Читать книгу Catholicism For Dummies - Rev. Kenneth Brighenti - Страница 86

The Catholic Church firmly believes that every word of the Bible has a literal meaning in both the original language of the sacred author and in the language of the translator. However, the Church does not believe that every word is meant to have a literal interpretation. What’s the difference?

Consider an example: Jesus says in John 15:5, “I am the vine, you are the branches.” The literal meanings of the words vine and branches (ampelos and klemata in Greek) are essential to understanding the passage. You know what a vine is and the difference between a vine and a branch — you know the literal meaning of each word. But the intention of the original author (John) as well as the speaker (Jesus) in this passage requires you to go a step further. You are not a plant, so this passage must be a figure of speech.

Sometimes, Bible passages require a literal interpretation. For instance, in John 1:63, “his name is John” literally means that the son of Elizabeth and Zecchariah is called John (who would later be known as John the Baptist). But the Bible is also rich with metaphors and other figures of speech, such as Jesus calling Himself the Lamb of God (see John 1:29). Obviously, Jesus is not literally a four-legged sheep, but you still need to know what a lamb is in order to appreciate the analogy.

How do you know which biblical passages to interpret literally and which to approach as figures of speech? Well, we know of an ancient axiom regarding Scripture: “If you take a text out of context, you get a pretext.” In other words, the meaning of the word, phrase, or passage can be properly interpreted by the context. This means considering the previous and following words and phrases, verses, and chapters.

Luke offers a similar genealogy to Matthew’s, but he works backward from Jesus to Adam, 20 generations before Abraham. Luke was a Gentile physician, and his audience was Gentile, not Jewish. Neither Matthew nor Luke used editorial fiction, but each carefully selected what to say to his respective audience through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. A Gentile audience wasn’t as concerned with a connection to Abraham as a Jewish audience. Gentiles were interested in a connection between Jesus and the first man, Adam, because Gentiles were big into Greek philosophy. Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle — just to mention a few famous Greek thinkers who lived before Christ — philosophized about the origins of humanity, and thus, making a link between Jesus and the first man would have greatly appealed to them. In the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew mentions that prior to giving the sermon, Jesus “went up on the mountain” (Matthew 5:1), but Luke describes Jesus giving a Sermon on the Plain, “a level place” (Luke 6:17). Both men quote the teachings from these sermons, called the Beatitudes. See the following version from Matthew 5:

 Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down his disciples came to him. And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying:“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.“Blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so men persecuted the prophets who were before you.”

Now contrast the Sermon on the Mount in the Gospel of Matthew with Luke 6:17–26, which follows:

 And he came down with them and stood on a level place, with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea and Jerusalem and the seacoast of Tyre and Sidon, who came to hear him and to be healed of their diseases; and those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured. And all the crowd sought to touch him, for power came forth from him and healed them all. And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples, and said:“Blessed are you poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.“Blessed are you that hunger now, for you shall be satisfied.“Blessed are you that weep now, for you shall laugh.“Blessed are you when men hate you, and when they exclude you and revile you, and cast out your name as evil, on account of the Son of man! Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven; for so their fathers did to the prophets.“But woe to you that are rich, for you have received your consolation.“Woe to you that are well fed now, for you shall hunger.“Woe to you that laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep.“Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets.”

So why the difference in location for these sermons — mount and plain?

Any good preacher knows that when you have a good sermon, you can use it more than once, especially if you’re preaching in another place to a different crowd. It’s not unreasonable to presume that Jesus preached His Beatitudes more than once, because He moved around quite a bit and, aside from the Apostles, no one in the crowd would have heard the message before.

Matthew mentions the occasion of the Sermon on the Mount because his Jewish audience would have been keen on such a detail. The reason? Moses was given the Law, the Ten Commandments, on Mount Sinai. So Jesus was giving the law of blessedness, also known as the Beatitudes, also from a mount. Matthew also makes sure to quote Jesus, saying that He had “come not to abolish them [the law and the prophets], but to fulfill them” (Matthew 5:17), also appealing to a Jewish listener. Moses gave the Ten Commandments that came from God to the Hebrew people, and now Jesus was going to fulfill that Law.

Luke, on the other hand, mentions the time that the sermon was given on a plain. Why mention the obscure detail of a level ground? Luke was writing for a Gentile audience. Unlike the Jewish audience of Matthew, which was used to the Law being given from God to Moses on Mount Sinai, the Gentiles were accustomed to giving and listening to philosophical debates in the Greek tradition. Philosophers such as Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle debated one another on level ground, standing shoulder-to-shoulder, eye-to-eye, instead of lecturing from an elevated podium, in order to give a sense of fairness and equality to the discussion. Because a Gentile audience would have been more interested in a speech given by Jesus in similar fashion, Luke retold such an occurrence.

A slight difference can be detected in some of the wording of Luke’s account versus that of Matthew, as well as an addition of “woe to you” given by Jesus to correspond with each “blessed are you,” which isn’t found in Matthew. Again, a preacher often adapts an older sermon by adding to, subtracting from, or modifying his original work, depending on his second audience. The Catholic Church maintains that the discrepancy comes from a change Jesus made because neither sacred author would feel free to alter anything Jesus said or did on his own human authority.