THE CATHOLIC CHURCH AND THE BIBLE.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XII, Issue 46, 6 March 1885, Page 23

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH AND THE BIBLE.

(Sydney Freeman's Journal, 7th February.)

On Wednesday evening, in the presence of a large audience, his Grace the Most Rev. Dr. Moran inaugurated this year's series of Scripture lectures at the Catholic Bible Hall, William-street. The proceedings were commenced by the presentation of an address from the Rev. William Kelly, S.J., lecturer, and the trustees of the hall. The Archbishop then delivered a most interesting discourse, of which we give a complete report : — HL Grace, whose rising was loudly applauded, in rep^ said :— I beg to return my sincerest thanks to the reverend lecturer 1 and the trustees of this Bible Hall for the address which they have presented, and I take this opportunity to publicly congratulate them on the excellent and most useful work in which they are engaged. It was a happy thought of Mr. O'Beirne, the founder of this Bible Hall, to endeavour to make the sacred Scripture better known to our citizens, and to bring home to the heart of everyone the heavenl/ lessons of Inspired Writ ; and we all owe a debt of gratitude to the trustees in that by their earnestness and unwearying patience and perseverance, undeterred by the many difficulties which beset them on every side they brought the work to a successful issue. (Applause.) And now' as I have been requested to inaugurate the course of this year's lectures, I will invite you to go back with me in spirit to the 12 th year after the birth of Christ, and to enter the holy Temple of Jerusalem. The reigning monarch, Herod, anxious to ingratiate himself with the Jewish nation, has lavishly expended his boundless wealth in enriching and adorning the sacred edifice. Its triple structure — the lower court standing on richly decorated terraces, the iuner court raised on its platform in the centre, and the temple itself rising out of this gioup and crowning the whole — formed, when combined with the beauty of its situation, one of the grandest architectural monuments that the ancient world had seen. Vines, with trellised branches and thick foliage and clusters of grapes, ail of solid gold, adorned the portioo of the temple. The whole facade was covered with plates of burnished gold, and these, when lit up by the rays of the rising sun, reflected so bright a glory that pilgrims standing on Mount Olivet had to shade their eyes when turning towards the Holy Place. The pavement was inlaid with polished marbles, and the whole interior o£ the Temple sparkled with a profuse array of gems and other ornaments of silver ami gold and precious stones. It was the aim of Herod to excel, if possible, the wofk of Solomon, and in a material way to fulfil the prophecy that in its splendour the second Temple would exceed the former. But our Divine Redeemer was to be the true glory of this second edifice, and in Him were to be fulfilled the words of Aggeus : " The silver is mine and the gold is mine. The glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the foimer : in this place will I give peace " (ii., 8). Let us enter the Temple. We see our Divine Saviour, as yet in the years of childhoju, seated at the feet of the teachers of the law, interrogating them on points of the sacred Sciipture, and listening to their instrnction.y~The solemn feast of the Fasch has gathered from all Judea the most learned rabbis and masters around (he Temple, and now all are amaz' d at the words of heavenly wisdom] which fall from the lips of the Divine Childj|and at the spiritual light Which through His presence fills His Father's house. I need not remind you that this fact of the life of our blessed Lord is recorded in the Go j pel of St. Luke (chapter 2nd) for our instruction, and it appears to me that of itself it will suffice to show that the sacre I Bible should not be put upon a par with other books, but should be read with reverence and venerated as divine. (Applause.) And, further, this fact teaches that we but imitate the example of our Lord when we, with due respect, propose the difficulties that may occur in the study of the Scripture, and when we set.k for an authentic exposition from those whose duty and whose mission it is to expound to us God's Holy Word. The Catholic Church is the divinely-constituted guardian and interpreter of the Inspired Volume. Having our Blessed Lord as her founder and invisible head, she recognises St. Peter as His representative on earth, commissioned by Him to feed the lambs and the sheep of the spiritual fold. She is essentially Catholic, spreading the Gospel light and unfurling the standard of redemption in every nation under the sun. (Applause.) Her unity is perfect, the centre of authority being in Rome, and from the shrines of the Apostles in

