Divino afflante Spiritu
| Divino afflante Spiritu Latin for '[By] the divine inspiration of the Spirit'Encyclical of Pope Pius XII | |
|---|---|
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| Signature date | 30 September 1943 |
| Subject | On Sacred Scripture |
| Number | 5 of 41 of the pontificate |
| Text | |
| AAS | 35 (10): 297-325 |
Divino afflante Spiritu ("[By] the divine inspiration of the Spirit") is a
Catholic biblical scholar
Context
The Vulgate, made mostly by
Content
The encyclical appeared on the feast of Jerome to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Pope Leo XIII's 1893 encyclical Providentissimus Deus. With Providentissimus Deus, Pope Leo gave the first formal authorization for the use of critical methods in biblical scholarship.[3]
Previously, Catholic translations of the Bible into modern languages were usually based on the Latin Vulgate, the text used in the Liturgy. They generally referred back to the source texts (in
In his encyclical, Pius stressed the importance of diligent study of the original languages and other cognate languages to arrive at a deeper and fuller knowledge of the meaning of the sacred texts:
We ought to explain the original text which was written by the inspired author himself and has more authority and greater weight than any, even the very best, translation whether ancient or modern. This can be done all the more easily and fruitfully if to the knowledge of languages be joined a real skill in literary criticism of the same text.[5]
It is likely that in the detailed presentation of the work of textual criticism Pius had learned from the expertise of his confessor, Augustin Bea SJ, rector of the Pontifical Biblical Institute and professor of textual criticism.[6]
See also
Catholicism portal
References
- The New Jerome Biblical Commentary. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice Hall. p. 1167. Cited in Donahue 1993, p. 76.
- ^ Soulen & Soulen 2001, p. 49.
- ISBN 9788876528255
- ^ Cunningham, Philip A.; Radtke, Barbara A. (2015). "Catholic Approach to the Bible". The Birth of Jesus: Two Gospel Narratives. Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts: Boston College. Archived from the original on 22 October 2017. Retrieved 18 October 2017.
- ^ The New American Bible 2011, p. xxi, xxiii.
- ^ Arias, Javier Velasco. "Celebrating 'Divino Afflante Spiritu'", The Pastoral Review 14 (2018) pp.22-27
Bibliography
- Donahue, John R. (1993). "The Challenge of the Biblical Renewal to Moral Theology". In O'Brien, William James (ed.). Riding Time Like a River: The Catholic Moral Tradition Since Vatican II. Washington: Georgetown University Press. pp. 59–80. ISBN 978-0-87840-542-8.
- Soulen, Richard N.; Soulen, R. Kendall (2001). Handbook of Biblical Criticism (3rd ed.). Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster John Knox Press. ISBN 978-0-664-22314-4.
- ISBN 978-0-19-529803-1.
External links
- Pius XII (1943). Divino afflante Spiritu (encyclical letter). Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana. Retrieved 18 October 2017.