South African Society Recognition of Catholic Biblical Scholars “very significant”: Priest

“One of the reasons why they're asking Catholic biblical scholars to assist with the Deuterocanonical books is because Protestant Bibles do not have Deuterocanonical books. These are the books which were rejected by the Protestant denominations, and accepted as canonical by the Catholics, the Orthodox Churches and so forth,” he explained.

Fr. Seheri continued, “We (Catholics) call them Deuterocanonical books, which means second writings. They belong to the second Canon. We believe that these books are inspired. You find them in Catholic Bibles. But when you go to Protestant Bibles, you find that some have rejected them altogether.”

“There are other Protestant Bibles where you find these books but they're not classified as Deuterocanonical but as Apocrypha meaning their inspiration is questionable. They see them as not inspired, but important or can be used for instruction,” he added.

The member of the Clergy of South Africa’s Johannesburg Archdiocese acknowledged the importance of local biblical scholars, saying, “It is regrettable that in Southern Africa we’ve got a microscopic proportion of biblical scholars, hence I always encourage the seminarians to consider doing biblical studies.” 

With meetings held “every two months”, the Bible Society Sesotho Review Committee has “so far dealt with the Book of Isaiah”, said Fr. Seheri, and added, “I’m not sure when we will finish; perhaps two or three years because we've been meeting every two months. It’s a very intense project. I found them already on the way, so to speak; this is my second meeting."

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"We meet for a week, Monday to Friday. So far, we have dealt with the Book of Isaiah; currently we are busy with the book of Ezekiel. We are reviewing or revising the 1989 Sesotho Bible. It's an exciting project, especially working with biblical scholars from other denominations," he added.

In the October 27 interview, the Vicar for Vocations in Johannesburg Archdiocese also encouraged the people of God “to read the Bible, to read the word of God”, as “it's important for our spiritual nourishment; it's important for the life of the Church to fall in love with the Bible.”

Sheila Pires is a veteran radio and television Mozambican journalist based in South Africa. She studied communications at the University of South Africa. She is passionate about writing on the works of the Church through Catholic journalism.