Catholic Biblical Interpretation is Reading Scripture through literary and historical study, the unity of the canon, living Tradition, and the rule of faith.
Historical and theological reading
Catholic interpretation attends to vocabulary, genre, sources, historical circumstances, and what human authors intended to communicate. The historical-critical method can clarify the formation and original setting of texts, but no single method exhausts the Bible's meaning as canonical Scripture.[1]
Dei Verbum also directs readers to the content and unity of the whole Bible, the living Tradition of the Church, and the coherence of revealed truths. These theological principles do not cancel historical research; they situate individual texts within the economy of revelation centered on Christ.[2]
Senses and settings
The literal sense is the meaning conveyed by the words as interpreted according to sound rules. Spiritual senses discern how scriptural realities signify Christ, moral life, and final fulfillment, but must be grounded in the literal sense rather than free association. Liturgy, preaching, scholarship, lectio divina, and personal prayer are distinct but related settings for interpretation.
References
- 1.Verbum Domini — Sections 29–49 on interpreting Scripture in the Church
- 2.Dei Verbum — Section 12 on principles of interpretation