What is the official Catholic view on the old testament?

Question

i.e. according to the Vatican, is it meant to be taken literally or figuratively?

Answer 1

A little of both.

The Bible is a collection of many writings by many authors inspired by the Holy Spirit over a period of hundreds of years.

There are stories, histories, biographies and letters and political commentary. There are songs, poems, wise sayings, laws, and commandments. There are lessons about life and love and God.

Each book needs to be studied by itself and how it connects to the entire Bible.

The Catholic Church teaches:

In Sacred Scripture, God speaks to man in a human way. To interpret Scripture correctly, the reader must be attentive to what the human authors truly wanted to affirm and to what God wanted to reveal to us by their words.

In order to discover the sacred authors' intention, the reader must take into account the conditions of their time and culture, the literary genres in use at that time, and the modes of feeling, speaking, and narrating then current.

"For the fact is that truth is differently presented and expressed in the various types of historical writing, in prophetical and poetical texts, and in other forms of literary expression."

With love in Christ.

Answer 2

The Catholic church teaches that the entire bible is the inspired, inerrant, written word of God.

Some portions of the scriptures are historical and factual, some are not.

Catholic biblical scholars, at least up until the rise of the liberal wackos of the last 50 years or so, have never had a problem figuring out one from another.

Answer 3

Comparative Old the Father New the Son.

Answer 4

catholics basically take what factors of the finished bible actually that they choose to take. there are extremely some scriptures which let us know to no longer do issues like call guy on earth "father"...yet catholics call their priests "father" and the pope "holy father". they do no longer pay any interest to the scriptures the place Jesus reported to no longer pray repetitious prayers and to no longer handle our prayers to anyone yet God the daddy. they do no longer pay any interest to the scriptures which say that mary, the mother of Jesus, had different babies besides Jesus. they do no longer take the accounf of creation actually, nor do they suspect Jesus while he reported in john 3:3 that with a view to get into the dominion of heaven, you may desire to be born returned.

Answer 5

I was raised Catholic, and yet I'm not even sure. As an educated guess, though, I'd say figuratively.

Answer 6

Yes!

In Christ
Fr. Joseph