Balaam’s Donkey

FaithT · Mar 7, 2023

Must Catholics believe that Balaam’s donkey really spoke?

Bob Crowley · Mar 8, 2023

This is not a topic I think about very often. I drive a car, and have never riden a donkey in my life!

If it happened, I'd assume the donkey appeared to speak. It would have been a supernatural agency working through the donkey, in much the same way that the serpent "spoke" to Eve right at the very beginning.

There's a reference here to the episode.

Balaam

Balaam.—The derivation of the name is uncertain. Dr. Neubauer would connect it with the god Ammo or Ammi, as though Balaam belonged to a people whose god or lor...

www.catholic.com

The last paragraph reads as follows -

The reference to historical events in Balaam’s fourth prophecy leads most critical writers to fix the date of its composition not earlier than David’s reign. David’s Moabitic war is said to be the war referred to in Num., xxiv, 17. But, putting aside the gift of prophecy, we know that writings of this kind, like the Psalms, are often retouched in ages later than that of their original composition. At most, therefore, it seems legitimate to conclude that this passage shows signs of having been expanded and reedited at that period.

As Catholics I don't think we're obliged to necessarily believe the story word for word. What I do think is that we are expected to put ourselves into the story, and ask if there are times when God has told us to do something and we haven't done it. Or vice versa, God has told us not to do something, and we've gone ahead and had our own way.

Either way we find out that things don't go as well as we would have hoped. As my old pastor put it one day "We might get what we want, but we may not want what we get."

disciple Clint · Mar 8, 2023

FaithT said:
Must Catholics believe that Balaam’s donkey really spoke?

No you are not required to accept a literal interpretation of much of the O.T.

fide · Mar 8, 2023

Lest anyone fall into the dead end of a Bible of merely "My own interpretations", Catholics can listen to the Catechism and judge in that light (emphases added by me), how to safely and faithfully hear God speaking to us:

II. Inspiration and Truth of Sacred Scripture

105 God is the author of Sacred Scripture. “The divinely revealed realities, which are contained and presented in the text of Sacred Scripture, have been written down under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.”
“For Holy Mother Church, relying on the faith of the apostolic age, accepts as sacred and canonical the books of the Old and the New Testaments, whole and entire, with all their parts, on the grounds that, written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, they have God as their author, and have been handed on as such to the Church herself.”

106 God inspired the human authors of the sacred books. “To compose the sacred books, God chose certain men who, all the while he employed them in this task, made full use of their own faculties and powers so that, though he acted in them and by them, it was as true authors that they consigned to writing whatever he wanted written, and no more.”

107 The inspired books teach the truth. “Since therefore all that the inspired authors or sacred writers affirm should be regarded as affirmed by the Holy Spirit, we must acknowledge that the books of Scripture firmly, faithfully, and without error teach that truth which God, for the sake of our salvation, wished to see confided to the Sacred Scriptures.”

108 Still, the Christian faith is not a “religion of the book.” Christianity is the religion of the “Word” of God, a word which is “not a written and mute word, but the Word which is incarnate and living”. If the Scriptures are not to remain a dead letter, Christ, the eternal Word of the living God, must, through the Holy Spirit, “open our minds to understand the Scriptures.”

III. The Holy Spirit, Interpreter of Scripture

109 In Sacred Scripture, God speaks to man in a human way. To interpret Scripture correctly, the reader must be attentive to what the human authors truly wanted to affirm, and to what God wanted to reveal to us by their words.

110 In order to discover the sacred authors’ intention, the reader must take into account the conditions of their time and culture, the literary genres in use at that time, and the modes of feeling, speaking and narrating then current. “For the fact is that truth is differently presented and expressed in the various types of historical writing, in prophetical and poetical texts, and in other forms of literary expression.”

111 But since Sacred Scripture is inspired, there is another and no less important principle of correct interpretation, without which Scripture would remain a dead letter. “Sacred Scripture must be read and interpreted in the light of the same Spirit by whom it was written.”

Gregory Thompson · Mar 8, 2023

You know, for the longest time, I thought Baalam was the name of the donkey.

Bob Crowley · Mar 8, 2023

If the donkey was here today, he'd say "Michael, my name is Hee-Haw, not Balaam. Who'd want a name like Balaam??"

And your dog would say "Michael! Did you see that? A talking donkey!"

Michie · Mar 8, 2023

FaithT said:
Must Catholics believe that Balaam’s donkey really spoke?

I tend to believe it did happen. Just like Moses with his staff.

But this article from Fr. Longenecker might help you.

Do You Believe In The Talking Donkey?

One of the latest wisecracks about Christianity is that to be a Christian you have to believe in a talking snake and a talking donkey. Do you stutter and

www.patheos.com

FaithT · Mar 8, 2023

Michie said:
I tend to believe it did happen. Just like Moses with his staff.

But this article from Fr. Longenecker might help you.

Do You Believe In The Talking Donkey?

One of the latest wisecracks about Christianity is that to be a Christian you have to believe in a talking snake and a talking donkey. Do you stutter and

www.patheos.com

Thanks! That was very helpful.

