"Every reader of the Holy Scriptures, even the simplest one, should own a proportionate knowledge of the sacred text, recalling that the Word is covered with concrete words to which it bows and adapts, to become understandable and Audible for humanity". It is written in the "Message of the Synod of bishops to the People of God", published today, just before the close of the synodal assembly. Msgr. Gianfranco Ravasi presented the Message during a conference at the Vatican pressroom. Msgr. Gianfranco Ravasi is the president of the Papal Council of Culture and of the Commission for the Message. Owing to its "carnal dimension", it is written in the message, the Bible "needs a historical and literary analysis, to be carried out through the various methods and approaches offered by the biblical exegesis". It is "a necessary commitment: if one excludes it, one may fall into fundamentalism, which actually denies the incarnation of the divine Word in history, and does not acknowledge that the Word expresses itself in the Bible through a human language. And that language has to be deciphered, studied and understood. Fundamentalism ignores that divine inspiration did not cancel the historical identity and the personalities of the human authors". (To be continued)
