The Church Fathers are full of numerous quotations which, if taken at face value, seem to support the idea of Sola Scriptura (although the doctrine itself would not be formalized and named until the reformation). Consider...
“But those who are ready to toil in the most excellent pursuits, will not desist from the search after truth, till they get the demonstration from the Scriptures themselves.”
- Clement of Alexandria (AD 150-215)
“Scripture has absolute authority; whatever it teaches is necessarily true, and woe betide [‘befall’] him who accepts doctrines not discoverable in it.”
- Tertullian (AD 155-220)
“For concerning the divine and holy mysteries of the Faith, not even a casual statement must be delivered without the Holy Scriptures; nor must we be drawn aside my mere plausibility and artifices of speech. Even to me, who tell thee these things, give not absolute credence, unless thou receive the proof of the things which I announce from the Divine Scriptures.”
- Cyril of Jerusalem (Approx. AD 315-384)
“…we make the Holy Scriptures the rule and the measure of every tenet; we necessarily fix our eyes upon that, and approve that alone which may be made to harmonize with the intention of those writings.”
- Gregory of Nyssa (Approx. 335-394)
“Vainly do they run about with the pretext that they have demanded councils for the faith’s sake; for divine Scripture is sufficient above all things…”
- Athanasius (AD 293 – 373)
How would a non-Protestant understand these and similar quotations? Am I quoting these fathers out of context? Am I retrospectively reading Sola Scriptura into these authors? I invite non-Protestant readers to join the discussion.
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6 comments:
How would a non-Protestant understand these quotations? Am I quoting these fathers out of context? Am I retrospectively reading Sola Scriptura into these authors? I invite non-Protestant readers to join the discussion.
Thanks for the invitation Robin. Respectfully, I don´t think you are quoting these fathers out of context. As an Orthodox, I can say we place a high value on scripture and read it in our daily services, kissing and reverencing the bible. Certainly the church fathers always revered the bible. The problem is with the word ¨solo¨ and the disregard for the more ancient Christian traditions that usually goes along with this ¨solo¨. The Orthodox have also spoken against ¨solo sacraments¨ or ¨solo faith¨, since the Christian life is holistic, not reductionist and any over emphasis in one direction causes imbalance. Protestants have their own tradition, which includes the bible, but the bible itself never taught sola scriptura and the doctrine has gone a long way towards effectively cutting well-meaning protestants off from the birthright that should be theirs. A good refutation of Solo Scriptura---for protestants---can be found by an ex-southern Baptist, Clark Carleson, in his book called The Faith, in which he thoroughly debunks the idea, as well as the book Common Ground by Gordon Bijas, who shows how it developed in history.
Perhaps I can explain what I mean better, though, by juxtaposing the quotations you have given us with other ones by these same fathers. I don´t have their books and I haven´t read much of the church fathers unfortunately, but I am going to see what a cursory search on the internet turns up. Hopefully a more full understanding will arise when these same father´s words about the importance of Church Authority are seen side by side with those about their veneration for scripture. Even stronger words in support of holy tradition and the importance of the Bishop´s authority is found in the fathers closer to Christ, in St. Iraneous, St. Ignatious (where the Catholic Church is so there is Christ) and St. Polycarp. In closing, I want to particularly underline the words of St. Cyril of Jerusalem, ¨In this Holy Catholic Church, receiving instruction and behaving ourselves virtuously, we shall attain the kingdom of heaven, and inherit eternal life.¨
"And that you may still be more confident, that repenting thus truly there remains for you a sure hope of salvation, listen to a tale? Which is not a tale but a narrative, handed down and committed to the custody of memory, about the Apostle John. For when, on the tyrant's death, he returned to Ephesus from the isle of Patmos, he went away, being invited, to the contiguous territories of the nations, here to appoint bishops, there to set in order whole Churches, there to ordain such as were marked out by the Spirit." Clement of Alexandria, Who is the rich man that shall be save?, 42 (A.D. 210).
