Sacred Scripture
1. Eternal Life as Our End: Jude, Dei Verbum, and Thomas's Division of Scripture
Class of 2016-05-12
https://berquistcourse.com/course/theology/9-sacred-scripture/001-eternal-life-as-our-end-jude-dei-verbum-and-thomass-division/

[0:00] Father, Son, Holy Spirit, Amen. Thank you, God. Thank you, guardian angels. Thank you, Thomas Aquinas. Deo gratias God our enlightenment. Guardian angels strengthen the lights of our minds, ordain our imaginations, and arouse us to consider more correctly. Saint Thomas Aquinas, angelic doctor. Help us to understand what you've written. Father, Son, Holy Spirit, Amen. Okay, let me ask you a little question here.

[0:37] What would you call our goal, our end or purpose, right? As Christians or as Roman Catholics, right? Would you say is our last, our ultimate end or goal? Huh? Would you say? How would you? What would you call it? To see God. Well, is that what you'd call it, or is that what it what it is?

[1:08] I suppose that's what it is. I'm asking somebody, you know, if I said to you, "What do you call this figure?" You know. Yeah, you wouldn't say it's an equilateral right-angled quadrilateral. That'd be saying what it is. So what you call it is not exactly what it is, right? Huh? What do I mean there? Almost a changeable card, but you know. So you could say eternal life.

[1:36] Yeah, yeah. See, if you asked me in grade school, I'd probably say heaven, right? I don't think heaven, you know, is too good a way of naming it, right? I mean, nothing wrong with it, right? Okay. Maybe a better way of naming it is is is the kingdom, right? Could say that kingdom come, right? Yeah. So you get John there, they're calling it the the house of God, right?

[2:01] Huh? Houses where someone lives. Well, that's where God lives. See, I get to that house. If it'd be in your house, but I was struck by the the reading through the New Testament. I mean, reading through the Gospel of John, I should say in particular, reading Thomas's commentary and so on, but reading the Greek and so on. How often this idea of eternal life as a way of naming it comes up, right?

[2:28] Okay. Now, give you two texts there, which might be interesting, huh? And one is that I'd given you already, but we'll do it again because it's relevant here. One is from the Epistle of Saint Jude, right?

[2:48] Which is one of the canonical what epistles, right? The last one, I guess, and they're already given here. That's a very short epistle, and it's not divided into chapters. They're just the verses of the thing. So it's in verses 20 and 21 in this edition. I suppose it's the same in yours.

[3:21] And he says, "humes right? Agapetoi beloved. You, my beloved, right? Ep oikodomountes huh, which they translate here in English, building up, right? Comes from oikos for the word for house. I was in the supermarket with my wife the other day, and and this Greek stuff. I don't know some of that stuff. It's called oikos, is the name, of the the bland, yeah, oikos, The house, something for the house, right?

[3:50] Oikos. Um, epoikodomountes um, building up, heautous yourselves, right? Te hagiotate humon, in the most what holy piste humon, your faith, okay? Pistis, okay. Then in pneumati hagio, in the Holy Spirit, pros proseuchomenoi praying, right? Heautous yourselves in agape theou, in the love of God, keep yourselves in the love of God, right? Okay. Now those three that he just mentioned there, right, are really maybe what belief and hope and what charity.

[4:49] I love. Um, use the word pistis there, right, or that different case, and the word agape, right, which is kind of a word for caritas in Greek, huh? He doesn't say hope, but he says praying, as you know from Augustine and Thomas when they take up Christian doctrine on the basis of faith, hope, and charity, right? They talk about the creed with faith and with the what hope, the Our Father, and then with the charity, the two commandments of love and the Ten Commandments, right?

[5:24] So he's saying first what you're building yourself up, starting with faith, right? Now sometimes I remember reading in in some of the Church Fathers when they use the words there in the Psalms, unless the Lord build the house, that in vain who build it. Well, the word house there can refer to the the church, right? Also refer to the heavenly kingdom, right? But it can also refer to the individual soul, right?

[5:53] And then in the metaphor of the house, the foundation is what. His faith. The walls are what Hope hope, and the roof is what charity, right? So it's very concrete this way of speaking, huh? Jude, huh? He says building up, huh? Epoikodomountes yourselves. How do you do that? Starting with the most holy faith, right? Then in the act of what faith or hope rather, praying, right? In the Holy Spirit, we know how to pray to ourselves, and then finally, right, holding on to the what love of what God, right?

