18. Properties of Sacred Scripture
Because of its divine origin, the Bible has the following properties:
· Unity
· Veracity and inerrancy
· Sanctity
10. Unity of the Bible
10a) The Inspired Books Form a Unity
Because of their Divine Origin There is only one principal author of the sacred books: God, infinite Wisdom. Thus, there cannot be internal contradictions in his work, and God is not subject to change, so whatever he writes is final forever.1
It follows that all the hagiographers necessarily taught the same truth and do not contradict one another.
The unity of the sacred books is reflected by their Latin name, which is in feminine singular: biblia. It is one book, the Book of Books.
10b) The Analogy of Scriptural Faith
As a consequence of the absolute unity among the truths contained in the Bible (all these truths are mutually in harmony with one another), they illustrate and shed light on one another. Each truth helps us to understand the other truths and the total plan of revelation. This principle is called “the analogy of faith.” This criterion must be applied in the interpretation of the Bible, as we will study in Chapter 21.
10c) Unity Between the Old and New Testaments
One aspect of the Bible’s inner unity is the close relationship between the two Testaments: Both Testaments refer to Christ.2 “All the pages of both Testaments move toward Christ as to their center” (St. Jerome).
“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” (St. Augustine). Thus, the Old Testament contains prophecies and events (called types) that became reality in the New Testament. The New Testament explicitly reveals and really contains what was only foretold in the Old Testament. Thus, the New Testament completes and perfects the Old Testament.
(1) The Old Testament announced the New Testament through prophecies. There are three texts of the New Testament relevant to this matter:
i) Luke 24:44. Christ tells the disciples gathered in the Upper Room: “These are my words which I spoke to you, while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the law of Moses and the prophets and the psalms must be fulfilled.” Our Lord is referring to the three parts into which the Jews divided the Old Testament.
ii) John 5:39. Here, Jesus discusses his right to be called the Son of God by the Jews. He backs up this right by appealing to four witnesses: St. John the Baptist, his miracles, the Father, and the Sacred Scriptures of the Old Testament. About the latter, he says, “You search the scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness to me.”
iii) 1 Peter 1:10. This passage refers to the ecclesial character of Old Testament prophecies. St. Peter speaks of salvation, of which the prophets had already spoken: “The prophets who prophesied of the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired about this salvation.”
(2) The Old Testament announced the New Testament through events. The Old Testament announced the New Testament not just through words, but also through the events it narrates, the persons involved in those events, and physical things described in the narrations.
These events or persons are called figures or types; they anticipate some aspects of the person and deeds of Christ. For instance, Noah’s ark figures the Church, within which salvation is to be found. The Eucharist is figured in the manna.
(3) The New Testament is the fulfillment of the Old Testament. Christ is the fullness of revelation. To see Jesus is to see his Father (cf. Jn 14:9). Jesus perfected revelation and completed it:
He did this by the total fact of his presence and self-manifestation—by his words and works, signs and miracles, but above all by his death and glorious resurrection from the dead, and finally by sending the Spirit of truth. He revealed that God was with us, to deliver us from the darkness of sin and death, and to raise us up to eternal life.3
The ultimate and total sense of revelation is contained in the New Testament: “The Christian economy, therefore, since it is the new and definite covenant, will never pass away; and no new public revelation is to be expected before the glorious manifestation of our Lord, Jesus Christ (cf. 1 Tm 6:14; Ti 2:13).”4
11. The Veracity and Inerrancy of Sacred Scripture
The Bible’s veracity and inerrancy are direct consequences of its inspiration and divine origin. God is the principal author of the Bible (inspiration); since God is the Supreme Truth, he cannot deceive us (he always speaks only the truth), and he cannot be deceived (he can never be in error). Nevertheless, Christian faith is not a “religion of the Book.” Christianity is the religion of the word of God—not of a mute, written book, but of the living, incarnate Word.5 Referring to Sacred Scripture, we can speak of its:
· veracity (that it contains the truth positively): Sacred Scripture teaches the truth firmly and faithfully (with certainty);
· inerrancy (that it is free of error): Sacred Scripture teaches the truth without error.
