Handout on ReEd 2
Written that You May Believe: An Introduction to Biblical Exegesis
Lesson 2: Dei Verbum (Sacred Scriptures) Introduction
The following excerpts are from the first two chapters of the Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation, Dei
Verbum, that was promulgated by Pope Paul VI on November 18, 1965.
2. In His goodness and love God chose to make Himself known and to tell us about the hidden purpose of His
will (see Eph. 1:9) by which through Christ, the Word made flesh, man might in the Holy Spirit have access to
the Father and come to share in the divine nature (see Eph. 2:18; 2 Peter 1:4). Through this revelation, therefore,
the invisible God (see Col. 1;15, 1 Tim. 1:17) out of the abundance of His love speaks to men as friends (see Ex.
33:11; John 15:14-15) and lives among them (see Bar. 3:38), so that He may invite and take them into fellowship
with Himself. This plan of revelation is realized by deeds and words having an inner unity: the deeds wrought by
God in the history of salvation manifest and confirm the teaching and realities signified by the words, while the
words proclaim the deeds and clarify the mystery contained in them. By this revelation then, the deepest truth
about God and the salvation of man shines out for our sake in Christ, who is both the mediator and the fullness
of all revelation.
6. Through divine revelation, God chose to show forth and communicate Himself and the eternal decisions of
His will regarding the salvation of men. That is to say, He chose to share with them those divine treasures which
totally transcend the understanding of the human mind. As a sacred synod has affirmed, God, the beginning and
end of all things, can be known with certainty from created reality by the light of human reason (see Rom. 1:20);
but teaches that it is through His revelation that those religious truths which are by their nature accessible to
human reason can be known by all men with ease, with solid certitude and with no trace of error, even in this
present state of the human race.
9. Hence there exists a close connection and communication between sacred tradition and Sacred
Scripture. For both of them, flowing from the same divine wellspring, in a certain way merge into a unity and
tend toward the same end. For Sacred Scripture is the word of God inasmuch as it is consigned to writing under
the inspiration of the divine Spirit, while sacred tradition takes the word of God entrusted by Christ the Lord
and the Holy Spirit to the Apostles, and hands it on to their successors in its full purity, so that led by the light
of the Spirit of truth, they may in proclaiming it preserve this word of God faithfully, explain it, and make it more
widely known. Consequently it is not from Sacred Scripture alone that the Church draws her certainty about
everything which has been revealed. Therefore both sacred tradition and Sacred Scripture are to be accepted
and venerated with the same sense of loyalty and reverence.
10. Sacred tradition and Sacred Scripture form one sacred deposit of the word of God, committed to the
Church. Holding fast to this deposit the entire holy people united with their shepherds remain always steadfast
in the teaching of the Apostles, in the common life, in the breaking of the bread and in prayers (see Acts 2, 42,
Greek text), so that holding to, practicing and professing the heritage of the faith, it becomes on the part of the
bishops and faithful a single common effort. But the task of authentically interpreting the word of God, whether
written or handed on, has been entrusted exclusively to the living teaching office of the Church, whose authority
is exercised in the name of Jesus Christ. This teaching office is not above the word of God, but serves it, teaching
only what has been handed on, listening to it devoutly, guarding it scrupulously and explaining it faithfully in
accord with a divine commission and with the help of the Holy Spirit, it draws from this one deposit of faith
