The Universalism of the Bible

The Bible presents a universalistic vision of God and the world. The strength of its universalism has made it the most translated, most widely read book of all time. The main factors in its spread are the Jewish diaspora and the Christian missions around the world. The universalism of the Bible is reflected in the expansion of the Christian Churches, of which it is the founding document. Today there is an interreligious and ecumenical scholarly community that studies and spreads the Bible.[1]

Universalism in the Bible

“In the beginning God created heaven and earth,” says Genesis, so the Bible begins with a note of universalism. It states that all humanity has only one God and creator, and that all humanity after the Flood descended from Noah and his family: 70 nations, according to the table of peoples in chapter 10 of Genesis. The political implications of this concept cannot be overestimated. While the Egyptians, Assyrians, Babylonians and Persians claimed that the protector gods of each nation would fight for their respective empires, the theologians of the Jewish people denied the existence of those gods. Instead, the one God of the universe chose Israel, the smallest of all peoples, as the crown jewel, preferring it to all the great nations (cf. Deut 7:6-8).

Israel therefore claims a special dignity and at the same time a priestly responsibility toward all other peoples (cf. Exod 19:5-6). Since this one God is worshipped above all in the Temple of Jerusalem, at the end of time all peoples will gather there (cf. Isa 2:2; 66:19-20). Numerous nations will become the People of God in Jerusalem (cf. Zech 2:15; 8:23-24), when the reign of the universal King of Peace begins (cf. Zech 9:9-10).

In addition to these universalistic visions, the Old Testament also contains particularistic tendencies. The special role of Israel is already evident in the promises made to Abraham, which are transmitted to his grandson, Jacob-Israel (cf. Gen 12-50), while the ancestors of other peoples are sometimes seen in a negative light (cf. Canaan in Gen 9:25; Moab in Gen 19:37; Edom in Gen 25:30). The promise of a land to Israel appears particularly problematic, since the task of destroying the Canaanites is linked to it (cf., for example, Deut 7). Many texts directed against other peoples can be understood as a reaction against their imperial power, under which the Israelites are forced to suffer (cf. the texts against Babylon: Jer 50-51; Ps 137). The fear of the foreigner is manifested in the post-exilic texts, which refer to the expulsion of wives and children of other ethnic groups (cf. Ezra 10).

The tension between universal openness and Jewish particularism is also reflected in nascent Christianity. The Gospel of Matthew tells us that Jesus sent the Twelve to the “lost sheep of the house of Israel,” but not to the nations or the Samaritans (cf. Matt 10:1-6). However, the risen Christ entrusted to them a universal mission: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations” (Matt 28:19). Paul presents faith in Christ in the sense of an inclusive universalism: “There is no longer Jew or Greek; there is no longer slave or free; there is no longer male and female, for all of you are one in Christ Jesus” (Gal 3:28).

When the Romans destroyed the temple in Jerusalem in 70 A.D., it could no longer serve as a symbolic center for worship of the universal God. Jews and Christians had to save their spiritual heritage in their Holy Scriptures. For Christians, the idea of a pilgrimage of peoples to Jerusalem was replaced by that of the mission, even among non-Jews. If the biblical texts had been nothing more than the self-assertion of small communities of faith, they would probably have fallen into historical insignificance. It was the extraordinary power of their cosmopolitanism that made the Bible world literature in the true sense of the word. 

The globalization of the Bible

The history of the worldwide spread of the Bible is intertwined with that of the Jewish diaspora, Christian missions and versions of Holy Scripture. The first important translation of the Bible took place in Alexandria, Egypt, in the 3rd century B.C., when the five books of Moses (the Pentateuch) were first translated into Greek, then the prophets and the wisdom literature. Writings that were previously accessible only to educated Jews could now be read in  Greek. Perhaps – as the Dominican Fr. Adrian Schenker suggests – the translation was also guided by the idea that the Torah of Israel was “your wisdom and discernment to the peoples” (Deut 4:6). The Letter of Aristeas (2nd century B.C.) and the writings of Philo of Alexandria (ca. 30 B.C. – 45 A.D.) speak of the translation of the sacred texts as a glorious success in gaining recognition of Jewish wisdom in the eyes of the world.

