20120910 Bible manifests history 聖經顯示歷史
Last academic year I wrote series of catechetical articles on the creed, commandments, sacraments, and prayer. This academic year I am going to write about Bible history, Church history, and spirituality.
My hope is that people who have gone through the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA) program will find these articles helpful for deepening their understanding of the Catholic faith.
St. Paul wrote, “All Scripture is inspired by God” (2 Tm 3:16).
Father John Hardon, author of The Question and Answer Catholic Catechism, explained: “The Bible should be called the word of God because God so directs the mind, will, and other faculties of the sacred writer that he says only what God wants him to write, and no more.”
Old and new
The Bible is divided into the Old and New Testaments. The Old Testament, written before Christ, includes 46 books:
The Pentateuch: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.
The Historical Books: Joshua, Judges, Ruth, Samuel (2), Kings (2), Chronicles (2), Ezra, Nehemiah, Tobit, Judith, Esther, and Maccabees (2).
The Wisdom Books: Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, Wisdom, and Ecclesiasticus.
The Prophets: Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Baruch, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi.
The New Testament, written after the Ascension of Christ, consists of 27 books: the Gospels according to Sts. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John; the Acts of Apostles by St. Luke; St. Paul’s Letters to the Romans, Corinthians (2), Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Thessalonians (2), Timothy (2), Titus, and Philemon; the Letter to the Hebrews; the Letters of Sts. James, Peter (2), John (3), and Jude; and the Book of Revelation or the Apocalypse by St. John.
St. Augustine pointed out that the New Testament is hidden in the Old and the Old is made manifest in the New.
Salvation history
From the beginning, God had a plan to save mankind. The Bible, taken as a whole, tells us the history of the plan of salvation. Theologian Scott Hahn has pointed out that a good way to look at salvation history is to see it as a series of covenants between God and man.
According to Hahn, a covenant is similar to a contract, but it is much more, for it establishes a union that is meant to last. A corporation deals with contracts, but a marriage is a covenant. There are seven covenants in salvation history.
The first with Adam, whose role was husband in marriage; the sign of this covenant is the Sabbath. The second with Noah, whose role was father of a household; sign is the rainbow. The third with Abraham, whose role was the tribal chief of a tribe; sign: circumcision.
The fourth with Moses, whose role was the judge of a nation; sign: the Passover. The fifth with David, whose role was the king of a national kingdom; sign: the throne.
The sixth is the New Covenant with all mankind through Jesus Christ, whose role is the royal high priest of the Catholic Church; sign and the reality is the Holy Eucharist. The seventh is the eternal marriage of the Lamb and the heavenly Jerusalem at the end of time.
An important rule for reading the Bible is to understand first the literal sense: what the sacred writer wanted to express. However the Holy Spirit often puts more meaning into a passage than the sacred authors knew they were writing.
Hence, “the letter speaks of deeds; allegory to faith; the moral how to act; anagogy our destiny.”
上個學年，我曾以系列形式，在此發表有關信經、誡命、聖事與祈禱的教理；今個學年，我則會寫及有關聖經和教會的歷史，亦會討論神修；目的在成人慕道班以外，幫助大家明白和深化自己的天主教信仰。
聖保祿宗徒致弟茂德第二封信函中，指出聖經是「受天主默感」的(3:16) 。若望.赫頓神父在他的「天主教教理問答」寫著：「聖經之所以被尊為天主的聖言，皆因聖經筆者的意志及思維，完全受天主的默感和領導，不添不扣、一絲不苟地承錄了天主要說的話。」
新與舊
聖經彙集的叢書概分「舊約」和「新約」：前者述及基督降生前的事宜，共四十六本書冊，後者共二十七本書冊，全部在基督升天後成書，統談基督降生後的事情。
「舊約」計有「梅瑟五書」（創世紀、出谷紀、肋未紀，戶籍紀及申命紀），歷史書（若蘇厄書、民長紀、盧德傳、撒慕爾紀上下兩書、列王紀上下兩書、編年紀上下兩書、厄斯德拉書、乃赫米雅書、多俾亞傳、友弟德傳、艾斯德爾傳和瑪加伯上下兩書）、訓誨書（約伯傳，聖詠集、箴言、訓道篇、雅歌、智慧篇及德訓篇）、先知書（包括的先知有依撒意亞、耶肋米亞、哀歌 –––– 滿涵耶肋米亞先知的精神、巴路克、厄則克耳、達尼爾、歐瑟亞、岳厄爾、亞毛斯、亞北底亞、約納、米該亞、納鴻、哈巴谷、索福尼亞、哈蓋、匝加利亞、瑪拉基亞）。
「新約」包含瑪竇、馬爾谷、路加和若望寫的福音，路加記載的宗徒大事錄，彙集保祿宗徒的信函（致羅馬人、格林多人（兩封）、迦拉達人、厄弗所人、斐理伯人、哥羅森人、得撒洛尼人（兩封）、弟茂德（兩封）、弟鐸、費肋孟、希伯來人），也有宗徒雅各伯、伯多祿（兩封）、若望（三封）和猶達所寫的書信，最後一本是若望宗徒寫的默示錄。
聖奧斯定說：「新約隱藏在舊約內，而舊約則在新約中被彰示出來。」
救恩史
天主在創造之初，已有救贖人類的計劃，而聖經則有序地彰顯了這計劃的歷史。
史葛.韓鑷博士指出，要更看清楚天主救贖人類的計劃，就是設法列顯天主與人類間連串的盟約。
據韓鑷博士解釋，盟約相似合約，但盟約超越於合約，因為盟約建立持久的結合。例如，一間公司處理合約，但婚姻是終身承擔的盟約；而在聖經顯示的救恩史中，提及了天主與人的代表定立的七個盟約：
首推的盟約是與原祖亞當定下的，他是婚姻的丈夫；盟約以安息日為標記。第二個的盟約是與諾厄定下的，他是家庭的父親；盟約以彩虹為標記。第三個的盟約是與亞巴郎定下的，他是一族之宗；盟約以割損禮為標記。
第四個的盟約是與梅瑟定下的，他是民族之長；盟約以逾越為標記。第五個的盟約是與達味定下的，他是一國之君；盟約以王位為標記。
第六個的盟約是新的盟約，是藉耶穌基督而定下的，祂是普世教會至尊至高司祭；盟約以聖體聖事為實體與標記。第七個的盟約是天主羔羊與新耶路撒冷在世界末日的永恆婚約。
閱讀聖經最重要是設法明白字面的意義，就是聖經筆者所要表達的含義；然而，天主聖神常藉聖經筆者的寫作，啟示比字面意義更深的真理。因此，「文字，事之所載；寓義，信之所賴；倫理，行之所依；末世，心之所望。」