Dear brother Harry
I think I went a little bit overboard with length in my previoius post so I'll try and keep this post more concise but still meaty.
Before I address the actual bible quote you provided me with directly, I would like to first explain the Catholic view of the Bible, which is quite different to how Protestants view the Bible, Muslims the Qur'an and Sikhs the Guru Granth Sahib ji. We have a radically different relationship to this sacred text, and it is important to understand this.
Our Muslim brothers often to refer to Christians as "People of the Book", a term of respect for other Abrahamic religions, but one which Catholics outright reject. Catholicism is not a religion of the Book, the Bible or otherwise.
As the Catechism explains:
"...The Catholic faith is not a "religion of the book." Catholicism is the religion of the "Word" of God, a word which is "not a written and mute word, but the Word is incarnate and living". If the Scriptures are not to remain a dead letter,the eternal Word of the living God, must, through the Holy Spirit, "open [our] minds to understand the Scriptures."..."
Unlike the Qur'an and the sacred poetry of the Gurus, Jesus never wrote anything directly. He never came to give the world a Sacred Sctipture. Christians later wrote some of his words down, and the Apostles wrote writings that were written down for reasons of posterity that were later received as inspired writ, but this was never what Jesus commanded.
Jesus called Twelve Apostles and an extended group of disciples composed of men and women and created a construct now known from the early second century onwards as
the Catholic Church which means in English, "the Universal Assembly" [of Christ's disciples]. He gave these Apostles a
set of teachings which he desired to become a Tradition - this word comes from the Latin
traditio which means, "to hand down". Jesus laid hands on the Apostles, ordaining them with his authority to teach, and they in turn laid hands on other people and gave them the authority to teach. And thus began what Catholics call, "the Apostolic Succession" - the direct line of succession of bishops stretching right back to the Apostles and then to Jesus Himself which constitutes the Magisterium or Teaching Authority of the Catholic Church united around the locus of stability that is the Church of Rome, headed by the Pope, where the Apostles Peter and Paul wanted the fledgling Church to forever have its centre of gravity, the root of this living, beathing tradition handed down from Christ to his Apostles and the Bishops, priests and laity that would suceed them down the generations.
The New Testament Writings are the codification of some of these teachings in
Written form. However Catholics also possess multitudes of
Unwritten, non-bliblical Apostolic teachings which are of equal authority with the Bible. The Church approved and selected the Writings which would form the New Testament, but it and not the Bible remained the Living Tradition created by Jesus and passed down from Bishop to Bishop by the laying on of hands. It only could infallibly interpret the Bible, both Old and New Testaments, through the lens of that Sacred Tradition of which the NT constitiuted the written part - and it interprets it in a progressive development of doctrine and understanding over time, that is still happening now, through the living witness of the Early Church Fathers, the later saints, scholastics, theologians, mystics and the Church hierarchy.
Thus the Catholic Church explained at Vatican II.
The Second Vatican Council ("Vatican II") wrote an important document called "On Divine Revelation" (
Dei Verbum in Latin). It's quite readable, and contains definitive teaching on
the full meaning of Catholic Tradition.
The Council notes the importance of seeing that Catholic Tradition is firmly rooted in the Apostles: it is Christ's whole gift to them, and to us. The Council writes:
In His gracious goodness, God has seen to it that what He had revealed for the salvation of all nations would abide perpetually in its full integrity and be handed on to all generations. Therefore Christ the Lord in whom the full revelation of the supreme God is brought to completion..., commissioned the Apostles to preach to all men that Gospel which is the source of all saving truth and moral teaching, and to impart to them heavenly gifts.
(Dei Verbum, 7)
It is specifically this "commissioning of the Apostles" that is fulfilled in the handing on of Catholic Tradition.