In the first centuries of the Christian era, the canons – that is, the lists of texts that constitute Sacred Scripture – of Rabbinic Judaism and Christianity were officially defined, and only then did different versions of the Bible emerge. Late antiquity saw translations into Aramaic, Syriac, Latin, Coptic, Ethiopian, Armenian, Georgian and Gothic, and in the Middle Ages translations into Arabic, Slavonic, English, French and German. With the Reformation, translations of the Bible made biblical texts accessible to a much larger number of readers. While the Roman Church insisted on the authority of the Latin Vulgate, the Reformation was based on vernacular translations.

In the 16th and 17th centuries, the Catholic religious orders engaged in missions in America, Africa and Asia, where at least some parts of the Bible were translated into several indigenous languages. From the 18th century, Protestant missions also developed, in which the translation of the Bible into the vernacular became a project to be implemented, especially from the 19th century onward through the Bible Societies. United Bible Societies, an association founded in 1946, reports that the Bible is now fully translated into 692 of the approximately 7,350 languages worldwide. The globalization of the Bible has often gone hand in hand with colonial interests, and should therefore be considered critically in this perspective. At the same time, the centuries-old work of countless translators testifies to an invaluable effort to establish intercultural understanding.

A book with seven seals?

While the Reformed Churches favored direct access to the Bible for the faithful, the Roman Church was reluctant to allow access to the Bible to uneducated Christians in their own language. Its reading was to be restricted to educated clerics in order to convey its message to simple people, as was traditional practice in the Church. Following a certain sociological vision, the power of knowledge was reserved to an elite, while the reading of the Bible favored by Protestants implied a diffusion and “democratization” of access.

The dissemination of education is a fundamental requirement of Holy Scripture itself. One could even say that the Bible is the product of an education campaign. Indeed, in the Book of Deuteronomy Moses asks every Israelite to learn by heart the words of its teaching and to pass them on to his children (cf. Deut 6:6-9). Every seven years, the Feast of Tabernacles becomes an opportunity to educate men, women and children (cf. Deut 31:9-13). This insistence on the transmission of teaching is the historical origin of the canonical writings, because it made the Torah widely known in early Judaism as well as in early Christianity. The spiritual practice of memorization is still today a hallmark of traditional Judaism. Reciting the psalms and other sacred writings from memory was the meditatio in early Christian monasticism.

The education campaign promoted by Humanism and the Reformation at the beginning of modern history led to further developments. While the Reformation assumed the authority of the Bible and the humanists devoted themselves primarily to the study of Jewish and Greek sources, the authority of the Bible became a key topic of the subsequent Enlightenment. merging historical-critical scholarship questioned the historical reliability of the Bible, wondering if Moses was really the author of the Torah. Moreover, authors like Voltaire were beginning to question the moral quality of the Bible. This then became a friction point for free and critical thinking that was in the process of emancipation.

Although some of the first representatives of historical criticism were Catholic, the official Catholic Church was seen primarily as a bastion of traditional values. It held that the Bible should not be questioned historically and critically, but should be interpreted with the help of tradition. This vision remains generally valid in the Eastern Churches up to the present day. 

From anti-modernism to hermeneutical wealth

In the 19th century, as the teachings of traditional faith were increasingly questioned by historical-critical scholarship, the popes had to take a stand. The Dominican Marie-Joseph Lagrange founded the École Biblique in Jerusalem in 1890, and Leo XIII established the Pontifical Biblical Commission in 1902. His plan to found a Pontifical Biblical Institute was not realized until 1909 by his successor, Pius X. The Biblical Commission was to support the pope in his doctrinal teaching, and the Biblical Institute, entrusted to the Jesuits, served as an international center for research and teaching of biblical studies and related subjects.

