Why aren't Catholics allowed to read the bible for themselves when we have Holy Spirit to help us interpret?

Answer 1

They are part of an evil religion which does not have the Holy Spirit.

Pastor Art

Answer 2

Catholics are allowed to read the Bible - but we do not interpret it for ourselves. The Holy Spirit helps the individual interpret Biblical teaching through the Divine Guidance of the Catholic Church.

The fact that there are 33,000 different Christian denominations, and countless more personal interpretations of the Bible, makes it painfully obvious the Holy Spirit doesn't just automatically dowload Biblical Wisdom on command. If it actually did work that way, everyone who read the Bible would interpret it in exactly the same manner. Clearly, this is not the case.

Yes, the Holy Spirit is guiding people in their interpretation of the Sacred Scriptures, though not in a way that is recognized by some people.

We, as individuals, lack the authority to infallibly interpret Scripture for ourselves. There has to be a body of people given Divine Guidance and Authority to interpret and teach the Scriptures Infallibly.

This body of people is the Magisterium of the Catholic Church. That is, the pope and all bishops in communion with him.

I can and do, as an individual Catholic, read the Bible on my own time. However, when it comes to interpreting the True meaning of a given section of text, I seek the Magisterium's interpretation because the Magisterium is guided by the Holy Spirit.

Answer 3

For we write you nothing but what you can read and understand, and I hope that you will understand completely, as you have come to understand us partially, that we are your boast as you also are ours, on the day of (our) Lord Jesus. (2 Corinthians 13-14)

Paul's second letter to the Corinthians was written about 57 A.D. All of the Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, and Revelation were written after Paul's letter and may or may not apply to this statement.

The verse from 2 Corinthians would only be applicable to the documents that Paul and the other Apostles had written up to that time.

The Jews had centuries of Holy Scripture interpretation in the priests and rabbis.

In Acts 8:27-39: Philip asks the Ethiopian reading the prophet Isaiah, "Do you understand what you are reading?" The Ethiopian replied, "How can I, unless someone instructs me?"

The original readers of the Epistles also knew Greek and all the slang and idioms used in their time. They knew (and lived) the culture, politics, and habits of everyday life of the first century A.D.

If I knew the original languages in which the Bible were written, namely Hebrew, Greek, and a little Aramaic, archeology, and theology as well as you do then maybe I would not need the Church to help me.

Something is always lost in translation no matter how good, how new, or how beautiful the translation is.

On a practical note, being able to keep an eye on the big picture has kept the Catholic Church together for almost 2,000 years with over 1.1 billion living believers.

Christian Churches that interpret the Bible any way they wish keep splintering off each other to the point that there are now well over 10,000 non-Catholic Christian denominations.

Jesus told the 72 disciples who were being sent out to teach the people about Jesus, "Whoever listens to you listens to me. Whoever rejects you rejects me. And whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me." (Luke 10:16)

With love in Christ.

Answer 4

It's just like saying Asians are not allowed to eat cheese by themselves. You are another of those pitiful brainwashed fellas.
All Catholics are encouraged to read the bible daily. We even have recommended readings according to the Catholic calendar, 365 days a year.

The protestants have at least another few hundred sub-protestants, each claiming being guided in interpretation by their spirit too.

Answer 5

Catholics have been encouraged to read the scriptures ever since St. Jerome originally translated the bible into Latin, which was the common language of the majority of the Christian people, in the 4th century.

That same bible was the first major book ever printed using moveable type, by Gutenberg in 1455, with the full support and cooperation of the Catholic Church, and has since been faithfully translated into many, many other languages.

The reason the Catholic Church remains very particular about the way the written Word of God is treated, is because only the Catholic Church has been entrusted and charged by Jesus Christ with faithfully preserving and handing down ALL the sacred truths of the Christian faith, and serving as a sure and certain guide to salvation, for all people of all generations, until Jesus comes again.

We Catholics can credit the Holy Spirit for the well disciplined scholarship of the Church and for the fact that we have been able to maintain one consistent creed for the last 2,000 years, while our protestant brothers and sisters, who claim such a great reverence for scripture, have somehow managed to develop over 30,000 different creeds, over a much shorter, 500 year span of time.

