the sun. 
 
 The red cross of the Alpine Club marks the safe pas- 
 
94 * Chapters of Bible Study, 
 
 sage down the rocky mountain paths of Switzerland. 
 We recognize the stones which are landmarks because 
 they bear the conventional sign of an authorized body of 
 mountaineers. They lead our way, and we follow with- 
 out hesitation. But if the mark of the red cross of the 
 Alpine Club were not visible, if we had to trust to the 
 inward light or to our instinct to guide us, we should 
 run the risk of losing our way and lives, though the 
 stones which marked the path of former travellers are 
 still there. 
 
 Nor does it seem according to the divine wisdom to 
 give man a written law and then to leave him to Himself 
 for its interpretation. "Ko other written law was ever 
 given under such conditions by or to man. It would 
 frustrate the fundamental purpose of any written law 
 to allow the individual to interpret it, because it would 
 lead to contradictions and confusion, which it is the 
 very object of laws to prevent. That the divine Law, 
 in its written form, is no exception to this rule is proved 
 from the effects of the theory of private interpretation, 
 which have grown into a history of many sects, consci- 
 entiously protesting one against the other because of the 
 inferences which each draws from the one sacred code 
 of Christian law and doctrine. Thus the written word 
 of God would frustrate its own manifest purpose, nay, 
 give occasion to a thousand justifications of separa- 
 tion and hostility, which its fundamental canon, charity 
 in the union of Christ, expressly forbids. 
 
Rush-Lights, 95 
 
 What other conclusion, therefore, remains than to ac- 
 cept the warning of St. Peter, Prince of the Apostles, 
 who, speaking of the reading of the Sacred Scriptures, 
 wishes the converts to understand '^ this, first, that no 
 23rophecy of Scripture is made hy private interpreta- 
 tion,^^ ^ because " the holy men of God spoke, inspired 
 hy the Holy Ghost '' (II. Pet. i. 20, 21). 
 
 And this disposes, in the mind of the sincere Chris- 
 tian, of all the theories of interpretation advanced by 
 rationalist and naturalist philosophers, who render their 
 arguments a trifle more consistent than Protestants by 
 denying from the outset the divine inspiration of the 
 Sacred Scriptures. 
 
 1 The Protestant (King James) version of this passage reads : ** That no proph- 
 ecy of the Scripture is of any private interpretation." The late revision of the 
 New Testament omits the word any. 
 
XIX- 
 
 THE USE AND THE ABUSE OF THE BIBLE, 
 
 '^ Kevelation and a Church are practically identical. 
 Eevelation and Scripture are not/^ * Though revelation 
 is necessary to guide the human mind, prone to error, 
 and to sustain the human will, weak by reason of an 
 hereditary fall, we have seen that the Bible is but one 
 channel of that revelation, and that a complementary, 
 secondary one. It neither contains all revealed truth, 
 nor can the truth which it contains be clearly and com- 
 pletely understood without the guidance of an intelli- 
 gent interpretation. A teacher of any science or art 
 may give a book into the hands of his pupils to serve as 
 a text, as a reminder of his precepts, as a compend of 
 his methods and practice; but no book, no matter how 
 perfectly written, will make us dispense with the teacher. 
 The education, in any direction, which rests upon the 
 sole use of books is essentially defective and misleading. 
 
 This is eminently true of the Bible as a text or guide 
 in the acquisition of the highest of arts, the profound- 
 est of sciences, which leads us to the recognition of ab- 
 solute truth, with an ever-increasing apprehension, be- 
 , cause its scope is immeasurable, eternal. 
 
 The teacher of revelation, in its first and most impor- 
 
 1 Humphrey, " The Sacred Scriptures," I. c. 
 
 96 
 
The Use and Abuse of the Bible, 97 
 
 tant signification, is Christ. He is the central historical 
 figure, announced to man immediately after his fall in 
 Paradise foreshadowed by the prophets in the Jewish 
 Church, and completing His mission in the Christian 
 Church. As the Holy Ghost animated the prophets to 
 foretell Him, and the priests of the synagogue to announce 
 Him in the Old Law, so the Holy Ghost animates the 
 Church to continue His work in the New Law. As 
 books were written by the prophets of old to perpetuate 
 the remembrance of what Jehovah had spoken through 
 them to His people regarding the coming of the Messias, 
 so books were written by the Apostles and disciples 
 of the New Law to perpetuate the remembrance of 
 what that Messias had said and done, and of what He 
 wished us to do. But as the old written Law was not 
 to be a substitute for the commission of teaching and 
 guiding the people through the Jewish Synagogue, so 
 neither was the new written Law intended to be a 
 substitute for the commission of teaching and guiding 
 those who seek salvation through Christ. The Bible 
 alone, as we have already seen, cannot satisfy us in such 
 a way as to supply the full reason for our faith in Christ^s 
 teaching. For this we have a Church to whom Christ, 
 as -God, gave a direct commission, without adding a 
 book, or an express command to write a book. 
 
 But a book was written, written under the guidance 
 of the divine Spirit, who had been promised to the 
 Church whenever it would speak, whether by word of 
 
98 Chapters of Bible Study, 
 
 mouth or by epistle and written gospel. And that 
 book, though not containing all truth, contains truth 
 only. Therefore it is useful, as St. Paul says, II. Tim. 
 iii. 16: *^* All Scripture inspired of God is profitable to 
 teach, to reprove, to correct, to instruct in justice, that 
 the man of God may be perfect, furnished to every good 
 work/^ The use, then, of the Bible is to teach, to 
 instruct in justice, primarily; to make man perfect, fur- 
 nished to every good work. Mark the twofold term: to 
 teach and to instruct; both teaching and instruction to 
 serve the one end — to make a perfect man, " furnished 
 to every good work."*^ 
 
 That the principal purpose and scope of Scripture is 
 to teach the truths of religion has been demonstrated in 
 a former chapter. I have here only to add that, as an 
 instrument of Apologetics, and in discussion with Prot- 
 estants who admit the divinity of Christ and the in- 
 spired character of the Sacred Scriptures, reference to 
 the teachings of the Bible plays a very important part. 
 Whether we are defending our faith against misrepresen- 
 tation, or desirous of convincing other sincere and open 
 minds of the justness of the claims which the Catholic 
 Church makes as the only true representative of Christ^s 
 divine mission to teach the nations, the Bible is a safe 
 and commonly recognized meeting-ground for a fair dis- 
 cussion of the subject. 
 
 Even when we have to speak of religion with practical 
 infidels, who read the Bible, or have some knowledge of 
 
The Use and Abuse of the Bible. 99 
 
 its contents, that book will serve us as a powerful weap- 
 on of defence and persuasion. Few intelligent men or 
 women of to-day, especially if they are earnest, and have 
 a real regard for virtue and truth, though they may con- 
 sider them as mere gifts of the natural order, fail to rec- 
 ognize that Christianity is a power for good, and that 
 Christ, its Author, is and ever will be the great teacher 
 of mankind, in whose true following man becomes bet- 
 ter, nobler, and happier. To illustrate this fact, we 
 may be permitted to quote at some length from an ar- 
 ticle by Baron Yon Hiigel in a recent number of the 
 DuUin Review (April, 1895). Speaking of Christ, he 
 cites from various writers, as follows: 
 
 Thus ' ' Ernest R6nan, sceptical even to his own scepticism, 
 addresses him and says : ' A thousand times more living, a 
 thousand times more loved, since thy death than during thy 
 passage upon earth, thou wilt become the corner-stone of hu- 
 manity, to such a point, that to blot out thy name out of the 
 world would be in very truth to shake its very foundations. ' ' 
 John Stuart Mill, who tells us of himself : ^ I never lost faith, 
 for I never had it, ' proclaims at the end of his long life's labors : 
 * Whatever else may be taken from us by rational criticism, 
 Christ is still left; a unique figure, not more unlike all his pred- 
 ecessors than all his followers, even those who had the direct 
 benefit of his personal teaching. It is no use to say that Christ 
 in the Gospels is not historical, and that we know not how 
 much of what is admirable has been superadded by the tradi- 
 tion of his followers. For who among his disciples or their 
 
 1 " Vie de J^sus," 1864, p. m. 
 
lOO Chapters of Bible Study. 
 
 proselytes was capable of inventing the sayings ascribed to 
 Jesus, or of imagining the life and character revealed in the 
 Gospels? Certainly not the fishermen of Galilee, as certainly 
 not St. Paul, whose character and idiosyncrasy were of a total- 
 ly different sort ; still less the early Christian writers, in whom 
 nothing is more evident than that the good which was in them 
 was all derived, as they always professed that it was derived, 
 from the higher source. ' ^ Even so purely Deistic a critic as 
 Abraham Kuenen declares : ' The international religion which 
 we call Christianity was founded, not by the Apostle Paul, but 
 by Jesus of Nazareth, that Jesus whose person and whose teach- 
 ing are sketched in the Synoptic Gospels with the closest ap- 
 proximation of truth. ' ' The need of Christianity is as keen as 
 ever. It is not for less but for more Christianity that the age 
 cries out. Even those many who do not identify Christianity 
 with the ecclesiastical form in which they themselves profess it, 
 and who have no confidence that the world will necessarily con- 
 form to them — even these may be at peace. The universalism 
 of Christianity is the sheet-anchor of their hope. A history of 
 eighteen centuries bears mighty witness to it; and the contents 
 of its evidence and the high significance they possess are brought 
 into the clearest light by the comparison with other religions. 
 We have good courage then. ' ^ go advanced a critic and sensi- 
 tively loyal a Jew as Mr. Claud Montefiore tells us : ' Some of the 
 sayings ascribed to Jesus have sunk too deep into the human 
 heart, or shall I say into the spiritual consciousness of civilized 
 mankind, to make it probable that any religion which ignores 
 or omits them will exercise a considerable influence outside its 
 own borders. It may be that those who dream of a prophetic 
 
 1 " Three Essays on Religion," 1874, p. 258. 
 a *' Hlbbert Lectures," 1883, pp. 196, 197, 
 
The Use and Abuse of the Bible, loi 
 
 Judaism, which shall be as spiritual as the religion of Jesus, 
 and even more universal than the religion of Paul, are the vic- 
 tims of a delusion. ' ^ So largely naturalistic a critic as Julius 
 Wellhausen writes of our Lord's teaching and person: ^The 
 miraculous is impossible with man, but with God it is possible. 
 Jesus has not only assured us of this, but he has proved it in his 
 own person. He had indeed lost his life and saved it, he 
 could do as he would. He had escaped the bonds of human 
 kind and the sufferings of self-seeking nature. There is in him 
 no trace of that eagerness for action which seeks for peace in the 
 restlessness of its own activity. The completely super- world- 
 ly standpoint in which Jesus finds strength and love to devote 
 himself to the world has nothing extravagant about it. He is 
 the first to know himself, not simply in moments of emotion, 
 but. in completest restfulness, the child of God; before him no 
 one so felt or so described himself. ' ' Jesus not only prophe- 
 sies the kingdom of God, but brings it out of its transcendence 
 on to earth ; he plants at least its germ. The new times already 
 begin with him : the blind see, the deaf hear, the dead arise. 
 Everywhere he found spaciousness for his soul, nowhere was 
 he cramped by the little, much as he put forward the value of 
 the great ; this we should do, and not leave that undone. He 
 was more than a prophet ; in him the word had become flesh. 
 The historic overweightedness, to -which the Jews were suc- 
 cumbing, does not even touch him. A unit arises in the dreary 
 mass, a man from among the rubbish which the dwarfs, the rab- 
 bis, had heaped up. He upsets the accidental, the caricature, 
 the dead, and collects the eternally valid, the human divine, in 
 the focus of His individuality. ' ' Ecce homo, " a divine wonder 
 in this time and this environment.' " 
 1 Ibid., 1893, p. 551. 
 
I02 Chapters of Bible Study, 
 
 Such being the view of religiously disposed persons 
 outside of the Catholic Church regarding the New Tes- 
 tament teaching of Christ, it would seem easy at first 
 sight to convince them of the Catholic doctrine by ref- 
 erence to the words of Christ and the Gospels, which con- 
 tain explicit, if not complete testimony in behalf of the 
 Catholic teaching. There is one difficulty in the way of 
 this, and that is that Protestants themselves distrust the 
 meaning of the New Testament words except in so far 
 as it expresses their own feelings. The principle of 
 private interpretation necessarily leads to this one-sided 
 view. A hundred persons appeal to the one Book as an 
 infallible expression of Code's will and truth. Now, 
 some of these infallible expressions manifestly contradict 
 one another as Protestants interpret them. Yet the con- 
 sequences of such contradictions are vital, and involve 
 eternal life or death. Take the doctrine of baptism by 
 water as essential to salvation, according to the reading 
 of some Protestants; yet the Quaker, no less sincere 
 than his Baptist neighbor, and claiming a special in- 
 w^ard light, consciously neglects baptism, holding that 
 the teaching of the New Testament is only meant in a 
 spiritual sense. Equally awful in their consequences are 
 the two contrary doctrines regarding the Eucharistic 
 presence of Christ as declared in the New Testament, 
 one believer drawing the conclusion that he must adore 
 God under the veil of bread, the other equally convinced 
 from the same Scriptures that such a view is sheer idol- 
 
The Use arid Abuse of the Bible, 103 
 
 atry^ and that there is nothing divine under the appear- 
 ance of bread. This appeal to private judgment makes 
 most Protestants sceptical if you attempt to prove to 
 them Catholic doctrine from the New Testament; and 
 unless you can first convince them that the Church has 
 a greater claim to declare the sense of the Bible than 
 any private individual, they will consider their opinion 
 of its meaning and purpose just as good as yours. 
 
 But it is different if you appeal to the Old Testament 
 for a confirmation of Catholic doctrine. And I would 
 strongly urge this method for various reasons. Every 
 Protestant will admit that the Old Testament is not only 
 inspired and divine in its origin, but that in its historic 
 expression, even the deutero-canonical portion, contains 
 the application of its meaning and purpose. In other 
 words, that God not merely gave the Israelites a law, 
 but also shows us how He meant them to interpret that 
 law in their lives — domestic, social, and religions. 
 Here, therefore, we have little need, or even oppor- 
 tunity, for private interpretation as to God's meaning. 
 That meaning becomes clear from the action of His 
 people. 
 
 At the same time it is also clear and generally admit- 
 ted that the Old Testament is a foreshadowing of the 
 New Law, hence that the doctrines and practices of the 
 Christian Church have their counterpart in the Old Law. 
 Protestants readily agree to this, in proof of which fact 
 I may be allowed to quote Prof. Kobertson Smith: 
 
I04 Chapters of Bible Study, 
 
 ^^ Christianity can never separate itself from its histor- 
 ical basis^ or the religion of Israel; the revelation of God 
 in Christ cannot be divorced from the earlier revelation 
 on which our Lord built. Indeed^ the history of Israel, 
 when rightly studied, is the most real and vivid of all 
 histories; and the proofs of God^s working among His 
 people of old may still be made, what they were in time 
 past, one of the strongest evidences of Christianity.''^ * 
 
 Dr. A. B. Bruce in his Apologetics, 1892, p. 325, says: 
 " The Bible, instead of being a dead rule, to be used 
 mechanically, with equal value set on all its parts, is 
 rather a living organism, which, like the butterfly, passes 
 through various transformations before arriving at its 
 highest and final form. We should find Christ in the 
 Old Testament as we find the butterfly in the caterpil- 
 lar/^ ^ 
 
 Hence if you can show to the average intelligent Prot- 
 estant that a doctrine or practice distinctively of the 
 Catholic Church prevailed in the Jewish Church, you 
 have established an a priori argument for its reasonable- 
 ness. This applies particularly to such doctrines and 
 practices as Protestants condemn or censure in the Cath- 
 olic Church from amere habit of not finding them in their 
 own churches, or from some prejudice nourished by big- 
 otry of early teachers, or by the popular literature of the 
 anti- Catholic type. I only mention such topics as In- 
 
 1 " The Old Testament in the Jewish Church," 1892, p. 11. 
 
 2 See DuUin Review, article cited above. 
 
The Use and Abuse of the Bible. 105 
 
 dulgences. Confession, the Infallibility of the Pope, Cel- 
 ibacy of the clergy and religious, and such like. Now 
 all these things existed in the Old Law, not so complete- 
 ly developed as in the Christian Church, but sufficiently 
 pronounced to establish a motive of credibility for their 
 existence in the Church of Christ. Thus we have the 
 reasonableness of the practice of Confession plainly in- 
 dicated in the Mosaic times: ^'^ And the Lord spoke to 
 Moses, saying: Say to the children of Israel, when a 
 man or woman shall have committed any of all the 
 sins that men are wont to commit, and by negligence 
 shall have transgressed the commandment of the Lord, 
 and offended, they shall confess their sin, and shall re- 
 store the principal itself, and the fifth part over and 
 above, to him against whom they have sinned ^^ (Num. 
 V. G-7; also 13-14). The Infallibility of the Pope finds 
 its perfect counterpart in the oracular responses given 
 by the Jewish high-priest when he wore the Urim and 
 Thummim in his breastplate, which covers the precise 
 ground of Papal decisions regarding faith and morals, 
 the breastplate being called " the rational of judgment, 
 doctrine, and truth '^ (See Exod. xxviii. 30; Levit. viii. 
 8; Num. xxvii. 21; Deut. xxxiii. 8, etc.). 
 
