Catholicism and the Bible, Part 1: What is "God's Word?" (#220)

Considering Catholicism Deep Dives

Catholicism and the Bible #1: What is the “Word of God?”

Introduction

Evangelical Protestants’ criticism of Catholicism almost always boils down to one basic charge: that Catholicism isn’t biblical because it doesn’t take the Bible seriously, or as seriously as they do or think they do.

On every point of difference (doctrine, liturgy, Mary and the saints, etc.) Protestants say that the Catholic Church doesn’t respect respect, follow, adhere to, the Bible, so that Catholicism is an unbiblical and false religion because it doesn’t respect God’s Word.

I. What is “God’s Word?”

Line up ten Christians in America and 9 will tell you that the Bible is God’s Word. It’s the Word of God. Right?

But you know who doesn’t define God’s Word as the Bible? The Apostle John, in the Gospel of John.

(John 1:1) In the beginning was the Word. And the Word was with God. And the Word was God.

He doesn’t say, “In the beginning was the Bible. And the Bible was with God. And the Bible was God.” So, what does John say the “Word of God” is?

(John 1:2-4) He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind.

(John 1:14) The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

In the New Testament, the Greek word that John uses and we translate as “word” is “logos. It’s the Greek root for English words like “logic.” The second person of the Trinity, the Son, is the Logos. He is the Word of God that was made flesh in Mary’s womb.

St. Thomas Aquinas considered whether the the term “logos” in Greek or “Word” in English is just a metaphor for the Son of God or an actual proper, personal name for the second person of the Trinity.  Christ isn’t “like” God’s Word, or the source or embodiment of God’s Word. No, Christ *IS* God’s one and only Son, and one of his proper, personal names is the Word of God.

(St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, Part 1, Question 34, Article 2) "Word," said of God in its proper sense, is used personally, and is the proper name of the person of the Son. For it signifies an emanation of the intellect: and the person Who proceeds in God, by way of emanation of the intellect, is called the Son; and this procession is called generation…Hence it follows that the Son alone is properly called Word in God.

Let’s take a look at the first two sentences of the Book of Hebrews.

(Hebrews 1:1-3) Long ago God spoke to our ancestors in many and various ways by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom he also created the worlds. He is the reflection of God’s glory and the exact imprint of God’s very being, and he sustains all things by his powerful word. 

The Catechism of the Catholic Church puts in this way, in paragraph 65:

65 In many and various ways God spoke of old to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son."26 Christ, the Son of God made man, is the Father's one, perfect and unsurpassable Word. In him he has said everything; there will be no other word than this one…In giving us his Son, his only Word (for he possesses no other), he spoke everything to us at once in this sole Word - and he has no more to say. . . because what he spoke before to the prophets in parts, he has now spoken all at once by giving us the All Who is His Son.

To understand God’s Word, we need to think in terms of revelation, how God revealed himself to mankind. The Catechism puts in this way in paragraphs 68-73:

68 By love, God has revealed himself and given himself to man. He has thus provided the definitive, superabundant answer to the questions that man asks himself about the meaning and purpose of his life.

69 God has revealed himself to man by gradually communicating his own mystery in deeds and in words.

70 Beyond the witness to himself that God gives in created things, he manifested himself to our first parents, spoke to them and, after the fall, promised them salvation (cf. Gen 3:15) and offered them his covenant.

71 God made an everlasting covenant with Noah and with all living beings (cf. Gen 9:16). It will remain in force as long as the world lasts.

72 God chose Abraham and made a covenant with him and his descendants. By the covenant God formed his people and revealed his law to them through Moses. Through the prophets, he prepared them to accept the salvation destined for all humanity.

73 God has revealed himself fully by sending his own Son, in whom he has established his covenant for ever. The Son is his Father's definitive Word; so there will be no further Revelation after him.

The Son, Jesus Christ, is the Father’s definitive Word, so there will be no further Revelation after him. That means that after Jesus ascended to heaven the apostles did not give us new, divine revelation. They received no new word. They captured and communicated, under the influence of the Holy Spirit, what they had seen and heard of God’s definitive and final Word in Jesus Christ.

II. Then What is the Bible?

The written scriptures, including the Old and New Testaments, testify to God’s Word, which is why they are called testaments.

The Second Person of the Trinity, the Son, the Christ, is the Word, the actual thing.

The Bible describes and records, carries and communicates that Word, but it isn’t the Word itself.

If we confuse the Holy Scriptures for the substance of the Word itself, we can fall into two errors. First, we mistake means for ends and become obsessed with the Bible rather than what it is trying to show us and tell us. Second, we can limit our understanding of the Word of God to the written scriptures, missing some of what He reveals to us in other ways.

Because while the Bible is the ultimate form of God’s revelation of his Word, so that nothing can contradict it, God’s revelation is not limited to the Bible.

St. Paul tells us in Romans chapter 1 that he has revealed himself to us in the Creation itself.

• He revealed himself in the preaching and teaching of the apostles, before they and others wrote the New Testament.
• The living “deposit of faith” in the sacred traditions of the Church.
• He reveals himself through the sacraments, particularly the Eucharist. It’s why the Catholic Mass is divided into two halves: the celebration and reception of the Written Word and the celebration and reception of the Incarnate Word…

Ultimately, the written words of the written Scriptures, the Bible, recorded infallibly under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, are there to reveal to us the actual Word of God, Jesus Christ.