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羅馬天主教會︰《聖經》不可盡信
據英國《泰晤士報》五日報道，羅馬天主教發布的一份文件指出，《聖經》中的內容並不是完全真實。英格蘭、蘇格蘭和威爾士天主教會的主教提醒五百萬名信徒和其他研究《聖經》的人，不要指望這本書在科學性和歷史性上「百分百準確」。
文件說，《聖經》中有關拯救人類方面的篇章是真實的，但是在世俗事情上，就不要期望它完全準確。
《泰晤士報》的文章以十七世紀的天文學家伽利略提出宇宙觀及哥白尼提出日心說，卻被當時的教會譴責為「異端邪說」作為例子，暗示教廷觀念改變的緩慢。
教會的文件又譴責原教旨主義者的「不妥協和偏執」，比如自認為得到《聖經》的許可去使用暴力手段對付他人。報道指出，目前宗教右翼分子正在抬頭，尤其是在美國。一些基督徒要求允許讓《聖經》關於創造天地的「創世紀」，跟達爾文的「進化論」一同在學校教授。
不過上述文件偏偏強調，「創世紀」的頭兩篇，譬如上帝創造亞當和夏娃，不一定「基於歷史事實」，最多只能說包含了一些「歷史痕跡」。
主教們說：「象徵性的語言文字必須因其本身而受到尊重，並且不能照字面意義來解釋。我們不應期望在這本書中找到有關世界末日的詳情，有關多少人將可獲救，末日幾時來臨。」在他們為該文件撰寫的序言中，西敏寺大主教墨非─奧康納樞機和聖安德魯及愛丁堡大主教奧布里恩樞機解釋聖經的來龍去脈。他們說，世人今日在尋找什麼是有意義的，什麼擁有真正的價值，什麼可以被信賴和什麼是真正可靠的。在過去四十年，天主教徒比以往任何時候更懂得要珍惜《聖經》。「我們重新發現聖經是珍貴的寶藏，古老而又歷久常新。」
The Times October 05, 2005
Catholic Church no longer swears by truth of the Bible
By Ruth Gledhill, Religion CorrespondentTHE hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church has published a teaching document instructing the faithful that some parts of the Bible are not actually true.
The Catholic bishops of England, Wales and Scotland are warning their five million worshippers, as well as any others drawn to the study of scripture, that they should not expect “total accuracy” from the Bible.
“We should not expect to find in Scripture full scientific accuracy or complete historical precision,” they say in The Gift of Scripture.
The document is timely, coming as it does amid the rise of the religious Right, in particular in the US.
Some Christians want a literal interpretation of the story of creation, as told in Genesis, taught alongside Darwin’s theory of evolution in schools, believing “intelligent design” to be an equally plausible theory of how the world began.
But the first 11 chapters of Genesis, in which two different and at times conflicting stories of creation are told, are among those that this country’s Catholic bishops insist cannot be “historical”. At most, they say, they may contain “historical traces”.
The document shows how far the Catholic Church has come since the 17th century, when Galileo was condemned as a heretic for flouting a near-universal belief in the divine inspiration of the Bible by advocating the Copernican view of the solar system. Only a century ago, Pope Pius X condemned Modernist Catholic scholars who adapted historical-critical methods of analysing ancient literature to the Bible.
In the document, the bishops acknowledge their debt to biblical scholars. They say the Bible must be approached in the knowledge that it is “God’s word expressed in human language” and that proper acknowledgement should be given both to the word of God and its human dimensions.
They say the Church must offer the gospel in ways “appropriate to changing times, intelligible and attractive to our contemporaries”.
The Bible is true in passages relating to human salvation, they say, but continue: “We should not expect total accuracy from the Bible in other, secular matters.”
They go on to condemn fundamentalism for its “intransigent intolerance” and to warn of “significant dangers” involved in a fundamentalist approach.
“Such an approach is dangerous, for example, when people of one nation or group see in the Bible a mandate for their own superiority, and even consider themselves permitted by the Bible to use violence against others.”