 As to the practice of virginity, we know that it existed 
 among the Jews, as an exceptional condition; but as 
 such it had the sanction of God. Thus the Prophet 
 Jeremias receives the command of virginity from 
 Jehovah directly: ''And the word of the Lord came 
 
io6 Chapters of Bible Study, 
 
 to me, saying: Thou shalt not take thee a wife; neither 
 shalt thou have sons and daughters in this place "^ ( Jer. 
 xvi. 2). 
 
 Thus practical arguments, of which I can here only 
 indicate a few, may be found for each and all of the 
 usages of the Catholic Church. And any censure of the 
 latter will cast its reflection upon the Jewish dispensa- 
 tion, of which God was Himself the Author and Guar- 
 dian. For if God sanctioned ceremonies in worship, 
 and infallibility in the higk-priest, and virginity in the 
 Prophet whom He selects for a special mission, and 
 confession, with penance and the obligation of restitu- 
 tion, why should Protestants think it so strange to find 
 us practise the same things which have the seal of divine 
 approbation ! 
 
 Thus they may be inclined more readily to accept 
 the more explicit arguments in favor of Catholic doc- 
 trine and discipline as given in the New Testament, 
 which is but the fulfilment of the types suggested in the 
 Old Law. 
 
 It is hardly necessary for me to point out in this con- 
 nection the advantages of being able to disabuse Prot- 
 estants of the impression that Catholics do not honor 
 the Bible as the word of God. Those who, as Protes- 
 tants, do not recognize any other source of divine reve- 
 lation than the written word are, of course, obliged to 
 occupy themselves wholly and entirely with its study, 
 whilst Catholics look upon that same written word, not 
 
The Use and Abuse of the Bible, 107 
 
 with less reverence, but with less consciousness of hav- 
 ing to rely upon it as the only symbol and exponent of 
 their faith. If we refuse on general principles to have 
 the Bible read to our Catholic children in a public 
 school from a Protestant translation, it is simply because 
 the admission of such a practice implies an admission of 
 a Protestant principle, and might leave a wrong im- 
 pression upon our children as to the value of the true 
 version 6f their religion. The Protestant translation of 
 the Bible contains a great deal of truth, hut some errors 
 which we cannot admit in our teaching. To give it to 
 our children in the schools is something like planting a 
 Southern flag upon some public institution of the United 
 States. Some may say it is better than none, because it 
 begets patriotism, and as there is no difference in the two 
 flags except the slight one of a few stars and stripes, most 
 people might never notice it. But we know that if they 
 did notice it, it would create considerable disturbance, 
 because it implies something of disloyalty to ^^ Old 
 Glory.^^ 
 
 For a like reason Catholics often refuse to kiss the 
 Protestant Bible in court. They prefer simply to affirm. 
 And in this they are perfectly right, although to attest 
 one's willingness to tell the truth on such occasions is 
 not supposed to be a trial of oner's faith, and hence it 
 does not involve anything of a denial of Catholic truth. 
 
io8 Chapters of Bible Study, 
 
 But I must pass on to one or two illustrations to show 
 'in what fields the Bible is not to be used. For though 
 it furnishes most apt means for imparting a knowledge 
 and inciting to the further study of history, languages, 
 the principles of government and ethics, together with 
 the development of a graceful and withal vigorous style 
 of English writing, yet there are limits to its use in some 
 directions. Thus the Bible cannot be considered as re- 
 placing the exact sciences. We are quite safe always in 
 affirming that the Bible never contradicts science; that 
 where it does not incidentally confirm the results of sci- 
 entific research it abstracts from the teaching of science. 
 Its language relating to physical facts is popular, not 
 scientific. There is no reason to think that the inspired 
 writers received any communication from heaven as to 
 the inward workings of nature. They had simply the 
 knowledge of their age, and described things according- 
 ly. Leo XIII. in his recent Encyclical on the study of 
 the Sacred Scriptures strongly reiterates this doctrine, 
 advanced by many Doctors of the Church, namely, that 
 the sacred writers had no intention of initiating ns into 
 the secrets of nature or to teach us the inward constitu- 
 tion of the visible world. Hence their language about 
 '' the firmament,^^ and how ^^ the sun stood still/^ as we 
 still say '' the sun rises. ''^ ' 
 
 If, then, we are confronted with some statement by 
 
 1 See Humphrey, " The Sacred Scriptures ; " also " Questions Actuelles d'- 
 Ecriture Sainte, " by Brucker, S. J. 
 
The Use and Abuse of the Bible, 109 
 
 scientists affirming that there is a scientific inaccuracy 
 in the Bible, we have no remark to make but that the 
 Bible was not meant to be a text-book of exact science. 
 If it is urged that there are contradictions between the 
 Bible and science, then the case demands attention. 
 AVe know that truth cannot contradict itself; but we 
 know that we may err in apprehending it, and that sci- 
 ence may err in its assumptions of fact. Hence in the 
 matter of Biblical Apology, when dealing with science, it 
 is of the first importance that we render an exact account 
 to ourselves of what science affirms and of what the Sacred 
 Scripture affirins. It is important to note here the dis- 
 tinction which P. Brucker points out; namely, whatsc/- 
 ejice affirms, not what scientists affirm, *' The latter 
 often mingle conjecture, more or less probable, with 
 the definitely ascertained results of scientific experi- 
 ment; they often accept as facts certain observations and 
 plausible conclusions which are not always deduced from 
 legitimate premises nor in a strictly logical method. ^^ 
 The human mind is always prone to accept the plausible 
 for the true, the appearance of things for their sub- 
 stance, the general for the universal, the part for the 
 whole, or the probable for the proved. This is demon- 
 strated by the history of scientific hypotheses in nearly 
 every department of human knowledge. 
 
 In the next place, we must be quite sure to ascertain 
 loliat the Sacred Scriptures affirm. Apologists place 
 themselves in a needlessly responsible position when. 
 
no Chapters of Bible Study, 
 
 in the difficult task of determining a doubtful read- 
 ing of the Sacred Text, they assume an interpretation 
 which may be gainsaid by scientific j»roo/. The teach- 
 ing of St. Augustine and St. Thomas on this subject 
 is that we are not to interpret in any particular sense 
 any part of Sacred Scripture which admits of a differ- 
 ent interpretation. And here Leo XIII. in his En- 
 cyclical gives us an important point to consider when 
 he says that the defenders of the Sacred Scriptures must 
 not consider that they are obliged to defend eacli single 
 opinion of isolated Fathers of the Church.^ There is a 
 difference between 2^ prudent conservatism and a timid 
 and slavish repetition of time-honored views. Also be- 
 tween an intelligent advance oi well-founded, though neiv 
 views, and an excessive temerity, which rashly replaces 
 the tradition of ages by the suggestions of new science. 
 
 ^^ Hence any attempt to prove that the statements of 
 the Bible imply in every case exact conformity with the 
 latest results of scientific research is a needless and, un- 
 der circumstances, a dangerous experiment; for although 
 there are instances where (as in chap. i. of Genesis) the 
 Bible statements anticipate the exactest results of scien- 
 tific investigation by many centuries, yet it is not and 
 need not be so in all instances. 
 
 ^^ Yet whilst we may not consider Moses as anticipat- 
 ing the investigations of a Newton, a Laplace, or a Cu- 
 vier, there are cases where the natural purpose and con- 
 
 1 See Appendix. 
 
The Use and Abuse of the Bible. 1 1 1 
 
 text of the sacred writers develop an exact harmony 
 with the facts of science of which former ages had no 
 right conception. Such are the creation by successive 
 stages^ the unity of species, and origin of the human 
 race, etc. But these facts are not proposed as scientific 
 revelations/'' 
 
 In all important questions as to the agreement of the 
 Bible with the results of scientific research we may have 
 recourse with perfect confidence to the living teaching 
 of the Church; where she gives no decision there we are 
 at liberty to speculate, provided the results of our spec- 
 ulation do not conflict with explicit and implied doc- 
 trines of truth, that is to say, they must be in harmony 
 with the general analogy of faith. 
 
 There is one other topic which I would touch upon 
 in speaking of the use and abuse of the Bible; it is a 
 view which the late Oliver Wendell Holmes is supposed 
 to have advocated. The author of ^^ The Professor at 
 the. Breakfast Table "" believed that it would be advan- 
 tageous if the Bible were, as he terms it, depolarized, that 
 is to say, if the translations or versions made from the 
 originals were put in such form as to appeal to the imagi- 
 nation and feelings of the present generation by substitu- 
 ting modern terminology and figures of speech for the old 
 time-honored words of Scriptural comparisons. The aim 
 would be, as I understand it, to do for the written word 
 of God what the Salvation Army leaders are attempting 
 to do for nineteenth century Christianity in general. 
 
1 1 2 Chapters of Bible Study, 
 
 In answer to this suggestion it may be said that tiie 
 attempt has been made in various ways, and seemingly 
 always without result for the better. As we have ver- 
 sions of St. PauFs Epistles in Ciceronian Latin, so we 
 have had travesties of the Gospels intended to popular- 
 ize the moral maxims they contain. If it is question of 
 making the Bible accessible to the people for the purpose 
 of getting them to read it, devices of this kind may suc- 
 ceed to a degree with those who look for novelty. As 
 to its essential form, the Bible is popular, — appeals to all 
 minds and conditions. This is proved by the experience 
 of centuries, in every clime and among all races. 
 
 Those parts which do not directly appeal to a popular 
 sentiment are of a nature to forbid depolarization as above 
 suggested, since in changing them they would neces- 
 sarily lose their identity, the inherent proofs of their ori- 
 gin, and their underlying mystic and spiritual meaning. 
 So far as they were written, the truths contained in the 
 Bible were to serve all time. To change their form is 
 to tamper with the spirit of a divine language, which, 
 although it comes to us in human sounds, variable ac- 
 cording to nationality and time and place, still has an 
 unction, a breath of heaven accompanying it which 
 would vanish as the perfume vanishes from the trans- 
 planted flower. There are some truths, some ideas and 
 feelings, which cannot be expressed in popular fashion 
 without losing their essential qualities. One might urge 
 the same reasons in behalf of painting the old Greek 
 
The Use and A buse of the Bible, 1 1 3 
 
 statues, because the common people would find it possi- 
 ble to admire them if gaudy coloring helped their im- 
 agination to interpret the action of the figures in mar- 
 ble. Some things in the Bible were not written for all, 
 and appeal only to refined and spiritual minds. Others 
 can be easily understood and assimilated, and there are 
 preachers commissioned to make attractive and intelligi- 
 ble that which of itself does not appeal to the rude. 
 There is such a thing as accommodating the words of 
 the Sacred Scripture for the purpose of impressing a 
 truth by analogy, and of the use of this method we have 
 beautiful illustrations in the writings of the Fathers and 
 in the Offices of the Breviary. But the sense by accom- 
 modation , as it is cailed by writers on hermeneutics, 
 does not take liberties with the Sacred Text itself in the 
 manner suggested by the advocates of depolarization. 
 For the rest there is a difference, there always will be a 
 difference, between the qualities that call upon the senses 
 and attract, perhaps, the larger circle of admirers, and 
 that choicer spirit which reaches the soul. You cannot 
 substitute one for the other; their domain is widely apart, 
 though they may use the same instrument. 
 
 One tunes his facile lyre to please the ear, 
 And win the buzzing plaudits of the town ; 
 The other sings his soul out to the stars, 
 And the deep hearts of men. 
 
 You cannot depolarize, without destroying, Dante, or 
 Milton, or any of our great poets; no more can you de- 
 
114 Chapters of Bible Study, 
 
 polarize the great masterpiece of the Bible. Let us take 
 it as we receive it under the guardianshp of the Church. 
 Its apparent imperfections are like the surroundings and 
 exterior of its Founder: a scandal to the Greek-, a stum- 
 bling-block to the Jew, because they could not realize 
 that a God was hidden in the imperfect guise of poor 
 flesh. 
 
 What we consider imperfections to be remedied in the 
 Bible were recognized by the Apostles^, and by the chief 
 of them, St. Peter, who writes, II. Pet. iii. 16: ^^Our 
 dear brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, 
 has written to you; as also in all his Epistles; in which 
 are certain things hard to be understood, which the un- 
 learned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other 
 Scriptures, to their own destruction.^^ Here was room 
 for depolarization, yet St. Peter did not take it in hand, 
 neither should we desire scholars of perhaps greater 
 knowledge but less wisdom to do so. 
 
XX. 
 
 THE VULGATE AND THE REVISED PROTESTANT 
 VERSION OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 In instituting here a comparison between the two ap- 
 proved and typical English Versions of the Bible as in use 
 among Catholics and Protestants respectively, I have no 
 intention to be aggressive or polemic. As from the first 
 we have taken what may be called the common-sense point 
 of view in judging the Bible as an historical work, which 
 verifies its claims to be regarded as an organ communi- 
 cating to us divine knowledge, so we proceed to make a 
 brief suggestive examination of two English Bibles: one 
 found in the homes of Catholics, the other in those of 
 our Protestant friends and neighbors, many of whom 
 believe with all sincerity that among the various doubts 
 and difficulties of life they can consult no truer guide 
 than that sacred volume. 
 
 Taking the two volumes as a whole, and considering 
 only their general contents, there is but little difference 
 between them. I compared them in a former chapter 
 to the two American flags of North and South: viewed 
 in themselves, these are both of the same origin, copied 
 from the same pattern, and emblems, both, of American 
 independence. Though they differ only in some detail 
 that might escape the superficial observer, they never- 
 
 115 
 
ii6 Chapters of Bible Study, 
 
 theless represent very widely difPerent principles, for 
 which the men of the South as of the North were willing 
 to stake their lives. They might meet in friendly in- 
 tercourse in all the walks of daily life, but if you ask a 
 Union soldier to carry the Southern flag, he will say: No; 
 for though it looks very much like my own, there is a dif- 
 ference, and that difference constitutes a vital principle 
 with me. 
 
 Catholics have to make much the same answer when 
 , told that they might accept the Protestant Bible in their 
 public relations with those who do not recognize the 
 Catholic Church. The Catholic Church has the old 
 Bible, as it came down the ages, complete and without 
 changes. She has no reason to discard it, and she has 
 good reason not to accept another Bible, though its Eng- 
 lish be sweeter and its periods fall upon the ear like the 
 soft cadences of Southern army songs. We cannot sing 
 from its tuneful pages, because it represents the prin- 
 ciple of opposition to its original source and parent- stock, 
 and no union can be effected except by the elimination 
 of that principle. 
 
 Catholics claim that their Bible, in point of fidelity 
 to the original — and this is the essential point when we 
 speak of a translation of such a book — Catholics claim 
 that their Bible, in point of fidelity to the original, is as 
 superior to the Protestant English Bible of King James 
 as it is, we admit, inferior in its English. '' The transla- 
 tors of the Catholic Version considered it a lesser offence 
 
The Vulgate afid the Revised Protestant Version. 1 17 
 
 to violate some rules of grammar than to risk the sense 
 of God^s word for the sake of a fine period/^ ^ 
 
 What proof have we for such a claim? I answer that 
 we have the strongest proof in the world which we could 
 have on such a subject outside of a divine revelation, 
 namely, the admission on the part of the guardians and 
 translators themselves of the Protestant Bible. Now, 
 when I say guardians and translators of the Protestant 
 Bible, I do. not mean merely the testimony of a few 
 great authorities in the past or present who may have 
 expressed their opinion as to the faults and defects of 
 the latest English Protestant translation. That would 
 not be fair. But I mean that the history itself of Prot- 
 estant translations made since the days of King James, 
 not to go back any farther, is a standing argument of 
 the severest kind: 
 
 First, against the correctness of the Protestant Eng- 
 lish Versions; and. 
 
 Secondly, for the correctness of the Catholic English 
 Version. 
 
 For if we compare the first Protestant English Ver- 
 sion (which departed considerably from the received Cath- 
 olic text of the Vulgate) with all the succeeding revis- 
 ions made at various times by the English Protestants, 
 we find that they have steadily returned towards the old 
 Catholic Version. This is not only an improvement as 
 
 * Of. a paper on the subject of the New Revision in the Dublin Review, 1881, vol. 
 VI., ser. iii. 
 
1 1 8 Chapters of Bible Study, 
 
 an approach to the Catholic teaching, but it is also a con- 
 fession, however reluctantly made, of past errors on the 
 part of former Protestant translators. 
 
 At the time of their separation from the Catholic 
 Church the reformers, so-called, had to give reasons for 
 their defection. They found fault with one doctrine 
 or another in the old Catholic Ohurcli, such as the su- 
 premacy of the Eoman Pontiff, the jurisdiction of bish- 
 ops, the Holy Sacrifice, celibacy, confession, etc. To 
 justify the rejection of these doctrines they must ap- 
 peal to some authority: if not to the Pontiff, then to 
 the king, or to the Bible, or to both simultaneously. 
 But though the king might favor their novelties of 
 doctrine inasmuch as they relieved his conscience of 
 the reproach of disobedience to the Pontiff, who knew 
 but one law of morals for the prince and the peasant, 
 the Bible as hitherto read was against them. Now, Lu- 
 ther had given distracted Germany an example of what 
 might be done in the way of whittling down the super- 
 natural, and eliminating some of the irksome duties im- 
 posed by the old Church. He had made a new transla- 
 tion of the Bible, threw out passages, nay, whole books, ^ 
 which did not meet his views, and added here and there 
 a little word which did admirable service by setting him 
 right with a world that for the most part could neither 
 
 1 These books have been mostly retained in the Protestant Bible under the 
 name of AvocrypJml, i. e., not inspired. The Church accepts and defines their 
 inspiration, and in this is supported by the strong testimony of apostolic tradi- 
 tion. 
 