[6:37] Which includes that, right? Now, but this is all for an end other than these, right? Prosdechomenoi, huh? Awaiting, right? To Elias the mercy of what our Lord, right? Jesus Christ eis zoen aionion, eternal life, right? That's a beautiful text. That you might say that our goal is eternal life, right? Now, how do you get eternal life? Well, you begin by believing God, right? And then praying to God, right?

[7:20] And then what loving God, right? Okay. And Thomas says sometimes you know that faith tells us what our end is, right? By hope we what pursue that end, right? And by love we're what joined to it, right? And that's why charity remains in the next life if you get to heaven, right? You'll have charity, but in a more perfect way, but still you have charity, right? Agape caritas, but you won't have what belief, because you have the vision in place of that, and you won't have hope because you already have it, right?

[8:00] Okay. So what is the order here of those three theological virtues—faith, hope, charity? Huh? That's the order in which he he speaks of them, right? But what is the order of them, and also the order of of them to eternal life, huh? What what sense of before and after is that?

[8:28] I think we're in time Yeah, it's at least in time, right? Huh? Because you you're going to believe God, right, that there is a God before you hope in Him, right? You have to believe that He He created you and that He has providence over you and so on, right? And then you're going to have to have hope before you have what before you have that in charity in time, right?

[8:55] And you have all three of these before you have eternal life, right? So that's one order there, right? Okay. There might be another order, right? Being, yeah, yeah. But this, you know, just you know, see one part of the truth at a time here, right? Okay. That's that's one text that makes me think that it's a good way of describing, or I mean, what you call our our our goal, eternal life, right?

[9:23] Okay. Okay. Now, you may know that our Lord there in the seventeenth chapter of John, right? Huh. He speaks of what eternal life is, right? And so, no God, right? Huh. And Him whom He has sent, Jesus Christ, right? Okay. And this could also be spoken of as what the beatific vision, right? But as Saint John says in his epistle, seeing God as He what is, or seeing God face to face, as Saint Paul sometimes says in the the epistles, say that too, right?

[9:55] You know. It's a little more metaphorical. way of Speaking right huh that's more trying to say what eternal life is, right? It's seeing God as He is, seeing God face to face, right? Okay.

[10:12] But as Thomas says, virtue is the road to what happiness, to our end, right? And the principal virtues whereby you get to this end there are, as you can see here, faith, hope, and charity, right? And so in Secunda Secundae, right? If we ever get around to read that, that's what's the old Greek proverb, Mega Biblion, Mega Kakan, big book, a big evil. But you know the the Secunda Secunda is almost as big as the rest of the Summa put together, right now.

[10:44] But certainly the biggest of them, right? And the the first, it's kind of based basically around the what three theological virtues and then the the secondary things, the four cardinal virtues, right? So you have faith, hope, and charity first, right? Okay. Now this is also tied up with one division of sacred what doctrine, which is kind of the one for the catechetical one, right? The catechism one, right?

[11:22] Where you have three parts, faith, hope, and what charity, right? And so Augustine has his Enchiridion, faith, hope, and charity, and Thomas has his catechetical instructions and so on, and even Thomas in the Compendium of Theology follows faith, hope, and charity. He didn't finish it, but you know he finished the part of faith and the part of hope. He was in the middle of that. Okay. So even that, which is more developed doctrine than catechism, he's still following that that order, right?

[11:53] That's one of the three chief orders, it seems to me, of sacred doctrine as a whole, right? Now go here to Vatican II. What are the principal documents of Vatican II? What are they called?

[12:21] Dogmatic Constitution. Yeah. There's one that's just called a Constitution. Yeah. Called a pastoral constitution Yeah And there's decrees and There's four constitutions, right? And they seem to be the chief documents, right? But two of them are more what pastoral constitutions, right? Like the Church in the Modern World, right? And then the one in the Liturgy, right? Then you have these two what dogmatic constitutions, right? Okay. And one is what completing the Vatican I, right?

