Rational arguments.
Rational arguments.
§ 429. He takes his third class from reason:
In the Scriptures, two things can be considered: the things that are said and the way in which they are said. Whichever we look at, we find the greatest difficulties. The things set forth in Scripture are obscure, such as the mystery of the Trinity, of the incarnation of the Word, of the sacraments, of the nature of the angels; likewise, the prophecies of future things, written in poetry. Concerning the way of speaking, there are countless causes of difficulty. (1) There are in Scripture matters that at first glance appear contrary (Exod. 20:5; Ezek. 18:20). (2) There are ambiguous words and sentences (John 8:26). (3) There are incomplete sentences (Rom. 5:12). (4) There are preposterous sentences (Gen. [11:1]). (5) There are phrases characteristic of the Hebrews (Ps. 89:30). (6) There are many sentences that are figurative, tropological, metaphorical, allegorical, hyperbolic, and ironic.
We respond. (1) With regard to matters handed down in Scripture, these are either histories or dogmas, and the latter are either prophecies about what will happen or articles of faith. Even if some obscurity occurs in prophecies before their fulfillment, nevertheless the histories and articles of faith are set forth clearly in the Scriptures. “For God, condescending to us,” sets forth “divine things to us humans in human fashion,” as Procopius says (on Isaiah 3).
(2) One must distinguish between the understanding of a human as yet unregenerate and the understanding in the reborn, which is illumined by the light of grace (1 Cor. 2:7ff.). To the former all the mysteries are veiled, but to the latter what is necessary is clear. In fact, through Scripture itself the Holy Spirit takes away the innate darkness of our mind and illumines us with spiritual light.
(3) A true contradiction does not occur in the Scriptures; an apparent one sharpens one’s diligence in reconciling. Thus those two passages are reconciled by a double distinction: between free men who are repenting and those who are persisting in the sins of their parents; and, again, between temporal and eternal punishment.
(4) Articles of faith are presented in Scripture not in obscure or ambiguous words, but in words that are perspicuous and proper. Yet no one denies that some difficulties do arise from phrases and words in certain passages. These can be removed, however, by a study of languages and the other aids for interpretation. Ambiguous words and sentences do occur—ambiguous not with respect to God, who dictated them, nor with respect to Scripture itself, which is God’s voice, but with respect to humans who are not reaching or searching out God’s meaning.
(5) The passages that Bellarmine cites as examples can be explained easily. In John 8:25, 
is given adverbially in the Greek idiom for the word prorsus [“by all means,” “utterly,” “at all”] or primum [“in the first place”]. Sophocles, Antigone: “By all means [
], one must not attempt the impossible.” Demosthenes, 
: “One may not at all [
] charge those things that the laws do not punish.” Christ, then, is giving this response: “By all means! I am who I say I am, who I confess Myself to be.” Because Nonnus was unable to retain the 
(though the meter did not prevent it), he changed it to 
: “I am that which I have said and told you from the beginning.” And he had said that he was the Son of God, the Savior and the Christ. In Rom. 5:12 there is a suppressed consequent clause [
] that is completed in vv. 18-19. In Gen. [11:1] there is an anticipation that is frequent not only in the Holy Scriptures but also among secular writers, an anticipation through which the matters of earlier times are described in words of our era. Moses himself is explaining the division of the peoples by various languages, and the Hebrew text can be translated suitably in the pluperfect: “The whole earth had had one language.”
(6) Hebrew idioms require a translator skilled in languages. Yet whatever anyone at all must know is set forth in appropriate and clear language. You see, whatever Scripture brings out in such idioms it elsewhere declares in proper and clear words, as Chrysostom (commentary on Isaiah 8) and Thomas ([ST,] part 1, q. 1, art. 9, response to 2) correctly point out.
(7) Figurative utterances are not used to obscure Scripture but are rather lights of speech. Augustine, Epistle 119, c. 11: “Whatever things are hinted at to us figuratively stir up and kindle love more than if they were proclaimed to us plainly and without any likenesses of mysteries.”