The Vulgate and the Revised Protestant Version, 119 
 
 read Hebrew nor Latin nor Greek, and trusted him for 
 a learned translator. 
 
 In similar fashion an English translation had already 
 been attempted by Wiclif about 1380, and almost simul- 
 taneously by Nicolas of Hereford. There existed in Eng- 
 land at the time of Luther an edition of the Scriptures 
 called the '^ great Bible. "^ It was Catholic up to its 
 fourth edition, that of 1541. Then, as is generally 
 supposed, it was revised by the Elizabethan bishops 
 in 1568, and in 1611, after a more lengthened revision, 
 it appeared as a King James '^Authorized Version. ^^ 
 Since then various revisions and corrections of this Bible 
 have been printed, each succeeding one eliminating some 
 of the previous errors. Mr. Thomas Ward has made up 
 an interesting book called '"^ Errata — the truth of the 
 English translations of the Bible examined, ^^ or '^ a trea- 
 tise showing some of the errors that are found in the 
 English translation of the Sacred Scriptures used by Prot- 
 estants against such points of religious doctrine as are 
 the subject of controversy between them and the mem- 
 bers of the Catholic Church. ^^ Dr. Ward^s book embraces 
 a comparison between the Catholic English translation 
 and the various Protestant versions up to the year 1683, 
 for since then no changes were made in the English 
 Protestant Bible called the authorized version until 1871, 
 when the work of a new revision, published between 
 1881-85, was undertaken, which is not included in Dr. 
 Ward's " Errata/' 
 
1 20 Chapters of Bible Study, 
 
 Why was this last revision made? Was not the King 
 James version of 1611, for the most part, beautiful Eng- 
 lish? As to the rest, was it not for every Protestant 
 an absolute, infallible rule of faith? The language was 
 good, the truth still better; what need, then, was there 
 to revise? 
 
 The revisers of 1881 tell us that the language of the 
 old English version could be improved, and that they 
 meant to improve it. The older translators, they say, 
 ^^seem to have been guided by the feeling that their 
 version would secure for the words they used a lasting 
 place in the language; . . . but it cannot be doubted that 
 the studied avoidance of uniformity in the rendering of 
 the same words, even when occurring in the same context, 
 is one of the blemishes in their work/^ 
 
 But are the changes of language or expression all that 
 the reviewers of this infallible text-book aim at? No. 
 Listen to what Dr. Ellicott in the Preface to the Pas- 
 toral Epistles says: 
 
 ^'^It is vain to cheat our souls with the thought that 
 these errors are either insignificant or imaginary. There 
 are errors, there are inaccuracies, there are misconcep- 
 tions, there are obscurities, not, indeed, so many in 
 number or so grave in character as some of the forward 
 spirits of our day would persuade us; but there are mis- 
 representations of the language of the Holy Ghost; and 
 that man who, after being in any degree satisfied of this, 
 permits himself to bow to the counsels of a timid or pop- 
 
The Vulgate and the Revised Protestant Version, 121 
 
 ular obstructiveness, or who, intellectually unable to test 
 the truth of these allegations, nevertheless permits him- 
 self to denounce or deny them, will, if they be true, 
 most surely at the dread day of final account have to 
 sustain the tremendous charge of having dealt deceitfully 
 with the inviolable Word of God/^ ^ 
 
 So this book, the infallible voice of God revealing His 
 ways, this sole rule of faith for millions of Englishmen, 
 and by which millions had lived and sworn and died 
 during more than two centuries, had to be revised, not 
 only as to the form, but in the matter also. Two com- 
 mittees were formed, about fifty of the members being 
 from England, thirty from America — Presbyterians, Bap- 
 tists, Methodists, etc. Cardinal Newman and Dr. Pu- 
 sey were invited, but declined to attend. Mr. Vance 
 Smith, a Unitarian, a distinguished scholar, but certainly 
 no Christian, received a place in the New Testament com- 
 mittee. These gentlemen set to work in earnest to re- 
 vise the Word of God and settle the Bible of the future. 
 They had to consider the advance made in textual criti- 
 cism represented by Lachmann, Scholz, Tregelles, Tis- 
 chendorf, and Drs. Westcott and Hort. 
 
 They labored ten years and a half, as Dr. EUicott as- 
 sures us, ^^ with thoroughness, loyalty to the authorized 
 versions, and due recognition of the best judgment of 
 antiquity. One of their rules, expressly laid down for 
 their common guidance, was to introduce as few alter- 
 
 1 " Pastoral Epistles," p. 13. 
 
122 Chapters of Bible Study, 
 
 ations as possible into the text of the authorized ver- 
 sion/^ 
 
 How many corrections,, think you^ were made in the 
 New Testament alone? About 20^000^ of which fifty 
 per cent, are textual, that is ^^ 9 to every five verses of 
 the Gospels, and 15 to every five in the Epistles/^ Be- 
 sides these changes, which must be a shock to many an 
 English Protestant who has accustomed himself by long 
 reading of the Bible to believe in verbal inspiration, 
 there are a number of omissions in the ISTew Eevised 
 Text which in all amount to about 40 entire verses. It 
 appears, then, that the King James Bible of some years 
 ago has not been as most Protestantsof necessity claimed 
 for it — the pure, authentic, unadulterated Word of God. 
 And if not, what guarantee have we that the promis- 
 cuous body of recent translators, however learned, with- 
 al not inspired, have given us that pure, authentic, un- 
 adulterated Wol-d of God? 
 
 Let us glance over a few pages of the New Testament 
 to see of what nature and of what importance, from a 
 doctrinal point of view, are the changes made by the 
 late revisers of the ^' Authorized (Protestant) Version. ^^ 
 
 In the first place, they have acknowledged the reading 
 of I. Cor. xi. 27, regarding communion under one kind, 
 by translating the Greek tf by or, and not by and, an error 
 which had been repeated in all the Protestant transla- 
 tions since 1525, and which gave rise to endless abuse of 
 the Catholic practice of giving the Blessed Sacrament to 
 
The Vulgate and the Revised Protestant Version, 123 
 
 the laity under only one species. ^^ Whosoever shall eat 
 the bread or drink the cup'^ is the reading in the Greek 
 as well as in the Latin Vulgate, and nothing but ^' theo- 
 logical fear or partiality/' as Dean Stanley expressed it, 
 could have warranted this mistranslation, which may be 
 found in all the editions of 1526, 1538, 1562, 1568, 1577, 
 1579, 1611, etc. 
 
 But this is only one of many acts of justice whichthe 
 learned revisers have done to Catholics by restoring the 
 true reading; they have given us back the altar which, 
 together with the Holy Sacrifice and confession and 
 celibacy, had become obnoxious to the ^^ reformers.'^ 
 We now read, I. Cor. x. 18, that '' those that eat the 
 hosts'*' are in '' communion with the altar/' where for- 
 merly they were only ^^ partakers of the temple.'' 
 
 Having restored the Catholic practice of Holy Com- 
 munion under one kind, and likewise the altar, we are 
 not surprised that the ^'overseers" of the King James 
 version should have become Mshops, as in Acts xx. 28, 
 although a good many of the overseers have been left in 
 their places, possibly because the ^'elders" (Acts xv. 2; 
 Tit. i. 5; I. Tim. v. 17 and 19, etc.) have not yet become 
 priests, as they are in the Khemish (Catholic) translation. 
 However, the ^^ elders" are likely to turn out priests at 
 the next revision, because they are not only '' ordained," 
 but also ^'^ appointed," whereas in the old English revis- 
 ions of 1562 and 1579 they were ordained elders '' by 
 election in every congregation," which is still done in 
 
1 24 Chapters of Bible Study, 
 
 Protestant churches where there are no bishops, and even 
 in some which have ^^overseers ^^ with the honorary ti- 
 tle of '' bishop/' 
 
 As to the celibacy question, the revisers have not 
 thought fit to endorse it by translating ddeX(p7jv yuvdlxa a 
 ^^ woman/' a sister; but they adhere to the old ^^wife/' 
 as Beza, in his translation, makes the Apostles go about 
 with their ^' wives'' (Acts i. 14). 
 
 In the matter of '^ confession " we have got a degree 
 nearer to the old Catholic version and practice likewise. 
 The Protestant reformers had no ^^sins" to confess; 
 they had only '^ faults." Hence they translate St. James 
 V. 16 by ^^ confess your faults." But the revisers of 
 1881 found out that these '' faults " were downright sins, 
 and so they put it. Accordingly we find that the Apos- 
 tles have power literally ^^to forgive" sins, whereas 
 formerly, the sins being only faults, it was enough to 
 have them ^^ remitted," which means a sort of passive 
 yielding or condoning on the part of the overseers in 
 favor of repentant sinners, but did not convey the idea 
 of a sacramental power ^'^ binding and loosening" in 
 heaven as on earth. 
 
 Our dear Blessed Lady also receives some justice at 
 the hands of the new translators. She is not simply 
 '^highly favored" as in the times of King James and 
 ever since, but now is ^^ endued with grace," though 
 only in a footnote. 
 
 ^' It was expected," says an anonymous writer in the 
 
The Vulgate and the Revised Protestant Version, 125 
 
 above cited article of the Dublin Review,^ ^' that the re- 
 visers^ in deference to modern refinement^ would get rid 
 of ^hell^ and ^damnation/ like the judge who was said 
 to have dismissed hell with costs. ^ Damnation^ and 
 kindred words have gone. ... A new word, ^ Hades/ 
 Pluto^s Greek name, has been brought into our language 
 to save the old word ^ hell ^ from overwork. The Rich 
 Man is no longer in ^ hell/ he is now Hn Hades;' but 
 he is still ^in torment.^ So Hades must be Purgatory, 
 and the revisers have thus moved Dives into Purgatory, 
 and Purgatory into the Gospel. Dives will not object; 
 but what will Protestants say?^^ 
 
 An important change has been introduced in their 
 treatment of the Lord^s Prayer. Protestants, for over 
 three hundred years, have concluded that prayer with 
 the words: ^^for Thine is the kingdom and the power 
 and the glory forever. ^^ These words were to be found 
 in St. Matt. vi. 13 according to the Protestant text. 
 They were certainly wanting in St. Luke xi. 2, who also 
 gives us the words of the ^^ Our Father ^^ with a very 
 slight change of form. Catholics were reproached for 
 not adding the ' doxology,^ which proved to be a custom 
 in the Greek Catholic Church, very much like our use 
 of the '' Glory be to the Father, and to the Son,'^ etc., 
 at the end of each psalm recited or sung at Vespers. 
 Examination showed that the phrase ^^ for Thine is the 
 kingdom, ^^ etc., was to be found principally in versions 
 
 1 Vol. VI., ser. iii. 
 
1 26 Chapters of Bible Study. 
 
 made by and for the Catholics of the Greek Church, 
 and this explained how the same had crept into the 
 copyists^ Greek version. This fact is recognized at length 
 in the late revision where the words are omitted from 
 the text of St. Matthew, whilst a footnote states that 
 '' many authorities, some ancient, but with variations, 
 add: ^for Thine is the kingdom and the glory for- 
 ever.^ ^^ 
 
 The American revisers had made a number of very 
 sensible suggestions, which would have brought the new 
 Protestant version of the Bible still nearer to the old 
 Catholic translation of Kheims and Douay; but their 
 voice was not considered weighty enough, and Mr. Vance 
 Smith openly blames the English committee on this 
 score, saying that ^^ they have not shown that judicial 
 freedom from theological bias which was certainly ex- 
 pected from them.^^ On the other hand, the American 
 revisers showed their national spirit and liberality to a 
 degree which must have horrified the orthodox members 
 of the Anglican Community. The Americans ^^sug- 
 gested the removal of all mention of the sin of heresy — 
 heresies in their eyes being only ^factions. ^ They de- 
 sired also that the Apostles and Evangelists should drop 
 their title of Saint, and be content to be called plain 
 John, and Paul, and Thomas. This resulted^ no doubt, 
 from their democratic taste for strict equality, and their 
 hatred of titles even in the kingdom of heaven/" ' 
 * Dublin Review^ I. c. 
 
The Vulgate and the Revised Protestant Version, 127 
 
 After all this the principle of faith in the Bible alone 
 became somewhat insecure, and we find the revisers 
 making a silent concession on this point by allowing 
 something to the Catholic principle of a living, perpet- 
 ually transmitted tradition, St. Paul, who speaks of 
 the altar and of bishops, and who allows Communion 
 under one kind, and who had no wife, and wanted none 
 (I. Cor. vii.), praises the Corinthians, not simply for 
 keeping his ^^ ordinances, ^^ as in the time of King James, 
 but for keeping the traditions as he had delivered them 
 to the Greek churches before he found opportunity to 
 write to the Corinthians. 
 
 There is one other point of difference between the 
 Catholic and Protestant Bibles to which it is instructive 
 to call attention. It is in regard to the writing of 
 proper names, especially in the Old Testament. Thus 
 where we in the Catholic Bibles have Nahuchodonosor 
 for the king of Babylon, son of JSTabopollassar, the 
 Protestant version has Nehuchadnezzar ; where we have 
 Elias and Eliseus, the Protestant version has Elijah 
 and Elisha, and so forth regarding many Hebrew names 
 of persons and places. You will ask whence the differ- 
 ence, and which is right? 
 
 The difference arises from the fact that the Protestant 
 Version follows the present Hebrew text of the Bible, 
 whilst the Catholic Version follows the Greek. Which 
 is the safer to follow on such points as the pronuncia- 
 tion of proper names — the Hebrew or the Greek? You 
 
128 Chapters of Bible Study. 
 
 will say the Hebrew, but it is not so. The old Hebrew 
 writing had, as I mentioned before, no vowels. Hence 
 it could not b6 read by any one who had not heard it 
 read in the schools of the rabbis. Some six centuries 
 after our Lord, certain Jewish doctors who were called 
 Masorets, anxious to preserve the traditional sounds of 
 the Hebrew language, supplied vowels in the shape of 
 points, which they placed under the square consonants, 
 without disturbing the latter. Hence the present vowel 
 system in Hebrew, or, in other words, the present pro- 
 nunciation of Hebrew according to the reading of the 
 Bible, is the work of men who relied for the pronuncia- 
 tion of words on a tradition which carried them back 
 over many centuries, that is, from the time when Hebrew 
 was a living language to about six hundred years after 
 Christ. It is not difficult to imagine how in such a 
 length of time the true pronunciation may have been 
 lost or certainly modified in some cases; for though the 
 Hebrew words were there on the paper, written in con- 
 sonants of the old form, the pronunciation of the vow- 
 els must have been doubtful if resting on tradition 
 alone, since the Hebrew had already ceased to be a liv- 
 ing language for many centuries. 
 
 In the meantime, the true pronunciation of the He- 
 brew proper names could have been preserved in some 
 of the translations made long before the Masoretic doc- 
 tors supplied their vowel points. One of these transla- 
 tions from the Hebrew is the Greek Septuagint. It 
 
The Vulgate and the Revised Protestant Version. 129 
 
 was made^ as we have seen, in the time of Ptolemy, i, e,, 
 some two and a half centuries before Christ. The learned 
 Jews who made this translation knew perfectly well how 
 the Hebrew of their day was pronounced, and we can- 
 not suppose that they would mutilate the proper names 
 of their mother tongue in the translation into Greek 
 which, possessing written vowels, obliged them to express 
 the full pronunciation of the persons and places which 
 they transcribed. 
 
 Accordingly, we have two sources for our pronunci- 
 ation of Hebrew proper names: one which dates from 
 about the sixth or seventh century of the present era, 
 when the Hebrew had become a dead language; and an- 
 other, made about nine hundred years earlier by Jewish 
 rabbis, who spoke the language perfectly well, and who 
 could express the pronunciation of proper names accu- 
 rately because they wrote in a language which had writ- 
 ten vowels, and with which they were as conversant as 
 with their own, the Hebrew. 
 
 Furthermore, we have other versions, made long before 
 the Masoretic Doctors invented their vowel-points in or- 
 der to fix the Hebrew pronunciation as they conceived 
 it. Among these is the Latin Vulgate which, like the 
 Greek of the Septuagint, should give us the correct pro- 
 nunciation — because it was made by St. Jerome, who 
 had studied the Hebrew and Chaldee in Palestine under 
 a Jewish rabbi. He knew, therefore, the pronunciation 
 of the Jews in his day (331-420), and there was no reason 
 
130 Chapters of Bible Study. 
 
 why he should not give it to us in his several different 
 translations, whilst there might have been some cause 
 why the Masoretic Jews who lived two or three centuries 
 later should dislike to accept either the Greek or the 
 Latin versions for an authority, because both versions 
 were used and constantly cited by the Christians as proof 
 that the Messiah had come. 
 
