Dark Passages of the Bible

3. The Problem of Development

92 chapter 3 The Problem of Development Having surveyed problematic themes within scripture in chapter 1 and elucidated Benedict’s Method C exegesis proposal in chapter 2, we are now in a position to explore more precisely how a Method C approach to scripture might operate. In the next two chapters, we will demonstrate that the theology of St. Thomas Aquinas provides the proper basis on which to carry out Benedict’s exegetical pro­ posal. The present chapter elucidates Aquinas’s “theology of the history of revelation,” in which he is able to show the unity of scripture (emphasized by Method A exegesis) while acknowledging the significant developments observable within its Old and New Testaments (emphasized by Method B exegesis). We will use Aquinas’s thought in the effort to account for the first major difficulty raised by the historicalcritical observations of the first chapter: the fact that not all portions of scripture explicitly teach the fullness of revealed truth Christians expect to find in the Bible. In what follows, we will see that, according to St. Thomas, the substance of the Judeo-Christian faith did not change throughout the course of salvation history even though there was a development or increase in the number of truths believed by the faithful as God gradually taught them about himself. Aquinas’s framework illumines the phenomenon of development within scripture , thus making it possible to defend the inerrancy of early biblical texts which fail to explicitly display a clear conception of the divine The Problem of Development 93 oneness (Theme 1), an understanding of evil consonant with Christian doctrine (Theme 2), or hope for the resurrection of the dead (Theme 3). Later in the book we will return to these problematic biblical themes and apply Aquinas’s thought to them, but in this chapter our task is simply to elucidate his theological principles. The “Substance” of Faith “Faith is the ‘substance’ of things hoped for; the proof of things not seen.” Such is the translation of Hebrews 11:1 offered by Benedict XVI in his second encyclical, Spe salvi.1 Benedict’s translation squares precisely with the Latin translation of this text produced at the time of the early church and taken up by St. Thomas Aquinas . The term “substance” used above is a translation of the Latin substantia and the original Greek hypostasis (ὑπόστασις). Benedict indicates that this word choice is important because it emphasizes something about the nature of the faith that other translations fail to convey. Unlike translations which translate Heb 11:1 so as to define faith as the mere “assurance” of things hoped for (as the RSV has it) or a “standing firm” (feststehen) in what one hopes, substantia or “substance” implies that the Christian faith is an organism with a unique and enduring identity.2 In his Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews, St. Thomas deals with precisely this issue of what it means for faith to be the “substance” of things for which Christians hope. His considerations in this commentary will be foundational for our own work of articulating how the “substance” of our faith remained one and the same throughout the course of divine revelation and throughout the scriptures. The importance of correctly translating the term hypostasis as substance becomes apparent when we read St. Thomas’s treatments of the virtue of faith that show up throughout his corpus, including 1. Benedict XVI, Saved in Hope [Spe salvi], 2007, §7. 2. “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (RSV). The other rendition of the term hypostasis as “standing firm” in one’s faith appears in the Einheitsübersetzung, the ecumenical translation of the Bible approved by the German Catholic bishops. 94 The Problem of Development his Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews as well as the questions on prophecy and faith in De veritate and the Summa Theologiae. It is precisely the reality that our faith has a “substance” that allows Aquinas to develop his theology of the history of revelation, which is able to vindicate the unity of divine revelation (a key component of Method A exegesis) while recognizing its development over the course of time (acknowledged above all by Method B exegesis).3 Specifically, Aquinas is able to argue that the “substance of the articles of faith,” that is to say the essence of divinely revealed truth, did not change over...