[12:51] That's a constitution on the what Church, right? And then you have the one we're concerned with, right? Today a little bit, the Constitutio Dogmatica de Divina Revelazione, huh? The dogmatic constitution on divine what revelation right now

[13:12] the constitution has got a proemium Okay which is the Monsignor Dionne would be happy And I was at Laval there you know the the Dionnians people were emphasizing the excellence of of Aristotle's proemium at the beginning of De Anima right Thomas explains the order and distinction of the proemium and so on so we're all going to imitate that kind of papers are ready you know write a proemium it's kind of funny you know

[13:49] but what does he do in the proemium what does he talk about in the proemium I mean it's a very short work I mean it's just you know this is that's the end of the proemium right there Just two seconds yeah yeah but he talks about the same things that you talks about right or they do talk about the same they talk about what eternal life and then they talk about faith, hope, and charity right they don't talk in the same order but they begin talking about eternal life which is the end right okay and then the way of getting there which is yeah they don't say it explicitly but that's what they do the first part of the proemium talks about our sharing in

[14:33] eternal life right and then second part talks about faith hope and charity but it has it brings out something about the order of faith hope and charity in addition to the order we're seeing here right so at least an order in time right

[14:53] so he says Dei Verbum Now that description of what that's the Bible in a sense right okay you know how I'm very fond of the amphibole of of Word of God right it can mean the Son of God right or it can mean the Bible right the Word of God

[15:17] so he says Dei Verbum religiose audiens hearing religiously right devotion and so on the Word of God and then what et fidenter huh faithfully right proclamans huh okay that's what this book is going to be about right this this constitution the Sacrosancta synodus synodus the most holy synod right verbis Sancti Ioannis obsequitora observing you might say right the words of Saint John saying and now they quote Saint John right A beautiful text.

[16:06] I always struck me this. Annunciamus, we announce, right? Vobis to you. Guess what? Vitam aeternam right? Quae erat apud Patrem, which was before the Father, right? Et apparuit nobis, and appeared to what us? That's Christ, right?

[16:34] Quae vidimus, right? What we have seen, et audivimus, and we have heard. Annunciamus vobis, right? We announce to you, right? That you might have society with us, right? With vos societatem habeatis nobiscum Et societas nostra sit cum Patre et cum Filio eius. What? Christo, Jesus Christo, right? Okay. So it's interesting that they tacked the idea of eternal life there, right? Like he talked about eternal life there.

[17:12] And I mentioned how it's in the Gospel of John. I was kind of struck by how often it's coming up. But now it's going to, in continuity with the First Vatican Council and even the Council of Trent, right? It goes on.

[17:30] An account of which conciliorum of the councils Tridentini, et Vaticani I right? Inherens, adhering to the footsteps, right? Vestigies. A genuine the divine revelation, genuine doctrine is going to be about divine revelation, right? And about its transmission, it intends to propose, right? Doctrine about this, right? Or proposed teaching about this, right? But now it goes on. It says, Ut salutis preconio, yeah, mundus universus, audiendo credat, huh.

[18:15] Credendo sperat, right? Sperando amet, huh? And that's a quote from none other than our friend Saint Augustine. In the De catechizandis rudibus, who he was, catechizing the rude, huh? The ignorant, huh? The uneducated, the beginners, right? Vulgar reader. Yeah, yeah. But notice when he says, universus audiendo credat, right? Credendo sperat, as if by believing you come to hope. I don't think it means that it's the what necessarily the moving cause, right?

[18:52] But it what disposes you, right? Believing God, right? What you learn when you believe God, right? Disposes you to have hope in God, right? And having hope in God disposes you to what? Love Him, right, huh? And that touches upon maybe a little bit the what? The second sense to which is attached the cause before the effect, too, right? Okay. But also the fact that maybe a man can believe and still despair, right?

[19:26] He can hope without yet what? Loving Him, right? But he can't really love without hoping. He can't really hope without what? Yeah. So that belief is before hope, and hope is before love, not only in time, which is the first sense of before, but also in the sense of being, right? That faith can be without hope, but not vice versa. Hope can be without what? Love, but not vice versa, right?

[19:57] And also a little bit cause before effect. In the sense of material cause, right? That disposes, right? And believing disposes you to have hope in God, right? And to have hope in God disposes you for what faith? It doesn't complete the the movement to the next one, right? But it makes it what you are more suitable to that, right? It disposes you to accept this a little bit, huh?