God is not the author of confusion, so from this we must conclude that either the Holy Spirit has been on vacation since the beginning of the protestant reformation, or a great number of protestants have been interpreting scripture with the help of someone who is only masquerading as the Spirit of God.

The Catholic Church was promised the constant guidance of the Holy Spirit, until the end of time, by none other than Jesus Christ, and you can find that faithfully recorded in scripture.

There is no record of Jesus providing any type of similar assurances to any other person or group.

From all this it's clear that Jesus actually intended the authentic Catholic Church to help everyone correctly interpret scripture, and come to the knowledge of all the rest of his authentic truth, rather than having each person try to go it alone.

You know, of course, what happens to sheep who break away from the flock, and get lost:

1Peter 5:5 In like manner, ye young men, be subject to the ancients. And do you all insinuate humility one to another: for God resisteth the proud, but to the humble he giveth grace.
1Pe 5:6 Be you humbled therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in the time of visitation:
1Pe 5:7 Casting all your care upon him, for he hath care of you.
1Pe 5:8 Be sober and watch: because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, goeth about seeking whom he may devour.
1Pe 5:9 Whom resist ye, strong in faith: knowing that the same affliction befalls your brethren who are in the world.

Faith in Jesus Christ goes hand in hand with faith and obedience to the only church he ever personally founded, authorized, empowered, and guaranteed, expressly for the purpose of our salvation.

The real Holy Spirit would warn you to accept no substitutes.

Answer 6

And they say there's no such thing as a stupid question!

How is it then that there can be a Catholic Bible available at any book store??? As a Catholic, I owned several Bibles, my favorite was the New Jerusalem, translated from the French.

We ARE allowed to read it!

Answer 7

Not allowed? Not encouraged? WHERE are people getting this stuff? And when are they going to start citing their sources? [edit] I'll gladly cite mine: paragraph 133 of the catechism, which states "The Church forcefully and specifically exhorts all the Christian faithful. . . to learn the surpassing knowledge of Jesus Christ, by frequent reading of the divine Scriptures. Ignorance of the Scriptures is ignorance of Christ"

And hold onto your chairs, folks: Not only are we free to read the Bible (heck, I can walk into my local bookstore and pick up one of every translation available if I so desire -- without having to hide the crucifix around my neck), but many U.S. parishes have WEEKLY BIBLE STUDIES on an ongoing basis. I'll name names if you'd like.

Answer 8

it's an old custom... you see when the bible was assembled it was assembled by evil to keep humanity in confusion... evil wanted a monopoly on prophecy is but one reason... it was written in latin which was meant to remain a secret language... along the way people with a conscience got it published in language we could read ourselves... but then the devil calls himself the holy spirit so that people would put trust in his interpretation alone.... to see the "omen" of this look no further than the second commandment ... do not practice idolatry.... meaning don't bow or pray to statues... and the catholic priest and teacher all do it... an omen is to be an indication to help people see truth... the bible is full of these "omen" you will know them by their actions... even the people who assembled the bible didn't know what it meant but their actions were meant to show truth.... good or evil... so today the catholics seem to accept going blind not caring what side they follow... even if all the omens point to them serving evil.

Answer 9

You need to stop getting your "information" from the chick tracts, son.

We are not forbidden to read he Bible, or anything else for that matter. Come join my 5 year Bible School- see how much we read the Bible.

Go to a Mass, every single day of the week, and hear at least 3 Bible readings a day.



Pastor art...that title is a joke - you are spreading lies and are not of Christ at all.

Answer 10

Catholics are not encourage to read the Bible, but is not forbidden either. The Watchtower Society expressly forbids to the Jehovah Witnesses to read the Bible by themselves, UNLESS the Jehovah Witnesses use the publications of the Watchtower Society as the only possible interpretation of what they read.

Answer 11

Dear abstraKt,

The question is are you going to obey God .... or your church? Jesus states in John 5:39, "Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me."

We also read in 2 Timothy 2:15, "Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth."

I can also give you the rules God sets forth for Bible interpretation but let me just refer you to my sources below.