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that resulted from this in Patristic theology, and were prepared to admit the importance of
the literal meaning of Scripture. Roman Catholics accept the Latin Vulgate translation of
Jerome as the authentic version for public lectures, disputations, sermons and expositions.
This church thus puts itself into the awkward position of basing its doctrines on a
translation instead of the original languages of Hebrew, Chaldee and Greek. This is a
great weakness, for no one translation, however good, can adequately set forth the truth
of the original. Moreover the Roman Catholic expositor is forced to accept obediently
whatever the church specifically decrees on the authorship of the books of the Bible, and
some twenty verses have been officially interpreted and may not be deviated from.
Actually the number is more than this, because many of the official documents require
definite interpretations of certain verses. Roman Catholic exegesis became summed up
during the Middle Ages in three rules:
(1)
A passage may have an allegorical or mystical meaning.
(2)
It may have an anagogical or eschatological meaning, that is, it may prefigure or
anticipate the church in glory.
(3)
It may have a tropological meaning, that is, teach a way of life, or in other words,
convey the moral significance of the passage.
With its often excessive usage of types, the Roman Catholic diverges from the
Protestant. Thus the manna in the wilderness, the passover, the bread and wine of
Melchizedek are made types of the Eucharist, thus ignoring the controlling guide of New
Testament usage. Such exposition can never be accepted by the honest searcher for truth.
It is reading into Scripture what is not there, and is the fruit of the allegorical method of
interpretation, which is used to bolster up this sacramental and sacerdotal approach to the
Bible. Further, the Roman Catholic believes that to his church alone has been entrusted
the Deposit of Truth in a two-fold form, (1) the oral form (tradition) and (2) the
written form (the Scriptures), and this written form, the Bible, is obscure and needs an
official interpreter, which must be the Church of Rome, to whom alone, he believes, it
has been given by God. To him the oral tradition is of equal authority with the Word of
God because he believes that both have come from God, and are complementary.
Furthermore, no passage of Scripture can be interpreted to conflict with Roman Catholic
doctrine. It is therefore obvious that the Protestant expositor is always at a disadvantage
when disputing on doctrinal matters with a Roman Catholic. Whereas the former will
take his stand solely on God's Word, the latter can always retreat and bring in his oral
tradition, which he believes to be as much God's truth as the Bible. The more one studies
the Roman Catholic position, the more one is thankful for the great liberating effect of the
Reformation. Believers today have largely forgotten what they owe to God for this great
movement: freedom of conscience, and approach to Him through the Lord Jesus Christ
alone, and not through any human sacerdotal system with its inevitable bondage.
The Jewish Schools.
When Jerusalem was destroyed and the Jews taken into captivity by Nebuchadnezzar,
they were separated from the Temple and its regulations, and could no longer practice
their religion as outlined in the books of Moses. This state of things finally led to