|
Irenaeus heard only harmony, if we avoid the number-crunching
favored by the gnostics:
"If, therefore, according to the rule which I have
stated, we leave some questions in the hands of God, we shall both
preserve our faith uninjured, and shall continue without danger; and
all Scripture, which has been given to us by God, shall be found by
us perfectly consistent; and the parables shall harmonize with those
passages which are perfectly plain; and those statements the meaning
of which is clear, shall serve to explain the parables; and through
the many diversified utterances [of Scripture] there shall be heard
one harmonious melody in us, praising in hymns that God who created
all things." (Irenaeus, Against Heresies, Book 2, Chapter 28, Section
3, p. 797, ECF_1_01).
The same was true of Origen:
"But the Word is the one Shepherd of things rational
which may have an appearance of discord to those who have not ears to
hear, but are truly at perfect concord. For as the different chords
of the psalter or the lyre, each of which gives forth a certain sound
of its own which seems unlike the sound of another chord, are thought
by a man who is not musical and ignorant of the principle of musical
harmony, to be inharmonious, because of the dissimilarity of the
sounds, so those who are not skilled in hearing the harmony of God in
the sacred Scriptures think that the Old is not in harmony with the
New, or the Prophets with the Law, or the Gospels with one another,
or the Apostle with the Gospel, or with himself, or with the other
Apostles. But he who comes instructed in the music of God, being a
man wise in word and deed, and, on this account, like another David —
which is, by interpretation, skillful with the hand — will bring out
the sound of the music of God, having learned from this at the right
time to strike the chords, now the chords of the Law, now the Gospel
chords in harmony with them, and again the Prophetic chords, and,
when reason demands it, the Apostolic chords which are in harmony
with the Prophetic, and likewise the Apostolic with those of the
Gospels. For he knows that all the Scripture is the one perfect and
harmonised instrument of God, which from different sounds gives forth
one saving voice to those willing to learn, which stops and restrains
every working of an evil spirit, just as the music of David laid to
rest the evil spirit in Saul, which also was choking him. " (Origen,
Second Book of the Commentary on the Gospel According to Matthew, p.
679, ECF_1_10).
Like today's fundamentalists, Augustine believed there could be no
contradiction in scripture: "In order to leave room for such
profitable discussions of difficult questions, there is a distinct
boundary line separating all productions subsequent to apostolic
times from the authoritative canonical books of the Old and New
Testaments. The authority of these books has come down to us from the
apostles through the successions of bishops and extension of the
Church, and, from a position of lofty supremacy, claims the
submission of every faithful and pious mind. If we are perplexed by
an apparent contradiction in Scripture, it is not allowable to say,
The author of this book is mistaken; but either the manuscript is
faulty, or the translation is wrong, or you have not understood. In
the innumerable books that have been written latterly we may
sometimes find the same truth as in Scripture, but there is not the
same authority." (Augustine, The Complete Works of Augustine, Reply
to Faustus the Manichaean, Book XI, Chapter 5, Kindle location
178268).
"But who can fail to be aware that the sacred canon of
Scripture, both of the Old and New Testament, is confined within its
own limits, and that it stands so absolutely in a superior position
to all later letters of the bishops, that about it we can hold no
manner of doubt or disputation whether what is confessedly contained
in it is right and true; but that all the letters of bishops which
have been written, or are being written, since the closing of the
canon, are liable to be refuted if there be 786 anything contained in
them which strays from the truth, either by the discourse of some one
who happens to be wiser in the matter than themselves, or by the
weightier authority and more learned experience of other bishops, by
the authority of Councils; and further, that the Councils themselves,
which are held in the several districts and provinces, must yield,
beyond all possibility of doubt, to the authority of plenary Councils
which are formed for the whole Christian world; and that even of the
plenary Councils, the earlier are often corrected by those which
follow them, when, by some actual experiment, things are brought to
light which were before concealed, and that is known which previously
lay hid, and this without any whirlwind of sacrilegious pride,
without any puffing of the neck through arrogance, without any strife
of envious hatred, simply with holy humility, catholic peace, and
Christian charity?" (Augustine, On Baptism Against the Donatists,
Book 2, Chapter 3, Section 4).
"For I confess to your Charity that
I have learned to yield this respect and honor only to the
canonical books of Scripture: of these alone do I most firmly
believe that the authors were completely free from error."
(Augustine, Letter 82 to Jerome, Section 3).
The prevalence of liberal thought in today's Roman Catholic church
is foreign, not only to the early church, but even to the medieval
church, which believed, "Hence it is plain that nothing false can ever
underlie the literal sense of Holy Writ." (Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, P(1)-Q(1)-A(10)). Thomas Aquinas explains why there cannot be any error in the
historical sense of scripture. Error involves the divergence of two
things, a.) the narrative, and b.) the underlying historical facts
which form the raw material for the narrative. But both fall under
the same management:
"I answer that, The author of Holy Writ is God,
in whose power it is to signify His meaning, not by words only (as
man also can do), but also by things themselves. So, whereas in every
other science things are signified by words, this science has the
property, that the things signified by the words have themselves also
a signification." (Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, P(1)-Q(1)-A(10)).
Any merely human narrator can be
surprised or disappointed at how things turn out, so he must
improvise and 'fix' the story to make it come out right. But if God
had wanted it to come out differently, it would have come out
differently because He would have made it so. Benedict XVI explains
in his scholarly work on Jesus of Nazareth that 'Matthew' (some
unknown person writing after 70 A.D.) had to 'fix' the story to make
it conform to prophecy: "Matthew is certainly not recounting
historical fact here. . .Here we may agree with Joachim Gnilka, who
argues that Matthew, going beyond historical considerations, is
attempting a theological etiology with which to account for the
terrible fate of the people of Israel in the Jewish War, when land,
city and Temple were taken from them. . ." (Joseph Ratzinger, Jesus
of Nazareth, excerpt quoted on "Irish
Catholic" web-site). But God, who is both the Narrator and also
holds history in His hand, can never possibly be in that position, of
fudging or trimming to make history and prophecy coincide. He writes
both the story and the facts. How could they ever diverge?
Justin Martyr thought the Bible cannot contradict itself:
“And I answered, 'If you spoke these words, Trypho, and then kept silence in
simplicity and with no ill intent, neither repeating what goes before nor
adding what comes after, you must be forgiven; but if [you have done so]
because you imagined that you could throw doubt on the passage, in order
that I might say the Scriptures contradicted each other, you have erred.
But I shall not venture to suppose or to say such a thing; and if a Scripture
which appears to be of such a kind be brought forward, and if there be a
pretext [for saying] that it is contrary [to some other], since I am entirely
convinced that no Scripture contradicts another, I shall admit rather that I
do not understand what is recorded, and shall strive to persuade those who
imagine that the Scriptures are contradictory, to be rather of the same
opinion as myself.'” (Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho,
Chapter 65).
Is he on to something, or are people like Colonel Robert G. Ingersoll on to something?
|