that citadel of the faith the successor of St. Peter exercises his spiritual sway over nations and continents which were never embraced within the world-wide empires of Greece a-.d Rome. Throughout the world she is easily known by those who are in search of truth, for she has everywhere an unmistakable identity. No counterfeit, no matter how vast its wealth or how great its patronage, has ever been able to retain either her name or her image. (Applause.) Time has not weakened her strength or age her vigor. The storms and persecutions of a hostile world have not overcome her. Schisms and heresies have not been able to mar her unity or disturb the distinctness of her teaching. No one has ever mistaken anything else for her. Several centuries ago many sees of the East; rebelled against her authority. They have remained withered aid lifeless, with no fire of Pentecost to enliven them, no quickening breath of the Word made fhsh to comfort them. Men at times may put ou her garments and borrow her majeat'C ceremonial, yet they pass unheeded, or at best the Christian world looks on as at a pantomine or the mimicry of the stage. Her life is divine, and there i? nothing else on earth like unto her. -Despite all the efforts of mm. she has existed since the days of Christ, and h<;r ministry descends in an unbroken line from the Apostles. (Cheers.) Since the days of the so-called Reformation many persons have baen turned away from her by misrepresentation and calumny ; yet she remains unchanged, and, bearing aloft her divine commission, undisturbed she pursues her onward heavenward course. Wherever she is to be found she is the pillar and the ground of truth. She proclaims herself to be the One Church of God, and, in fulfilment of her sacred mission, she scatters around her the blessings of Heaven, and guards inviolate the inspired oracles of God entrusted to her care. (Continued applause.) The canon of her sacred Scriptures is the same to-day as it was fifteen centures ago. Nothing has been added, nothing taken from it. How far different has it been with those who have rejected her authority. The early heretics cast off oae by one the Divine Gospels ; the heretics of later times, following the dictates of their passions or guided by their fancies, have flung aside one or more of the other inspired books. We have even seen men take their place on the Protestant Episcopal Bench although they rejected the whole of the sacred text. And we must admit that, having forsaken the fold of Christ, they were in some way logical in rejecting the Bible, for St. Augustine, the greatest doctor of the Holy Church, declares that "he would not receive the Gospel unless he were moved to do so by the authority of the Catholic Church." The Church, too, is our guide and safeguard in interpreting tha sicred text. (Hear, hear.) How many errors and dangers are not those exposed to who follow not the teaching of the Holy Church ? They are tossed about by every wind of false doctrine, ever driven to and fro like the waves of the sea. You all have heard of the pious Dutchmen, who, meeting with the words "You will preach from the housetop," climbed every day to the roof of his house to announce G-od's Word to the passsrs-by. Aa old lady in England was puzzled by the command to " preach the Gospel to every creature " ; but at length calmed her conscience by setting her cat upon the table and reading a chapter for its edification. (Laughter.) It is not long since another old Protestant lady bequeathed a large sam for the special purpose of purchasing spectacles to enable the South Sea Islanders to peruse the Bible with contentment. (Renewed laughter.) It is not the clergy alone but all her faithful children that the Church exhorts to read and to meditate upon the inspired writings. St. Jerome repeatedly exhorts Busiachius and PammacMui to read and to meditate upon the Gospels of our Lord, and be adds the important warning that " to be ignorant of the Scriptures is to be ignorant of Christ." " St. John Chrysostom does not hesitate to say that meditation on the sacred text is more necessary for the layman than for the monk, because he is exposed to more constant and formidable temptations. He adds that tha Christian without a knowledge of the sacred Scriptures is, in spiritual things, like a workman without his tools. Like the tree planted beside the running stream, the soul of the dilligent reader would be continually nourished and refreshed. Neither earthly grandeur, nor friends, nor anything human could afford in suffering such comiort as the Holy Scripture, for this is the companionship of God. (Applause.) St. Ambrose also writes that "We should read the Scriptures and mediate upon them, that thus the heart and spirit may be nourished and the nutriment of this spiiitual food be imparted to all the faculties of the soul." Men are accustomed nowadays to look back with contempt or compassion on what they are pleased to call the dark age=s. The faithful in those times had not, to be sure, the steam and efectricity, and printing press of our days, but their minds were full of the saving knowledge of divine truth. By day and by night they meditated on the inspired text, and men often spent their fortunes and exha-sted their skill in adorning and decorating the sacred