On the Communion of Saints

Every time Catholics recite the apostolic creed they will say “I believe in the communion of saints“.  What does communion of saints mean?  Catholics understand that the Church is communion of saints.  Who are those saints, literally means “the holy ones”?  The Catechism of the Catholic Church # 962 declares: We believe in the communion of all the faithful of Christ, those who are pilgrims on earth, the dead who are being purified, and the blessed in heaven, all together forming one Church; and we believe that in this communion, the merciful love of God and his saints is always [attentive] to our prayers.  Most, even Catholics, might think that in Catholicism the title saint is only applied to already deceased persons who have been known to lead exemplary holy life, have a number of miracles attributed to them and their sainthood will be declared solemnly by the Church.  They, in fact, are the canonized saints – they serve as role models and intercessors, the latter may scandalize some Protestants.  However all members of the Church are saints. The Church, then, is ‘the holy People of God’, and her members are called ‘saints’ (Catechism of the Catholic Church # 823). Saint is not the opposite of sinner – in fact ‘All members of the Church, including her ministers, must acknowledge that they are sinners (ibid, # 827). As long as we are still on earth we are both saints and sinners at the same time.

Catholic’s belief that saints in heaven can intercede for us may scandalize some Protestants and “Bible only” Christians.  Some may even accuse Catholics of practising necromancy, a practice condemned in Deuteronomy 18:10-11. Others says asking saints in heaven to intercede for us is robbing Christ’s position as the only mediator between God and us (1 Timothy 2:5). Protestants and “Bible only” Christians have no problem in asking other saints on earth to pray for them and vice versa – Scripture says “pray for one another” (James 5:15). Asking somebody to pray for us requires communication.  We can communicate with saints on earth orally (directly or via telephone) or through letter, email, SMS etc.  Protestants and “Bible only” Christians avoid communication with the dead – as scriptural proof usually they quote 1 Samuel 28:8-19 where Saul, through a medium, communicated with (what is supposed to be) Samuel.  What Saul did was necromancy – he consulted the dead to get information of his future.  The Catholic Church forbids such practice – all forms of divination are to be rejected; recourse to Satan or demons, conjuring up the dead or other practices falsely supposed to ‘unveil’ the future (Catechism of the Catholic Church # 2116).  From Scripture we know that it is possible to communicate with saints in heaven.  John of Revelation was able to talk with one of the twenty-four elders who are in heaven (Revelation 5:5, 7:13-14). If communication with saints is heaven is forbidden then Christ gave bad example when He talked with Moses and Elijah (Matthew 17:3).  Christ said “he who believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and whoever lives and believes in me shall never die” (John 11:25-26).  Thus Catholics believe all saints, whether they are alive on earth or alive in heaven, are able to communicate with us. We can ask saints, on earth or in heaven, to pray for us and their prayers will go through Christ, the only mediator, to God. Our communication with the saints joins us to Christ, from whom as from its fountain and head issues all grace, and the life of the People of God itself (Catechism of the Catholic Church # 957). Keep in mind that Catholics do not pray to the saints in heaven - we ask them to pray for us, just like we ask saints on earth to do the same.  It is God who ultimately answers their prayers – those saints; whether they are on earth or in heaven, only intercede for us.  In necromancy it is the dead whom we expect to provide us with information, usually about our future (life, marriage, business, investment etc.)  Finally Catholics also can pray and intercede for saints who are also alive and are being purified in purgatory (ibid # 958).

The Orthodox Study Bible

I bought my copy of Orthodox Study Bible (OSB for short) recently. The main reason why I bought it is because its text of Old Testament is based on Septuagint or LXX.  All (English) Bibles I know have their Old Testaments translated from Hebrews text, known as Masoretic text.  Masoretic text is traditional Hebrew text of the Jewish Bible, meticulously assembled and codified, and supplied with diacritical marks to enable correct pronunciation. This monumental work was begun around the 6th century AD and completed in the 10th by scholars at Talmudic academies in Babylonia and Palestine, in an effort to reproduce, as far as possible, the original text of the Hebrew Old Testament (source: Encyclopaedia Britannica 2000).  While all Catholic and Protestant’s Old Testaments are translated from this Masoretic text, most Old Testament quotation in New Testament are taken from Septuagint. For example if we compare Hebrews 10:5-7 that quotes Psalms 40:6-7, Masoretic text has “thou hast given me an open ear” (RSV) while Hebrews 5:6 reads (RSV) “a body hast thou prepared for me”. Luke relied on LXX when he mentioned Cainan in Christ’ genealogy (Luke 3:36, compared with Genesis 11:12).  While it has been known to me for quite some time that Eastern Orthodox Church always uses LXX as its source of Old Testament, there is no English translation (to the best of my knowledge) until the publication of Orthodox Study Bible in June 2008.

The Old Testament of OSB has 49 books in four divisions: (1) five books of the Law, (2) eighteen books of history, (3) seven books of Wisdom and (4) nineteen books of prophecy.  Catholic and Protestant’s Old Testaments follow the same divisions (LXX groupings) with slightly different orders of books.  OSB has Job before Psalms and ends with Daniel, not Malachi. It has all Catholic’s deuterocanonical books (known as apocryphal books to Protestants) plus two more books from LXX: 1 Ezra (or 1 Esdras) and 3 Maccabees – both are apocryphal books to Catholics.  OSB Psalms has 151 chapters compared to 150 chapters of Catholic and Protestant’s Old Testament. Epistle of Jeremiah is separated from Baruch (it is Baruch 6 in Catholic Bible).  Books with the name Ezra (or Esdras, in Greek) may confuse some.  1 Ezra or 1 Esdras in OSB is not in Catholic and Protestant’s Old Testament.  2 Ezra or 2 Esdras in OSB is equal to Ezra in Catholic and Protestant’s Old Testament.  In Catholic Vulgate Ezra is referred as 1 Esdras while 2 Esdras in Vulgate is Nehemiah in OSB, Catholic and Protestant’s Old Testament. To make thing even more complicated there is also apocryphal 2 Esdras, which is not part of OSB, Catholic and Protestant’s Old Testament.

LXX	Vulgate	RSV	OSB
2 Esdras Ch. 1 – 10	1 Esdras	Ezra	2 Esdras
2 Esdras Ch. 11-23	2 Esdras	Nehemiah	Nehemiah
1 Esdras	3 Esdras (apocrypha)	1 Esdras (apocrypha)	1 Esdras
	4 Esdras (apocrypha)	2 Esdras (apocrypha)

OSB has short introduction to the (Eastern) Orthodox Church, who claims to have the fullness of New Testament faith.  The Catholic Church, of course, makes the same claim.  Only the Catholic and Orthodox Churches can claim apostolicity – they were founded by the apostles. According to the (Eastern) Orthodox Church it was the (Western) Catholic Church who broke away from orthodoxy (true faith) in 1054 AD. While there are numerous doctrinal, political, economic and cultural factors that contribute to separation, the two main factors are (1) primacy of bishop of Rome (or the Pope) and (2) the issue of “filioque” (Latin for “and the Son”) that the Catholic Church added to Nicene Creed (the Creed was formulated in ecumenical councils of Nicea in 325 AD and of Constantinople in 381 AD).