Of the notorious anti-Jewish curse in Matthew 27:25, “His blood be on us and on our children”, a passage used to justify centuries of anti-Semitism, the bishops say these and other words must never be used again as a pretext to treat Jewish people with contempt. Describing this passage as an example of dramatic exaggeration, the bishops say they have had “tragic consequences” in encouraging hatred and persecution. “The attitudes and language of first-century quarrels between Jews and Jewish Christians should never again be emulated in relations between Jews and Christians.”
As examples of passages not to be taken literally, the bishops cite the early chapters of Genesis, comparing them with early creation legends from other cultures, especially from the ancient East. The bishops say it is clear that the primary purpose of these chapters was to provide religious teaching and that they could not be described as historical writing.
Similarly, they refute the apocalyptic prophecies of Revelation, the last book of the Christian Bible, in which the writer describes the work of the risen Jesus, the death of the Beast and the wedding feast of Christ the Lamb.
The bishops say: “Such symbolic language must be respected for what it is, and is not to be interpreted literally. We should not expect to discover in this book details about the end of the world, about how many will be saved and about when the end will come.”
In their foreword to the teaching document, the two most senior Catholics of the land, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, Archbishop of Westminster, and Cardinal Keith O’Brien, Archbishop of St Andrew’s and Edinburgh, explain its context.
They say people today are searching for what is worthwhile, what has real value, what can be trusted and what is really true.
The new teaching has been issued as part of the 40th anniversary celebrations of Dei Verbum, the Second Vatican Council document explaining the place of Scripture in revelation. In the past 40 years, Catholics have learnt more than ever before to cherish the Bible. “We have rediscovered the Bible as a precious treasure, both ancient and ever new.”
A Christian charity is sending a film about the Christmas story to every primary school in Britain after hearing of a young boy who asked his teacher why Mary and Joseph had named their baby after a swear word. The Breakout Trust raised £200,000 to make the 30-minute animated film, It’s a Boy. Steve Legg, head of the charity, said: “There are over 12 million children in the UK and only 756,000 of them go to church regularly.
That leaves a staggering number who are probably not receiving basic Christian teaching.”
BELIEVE IT OR NOT
UNTRUE
Genesis ii, 21-22
So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept he took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh; and the rib which the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man
Genesis iii, 16
God said to the woman [after she was beguiled by the serpent]: “I will greatly multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children, yet your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you.”
Matthew xxvii, 25
The words of the crowd: “His blood be on us and on our children.”
Revelation xix,20
And the beast was captured, and with it the false prophet who in its presence had worked the signs by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshipped its image. These two were thrown alive into the lake of fire that burns with brimstone.”
TRUE
Exodus iii, 14
God reveals himself to Moses as: “I am who I am.”
Leviticus xxvi,12
“I will be your God, and you shall be my people.”
Exodus xx,1-17
The Ten Commandments
Matthew v,7
The Sermon on the Mount
Mark viii,29
Peter declares Jesus to be the Christ
Luke i
The Virgin Birth
John xx,28
Proof of bodily resurrection
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,13509-1811332,00.html
The related debate：http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,564-1812166,00.html
By Wayne Adkins
I was once a Pastoral Theology major at Baptist Bible College in Springfield, Missouri. I studied there for two years hoping to become a Baptist preacher. Instead, the more I studied the Bible, the more problems I uncovered and eventually, as evidence mounted up, I stopped believing that the Bible is an inspired book. I didn’t choose to stop believing. I realized that belief is not a choice. I wrote a manuscript after leaving Bible college to help answer all of the questions that people had for me after my about face, and perhaps, to answer some of those questions for myself. I called it “The Emperor Has No Clothes”. There are excerpts throughout this site and you can download it as a Word document here.
http://www.nakedemperor.netfirms.com/my%20story.htm
【相關網頁】
The Naked Emperor：http://www.nakedemperor.netfirms.com
The Emperor Has No Clothes (Word doc version of \”The Naked Emperor\”)：http://www.nakedemperor.netfirms.com/The%20Emperor.doc
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