"I was told the Catholic Church chained up Bibles and didn't want ordinary people reading Scripture for themselves. Is that true?"
Short answer: No. The Church "forcefully and specifically exhorts all the Christian faithful" to frequent Bible reading and teaches that "ignorance of the Scriptures is ignorance of Christ" (CCC 133). There were times when some Church authorities restricted unapproved translations, usually in the middle of fights over heresy. But it was the Church that copied, canonized, and translated the Bible, and she proclaims it aloud at every Holy Mass.
Key verses on reading Scripture
- "Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light for my path." (Psalm 119:105)
- "from infancy you have known [the] sacred scriptures, which are capable of giving you wisdom for salvation" (2 Timothy 3:15)
- "they received the word with all willingness and examined the scriptures daily" (Acts 17:11)
- "Recite it by day and by night" (Joshua 1:8)
- "whatever was written previously was written for our instruction" (Romans 15:4)
- "How can I, unless someone instructs me?" (Acts 8:31)
Scripture quotations are from the New American Bible, Revised Edition (NABRE), © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, D.C. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
What Catholics Actually Teach
The Second Vatican Council put it plainly: "Easy access to Sacred Scripture should be provided for all the Christian faithful" (Dei Verbum 22). The Catechism repeats it: "access to Sacred Scripture ought to be open wide to the Christian faithful" (CCC 131).
More than allowing it, the Church urges it: "The Church 'forcefully and specifically exhorts all the Christian faithful... to learn the surpassing knowledge of Jesus Christ, by frequent reading of the divine Scriptures. Ignorance of the Scriptures is ignorance of Christ'" (CCC 133, quoting Dei Verbum 25 and St. Jerome). She adds how to read: "prayer should accompany the reading of Sacred Scripture, so that a dialogue takes place between God and man" (CCC 2653).
The Mass itself was reformed to give Catholics more Scripture: "The treasures of the bible are to be opened up more lavishly, so that richer fare may be provided for the faithful at the table of God's word" (Sacrosanctum Concilium 51).
What Catholics do not teach:
- That laypeople need permission to read the Bible. The Church asks for "easy access" for all (Dei Verbum 22).
- That the Church is above Scripture. "This Magisterium is not superior to the Word of God, but is its servant" (CCC 86).
- That Catholics are handed an official commentary on every verse. The Church guards the boundaries of the faith; within them, Catholics read, study, and pray freely.
The Biblical Case
1. God wants His people soaked in His word
"Do not let this book of the law depart from your lips. Recite it by day and by night" (Joshua 1:8). Parents were to "Keep repeating them to your children. Recite them when you are at home and when you are away" (Deuteronomy 6:7). "Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light for my path" (Psalm 119:105). The New Testament says the same to every believer: "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, as in all wisdom you teach and admonish one another" (Colossians 3:16). And Jesus Himself points to where Scripture leads: "even they testify on my behalf" (John 5:39). A Church that preaches Christ has every reason to put His word in every hand.
2. Scripture was read aloud to God's people
Ezra "read clearly from the book of the law of God, interpreting it so that all could understand what was read" (Nehemiah 8:8). Jesus "went according to his custom into the synagogue on the sabbath day. He stood up to read" (Luke 4:16). St. Paul insisted: "I adjure you by the Lord that this letter be read to all the brothers" (1 Thessalonians 5:27). Revelation blesses "the one who reads aloud" and "those who listen" (Revelation 1:3). For most of history, most Christians could not read and could not afford books. They met Scripture this way, in the liturgy, just as Catholics still do at every Mass.
3. Scripture forms us for salvation
St. Timothy had known "sacred scriptures" from infancy, "which are capable of giving you wisdom for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for refutation, for correction, and for training in righteousness" (2 Timothy 3:15–16). "The word of God is living and effective, sharper than any two-edged sword" (Hebrews 4:12). No Church that believes this could want people kept from it.
4. Testing teaching by Scripture is praised
The Bereans "received the word with all willingness and examined the scriptures daily to determine whether these things were so" (Acts 17:11). Notice they did both: they received the apostles' preaching and searched the Scriptures. Catholics are asked to do the same.
