Pontifical Biblical Commission meets to study new document on Bible and morality

Rome, Italy, Apr 21, 2009 / 11:44 am

The Pontifical Biblical Commission is holding its annual Plenary Assembly April 20-24 at the Domus Sanctae Marthae at the Vatican on the theme of “Inspiration and Truth in the Bible.” The Assembly will also review a new document by the Commission entitled, “Bible and Morality: Biblical Roots of Christian Behavior.”
 
The document, which was published in 2008 in Italian and English, is being translated into French, German and other languages.
 
Father Klemens Stock, pro-secretary of the Pontifical Biblical Commission, said the document begins with the listing of the Ten Commandments and the Beatitudes, “as characteristic expressions of biblical morality in the Old and New Testaments.”
 
The document “is made up of two parts,” he continued.  “The first part’s title is ‘A Revealed Morality: Divine Gift and Human Response,’ while the second part is entitled, ‘Biblical Criteria for Moral Reflection.’  The first part deals with certain principles of biblical morality, while the second lays out certain principles based on the Bible that can help in the search for solutions to the moral problems of the day, which were unknown in Biblical times.”
 
The document addresses three points about revelation that are fundamental for Christian behavior.

“First of all it is the gift of God, which should always be appropriately welcomed by the human person, and as a consequence, in the Bible one can find guidance for knowing what the just manner of behaving is.”

Secondly, he continued, “the kindness of God is made manifest not only in the gift but also in forgiveness.”

“And finally, the scope of human behavior is not restricted to the earthly life, but is open to eternal communion of life with God.”