Inerrancy may be considered “in fact,” and “by its very nature.” Any particular passage of the Bible is free of error “in fact.” This also happens in writings that are purely human. However, inerrancy by nature can be found only in the Bible; the very nature of the inspired books implies inerrancy.
11a) Basis of Biblical Inerrancy
(1) Sacred Scripture itself
Inerrancy has basis in Sacred Scripture itself. Jesus Christ, the apostles, and the Jews considered the arguments based on Sacred Scripture final and unquestionable; the expression “it is written” is often used. Jesus also said: “Is it not written in your law, ‘I said, you are gods’? If he called them gods to whom the word of God came (and scripture cannot be broken), do you say of him whom the Father consecrated and sent into the world, ‘You are blaspheming,’ because I said ‘I am the Son of God’?” (Jn 10:34–36).
(2) Tradition
The Fathers of the Church taught the doctrine of inerrancy unanimously.
(3) Magisterium
The First Vatican Council solemnly defined the inspiration of Sacred Scripture as a dogma. The ordinary Magisterium has always taught the veracity and inerrancy of Sacred Scripture as part of our faith.
Until the end of the nineteenth century, most attacks on scriptural authority were against the fact of inspiration. Thus, the First Vatican Council dwelled on this matter. After this council, the attacks were against the inerrancy of Sacred Scripture in the descriptions of physical natural phenomena. The doctrine on this matter was settled by the encyclical Providentissimus Deus (1893) of Leo XIII.
After 1893, attacks were directed against the historicity of the events narrated in the Bible. This attack was more serious, since our Christian faith is historical in character, and we believe in a historical person: Jesus Christ, God-made-man.
Finally, the Second Vatican Council defended the doctrine of inerrancy. After declaring the fact of inspiration, the document Dei Verbum continues, “Since, therefore, all that the inspired authors, or sacred writers, affirm should be regarded as affirmed by the Holy Spirit, we must acknowledge that the books of Scripture, firmly, faithfully and without error, teach that truth which God, for the sake of our salvation, wished to see confided to the sacred Scriptures.”6
11b) Inerrancy in the Description of Physical Realities
The inerrancy of Sacred Scripture in the descriptions of physical phenomena was asserted by Pope Leo XIII in Providentissimus Deus in the following terms:
i) Sacred Scripture describes physical events, natural events, or phenomena not directly with the intention of describing them, but only as they are useful to manifest a religious truth.
ii) When the Holy Spirit inspired the hagiographers, he did not try to explain the intimate essence and constitution of natural phenomena. The writers described these phenomena in the usual way men speak of them, as they sensibly appear, and as it is expressed in everyday language. Thus, in Genesis, the sky is described as a solid dome.
iii) At times, the hagiographer used metaphors to describe physical phenomena, e.g. “the stars shone in their watches, and were glad” (Bar 3:34). He does not imply that the stars have souls.
iv) There is no error in the biblical description of natural phenomena. Because the hagiographer’s intention is not to scientifically describe these phenomena, and because God is the author, there can be no real conflict between biblical passages and genuine science.
11c) Inerrancy in Historical Events: Historicity
Inerrancy in the description of historical events implies that everything that the hagiographers claimed really happened. This truth must be accepted as truly historical.
The historicity of Sacred Scripture is relevant to the faith because most of the revealed truths are intimately related to historical events that actually occurred in a particular time and place. Thus, creation, original sin, the Incarnation, Redemption, the Passion and death of our Lord, the foundation of the Church, and the institution of the seven sacraments are all historical events.
There have been some incorrect theories about the nature of biblical inerrancy:
· Theory of the “history according to appearances.” Falsely applying the same rule of physical phenomena, this theory stated that some historical events in the Bible are historical only in appearance, that events are described according to popular versions of them.
· Theory of the implicit quotations. This theory claims that a tacit or implicit quotation does not declare its author, or is not even marked as a quotation. Its veracity is endorsed by the original author, not by the one who includes the quote. According to this theory, the Bible would be full of implicit (unmarked) quotations. Thus, the hagiographers were only quoting what they thought somebody said. This theory would indiscriminately introduce doubts and lack of confidence in the passages of Sacred Scripture. One could never be sure if a passage contained an implicit quotation.