volume. The bright and artistic illuminations which are found in so many Bible 3of th jse days have baen frequently copied and imitated by the most skilful hands of our own time, but Lave never been surpassed. (Applause.) The text itself was at times written in letters of silver upon the most precious puTple vellum, Gold, and gems, and jewels and every precious stone were joyfully devoted to the service of God in the adornment of the Bible. No more valuable presents could be made by popes or kings than accurate copies o£ the inspired books. Many of the great saints of the Irish Church in those days recited the whole Psalter every day. St. Columbkille with his own hand transcribed no fewer than 300 copies of the sacred text, and many of his disciples and other masters in the Irish schools in their devotedness to the sacred text, vied with this great patron of the Irish Church. (Great Applause.) But it is, moreover, the duty and the office of the Church to point out to her children the pure fountaius whence they may draw the limpid waters of God's Word. Too often it happens that men who follow not the guidance of Holy Church are compelled to satiate their thirst at broken cisterns, and to drink from muddy streams. Let us take, for instance, the Anglican versions of the sacred text. I do not know that the mind of man has devised a more ludicrous scene than ihat presented by the title-page of Cranmer'a English Bible printed

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in the year 1539. King Henry VIII. is represented seated on his throne in royal state. Tbe Protestant bishops and doctors kneel before him and receive at the hands of the bloated monarch the Verbum Dei, which, in turn, they distribute to tbe people, whilst all alike join in the cry of " Vivat Rex .'" (Laughter and applause.) This first authorised Protestant English version was officially declared to be " truly translated after the verity of the Hebrew and Greek texts " ; and the preface contains the singular statement that some of the sacred books " were called hagiographa, because they were read in secret and apart." Notwithstanding, however, King Henry's and Edward the Sixth's royal sanction, this version in Elizabeth's reign was set aside on the special ground that it " swerved too much ' from the original sacred text. The authorised Anglican version at present in use dates from James the First's reign. It has often been eulogised for the purity of its diction and the elegance of its style ; it may be praised for everything, in fact, except for its one fault, that it does not faithfully convey the meaning of the original text. (Hear, hear.) During the pa9t forty years the ablest men in the English Church have set forth the many errors of the authorised version, and have clamoured for a change. Dr. Ellicott, Protestant Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol, in his Preface to the Pastoral Epistles, writes : "It is in vain to cheat our own souls with the thought that these errors (in the authorised version) are either insignificant or imaginary. There are errors, there are inaccuracies, there are misconceptions, there are obscurities ; and that man who, after being in any degree satisfied of this, permits himself to lean to the of a timid or popular obstructiveness, will have to sustain the tremendous charge of having dealt deceitfully with the inviolable Word of God." Smith's Dictionary of the Bible states that " the authorise i translation of the New Testament was made from a text confessedly imperfect," and adds, that "to shrink from noticing any variation , to go on printing as the Inspired Word that which there is a preponderant reason for believing to be an interpolation or a mistake, is neither honest nor reverential." The New Testament has been indeed revised during the past few years, and the result of tbe labours of the ablest Protestant "divines in England has been to make their version in. a great part more conformable to that vulgate text which the Anglicans have so often abused, but which the Catholic Church has not failed for fifteen hundred years to commend to her children. (Applause.) This revised version, however, has not been, accepted by the Anglican Church, which continues to cling to the old inaccurate text. But there is another aspect of this subject which merits our attention. The Biblical narrative is the inspired record of God's dealings with man. At every period of the world's history we are brought into contact with peoples and natious whose wide-spread sway overawed the world, and with the minutest details of their social usages and peculiar tenets, as well as with the ever-varying phases of their political and official life. Now it so happens that at no other time in the annals of the Church has such light been thrown upon the history, and manners, and customs, and daily life of the great nations of antiquity as during the past half century. (Hear, hear, and applause.) Egypt has brought to light her long-forgotten historic treasures. The mounds have been explored in which for more than 2000 years lay entombed