[20:24] Okay. Okay. Now, there is this little volume. It's called goes back to my 1960 days, right? What's called Rome in the Study of Scripture. Can you see this little volume? must have picked it up. It goes back this edition about 64, right?

[21:00] So Rome in the Study of Scripture, huh? Abbey Press Publishing Division, Saint Meinrad, Indiana. A collection of papal enactments on the study of Holy Scripture, right? Together with the decisions of the biblical what commission? Okay. It's all here. These fundamental documents, huh? Now, among other things, three very principal documents is the what encyclicals, right? Starting with the one of Leo the what 13th, right? And then going on Benedict the 15th, and so.

[21:33] on. Okay, but going back to the first one, which kind of started this thing rolling in modern times, Providentissimus Deus, right? There is a little section in here where he's talking about the contributions of the church fathers, right, and the contributions of the medievals, and then the moderns, right, to the study of Scripture, right. I'm not going to read everything here, but just a few of my favorite things in here, right?

[22:16] Huh? Okay. He says in early times, if we consider the immediate disciples of the apostles, Saint Clement of Rome, Saint Ignatius of Antioch, Saint Polycarp, huh? Or the apologists such as Saint Justin, Saint Irenaeus, we find that in their letters, in their books, whether in defense of the Catholic faith or in its commendation, they drew faith, strength, and strength and unction from the Word of God. When there arose in various sees catechetical and theological schools.

[23:04] Of which the most celebrated were those of Alexandria and Antioch. There were little taught in these schools, but what was contained in the reading, the interpretation, and the defense of the divine written word. From them came forth numbers of fathers and writers, whose laborious studies and admirable writings have justly merited, for the three following centuries, the appellation of the Golden Age of Biblical Exegesis. That's a nice testimony to the importance of them, right?

[23:39] The period from Aristotle, from Thales to Aristotle, is called the Golden Age of Greek philosophy, right? Well, this first age is called the what? Golden Age of Biblical Exegesis, huh? Now, I'm often very puzzled about Origen right? Huh? Because he made a lot of contributions, but he made some important errors. But it's remarkable what he says here. In the Eastern Church, the greatest name of all is Origen, a man remarkable alike for penetration of genius and for persevering labor.

[24:13] From whose numerous works and his great hexapla, there was a comparison in the different languages, right? Almost all of the writers who came after him. Now I'm kind of puzzled because Thomas sometimes really takes Origen apart and speaks of his scandalous errors, almost, you know, and really, really, that's a habit, you know. But other times he's always, you know, bringing in Origen, you know. And I've been reading the the Gospel of John over again, right?

[24:38] And who is Thomas quote? Well, mainly Augustine and Saint John Chrysostom, but he often sticks in that little thing from Origen, you know, and it's kind of interesting. So I'm kind of struck, you know, by that, huh? Others who are wide in the field of this science may also be named as especially eminent. Thus Alexandria could boast of Saint Clement and Saint Cyril, Palestine of Eusebius and the other Saint Cyril, Cappadocia of Saint Basil the Great, and the two Saint Gregories of Nazianzus and Nyssa,

[25:12] Antioch of Saint John Chrysostom. Now he stops a little, but he says, in whom the science of Scripture was rivaled by the splendor of his eloquence. So he kind of signals out John Chrysostom, who Thomas what? uses it almost. In the Western Church, there are many names as great. Tertullian, I got to be careful of him too. Probably more so even than the Origen Saint Cyprian, huh?

[25:41] Saint Hilary, huh? Saint Ambrose, Saint Leo the Great, Saint Gregory the Great. Most famous of all, Saint Augustine and Saint Jerome. He signals them out for a special thing there. In some of St. Thomas' commentaries, he has his own prologue, and then he has commentary on the prologue of Jerome, right? So he says, most famous of all, Saint Augustine and Saint Jerome. Of whom the former was so marvellously acute in penetrating the sense of God's word, and so fertile in the use that he made of it for the remotion of the Catholic faith.

[26:20] That's the greatest authority there. Praise him. And the latter had to be received from the Church by reason of his preeminent knowledge of Scripture and his labors for promoting it. The name, the great doctor, right. Okay.

