Interpretation of the Bible

• Dei Verbum is a key document from the Second Vatican Council (1965) that explains divine revelation. It says:
• Sacred scripture was written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
• Both the Old and New Testaments are sacred and canonical.
• God chose men to write the books using their skills.
• 'Since God speaks in Sacred Scripture through men in human fashion, the interpreter of Sacred Scripture, in order to see clearly what God wanted to communicate to us, should carefully investigate what meaning the sacred writers really intended, and what God wanted to manifest by means of their words' (Dei Verbum 3:11-12).

• Protestant Churches: Often place more emphasis on the Bible compared to the Catholic Church.
• Fundamentalists: Believe the Bible is the literal word of God and that every word is true.
• Others: Believe the Bible was written by humans and can contain mistakes, so it should be interpreted based on the current age.
• Different Views on Truth: Some see the Bible’s truth as myth or symbolic rather than factual. Others think its views can be outdated.

'Christianity is the religion of the “Word” of God, “not a written and mute word, but incarnate and living”. If the Scriptures are not to remain a dead letter, Christ, the eternal Word of the living God, must, through the Holy Spirit, “open [our] minds to understand the Scriptures' (CCC108).