The Apostles dedicated themselves to this mission, and they appointed other faithful men to succeed them and carry on their work. That same passage of
Dei Verbum continues:
This commission was faithfully fulfilled by the Apostles who, by their oral preaching, by example, and by observances handed on what they had received from the lips of Christ, from living with Him, and from what He did, or what they had learned through the prompting of the Holy Spirit. The commission was fulfilled, too, by those Apostles and apostolic men who under the inspiration of the same Holy Spirit committed the message of salvation to writing.
(Dei Verbum, 7)
To see Sacred Tradition in action, lets take the teaching that abortion is evil and cannot be condoned by Christians. This is stated nowhere in the Bible but Christ and Apostles clearly taught it.
This Sacred Tradition is attested as far back as the first century documents the Didache and the Epistle of Barnabus, written before the close of the Apostolic age:
The Didache
"The second commandment of the teaching: You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not seduce boys. You shall not commit fornication. You shall not steal. You shall not practice magic. You shall not use potions. You shall not procure [an] abortion, nor destroy a newborn child" (Didache 2:1–2 [A.D. 70]).
The Letter of Barnabas
"The way of light, then, is as follows. If anyone desires to travel to the appointed place, he must be zealous in his works. The knowledge, therefore, which is given to us for the purpose of walking in this way, is the following. . . . Thou shalt not slay the child by procuring abortion; nor, again, shalt thou destroy it after it is born" (Letter of Barnabas 19 [A.D. 74]).
Now lets trace this Sacred Tradition about a century later, the Apostolic Age has closed but this Sacred revealed tradition is still being attested to by Church authorities as universal Christian belief from Jesus and the Apostles:
Tertullian
"In our case, a murder being once for all forbidden, we may not destroy even the fetus in the womb, while as yet the human being derives blood from the other parts of the body for its sustenance. To hinder a birth is merely a speedier man-killing; nor does it matter whether you take away a life that is born, or destroy one that is coming to birth. That is a man which is going to be one; you have the fruit already in its seed" (Apology 9:8 [A.D. 197]).
And 200 years after this:
The Apostolic Constitutions
"Thou shalt not use magic. Thou shalt not use witchcraft; for he says, ‘You shall not suffer a witch to live’ [Ex. 22:18]. Thou shall not slay thy child by causing abortion, nor kill that which is begotten. . . . if it be slain, [it] shall be avenged, as being unjustly destroyed" (Apostolic Constitutions 7:3 [A.D. 400]).
And now just over 20 years ago in the modern Catechism of the Catholic Church:
Modern Catechism of the Catholic Church
"...2270 Human life must be respected and protected absolutely from the moment of conception. From the first moment of his existence, a human being must be recognized as having the rights of a person - among which is the inviolable right of every innocent being to life.72
Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you.73
My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately wrought in the depths of the earth.74
2271 Since the first century the Church has affirmed the moral evil of every procured abortion. This teaching has not changed and remains unchangeable. Direct abortion, that is to say, abortion willed either as an end or a means, is gravely contrary to the moral law:
You shall not kill the embryo by abortion and shall not cause the newborn to perish.75
God, the Lord of life, has entrusted to men the noble mission of safeguarding life, and men must carry it out in a manner worthy of themselves. Life must be protected with the utmost care from the moment of conception: abortion and infanticide are abominable crimes..."
That abortion is unlawful for Christians is thus (undisputably) Divine Revelation since it is a genuine Sacred Tradition that has always and universally been taught by the Church. But its not at all biblical.
Pope Benedict XVI gave a beautiful
catechesis on Catholic Tradition in late April, 2006. He says that we miss the profound meaning of Catholic Tradition if we see it only as the handing on of a static Revelation.
More than that, it is the
active, continuous work of the Holy Spirit in our particular time: it makes real and tangible "the active presence of the Lord Jesus in his people, realized by the Holy Spirit".
Seeing Catholic Tradition as the active presence of Christ through the work of the Spirit is precisely what accomplishes the "transmission of the goods of salvation" to us:
Thanks to Tradition, guaranteed by the ministry of the apostles and their successors, the water of life that flowed from the side of Christ and his saving blood comes to the women and men of all times. In this way, Tradition is the permanent presence of the Savior who comes to meet, redeem and sanctify us in the Spirit through the ministry of his Church for the glory of the Father.
