Second Vatican Ecumenical Council
DOGMATIC CONSTITUTION ON DIVINE REVELATION - (DEI VERBUM)
PAUL, BISHOP, SERVANT OF THE SERVANTS OF GOD TOGETHER WITH THE FATHERS OF THE SACRED COUNCIL FOR EVERLASTING MEMORY
PREFACE
1. Hearing the Word of God with reverence and proclaiming it with faith, the
sacred Synod takes its direction from these words of St John: "We announce to
you the eternal life which dwelt with the Father and was made visible to us.
What we have seen and heard we announce to you, so that you may have fellowship
with us and our common fellowship be with the Father and His Son Jesus Christ"
(1 John 1:2-3). Therefore, following in the footsteps of the Council of Trent
and of the First Vatican Council, this present Council wishes to set forth
authentic doctrine on divine revelation and how it is handed on, so that by
hearing the message of salvation the whole world may believe, by believing it
may hope, and by hoping it may love [1].
CHAPTER I - REVELATION ITSELF
2. In His goodness and wisdom God chose to reveal Himself and to make known to
us the hidden purpose of His will (see Eph. 1:9) by which through Christ, the
Word made flesh, man might in the Holy Spirit have access to the Father and come
to share in the divine nature (see Eph. 2:18; 2 Peter 1:4). Through this
revelation, therefore, the invisible God (see Col. 1:15; 1 Tim. 1:17) out of the
abundance of His love speaks to men as friends (see Ex. 33:11; John 15:14-15)
and lives among them (see Bar. 3:38), so that He may invite and take them into
fellowship with Himself. This plan of revelation is realized by deeds and words
having an inner unity: the deeds wrought by God in the history of salvation
manifest and confirm the teaching and realities signified by the words, while
the words proclaim the deeds and clarify the mystery contained in them. By this
revelation then, the deepest truth about God and the salvation of man shines out
for our sake in Christ, who is both the mediator and the fullness of all
revelation [2].
3. God, who through the Word creates all things (see John 1:3) and keeps them in
existence, gives men an enduring witness to Himself in created realities (see
Rom. 1:19-20). Planning to make known the way of heavenly salvation, He went
further and from the start manifested Himself to our first parents. Then after
their fall His promise of redemption aroused in them the hope of being saved
(see Gen. 3:15) and from that time on He ceaselessly kept the human race in His
care, to give eternal life to those who perseveringly do good in search of
salvation (see Rom. 2:6-7). Then, at the time He had appointed He called Abraham
in order make of him a great nation (see Gen. 12:2). Through the patriarchs, and
after them through Moses and the prophets, He taught this people to acknowledge
Himself the one living and true God, provident father and just judge, and to
wait for the Saviour promised by Him, and in this manner prepared the way for
the Gospel down through the centuries.
4. Then, after speaking in many and varied ways through the prophets, "now at
last in these days God has spoken to us in His Son" (Heb. 1:1- 2). For He sent
His Son, the eternal Word, who enlightens all men, so that He might dwell among
men and tell them of the innermost being of God (see John 1:1-18). Jesus Christ,
therefore, the Word made flesh, was sent as "a man to men" [3]. He "speaks the
words of God" (John 3:34), and completes the work of salvation which His Father
gave to Him to do (see John 5:36, 17:4). To see Jesus is to see His Father (see
John 14:9). For this reason Jesus perfected revelation by fulfilling it through
his whole work of making Himself present and manifesting Himself: through His
words and deeds, His signs and wonders, but especially through His death and
glorious resurrection from the dead and final sending of the Spirit of truth.
Moreover He confirmed with divine testimony what revelation proclaimed, that God
is with us to free us from the darkness of sin and death, and to raise us up to
life eternal.
The Christian dispensation, therefore, as the new and definitive covenant, will
never pass away and we now await no further new public revelation before the
glorious manifestation of our Lord Jesus Christ (see 1 Tim. 6:14 and Tit. 2:13).
5. "The obedience of faith" (Rom. 16:26; see Rom. 1:5; 2 Cor. 10:5-6) "is to be
given to God who reveals, an obedience by which man commits his whole self
freely to God, offering the full submission of intellect and will to God who
reveals" [4], and freely assenting to the truth revealed by Him. TO make this
act of faith, the grace of God and the interior help of the Holy Spirit must
precede and assist, moving the heart and turning it to God, opening the eyes of
the mind and giving "joy and ease to everyone in assenting to the truth and
believing it" [5]. To bring about an ever deeper understanding of revelation the
same Holy Spirit constantly brings faith to completion by His gifts.
6. Through divine revelation, God chose to show forth and communicate Himself
and the eternal decisions of His will regarding the salvation of men. That is to
say, He chose to share with them those divine treasures which totally transcend
the understanding of the human mind [6]. As a sacred synod has affirmed, "God,
the beginning and end of all things, can be known with certainty from created
reality by the light of human reason" (See Rom. 1:20); but it teaches that it is
through His revelation "that those religious truths which are by their nature
accessible to human reason can be known by all men with ease, with solid
certitude and with no trace of error, even in this present state of the human
race" [7].
CHAPTER II - HANDING ON DIVINE REVELATION
7. 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 (see 2 Cor. 1:30; 3:15;
4:6), commissioned the Apostles to preach to all men that Gospel which is the
source of all saving truth and moral teaching [1], and to impart to them
heavenly gifts. This Gospel had been promised in former times through the
prophets, and Christ Himself had fulfilled it and promulgated it with His lips.
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 [2].
But in order to keep the Gospel forever whole and alive within the Church, the
Apostles left bishops as their successors, "handing over" to them "the authority
to teach in their own place" [3]. This sacred tradition, therefore, and Sacred
Scripture of both the Old and New Testaments are like a mirror in which the
pilgrim Church on earth looks at God, from whom she has received everything,
until she is brought finally to see Him as He is, face to face (see 1 John 3:2).
8. And so the apostolic preaching, which is expressed in a special way in the
inspired books, was to be preserved by an unending succession of preachers until
the end of time. Therefore the Apostles, handing on what they themselves had
received, warn the faithful to hold fast to the traditions which they have
learned either by word of mouth or by letter (see 2 Thess. 2:15), and to fight
in defense of the faith handed on once and for all (see Jud. 3) [4]. Now what
was handed on by the Apostles includes everything which contributes toward the
holiness of life and increase in faith of the People of God; and hands on to all
generations all that she herself is, all that she believes.
This tradition which comes from the Apostles develops in the Church with the
help of the Holy Spirit [5]. For there is a growth in the understanding of the
realities and the words which have been ...
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