all the glory of Nineveh and Babylon and the other cities of the East. A key was found for the papyrus and the countless hieroglyphic and cunieform inscriptions which adorn the muspums of Europe, and thus, as on a contemporary historic page, we are enabled to tracj the hitherto unexplored history of the world almost from the Deluge to the coming of our Lord. A flood of light has been thrown upon passages of the Sacred Scripture hitherto obscure, and new fountains of knowledge have been placed within the reach of students of the Sacred Writ. Now what has been the result of all the scientific and hietorical inquiries which have been so diligently pursued for the past 50 years ? The first result has been that no one nowadays — not even of the rationalistic school — can regard otherwise than with derision and contempt the infidel school of Voltaire and the encyclopedists of tbe last century. (Applause.) From sciences as yet imperfectly developed those men had endeavoured to borrow arguments to deceive the unwary and to assail religion. But no sooner are those sciences developed and matured than they lead us back to the fountains of Eevelation, and the facts which they unfold are found to be in perfect harmony with the teachings o£ Divine truth. A hundred years ago men spoke and wrote of the zodiac of Tentyra as dating from some 20,000 years before Christ. A little research sufficed to show that it could not be older than the reign of Ptolemy Philadelphus. There were others "who argued from the formation of the Delta and the mud strata of tbe Nile that that river must have pursued its course for some hundreds of thousands of years, a date supposed to be inconsistent with the Mosaic narrative. Not many years ago a Frenchman, who still clung to the traditions of that old infidel school, devoted his time and means to explore the mud deposits, the better to establish their venerable antiquity ; but, after considerable expense, in one of the lowest strata he found to his shame and confusion a well-preserved coin of the First Napoleon. (Applause.) The argum«&t on which those false scientists so recklessly relied wag pretty flmucb the same as if we were to say that because a certain given man took 10 years to grow half an inch, therefore a youthful stripling who is six feet high must have attained at least the age of 1400 years. (Laughter and applause.) A few examples will suffice to illustrate the advantages that have accrued from the researches of the learned in some, of the fields of scientific inquiry in our own day 8. We will begin with the Assyrian monument. In the Book of Daniel (iv., 27) are introduced the words of the monarch Nabuehodonosor, "la not this the great Babylon which I have built 1 " But even from the Scripture it is manifest that Babylon was founded many centuries before Nabuchodonosor. Ifc is replied that the words are to be interpreted the same as when Solomon is said to have built Palmyra, or the Emperor Augustus to have built Borne, finding it a city of brick and leaving it a city of marble ; and the ruins of Babylon now give their testimony and bear unmistakable evidence of the justice of the monarch's claim to have rebuilt that city. Of the ancient bricks, as durable as marble, dug up upon the site of the , ancient city, nine-tenths at least have impressed on them the name

and titles of Nabuchodonosor. An inscription found by the British Consul. Mr. Taylor, in Lower Babylonia, in the year 1864, explains what hitherto appeared to be a discrepancy between Sacred Scripture and profane his'ory. According to the prophet Daniel (sth chapter), tbe name of the king who was present and was slain in Babylon at the time of its capture by the Medes and Persians was Baltassar. Now, such ancient authorities as Berosus, Herodotus, and Abydenus attest that Nabonnedus was the last King of Babylon, that he was absent from the city at the time of its capture, and on his subsequent surrender was treated with kind consideration by the conqueror. The inscription of .Nabonnedns, now brought to light, sets at rest this difficulty. It tells us that that monarch raised to royal rank Baltassar, "his eldest eon, the joy of his heart," and associated him with himself in the government of the kingdom. Thus this prince, slain at the capture of the city might justly be styled King of Babylon. To a thousand years' earlier date belongs the narrative in the 14th chapter of Genesis, which attests that at the time of Abraham the King of Elam was powerful enongh to carry his arms into Syria, and to subject for a time the eastern territories of Palestine. In profane history there "was nothing till our own days to illustrate this supremacy of the Kingdom of Elam. But in one of the Babylonian inscriptions referring to Sardanapalus we read that that monarch finally destroyed the Elamite Kingdom, and it is added, to illustrate the importance of his triumph, that the " Elamite respected not the worship of the great gods, bat laid his hands on the temples and oppressed Babylon for 1635 years," a date which would lead us back almost to the days of