How Do We Interpret the Bible?

by Admin · November 4, 2021

(Photo:Aaron Burden/unsplash)

Question: Some Evangelicals claim that their churches interpret the Scriptures literally whereas we Catholics don’t (except for the Last Supper). But how does the Catholic Church actually interpret the Bible?

Answer: The simple fact is that no one interprets the Scriptures “literally”; our task is to make sense of it, and that means listening out for the voice of God who is always breathing the message for our day into our attentive ears.

Therefore Catholics and Evangelicals — and all Scripture scholars — are doing exactly the same thing: finding out what is the word of God for our time.
There may be disagreements about what particular texts mean; in general, however, disagreements are increasingly not on denominational lines, but are linked to the place where the Bible-reader finds herself or himself.
(Fr Nicholas King SJ)

Asked and answered in the November 2020 issue of The Southern Cross Magazine