This reality of the divine action of the Holy Spirit within the Church is essential to understanding Catholic Tradition. It is what makes Sacred Tradition something far different than mere human traditions.
Through that same action of the Spirit, Catholic Tradition incorporates us into the Communion of the Saints. It ensures the connection "between the experience of the apostolic faith, lived in the original community of the disciples, and the present experience of Christ in his Church."
The Pope concludes:
Tradition is the living river that unites us to the origins, the living river in which the origins are always present, the great river that leads us to the port of eternity. In this living river, the word of the Lord...: "And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age", is fulfilled again (Matthew 28:20).
Through Catholic Tradition, the Holy Spirit works to bring the grace and truth of Christ into our own lives.
Because Christ was born a Jew, and Christianity first emerged as a distinct religion from the Mother religion of Judaism, Christians inherited the Jewish scriptures known by Jews as the
Tanakh and by us Christians as
the Old Testament that you quote from above, and which you think based upon that quote from Nahum, depicts an angry, jealous and wrathful God.
The Old Testament does not form part of the teachings which Jesus passed down, however Christians do believe it to be inspired and divinely revealed
BUT also to be imperfect and provisional unlike the
Sacred Tradition passed down from Jesus, being written as it was by men of their times under the guidance of the Holy Spirit within them, who made use of their own experiences, knowledge, aptutides, skills and the
genre that they chose to write these texts with. And so you get from these writings a true, holy and divine understanding of God but mediated through the understanding of imperfect human beings living many thousands of years ago amidst pagan nations worshipping many gods and in a state of permanent warfare and tribalism. God, nonetheless, guided this ancient people known as the Hebrews, gradually, from the depths of ignorance of his Nature and Oneness, from polytheism and human sacrifice to animal sacrifice, then to no sacrifices at all, from hatred to love, from war to peace - gradually revealing more and more about Himself to this little Middle-eastern tribe, moving them away from barbarity and paganism with every passing age, so that they would become "a light to the nations" - and fulfil his plan of being the race that would give birth to Jesus Christ who would go on to found a religion that would become the religion of the Roman Empire, slowly leading all the nations of the then known world away from polytheism to worship of One God, away from merely outward shows of ceremonial religion, and excessive rules and dietary codes, to a more interior religion founded upon a more exalted understanding of God as Love Itself.
Thus in the Catechism the Church explains:
204 God revealed himself progressively and under different names to his people
Dei Verbum itself notes, that the Old Testament “contains matters imperfect and provisional.” But the Council goes on to say that,
"These books [of the Old Testament] nevertheless show us authentic divine teaching. Christians should accept with veneration these writings which give expression to a lively sense of God, which are a storehouse of sublime teaching on God and of sound wisdom on human life, as well as a wonderful treasury of prayers; in them, too, the mystery of our salvation is present in a hidden way" (15).
Thus in other Books of the OT we find teachings such as this:
"...The Spirit of the Lord has filled the Universe...The whole universe before you is like a speck that tips the scales, and like a drop of morning dew that falls on the ground. But you are merciful to all, for you can do all things, and you overlook people's sins. For you love all things that exist, and detest none of the things that you have made, for you would not have made anything if you had hated it. How would anything have endured if you had not willed it? Or how would anything not called forth by you have been preserved? You spare all things, for they are yours, O Lord, you who love the living. For your immortal spirit is in all things...For from the greatness and the beauty of created things their original author, by analogy, is seen...You, our God, are kind and true, patient, and ruling all things in mercy. For even if we sin we are yours, knowing your power..."
- The Book of Wisdom (Holy Bible)
The Book of Wisdom was written only aroumd 150 years before the birth of Christ and you can easily see the progression the Catholic Church speaks about.
The Book of Nahum which you quote from above was written by the Prophet Nahum in the 740s BC - that is
OVER SEVEN HUNDRED YEARS BEFORE THE BIRTH OF JESUS.
