No, Pope Innocent III Did Not Prohibit the Bible in 1199

Michie · Aug 4, 2021

The Bible can’t be properly understood without authoritative guides — and those guides can’t be self-appointed.

20210802220852_0ff4f4a59a437e4c8771b1434d8b6d48db77d39efd4b18d2b8fec10800a57b03.jpg

Hans Holbein the Younger, “An Allegory of the Old and New Testaments,” 1530 (photo: Public Domain)

First of all, I’d like to note that Holy Scripture itself — beyond what Pope Innocent III did and did not state — does indeed teach the principle of a necessity for authoritative guides with regard to reading andunderstanding Holy Scripture:

Exodus 18:20 “And you shall teach them the statutes and the decisions, and make them know the way in which they must walk and what they must do.”

Moses was not simply to deliver and read the Law (or Torah, the first five books of the Bible) to the Hebrews, but also to “teach them” about it. Since he was the Lawgiver and author of the Torah, it stands to reason that his interpretation and teaching would be of a highly authoritative nature.

Leviticus 10:11 “And you are to teach the people of Israel all the statutes which the LORD has spoken to them by Moses.”

Continued below.
No, Pope Innocent III Did Not Prohibit the Bible in 1199

BrAndreyu · Aug 4, 2021

Michie said:
“Therefore, since the order of teachers is, as it were, primary in the Church, no one should indiscriminately arrogate to himself the office of preaching.”

If this is true, then it means that we technically can't share the gospel with people & I don't obey that, because I give my buddy relevant stuff that I've read in scripture all the time and I'm definitely not going to stop. I want him and his family to start coming to church. He's in a sort of similar situation as I was in regarding the church: he stopped going as a teenager and now is starting to become receptive to Christianity again.

Michie · Aug 4, 2021

BrAndreyu said:
If this is true, then it means that we technically can't share the gospel with people & I don't obey that, because I give my buddy relevant stuff that I've read in scripture all the time and I'm definitely not going to stop. I want him and his family to start coming to church. He's in a sort of similar situation as I was in regarding the church: he stopped going as a teenager and now is starting to become receptive to Christianity again.

Preaching is different than sharing and living the gospel.

BrAndreyu · Aug 4, 2021

Michie said:
Preaching is different than sharing and living the gospel.

I don't know the difference, I thought that preaching was the same thing as sharing what you read from scripture with people.

Michie · Aug 4, 2021

BrAndreyu said:
I don't know the difference, I thought that preaching was the same thing as sharing what you read from scripture with people.

The Church is apostolic. That means all of us.

From the Catechism-
Catechism of the Catholic Church - PART 1 SECTION 2 CHAPTER 3 ARTICLE 9 PARAGRAPH 3

From the op-
“Therefore, since the order of teachers is, as it were, primary in the Church, no one should indiscriminately arrogate to himself the office of preaching.”

We are allowed to share and live the gospel. Look at Scott Hahn and others.

Michie · Aug 4, 2021

Pope Innocent III never stated that the Bible was to be “forbidden.” Rather, he authoritatively taught that a “simple and ignorant person” ought not “presume to reach the sublimity of Sacred Scripture, or to preach it to others.” This is a different concept altogether from saying that “no one who is not theologically educated can read the Bible.”

“Even though the desire to understand the divine Scriptures and the eagerness to exhort in accordance with them should not be criticized but rather commended, nevertheless, in this case, it is clear that these people are justifiably rebuked, because they conduct their own secret gatherings and they arrogate to themselves the office of preaching; they ridicule the simplicity of priests … [cites Matthew 10:27], [God is] indicating clearly by this that evangelical preaching is to be offered, not in secret gatherings, as is done by the heretics, but publicly in the Church, according to Catholic custom...”

Dr. Fastiggi renders a portion of the next two paragraphs: “Clearly no simple or unlearned person should presume to touch the sublimity of Sacred Scripture or preach it to others.” Denzinger has one more paragraph after that. Here is the final sentence:

“Therefore, since the order of teachers is, as it were, primary in the Church, no one should indiscriminately arrogate to himself the office of preaching.”