[26:35] Now, what about the Middle Ages? Now, from this period down to the eleventh century, although biblical studies did not flourish with the same vigor and the same fruitfulness as before, yet they did flourish, And principally, by the instrumentality of the clergy. It was their care and solicitude that selected the best and most useful things that the ancients had left, arranged them in order, and published them with editions of their own, as did Saint Isidore of Seville, the Venerable Bede, and Alcuin, among the most prominent.

[27:18] It was they who illustrated the sacred pages with glosses or sharp commentaries, as we see in Walafrid Strabo and Saint Anselm of Laon, or expended fresh labor in securing their integrity, as did Saint Peter Damian and Blessed Lanfranc. In the twelfth century, many took up with great success the allegorical exposition of Scripture. In this kind, Saint Bernard is preeminent, and his writings may be said are Scripture all through when you read them.

[27:48] You realize, what a command of the Scripture here. Now we come down to one here that we're concerned with. These two volumes here. With the age of the Scholastics came fresh and welcome progress in the study of the Bible. Notice that, huh? Fresh and welcome progress since the time of Augustine, so on, right? That the Scholastics were solicitous about the genuineness of the Latin version is evident from the Correctoria Biblica or lists of emendations which they have left.

[28:31] Didn't know about that scriptural studies, right? But they expended their labors and industry chiefly on interpretation and explanation. To them we owe the accurate and clear distinction. That distinction? Such as had not been given before, of the various senses of the sacred words, the assignment of the value of each sense in theology, and the division of books into parts. And the summaries of the various parts, the investigation of the objects of the writers,

[29:15] that's what the preface was to point out. The demonstration of the connection of sentence with sentence and clause with clause, looking before and after, right? All of which is calculated to throw much light on the more obscure passages of the sacred volume.

[29:42] The valuable work of the scholastics in Holy Scripture is seen in their theological treatises and in their scripture commentaries. So, I mentioned both of those, right? Okay. And now the last sentence here, and in this respect. The greatest name among them all is Saint Thomas Aquinas. Okay. Now we pass to Saint Thomas Aquinas. We're going to be principally concerned with Thomas' division of New Testament because of our connection with our study of what of grace, right?

[30:47] Okay. This is from the commendation and petition of sacred scripture. I'm passing over the commendation and coming to the division. He talks about, of course, this is useful for getting to that life we're talking about before, right? To this life, sacred scripture leads us in two ways. To it, Precipiendo, which means commanding, right? Et adjuvando aiding.

[31:30] Precipiendo through the commandments which it proposes, which pertains to the old what testament. He quotes Ecclesiasticus. Moses gave you commanded a law for you, right? Legem mandavit nobis Moyses Adjuvando aiding, per donum gratiae, quod legislator legitur. Okay. Which pertains to the New Testament, huh? Grace. Then he quotes that text from John, chapter one, verse seventeen. The law was given by Moses. Lex per Moysen data est, but grace and truth was made through Jesus Christ.

[32:19] Okay. Whence the whole of sacred scripture is divided chiefly into two parts. Well, you heard about division into two before, haven't you? So the whole of the Word of God is divided into what two parts, huh? To it into the old and the new what testament, right? As a primarily division on the basis of time.

[32:47] I mean, you could say that that helps you to distinguish the two a little bit, right? Okay. Which two are touched upon in Matthew chapter thirteen? Every scribe taught in the kingdom of the heavens. It's another way of referring to what we're after. Is similar to the one who brings forth from his treasure, new things and old things. And Canticles seven verse thirteen, all what? Nova et vetera, the new and the old, my beloved, I have served you.

[33:19] The new and the old apples. Then he goes on to divide the Old Testament. Just look a little bit the very general division, not down to the individual books, right?

[33:35] The Old Testament is divided according to the teaching of mandatorum, of commands, right, or of laws. For there is a twofold mandate or command, to wit, the coactorium, the coercive one, right, which is later on called the law of the what, king, and the monitorium huh advice, right, the law of the what, father, right.

[34:06] The coactorium, the coercive one, is the command of the king, who is able to punish transgressors. Proverbs twenty is the roar of a lion, right? Mugitus leonis, so the terror of the king, right? So you see these things for the king of England, right? You know they got the the lion on, right?