However, Pius X maintained a conservative attitude, which manifested itself above all in the anti-modernist oath (1910), which fundamentally rejected any historical-critical theory. Although Catholic clerics had to take this oath until 1967, important changes were already being prepared.

A key role in this regard was played by the German Jesuit Augustine Bea, who was rector of the Biblical Institute from 1930 to 1949. Pius XII consulted him on the drafting of the encyclical Divino Afflante Spiritu (September 30, 1943), in which he praised the progress of biblical studies and encouraged Catholic biblicists to continue to study languages, textual criticism, literary genres, archaeology and the ancient sciences.

In the Second Vatican Council, Fr. Bea – who in the meantime had become a cardinal – was the main author of the Declaration Nostra Aetate (1965), which revolutionized the relationship between the Catholic Church, Judaism and other non-Christian religions. Moreover, the Dogmatic Constitution Dei Verbum (1965) gave a theological foundation to historical-critical Biblical research. The Word of God, in a process of incarnation, has become accessible to human language, and therefore can be studied by all the human sciences.

What this means in practice for Catholic biblicists was indicated by the Pontifical Biblical Commission in the document “The interpretation of the Bible in the Church” (1993). This document emphasizes the fundamental importance of historical-critical research, but also recommends taking into account all recent hermeneutical perspectives, starting from the areas of literary studies, sociology, anthropology, and psychology. In this way it is in favor of a variety of scholarly approaches, insofar as they contribute to a deeper understanding of Scripture. Only fundamentalist approaches are rejected as “dangerous.”

Although ecclesiastical documents continually adhere to the truth of divine revelation, twentieth century developments show a hermeneutical revolution concerning how this truth is to be understood. From defensive anti-modernism the Catholic Church has moved on to openness to a hermeneutical richness that involves scholars – both ecclesiastical and lay – in an accurate reading of the Bible.

A worldwide community of readers

Catholic knowledge of the Bible in the 20th century was prepared by the Biblical Movement and the Liturgical Movement and was officially promoted by the Second Vatican Council and the liturgical reform. Today the Catholic Church often collaborates ecumenically with the Bible Societies for translations of Scripture. The Reformation is to be credited with rediscovering the fundamental importance of the Bible for all believers. After a long process of learning, the “wisdom of Israel in the eyes of the people” (Deut 4:6) is now also offered to all Catholic believers.

In the last decade, at the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome there has been a new opening toward cultural diversity. The Bible is now studied there by an academic community from all over the world. Teachers – Jesuits, religious, priests and lay people – come from all parts of the planet: India, Indonesia, Rwanda, Ivory Coast, Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, the United States, Canada, Italy, Malta, Slovakia, Poland and Austria. They gain their doctorates from Freiburg, London, Rome, Innsbruck, Frankfurt, Harvard, Yale, New York, Notre Dame, Berkeley, and elsewhere. This group is joined by invited Jewish, Protestant and Catholic professors from important academic institutions such as Oxford, Harvard, Yale, the Collège de France, and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Amy-Jill Levine from Vanderbilt University was the first Jewish professor to teach a course on the New Testament at the Pontifical Biblical Institute.

In the spirit of Cardinal Bea, the Institute promotes an extremely enriching ecumenical and interreligious academic collaboration. The students of the Institute come from 70 countries. They learn biblical languages, history and exegesis, and then teach them in their home countries. This academic community reflects the importance of the Bible for the universal Church. Understanding the two Testaments as founding documents of Judaism and Christianity in their importance to religious communities around the world is an exciting challenge. In this way the universalistic character of the Bible is revealed.

DOI: La Civiltà Cattolica, En. Ed. Vol. 4, no. 08 art. 8, 0620: 10.32009/22072446.0820.8

[1].    As far as the Roman Catholic Church is concerned, this is particularly evident in the work of the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome.