How does De Verbum address the relationship between modern methods of biblical interpretation and the traditional belief in the inspiration of the Bible?

DOGMATICCONSTITUTION

ON DIVINE REVELATION

DEI VERBUM
SOLEMNLY PROMULGATED

BY HIS HOLINESS
POPE PAUL VI

ON NOVEMBER 18, 1965

PREFACE

1. Hearing the word of God with reverence and proclaiming it with faith, the sacred synod takes
its direction from these words of St. John: “We announce to you the eternal life which dwelt
with the Father and was made visible to us. What we have seen and heard we announce to
you, so that you may have fellowship with us and our common fellowship be with the Father
and His Son Jesus Christ” (1 John 1:2-3). Therefore, following in the footsteps of the Council of
Trent and of the First Vatican Council, this present council wishes to set forth authentic doctrine
on divine revelation and how it is handed on, so that by hearing the message of salvation the
whole world may believe, by believing it may hope, and by hoping it may love. (1)

CHAPTER I

REVELATION ITSELF

2. In His goodness and wisdom God chose to reveal Himself and to make known to us the
hidden purpose of His will (see Eph. 1:9) by which through Christ, the Word made flesh, man
might in the Holy Spirit have access to the Father and come to share in the divine nature (see
Eph. 2:18; 2 Peter 1:4). Through this revelation, therefore, the invisible God (see Col. 1;15, 1
Tim. 1:17) out of the abundance of His love speaks to men as friends (see Ex. 33:11; John
15:14-15) and lives among them (see Bar. 3:38), so that He may invite and take them into
fellowship with Himself. This plan of revelation is realized by deeds and words having an inner
unity: the deeds wrought by God in the history of salvation manifest and confirm the teaching
and realities signified by the words, while the words proclaim the deeds and clarify the mystery
contained in them. By this revelation then, the deepest truth about God and the salvation of
man shines out for our sake in Christ, who is both the mediator and the fullness of all
revelation. (2)

3. God, who through the Word creates all things (see John 1:3) and keeps them in existence,
gives men an enduring witness to Himself in created realities (see Rom. 1:19-20). Planning to
make known the way of heavenly salvation, He went further and from the start manifested
Himself to our first parents. Then after their fall His promise of redemption aroused in them the
hope of being saved (see Gen. 3:15) and from that time on He ceaselessly kept the human race
in His care, to give eternal life to those who perseveringly do good in search of salvation (see
Rom. 2:6-7). Then, at the time He had appointed He called Abraham in order to make of him a
great nation (see Gen. 12:2). Through the patriarchs, and after them through Moses and the
prophets, He taught this people to acknowledge Himself the one living and true God, provident

father and just judge, and to wait for the Savior promised by Him, and in this manner prepared
the way for the Gospel down through the centuries.

4. Then, after speaking in many and varied ways through the prophets, “now at last in these
days God has spoken to us in His Son” (Heb. 1:1-2). For He sent His Son, the eternal Word,
who enlightens all men, so that He might dwell among men and tell them of the innermost
being of God (see John 1:1-18). Jesus Christ, therefore, the Word made flesh, was sent as “a
man to men.” (3) He “speaks the words of God” (John 3;34), and completes the work of
salvation which His Father gave Him to do (see John 5:36; John 17:4). To see Jesus is to see
His Father (John 14:9). For this reason Jesus perfected revelation by fulfilling it through his
whole work of making Himself present and manifesting Himself: through His words and deeds,
His signs and wonders, but especially through His death and glorious resurrection from the
dead and final sending of the Spirit of truth. Moreover He confirmed with divine testimony what
revelation proclaimed, that God is with us to free us from the darkness of sin and death, and to
raise us up to life eternal.

The Christian dispensation, therefore, as the new and definitive covenant, will never pass away
and we now await no further new public revelation before the glorious manifestation of our
Lord Jesus Christ (see 1 Tim. 6:14 and Tit. 2:13).

5. “The obedience of faith” (Rom. 13:26; see 1:5; 2 Cor 10:5-6) “is to be given to God who
reveals, an obedience by which man commits his whole self freely to God, offering the full
submission of intellect and will to God who reveals,” (4) and freely assenting to the truth
revealed by Him. To make this act of faith, the grace of God and the interior help of the Holy
Spirit must precede and assist, moving the heart and turning it to God, opening the eyes of the
mind and giving “joy and ease to everyone in assenting to the truth and believing it.” (5) To
bring about an ever deeper understanding of revelation the same Holy Spirit constantly brings
faith to completion by His gifts.

