Sacred Scripture and Biblical Interpretation Flashcards

What term describes the Catholic Church's teaching that the Bible was written by human authors under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit?

Answer: Sacred Inspiration

Sacred Inspiration refers to the Catholic doctrine that human authors wrote Scripture under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, making God the principal author.

Which of the following best describes the Catholic principle of the 'literal sense' of Scripture?

Answer: The meaning intended by the human author as conveyed through words and literary forms

The literal sense refers to the meaning directly intended by the author using the particular literary form (poetry, history, prophecy, etc.).

The Catholic canon of the Old Testament includes how many books that Protestant Bibles generally omit?

Answer: 7

The Catholic Old Testament includes 7 deuterocanonical books (Tobit, Judith, 1 & 2 Maccabees, Wisdom, Sirach, Baruch) not found in most Protestant Bibles.

In Catholic teaching, what is the relationship between Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition?

Answer: Both flow from the same divine source and together form one sacred deposit of the Word of God

The Catechism teaches that Scripture and Tradition together make up the single sacred deposit of the Word of God, entrusted to the Church.

Which Vatican II document addressed divine revelation and the proper interpretation of Scripture?

Answer: Dei Verbum

Dei Verbum (Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation, 1965) is the key Vatican II document on Scripture, Tradition, and biblical interpretation.

What does the 'allegorical sense' of Scripture reveal according to Catholic hermeneutics?

Answer: How biblical events signify deeper realities, especially Christ

The allegorical sense shows how people, events, and institutions in Scripture can signify Christ or the realities of the New Covenant.