Scripture

• Apocalypse / Revelation — The Apocalypse of John as the prophecy of the New Testament and the entire future of the Church on earth, containing as many mysteries as words
• Apocrypha — Books placed outside the Hebrew canon by Jerome -- Wisdom, Sirach, Judith, Tobit, the Shepherd of Hermas, and the Maccabees -- identified as non-canonical in the Helmeted Prologue
• Biblical Canon — The definitive enumeration of the canonical books of the Old and New Testaments as decreed by the Council of Trent, with anathema against those who reject any book or its parts
• Difficulty of Sacred Scripture — Sacred Scripture is far more difficult to understand than all profane writings, requiring knowledge of Hebrew and Greek idiom, the Fathers, and divine assistance
• Errors of the Philosophers — The errors of pagan philosophers demonstrating the insufficiency of natural reason without divine revelation, and Scripture's role in correcting them
• Excellence and Dignity of Sacred Scripture — The supreme excellence, dignity, and authority of Sacred Scripture as God's own letter to humanity, surpassing all human learning and philosophy
• Hebrew Alphabet (Mystical Significance) — The mystical significance of the twenty-two Hebrew letters, their correspondence to the books of the Old Testament, the five doubled letters (Caph, Mem, Nun, Pe, Sade), and the alphabetical structure underlying several psalms, Lamentations, and Proverbs
• Heresies Against the Old Testament — The heretical movements that proscribed the Old Testament — Simon Magus, Marcion, the Manichaeans, Albigensians, Libertines, and Anabaptists
• Heresy and Scripture — The misuse of Scripture by heretics and the necessity for Catholic theologians to know Scripture well enough to refute them
• Inspiration of Scripture — The divine authorship of Scripture -- God moved the will of the writers, aroused and directed their thoughts, so that the Scriptures are a divine work in which the prophets contributed only the garment of their style
• Moses as Most Ancient Theologian — The argument that Moses preceded all Greek and Gentile sages and that they drew their wisdom from him, establishing Moses as the fountainhead of all theology and philosophy
• Moses: Life and Greatness — The life, character, offices, and greatness of Moses as lawgiver, pontiff, prophet, general, wonder-worker, and type of Christ
• Necessity and Fruit of Sacred Scripture — Sacred Scripture is necessary both for salvation and for sound theology, supplying the principles of faith from which theology draws its conclusions
• Object and Breadth of Sacred Scripture — Sacred Scripture has for its object everything knowable and embraces all disciplines — physics, ethics, metaphysics, history, geometry — serving as queen and mistress of all sciences
• Paul's Apostolate and Epistles — The singular character of Paul's apostolate and epistles -- at once more rigorous than Aristotle and more passionate than Plato, a vessel of election and armory of the law
• Profanation of Scripture — The misuse of sacred Scripture for profane purposes — divination, incantations, satire, defamation — condemned by the Council of Trent
• Prophecy — The prophetic dimension of Scripture -- the prophets as seers who perceived Christ hidden in mystery, their individual missions from Hosea through Malachi, and the culmination in the rejection of Israel and calling of the nations
• Psalms and Prophetic Poetry — The psalms of David and the prophetic books as the summit of biblical literature, surpassing all secular poetry in power because their source is the love of God and their object is Christ
• Salvation History — The narrative unity of Scripture as the history of God's plan for the world, from creation through the patriarchs, prophets, and the coming of Christ, all oriented toward Christ as the center
• Scripture and Tradition — The relationship between written Scripture and unwritten apostolic traditions as twin sources of divine revelation, both received with equal reverence
• Scripture as Foundation of Theology — The inseparable relationship between Sacred Scripture and Scholastic theology — Scripture supplies the principles of faith from which theology draws conclusions
• Scripture Interpretation: Authority of the Church and Fathers — The principle that Scripture must be interpreted according to the sense held by the Church and the unanimous consent of the Fathers, not by private judgment
• Study of Sacred Scripture — The lifelong devotion to reading, meditating upon, and teaching Sacred Scripture — as practiced by the Fathers and by Lapide himself
• The Gospel — The unique power and character of the Gospel as the living account of the life of Christ, surpassing all prophecy, revealing Christ in His true and perceptible form
• The Old Testament: Value and Necessity for Christians — The Old Testament is necessary and useful for Christians, not merely proper to the Jews; its rejection is heretical, and its study yields rich fruit in faith, morals, history, and typology
• The Six Utilities of the Old Testament — Lapide's systematic enumeration of six benefits of the Old Testament: establishing faith, richness of content, necessity for understanding the New, allegorical surpassing, figures and examples, and forerunner to the New