11d) Literary Forms in Sacred Scripture
Literary forms (or genres) are ways of writing that have their own rules and are often used in a given historical period to express different thoughts.
The following criteria should be used to determine the literary forms of Sacred Scripture:
· Any literary form may be found in Sacred Scripture, provided it does not contradict the truth and sanctity of God.
· God used several literary forms to better manifest the complexity of his revelation.
· The expression of truth is not identical in every literary form, e.g., the truth of a historical narrative cannot be compared to that of a parable. In the latter form, while the conclusion is true, the characters involved are fictitious.
We find the following literary forms in the Sacred Scripture: historical, juridical, prophetic, apocalyptic, wisdom literature, poetry, and epistle.
12. The Sanctity of Sacred Scripture
Sanctity of the Bible refers to the moral perfection of the doctrine contained in it. This prerogative stems from three aspects:
(1) Its divine origin
In its negative formulation, sanctity implies the absence of moral error. This does not imply that the Bible speaks only of good things—it may narrate evil deeds, but they are explicitly or implicitly condemned. Evil is rejected and good is upheld.
Even though the Old and New Testaments are equally holy and free from all moral error, the New Testament possesses a greater moral perfection since it perfects the Old Testament.
(2) Its purpose
The purpose of the Bible is the salvation of all.
In the Old Testament, God revealed some knowledge of the salvific truth, but he did not explicitly establish the institutions to obtain justification (or grace); the rites of the Old Testament did not give grace by their own power. Yet the Old Testament prefigured the New Testament with its deeds, and promised salvation with words. The people who lived under the Old Testament could obtain grace by having faith in what was promised.
In the New Testament, the salvific truths were revealed explicitly: Christ instituted the Church, equipped with the channels of grace—the sacraments. The New Testament facilitates, in a more perfect and abundant way, the reception of grace and, with it, the attainment of the end of man, which is salvation.
(3) Its precepts
Adam knew the natural law and transmitted it to his children after the fall. However, the natural light of reason grew dimmer due to their sins. Thus, God chose to reveal a series of precepts (of both supernatural and natural law) to Abraham and Moses. These precepts are contained in the Old Testament.
In the New Testament, Christ perfected the moral precepts of the Old Testament with his deeds and doctrine, thus shedding light on the moral law itself. Christ perfected the moral precepts of the Old Testament by:
· declaring their true meaning,
· establishing the best way of fulfilling them, and
· adding advice to achieve greater sanctity.
Moral Perfection of Apparent Evils
(1) Curses
We find curses (or wishing harm to another) in some passages of Sacred Scripture: “Do to them as thou didst to Midian, as to Sisera and Jabin at the river Kishon, who were destroyed at Endor, who became dung for the ground.… Let them be put to shame and dismayed for ever; let them perish in disgrace” (Ps 83:9–17). We also find vengeance (cf. Ps 35:3) and desire of death (cf. Ps 52:5). “Cursed be the day on which I was born!” (Jer 20:14).
To explain these passages, we must remember that these curses are not uttered because of any personal hatred, but rather as an appeal to God that his judgment may be imposed. These curses are the result of a sense of justice, which is good, but imperfect when compared with the law of charity that Christ taught us. These curses never express the desire for a spiritual evil, but for a material and temporal one, and even this evil is desired only to reach a greater good: the conversion of the penitent or the fulfillment of God’s justice.
(2) Description of sinful acts
Biblical characters are ordinary human beings like us with the same passions. We see our own life depicted in their lives, and are led to personal conversion. Thus, after his adultery and homicide, David repented and wrote the hymn Miserere (cf. Ps 51), a model act of contrition. Nevertheless, we can make the following statements:
· The fact that sinful acts are narrated does not mean that they are praised or approved.
· The gravity of the act is clearly shown with its corresponding punishment.
· The malice of the act may be easily grasped when considered under the light of natural law or the Mosaic Law. Thus, the unity of marriage asserted in Genesis 2:23 is contrasted with the polygamy of Lamech (cf. Gn 4:19).
