Chapter 2 the Truth Revealed

Chapter 2—The Truth Revealed Marcy Griffin/Lori MacMath/7th grade

Open with Prayer around gift box. Remind students that prayer is a gift from God to communicate with Him and better our relationship with Him.

Scripture and Tradition Scripture and Tradition reveal the truth-p.24. Scripture-Sacred Scripture (Bible) is the written account of God’s Reveleations and his relationship with his people.

Tradition-the Revelations of the good news of Jesus Christ as lived out in the Church, past and present.

Divine Inspiration—The special guidance that the Holy Spirit gave to the human authors of the Bible.

Examples of tradition—the Mass, Baptism, etc.

Truth is communicated through both of the written word of Scripture and the living message of Tradition. p.25—The truth is written in Scripture

The Bible is a collection of 73 books written over a span of almost 2,000 years. The Bible began with the ancient Israelites (Hebrews). They shared the stories of God making himself known to them by word of mouth when they told stories of being his chosen people. They shared these with their descendents. Later people would meet in synagogues to study these stories that had been written down (beginning of the Bible).

The New Testament began the same. There were religious experiences with Jesus Christ and the Apostles were inspired to write down what they saw Jesus do and say. They wrote of witnessing his Resurrection (When he rose from the dead). They went forth and taught Jesus’ teaching after that and people like St. Paul wrote letters to these communities he had visited and taught to. They call them epistles. Also the firsthand accounts of Jesus were written and called the Gospels.

Though we don’t know the exact person that wrote every book of the Bible, we believe that they were guided and inspired by the Holy Spirit to write the truth of God for their peers and descendents.

Religious experience word of mouthinspired writing p.26 The truth is handed down in Tradition Give examples of family traditions. Saving letters from great, great grandparents, etc. Scripture cannot stand alone. It needs tradition to shed light on its meaning, and the Church needs both Scripture and Tradition to understand and live the truth. Tradition existed first and helped with the formation of the written Bible. Through tradition we learn ways to live as Jesus’ disciples. p.27---Scripture and Tradition are “one sacred deposit of the word of God” and flow “from the same Divine wellspring”. Together they make up the deposit of faith, which is all the truth contained in Scripture and Tradition that Christ revealed and entrusted to the apostles and thus to their successors, the bishops, and to the entire church.

Magisterium—the living teaching office of the Church, consisting of the Pope and the bishops. They interpret for us both the Holy Scripture and Tradition. They teach us how to apply the message to our lives today.

FYI—Latin has been the official language of the Church for many centuries. All of the Magisterium’s documents are published in Latin, then translated to the particular language of that country. The Latin word for truth is veritas.

St. Jerome—translated the Bible into Latin. P.28