[34:33] But the monotorium, huh, the admonition, is the precept of the father, who has to what? Yeah. And he quotes Ecclesiasticus as well in the books in that group. You have sons instruct them, right? Okay.

[34:53] So sometimes we divide the Old Testament into the law of the king and the law of the father, right? Which is division to two. Thomas says sometimes he divided into what three, because he distinguished the law of the prophets, right? The precept of the king, however, is twofold, right? To wit, one by which he establishes the law, the other by which he induces us to the observance of the law.

[35:20] To his what, messengers and his heralds, right, and so on. And thus we distinguish three precepts. That of the king, that of the what, proclaimer, herald, yeah, and that of the father, right. And according to this, three things the Old Testament is divided into three parts, right? Now you've got to compare this sometimes the textus criticus, and everything instead of the law and the prophets, and you know say the Psalms, right?

[35:48] But the Psalms kind of stand out among the books there of the third part. They call them the hagiographa you know, the holy writings, right? Okay. No, you know he's dividing into two or three, right? Okay. Go to the New Testament. I'm not gonna. Go more into the Old Testament right now.

[36:18] Novum Testamentum the New Testament, quod ad vitam aeternam ordinat. I've heard that before. The New Testament, quod ad vitam aeternam ordinat. We count those two texts: one from Saint Jude, right, in the epistle, and one from the Proemium to this De Verbum, right. Saint John. Yeah. Yeah.

[36:55] Okay. Which orders to eternal life not only through precepts. No no he doesn't say there's no precepts. in the new. You know, the law love is freedom from the law. No, no, it doesn't say at all, does it? Right. non solum per praecepta sed per gratiae dona, but through the gifts of what grace. So he's going to divide the New Testament in comparison to what grace rather than the law, right?

[37:22] You know, some law in the New Testament, right? But we call things what they have most of either absent or in comparison to others, right? Okay.

[37:37] So sweet wine may not be as sweet as soda pop, but it's sweet compared to dry wine, right? Okay. In the first, one treats of the origin of grace, and this in the what Gospels, huh?

[37:59] Second, in the second part, about the virtue or power of grace, huh? And this in the epistles of Saint Paul. So Thomas says the first part is the what four Gospels, then he skips over the Acts of the Apostles, right, in the order of books, and he goes to the epistles Saint Paul, and this is the power of grace, right? Okay.

[38:34] Whence in the beginning, from the power of the gospel, he begins saying, Romans one sixteen. That's the first epistle, right? Virtus Dei the power of God in salutem in salvation to everyone what believing, right?

[38:53] And in the third part, he treats of the what carrying out of the foretold power, right? Its effect, he might say, right. And this, in the rest of the books of the New Testament, that means the Acts of the Apostles and the canonical epistles of which we quoted from the great Saint Jude here, and then the Apocalypse. Okay.

[39:18] Now, that's a division into what? Three. Now let's look a little bit at Vatican II. I'm afraid this. I got Billy on here. I got Kaka. I'm carrying in here. Couldn't get into my suitcase here, but my thing is just terrible. I was terribly afraid if I was going to have one of these rainy days. I'm going to try to bring this book in a rainy day.

[39:56] In paragraph eighteen and 20 I want to just do some things in those Two paragraphs, chapter five in the New Testament. I think this is important here. Neminem fugit. Let it escape no one, right? That inter omnes, even of the New Testament scriptures, right? Neminem fugit inter omnes etiam novi testamenti scripturas He's saying, among all the books, even of the New Testament, right? Let it not escape you, or you, or you, or you, or you.

[40:35] Evangelia, meaning the Gospels, right? Merito, right? We talked about merit, didn't we? Excellere, they excel, right? So the four Gospels, the greatest books of the Old Testament, even the New Testament, which is regarded as greater than the Old Testament, right? Okay. What sense of before and after is that? Fourth

[41:03] sense. Yeah, it's better, right? So I'm reading that commentary in John, right? Okay. Gives a reason, right? Which are quippe certainly. The praecipuum the chief, huh? Praecipuum means what? Chief, right? Thomas says that Plato and Aristotle are the philosophical praecipuum Plato and Aristotle. That's good. And the praecipuum huh? Testimonium the principal or chief, right? Testimonium. De verbi incarnati, the incarnate word, right? Our Savior. The principal testimony about his vita, his life, Atque doctrina.