· When a person is praised in general, it does not imply that all his or her deeds are approved. Judith is praised for her heroism in saving her people, but not for her imprudence with or the deceit of Holofernes.
(3) Divorce
The Mosaic Law never promulgated the licitness of divorce; it simply limited its application. Due to the weaknesses of men—their “hardness of heart” (Mt 19:8)—the limitation of divorce was a necessary norm at that time to avoid greater abuses. Thus, the separation of husband and wife could not be done without securing “a bill of divorce” (Dt 24:1). Meanwhile, there was a chance that the couple would reconcile. Moses even insisted that the repudiated wife could not be taken back afterwards, forcing people to reconsider before divorcing.
(4) Polygamy
The Mosaic Law did not authorize or forbid polygamy; it dwelt on it only to avoid some major aberrations, such as marrying two sisters (cf. Lv 18:18) and the multiplication of wives by the king (cf. Dt 17:17). Some Fathers of the Church explain that God permitted polygamy to the patriarchs of the chosen people because “at that time, it was good for the patriarchs to have many children, to conserve and propagate the chosen people of God, who were to receive and transmit the promises about Christ.” However, with Christ’s coming, this dispensation had no reason to continue. Christ pronounced the unity of marriage again and cancelled all dispensations.
(5) War
In some cases, God ordered the destruction of a city or the extermination of a nation (cf. Nm 21:2–3; Dt 7:1–5; 1 Sm 15). Such divine orders, aimed exclusively at the Canaanites, were punishments for their sins (cf. Wis 12:3–6). God chose to sacrifice the material goods of the Canaanites—giving them all the opportunities to repent—in order to avoid having the Israelites influenced by the Canaanites and thereby fall into idolatry and moral corruption. God is the absolute Lord of life and death, and he can use some people as instruments to administer his justice.
Footnotes:
1. Cf. CCC, 112.
2. Cf. CCC, 128–130.
3. DV, 4.
4. Ibid.
5. Cf. St. Bernard, Hom. Miss. 4, 11; CCC, 107–108.
6. DV, 11.
· Unity
· Veracity and inerrancy
· Sanctity
10. Unity of the Bible
10a) The Inspired Books Form a Unity
Because of their Divine Origin There is only one principal author of the sacred books: God, infinite Wisdom. Thus, there cannot be internal contradictions in his work, and God is not subject to change, so whatever he writes is final forever.1
It follows that all the hagiographers necessarily taught the same truth and do not contradict one another.
The unity of the sacred books is reflected by their Latin name, which is in feminine singular: biblia. It is one book, the Book of Books.
10b) The Analogy of Scriptural Faith
As a consequence of the absolute unity among the truths contained in the Bible (all these truths are mutually in harmony with one another), they illustrate and shed light on one another. Each truth helps us to understand the other truths and the total plan of revelation. This principle is called “the analogy of faith.” This criterion must be applied in the interpretation of the Bible, as we will study in Chapter 21.
10c) Unity Between the Old and New Testaments
One aspect of the Bible’s inner unity is the close relationship between the two Testaments: Both Testaments refer to Christ.2 “All the pages of both Testaments move toward Christ as to their center” (St. Jerome).
“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” (St. Augustine). Thus, the Old Testament contains prophecies and events (called types) that became reality in the New Testament. The New Testament explicitly reveals and really contains what was only foretold in the Old Testament. Thus, the New Testament completes and perfects the Old Testament.
(1) The Old Testament announced the New Testament through prophecies. There are three texts of the New Testament relevant to this matter:
i) Luke 24:44. Christ tells the disciples gathered in the Upper Room: “These are my words which I spoke to you, while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the law of Moses and the prophets and the psalms must be fulfilled.” Our Lord is referring to the three parts into which the Jews divided the Old Testament.
ii) John 5:39. Here, Jesus discusses his right to be called the Son of God by the Jews. He backs up this right by appealing to four witnesses: St. John the Baptist, his miracles, the Father, and the Sacred Scriptures of the Old Testament. About the latter, he says, “You search the scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness to me.”
iii) 1 Peter 1:10. This passage refers to the ecclesial character of Old Testament prophecies. St. Peter speaks of salvation, of which the prophets had already spoken: “The prophets who prophesied of the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired about this salvation.”
