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The Reformation

Issues: Bible Study

Reading the Bible

Why should the leaders of the Catholic Church be worried whether average Christians read the Bible? It seems odd to us that Christians should not read their own book, and so we conclude that the only reasons for forbidding such activity must necessarily have been malicious.

That would be a misleading conclusion.

The general opinion in the Middle Ages was that the Bible was a difficult and subtle text that required special training to read properly. Not only was the text itself difficult, but the Devil was ever ready to mislead and confuse the uneducated into false interpretations. And historical events seemed to prove out this fear, though not for quite a long time.

There was plenty of objective evidence to support this position. In many of the heresies of the Middle Ages, the leaders had read the Bible for themselves and come to "erroneous" conclusions. The issue of laymen reading the Bible arose in the twelfth century, when there were enough literate laymen for it to matter. When the issue did arise, it was linked closely to heretical movements.

There was, moreover, a specific method for studying the Bible, known as "exegesis".  This required training beyond mere literacy, and this training was to be had only within the Church.  Churchmen in the Middle Ages no more thought that an amateur could read the Bible and get it right than we today believe a person can engage in surgery without medical training. It was dangerous and presumptuous, and if the untrained persisted in doing it, then they were either fools or madmen. In any event, they could not be allowed to victimize the innocent.