Bible and Word of God: A Catholic reading

We Catholics believe that the Scriptures help us listen to God's Word. Now, "Bible" and "God's Word" are not exactly the same. The different books in the Bible had been written to express, with human language and culture, divine reality. This divine reality is God's Word which goes beyond all of us. Hence in the Catholic Church we are careful not to put God's Word and written text together strictly.
The Bible, as recognized in the Catholic Church, allows us to have access to God's Word, but the Bible is not exactly the text directly said by God. God's Word has come to us through history and in many ways through creation, the sacraments, the Church. God, also, manifested to humanity in the Incarnation of Christ. This is the definite and conclusive expression of God. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Note then that we have Scriptures that were written by human authors to precisely say how the Word of God got involved in human life.
It is alright then to use all sorts of analyses to study and undertand the Bible. Even scientific analyses, including archaelogy, are used. These analyses help us to AVOID projecting our own ideas and presumptions on the Biblical texts. These help us AVOID just interpreting the Bible in any way we want. The analyses help us place ourselves in a more appropriate listening to God's Word. It is dangerous to let Scriptures say things that are based solely on our wishes. The Biblical texts were written by human authors; we grapple with the texts as we live in our own cultures. This is part of our own human incarnation.
Of course, in the Catholic faith, we still ask for the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. The Catholic Church says that the Biblical texts were written by human authors inspired by the Holy Spirit.
We are not the very first who have received the texts; we are not the very first who interpret them. In fact we are, today, guided by a long tradition of interpretations done by so many other persons and communities in the past. Think of the Church Fathers; think of St. Jerome; think of St. Augustine. There were individuals like St. Thomas Aquinas who did their own attempts to interpret the Biblical books. Look at the published Bibles we hold today--like the New American Bible or the Jerusalem Bible. They have headings and paragraph-titles. Those are interpretations also. (Let us not forget that translations are, themselves, interpretations too).
The Church herself has stood with her own dogmas and her own councils. These view Scriptures in specific ways--in ways that we can consider as "interpretations of the Church". Take the example of the notion that Christ is fully human and fully divine, as defined by councils like that of Chalcedon. The Church read sciprtures and came out with this definite view about Christ. The Church saw in Scriptures this very fact about Jesus Christ. The Church interpreted Scriptures and established her dogmas. Dogmas then can be understood as positions taken by the Church in her understanding of Scriptures.
For a Catholic then, the Church herself serves as guide for reading and interpreting Scriptures.
The Catholic faithful does not read the Bible as a purely private affair. Catholic reading of the Bible is community based. We read in common, in community. We just do not make our own private interpretations without consulting what the community--the Church--says. The Bible belongs to the community, not just to our private selves.
Remember the the human authors who wrote the Biblical books were writing for their readers. They were writing for their communities. Take the example of the gospel accounts. Each gospel author wrote for his own specific community. Mark, for example, was writing for his community in Rome. Furthermore, the authors were taking information from communities too. The bases of their written texts were derived from their lives and inter-actions within communities. Mark, again, took information from memories of people, including St. Peter himself, about Jesus. Matthew and Luke, for example, even took parts of Mark's text to write their own gospel accounts.
It is clear that, from the very start, the Biblical books were not meant for private interpretations. Of course we may read in the privacy of our own rooms. But as soon as we interpret, we need to consult the community, the Church and the Church's communication with the scientific community analyzing the Bible books. This is part of our human condition as incarnate. Our incarnation is not exclusive of others. Each individual human is at the same time social and communal.