January 28, 2025 • 12 mins
In this video you'll discover how Catholics quote a lot more Scripture that they may realize. And an insight into the nature of the New Testament that you may have never considered before - even if you are a life-long Catholic.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLa4gYRV4-w
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
It has come to my attention,
and really it's common knowledge,
that many people do not watch YouTube videos
all the way through.
Well, I want to encourage you to stick
with this one to the end. Because I'm
going to share an insight on the very
nature of the new testament
that you may well have never considered before,
even if you're a lifelong Catholic.
(00:21):
That said, if you clicked on this video
because of the title, you may be thinking,
you're mistaken.
It's Protestants who are always quoting scripture, not
Catholics.
And in my experience, memorizing scripture does seem
intimidating to some Catholic Christians, although I don't
know why,
especially for those who pray the rosary.
(00:41):
The various mysteries, the our father, and the
hail Mary, all come straight out of scripture,
and the Apostle's Creed is longer than most
any Bible verse you'd wanna commit to memory.
Besides, Catholics regularly quote scripture a lot more
than they think they do, even if they
don't know the chapter and verse.
Before we get into all of that, I
do want to encourage you to take a
(01:01):
moment to like and subscribe, and to say
thanks again for all the comments.
I do my best to read them all,
and they do serve to inspire the content
of these videos.
For example, in a comment on one of
my previous videos, one person said,
I think the reason Catholics aren't great at
apologetics
is that the mass isn't about scripture teaching.
(01:23):
It's about the Eucharist.
My evangelical churches used to have 45 minutes
to 2 hours of scripture teaching every week.
A 10 minute homily isn't the same.
And, this person has a point.
Most evangelical
bible Christian communities are, shall we say, pastor
centered.
(01:44):
And therefore, their Sunday services tend to be
sermon centered.
And these sermons typically follow a predictable pattern,
whether the pastor is giving a topical message
or going through a book of the bible.
They usually begin with a brief reading from
scripture,
sometimes even just 1 or 2 verses,
followed by a lengthy teaching.
(02:04):
And to be sure, other bible verses will
follow as references to illustrate various points.
Please turn with me in your bibles to
such and such a verse.
But as the commenter pointed out, the content
of the sermon centered service
tends to be more bible teaching than actual
bible.
The Catholic mass, on the contrary, is much
(02:25):
more than the sermon or homily.
Each and every mass begins with the liturgy
of the word followed by the liturgy of
the Eucharist.
Every Sunday in solemnity,
the liturgy of the word features a first
reading, typically from the old testament, a psalm,
then a second reading from the new testament,
typically from the epistles,
(02:45):
followed by a reading from the holy gospel.
If you were to attend weekday mass through
the entire 2 year cycle of daily readings,
as well as the 3 year cycle for
Sundays,
you would hear over 70%
of the entire new testament read aloud,
including nearly 90% of the gospels,
plus around 14%
(03:06):
of the old testament,
and that's not counting the Psalms, which are
read from daily.
And you would notice that the readings are
arranged in a way that illustrates how the
old testament foreshadows
and is fulfilled in the new.
Every single day, the readings of the Latin
rite are the same all over the world,
regardless of the language in which the liturgy
(03:28):
is being celebrated.
Now, the old and new testament readings are
typically proclaimed by lay lectures.
The Psalms sung antiphonally by a cantor and
the people,
and the gospel always by the officiating priest
or an assisting deacon.
But in the mass, as in all liturgical
celebrations,
every Catholic has an office to perform,
(03:50):
including the faithful in the pew.
Therefore, every mass has another quality essential to
the church.
Namely,
hierarchical
structure.
The distribution of liturgical rules is of the
highest importance as a sign
because it clearly demonstrates
that the assembly is not just a haphazard
gathering of individuals,
(04:11):
but a manifestation
of the universal Catholic church.
And the people's parts run through the entire
liturgical celebration.
They include simple responses,
dialogues between the priests and the assembly,
chants, and prayers.