(2) The Old Testament announced the New Testament through events. The Old Testament announced the New Testament not just through words, but also through the events it narrates, the persons involved in those events, and physical things described in the narrations.
These events or persons are called figures or types; they anticipate some aspects of the person and deeds of Christ. For instance, Noah’s ark figures the Church, within which salvation is to be found. The Eucharist is figured in the manna.
(3) The New Testament is the fulfillment of the Old Testament. Christ is the fullness of revelation. To see Jesus is to see his Father (cf. Jn 14:9). Jesus perfected revelation and completed it:
He did this by the total fact of his presence and self-manifestation—by his words and works, signs and miracles, but above all by his death and glorious resurrection from the dead, and finally by sending the Spirit of truth. He revealed that God was with us, to deliver us from the darkness of sin and death, and to raise us up to eternal life.3
The ultimate and total sense of revelation is contained in the New Testament: “The Christian economy, therefore, since it is the new and definite covenant, will never pass away; and no new public revelation is to be expected before the glorious manifestation of our Lord, Jesus Christ (cf. 1 Tm 6:14; Ti 2:13).”4
11. The Veracity and Inerrancy of Sacred Scripture
The Bible’s veracity and inerrancy are direct consequences of its inspiration and divine origin. God is the principal author of the Bible (inspiration); since God is the Supreme Truth, he cannot deceive us (he always speaks only the truth), and he cannot be deceived (he can never be in error). Nevertheless, Christian faith is not a “religion of the Book.” Christianity is the religion of the word of God—not of a mute, written book, but of the living, incarnate Word.5 Referring to Sacred Scripture, we can speak of its:
· veracity (that it contains the truth positively): Sacred Scripture teaches the truth firmly and faithfully (with certainty);
· inerrancy (that it is free of error): Sacred Scripture teaches the truth without error.
Inerrancy may be considered “in fact,” and “by its very nature.” Any particular passage of the Bible is free of error “in fact.” This also happens in writings that are purely human. However, inerrancy by nature can be found only in the Bible; the very nature of the inspired books implies inerrancy.
11a) Basis of Biblical Inerrancy
(1) Sacred Scripture itself
Inerrancy has basis in Sacred Scripture itself. Jesus Christ, the apostles, and the Jews considered the arguments based on Sacred Scripture final and unquestionable; the expression “it is written” is often used. Jesus also said: “Is it not written in your law, ‘I said, you are gods’? If he called them gods to whom the word of God came (and scripture cannot be broken), do you say of him whom the Father consecrated and sent into the world, ‘You are blaspheming,’ because I said ‘I am the Son of God’?” (Jn 10:34–36).
(2) Tradition
The Fathers of the Church taught the doctrine of inerrancy unanimously.
(3) Magisterium
The First Vatican Council solemnly defined the inspiration of Sacred Scripture as a dogma. The ordinary Magisterium has always taught the veracity and inerrancy of Sacred Scripture as part of our faith.
Until the end of the nineteenth century, most attacks on scriptural authority were against the fact of inspiration. Thus, the First Vatican Council dwelled on this matter. After this council, the attacks were against the inerrancy of Sacred Scripture in the descriptions of physical natural phenomena. The doctrine on this matter was settled by the encyclical Providentissimus Deus (1893) of Leo XIII.
After 1893, attacks were directed against the historicity of the events narrated in the Bible. This attack was more serious, since our Christian faith is historical in character, and we believe in a historical person: Jesus Christ, God-made-man.