5. Scripture is read with guidance, not alone
The Ethiopian official was reading Isaiah when St. Philip asked, "Do you understand what you are reading?" He answered, "How can I, unless someone instructs me?" (Acts 8:30–31). Even the apostles needed Jesus to open "their minds to understand the scriptures" (Luke 24:45). St. Peter warns that St. Paul's letters contain "some things hard to understand that the ignorant and unstable distort to their own destruction" (2 Peter 3:16). That is why the Church offers teaching and notes alongside the text. Guidance is a help to reading, not a substitute for it.
Objections Answered
(a) "History proves it: the Church banned and chained Bibles."
At its strongest: This is not invented. In 1229 a regional council at Toulouse, fighting the Cathar (Albigensian) movement, forbade laypeople to own books of the Old and New Testaments, apart from the Psalter and certain prayer books, and especially forbade translations into the common tongue. After the Reformation, the Index of Forbidden Books issued following the Council of Trent (1564) required laypeople to have written permission to read vernacular Bibles.
Answer: These restrictions were real, and Catholics should say so. Now read them the way Scripture reads pastors. St. Paul told the elders at Ephesus to "Keep watch over yourselves and over the whole flock," warning that "from your own group, men will come forward perverting the truth to draw the disciples away after them" (Acts 20:28–30). Guarding the flock from corrupted texts is that charge, not a war on the Bible. The restrictions were also disciplinary and tied to their moment, aimed at unapproved translations spread by movements the Church judged heretical. They were never a teaching that the Bible is bad for laypeople, and they did not stop Catholic translation. More than a dozen printed German Bible editions appeared before Luther's translation, beginning with Johann Mentelin's at Strasbourg in 1466. Chains in old libraries protected expensive books of every kind from theft; they kept Bibles available, not hidden. And the same Church had copied the Scriptures by hand for over a thousand years before any of these rules existed. Today's teaching could not be clearer: "Easy access to Sacred Scripture should be provided for all the Christian faithful" (Dei Verbum 22).
(b) "Catholics don't read the Bible. They just listen to priests."
At its strongest: Many Catholics cannot find verses as quickly as their evangelical neighbors. If the Church really wanted Bible reading, wouldn't it show?
Answer: That is a fair challenge to many Catholics, but not to the Church's teaching, which calls for "frequent reading of the divine Scriptures" (CCC 133). A Catholic who attends Sunday Mass hears a first reading (usually from the Old Testament), a Psalm, a New Testament reading, and the Gospel, arranged so that "a more representative portion of the holy scriptures will be read to the people in the course of a prescribed number of years" (Sacrosanctum Concilium 51). The cure for Catholic biblical illiteracy is more Bible reading, which is exactly what the Church urges.
(c) "If the Church controls interpretation, it has locked the Bible away."
At its strongest: "All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for refutation, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that one who belongs to God may be competent, equipped for every good work" (2 Timothy 3:16–17). Any authority between the believer and the text seems to compete with Scripture.
Answer: Scripture itself says it can be misread (2 Peter 3:16) and that "there is no prophecy of scripture that is a matter of personal interpretation" (2 Peter 1:20). Every Christian community reads within some tradition: creeds, confessions, statements of faith. The Catholic claim is that the Magisterium "is not superior to the Word of God, but is its servant" and "teaches only what has been handed on to it" (CCC 86). A guide does not lock the book. For more, see Can Every Christian Interpret the Bible for Himself?
The Early Church Agrees
From the first century on, the Church's pastors told ordinary believers to know the Scriptures, and to receive them within the Church that guards them.
- Pope St. Clement I (St. Clement of Rome) (First Epistle to the Corinthians, c. AD 96, approximate), writing to a whole congregation: "Look carefully into the Scriptures, which are the true utterances of the Holy Spirit" (45). Later he adds, "You understand, beloved, you understand well the sacred Scriptures" (53).
- St. Irenaeus of Lyons (Against Heresies, c. AD 180) explains why the Church is the safe place to read: "the apostles, like a rich man [depositing his money] in a bank, lodged in her hands most copiously all things pertaining to the truth" (3.4.1). He even praises believers among barbarian peoples who hold the faith "having salvation written in their hearts by the Spirit, without paper or ink" (3.4.2). Scripture and the Church were never rivals.
