@curiousdannii That may sound easy to you, but I suspect many Catholics aren't even aware that there are authorized commentaries, let alone knowing how to find them and look things up in them.

@PeterTurner and by "Church," you mean the structured, earthly, Catholic Church? or, the invisible Church? and ... the only interpreter? or the only interpreter worth universally caring about?

also, hi!

@svidgen Hey svidgen, I never know the answer to that question. I'd say which ever Church has a physical mouth is as good as we're going to get on a website. That's the one whose interpretation I consider a primary source.

And by interpreter it's the only interpreter of the Truths of scripture.

@curiousdannii I think that misses the difference between a guide and an interpreter. Catholics can guide others to the truth, but not interpret the Bible for themselves or others.

I mean that's pretty much the whole point of The Last Jedi, isn't it?

@curiousdannii There are, of course, also Swedenborgian commentaries on the Bible, plus about 2/3 of Swedenborg's theological works that are Bible commentaries, and a large dollop of his non-exegetical works in which various Bible passages are commented on in the course of topical doctrinal presentation.

Telling some Swedenborgian who asks about how we interpret a particular Bible passage, "Just go look at the commentaries" would not be very helpful at all. It's a mass of material, and part of our theological training is getting oriented to the literature so we know where to look when questions come up.

When my late father was still teaching at our seminary, he taught an entire semester course on the literature of the church just for that purpose.

That's a long way of saying: I strongly believe we should allow scoped biblical exegesis questions here, including those asking for a Catholic perspective. That's a major part of what this site is for.

@svidgen Unlike in Protestantism, in Catholicism the Church—as in, the earthly institution of the Roman Catholic Church—is seen as having authority both to interpret the Bible and to articulate Christian truth.

Popular notions to the contrary notwithstanding, the Pope rarely proclaims truth ex cathedra. Rather, that authority generally rests in the Magisterium, consisting of the Pope and the bishops. This group is believed to have authority to determine the truth for all Catholics (which is, of course, believed to be the Christian truth).

@svidgen Keep in mind that Protestantism broke off from Catholicism, and not the other way around. And the Roman Catholic Church is still by far the largest Christian denomination. The Catholic Church continues to see itself as the true Christian Church on earth, and Protestantism as a whole as a heretical break-away group. So yes, the Catholic Church sees itself as, to use your words, "the only interpreter worth universally caring about."

In particular, the Catholic Church believes that Jesus Christ himself gave the earthly church (specifically, the Catholic Church) the "keys to the kingdom" via the apostle Peter, whom they see essentially as the first pope. From there, they believe that the authority to open and close heaven, proclaim the truth, and so on passed down through the succession of popes, and remained vested in the institution of the Catholic Church.

In short, the Catholic Church believes its authority is based on apostolic succession—though it is not the only Christian denomination that claims it possesses authority through apostolic succession.

So although the idea of the Catholic Church as the final arbiter of truth seems arrogant and outlandish to many Protestants, this is a firm part of Catholic belief that they believe is based on the Bible and on the words and actions of Jesus Christ himself there.

Personally, I think they're dead wrong about this, that that's not what Jesus was talking about at all, and that the Catholic Church has completely missed Jesus' point, but misinterprets his words in order to establish their earthly authority. However, this is a key plank of Catholic doctrine by which it does support its right and authority to be the sole interpreter of Scripture and proclaimer of true doctrine, not to mention saying who will and will not go to heaven.

@PeterTurner That's not quite how I understand it. As I understand it, individuals maintain the right and duty to individual interpretation, provided that it is circumscribed by the authoritative teaching of the Church, wherein "the authoritative teaching of the Church" is "that which is held by the authorities designated by The Author."

Though, I might be equivocating on the meaning of "interpretation."

In a grand sense, interpretation as "the dogmatic understanding of the Church" is obviously reserved for "the Church." But, in another completely legitimate sense, no one can read scripture without applying their own interpretation. We just hope that such an interpretation is properly informed and circumscribed.

Or something like that.

@svidgen I might be conflating the way the Church considers itself the interpreter of the Natural Law with Scripture, this is from Humanae Vitae:

"...And this We do relying on the unshakable teaching of the Church, which teaching Peter's successor together with his brothers in the Catholic episcopate faithfully guards and interprets."

Constantly in that encyclical Pope Paul says that the Church is the Interpreter of Revelation, not the Arbiter.

@svidgen yeah, totally agree with that, which is why I disagree with what @curiousdannii says about questions being just reference requests.

There's always a million ways to go about the same interpretation, otherwise we'd hear the same Homily every 3 years.

@PeterTurner hehe ... you mean you don't hear the same homilies every year!?

(at least mostly)

anything of importance is worth repeating often!

That's why Catholics say our prayers in rote!

@svidgen yeah, we've had the same priest for about 13 years now, the stuff I remember I remember hearing before (that's the good stuff: jokes and antics of old priests) the stuff I forget I wouldn't remember hearing.

It's pretty amazing that there are so many thousands of distinct homilies every day. Someone should do a study on that, they could probably come up with some AI to make a good homily.

ha

Can Bishops grant teaching authority to an AI? ... is an entity (AI) a person as long as it exhibits rationality?

Hmm, maybe you should ask that on the main site, I'm sure that would be a very well received question. :)

@PeterTurner Perhaps I will! ... I've been out of C.SE long enough, I think.

but later.

if i remember ...

There was a similar question answered by yours truly not too long ago.

More of a Messianic Jew Question: It is not Ok to Buy or Sell on Sabbath,but if someone buys food (cooked before shabbath) And you eat it ,would that be a sin or breaking the shabbath commandment? (you did not ask the person to buy food,and it was made before shabbat )

Messianic jews do agree Jesus is Lord so it is a Christian question