[41:58] So that's the reason, right? The reason why the four Gospels are what? Stand out absolutely. Yeah, I mean to play on the two senses of the Word of God now, right? That the Word of God, meaning the Bible, is chiefly about the Word of God, meaning the Son of God, right? So why, in the whole Word of God, in the sense of the Bible, is the four Gospels the greatest, most excellent of all books?

[42:29] Most of all, about the Word of God. Yeah, about the life and the teaching of the Word of God in the sense of the Son of God, right? Okay. See how beautiful it is. Okay.

[42:45] Then he mentions the four: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, but it doesn't distinguish them the way we'll see Thomas doing, right? Huh? But he mentions them in the order, right? Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. That's the order in which we give those four Gospels, right? But you know, division of four is not understandable, is it? No. You wouldn't claim to understand the division into four, would you?

[43:09] No. You realize you've got to get to four by divisions of two or three or both, right? Yeah. Okay. Now, I'm skipping over to the 19th paragraph. It's talking about the authenticity of those four gospels, right? Okay. I just want to read you those beautiful things on the first part, right? Now, in the 20th paragraph, right? It talks about what there is in the New Testament apart from or in addition to the four gospels, right?

[43:45] I remember what Thomas said. He divides it into three parts: the the New Testament, right? They're all about grace, but the four gospels are about the origin of grace, which is the Word of God made flesh and so on, right? And then Thomas says the what? Second part is the epistles of Saint Paul, which are about the virtus or power of grace, right? And then there is the what?

[44:21] Yeah, we have the beginning, right? Okay. And the progress and the final state, right? Okay. Now I don't. I guess we didn't look at that part there that much, huh? Did we before?

[44:40] Talking about that third part, he, says the execution of the power of grace, which is talked about in the epistles of Saint Paul, right? And which is not found in this texture of the partition of Sacred Scripture. So I'll be looking at the distinction of epistles and the canonical epistles. The carrying out or the effect of the power of grace is shown in the progress of the Church, in which three things are considered.

[45:09] First, the beginning of the Church, and about this it is treated in the Acts of the Apostles. Okay, and you've got a quote there from Jerome, huh? The sound the history and the infancy of the Church being born, right? Secondly, the progress of the Church, right? And to this is ordered the instruction, the apostolic instruction, in the canonical epistles.

[45:38] And third, the end of the Church, in which the is contained that of the whole Sacred Scripture, the end of it, the Apocalypse, right?

[45:50] There's a little prayer to Christ there. Okay. What does the Vatican Council say, right? They stole from Saint Thomas here, but they. They, they, they don't admit it, you know.

[46:06] Okay, let's read them carefully, right? This is the twentieth paragraph. Novi Testamenti canon, the canon of the New Testament, right? Praetor quatuor and evangelia. apart from the four Gospels, right? Etiam, what's the first thing it mentions? Epistula Sancti Pauli. It doesn't say the Acts of the Apostles, even though he put that, you know, because it kind of fits in for his traveling around to all these places and so on.

[46:42] And other what? Aliaque scripta apostolica, other apostolic writings. The Holy Spirit, right? Huh? Inspiring, right? It contains, right? Exerata, that means dug up, right?

[47:01] Now, by which, from the wise consilio Dei exsuntia de ecclesia, those things which are about Christ the Lord are confirmed, right? That's kind of a continuation of the Gospels, right? Doesn't say what's kind of new there, right? And his genuine what teaching is more and more declared, right? Okay, that's kind of a continuation. Right, kind of continues what has been taught in the Gospels. But then, note the next phrase, Salutifera, virtus, the saving power of the divine work of Christ is preached.

[47:43] That's the Gospels, of St Paul And then ecclesiae initia, that's the Acts of the Apostles. The admirabilis, the diffusion, the marvelous diffusion are narrated. That's the canonical epistles. Atque consummatio gloriosa its glorious consummation is pronounced, right? Huh?

[48:08] That's the what? Apocalypse, right? So it's very close to what Thomas says, right? Huh? So Thomas divides it into what? Three, right? Huh? Okay.