Finally, the Second Vatican Council defended the doctrine of inerrancy. After declaring the fact of inspiration, the document Dei Verbum continues, “Since, therefore, all that the inspired authors, or sacred writers, affirm should be regarded as affirmed by the Holy Spirit, we must acknowledge that the books of Scripture, firmly, faithfully and without error, teach that truth which God, for the sake of our salvation, wished to see confided to the sacred Scriptures.”6
11b) Inerrancy in the Description of Physical Realities
The inerrancy of Sacred Scripture in the descriptions of physical phenomena was asserted by Pope Leo XIII in Providentissimus Deus in the following terms:
i) Sacred Scripture describes physical events, natural events, or phenomena not directly with the intention of describing them, but only as they are useful to manifest a religious truth.
ii) When the Holy Spirit inspired the hagiographers, he did not try to explain the intimate essence and constitution of natural phenomena. The writers described these phenomena in the usual way men speak of them, as they sensibly appear, and as it is expressed in everyday language. Thus, in Genesis, the sky is described as a solid dome.
iii) At times, the hagiographer used metaphors to describe physical phenomena, e.g. “the stars shone in their watches, and were glad” (Bar 3:34). He does not imply that the stars have souls.
iv) There is no error in the biblical description of natural phenomena. Because the hagiographer’s intention is not to scientifically describe these phenomena, and because God is the author, there can be no real conflict between biblical passages and genuine science.
11c) Inerrancy in Historical Events: Historicity
Inerrancy in the description of historical events implies that everything that the hagiographers claimed really happened. This truth must be accepted as truly historical.
The historicity of Sacred Scripture is relevant to the faith because most of the revealed truths are intimately related to historical events that actually occurred in a particular time and place. Thus, creation, original sin, the Incarnation, Redemption, the Passion and death of our Lord, the foundation of the Church, and the institution of the seven sacraments are all historical events.
There have been some incorrect theories about the nature of biblical inerrancy:
· Theory of the “history according to appearances.” Falsely applying the same rule of physical phenomena, this theory stated that some historical events in the Bible are historical only in appearance, that events are described according to popular versions of them.
· Theory of the implicit quotations. This theory claims that a tacit or implicit quotation does not declare its author, or is not even marked as a quotation. Its veracity is endorsed by the original author, not by the one who includes the quote. According to this theory, the Bible would be full of implicit (unmarked) quotations. Thus, the hagiographers were only quoting what they thought somebody said. This theory would indiscriminately introduce doubts and lack of confidence in the passages of Sacred Scripture. One could never be sure if a passage contained an implicit quotation.
11d) Literary Forms in Sacred Scripture
Literary forms (or genres) are ways of writing that have their own rules and are often used in a given historical period to express different thoughts.
The following criteria should be used to determine the literary forms of Sacred Scripture:
· Any literary form may be found in Sacred Scripture, provided it does not contradict the truth and sanctity of God.
· God used several literary forms to better manifest the complexity of his revelation.
· The expression of truth is not identical in every literary form, e.g., the truth of a historical narrative cannot be compared to that of a parable. In the latter form, while the conclusion is true, the characters involved are fictitious.
We find the following literary forms in the Sacred Scripture: historical, juridical, prophetic, apocalyptic, wisdom literature, poetry, and epistle.
12. The Sanctity of Sacred Scripture
Sanctity of the Bible refers to the moral perfection of the doctrine contained in it. This prerogative stems from three aspects:
(1) Its divine origin
In its negative formulation, sanctity implies the absence of moral error. This does not imply that the Bible speaks only of good things—it may narrate evil deeds, but they are explicitly or implicitly condemned. Evil is rejected and good is upheld.
Even though the Old and New Testaments are equally holy and free from all moral error, the New Testament possesses a greater moral perfection since it perfects the Old Testament.
(2) Its purpose
The purpose of the Bible is the salvation of all.
In the Old Testament, God revealed some knowledge of the salvific truth, but he did not explicitly establish the institutions to obtain justification (or grace); the rites of the Old Testament did not give grace by their own power. Yet the Old Testament prefigured the New Testament with its deeds, and promised salvation with words. The people who lived under the Old Testament could obtain grace by having faith in what was promised.
In the New Testament, the salvific truths were revealed explicitly: Christ instituted the Church, equipped with the channels of grace—the sacraments. The New Testament facilitates, in a more perfect and abundant way, the reception of grace and, with it, the attainment of the end of man, which is salvation.
(3) Its precepts
Adam knew the natural law and transmitted it to his children after the fall. However, the natural light of reason grew dimmer due to their sins. Thus, God chose to reveal a series of precepts (of both supernatural and natural law) to Abraham and Moses. These precepts are contained in the Old Testament.
In the New Testament, Christ perfected the moral precepts of the Old Testament with his deeds and doctrine, thus shedding light on the moral law itself. Christ perfected the moral precepts of the Old Testament by:
· declaring their true meaning,
· establishing the best way of fulfilling them, and
· adding advice to achieve greater sanctity.
Moral Perfection of Apparent Evils
(1) Curses
We find curses (or wishing harm to another) in some passages of Sacred Scripture: “Do to them as thou didst to Midian, as to Sisera and Jabin at the river Kishon, who were destroyed at Endor, who became dung for the ground.… Let them be put to shame and dismayed for ever; let them perish in disgrace” (Ps 83:9–17). We also find vengeance (cf. Ps 35:3) and desire of death (cf. Ps 52:5). “Cursed be the day on which I was born!” (Jer 20:14).
To explain these passages, we must remember that these curses are not uttered because of any personal hatred, but rather as an appeal to God that his judgment may be imposed. These curses are the result of a sense of justice, which is good, but imperfect when compared with the law of charity that Christ taught us. These curses never express the desire for a spiritual evil, but for a material and temporal one, and even this evil is desired only to reach a greater good: the conversion of the penitent or the fulfillment of God’s justice.
(2) Description of sinful acts
Biblical characters are ordinary human beings like us with the same passions. We see our own life depicted in their lives, and are led to personal conversion. Thus, after his adultery and homicide, David repented and wrote the hymn Miserere (cf. Ps 51), a model act of contrition. Nevertheless, we can make the following statements:
· The fact that sinful acts are narrated does not mean that they are praised or approved.
· The gravity of the act is clearly shown with its corresponding punishment.
· The malice of the act may be easily grasped when considered under the light of natural law or the Mosaic Law. Thus, the unity of marriage asserted in Genesis 2:23 is contrasted with the polygamy of Lamech (cf. Gn 4:19).
· When a person is praised in general, it does not imply that all his or her deeds are approved. Judith is praised for her heroism in saving her people, but not for her imprudence with or the deceit of Holofernes.
(3) Divorce
The Mosaic Law never promulgated the licitness of divorce; it simply limited its application. Due to the weaknesses of men—their “hardness of heart” (Mt 19:8)—the limitation of divorce was a necessary norm at that time to avoid greater abuses. Thus, the separation of husband and wife could not be done without securing “a bill of divorce” (Dt 24:1). Meanwhile, there was a chance that the couple would reconcile. Moses even insisted that the repudiated wife could not be taken back afterwards, forcing people to reconsider before divorcing.
(4) Polygamy
The Mosaic Law did not authorize or forbid polygamy; it dwelt on it only to avoid some major aberrations, such as marrying two sisters (cf. Lv 18:18) and the multiplication of wives by the king (cf. Dt 17:17). Some Fathers of the Church explain that God permitted polygamy to the patriarchs of the chosen people because “at that time, it was good for the patriarchs to have many children, to conserve and propagate the chosen people of God, who were to receive and transmit the promises about Christ.” However, with Christ’s coming, this dispensation had no reason to continue. Christ pronounced the unity of marriage again and cancelled all dispensations.
(5) War
In some cases, God ordered the destruction of a city or the extermination of a nation (cf. Nm 21:2–3; Dt 7:1–5; 1 Sm 15). Such divine orders, aimed exclusively at the Canaanites, were punishments for their sins (cf. Wis 12:3–6). God chose to sacrifice the material goods of the Canaanites—giving them all the opportunities to repent—in order to avoid having the Israelites influenced by the Canaanites and thereby fall into idolatry and moral corruption. God is the absolute Lord of life and death, and he can use some people as instruments to administer his justice.
Footnotes:
1. Cf. CCC, 112.
2. Cf. CCC, 128–130.
3. DV, 4.
4. Ibid.
5. Cf. St. Bernard, Hom. Miss. 4, 11; CCC, 107–108.
6. DV, 11.