The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1909-09-11
The Readings of the Bible.

/
The fourth lecture by the Rev. John
Corbett, s. j., on the general topic of
| the Church and the Bible" at the
! Catholic summer school, Cliff Haven.
was devoted to a consideration of the
| church's attitude towards the reading
! Of the Bible. Father Corbett said in
part:
The church has nothing to fear from
the deepest study and investigation of
| any science, physical, historical or
philosophical She is not afraid of the
truth. What she has to regret is the
| ignorance and the prejudice against her
and her doctrines that are so wide
| spread among those not of the faith
On no subject perhaps are the ideas of
Professionals more astray than on the
church'S attitude toward the reading of
the Bible. We are sometimes asked the
following question: Did not the Protes-
tant religion give US the first Bible
written in the language of the people?'
And the answer is No Whoever makes
such a statement is ignorant of the
facts of history. In the days of the
apostles the Old Testament had been
translated into Greek and the New
Testament was written in Greek. the
language of the people. In the middle
of the second century the Bible was
7 N-NN-@@0-S~~1N
/ it might be understood by the people.
At the end of the fourth century the
pope had st. Jerome revise the Latin
version in common use and later the
saint prepared the great Vulgate YER
sion of the Scripture in Latin. when
Latin was the universal language of
the western world.
During the middle ages whoever
could read at all could read Latin, and
the Scripture was athis command. 1t
was translated into Gothic about $50
into Armenian in ALL. When the mod
ern languages began to take shape, the
first works were translations or para
phrases of the Bible St Bede was
! engaged on his deathbed in translating
the Gospel of st. John into Anglo
! Saxon. There were two versions of the
gospels current in the tenth century
in England six hundred years before
Professionalism. After the Norman con-
quest the language of the higher classes
was French and they had the Bible in
that tongue. There is still preserved a
complete French Bible written in the
| thirteenth century.
Sir Thomas Moore tells US that the
whole Bible was long before Wiklif's
days by virtuous and well-learned men
translated into the English tongue. and
SOOu anu SOuIS peOple Win ueNOtlOn,
and soberuess well and revently read
What is true Of England is true also
of the other countries of Europe. Dur
ing the three centuries before the Re
formation the Scriptures were to be had
in Italian, Spanish, German, Danish
and Flemish. Immediately after the
invention of printing, Bibles were
printed in these languages before Lu-
Their was born or Henry VIII, broke
away from the church The Italian
Bible was printed in 1477 and eighteen
editions of the Bible in German ap-
peared before Luther's.
AS long as the Bible was not abused
and set UP as a standard of revolt
against the church, the reading was not
restricted or prohibited. When, how
ever. the Reformers began to circulate
corrupt TRANSACTIONS the church would
have failed in her sacred duty as guar
dian Of the faith had she not warned
her children and condemned such cor
ruptions of Gods Word The special
character of these mistranslations on
the part Of TyndalG in England and of
Luther in Germany were pointed out
Protestants were quoted to show that
they looked on one another as 'corrup-
tors of the Word of God
THE legislation of the church on
Bible reading was then reviewed. and
it was shown that for the last $50 years
there has been no restriction on the
reading Of the vernacular versions APP
proved by the Holy See or the bishops
In answer to the question Ought Cath
olics to read the Bible?' appeal was
made to the exhortations of the popes
and the recommendation of the Plenary
Council Of Baltimore. Pope Leo XII
granted an indulgence once a month to
all who make such readings a daily
practice. Some seven years ago a So