You thus quoted from a book produced - yes under the guidance of the Holy Spritit but by a people that were not yet even pure monotheists, but many of whom still worshipped many gods, passed their children through fire to sacrifice them to these foreign idols and did many other such barbarities.
The subject of Nahum's book is the approaching complete and final destruction of
Nineveh, the capital of the great and at that time flourishing
Assyrian empire by the Babylonian Empire. The King was at the height of his glory. Nineveh was a city of vast extent, and was then the center of the civilization and commerce of the world, a "
bloody city all full of lies and robbery" (Nahum 3:1), for it had robbed and plundered all the neighboring nations. It was strongly fortified on every side, bidding defiance to every enemy.
From its opening, Nahum shows God to be slow to anger - a certain progression from the then current understandings of God by the Assyrians and other neighbouring nations with their multiple warrior gods who delighted in warfare, the spilling of blood and in frenzied orgies - although not as yet a pure understanding of God as taught by Christianity or Sikhism.
Thus Nahum writes,
Nahum 1:3 (NIV)
The LORD is slow to anger and great in power...The LORD is good, a refuge in times of trouble. He cares for those who trust in him
Slow to anger - far cry from this dude: Ashur, the King of the Assyrian gods, a circle or wheel, suspended from wings, and enclosing a warrior drawing his bow to discharge an arrow,
Ashur and the other deities were physical gods made of wood and stone that reflected human society. Nahum preached a God who was not of physical form, but was formless, whose form could not be depicted because he had none, who was slow to anger and a safe refuge for all who trusted in Him, who was infinetly good.
Ashur's followers chanted, "With the mighty power of the god Ashur, my lord, I marched to the land Sugu...I conquered their cities, took their gods, and brought out their booty, possessions and property. I burnt razed and destroyed their cities and turned them into ruin hills. I imposed heavy yoke of my dominion upon them and made them slaves of Ashur, my lord. I marched to the land of Sighu, people unsubmissive to the god Ashur my lord. I brought about their defeat. I built up mounds with the corpses..."
The Assyrian Army massacred men, women and children of the cities that refused to pay them tribute. Israel was one of them. And now Nahum, in the name of the true God, was standing up and fearlessly declaring that the rule of the Assyrian Empire was at an end and a new age was coming, where men would trust not in gods of wood and stone but in the Onle, Living God - not in the power of men but in the divine.
Jesus taught:
"...But I say to you,
Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect..."
- Jesus Christ (Gospel of Matthew 5:44-48)
God makes his sun rise on evil and good without partiality and with equal love and care? And furthermore this selfless, impartial, open-ended, universally applicable love is the justification for the need of Christians to love their enemies?
You will not find that full, purified depiction of God yet in the Book of Nahum. Humanity was not yet advanced enough. The most important thing then according to the Divine Plan was to remove humanity from idolatry and pride and strength in
human might, arms and warfare and idolatry.
Nahum was telling the humanity of his time that the Assyrian Empire, for all its power and might, would pass away. It was mortal, it could not last. And so he directed their attention to a Higher Power, which he called
YHWH - translated as, "the Lord" in our Bibles. The Divine Name YHWH could not be pronounced, so had to be substituted with other words, and it means, "I AM WHO AM". A God who
IS. Not an idol to be worshipped with human and animal sacrifices. And Nahum, to convince his people of this truth, made use of the violent imagery then used by the Assyrians to describe both their own power and their gods -
the message was simple: Everything that you think these violent, worldly Kings and Empires are, God is so much more. Trust in Him and not in mere men!
It took a long time to get humanity to the exalted, pure vision of God that is found in Sikhism and indeed in the Catholic mystics.
Please don't judge ancient peoples by modern standards. Its not fair brother.
How can one compare a poem to God written 3000 years ago during the Assyrian conquest of Israel and Guru Nanak in the 1400s? So much progression has happened since then.
