“Whoever can be trusted with very little can
also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also
be dishonest with much. So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly
wealth, who will trust you with true riches? And if you have not been
trustworthy with someone else’s property, who will give you property of your
own? No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the
other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other....” (Luke
16:10-13).
No doubt, defenders of the Roman Catholic
hierarchy, who love Rome above all things, including the Truth, will sneer at
this. But we should say to them, “You are
the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of others, but God knows your
hearts. What people value highly is detestable in God’s sight.”
Along those
lines, Reformation21 has an article this month about Rome showing itself to be
unfaithful in little things, leading us to understand from the Lord’s Word that
our concerns are more than justified that Rome’s self-proclaimed “infallibility”
is more like a broad scale cover for their efforts to be dishonest.
If you visit St. Peter’s square before
the 15th of April, an unexpected and interesting attraction will be waiting for
you. In the Braccio di Carlo Magno (i.e. Charlemagne wing) next to St. Peter’s
basilica under Bernini’s colonnade on the right-hand side of the square, an
exhibition entitled “Verbum Domini” (i.e. the Word of the Lord) will call for
your attention. The colorful Italian-English brochure that will be put in your
hands invites you to “Take a walk through the history of the Bible in this
private collection of rare biblical texts and objects of enormous importance”.
Admission is free.
Verbum
Domini is also the title of the 2010 Post-Synodical Apostolic Exhortation
by Benedict XVI in which the Pope summarized the present-day Roman Catholic
interpretation of the Word of God, i.e. a living Tradition which includes the
Bible and which the Magisterium of the Church interprets faithfully. The connection between the papal text and
the exhibition is clear and signals the intent to underline the importance of
this topic.
…
The exhibition has an ambitious goal.
In the organizers’ words, “the Verbum
Domini, specifically, is a way of celebrating the interfaith love that many
traditions have for the Bible, and we believe that is a way of sharing that
with the world”. Jewish, Eastern
Orthodox, Catholic, and Protestant traditions are all represented in it. From
the Vatican side, here is what Cardinal
Farina, Prefect of the Vatican Library, said about the exhibition at the
inauguration: “The title Verbum Domini
was chosen to highlight the ecumenical conception of this exhibition, and also
its venue here at the Vatican. The origin of the documents, the prevalence
of the Green Collection, and those from other collections highlight the
participation of the Christian denominations. Because in reality the Bible
unites, even though so many think it does the opposite, it’s actually a very
strong point of union”.
Fair enough. But why is it that, on the brochure that is distributed at the
entrance, one reads that “this exhibit celebrates the dramatic story of the
Catholic contribution to the most-banned, most-debated, best-selling book of
all time”? Has the broad contribution to the history of the Bible become a
Catholic contribution alone? Perhaps this is a mistake made by a zealous
editor, but it reflects the provincial culture that each institution (Vatican
included) can fall prey to.
The
Missing Story
The most puzzling point, however, is
what the exhibition does not say about the history of the Bible. The unsaid is
as telling as what is said. The whole
trajectory of the suggested narrative is “linear” to the point of being
historically untenable. The given picture is that the “modern” translations of
the Bible in vernacular languages spread out across the Christian spectrum and
that each sector of the Christian church championed their diffusion.
The
reality is very different. Since the
twelfth century, the Roman Church has, in various ways, banned the circulation
of Bibles in the language of the people. These bans led to the compilation of
the 1559 Index of Librorum Prohibitorum
(Index of Prohibited Books) by Pope Paul IV, where Bible translations were
among the forbidden books. The vehement attack by the Tridentine Church towards
the translations of the Bible allowed historian Gigliola Fragnito to speak of “the
Bible on a stake” to describe what happened up to the twelfth century in
countries dominated by the Catholic Church. That ban lasted for centuries. The true story,
therefore, is not the mild, peaceful, ecumenical account of the Verbum Domini
exhibition.
The Bible is a shared heritage for
Christians and this truth is beyond dispute. Therefore historical exhibitions on the Bible should aim at telling the
story in a fair and accurate way rather than pursuing wishful ecumenical
readings which are partial, selective, and therefore misguiding.
The question
is, why should anyone believe Rome’s “interpretation” of the Word of God, when
it can’t be counted on be honest with its own role in a display of historical Biblical
artifacts?