All of which are primarily derived from the
pages of the Holy Bible.
(04:32):
For example,
mass begins with the sign of the cross
and the words, in the name of the
father, and of the son, and of the
holy spirit,
taken from Matthew 28 19.
Then the priest says the greeting,
the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and
the love of God, and the communion of
the holy spirit be with you all.
(04:53):
And the people respond, and with your spirit.
These words come from the epistles of Saint
Paul.
The greeting is followed by the confitior, which
is likewise inspired by the words of scripture.
Then father says the absolution,
again, inspired by scripture, and the people respond,
amen,
which is found throughout the mass, but first
(05:15):
appears in the bible in numbers 522.
Then comes the Gloria, which is likewise thoroughly
scriptural.
It opens with the words of the angelic
host to the shepherds from Luke's gospel,
and continues with references to Revelation,
the Psalms,
more from Luke, the gospel of John, the
second letter of John, and the book of
(05:35):
Romans.
The point is that before the bible readings
for the day even begin,
mass going Catholics have already directly quoted or
alluded to over 20 verses of scripture from
memory,
but it doesn't stop there.
In the liturgy of the Eucharist, the people
recite the sanctus.
Holy, holy, holy, lord. God of hosts.
(05:59):
Heaven and earth are full of your glory.
From Isaiah 63
and Revelation 4:8.
Hosanna in the highest.
Blessed is he who comes in the name
of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest.
That's Mark 11910.
Then the Lord's prayer is, of course, from
Matthew 6:9 through 13.
(06:20):
Then the unused day.
Lamb of God, you take away the sins
of the world.
That's John 129.
Before communion, the priest holds up the host
and chalice and quotes John 129 again.
Behold the lamb of God. Beholds him who
takes away the sins of the world.
And adds, blessed are those who are called
(06:41):
to the supper of the lamb. That's Revelation
199.
And we respond with the Dominionsundinus,
the words of the centurion from Matthew 8
verse 8.
Lord, I am not worthy that you should
enter under my roof, but only say the
word, and my soul shall be healed.
So, the Catholic liturgy is thoroughly biblical,
(07:02):
which is entirely appropriate
because the bible is thoroughly liturgical.
Consider how much of the old testament is
devoted to explaining the right worship of God.
Not just the prayers and the construction of
the tabernacle and the temple,
but even the postures and gestures,
the vessels and vestments, the altars, the incense,
(07:22):
the candlesticks.
It's all laid out in the bible.
And much of the new testament is likewise
devoted to right worship,
which brings us to the high point of
the holy mass,
the consecration,
where the priest recites the words of Jesus
from the last supper. That is the institution
narrative,
which appears in each of the synoptic gospels
(07:44):
and in first Corinthians.
Now, here's the interesting thing.
Modern biblical scholars generally agree that Mark was
the first gospel written,
about 80, 65 to 70.
But first Corinthian was written years earlier,
between
52 57 AD.
(08:04):
That makes first Corinthians 1123
through 26,
the earliest written account of the institution narrative
in the New Testament.
Therefore, Saint Paul cannot be quoting the gospel,
nor is he inventing the consecration.
Rather, he says, for what I received from
the Lord, I handed on to you.
(08:25):
The lord Jesus, on the night he was
betrayed, took bread. And after giving thanks, he
broke it and said,
this is my body that is for you.
Do this in remembrance of me.
Notice, handed on is past tense.
So this is something that had been handed
on to Paul, that he, in turn, handed
(08:47):
on to the Corinthians.
As he himself would say, by word-of-mouth and
not by letter.
In fact,
the word for handed on in the Latin
is tradidi,
from trado, tradis, tradare,
tradicio,
from which we get the English word tradition,
literally to hand on.
So Saint Paul is not appealing to scripture,
(09:09):
but tradition in order to correct a liturgical
abuse.
All of which means that the liturgy came
before the New Testament.
In fact, the New Testament came before the
New Testament.
What does that mean? Well, let's look at
the next verse.
