The Interpretation of Scripture: In Defense of the Historical-Critical Method by Joseph A. Fitzmyer

Author:Joseph A. Fitzmyer
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2011-10-15T18:16:00+00:00

Consider the forbearance of our Lord as salvation, just as our brother Paul once wrote to you according to the wisdom granted to him, speaking of this in all his letters. Some things in them are hard to understand, which the unlearned and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures. Knowing this in advance, beloved [Christians], be on your guard that you be not carried away by the error of lawless people and fall from your surefootedness.

Whoever wrote that passage at the beginning of the second Christian century was already aware of the difficulty that people were having with the proper understanding of Paul's letters.

The second passage is even more eloquent. It is found in the Acts of the Apostles, where Philip the Evangelist, who has been preaching the word of God in Samaria, is told by the angel of the Lord to go down the road from Jerusalem to Gaza. He does so and encounters the eunuch of the Ethiopian Candace seated in his chariot and reading Isaiah 53, as he returns to his land from a visit to Jerusalem. Philip draws near and asks him whether he understands what he is reading. The Ethiopian's answer is well known: "How can I, unless someone guides me?" (8:31). Thus the soon-to-be-baptized Ethiopian Jew reveals his difficult experience in trying to understand a passage about the Servant of the Lord in the Book of Isaiah - an experience that is often that of the modern reader of the Bible as well. Yet it is also the experience with which the historical-critical method of interpreting the Bible is trying to cope: to guide the reader.

Finally, there is an aspect of the historical-critical interpretation of the Bible in the life of the Church that has to be mentioned, at least briefly, viz., its impact in ecumenical relations with other Christian Churches. The use of this method by Catholic interpreters since 1943 had much to do with the preparation of the Church for the developments at the Second Vatican Council. On the heels of that Council emerged the ecumenical dialogue with many Christian ecclesial communities. No little reason for that emergence was precisely the fact that Catholic interpreters of the Bible were using the same kind of interpretation of the Bible that was current among many nonCatholic interpreters. That was not a direct consequence of historical criticism of the Bible, but it was an aspect of it that should not be overlooked.36 Would the varied bilateral consultations be where they are today, if it were not for the use of the historical-critical method of biblical interpretation in the Catholic Church?

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