There is not a single word in the entire document about prohibiting the Bible altogether. What is rebuked is the presumption of a teaching office that is unwarranted.

BrAndreyu · Aug 4, 2021

Michie said:
We are allowed to share and live the gospel. Look at Scott Hahn and others.

And what they do is not considered preaching?

I guess I'm used to the word "preaching" meaning just talking about the bible at all to a crowd of people (think street preachers), but I'm guessing that the church defines preaching as giving homilies during mass.

Michie · Aug 4, 2021

BrAndreyu said:
And what they do is not considered preaching?

I guess I'm used to the word "preaching" meaning just talking about the bible at all to a crowd of people (think street preachers), but I'm guessing that the church defines preaching as giving homilies during mass.

I think the article was pretty self explanatory.

BrAndreyu · Aug 4, 2021

Michie said:
I think the article was pretty self explanatory.

Believe it or not, I find a lot of those articles kind of hard to follow because they write from a place that assumes that you already know a lot of stuff about the church. Which I don't, my CCD experience was... "weak" to use the nicest possible terms about it. We had people that tried, but I don't think that they actually knew what the church taught that well themselves, so we got a lot of "folk belief" mixed in with what was supposed to be preparing us to be functional members of the church.

Like we had a woman teaching my confirmation class that used to speak in tongues and get mad if you wore white Tshirts & jeans (just that combination only) to class for whatever reason unbeknownst to me to this day. She told us a lot of stuff like "You aren't supposed to read the bible, only priests can read the bible and if you do, you'll go crazy" sort of stuff.

So of course, since I was told that I was "not allowed to read the bible", I started reading it.

Michie · Aug 4, 2021

BrAndreyu said:
Believe it or not, I find a lot of those articles kind of hard to follow because they write from a place that assumes that you already know a lot of stuff about the church. Which I don't, my CCD experience was... "weak" to use the nicest possible terms about it. We had people that tried, but I don't think that they actually knew what the church taught that well themselves, so we got a lot of "folk belief" mixed in with what was supposed to be preparing us to be functional members of the church.

Like we had a woman teaching my confirmation class that used to speak in tongues and get mad if you wore white Tshirts & jeans (just that combination only) to class for whatever reason unbeknownst to me to this day. She told us a lot of stuff like "You aren't supposed to read the bible, only priests can read the bible and if you do, you'll go crazy" sort of stuff.

So of course, since I was told that I was "not allowed to read the bible", I started reading it.

Hmmm. Very strange and completely incorrect. Lord have mercy.

BrAndreyu · Aug 4, 2021

I wonder if the "don't read the bible, only priests are allowed to read the bible otherwise you'll go crazy" thing was actually just very smart reverse psychology on this woman's part to get us kids to read the bible, because it worked on me and I've almost read the entire thing. I'm in St. Luke now but I don't read every day like I should, I just read a bunch of chapters at once every couple of days.

But we were told other things that I don't think are part of official church teaching. Like you have to go to confession every week, that you aren't allowed to wear red shirts or dresses to mass, you have to say the hail mary when you drive past a cemetery, you should only enter the church with your right foot first, and other odd things. I wish I could remember them all because some of them were quite odd and I think that you'd get a laugh out of them.

Search

Search

No, Pope Innocent III Did Not Prohibit the Bible in 1199

Michie

Well-Known Member

More options

BrAndreyu

Well-Known Member

More options

Michie

Well-Known Member

More options

BrAndreyu

Well-Known Member

More options

Michie

Well-Known Member

More options

Michie

Well-Known Member

More options

BrAndreyu

Well-Known Member

More options

Michie

Well-Known Member

More options

BrAndreyu

Well-Known Member

More options

Michie

Well-Known Member

More options

BrAndreyu

Well-Known Member

More options

Similar threads