Tuesday of the
Twenty-first Week in Ordinary Time
(II Thessalonians 2:1-3a.14-17; Matthew 23:23-26)
Perhaps the most challenging reality for students of the
Bible is the scholarly consensus that a few of St. Paul’s letters were
forgeries. The very notion sounds absurd. “How can Scripture, which is by definition
inerrant, contain works that give false information?” people ask. However, St. Augustine among others was aware
that all the information contained in the Bible was not completely
accurate. Vatican II declared that
inerrancy has to do with the truths of the faith that God wished to pass
on. It must be remembered as well that
the forgeries were not made for profit.
Rather, they were intended to assure readers of God’s continued care. In any case, today’s first reading has
something to say about Scriptural forgery.
The writer warns readers of a letter being circulated
that was written by another using his (presumably Paul’s) name. This note testifies to the fact that there
indeed were known forgeries of Paul’s letters.
But even more intriguing is the possibility, as many biblical scholars
today believe, that II Thessalonians itself is a forgery. The reasons for saying this include
differences in emphasis between it and I Thessalonians. For example, where I Thessalonians credits
the people with good sense about the time of Christ’s return, II Thessalonians
disapproves of the people’s obsession with the exact time of the event.
We must remember that the Bible is a compendium
of books inspired by God but written by fallible human authors over a stretch
of a thousand years. We should not
expect complete internal coherence, much less conformity to contemporary literary
standards. Still we hold that the Bible
contains God’s blueprint for life. We
must prudently follow its teachings as the Church guides us if we are to attain
the eternal life it promises
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