The Devil Has Quoted Scripture

You know, in all the arguments I have heard for why the Magisterium and Tradition are a must in conjunction with Scripture ... I have never heard it put this way. And yet it makes more sense to me in a very basic way than those other arguments. Brilliant. Leave it to David Scott, eh?

Early church leaders insisted that the Scriptures be read and understood within the context of the church's tradition. They had learned by experience. Many of the problems and heresies of the early church had stemmed from a rejection of this principle, as charismatic leaders and sects advanced wild theories and fanciful speculations they said were based on the Bible.

"The Devil himself has quoted Scripture texts," Jerome noted ruefully, referring to Satan's temptation of Jesus in Matthew's Gospel. "We could all, while preserving the letter of Scripture, read into it some novel doctrine."

But God did not send his word into the world only to leave it alone to be interpreted according to the whims, dictates, and tastes of whoever heard it. That is why the word was given to us in the church. This is the message of a dramatic scene in the Acts of the Apostles. The Holy Spirit tells the apostle Philip to strike up a conversation with an official of the queen of Ethiopia's court. Seated in his chariot, the official is reading the prophet Isaiah. "Do you understand what you are reading?" Philip asks. The official replies, "How can I, unless someone guides me?" So Philip interprets the Scriptures -- "starting with this scripture, he proclaimed to him the good news about Jesus." Then the man asks to be baptized.

For the early church, and for Catholics today, the Bible was meant to be read with the apostles, in the church. As Peter said bluntly, "No prophecy of scripture is a matter of one's own interpretation." The apostles alone had learned the proper reading of Scripture from the mouth of the Master. They alone had been given what Paul called "the mind of Christ" and the Spirit to guide them deeper into its truths and mysteries. This understanding in the Spirit had been passed on to the bishops, who were entrusted with the apostles' "own position of teaching authority," as St. Irenaeus, the great apologist and bishop of Lyons, said in the second century.

Catholic Passion by David Scott

Tags: Catholicism, Christianity