Scripture and Tradition

The New Testament books were written over decades and circulated among churches. Lists of which writings were authoritative were still being debated into the fourth century; the canon Catholics use today was affirmed at regional councils in that period and reaffirmed at Trent.

Catholic Bibles include seven books in the Old Testament that most Protestant Bibles place in a separate section or omit. The disagreement is about which ancient Jewish collection to follow, not about hiding anything.

Tradition with a capital T does not mean 'the way we have always done things'. It means the living handing-on of what the apostles received (in worship, creeds, and teaching) of which Scripture is the written part.

Small-t traditions (devotions, customs, styles of music, disciplines like clerical celibacy in the Latin Church) can and do change.

Yes, and they are strongly encouraged to. The Second Vatican Council urged wide access to Scripture for all the faithful, and Scripture is read aloud at every Mass on a fixed cycle covering much of the Bible.

Historical restrictions on vernacular translations existed in particular times and places, usually tied to disputes about specific translations. They are not the current teaching or practice.

Catholic interpretation attends to what the human author intended, the literary form being used, and the whole of Scripture together, not single verses lifted out of context.

That principle has a pastoral edge: a verse quoted at you to demand submission, silence, or endurance of harm has been detached from the rest of the text. Reading in community is a protection against that, when the community is healthy.

The Magisterium is the Church's teaching office, exercised by the pope and bishops in communion with him. Its job is to hand on and safeguard what has been received, not to invent new revelation.

It does not mean an individual bishop or priest is right about everything he says. Ordinary opinions, homilies, and private theological views carry the weight of the person offering them, not the weight of defined doctrine.

Ask what kind of writing it is: history, poetry, parable, law code, apocalyptic vision. Each has different rules for how literally to take its details.

Ask how the Church has actually used the passage across time, in the liturgy and in the Catechism, rather than relying on a single reading offered to you in one setting.

If a reading of a text would require you to accept cruelty, deception, or the silencing of a victim, that reading has already failed the test of the whole of Scripture, which culminates in Christ's mercy.