 Incidentally, the late archeological finds confirm this. 
 Thus the name of Nabuchodonosor (IV. Kings xxiv. 1) 
 (Protestant, Nebuchadnezzar), mentioned above as an 
 example, reads in the cuneiform inscription of the As- 
 syrian monument Nebukudursur, which is evidently 
 the same form of vowel pronunciation as that employed 
 in the Catholic version. 
 
 In comparing the two versions thus far little has been 
 said as to the peculiar character or merits of the English 
 Catholic version commonly called the Vulgate English 
 or Douay Bible. But the main purpose of the present 
 chapter has been attained by the necessary inference 
 which the reader must have drawn, namely, that the old 
 Catholic version is the more faithful, and that, after all, 
 the Bible is not a safe guide without a Church to guard 
 its integrity and to interpret its meaning. 
 
 But let me say just a word about the Vulgate. The 
 Catholic Vulgate is practically the work of St. Jerome, 
 and our English Catholic edition is made as literally as 
 may be from this Latin Vulgate, ^^ diligently compared 
 with the Hebrew, Greek, and other editions in divers 
 
The Vulgate and the Revised Protestant Version, 1 3 1 
 
 languages/^ The copies^ most in use now, were made 
 from an edition published by the English College at 
 Kheims in 1582, and at Douay in 1609, revised by Dr. 
 Challoner. 
 
 The need of a new revision has been recognized, and 
 an effort to supply the want was made by the late Arch- 
 bishop Kenrick, whose translation was recommended by 
 the Council of Baltimore in 1858, although it has not 
 been generally adopted. However, the changes to be 
 made in the translation of the Catholic Bible in Eng- 
 lish cannot be very numerous nor affecting doctrines 
 defined by the Church; nor is any accidental change of 
 Avords or expressions so vital a matter to the Catholic 
 mind as it must be with those who have but the Bible 
 as their one primary rule of faith. So far Protestant re- 
 visions have done Catholics a service in removing by suc- 
 essive corrections one error after another from the ^Pre- 
 formed ^^ Bible, thus demonstrating the correctness of 
 the old Vulgate; but they have also led Protestants to 
 reflect seriously, and to realize that the " Bible only ^^ 
 principle is proved to be false and dangerous. They 
 must see that the Scripture is powerless without the 
 Church as the witness to its inspiration, the safeguard 
 of its integrity, and the exponent of its meaning. 
 
XXI. 
 
 THE POSITION OF THE CHURCH IN THE PRES- 
 ENT STATE OF THE SCIENTIFIC CON- 
 TROVERSY REGARDING 
 THE BIBLE. 
 
 In one of the old churches of Wales you may see 
 the Ten Commandments written upon the wall, and 
 beneath them the following inscription, the meaning 
 of which, it is said, had for a long time remained a 
 mystery to the people: 
 
 PESVEYPKFCTMlSr, 
 VEKPTHSPKOPTSTN. 
 
 Some one supplied the key to the interpretation by 
 suggesting the letter E. Then everybody read the lines, 
 and the old folks told their children, who inform the 
 casual visitor that the strange letters plainly mean: Per- 
 severe ye perfect men, ever Tceep these precepts ten. 
 
 The inscription in the old Welsh church is a good il- 
 lustration of the old text of the Bible, which had no 
 vowels, no division of words and sentences. God gave 
 the key to its meaning through an intelligent interpre- 
 ter, and the men of learning supply the divisions — even 
 in this sense that they sometimes dispute the place 
 where to insert and where to omit the B. 
 
 13g 
 
The Position of the Church, 133 
 
 The original obscurity has induced many to study the 
 Bible, and the grand result of this study in our day 
 has been to lead the great majority of scientific men, 
 whether they are believers in the divine origin of the 
 Book or not, to the conclusion that it is, to say the least, 
 an historical monument of the highest antiquity, the 
 contents of which have come down to us in that genuine 
 and authentic form which is claimed for it; that is to 
 say, that it has not been tampered with or falsified to 
 such an extent as would render its statements materially 
 other than they were from the beginning. 
 
 Tischendorf, one of the leading Biblical text critics in 
 recent times, allows indeed some 30,000 variations for 
 the New Testament alone in the different manuscripts 
 of which we possess any trace. Although these varia- 
 tions are on the whole very slight, so as not to affect the 
 genuineness of the Scripture documents, they establish 
 the fact that we do not possess the text of the Bible in 
 the literal form in which the inspired writers originally 
 wrote it down. 
 
 Whatever changes have crept into the text of the 
 Bible, through inadvertence of copyists or defective 
 translations into other languages, it is a settled fact 
 among Catholic divines that they do not affect the mor- 
 al and dogmatic teaching of the Catholic Church. They 
 regard either purely historical incidents or scientific 
 facts, neither of which are the object of the doctrinal 
 definitions or moral teachings of the Church. They are 
 
1 34 Chapters of Bible Study. 
 
 the proper subject for the study of human reason and 
 investigation. Hence philological science may very be- 
 comingly occupy itself with the verbal criticism of the 
 language and thought of the Bible. But the Catholic 
 Church, as a teacher of religious truth, has an interest 
 in these studies of verbal criticism in so far only as they 
 may become a help or a hindrance to her legitimate 
 activity of preachingandpreserving the truth of Chris- 
 tianity. As a rule, the Church anticipates the dangerous 
 issues arising from the misuse of such studies by delib- 
 erately defining not only the right use of the instruments 
 employed for the purpose of criticism, but also what she 
 herself deems the subject-matter lying outside of the 
 domain of such criticism. Thus, in a negative way, she 
 points out the field for the exercise of theories, or rather 
 she defines the lines beyond which speculation may not 
 safely go. The Church would have no end of tasks if 
 she undertook to defend her position against the con- 
 tinuously proposed hypotheses by which any chance 
 comer might venture to challenge her veracity or au- 
 thority. Most theories are ephemeral; two, succeeding 
 each other, are often mutually destructive. Prof. H. L. 
 Hastings m his *^ Higher Criticism ^^ tells us that since 
 1850 there have been published 747 theories, known to 
 him, about the origin and authenticity of the Bible. 
 Of these 747 theories he counts 608 as now defunct, and 
 as the Professor wrote several years ago, we may assume 
 that nearly all of the remaining 139 are dead by this 
 
The Position of the Church, 135 
 
 time, although a few new ones liave come in to take 
 their place for a day. * 
 
 What, then, is the position of the Catholic Church, 
 as limited by i30sitive definition, with regard to the text 
 of the Bible, by which she limits the aggressiveness of 
 Biblical criticism? 
 
 The Catholic Church gives us a very ancient and well- 
 attested text of the entire Bible in the Latin tongue, 
 and in virtue of her commission to teach, which includes 
 the right and duty to appoint the text-book for that 
 teaching, she says: Tlie sacred Council of Trent, believ- 
 ing tliat it would he of great advantage to the CMirch of 
 God to have it hnoion which of the various Latin editions 
 of the Bible is to be held authentic, hereby declares that 
 the ancient edition commonly hnown as the Vulgate, 
 which has beeii approved by the long-standing use of ages 
 in the Church, is to be considered as the autlientic Bible 
 for official uses of teaching (Trent, vi, 12), 
 
 You notice that the Council of Trent does not say 
 that the Vulgate corresponds exactly to the literal orig- 
 inal text, nor that it is the best of all known translations. 
 The Council states only, but states explicitly, that the 
 Vulgate edition of the Bible is a reliable source of the 
 written revelation in matters of faith and morals. And 
 the reason which the Council alleges for this preference 
 of the Vulgate over other editions is its constant use for 
 centuries in the Church; in other words, that it repre- 
 
 J See Hettmger'8 " Apologie," Preface xi. 
 
136 Chapters of Bible Study, 
 
 sents the best tradition of the received text-form of the 
 Sacred Scriptures. But the definition of the Council 
 implies not only that the contents of the Vulgate in 
 their entirety are reliable and authentic, but that each 
 of its statements is authentic in its dogmatic contents, 
 since the whole Vulgate, i, e,, in all its parts, is said to 
 constitute a medium or instrument of official teaching 
 in the Church. The declaration of the Council is re- 
 garding the Latin Vulgate; hence all translations must 
 conform to its text, that is to say, the corrected text of 
 1592, called the Clementine recension. 
 
 It is noteworthy that, whilst the Church points out a 
 text which is to be the official pattern in her liturgy and 
 in the defence of Catholic teaching regarding faith and 
 morals, she does not define anything regarding other 
 texts or versions of the Bible. Neither the Hebrew nor 
 the Greek texts are mentioned, although the Church 
 gives to them, and tho Coptic, Syrian, and Armenian 
 versions, an implied approbation by tolerating their li- 
 turgical use in the Oriental churches. 
 
 What the Church has defined, therefore, regarding 
 the Vulgate is this: It has declared its dog^natic integrity. 
 This implies that the contents of the Vulgate give in 
 their entirety and in their details a reliable version of 
 the inspired text as an instrument of teaching Catholic 
 truth and morals. 
 
 From a scientific point of view the Vulgate enjoys 
 the advantage of being the oldest of all the Scriptural 
 
The Position of the Church. 137 
 
 versions. In the Old Testament it represents a text 
 more ancient than the Hebrew of the Masoretie doctors. 
 The J^ew Testament is likewise older than the oldest 
 Greek text extant^ as Lachmann in his critical edi- 
 tion has demonstrated. Moreover^ its composition is 
 the result of the best scientific apparatus of early Chris- 
 tian times^ which St. Jerome possessed in a phenomenal 
 degree^ both as to his person and also as to the circum- 
 stances in which he was placed. Finally, it has an his- 
 torical support of unequalled superiority, inasmuch as 
 it has been from the beginning the means of Christian- 
 izing the nations of Europe. 
 
 All this is being verified, not only by textual critics, 
 but by the more recent discoveries in the study of Chris- 
 tian paleography. 
 
 Such is tlie position in which scientific research finds 
 the Church. The multiform theories about the Bible, 
 and the various possible senses of its words and passa- 
 ges, only affect her in a limited degree. Catholic apol- 
 ogists are obliged to deal with these theories so far only 
 as they affect the positive teaching of the Church in 
 faith and morals, although the analogy of faith de- 
 mands that the Catholic scientist test his opinions by 
 weighty tradition and approved practice. Whilst the 
 dogmatic integrity of the Sacred Scriptures is thus se- 
 cured, the examination of the critical integrity of indi- 
 vidual parts leaves a wide field open to Catholic Biblical 
 students. The work done by non-Catholic scholars who 
 
138 Chapters of Bible Study, 
 
 have examined the Bible^ either to bring out the verbal 
 meaning of its text^ or to verify some historical or phil- 
 ological hypothesis, is astounding. Catholic students 
 owe a great debt to the first gleaners in this field; for 
 though we have neither felt impelled to look for the 
 rule of our faith in the Bible exclusively, nor always 
 been inclined to accept the dicta regarding the literal 
 sense of so sacred a document from the professors of 
 philological discipline, we have incidentally profited by 
 all these . searchings. They have illustrated the excel- 
 lence of our faith, both as a system and as a moral princi- 
 ple. They have thrown light upon problems of exegesis. 
 All the doctrines and practices of the Catholic Church 
 have found their confirmation in the analysis of Bib- 
 lical terms as the result of textual criticism. The words 
 of the Bible have been thrown into the crucible, and 
 the gold of Catholic doctrine has been the outcome — pur- 
 er, brighter, more refined, and still weighty. Each ver- 
 ified theory regarding the sense of old forgotten Hebrew 
 terms has received the impress of Catholic approbation, 
 and served to give the doctrine of the Church a more 
 ready currency. Scientists, often reluctantly, are point- 
 ing out golden opportunities for Catholic students. 
 
 It does not come within our present scope to speak 
 of the various methods employed by the science and art 
 of Biblical criticism, nor to retail the separate results 
 to which the inquiry into the authenticity (Higher 
 Criticism) and the integrity and purity of the text 
 
The Position of the Church, 139 
 
 (Lower Criticism) has led. The history of the New 
 Testament, which is the best witness to the authenticity 
 and integrity of the Old Testament books, provided we 
 admit the divinity of Christ, which in its turn rests 
 upon the strongest historic evidence, has received an 
 immense amount of confirmatory argument in numerous 
 discoveries of ancient documents. Within the last forty 
 years have been found, among other valuable writings, 
 the famous Codex Sinaiticus by Tischendorf (1859), 
 one of the oldest Greek texts of the Bible. In 1875 
 Archbishop Briennios found in Constantinople the MS. 
 Epistles of Clement of Eome, which not only confirm the 
 apostolical writings and evangels as being received in the 
 Church of his day, but furnish the oldest liturgical 
 prayer and sermon of post-apostolic times. Another 
 document of the same character, in Latin, was discovered 
 by Morin in 1893. Next we have the celebrated Dia- 
 tessaron of Tatian, the oldest gospel harmony in ex- 
 istence, which, known to Eusebius, but lost in the mean- 
 time, was recovered lately, with a parallel manuscript 
 found in Egypt, and published last year in English. 
 This takes us back to the time of St. Justin. Another 
 most important find is the MS. of the so-called ^^ Teach- 
 ing of the Twelve Apostles." The document was dis- 
 covered by Briennios, and published in 1883. It throws 
 much light on the ecclesiastical discipline of the early 
 Christian Church (about A. D. 120), speaks of the writ- 
 ten Gospels, etc. Another valuable MS. (Syriac) was 
 
140 Chapters of Bible Study. 
 
 found in 1889 by Professor Harris. It is the ^' Apolo- 
 gy of Aristides/^ brought from the convent of St. Cath- 
 arine on Mt. Sinai, and dates about the year 140, as it is 
 addressed to the Emperor Hadrian, and offers him the 
 Christian Scriptures to read. 
 
 I pass over a host of other important finds of the same 
 nature, of unquestioned authenticity, which carry us back 
 to the apostolic age. 
 
 XXII. 
 
 MYSTEt^IOUS CHARACTERS. 
 
 Whilst BiT^lical criticism and constantly increasing 
 discoveries of new treasures, such as we mentioned in the 
 last chapter, are adding their approving light to the an- 
 cient and unchanged traditions of the Catholic Church 
 regarding the Bible and its exegesis, the finds of arche- 
 ology are confirming the statements of the Bible, espe- 
 cially the Old Testament history, with an accuracy which 
 forces even the infidel scientist to bear witness to the 
 historical truth of the inspired records. 
 
 A century ago Biblical antiquity received its side-lights, 
 for the most part, from rabbinical literature, and from 
 newly-discovered methods of interpreting those classics 
 which dealt with the Oriental world incidentally. But 
 in modern times an immense literary field has been 
 opened by the discovery of ancient monuments in Egypt, 
 Assyria, Babylonia, Syria, Asia Minor, Palestine, and the 
 
Mysterious Characters, 141 
 
 surrounding countries. These monuments place us in 
 position to trace the condition of these nations to very re- 
 mote periods, and give us a key to the explanation of the 
 Biblical documents. Extraordinary labor, coupled with 
 all-sided knowledge, a refined method of observation, and 
 untiring patience, have made it possible to read the hiero- 
 glyphics and the so-called cuneiform inscriptions. It is 
 interesting to trace the gradual progress by which def- 
 inite results were attained in deciphering certain inscrip- 
 tions whose language was entirely unknown to any liv- 
 ing man. I may be allowed to give here an illustration, 
 taken from Mr. Sayce^s excellent little work, ^^ Fresh 
 Lights on Ancient Monuments,"^ in which he describes 
 the manner of unravelling the mysterious threads of the 
 old Persian script: 
 
 * * Travellers had discovered inscriptions engraved in cunei- 
 form, or, as they were also termed, arrow-headed, characters 
 on the ruined monuments of Persepolis and other ancient sites 
 in Persia. Some of these monuments were known to have been 
 erected by the Achgemenian princes — Darius, the son of Hys- 
 taspes, and his successors — and it was therefore inferred that 
 the inscriptions also had been carved by order of the same 
 kings. The inscriptions were in three different systems of 
 cuneiform writing; and, since the three kinds of inscription 
 were always placed side by side, it was evident that they rep- 
 resented different versions of the same text. The subjects of 
 the Persian kings belonged to more than one race, and, just as 
 in the present day a Turkish pasha in the East has to publish 
 an edict in Turkish, Arabic, and Persian, if it is to be under- 
 
142 Chapters of Bible Study. 
 
 stood by all the populations under his charge, so the Persian 
 kings were obliged to use the language and system of writing 
 peculiar to each of the nations they governed whenever they 
 wished their proclamations to be read and understood by them. 
 
 *' It was clear that the three versions of the Achsemenian in- 
 scriptions were addressed to the three chief populations of the 
 Persian empire, and that the one that invariably came first was 
 composed in ancient Persian, the language of the sovereign 
 himself. Now this Persian version happened to offer the de- 
 cipherer less difficulties than the two others which accom- 
 panied it. The number of distinct characters employed in 
 writing it did not exceed forty, while the words were divided 
 from one another by a slanting wedge. Some of the words 
 contained so many characters that it was plain that these latter 
 must denote letters, and not syllables, and that consequently 
 the Persian cuneiform system must have consisted of an alpha- 
 bet, and not of a syllabary. It was further plain that the in- 
 scriptions had to be read from left to right, since the ends of 
 all the lines were exactly underneath one another on the left 
 side, whereas they terminated irregularly on the right ; indeed, 
 the last line sometimes ended at a considerable distance from 
 the right-hand extremity of the inscription. 
 