In the same fashion, after the supper, he
also took the cup and said,
(09:32):
this cup is the new covenant in my
blood.
Whenever you drink it, do this in remembrance
of me.
This cup is the new covenant,
or in Latin,
New Testament.
You'll notice, as Scott Hahn has pointed out,
that the only time the words New Testament
(09:54):
appear in the New Testament,
Jesus is not referring to a document,
but to a sacrament.
And that's according to the document.
And Saint Paul quotes from the ancient liturgy
in his other letters as well.
Likewise, the book of Hebrews and the book
of Revelation abound with references to the ancient
liturgy,
(10:15):
which I suspect is a main reason why
those books, among several others from the New
Testament,
were removed from the Lutheran canon of Scripture
for nearly 75 years.
But that's another topic for another video.
So that one commentator was half right. The
mass is about the Eucharist.
And the institution of the Eucharist took place
(10:36):
at the last supper,
and the liturgy was celebrated by the apostles.
The general outline of the Catholic mass as
we have it today
can be found as early as the 2nd
century writings of Saint Justin Martyr.
And as we've seen, apart from the 10
minute homily,
the mass is absolutely permeated with scripture. Old
(10:58):
testament and new testament.
But the fact remains that the new testament
liturgy
came before the new testament scripture and even
influenced it.
Just as the New Testament scripture in turn
influenced the development of the liturgy,
to the point that the Holy Mass and
the liturgy of the hours are a veritable
tapestry
(11:19):
woven from the inspired words of the Holy
Bible.
According to the catechism of the Catholic church,
the liturgy of the Eucharist unfolds according to
a fundamental structure, which has been preserved
throughout the centuries down to our own day.
The liturgy of the word and the liturgy
of the Eucharist together
(11:40):
form one single act of worship.
The Eucharistic table set for us is the
table both of the word of God and
the body of the Lord.
And it is because the church founded by
Christ has retained this fundamental
liturgical structure
that Catholics
are always quoting scripture.
(12:01):
And that's no nonsense.
Okay. That's it for now. Kindly keep the
comments coming. Please like and subscribe. And until
next time, thanks for listening,
and may God richly bless you and your
family.
It has come to my attention,
and really it's common knowledge,
that many people do not watch YouTube videos
all the way through.
Well, I want to encourage you to stick
with this one to the end. Because I'm
going to share an insight on the very
nature of the new testament
that you may well have never considered before,
even if you're a lifelong Catholic.
(00:21):
That said, if you clicked on this video
because of the title, you may be thinking,
you're mistaken.
It's Protestants who are always quoting scripture, not
Catholics.
And in my experience, memorizing scripture does seem
intimidating to some Catholic Christians, although I don't
know why,
especially for those who pray the rosary.
(00:41):
The various mysteries, the our father, and the
hail Mary, all come straight out of scripture,
and the Apostle's Creed is longer than most
any Bible verse you'd wanna commit to memory.
Besides, Catholics regularly quote scripture a lot more
than they think they do, even if they
don't know the chapter and verse.
Before we get into all of that, I
do want to encourage you to take a
(01:01):
moment to like and subscribe, and to say
thanks again for all the comments.
I do my best to read them all,
and they do serve to inspire the content
of these videos.
For example, in a comment on one of
my previous videos, one person said,
I think the reason Catholics aren't great at
apologetics
is that the mass isn't about scripture teaching.
(01:23):
It's about the Eucharist.
My evangelical churches used to have 45 minutes
to 2 hours of scripture teaching every week.
A 10 minute homily isn't the same.
And, this person has a point.
Most evangelical
bible Christian communities are, shall we say, pastor
centered.
(01:44):
And therefore, their Sunday services tend to be
sermon centered.
And these sermons typically follow a predictable pattern,
whether the pastor is giving a topical message
or going through a book of the bible.
They usually begin with a brief reading from
scripture,
sometimes even just 1 or 2 verses,
followed by a lengthy teaching.
(02:04):
And to be sure, other bible verses will
follow as references to illustrate various points.
