Dei Verbum: Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation, Post 2

This is the second post in a series on the Vatican II document, Dei Verbum.  

You can find Post #1 here.   

You can also find the online document here.  

 

Chapter 2: “Handing on Divine Revelation,” Paragraphs 7 thru 10:

The second chapter deals with three related matters.  Given that God has revealed Himself through scripture, His revelation first needs to be explained and handed down through the centuries.  Second, to explain the revelation requires an understanding of the tradition from which it was understood.  One cannot separate the scripture from the tradition.  Taken together, scripture and tradition are a deposit of faith.  And third, the Church was created to maintain and promulgate that faith.  Here again are excerpts that build the argument.

 

In His gracious goodness, God has seen to it that what He had revealed for the salvation of all nations would abide perpetually in its full integrity and be handed on to all generations. (7)

 

But in order to keep the Gospel forever whole and alive within the Church, the Apostles left bishops as their successors, "handing over" to them "the authority to teach in their own place."(3) This sacred tradition, therefore, and Sacred Scripture of both the Old and New Testaments are like a mirror in which the pilgrim Church on earth looks at God, from whom she has received everything, until she is brought finally to see Him as He is, face to face (see 1 John 3:2)  (7)

 

And so the apostolic preaching, which is expressed in a special way in the inspired books, was to be preserved by an unending succession of preachers until the end of time.  Therefore the Apostles, handing on what they themselves had received, warn the faithful to hold fast to the traditions which they have learned either by word of mouth or by letter (see 2 Thess. 2:15) (8)

 

This tradition which comes from the Apostles develop in the Church with the help of the Holy Spirit. (5) For there is a growth in the understanding of the realities and the words which have been handed down. This happens through the contemplation and study made by believers, who treasure these things in their hearts (see Luke, 2:19, 51) through a penetrating understanding of the spiritual realities which they experience, and through the preaching of those who have received through Episcopal succession the sure gift of truth. For as the centuries succeed one another, the Church constantly moves forward toward the fullness of divine truth until the words of God reach their complete fulfillment in her. (8)

Here perhaps are the key couple of sentences for chapter 2:

 

Hence there exists a close connection and communication between sacred tradition and Sacred Scripture. For both of them, flowing from the same divine wellspring, in a certain way merge into a unity and tend toward the same end. (9)

To separate scripture from the tradition is to do what the Protestant Reformers did 1500 years after the Christ.  It kept the scripture but shucked out most of the tradition to create a whole new understanding of Christianity.  It was not what was handed over from the apostles.  Chapter 2 continues with the need for a “teaching office” to maintain both halves of the deposit of faith, and that teaching office—commonly referred to as the “magisterium”—is part of the responsibility given to the Church.  The logic of chapter 2 continues:

 

But the task of authentically interpreting the word of God, whether written or handed on, (8) has been entrusted exclusively to the living teaching office of the Church, (9) whose authority is exercised in the name of Jesus Christ. This teaching office is not above the word of God, but serves it, teaching only what has been handed on, listening to it devoutly, guarding it scrupulously and explaining it faithfully in accord with a divine commission and with the help of the Holy Spirit, it draws from this one deposit of faith everything which it presents for belief as divinely revealed. (10)

It is clear, therefore, that sacred tradition, Sacred Scripture and the teaching authority of the Church, in accord with God’s most wise design, are so linked and joined together that one cannot stand without the others, and that all together and each in its own way under the action of the one Holy Spirit contribute effectively to the salvation of souls.  (10)

Finally it should be noted that the teaching office is guided by the Holy Spirit, a link to the divine.

Kerstin Commented:

Once one is on board with both Scripture and Tradition comprising the deposit of faith one can't go back. It makes so much sense. For me it really was intuitive. I had never been hung up on this particular hurdle while still Protestant.

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Chapter 3: “Sacred Scripture, Its Inspiration and Divine Interpretation,” Paragraphs 11 thru 13:

The third chapter provides some facts about the nature of sacred scripture.  First scripture comes to us through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

Those divinely revealed realities which are contained and presented in Sacred Scripture have been committed to writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. (11)

God worked through real men with their own personalities and perspectives.  Judeo-Christian sacred scripture is not a quoting from God, say in what Islam claims of Mohammed from Allah, but men who use with their own words, style, imagery, rhetorical gifts.  That is the difference between inspiration and ventriloquism. 

 

In composing the sacred books, God chose men and while employed by Him they made use of their powers and abilities, so that with Him acting in them and through them, they, as true authors, consigned to writing everything and only those things which He wanted. (11)

Nonetheless, inspired text are still the word of God and must be understood to be without error.

 

Therefore, since everything asserted by the inspired authors or sacred writers must be held to be asserted by the Holy Spirit, it follows that the books of Scripture must be acknowledged as teaching solidly, faithfully and without error that truth which God wanted put into sacred writings for the sake of salvation. (11)

But the form and genre of the author must understood to derive the full truth the author is trying to convey.

 

To search out the intention of the sacred writers, attention should be given, among other things, to "literary forms." For truth is set forth and expressed differently in texts which are variously historical, prophetic, poetic, or of other forms of discourse. (12)

God’s kindness and gentleness, indeed, His entire nature is present in the text.

 

In Sacred Scripture, therefore, while the truth and holiness of God always remains intact, the marvelous "condescension" of eternal wisdom is clearly shown, "that we may learn the gentle kindness of God, which words cannot express, and how far He has gone in adapting His language with thoughtful concern for our weak human nature."  For the words of God, expressed in human language, have been made like human discourse, just as the word of the eternal Father, when He took to Himself the flesh of human weakness, was in every way made like men. (13)

This short video provides a nice summation of chapter 3.

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Chapter 4: “The Old Testament,” Paragraphs 14 thru 16:

The fourth chapter is short and sweet, but the conclusion is vitally important.  It’s purpose is to give significance to the Old Testament and to make the bold claim that salvation history was planned by God and foreshadowed from the beginning.  First it states the special importance of the Jewish people.

 

In carefully planning and preparing the salvation of the whole human race the God of infinite love, by a special dispensation, chose for Himself a people to whom He would entrust His promises. (14)

 

Then too, when God Himself spoke to them through the mouth of the prophets, Israel daily gained a deeper and clearer understanding of His ways and made them more widely known among the nations (see Ps. 21:29; 95:1-3; Is. 2:1-5; Jer. 3:17).  (14)

It makes clear that there was a plan from the beginning, and the plan’s objective was the coming of Christ.

 

The principal purpose to which the plan of the old covenant was directed was to prepare for the coming of Christ, the redeemer of all and of the messianic kingdom, to announce this coming by prophecy (see Luke 24:44; John 5:39; 1 Peter 1:10), and to indicate its meaning through various types (see 1 Cor. 10:12). (15)

And it makes the bold statement that there is a relationship, a deep interconnection between the Old and New Testaments. 

 

God, the inspirer and author of both Testaments, wisely arranged that the New Testament be hidden in the Old and the Old be made manifest in the New.  (16)

The Old Testament is not just filler to get to the New.