 "The clue to the decipherment of the inscriptions was first 
 discovered by the successful guess of a German scholar, Grote- 
 fend. Grotefend noticed that the inscriptions generally began 
 with three or four words, one of which varied, while the oth- 
 ers remained unchanged. The variable word had three forms, 
 though the same form always appeared on the same monument. 
 Grotefend, therefore, conjectured that this word represented 
 the name of a king, the words which followed it being the royal 
 titles. One of the supposed names appeared much oftener than 
 
Mysterious Characters, 143 
 
 the others, and, as it was too short for Artaxerxes and too long 
 for Cyrus, it was evident that it must stand either for Darius 
 or for Xerxes. A study of the classical authors showed Grote- 
 fend that certain of the monuments on which it was found had 
 been constructed by Darius, and he accordingly gave to the 
 characters composing it the values required for spelling ' Da- 
 rius ' in its old Persian form. In this way he succeeded in ob- 
 taining conjectural values for six cuneiform letters. He now 
 turned to the second royal name, which also appeared on sev- 
 eral monuments, and was of much the same length as that of 
 Darius. This could only be Xerxes; but if so, the fifth letter 
 composing it (r) would necessarily be the same as the third 
 letter in the name of Darius. This proved to be the case, and 
 thus afforded the best possible evidence that the German scholar 
 was on the right track. 
 
 ^ ' The third name, which was much longer than the other two, 
 differed from the second chiefly at the beginning, the latter 
 part of it resembling the name of Xerxes. Clearly, therefore, 
 it could be nothing else than Artaxerxes, and that it actually 
 was so was rendered certain by the fact that the second char- 
 acter composing it was that which had the value of r. 
 
 ' ^ Grotef end now possessed a small alphabet, and with this he 
 proceeded to read the word which always followed the royal 
 name, and therefore probably meant ' king.' He found that it 
 closely resembled the word which signified ^ king' in Zend, the 
 old language of the Eastern Persians, which was spoken in one 
 part of Persia at the same time that Old Persian, the language 
 of the Achgemenian princes, was spoken in another. There 
 could, consequently, be no further room for doubt that he had 
 really solved the great problem, and discovered the key to the 
 decipherment of the cuneiform texts. 
 
144 Chapters of Bible Study, 
 
 *^ But he did little further himself towards the completion of 
 the work, and it was many years before any real progress was 
 made with it. Meanwhile, the study of Zend had made great 
 advances, more especially in the hands of Burnouf , who eventu- 
 ally turned his attention to the cuneiform inscriptions. But it 
 is to Burnouf 's pupil, Lassen, as well as to Sir Henry Eawlin- 
 son, that the decipherment of these inscriptions owes its final 
 completion. The discovery of the list of Persian satrapies in 
 the inscription of Darius at Naksh-i-Rustem, and above all the 
 copy of the long inscription of Darius on the rock of Behistum, 
 made by Sir H. Rawlinson, enabled these scholars independent- 
 ly of one another to construct an alphabet which differed only 
 in the value assigned to a single character, and, with the help of 
 the cognate Zend and Sanskrit, to translate the language so curi- 
 ously brought to light. The decipherment of the Persian cunei- 
 form texts thus became an accomplished fact ; what was next 
 needed was to decipher the two versions which were inscribed 
 at their side. 
 
 ' ' But this was no easy task. The words in them were not di- 
 vided from one another, and the characters of which they were 
 composed were exceedingly numerous. With the assistance, 
 however, of frequently recurring proper names, even these two 
 versions gradually yielded to the patient skill of the decipherer ; 
 and it was then discovered that while one of them represented 
 an agglutinative language, such as that of the Turks or Fins, 
 the other was in a dialect which closely resembled the Hebrew 
 of the Old Testament. The monuments found almost immedi- 
 ately afterwards in Assyria and Babylonia by Botta and Layard 
 soon made it clear to what people this dialect must have be- 
 longed. The inscriptions of Nineveh turned out to be written 
 in the same language and form of cuneiform script ; and it must 
 
Mysterious Characters, 1 45 
 
 therefore have been for the Semitic population of Assyria and 
 Ba])ylonia that the kings of Persia had caused one of the ver- 
 sions of their inscriptions to be drawn up. This version served 
 as a starting-point for the decipherment of the texts which the 
 excavations in Assyria had brought to light." 
 
 In this way results which stood the test of severe 
 criticism were obtained until the most difficult inscrip- 
 tions have become a comparatively open book to the liis- 
 torian of to-day. Thus it has come about that, as Prof. 
 Ira Price says: ^^ Since 1850 the Old Testament has 
 been gradually appearing in the ever-brightening and 
 brighter light of contemporaneous history. The new 
 light now pours in upon it from all sides. It is the one 
 history made rich by that of all its neighbors. Israel is 
 the one people whose part in the drama of ancient na- 
 tions is just beginning to be understood. . . . The cunei- 
 form letters discovered at Tel el-Amarna in Egypt, in 
 1887, have opened up new territory in the fifteenth cen- 
 tury, B. C. They are despatches and official communica- 
 tions sent by a large number of rulers, kings, and gov- 
 ernors, mainly of countries and provinces and cities of 
 Southwestern Asia, to the king of Egypt. These doc- 
 uments disclose a marvellously advanced stage of devel- 
 opment, intellectually, politically, and socially, among 
 the people who were soon to be IsraeFs nearest neighbors. 
 They formed the early background of Israelis settle- 
 ment in Canaan, and prepare us for no surprises in Is- 
 raelis growth. In fact, we see that Joshua and his army 
 
146 Chapters of Bible Study, 
 
 actually settled in a land of cities and fortresses^ already 
 containing many of the elements of civilization^ but sad- 
 ly reduced by internal and external warfare/^ 
 
 The labor of the excavator in the Biblical countries, 
 such as the unearthing of the immense library of brick 
 tablets in the neighborhood of Nineveh, and the result 
 of new discoveries which the ground of Palestine, so 
 long and strangely neglected, promises to yield, Aviden 
 the field of Biblical research immensely, and from it 
 all we may with perfect assurance look for fresh ar- 
 guments in behalf of the authenticity and substantial 
 integrity of the Sacred Scriptures. At the same time 
 the interpretation of many of its passages, now obscure, 
 will become clearer in the light of contemporary his- 
 tory. 
 
 Surely this is a hopeful sign, and should encourage us 
 in the study of the Bible, which is on so many accounts a 
 source of intellectual pleasure, of abiding peace of heart, 
 and of that high moral refinement which comes from con- 
 tact with noble minds. There are none better on earth 
 than the sacred writers — men who walked and spoke 
 with God, and whose living contact we may enjoy in the 
 participation of that celestial inspiration which breathes 
 through their writings. 
 
CONCLUSION. 
 
 The foregoing chapters are nothing more than a brief 
 illustration of the principles laid down by the Sovereign 
 Pontiff, Leo XIII., in his Encyclical Letter ^^On the 
 Study of the Sacred Scriptures/^ * The careful read- 
 ing of this Letter must convince us how important a 
 part the study of the Bible has always played in the 
 Church. The conclusions of Leo XIII. are not of yes- 
 terday, nor does he claim them as of his own invention. 
 He cites the Fathers and Doctors of the Church, and 
 the Decrees of Councils, from Antioch to Trent and the 
 Vatican, as witnesses to the fact that all Catholic teach- 
 ing rests upon the Sacred Scriptures as one of the two 
 great foundation stones which support the grand arch- 
 way leading into the domain of divine truth. God, in 
 order that He may reveal Himself to man, sends His 
 messengers, the Prophets and the Apostles, to announce 
 with living voice His promises and His judgments; then, 
 as if to confirm their mission for all time to come. He 
 bids them take a letter, written by Himself, and addressed 
 '^ to the human race on its pilgrimage afar from its fa- 
 therland " (Encycl.). That letter is the Holy Scripture. 
 ^' To understand and to explain it there is always re- 
 quired the ' coming^ of the same Holy Spirit '' who was to 
 abide with the Church. And she, ^^ by her admirable 
 
 1 Litter® Encyclicag, " Provldentissimus Deus," Nov. 17, A. D.1893. 
 147 
 
148 Chapters of Bible Study, 
 
 laws and regulations^ has always shown herself solicitous 
 that the celestial treasure of the Sacred Book . . . should 
 not be neglected^'' (Ibid.). If men have grown remiss 
 at any time in the use of that heavenly gift^ it cannot 
 be said that the Church failed to keep before them its 
 admirable utility. " She has arranged that a consider- 
 able portion of it should be read^ and with pious mind 
 considered by all her ministers in the daily office of 
 the sacred psalmody.''' For centuries past the solemn 
 promise of every ordained priest throughout the Cath- 
 olic world to recite each day the Hours of the Breviary 
 testifies to the constant practice of not only reading, but 
 meditating a fixed portion of the Scriptures, so that 
 under this strictest of his priestly obligations he has prac- 
 tically completed the en tire sacred volume within the lim- 
 it of each ecclesiastical year. " She has strictly command- 
 ed that her children shall be fed with the saving word of 
 the Gospel, at least on Sundays and on solemn feasts. '"^ 
 If these laws and this practice receive a fresh impulse 
 from the Sovereign Pontiff in our day, it is because there 
 have arisen men who teach that the Sacred Scriptures 
 are the work of mere human industry, that they contain 
 only fables, which have no claim to be respected as com- 
 ing from God. " They deny that there is any such 
 thing as divine revelation, or inspiration, or Holy Script- 
 ure at all: They see in these histories only forgeries 
 and falsehoods of men. . . . The prophecies and the or- 
 acles of God are to them either predictions made up 
 
Conclusion, 149 
 
 after the events or forecasts formed by the light of na- 
 ture. The miracles and manifestations of God^s power 
 are not what they profess to be^ but are either startling 
 effects which are not beyond the force of nature, or else 
 mere tricks and myths. The Gospels and apostolic writ- 
 ings are not, they say, the work of the authors to whom 
 they are assigned ^^ (Ibid.). To confute these errors 
 Leo bids us engage voice and pen. In the limited space 
 allowed us we have only been able to indicate the argu- 
 ments which prove the historical authenticity and the 
 essentially divine character which points to the true ori- 
 gin of the Sacred Text, and at the same time to lead 
 the earnest student into the way of reading with pleasure 
 and profit the grandest of all written works. 
 
 THE EKD. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 Encyclical Letter of Leo XIIL 
 
 ON 
 
 THE STUDY OF THE SACRED 
 SCRIPTURES. 
 
 To Our Venerable Brethren, all Patriarchs, Primates, 
 Archbishops, and Bishops of the Catholic World, in 
 grace and communion ivith the Apostolic See, 
 LEO P. P. XIII. 
 
 Vei^erable Brethrbi^, 
 
 Health and Apostolic Benediction, 
 The God of all Providence, who in the wondrous 
 counsel of His love raised the human race in its begin- 
 ning to participation of the divine nature, and after- 
 wards delivered it from universal guilt and ruin, restor- 
 ing it to its primitive dignity, has, in consequence, be- 
 stowed upon man a singular safeguard — making known 
 to him, by supernatural means, the hidden mysteries of 
 His divinity, His wisdom, and His mercy. Although in 
 divine revelation some things are comprehended which 
 are not beyond the reach of human reason, they are made 
 the objects of revelation in order that all may come to 
 know them with facility, certainty, and freedom from all 
 error. It is not, however, on this account that revela- 
 tion can be said to be absolutely necessary; but because 
 God of His infinite goodness has ordained man to a super- 
 natural end. This supernatural revelation, according 
 to the belief of the universal Church, is contained both 
 in unwritten Tradition and in written Books. These 
 
 151 
 
152 Chapters of Bible Study, 
 
 are called sacred and canonical because, being written 
 under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, they have God 
 for their author, and as such have been delivered to the 
 Church. This belief has been perpetually held and pro- 
 fessed by the Church with regard to the Books of both 
 Testaments. There are well-known documents of the 
 gravest character, coming down to us from the earliest 
 times, which proclaim that God, who spoke first by the 
 Prophets, then by Himself, and thereafter by the Apos- 
 tles, composed the Canonical Scriptures. These are di- 
 vine oracles and utterances — a Letter, written by our 
 heavenly Father, and transmitted by the sacred writers 
 to the human race on its pilgrimage afar from its father- 
 land. If, then, such and so great is the excellence and 
 the dignity of the Scriptures that God Himself has, as 
 the author of them, composed them, and that they 
 treat of God's deepest mysteries, counsels, and works, it 
 follows that the branch of sacred theology which is con- 
 cerned with the defence and interpretation of these di- 
 vine books must be most excellent and in the highest de- 
 gree profitable. 
 
 Now We, who by the help of God, and not without 
 fruit, have by frequent letters and exhortation endeav- 
 ored to promote other branches of study, which seemed 
 well fitted for advancing the glory of God and contribut- 
 ing to the salvation of souls, have for a long time cher- 
 ished the desire to give an impulse to the most noble 
 study of the Sacred Scriptures, and to impart to it a 
 direction which is suitable to the needs of the present 
 day. The solicitude of the Apostolic office naturally 
 urges, and even compels Us, not only to desire that 
 this grand source of Catholic revelation should be made 
 more safely and abundantly accessible to the flock of 
 Jesus Christ, but also to prevent it from being in any 
 way violated, on the part either of those who impiously 
 and openly assail the Scriptures, or of those who are 
 led astray into fallacious and imprudent novelties. 
 
Appendix, 1 5 3 
 
 We are not ignorant^ indeed. Venerable Brethren, that 
 there are Catholics not a few, men abounding in talent 
 and learning, who do devote themselves with alacrity 
 to the defence of the Divine Books, and to making them 
 better known and understood. But while giving to 
 these men the commendation which they deserve for 
 their labor and the fruits of it. We cannot but earnest- 
 ly exhort others also, from whose skill and piety and 
 learning we have a right to expect the very best results, 
 to give themselves to the same most praiseworthy work. 
 It is Our wish and fervent desire to see an increase in 
 the number of approved and unwearying laborers in the 
 cause of If oly Scripture; and more especially that those 
 whom Divine Grace has called to Holy Orders should, 
 day by day, as is most meet, display greater diligence 
 and industry in reading, meditating, and explaining it. 
 
 Among the reasons for which this study is so worthy 
 of commendation — in addition to its own excellence and 
 to the homage which we owe to God^'s word — the chief 
 reason of all is the manifold benefit of which it is the 
 source. This we know will flow therefrom on the most 
 certain testimony of the Holy Ghost Himself, who says: 
 ^^ All Scripture, inspired of God, is profitable to teach, 
 to reprove, to correct, to instruct in justice, that the 
 man of God may be perfect, furnished to every good 
 work.^^ That such was the purpose of God in giving 
 the Scriptures to men is shown by the example of Christ 
 our Lord and of His Apostles. He who obtained au- 
 thority by miracles, merited belief by authority, and by 
 belief drew to Himself the multitude, was accustomed 
 in the exercise of His Divine Mission to appeal to the 
 Scriptures. Pie uses them at times to prove that He 
 was sent by God, and that He is God. From them He 
 draws arguments for the instruction of His disciples and 
 the confirmation of His doctrine. He vindicates them 
 from the calumnies of objectors. He quotes them against 
 Sadducees and Pharisees. He retorts from them upon 
 
1 54 Chapters of Bible Study, 
 
 Satan himself, when he impudently dares to tempt Him. 
 At the close of His life His utterances are from Holy 
 Scripture. It is the Scripture which He expounds to 
 His disciples after His resurrection, and during all the 
 time till He ascends to the glory of His Father. Faith- 
 ful to His precepts, the Apostles, although He Himself 
 granted " signs and wonders to be done by their hands, ^^ 
 nevertheless used with the greatest efficacy the sacred 
 writings, in order to persuade the nations everywhere of 
 the wisdom of Christianity, to break down the obsti- 
 nacy of the Jews, and to suppress the outbursts of heresy. 
 This is manifest in their discourses, especially in those 
 of St. Peter. These were almost woven from sayings of 
 the Old Testament, which made in the strongest man- 
 ner for the new dispensation. We find the same thing 
 in the Gospels of St. Matthew and St. John, and in the 
 Catholic Epistles. Most remarkably of all is it to be 
 found in the words of him who boasts that he learned 
 the law at the feet of Gamaliel, in order that, being 
 armed with spiritual weapons, he might afterwards say 
 with confidence: '' The weapons of our warfare are not 
 carnal, but mighty unto God.^^ 
 
 Let all, therefore, especially the novices of the eccle- 
 siastical army, understand how much the divine Books 
 should be esteemed, and with what determination and 
 reverence they should approach this great arsenal of 
 heavenly arms. Those whose duty it is to handle Cath- 
 olic doctrine before either the learned or the unlearned 
 will nowhere find more ample matter or more abundant 
 exhortation, whether on the sobject of God, the su- 
 preme and all perfect Good, or of the works which dis- 
 play His glory and !His love. Nowhere is there any- 
 thing more full or more express on the subject of the 
 Saviour of the human race than that which is to be 
 found throughout the Bible. St. Jerome has rightly 
 said '' ignorance of the Scripture is ignorance of Christ.'^ 
 In its pages His Image stands out as it were alive and 
 
Appendix, 155 
 
 breathing; diffusing everywhere consolation in trouble, 
 encouragement to virtue, and attraction to the love of 
 God. As regards the Church, her institutions, her na- 
 ture, her functions, and her gifts, we find in Holy 
 Scripture so many references, and so many ready and 
 convincing arguments, that, as St. Jerome again most 
 truly says: '^A man who is thoroughly grounded in 
 the testimonies of the Scriptures is a bulwark of the 
 Church. ^^ If we come to moral formation and to disci- 
 pline, an apostolic man finds in the sacred writings 
 abundant and most excellent aid, precepts full of holi- 
 ness, exhortations framed with sweetness and force, shin- 
 ing examples of every kind of virtne, and, finally, the . 
 promise of eternal reward, and the threat of eternal 
 punishment, uttered in weightiest terms, in God^s name 
 and in God^s own words. 
 