6. Through divine revelation, God chose to show forth and communicate Himself and the
eternal decisions of His will regarding the salvation of men. That is to say, He chose to share
with them those divine treasures which totally transcend the understanding of the human mind.
(6)

As a sacred synod has affirmed, God, the beginning and end of all things, can be known with
certainty from created reality by the light of human reason (see Rom. 1:20); but teaches that it
is through His revelation that those religious truths which are by their nature accessible to
human reason can be known by all men with ease, with solid certitude and with no trace of
error, even in this present state of the human race. (7)

CHAPTER II

HANDING ON DIVINE REVELATION

7. In His gracious goodness, God has seen to it that what He had revealed for the salvation of
all nations would abide perpetually in its full integrity and be handed on to all generations.
Therefore Christ the Lord in whom the full revelation of the supreme God is brought to
completion (see Cor. 1:20; 3:13; 4:6), commissioned the Apostles to preach to all men that

Gospel which is the source of all saving truth and moral teaching, (1) and to impart to them
heavenly gifts. This Gospel had been promised in former times through the prophets, and Christ
Himself had fulfilled it and promulgated it with His lips. This commission was faithfully fulfilled
by the Apostles who, by their oral preaching, by example, and by observances handed on what
they had received from the lips of Christ, from living with Him, and from what He did, or what
they had learned through the prompting of the Holy Spirit. The commission was fulfilled, too, by
those Apostles and apostolic men who under the inspiration of the same Holy Spirit committed
the message of salvation to writing. (2)

But in order to keep the Gospel forever whole and alive within the Church, the Apostles left
bishops as their successors, “handing over” to them “the authority to teach in their own
place.”(3) This sacred tradition, therefore, and Sacred Scripture of both the Old and New
Testaments are like a mirror in which the pilgrim Church on earth looks at God, from whom she
has received everything, until she is brought finally to see Him as He is, face to face (see 1
John 3:2).

8. And so the apostolic preaching, which is expressed in a special way in the inspired books,
was to be preserved by an unending succession of preachers until the end of time. Therefore
the Apostles, handing on what they themselves had received, warn the faithful to hold fast to
the traditions which they have learned either by word of mouth or by letter (see 2 Thess. 2:15),
and to fight in defense of the faith handed on once and for all (see Jude 1:3) (4) Now what was
handed on by the Apostles includes everything which contributes toward the holiness of life and
increase in faith of the peoples of God; and so the Church, in her teaching, life and worship,
perpetuates and hands on to all generations all that she herself is, all that she believes.

This tradition which comes from the Apostles develop in the Church with the help of the Holy
Spirit. (5) For there is a growth in the understanding of the realities and the words which have
been handed down. This happens through the contemplation and study made by believers, who
treasure these things in their hearts (see Luke, 2:19, 51) through a penetrating understanding
of the spiritual realities which they experience, and through the preaching of those who have
received through Episcopal succession the sure gift of truth. For as the centuries succeed one
another, the Church constantly moves forward toward the fullness of divine truth until the
words of God reach their complete fulfillment in her.

The words of the holy fathers witness to the presence of this living tradition, whose wealth is
poured into the practice and life of the believing and praying Church. Through the same
tradition the Church’s full canon of the sacred books is known, and the sacred writings
themselves are more profoundly understood and unceasingly made active in her; and thus God,
who spoke of old, uninterruptedly converses with the bride of His beloved Son; and the Holy
Spirit, through whom the living voice of the Gospel resounds in the Church, and through her, in
the world, leads unto all truth those who believe and makes the word of Christ dwell abundantly
in them (see Col. 3:16).

9. Hence there exists a close connection and communication between sacred tradition and
Sacred Scripture. For both of them, flowing from the same divine wellspring, in a certain way
merge into a unity and tend toward the same end. For Sacred Scripture is the word of God
inasmuch as it is consigned to writing under the inspiration of the divine Spirit, while sacred
tradition takes the word of God entrusted by Christ the Lord and the Holy Spirit to the Apostles,

and hands it on to their successors in its full purity, so that led by the light of the Spirit of truth,
they may in proclaiming it preserve this word of God faithfully, explain it, and make it more
widely known. Consequently it is not from Sacred Scripture alone that the Church draws her
certainty about everything which has been revealed. Therefore both sacred tradition and Sacred
Scripture are to be accepted and venerated with the same sense of loyalty and reverence.(6)

