Issue 7: The Bible: Scripture

Exploring the mystery and bringing scripture to life

There is a reason why the Bible is still considered, even today, one of the top ten most influential books of all time. For something so familiar, ‘there are many oddities connected with reading it.’ It most certainly is ‘not your ordinary best seller.’ You don’t normally read it from start to finish, there are different translations, there are various books in the Bible, rather than chapters, the sequence is not necessarily logical or historical and it has been written by numerous authors.

For Catholics, the Bible not only forms the basis of faith, it guides the very nature of ourselves and how we live our lives. Vatican II in 1965 called on all Catholics to ‘immerse themselves in the scriptures’ to do everything possible to understand them.

In his exciting exhortation Evangelii Gaudium, Pope Francis calls ‘Each word of scripture a gift before it is a demand.’

If adults find reading the Bible challenging, young children and teenagers experiencing it for the first time, or trying to familiarise themselves with it, enough to realise its’ importance to them personally, must find it, simply daunting.

REmail this term, and in a number of future terms will therefore, look at biblical literacy and provide material and suggestions to assist Catholic teachers reveal the true treasure that is the Bible.

REmail – Biblical Literacy – Part 1 – Understanding structure and importance 

(for primary and secondary schools)

You will find in this edition, prayers, reflections, activities and lesson plans exploring the basic structure of the Bible and some of its content.

Future REmail biblical literacy editions are proposed and will continue to explore Bible structure, authorship as well as other themes such as the great themes of the Bible; significant biblical characters and their relevance to the twenty-first century; and the Gospels.

The fundamental message we all want to communicate is that the Bible is a way of living, not a history lesson.