Pope speaks on St. Paul's guide to interpreting Scripture

January 28, 2009

The Bible must always be understood as "inspired by and proceeding from the Holy Spirit," Pope Benedict XVI told his weekly audience on Wednesday, January 28. The Holy Father told the crowd in the Paul VI auditorium that in his final letters, to Timothy and Titus, St. Paul was defending the authentic faith against "certain erroneous and false doctrines" that had arisen from misreading of Scripture. Then as now, the Pope observed, some Christians go astray by reading the Bible "as a historical curiosity and not as the Word of the Holy Spirit."

The Pope went on to remark that in these letters St. Paul explains the ministry of bishops, priests, and deacons in a reflection on "the ministerial structure of the Church." Thus the Pauline writings known as the "pastoral epistles" center on the two sources of Church teaching: the Bible and the magisterium.

 

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Further information:

• Reading Scripture as the Word of the Holy Spirit (VIS)