Balthasar on Scripture

I though this quote from Theo-Logic Volume III was quite good and addresses the very theme of Pope Benedict's Verbum Domini.

Christianity is not a religion of a book: the Bible cannot be compared with the Book of Qumran or the Book of Mormon.  Thomas gives three reasons why Christ could not bequeath any written document to us; first, because of his sublime dignity, which directly imprinted words into the hearts of his listeners; second, “on account of the excellence of Christ’s doctrine, which cannot be expressed in writing. ... And if Christ had committed his doctrine to writing, men would have had no deeper thought of his doctrine than that which appears on the surface of the writing”; and third, because he wished to give his disciples the task of handing on his teaching, in part orally and in part in written form: this living mediation (written and oral) would serve the propagation of his revelation - and here we see the dimension of ecclesial office. ... The Gospel is none other than Christ himself.  He is the course (fons) whence we receive everything, by word of mouth or by written letter (but mediated to us by the CHurch’s preaching).  If the Spirit is the Lord of the whole work of interpretation, he does this be drawing upon the source, the living Christ.

...

[T]radition and Scripture do not constitute two sources that are merely externally complementary and independent. ...  Ancient Christians could not separate Scripture and tradition, for the former was an essential part of the latter - its core, so to speak.  On the other hand, if the Bible is wrenched from the living totality of the multifarious elements of tradition that the self-consciousness of the ever-vigilant and ever-active Church preserves and transmits, it becomes unintelligible.  For the Catholic, therefore, the Bible and tradition means, not the Bible plus some alien element without which it would be incomplete, but the Bible within its own native atmosphere, its own vital sphere, its own original light.  The Bible, yes, but the whole Bible, together with the guiding Spirit who dictated it and never ceases to inspire those who read it.

pages 321, 326