10. Sacred tradition and Sacred Scripture form one sacred deposit of the word of God,
committed to the Church. Holding fast to this deposit the entire holy people united with their
shepherds remain always steadfast in the teaching of the Apostles, in the common life, in the
breaking of the bread and in prayers (see Acts 2, 42, Greek text), so that holding to, practicing
and professing the heritage of the faith, it becomes on the part of the bishops and faithful a
single common effort. (7)

But the task of authentically interpreting the word of God, whether written or handed on, (8)
has been entrusted exclusively to the living teaching office of the Church, (9) whose authority is
exercised in the name of Jesus Christ. This teaching office is not above the word of God, but
serves it, teaching only what has been handed on, listening to it devoutly, guarding it
scrupulously and explaining it faithfully in accord with a divine commission and with the help of
the Holy Spirit, it draws from this one deposit of faith everything which it presents for belief as
divinely revealed.

It is clear, therefore, that sacred tradition, Sacred Scripture and the teaching authority of the
Church, in accord with God’s most wise design, are so linked and joined together that one
cannot stand without the others, and that all together and each in its own way under the action
of the one Holy Spirit contribute effectively to the salvation of souls.

CHAPTER III

SACRED SCRIPTURE, ITS INSPIRATION AND DIVINE INTERPRETATION

11. Those divinely revealed realities which are contained and presented in Sacred Scripture
have been committed to writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. For holy mother
Church, relying on the belief of the Apostles (see John 20:31; 2 Tim. 3:16; 2 Peter 1:19-20,
3:15-16), holds that the books of both the Old and New Testaments in their entirety, with all
their parts, are sacred and canonical because written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit,
they have God as their author and have been handed on as such to the Church herself.(1) In
composing the sacred books, God chose men and while employed by Him (2) they made use of
their powers and abilities, so that with Him acting in them and through them, (3) they, as true
authors, consigned to writing everything and only those things which He wanted. (4)

Therefore, since everything asserted by the inspired authors or sacred writers must be held to
be asserted by the Holy Spirit, it follows that the books of Scripture must be acknowledged as
teaching solidly, faithfully and without error that truth which God wanted put into sacred
writings (5) for the sake of salvation. Therefore “all Scripture is divinely inspired and has its use
for teaching the truth and refuting error, for reformation of manners and discipline in right
living, so that the man who belongs to God may be efficient and equipped for good work of
every kind” (2 Tim. 3:16-17, Greek text).

12. However, since God speaks in Sacred Scripture through men in human fashion, (6) the
interpreter of Sacred Scripture, in order to see clearly what God wanted to communicate to us,
should carefully investigate what meaning the sacred writers really intended, and what God
wanted to manifest by means of their words.

To search out the intention of the sacred writers, attention should be given, among other
things, to “literary forms.” For truth is set forth and expressed differently in texts which are
variously historical, prophetic, poetic, or of other forms of discourse. The interpreter must
investigate what meaning the sacred writer intended to express and actually expressed in
particular circumstances by using contemporary literary forms in accordance with the situation
of his own time and culture. (7) For the correct understanding of what the sacred author
wanted to assert, due attention must be paid to the customary and characteristic styles of
feeling, speaking and narrating which prevailed at the time of the sacred writer, and to the
patterns men normally employed at that period in their everyday dealings with one another. (8)

But, since Holy Scripture must be read and interpreted in the sacred spirit in which it was
written, (9) no less serious attention must be given to the content and unity of the whole of
Scripture if the meaning of the sacred texts is to be correctly worked out. The living tradition of
the whole Church must be taken into account along with the harmony which exists between
elements of the faith. It is the task of exegetes to work according to these rules toward a better
understanding and explanation of the meaning of Sacred Scripture, so that through preparatory
study the judgment of the Church may mature. For all of what has been said about the way of
interpreting Scripture is subject finally to the judgment of the Church, which carries out the
divine commission and ministry of guarding and interpreting the word of God. (10)

13. In Sacred Scripture, therefore, while the truth and holiness of God always remains intact,
the marvelous “condescension” of eternal wisdom is clearly shown, “that we may learn the
gentle kindness of God, which words cannot express, and how far He has gone in adapting His
language with thoughtful concern for our weak human nature.” (11) For the words of God,
expressed in human language, have been made like human discourse, just as the word of the
eternal Father, when He took to Himself the flesh of human weakness, was in every way made
like men.