 This peculiar and singular power of the Scriptures, 
 springing from the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, adds 
 to the authority of the sacred orator, fills him with 
 apostolic liberty of speech, and communicates to him a 
 forcible and convincing eloquence. Those who infuse 
 into their speech the spirit and strength of the Word of 
 God speak, '' not in words only, but in power also, and 
 in the Holy Ghost, and in much fulness/^ Hence 
 those preachers are foolish and improvident who, in 
 preaching religion and proclaiming the precepts of God, 
 use no words but those of human science and human 
 prudence, trusting to their own reasonings rather than 
 to those that are divine. Their discourses may be glit- 
 tering with lights, but they must be cold and feeble, 
 for they are without the fire of the utterance of God. 
 They must fall far short of that power which the speech 
 of God possesses. '' The Word of God is living and ef- 
 fectual, and more piercing than any two-edged sword; 
 and reaching unto the division of the soul and the 
 spirit. ^^ All the more far-seeing are agreed that there 
 is in the Holy Scriptures an eloquence that is marvel- 
 
156 Chapters of Bible Study. 
 
 lous in its variety and richness^, and that is worthy of 
 the loftiest themes. This St. Augustine thoroughly 
 comprehended, and this he has abundantly set forth. 
 It is confirmed also by the best of the preachers of all 
 ages. They have gratefully acknowledged that they 
 owed their repute chiefly to assiduous familiarity with 
 the BiblC;, and to devout meditation on the truths which 
 it contains. 
 
 The Holy Fathers well knew all this by practical ex- 
 perience. They never cease to extol the Sacred Script- 
 ure and its fruits. In innumerable passages of their writ- 
 ings we find them applying to it such phrases as — '^an 
 inexhaustible treasury of heavenly doctrine/^ or " an 
 everflowing fountain of salvation/^ or as " fertile past- 
 ures and most lovely gardens, in which the flock of the 
 Lord is marvellously refreshed and delighted.''^ Let us 
 listen to the words of St. Jerome, in his Epistle to the 
 cleric Nepotian: '' Often read the divine Scriptures; yea, 
 let holy reading be always in thy hand; study that which 
 thou thyself must preaeh. . . . Let the speech of the 
 priest be ever seasoned with Scriptural reading/^ St. 
 Gregory the Great, than whom no man has more admira- 
 bly described the functions of the pastors of the Church, 
 writes in the same sense: " Those, ^^ he says, " who are 
 zealous in the work of preaching, must never cease from 
 study of the written word of God.^^ St. Augustine, how- 
 ever, warns us that " vainly does the preacher utter the 
 word of God exteriorly unless he listens to it interiorly.'"' 
 St. Gregory instructs sacred orators '^ first, to find in 
 Holy Scripture the knowledge of themselves, and then 
 to carry it to others, lest in reproving others they for- 
 get themselves."^ This had already, after the example 
 and teaching of Christ Himself, who " began to do and 
 to teach,"" be.en uttered far and wide by an apostolic 
 voice. It was not to Timothy alone, but to the whole 
 order of the clergy, that the command was addressed: 
 ^' Take heed to thyself and to doctrine; be earnest in 
 
Appendix. 157 
 
 tliem. In doing this thou shalt save both thyself and 
 them that hear thee/^ For the saving and for the per- 
 fection, both of ourselves and of others, we have at hand 
 the very best of aids in the Sacred Scriptures, and most 
 abundantly in the Book of Psalms. Those alone will, 
 however, find it who bring to the divine oracles not only 
 a docile and attentive mind, but a habit also of will 
 which is both pious and without reserve. The Sacred 
 Scripture is not to be regarded like an ordinary book. 
 Dictated by the Holy Ghost, it contains matters of the 
 most grave importance, which in many instances are diffi- 
 cult and obscure. To understand and to explain them 
 there is always required the ^"^ coming ^^ of the same 
 Holy Spirit; that is to say. His light and His grace. 
 These, as the Eoyal Psalmist so frequently itisists, are 
 to be sought by humble prayer, and to be preserved by 
 holiness of life. 
 
 It is in this that the watchful care of the Church 
 shines forth conspicuously. By her admirable laws and 
 regulations she has always shown herself solicitous that 
 the celestial treasure of the Sacred Books, so bountiful- 
 ly bestowed upon man by the Holy Spirit, should not 
 lie neglected. She has arranged that a considerable 
 portion of them should be read, and with pious mind 
 considered by all her ministers in the daily office of the 
 sacred psalmody. She has ordered that in cathedral 
 churches, in monasteries, and in convents of other reg- 
 ulars, which are places most fit for study, they shall be 
 expounded and interpreted by capable men. She has 
 strictly commanded that her children shall be fed with 
 the saving word of the Gospel at least on Sundays and 
 on solemn feasts. Moreover, it is owing to the wisdom 
 and the diligence of the Church that there has always 
 been, continued from century to century, that cultiva- 
 tion of Sacred Scripture which has been so remarkable 
 and which has borne such ample fruit. 
 
 And here, in order to strengthen Our teaching and 
 
158 Chapters of Bible Study, 
 
 Our exhortations, it is well to recall how, from the first 
 beginnings of the Christian religion, so many wno have 
 been renowned for holiness of life and for sacred learn- 
 ing have given their deep and most constant attention 
 to Holy Scripture. If we consider the immediate dis- 
 ciples of the Apostles, St. Clement of Rome, St. Ignatius 
 of Antioch, and St. Polycarp — or the Apologists, such as 
 St. Justin and St. Irenoeus, we find that in their letters 
 and in their books, whether in defence of the Catholic 
 faith or in commendation of it, they draw faith and 
 strength and unction mainly from the word of God. 
 When there arose, in various Episcopal Sees, catechetical 
 and theological schools, of which the most celebrated 
 were those of Alexandria and of Antioch, there was little 
 taught in those schools but what consisted in the reading, 
 the unfolding, and the defence of the divine written 
 word. From these schools came forth numbers of Fa- 
 thers and of writers whose laborious studies and admira- 
 ble writings have justly merited for the three following 
 centuries the appellation of the golden age of biblical 
 exegesis. 
 
 In the Eastern Church, the greatest name of all is 
 Origen. He was a man remarkable alike for quickness 
 of genius and for persevering labor. From his numerous 
 writings and his immense work of the Hexapla almost all 
 who came after him have drawn. Others who have 
 widened the field of this science may also be named. 
 Among the more excellent, Alexandria could boast of 
 Clement and Cyril; Palestine, of Eusebius and the other 
 Cyril; Cappadocia, of Basil the Great and the two Greg- 
 ories, Nazianzen ajnd Nyssene; and Antioch, of St. John 
 Chrysostom, in whom skill in this learning was rivalled 
 by the splendor of his eloquence. 
 
 In the Western Church there were many names as 
 great: Tertullian, Cyprian, Hilary, Ambrose, Leo the 
 Great, Gregory the Great; most famous of all, Augus- 
 tine and Jerome. Of these two the former was marvel- 
 
Appendix, 159 
 
 lously acute in penetrating the sense of God^s word, and 
 most fertile in the use that he made of it for the promo- 
 tion of Catholic truth. The latter has received from 
 the Church, by reason of his pre-eminent knowledge of 
 Scripture and the greatness of his labors in promoting 
 its use, the name of the "- Great Doctor/"* 
 
 From this period, down to the eleventh century, al- 
 though biblical studies did not flourish with the same 
 vigor and with the same f ruitf ulness as before, they nev- 
 ertheless did flourish, and that principally through the 
 instrumentality of the clergy. It was their care and 
 solicitude that selected the most fruitful of the things 
 which the. ancients had left behind them, placed these in 
 digested order, and published them with additions of 
 their own — as did Isidore of Seville, Venerable Bede, 
 and Alcuin, among the most prominent. It was they 
 who illustrated the sacred pages with ^'^glosses,^^ or short 
 commentaries, as we see in Walafrid Strabo and Anselm 
 of Laon, or who expended fresh labor in securing their 
 integrity, as did Peter Damian and Lanfranc. 
 
 In the twelfth century many took up with great suc- 
 cess the allegorical exposition of Scripture. In this 
 Bernard is easily pre-eminent. His writings, it may be 
 said, are Scripture all through. With the age of the 
 scholastics there came fresh and fruitful progress in the 
 study of the Bible. That the scholastics werasolicitous 
 about the genuineness of the Latin version is evident 
 from the Corredoria Biblica, or list of emendations, 
 which they have left behind them. They expended, how- 
 ever, more of their study and of their industry on inter- 
 pretation and on explanation. To them we owe the ac- 
 curate and clear distinction, such as had not been given 
 before, of the various senses of the sacred words; the 
 weight of each word in the balance of theology; the di- 
 vision of books into parts, and the summaries of the var- 
 ious parts; the investigation of the purpose of the writ- 
 ers, and the unfolding of the necessary connection of 
 
i6o Chapters of Bible Study, 
 
 one sentence with another. No man can fail to see the 
 amount of light which was thus shed on the more ob- 
 scure passages. The abundance of their Scriptural 
 learning is to be seen both in their theological treatises 
 and in their commentaries. In this Thomas of Aquin 
 bears the palm. 
 
 When Our predecessor^ Clement V., established chairs 
 of Oriental literature in the Athenaeum at Kome, and 
 in the principal Universities of Europe, our students 
 began to labor more minutely on the original text of the 
 Bible, as well as on the Latin version. The revival 
 amongst us of Greek learning, and, much more, the 
 happy invention of the art of printing, gave the strong- 
 est impetus to the study of Holy Scripture. In a brief 
 space of time innumerable editions, especially of the 
 V^ulgate, poured from the press, and were spread through- 
 out the Catholic world; so honored and loved were the 
 divine volumes during that very period against which 
 the enemies of the Church direct their calumnies. 
 
 Nor must we forget how many learned men there 
 w^ere, chiefly among the religious orders, who did excel- 
 lent work for the Bible between the dates of the Councils 
 of Vienne and Trent. These men, by employment of mod- 
 ern means and appliances, and by contribution of their 
 own genius and learning, not only added to the rich stores 
 of ancient times, but prepared the way for the pre-emi- 
 nence of the succeeding century — the century which fol- 
 lowed the Council of Trent. It then seemed almost as 
 if the great age of the Fathers had returned. It is well 
 known, and We recall it with pleasure, that Our prede- 
 cessors from Pius IV; to Clement VIII. caused to be 
 prepared the celebrated editions of the Vulgate and the 
 Septuagint, which, having been published by the com- 
 mand and authority of Sixtus V. and of the same Clem- 
 ent, are now in common use. At this time, moreover, 
 were carefully brought out various other ancient ver- 
 sions of the Bible, and the Polyglots of Antwerp and of 
 
Appendix, i6l 
 
 Paris, most important for the investigation of the true 
 meaning of the text. There is not any one Book of 
 either Testament which did not find more than one ex- 
 positor, nor is there any grave question which did not 
 profitably exercise the ability of many inquirers. Among 
 tliese there are not a few — more especially of those who 
 made most study of the Fathers — who have made for 
 themselves names of renown. From that time forward 
 the labor and solicitude of our students have never been 
 wanting. As time has gone on, eminent scholars have 
 carried on biblical study with success. They have de- 
 fended Holy Scripture against the cavils of rationalism 
 with the same weapons of philology and kindred scien- 
 ces with which it had been attacked. The calm and 
 fair consideration of what has been said will clearly show 
 that the Church has never failed in any manner of pro- 
 vision for bringing the fountains of the Divine Script- 
 ure in a wholesome way within reach of her children, 
 and til at she has ever held fast and exercised the guar- 
 dianship divinely bestowed upon her for its protection 
 and glory. She has never, therefore, required, nor does 
 she now require, any stimulation from without. 
 
 We must now. Venerable Brethren, as Our purpose de- 
 mands, impart to you such counsels as seem best suited 
 for carrying on successfully the study of biblical science. 
 We must, in the first place, have a clear idea of the kind 
 of men whom we have to oppose, their tactics and their 
 weapons. 
 
 In earlier times the contest was chiefly with those who, 
 relying on private judgment and repudiating the divine 
 tradition and the teaching authority of the Church, held 
 the Scriptures to be the one and only source of revelation 
 and the final appeal in matters of Faith. Now, we have 
 to meet the Eationalists, the true children and heirs of 
 the older heretics. Trusting in their turn to their own 
 judgment, they have rejected even the scraps and rem- 
 nants of Christian belief handed down to them from 
 
1 62 Chapters of Bible Study, 
 
 their fathers. They deny that there is any such thing 
 as divine revelation^ or inspiration, or Holy Scripture at 
 all. They see in these histories only forgeries and false- 
 hoods of men. They set down the Scripture narratives 
 as stupid fables or lying tales. The prophecies and the 
 oracles of God are to them either predictions made up 
 after the event, or forecasts formed by the liglit of nature. 
 The miracles and manifestations of God's power are not 
 what they profess to be, but are either startling effects 
 which are not beyond the forces of nature, or else mere 
 tricks and myths. The Gospels and apostolic writings 
 are not, they say, the work of the authors to whom they 
 are assigned. These detestable errors, whereby they 
 think to destroy the truth of the divine Books, are ob- 
 truded on the world as the peremptory pronouncements 
 of a newly-invented '^ free science."' This science, how- 
 ever, is so far from final that they are perpetually modi- 
 fying and supplementing it. There are some of them 
 who, notwithstanding their impious opinions and utter- 
 ances about God and His Christ, the Gospels, and the rest 
 of Holy Scripture, would fain be regarded as being the- 
 ologians and Christians and men of the Gospel. They 
 attempt to disguise under such names of honor their 
 rashness and their insolence. To them we must add 
 not a few professors of other sciences who approve and 
 sustain their views, and are egged on to attack the Bible 
 by intolerance of revelation. It is deplorable to see this 
 warfare becoming from day to day more widespread and 
 more ruthless. It is sometimes men of learning and 
 judgment who are assailed; but these have little diffi- 
 culty in standing on their guard. The efforts and the 
 arts of the enemy are chiefly directed against the more 
 ignorant masses of the people. These men diffuse their 
 deadly poison by means of books and pamphlets and 
 newspapers. They spread it by means of addresses and 
 of conversations. They are found everywhere. They 
 are in possession of numerous schools for the young. 
 
Appendix, 163 
 
 wrested from the guardianship of the Church. In these 
 schools^ by means of ridicule and scurrilous jesting, they 
 pervert the credulous and unformed minds of the young 
 to contempt of Scripture. Should not these things. 
 Venerable Brethren, stir up and set on fire the heart of 
 every Pastor, so that to this '' knowledge, falsely so 
 called,"'' may be opposed the ancient and true science 
 which the Church, through the Apostles^ has received 
 from Christ, and that the Sacred Scriptures may find 
 champions that are strong for so great a struggle? 
 
 Let our first care, then, be to see that in Seminaries 
 and Academical foundations the study of Holy Scripture 
 is placed on such a footing as both the importance of it 
 and the circumstances of the time demand. With this 
 view, that which is of first importance is a wise selection 
 of professors. Teachers of Sacred Scripture are not to 
 be appointed at hap-hazard out of the crowd. They 
 must be men whose character and fitness have been 
 proved by great love of, and long familiarity with, the 
 Bible^ and by the learning and study which befits their 
 office. 
 
 It is of equal importance to provide in due time for a 
 continuous succession of such teachers. It will be well, 
 wherever this can be done, to select young men of prom- 
 ise, who have studied their theology with distinction, 
 and to set them apart exclusively for Holy Scripture, 
 affording them time and facilities for still fuller study. 
 Professors thus chosen and appointed may enter with 
 confidence on the task that is set before them. That 
 they may be at their best, and bear all the fruit that is 
 possible, there are some other hints which We may 
 somewhat more fully set before them. 
 