Please turn with me in your bibles to
such and such a verse.
But as the commenter pointed out, the content
of the sermon centered service
tends to be more bible teaching than actual
bible.
The Catholic mass, on the contrary, is much
(02:25):
more than the sermon or homily.
Each and every mass begins with the liturgy
of the word followed by the liturgy of
the Eucharist.
Every Sunday in solemnity,
the liturgy of the word features a first
reading, typically from the old testament, a psalm,
then a second reading from the new testament,
typically from the epistles,
(02:45):
followed by a reading from the holy gospel.
If you were to attend weekday mass through
the entire 2 year cycle of daily readings,
as well as the 3 year cycle for
Sundays,
you would hear over 70%
of the entire new testament read aloud,
including nearly 90% of the gospels,
plus around 14%
(03:06):
of the old testament,
and that's not counting the Psalms, which are
read from daily.
And you would notice that the readings are
arranged in a way that illustrates how the
old testament foreshadows
and is fulfilled in the new.
Every single day, the readings of the Latin
rite are the same all over the world,
regardless of the language in which the liturgy
(03:28):
is being celebrated.
Now, the old and new testament readings are
typically proclaimed by lay lectures.
The Psalms sung antiphonally by a cantor and
the people,
and the gospel always by the officiating priest
or an assisting deacon.
But in the mass, as in all liturgical
celebrations,
every Catholic has an office to perform,
(03:50):
including the faithful in the pew.
Therefore, every mass has another quality essential to
the church.
Namely,
hierarchical
structure.
The distribution of liturgical rules is of the
highest importance as a sign
because it clearly demonstrates
that the assembly is not just a haphazard
gathering of individuals,
(04:11):
but a manifestation
of the universal Catholic church.
And the people's parts run through the entire
liturgical celebration.
They include simple responses,
dialogues between the priests and the assembly,
chants, and prayers.
All of which are primarily derived from the
pages of the Holy Bible.
(04:32):
For example,
mass begins with the sign of the cross
and the words, in the name of the
father, and of the son, and of the
holy spirit,
taken from Matthew 28 19.
Then the priest says the greeting,
the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and
the love of God, and the communion of
the holy spirit be with you all.
(04:53):
And the people respond, and with your spirit.
These words come from the epistles of Saint
Paul.
The greeting is followed by the confitior, which
is likewise inspired by the words of scripture.
Then father says the absolution,
again, inspired by scripture, and the people respond,
amen,
which is found throughout the mass, but first
(05:15):
appears in the bible in numbers 522.
Then comes the Gloria, which is likewise thoroughly
scriptural.
It opens with the words of the angelic
host to the shepherds from Luke's gospel,
and continues with references to Revelation,
the Psalms,
more from Luke, the gospel of John, the
second letter of John, and the book of
(05:35):
Romans.
The point is that before the bible readings
for the day even begin,
mass going Catholics have already directly quoted or
alluded to over 20 verses of scripture from
memory,
but it doesn't stop there.
In the liturgy of the Eucharist, the people
recite the sanctus.
Holy, holy, holy, lord. God of hosts.
(05:59):
Heaven and earth are full of your glory.
From Isaiah 63
and Revelation 4:8.
Hosanna in the highest.
Blessed is he who comes in the name
of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest.
That's Mark 11910.
Then the Lord's prayer is, of course, from
Matthew 6:9 through 13.
(06:20):
Then the unused day.
Lamb of God, you take away the sins
of the world.
That's John 129.
Before communion, the priest holds up the host
and chalice and quotes John 129 again.
Behold the lamb of God. Beholds him who
takes away the sins of the world.
And adds, blessed are those who are called
(06:41):
to the supper of the lamb. That's Revelation
199.
And we respond with the Dominionsundinus,
the words of the centurion from Matthew 8
verse 8.
Lord, I am not worthy that you should
enter under my roof, but only say the
word, and my soul shall be healed.
So, the Catholic liturgy is thoroughly biblical,
(07:02):
which is entirely appropriate
because the bible is thoroughly liturgical.