Abraham. Coming now to the Egyptian monuments, it has seemed strange to some interpreters that Abraham, on entering Egypt, should have wished his wife to pass for his sister. But a very ancient papyrus, preserved in the Museum of Berlin, throws light upon this matter, for it attests that, as far back as the 12th dynasty, the wife and children of the foreigner were confiscated, and became the property of the King. On the wall of one of the mortuary monuments at Thebss there is a scene which strikingly illustrates the employment of the Israelites in Egypt. " They made their life bitter with hard works in clay and brick, and with all manner of service wherewith they were charged in the works of the earth.', (Exod, i., 14.) Foreign captives are represented there overlooked by Egyptian taskmasters and engaged in forming bricks from clay, and erecting a temple to Ammon. AyA v hieroglyphical incription, still existing at Karnak, near Thebes, commemorates the triumphs of Shiahak or Sesac, King of Egypt, and gives the names of several cities which he captured, eight of which have been deciphered as fenced cities of Israel and Judah. Thus are illustrated the words of Scripture :—": — " Sesac, King of Egypt, came up against Jerusalem (because they had sinned against the Lord) with twelve hundred chariots and threescore thousand horsemen, and he took the strongest cities in Judah and came to Jerusalem." (2 Paral. xii, 2.) In the Book of Esdras (4th chapter) we read that in the reign of the next monarch but one after Cyrus, the Samaritan enemies of the Jews forwarded a petition to him praying that a stop would be put to the rebuilding of tae Temple of Jerusalem. He favourably received their petition, and the Scripture a&ds that the work was stopped till the second year of Darius, King of Persia. Similar representations had been made to Cyras and his immediate successor, bub without effect. They were renewed under Darius, but iv vain. How comes it that in this particular instance the enemies of the Jews attained their purpose 1 The ancient inscriptions gave the clue to this anomaly. They tell us that the successor but one of Cyrus was an aliea, and that though he reigned only for a short time he endeavoured to destroy throughout Persia the temples of the Zoroastriau worship, in which a personal God was adored. It is precisely such a monarch that we would expect to find joining hands with the enemies of Judah and prohibiting the building of the Temple. One of the most remarkable of the Oriental monuments, known as the Moabite stone, was discovered as late as the year 1868. It is a pillar of black basalt, about 3£ feet in height, presenting an inscription in the ancient Phoenician language, and dating from about the year 900 before our era. The ancient territory of Moab, now a desert waste, is separated from Judea by an immense chasm, about 2000 feet in depth, and is as yet in great part unexplored. This basaltic pillar appears to have been brought to the surface by an earthquake, and its inscription was found to give the history of Mesha, King of Moab, who ia mote than once referred to in the Second Book of Kings. Jt perfectly harmonises with the inspired narrative in its description of the towns and various geographical features of the land, iv tbe manners and customs of its people, and in every minutest detail. (Applause.) It records that Moab had for many years suffered a grievous oppression at the hands of the Kings of Israel ; but the yoke was shaken off within forty years of the accession of Omri, and it regained its independence through the : valour of King Mesha. All this is perfectly in accord with the Book of Kings. (Applause.) I will add only one or two examples from tne New Testament. The Acts of the Apostles (xiii., 7) speaks of the Island of Cyprus being under the government of a pro-consul at the time of the visit of St. Paul. Now we know from secular history that when Augustus became sole ruler of Borne he assigned the turbulent provinces to the care of military officers, with the title of praetors, and Cyprus was expressly named among those disturbed provinces. However, modern research has brought to lignt some ancient Cyprian coins of the time of the Emperor Claudius, thus almost contemporaneous with the Apostle's visit. Novr, on these coins the governor is expressly called pro-consul, and hence we may conclude that Cyprus was one of those favoured provinces which towards the close of the reign of Augustus, was restored to tranqnility, and being therefore exempted from martial law, and the usual civil government restored to it. Again, in the 17th chapter of the Acts, the Apostle when accused at Thessalonica of acting contrary to the decrees of Caesar, is brought before the magistrates, who are designated in the original text by the peculiar name of politarchs. I call it a peculiar name, because it is nowhere else to be found in the sacred Scripture, nor is it used by those writers who discuss with greatest fulness the municipal institutions of Greece. But what we search for in vain in books we find indelibly inscribed