 At the commencement of a course of Holy Scripture, 
 let the professor strive earnestly to form the judgment 
 of the young beginners, so as to train them equally to 
 defend the sacred writings and to penetrate their mean- 
 ing. This is the object of the treatise which is called 
 
1 64 Chapters of Bible Study, 
 
 '' Introduction to the Bible/^ Here the student is 
 taught how to prove its integrity and authority, how to 
 investigate and ascertain its true sense, and how to 
 meet and refute all captious objections. It is needless 
 to insist on the importance of making these preliminary 
 studies in an orderly and thorough way, in the company 
 and with the aid of Theology. The whole of the subse- 
 quent course will rest on the foundation thus laid, and 
 will be luminous with the light which has been thus ac- 
 quired. 
 
 Next, the teacher will turn his earnest attention to 
 that most fruitful branch of Scripture science which 
 has to do with interpretation. Therein is imparted the 
 method of using the word of God for the promotion of 
 religion and of piety. We are well aware that neither 
 the extent of the matter nor the time at disposal allows 
 every single Book of the Bible to be separately studied 
 in the schools. The teaching, however, should result 
 in a definite and ascertained method of interpretation. 
 Hence the professor should at once avoid giving a 
 mere taste of every Book, and the equal mistake of 
 dwelling at too great length on merely a part of some one 
 Book. If most schools cannot do what is done in the 
 larger institutions:— that is, take the students through 
 the whole of one or two Books continuously, and with 
 some considerable development — yet at least those parts 
 which are selected for interpretation should be treated 
 with some fulness. In this way the students may be at- 
 tracted, and learn from the sample that is set before them 
 to love and read the rest in the course of their after lives. 
 The professor, following the tradition of antiquity, will 
 use the Vulgate as his text. The Council of Trent has 
 decreed that ^'^in public lectures, disputations, preach- 
 ing, and exposition,^^ the Vulgate is the ^^ authentic ^^ 
 version; and this is the existing custom of the Church. 
 At the same time, the other versions which Christian 
 antiquity has approved and used should not be neglect- 
 
Appendix, 165 
 
 ed, more especially the more ancient MSS. Although 
 the meaning of the Hebrew and the Greek is substan- 
 tially rendered by the Vulgate^ nevertheless^ wherever 
 there may be ambiguity or want of clearness, the ^'^ex- 
 amination of older tongues/^ to quote St. Augustine, 
 will be of service. In this matter we need hardly say 
 that the greatest prudence is required, for the " office 
 of a commentator/^ as St. Jerome says, " is to set forth 
 not that which he himself would prefer, but that which 
 his author says/^ The question of '' readings '^ having 
 been, when necessary, carefully discussed, the next thing 
 is to investigate and expound the meaning. The first 
 counsel to be here given is this: that the more our ad- 
 versaries strive in the contrary direction, so much the 
 more solicitously should we adhere to the received and 
 approved canons of interpretation. Hence, while weigh- 
 ing the meanings of words, the connection of ideas, the 
 parallelism of passages, and the like, we should by all 
 means make use of external illustrations drawn from 
 other cognate learning. This should, however, be done 
 with caution, so as not to bestow on such questions more 
 labor and time than that which is spent on the Sacred 
 Books themselves, and not to overload the minds of the 
 students with a mass of information which will be rather 
 a hindrance than a help. 
 
 The professor may now safely pass on to the use of 
 Scripture in matters of Theology. Here it must be ob- 
 served that, in addition to the usual reasons which make 
 ancient writings more or less difficult to understand, 
 there are some which are peculiar to the Sacred Books. 
 The language of the Bible is employed to express, under 
 the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, many things which 
 are beyond the powers and scope of human reason — that 
 is to say, divine mysteries and many matters which are 
 related to them. There is sometimes in such passages 
 a fuller and a deeper meaning than the letter seems to 
 express or than the laws of hermeneutics indicate. More- 
 
1 66 Chapters of Bible Study. 
 
 over, the literal sense itself frequently admits other senses, 
 which either illustrate dogma or commend morality. It 
 must therefore be recognized that the sacred writings 
 are wrapt in a certain religious obscurity, and that no 
 one can enter into them without a guide. God has so 
 disposed it that, as the Holy Fathers teach, men may 
 investigate the Scriptures with greater ardor and ear- 
 nestness, and that what is attained with difficulty may 
 sink more deeply into the mind and heart. From this 
 also, and mainly, men may understand that God has de- 
 livered the Scriptures to the Church, and that in read- 
 ing and treating of His utterances they must follow the 
 Church as their guide and teacher. St. Irenaeus long 
 since laid it down that where the Charismata of God were 
 placed, there the truth was to be learnt, and that Script- 
 ure is expounded without peril by those with whom 
 there is apostolic succession. His teaching, and that 
 of other Fathers, is embraced by the Council of the 
 Vatican which, in renewing the decree of Trent, declares 
 its mind to be this — that ^'^in matters of faith and mor- 
 als, which belong to the building up of Christian doctrine, 
 that sense is to be considered the true sense of the Sa- 
 cred Scripture which has been held and is held by our 
 Holy Mother the Church, whose place it is to judge of 
 the true sense and interpretation of the Scriptures; and 
 therefore that it is permitted to no one to interpret the 
 Sacred Scripture contrary to this sense, or contrary to 
 the unanimous consent of the Fathers."" By this law, 
 most full of wisdom, the Church by no means prevents 
 or restrains the pursuit of biblical science. She, on the 
 contrary, provides for its freedom from error, and great- 
 ly advances its real progress. A wide field lies open to 
 any teacher, in which his hermeneutical skill may exer- 
 cise itself with signal effect and for the welfare of the 
 Church. On the one hand, in those passages of Script- 
 ure which have not as yet received a certain and defini- 
 tive interpretation, such labors may, in the sweetly or- 
 
Appendix, 167 
 
 dered providence of God, serve as a preparation for 
 bringing to maturity the judgment of the Church. In 
 passages already defined, a private doctor may do work 
 equally valuable, either by setting them forth more 
 clearly to the commonalty of the faithful, or more learned- 
 ly before the learned, or by defending them more power- 
 -fully from adversaries. Wherefore the first and most 
 sacred object of the Catholic commentator should be to 
 interpret those passages which have received an authen- 
 tic interpretation — either from the sacred writers them- 
 selves, under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost (as in 
 many places of the New Testament), or from the Church, 
 under the assistance of the same Holy Spirit, whether by 
 lier solemn judgment or by her ordinary and universal 
 authoritative teaching — in that identical sense, and to 
 prove, by all the resources of learning, that sound her- 
 meneutical laws admit of no other than that interpreta- 
 tion. In the other passages the analogy of faith should 
 be followed, and the Catholic doctrine, as authorita- 
 tively proposed by the Church, should be held as the 
 supreme rule. Since the same God is the author both 
 of the Sacred Books and of the doctrine committed to 
 the Church, it is clearly impossible that any teaching 
 can by legitimate interpretation be extracted from the 
 former which shall in any respect be at variance with 
 the latter. Hence it follows that all interpretation is 
 unfounded and false which either makes the sacred writ- 
 ers disagree one with another, or is opposed to the doc- 
 trine of the Church. 
 
 The professor of Holy Scripture, therefore, amongst 
 other recommendations, must be well versed in the 
 whole of Theology, and deeply read in the commentaries 
 of the Holy Fathers and Doctors, and the best of other 
 interpreters. This is inculcated by St. Jerome, and 
 still more by St. Augustine, who thus justly complains: 
 " If there is no branch of teaching, however humble 
 and easy to learn, which does not require a master, what 
 
1 68 Chapters of Bible Study, 
 
 can be a greater sign of rashness and pride than to re- 
 fuse to study the Books of tlie divine mysteries by the 
 help of those who have interpreted them?'^ Other Fa- 
 thers have said the same^ and have confirmed it by their 
 example. They endeavored to acquire understanding 
 of the Holy Scriptures, not by their own lights and ideas, 
 but from the writings and authority of the ancients, 
 who in their turn, as we know, received the rule of in- 
 terpretation in direct line from the Apostles. 
 
 The Holy Fathers, to whom, after the Apostles, the 
 Church owes its growth — who planted, watered, built, 
 fed, and nourished it — are of supreme authority when- 
 ever they all interpret in one and the same manner any 
 text of the Bible as pertaining to doctrine of faith or 
 morals. Their unanimity clearly evinces that such in- 
 terpretation has come down from the Apostles as a mat- 
 ter of Catholic faith. The opinion of the Fathers is 
 also of very great weight when they treat of these mat- 
 ters in their capacity of private teachers; not only be- 
 cause they excelled in knowledge of revealed doctrine 
 and in acquaintance with many things useful for the 
 understanding of the apostolic 13ooks, but also because 
 they were men of eminent sanctity and of ardent zeal for 
 the truth, on whom God bestowed a more ample meas- 
 ure of His light. The commentator, therefore, should 
 make it his care to follow in their footsteps with rever- 
 ence, and to avail himself of their labors with intelligent 
 appreciation. 
 
 He must not, however, on that account consider that 
 it is forbidden, when just cause exists, to push inquiry 
 and exposition beyond what the Fathers have done — pro- 
 vided he religiously observes the rule so wisely laid down 
 by St. Augustine: not to depart from the literal and ob- 
 vious sense, except where reason makes that sense un- 
 tenable or necessity requires. This is a rule to which 
 it is the more necessary to adhere strictly in these times, 
 when the thirst for novelty and unrestrained license of 
 
Appendix, 1 69 
 
 thought make the clanger of error most real and proxi- 
 mate. Neither should those passages be neglected which 
 the Fathers have understood in an allegorical or figu- 
 rative sense, more especially when such interpretation is 
 justified by the literal sense, and when it rests on the 
 authority of many. 'This method of interpretation has 
 been received by the Church from the Apostles, and has 
 been approved by her own practice, as her liturgy attests. 
 The Holy Fathers did not thereby pretend directly to 
 demonstrate dogmas of faith, but used it as a means of 
 promoting virtue and piety, such as, by their own ex- 
 perience, they knew to be most valuable. 
 
 The authority of other Catholic interpreters is not so 
 grave. Since, however, the study of Scripture has al- 
 ways continued to advance in the Cliurch, tlieir com- 
 mentaries also have their own honorable place, and are 
 serviceable in many ways for the refutation of assailants 
 and the unravelling of difficulties. It is, moreover, most 
 unbecoming to pass by, in ignorance or contempt, the 
 splendid works which our own scholars have left behind 
 them in abundance, and to have recourse to the works 
 of the heterodox, and to seek in them, with peril to 
 sound doctrine and not seldom with detriment to faith, 
 the explanation of passages on which Catholics have 
 long ago most excellently expended their talents and 
 their labor. Although the studies of the heterodox, used 
 with prudence, may sometimes be of use to the Catholic 
 interpreter, he should nevertheless bear well in mind 
 this repeated testimony of the ancients, — that the sense 
 of the Sacred Scriptures can nowhere be found incorrupt 
 outside the Church, and that it cannot be delivered by 
 those who, being destitute of the true faith, only gnaw 
 the husk of Scripture and never reach its marrow. 
 
 Most desirable it is, and most essential, that the 
 whole course of Theology should be pervaded by the use 
 of the Divine Scripture, which should be, as it were, the 
 soul thereof. This is what the Fathers and the greatest 
 
I/O Chapters of Bible Study. 
 
 theologians of all ages have professed and practised. It 
 was chiefly out of the sacred writings that they endeav- 
 ored to proclaim and establish the Articles of Faith and 
 the truths which are their consequences. It was in 
 them, together with divine tradition^ that they found 
 the refutation of heretical error, and the reasonableness, 
 the true meaning, and the mutual relation of the truths 
 of the Catholic faith. Nor will any one wonder at this 
 who considers that the Sacred Books hold such a pre- 
 eminent position among the sources of Kevelation that 
 without the assiduous study of them Theology cannot 
 be rightly treated as its dignity demands. Although it 
 is right and proper that students in academical institu- 
 tions and schools should be chiefly exercised in acquir- 
 ing a scientific knowledge of dogma by means of reason- 
 ing from the Articles of Faith to their consequences, 
 according to the rules of approved and solid philosophy, 
 nevertheless a grave and learned theologian will by 
 no means overlook that method of- doctrinal demonstra- 
 tion which draws its proof from the authority of the 
 Bible. Theology does not receive her first principles 
 from other sciences, but immediately from God through 
 Eevelation. And therefore she does not receive from 
 other sciences as from superiors, but uses them as her 
 inferiors and her handmaids. It is this view of doctrinal 
 teaching which is laid down and recommended by the 
 prince of theologians, St. Thomas of Aquin. He also 
 shows — such being the essential character of Christian 
 Theology — how a theologian can defend his own princi- 
 ples against attack. ^^If the adversary, ^^ he says, " do 
 but grant any portion of the divine revelation, we have 
 an argument against him. Against a heretic we can 
 employ Scripture authority, and against those who deny 
 one article we can use another. If our opponent rejects 
 divine revelation altogether, then there is no way left 
 to prove the Articles of Faith by reasoning. We can 
 only solve the difficulties which are raised against the 
 
Appendix, 171 
 
 faith/^ Care must be taken, then, that beginners ap- 
 proach the study of the Bible well prepared and fur- 
 nished; otherwise, just hopes will be frustrated, or per- 
 chance — and this is worse — they will unthinkingly risk 
 the danger of error, and fall an easy prey to the soph- 
 isms and labored erudition of the rationalists. The best 
 preparation will be a conscientious application to phil- 
 osophy and theology under -the guidance of St. Thomas 
 of Aquin, and a thorough training therein — as We Our- 
 selves have elsewhere shown and prescribed. By this 
 means, both in biblical studies and in that part of The- 
 ology which is called Positive, they will pursue the 
 right path and make solid progress. 
 
 To prove, to expound, to illustrate Catholic doctrine 
 by the legitimate and skilful interpretation of the Bible 
 is much; but there is a second part of the subject of 
 equal importance and of equal laboriousness, — the main- 
 tenance in the strongest possible way of the fulness of its 
 authority. This cannot be done completely or satisfac- 
 torily except by means of the living teaching authority 
 of the Church herself. The Church, by reason of her 
 wonderful propagation, her shining sanctity, and her 
 inexhaustible fecundity in good, her Catholic unity, and 
 her unshaken stability, is herself a great and perpetual 
 motive of credibility, and an unassailable testimony of 
 her own divine mission. But since the divine and infal- 
 lible teaching authority of the Church rests also on the 
 authority of Holy Scripture, the first thing to be done 
 is to vindicate the trustworthiness of the sacred records 
 at least as human documents. From this can clearly be 
 proved, as from primitive and authentic testimony, the 
 divinity and the mission of Christ our Lord, the insti- 
 tution of a hierarchical Church, and the primacy of Peter 
 and his successors. It is most desirable, therefore, that 
 there should be many members of the clergy well pre- 
 pared to enter upon a contest of this nature, and to re- 
 pulse the attacks of the enemy, chiefly trusting in that 
 
1 72 Chapters of Bible Study. 
 
 armor of God which is recommended by the Apostle, 
 but at the same time not unacquainted with the more 
 modern methods of attack. This is beautifully alluded 
 to by St. John Chrysostom. Describing the duties of 
 priests, he says: ^^ We must use our every endeavor that 
 the ' word of God may dwell in us abundantly.^ Not 
 merely for one kind of fight must we be prepared, for 
 the contest is many-sided, and the enemy is of every sort. 
 They do not all use the same weapons, nor do all make 
 their onset in the same way. It is needful that the man 
 who has to contend against all should have knowledge 
 of the engines and the arts of all. He must be at once 
 archer and slinger, commandant and officer, general and 
 private soldier, foot-soldier and horseman, skilled in 
 sea-fight and in siege. Unless he knows every trick and 
 turn of war, the devil is well able, if only a single door 
 be left open, to get in his ferocious bandits and to carry 
 off the sheep. ''^ The sophisms of the enemy and the 
 manifold strategy of his attack We have already touched 
 upon. 
 
 Let Us now say a word of advice on the means of de- 
 fence. The first means is the study of Oriental langua- 
 ges and of the art of criticism. These two acquire- 
 ments are in these days held in high estimation. The 
 clergy, by making themselves more or less fully acquaint- 
 ed with them, as time and place may demand, will the 
 better be able to discharge their office with becoming 
 credit. They must make themselves '' all things to all 
 men,^^ always ^^ ready to satisfy every one that asketh 
 them a reason for the hope that is in them.''^ Hence it 
 is most proper that professors of Sacred Scripture and 
 theologians should master those tongues in which the 
 Sacred Books were originally written. It would be well 
 that Church students also should cultivate them, more 
 especially those who aspire to academic degrees in The- 
 ology. Endeavors should be made to establish in all 
 academic institutions — as has already been laudably done 
 
Appendix, 173 
 
 in many — chairs of the other ancient languages, espe- 
 cially the Semitic, and of subjects connected therewith, 
 for the benefit principally of those who are destined to 
 })rofess sacred literature. These latter, with a similar 
 object in view, should make themselves well acquainted 
 with and thoroughly exercised in the art of true criti- 
 cism. There has arisen, to the great damage of religion, 
 an artificial method, which is dignified by the name of 
 the " higher criticism/^ It pretends to judge of the or- 
 igin, the integrity, and the authority of every Book from 
 internal indications alone. It is clear, on the other 
 hand, that in historical questions, such as the origin and 
 the handing down of writings, the witness of history is 
 of primary importance, and that historical investigation 
 should be made with the utmost care. In this matter 
 internal evidence is seldom of great value, except by 
 way of confirmation. To look upon it in any other light 
 will be to open the door to many evil consequences. It 
 will make the enemies of religion much more bold and 
 confident in attacking and endeavoring to destroy the 
 authenticity of the Sacred Books. This vaunted ^^ high- 
 er criticism ^^ will resolve itself into the reflection of the 
 bias and the prejudice of the critics. It will not throw 
 on the Scriptures the light which is sought, or prove of 
 any advantage to doctrine. It will only give rise to 
 disagreement and dissension, those sure notes of error, 
 which the critics in question so plentifully exhibit in 
 their own persons. Seeing that most of them are tainted 
 with false philosophy and rationalism, it must lead to the 
 elimination from the sacred writings of all prophecy and 
 all miracle, and of everything else that lies outside the 
 natural order. 
 