Consider how much of the old testament is
devoted to explaining the right worship of God.
Not just the prayers and the construction of
the tabernacle and the temple,
but even the postures and gestures,
the vessels and vestments, the altars, the incense,
(07:22):
the candlesticks.
It's all laid out in the bible.
And much of the new testament is likewise
devoted to right worship,
which brings us to the high point of
the holy mass,
the consecration,
where the priest recites the words of Jesus
from the last supper. That is the institution
narrative,
which appears in each of the synoptic gospels
(07:44):
and in first Corinthians.
Now, here's the interesting thing.
Modern biblical scholars generally agree that Mark was
the first gospel written,
about 80, 65 to 70.
But first Corinthian was written years earlier,
between
52 57 AD.
(08:04):
That makes first Corinthians 1123
through 26,
the earliest written account of the institution narrative
in the New Testament.
Therefore, Saint Paul cannot be quoting the gospel,
nor is he inventing the consecration.
Rather, he says, for what I received from
the Lord, I handed on to you.
(08:25):
The lord Jesus, on the night he was
betrayed, took bread. And after giving thanks, he
broke it and said,
this is my body that is for you.
Do this in remembrance of me.
Notice, handed on is past tense.
So this is something that had been handed
on to Paul, that he, in turn, handed
(08:47):
on to the Corinthians.
As he himself would say, by word-of-mouth and
not by letter.
In fact,
the word for handed on in the Latin
is tradidi,
from trado, tradis, tradare,
tradicio,
from which we get the English word tradition,
literally to hand on.
So Saint Paul is not appealing to scripture,
(09:09):
but tradition in order to correct a liturgical
abuse.
All of which means that the liturgy came
before the New Testament.
In fact, the New Testament came before the
New Testament.
What does that mean? Well, let's look at
the next verse.
In the same fashion, after the supper, he
also took the cup and said,
(09:32):
this cup is the new covenant in my
blood.
Whenever you drink it, do this in remembrance
of me.
This cup is the new covenant,
or in Latin,
New Testament.
You'll notice, as Scott Hahn has pointed out,
that the only time the words New Testament
(09:54):
appear in the New Testament,
Jesus is not referring to a document,
but to a sacrament.
And that's according to the document.
And Saint Paul quotes from the ancient liturgy
in his other letters as well.
Likewise, the book of Hebrews and the book
of Revelation abound with references to the ancient
liturgy,
(10:15):
which I suspect is a main reason why
those books, among several others from the New
Testament,
were removed from the Lutheran canon of Scripture
for nearly 75 years.
But that's another topic for another video.
So that one commentator was half right. The
mass is about the Eucharist.
And the institution of the Eucharist took place
(10:36):
at the last supper,
and the liturgy was celebrated by the apostles.
The general outline of the Catholic mass as
we have it today
can be found as early as the 2nd
century writings of Saint Justin Martyr.
And as we've seen, apart from the 10
minute homily,
the mass is absolutely permeated with scripture. Old
(10:58):
testament and new testament.
But the fact remains that the new testament
liturgy
came before the new testament scripture and even
influenced it.
Just as the New Testament scripture in turn
influenced the development of the liturgy,
to the point that the Holy Mass and
the liturgy of the hours are a veritable
tapestry
(11:19):
woven from the inspired words of the Holy
Bible.
According to the catechism of the Catholic church,
the liturgy of the Eucharist unfolds according to
a fundamental structure, which has been preserved
throughout the centuries down to our own day.
The liturgy of the word and the liturgy
of the Eucharist together
(11:40):
form one single act of worship.
The Eucharistic table set for us is the
table both of the word of God and
the body of the Lord.
And it is because the church founded by
Christ has retained this fundamental
liturgical structure
that Catholics
are always quoting scripture.
(12:01):
And that's no nonsense.
Okay. That's it for now. Kindly keep the
comments coming. Please like and subscribe. And until
next time, thanks for listening,
and may God richly bless you and your
family.
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