Michie · Mar 8, 2023

FaithT said:
Thanks! That was very helpful.

You’re welcome!

Wolseley · Mar 8, 2023

FaithT said:
Must Catholics believe that Balaam’s donkey really spoke?

It's no harder to believe that than it is to believe that a bolt of lightning hit a gob of snot laying in a mud puddle, and over the next four billon years, the gob of snot evolved into a rhinoceros. Just give the phenomenon of Balaam's donkey a fancy scientific name to explain it----"equalized punctuation", or something of the sort.

FaithT · Mar 8, 2023

Wolseley said:
It's no harder to believe that than it is to believe that a bolt of lightning hit a gob of snot laying in a mud puddle, and over the next four billon years, the gob of snot evolved into a rhinoceros. Just give the phenomenon of Balaam's donkey a fancy scientific name to explain it----"equalized punctuation", or something of the sort.

Gob of snot….LOL.

Chesster · Mar 8, 2023

A long time ago on a forum far far away, there was a poster who’s moniker was Balaam’s Ass. I still get a good laugh from that.

RileyG · Mar 8, 2023

disciple Clint said:
No you are not required to accept a literal interpretation of much of the O.T.

This is correct.

FaithT · Mar 8, 2023

Chesster said:
A long time ago on a forum far far away, there was a poster who’s moniker was Balaam’s Ass. I still get a good laugh from that.

Catholic Answers Forums?

FaithT · Mar 8, 2023

RileyG said:
This is correct.

Good to know.

disciple Clint · Mar 8, 2023

fide said:
Lest anyone fall into the dead end of a Bible of merely "My own interpretations", Catholics can listen to the Catechism and judge in that light (emphases added by me), how to safely and faithfully hear God speaking to us:

God can communicate His message without using stories that are literally true, for example Jesus using parables, if we accept everything in the bible literally there are going to be far too many one handed, one eyed people. Mathew 5:29-30

FaithT · Mar 8, 2023

disciple Clint said:
God can communicate His message without using stories that are literally true, for example Jesus using parables, if we accept everything in the bible literally there are going to be far too many one handed, one eyed people. Mathew 5:29-30

The priest at my home parish (I think I’m going to register at a different parish) said something similar when we were talking about how the LCMS teaches so much literally.

fide · Mar 9, 2023

disciple Clint said:
God can communicate His message without using stories that are literally true, for example Jesus using parables, if we accept everything in the bible literally there are going to be far too many one handed, one eyed people. Mathew 5:29-30

This part of the Catechism, I'm sorry to say, is as misunderstood as much in Scripture:

111 But since Sacred Scripture is inspired, there is another and no less important principle of correct interpretation, without which Scripture would remain a dead letter. “Sacred Scripture must be read and interpreted in the light of the same Spirit by whom it was written.”

In this cutlure we too quickly go from "Literal? Obviously not." And then go to subjective, and then we have "My truth and your truth, and Bible? Who needs it?"
But no, not to subjective: to spiritual. As in Holy Spiritual. We must hear in The Spirit, in His Spirit, and not our own spirits. And the only way to do that, is to follow Him and hear Him.

Jn 8:31 Jesus then said to the Jews who had believed in him, "If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples,
Jn 8:32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free."

The translation "continue in" is of the Gk μένω - menō - A primary verb; to stay (in a given place, state, relation or expectancy): - abide, continue, dwell, endure, be present, remain, stand,... The best non-literal translation I have seen of that word (a favorite in John's Gospel) is, "make your home in", as in:
"If you make your home in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will be knowing the truth, and the truth will make you free."

That is the key, I believe, to understanding the Truth of His Word (and His words, and His actions). To truly become and remain His disciple, then we begin to learn how to "hear" Him.

And as far as the "one eyed people"... our "problem" is not too many with only one, but too many have two, but remain unseeing:

Mt 13:13 This is why I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.
Mt 13:14 With them indeed is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah which says: 'You shall indeed hear but never understand, and you shall indeed see but never perceive.
Mt 13:15 For this people's heart has grown dull, and their ears are heavy of hearing, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should perceive with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and turn for me to heal them.'

But to His disciples, He says,

Mt 13:16 But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear.

Gregory Thompson · Mar 9, 2023

Bob Crowley said:
If the donkey was here today, he'd say "Michael, my name is Hee-Haw, not Balaam. Who'd want a name like Balaam??"

And your dog would say "Michael! Did you see that? A talking donkey!"

When I was a kid there was this claymation series called davey and goliath, so the idea of a talking donkey isn't all that hard to imagine.

Michie · Mar 9, 2023

Michael Collum said:
When I was a kid there was this claymation series called davey and goliath, so the idea of a talking donkey isn't all that hard to imagine.

Looked it up. It’s a dog that talked in that series.

Balaam’s Donkey

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Change is inevitable, feel free to spare some.

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Beaucoup-Diên-Cai-Dāu

Well-Known Member

Junior Member

Veteran

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Change is inevitable, feel free to spare some.

Well-Known Member

Similar threads