- St. John Chrysostom (Homilies on Colossians, c. AD 400, approximate), preaching to laypeople: "Hearken, I entreat you, all you that are careful for this life, and procure books that will be medicines for the soul. If you will not any other, yet get you at least the New Testament, the Apostolic Epistles, the Acts, the Gospels, for your constant teachers" (Homily 9).
- St. Jerome (Letter 107, c. AD 403, approximate), advising a mother on raising her daughter: "Let her treasures be not silks or gems but manuscripts of the holy scriptures" (107.12).
- St. Augustine (Confessions, c. AD 400, approximate) heard a child's voice chanting, "Take up and read; take up and read" (8.12.29). He opened St. Paul's letters to Romans 13 and was converted: "put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the desires of the flesh" (Romans 13:14).
Conclusion
The Catholic Church gave the world the Bible as we know it: she copied it by hand for centuries, recognized its canon, and still proclaims it at every Mass. Her past restrictions were real, but they were about unapproved translations in a time of conflict, not about keeping God's word from His people.
If you are Protestant, you love Scripture, and so does the Church. Pick up a Catholic Bible and read it with her. You will find the same Christ on every page. For how the canon was recognized, see Who Decided Which Books Are in the Bible?
Come home. The Bible you love was copied, canonized, and is still proclaimed at every Mass by the Catholic Church, and she wants it in your hands. Christ did not found many churches. He founded one, on St. Peter and the apostles (Matthew 16:18), and that Church is the Catholic Church. "It is through Christ's Catholic Church alone, which is the universal help toward salvation, that the fullness of the means of salvation can be obtained" (CCC 816). If you are a baptized Christian, you already share "a certain, although imperfect, communion" with her (CCC 838). Every truth you already hold is a call to the rest of the way. Christ is calling you into the Catholic Church.
Your next step: Come to Mass this Sunday at your local Catholic church. You can find one near you at MassTimes.org. Everyone is welcome; if you're not yet Catholic, pray with us but don't receive Communion yet. When you're ready to become Catholic, call the parish office and ask about OCIA, the Order of Christian Initiation of Adults. They will walk you through every step. Read our guide: How Do I Become Catholic? Not ready yet? Get our free pocket guide below and keep learning.
FAQ
Can Catholics read the Bible on their own? Yes. The Church urges "frequent reading of the divine Scriptures" (CCC 133), ideally with prayer (CCC 2653).
Which Bible should a Catholic read? A Catholic edition with all 73 books and approved notes, such as the NABRE quoted on this site.
Did the Church ever forbid Bible reading? Some local councils and the post-Trent Index restricted unapproved vernacular translations. The Church never taught that Scripture should be kept from the faithful, and today she asks for "easy access" for all (Dei Verbum 22).
Sources
Scripture (NABRE, bible.usccb.org): Deuteronomy 6:7; Joshua 1:8; Nehemiah 8:8; Psalm 119:105; Matthew 16:18; Luke 4:16; Luke 24:45; John 5:39; Acts 8:30–31; Acts 17:11; Acts 20:28–30; Romans 13:14; Romans 15:4; Colossians 3:16; 1 Thessalonians 5:27; 2 Timothy 3:15–17; Hebrews 4:12; 2 Peter 1:20; 2 Peter 3:16; Revelation 1:3.
Catechism of the Catholic Church (vatican.va): 86; 131, 133; 816, 838; 2653.
Church documents (vatican.va): Second Vatican Council, Dei Verbum 22, 25; Sacrosanctum Concilium 51.
Church Fathers (newadvent.org): Clement of Rome, 1 Clement 45, 53 (ANF vol. 1); Irenaeus, Against Heresies 3.4.1–2 (ANF vol. 1); John Chrysostom, Homilies on Colossians 9 (NPNF1 vol. 13); Jerome, Letter 107.12 (NPNF2 vol. 6); Augustine, Confessions 8.12.29 (NPNF1 vol. 1).