 In the second place, we have to contend against those 
 who, abusing their knowledge of physical science, mi- 
 nutely scrutinize the Sacred Books, in order to detect the 
 writers in a mistake, and so to vilify the books themselves. 
 Attacks of this kind, bearing as they do on matters of 
 
1 74 Chapters of Bible Study, 
 
 experience of the senses, are peculiarly dangerous to the 
 masses, and also to the young, who are but beginning 
 their literary studies. The young, if they lose their rev- 
 erence for divine revelation on any one point, are but too 
 easily led to give up believing in revelation altogether. 
 It need scarcely be pointed out how the science of nature, 
 just as it is so admirably adapted to show forth the glory 
 of the Great Creator, provided it be rightly taught, so, 
 if it be perversely imparted to the youthful intelligence, 
 it may prove most fatal in destroying the principles of 
 true philosophy, and in the corruption of morality. 
 Hence to the professor of Sacred Scripture a knowledge 
 of natural science will be of the greatest service in detect- 
 ing and meeting such attacks upon the Sacred Books. 
 
 There can never, indeed, be any real discrepancy be- 
 tween the theologian and the physicist, as long as each 
 confines himself within his own lines, and so long as 
 both are careful, as St. Augustine warns us, '^ not to 
 make rash assertions, or to assert that which is not 
 known as if it were really known. ^^ If dissension should 
 arise between them, here is the rule, laid down by St^ 
 Augustine for the theologian: " Whatever they can regal- 
 ly demonstrate to be true of physical nature, we must 
 show to be not contrary to our Scriptures. Whatever 
 they assert in their treatises which is contrary to these 
 Scriptures of ours, that is, to Catholic faith, we must 
 either prove it, as well as we can, to be entirely false, 
 or at all events we must, without the smallest hesita- 
 tion, believe it to be so.^^ To understand how just is 
 the rule here formulated we must remember, first, that 
 the sacred writers, or, to speak more accurately, the Holy 
 Ghost, who spoke by means of them, did not intend to 
 teach men those things (that is to' say, the essential 
 nature of the things of the visible universe) — things 
 which are in no way profitable unto salvation. The 
 sacred writers did not seek to penetrate the secrets of 
 nature. They rather described and dealt w^ith things 
 
Appendix. 1 75 
 
 in more or less figurative language, or in terms which 
 were commonly used at the time, and terms which in 
 many instances are in daily use at this day, even amongst 
 the most eminent men of science. Ordinary speech 
 primarily and properly describes that which falls under 
 the senses. Somewhat in the same way the sacred 
 writers — as the Angelic Doctor reminds us — " went by 
 what sensibly appeared,^' or put down that which God, 
 speaking to men, signified in a way which men could 
 understand, and to which they were accustomed. 
 
 The strenuous defence of the Holy Scripture, however, 
 does not require that we should equally uphold all the 
 opinions which every one of the Fathers, or which sub- 
 sequent commentators have set forth in explaining it. 
 It may be that, in commenting on passages where pliysi- 
 cal matters are in question, they have sometimes ex- 
 pressed the ideas of their own times, and have thus made 
 statements which in these days have been abandoned 
 as unfounded. In their interpretations, therefore, we 
 must carefully note that which they lay down as belong- 
 ing to faith, or as intimately connected with faith, or 
 that in which they are unanimous. ^^In those things 
 which do not come under the obligation of faith, the 
 Saints were at liberty to hold divergent opinions, even 
 as we ourselves are,^' says St. Thomas. In another place 
 he says most admirably: '' When philosophers are agreed 
 upon a point, and that point is not contrary to faith, it 
 is safer, in my opinion, neither to lay down such a point 
 as a dogma of faith, even though it is perhaps so pre- 
 sented by the philosophers, nor to reject it as against 
 faith, lest we thus give to the wise of this world an oc- 
 casion of despising the doctrine of the faith. ''^ The 
 Catholic commentator, although he should show that 
 those facts of natural science which investigators affirm 
 to be now in these days absolutely certain are not con- 
 trary to Scripture rightly explained, must nevertheless 
 always bear in mind that much which has been held as 
 
I "j^ Chapters of Bible Study, 
 
 proved and certain has afterwards been called in question 
 and rejected. If writers on physics travel outside the 
 boundaries of their own department, and carry their er- 
 roneous teaching into the domain of philosophy, let 
 them be handed over by the theological commentator to 
 philosophers for refutation. 
 
 The principles here laid down will apply to cognate 
 sciences, and especially to history. It is a lamentable 
 fact that there are many men who with great labor make 
 and publish investigations on the monuments of antiquity, 
 the manners and institutions of nations, and other illus- 
 trative subjects, and whose chief purpose in all this is 
 too often to try to find mistakes in the sacred writings, 
 and so to shake and weaken their authority. Some of 
 these writers display not only extreme hostility, but also 
 great unfairness. In their eyes a profane book or an 
 ancient document is accepted without hesitation. Script- 
 ure, if they can only find in it a suspicion of error, is 
 set down with the slightest possible discussion as being 
 entirely untrustworthy. It is true, no doubt, that copy- 
 ists have made mistakes in the text of tlie Bible. This 
 question, when it arises, should be carefully considered 
 on its merits. The fact, however, is not to be too easily 
 admitted, but only in those passages where the proof is 
 clear. It may also happen that the sense of a passage 
 remains ambiguous. In this case, sound hermeneutical 
 methods will greatly aid in clearing i^p obscurity. It is- 
 absolutely wrong, however, and it is forbidden, either 
 to narrow inspiration to certain parts only of Holy Script- 
 ure, or to admit that the sacred writer has erred. The 
 system of those who, in order to rid themselves of these 
 difficulties, do not hesitate to concede that divine in- 
 spiration regards matters of faith and morals, and noth- 
 ing beyond them, because (as they wrongly think) in a 
 question of the truth or falsehood of a passage we should 
 consider not so much what God has said as the reason 
 and purpose which He had in mind in saying it, cannot 
 
Appendix, 177 
 
 be tolerated. All the books which the Church receives 
 as sacred and canonical were written wholly and entirely, 
 with all their parts, at the dictation of the Holy Ghost. 
 80 far is it from being possible that any error can co-ex- 
 ist with inspiration^ inspiration not only is essentially 
 incompatible with error, but it excludes error as abso- 
 lutely and necessarily as it is impossible that God Him- 
 self, the Supreme Truth, can utter that which is not 
 true. This is the ancient and unchanging faith of the 
 Church. It was solemnly defined in the Councils of 
 Florence and of Trent. It was finally confirmed and 
 more expressly formulated by the Council of the Vatican. 
 These are the w^ords of that Council: The Books of the 
 Old and of the New Testament, whole and entire, with 
 all their parts, as they are enumei'ated in the decree of 
 the same Council (Trent), and as they are contained in 
 the old Latin Vulgate edition, are to be received as sacred 
 and canonical. The Church holds them as sacred and 
 canonical, not because, having been composed solely by 
 human industry, they were afterwards approved by her 
 authority, nor only because they contain revelation with- 
 out error, but because, having been written under the 
 inspiration of the Holy Ghost, they have God for their 
 Author. Hence we cannot say that, because the Holy 
 Ghost employed men as His instruments, it was these 
 inspired instruments who, perchance, have fallen into 
 error, and not the primary Author. By supernatural 
 power He so moved and impelled them to write — He 
 was so present to them — that all the things which He 
 ordered, and those things only, they first rightly con- 
 ceived, then willed faithfully to write down, and finally 
 expressed in adequate words and with infallible truth. 
 Otherwise, it could not be said that He was the Author 
 of the whole of the Sacred Scripture. Such has always 
 been the persuasion of the Fathers. " Therefore, ^^ says 
 St. Augustine, ''since they wrote the things which He 
 showed and said to them, it cannot be said that He 
 
178 Chapters of Bible Study, 
 
 did not write them. His members executed that which 
 their Head dictated/"* St. Gregory the Great maintains: 
 '' Most superfluous it is to inquire who wrote these things; 
 — we loyally believe the Holy Ghost to be the Author of 
 the Book. He wrote it who dictated it to be written. 
 He wrote it who inspired its execution.^'' 
 
 It follows that those men who maintain that an error 
 is possible in any genuine passage of the sacred writings, 
 either pervert the Catholic notion of inspiration, or make 
 God Himself to be the Author of error. So emphatical- 
 ly were all the Fathers and Doctors agreed that the di- 
 vine writings, as left by the hagiographers, are entirely 
 free from all error, that they labored earnestly, with no 
 less skill than reverence, to reconcile one with the other 
 those numerous passages which seem to be at variance — 
 the very passages which in great measure have been tak- 
 en up by the '^higher criticism.^'' The Fathers were 
 unanimous in laying ic down that those writings, in 
 their entirety and in all their parts, were equally from 
 the divine afflatus, and that God Himself, speaking 
 through the sacred writers, could not set down anything 
 that was not true. The words of St. Augustine to St. 
 Jerome may sum up what they taught: ^' On my own 
 part, I confess to your charity that it is only to those 
 Books of Scripture which are now called canonical that 
 I have learned to pay such honor and reverence as to 
 believe most firmly that no one of their writers has fall- 
 en into any error. If in these Books I meet with any- 
 thing which seems contrary to truth, I shall not hesitate 
 to conclude either that the text is faulty, or that the 
 translator has not expressed the meaning of the passage, 
 or that I myself have not understood it.^"* 
 
 But with all the weapons of the best of arts, fully and 
 perfectly to fight for the holiness of the Bible is far more 
 than can be looked for from the exertions of commenta- 
 tors and theologians alone. It is an enterprise in which 
 we have a right to expect the co-operation of all Cath- 
 
Appendix, 1 79 
 
 olic men who have acquired reputation in other branches 
 of learning. As in the past, so at the present time the 
 Church is never without the graceful support of her 
 accomplished children. May their services to the Faith 
 ever grow and increase! There is nothing which We 
 believe to be more needful than that truth should find 
 defenders more powerful and more numerous than are 
 the enemies whom it has to face. There is nothing 
 which is better calculated to imbue the masses with hom- 
 age for the truth than to see it joyously proclaimed by 
 learned men who have gained distinction in some other 
 faculty. Moreover^ the bitter tongues of objectors will 
 be silenced- At least they will not dare to insist so shame- 
 lessly that faith is the enemy of science when they see 
 that scientific men, of eminence in their own profession, 
 show towards the faith most marked honor and reverence. 
 Seeing, then, that those men can do so much for the 
 progress of religion on whom the goodness of God has 
 l3estowed, together with the grace of the faith, great 
 natural talent, let such men, in this most savage conflict 
 of which the Scriptures are now the object, select each 
 of them the branch of study which is best adapted to 
 his circumstances, and endeavor to excel therein, and 
 thus be prepared to repel with effect and credit the as- 
 saults on the word of God. It is our pleasing duty to 
 give deserved praise to a work which certain Catholics 
 have taken in hand — that is to say, the formation of so- 
 cieties, and the contribution of considerable sums of 
 money, for the purpose of aiding certain of the more 
 learned in the pursuit of their study to its completeness. 
 Truly, an excellent method of investing money! It is 
 an investment most suited to the times in which we 
 live! The less hope of public patronage there is for 
 Catholic study, the more ready and the more abundant 
 should be the liberality of private persons. Those to 
 whom God has given riches will thus use them to safe- 
 guard the treasure of His revealed doctrine. 
 
1 80 Chapters of Bible Study, 
 
 In order that such labors may prove of real service to 
 the cause of the Bible^ let scholars keep steadfastly to 
 the principles which we have in this Letter laid down. 
 Let them loyally hold that God, the Creator and the 
 Ruler of all things, is also the Author of the Scriptures 
 ' — and that therefore nothing can possibly be proved, 
 either by physical science or by archeology, which can 
 be in real contradiction with the Scriptures. If appar- 
 ent contradictions should be met with, every effort should 
 be made to meet them. Theologians and commentators 
 of solid judgment should be consulted as to what is the 
 true or the most probable meaning of the passage in dis- 
 cussion. Adverse arguments should also be carefully 
 weighed. Even if the difficulty is not after all cleared 
 up^ and the discrepancy seems to remain, the contest 
 must not be abandoned. Truth cannot contradict truth. 
 We may be sure that some mistake has been made, either 
 in theinterpretation of the sacred words, or in thepolemi- 
 cal discussion itself. If no mistake can be detected, we 
 must' then suspend judgment for the time being. There 
 have been objections without number perseveringly di- 
 rected against the Scriptures for many a long yeai*. 
 These have been proved to be futile, and they are now 
 never heard of. Interpretations not a few have been 
 put on certain passages of Scripture (not belonging to 
 the rule of faith or morals), and these have been recti- 
 fied after a more careful investigation. As time goes on 
 mistaken views die. and disappear. Truth remaineth 
 and groweth stronger for ever and ever. Wherefore, as 
 no one should be so presumptuous as to think that he 
 understands the whole of the Scriptures — in which St. 
 Augustine himself confessed that there was more that 
 he did not know than that which he. did know — so, if 
 one should come upon anything that seems incapable of 
 solution, he must take to heart the cautious rule of the 
 same holy Doctor: ^'It is better even to be oppressed 
 by unknown but useful signs than to interpret them 
 
Appendix, 1 8 1 
 
 uselessly, and thus to throw off the yoke of servitude 
 only to be caught in the nets of error/^ 
 
 As regards those men who pursue the subsidiary stud- 
 ies of which We have spoken, if they honestly and mod- 
 estly follow the counsels and commands which We have 
 given — if by pen and voice they make their studies fruit- 
 ful against the enemies of the truth, and useful in sav- 
 ing theyoung from loss of faith — they may justly congrat- 
 ulate themselves on worthy service to the Sacred Writ- 
 ings, and on their having afforded to the Catholic relig- 
 ion that aid which the Church lias a right to expect from 
 the piety and from the learning of her children. 
 
 Such, Venerahle Brethren, are the admonitions and 
 the instructions which, by the help of God, We have 
 thought it well, at the present moment, to offer to you 
 on the study of the Sacred Scriptures. It will now be 
 for you to see that what We have said be held and ob- 
 served with all due reverence, that so we may prove our 
 gratitude to God for the'communication to man of the 
 words of His wisdom, and that all the good results which 
 are so much to be desired may be realized, especially as 
 they effect the training of the students of the Church, 
 which is matter of Our own great solicitude and of the 
 Churches hope. Exert yourselves with glad alacrity, 
 and use your authority, and your persuasive powers, in 
 order that these studies may be held in just regard, and 
 that they may flourish in the seminaries and in the ed- 
 ucational institutions which are under your jurisdiction. 
 May they flourish in the completeness of success, under 
 the direction of the Church, in accordance with the sal- 
 utary teaching and the example of the Holy Fathers, 
 and the laudable traditions of antiquity. As time goes 
 on, let them be widened and extended as the interests 
 and glory of the truth may require — the interests of that 
 Catholic Truth which comes down from above, the never- 
 failing source of the salvation of all peoples. Finally, 
 
1 82 Chapters of Bible Study, 
 
 We admonish with paternal love all students and minis- 
 ters of the Church always to approach the sacred writ- 
 ings with the most profound affection of reverence and 
 of piety. It is impossible to attain to a profitable un- 
 derstanding thereof unless^ laying aside the arrogance 
 of ^^earthly'^ science, there be excited in the heart a 
 holy desire for that wisdom '' which is from above/^ In 
 this way the mind which has once entered on these sa- 
 cred studies, and which has by means of them been en- 
 lightened and strengthened, will acquire a marvellous 
 facility in detecting and avoiding the fallacies of human 
 science, and in gathering and utilizing solid fruit for 
 eternal salvation. The heart will then wax warm, and 
 will strive with more ardent longing to advance in vir- 
 tue and in divine love. ^^ Blessed are they who exam- 
 ine His testimonies; they shall seek Him with their whole 
 heart.'^ 
 
 And now, filled with hope in the divine assistance, 
 and trusting to your pastoral solicitude — as a pledge of 
 heavenly graces and in witness of Our special good will 
 — to all of you, and to the clergy, and to the whole flock 
 which has been intrusted to you, We most lovingly im- 
 part in our Lord the Apostolic Benediction. 
 
 Given at St. Peter's, at Rome, the 18th day of Novem- 
 ber, 1893, the sixteenth year of Our Pontificate. 
 
 LEO PP. XIII. 
 

 
 i^* 
 
 '^M