¨The apostles have preached the Gospel to us from the Lord Jesus Christ; Jesus Christ [has done so from God. Christ therefore was sent forth by God, and the apostles by Christ. Both these appointments, then, were made in an orderly way, according to the will of God. Having therefore received their orders, and being fully assured by the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, and established in the word of God, with full assurance of the Holy Ghost, they went forth proclaiming that the kingdom of God was at hand. And thus preaching through countries and cities, they appointed the first-fruits [of their labors], having first proved them by the Spirit, to be bishops and deacons of those who should afterwards believe. Nor was this any new thing, since indeed many ages before it was written concerning bishops and deacons. For thus saith the Scripture a certain place, "I will appoint their bishops s in righteousness, and their deacons in faith." St. Clement, Letter to the Corinthians, 42, 1 (ANF, Vol. I)
"But if there be any (heresies) which are bold enough to plant themselves in the midst Of the apostolic age, that they may thereby seem to have been handed down by the apostles, because they existed in the time of the apostles, we can say: Let them produce the original records of their churches; let them unfold the roll of their bishops, running down in due succession from the beginning in such a manner that [that first bishop of theirs] bishop shall be able to show for his ordainer and predecessor some one of the apostles or of apostolic men,--a man, moreover, who continued steadfast with the apostles. …To this test, therefore will they be submitted for proof by those churches, who, although they derive not their founder from apostles or apostolic men (as being of much later date, for they are in fact being founded daily), yet, since they agree in the same faith, they are accounted as not less apostolic because they are akin in doctrine…Then let all the heresies, when challenged to these two tests by our apostolic church, offer their proof of how they deem themselves to be apostolic. But in truth they neither are so, nor are they able to prove themselves to be what they are not. Nor are they admitted to peaceful relations and communion by such churches as are in any way connected with apostles, inasmuch as they are in no sense themselves apostolic because of their diversity as to the mysteries of the faith." Tertullian, Prescription against the Heretics, 33 (A.D. 200).
¨ And if ever you are sojourning in cities, inquire not simply where the Lord's House is (for the other sects of the profane also attempt to call their own dens houses of the Lord), nor merely where the church is, but where is the Catholic Church. For this is the peculiar name of this Holy Church, the mother of us all, which is the spouse of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Only-begotten Son of God (for it is written, As Christ also loved the Church and gave Himself for it, and all the rest,) and is a figure and copy of Jerusalem which is above, which is free, and the mother of us all; which before was barren, but now has many children.
...In this Holy Catholic Church receiving instruction and behaving ourselves virtuously, we shall attain the kingdom of heaven, and inherit eternal life.¨
St. Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical Lectures, XVIII (NPNF-II, Vol. VII)
"The bread again is at first common bread, but when the sacramental action consecrates it, it is called, and becomes, the Body of Christ. So with the sacramental oil; so with the wine: though before the benediction they are of little value, each of them, after the sanctification bestowed by the Spirit, has its several operations. The same power of the word, again, also makes the priest venerable and honourable, separated, by the new blessing bestowed upon him, from his community with the mass of men. While but yesterday he was one of the mass, one of the people, he is suddenly rendered a guide, a president, a teacher of righteousness, an instructor in hidden mysteries; and this he does without being at all changed in body or in form; but, while continuing to be in all appearance the man he was before, being, by some unseen power and grace, transformed in respect of his unseen soul to the higher condition." Gregory of Nyssa, On the Baptism of Christ (ante A.D. 394).
"[W]hile before your election you lived to yourself, after it, you live for your flock. And before you had received the grace of the episcopate, no one knew you; but after you became one, the laity expect you to bring them food, namely instruction from the Scriptures ... For if all were of the same mind as your present advisers, how would you have become a Christian, since there would be no bishops? Or if our successors are to inherit this state of mind, how will the Churches be able to hold together?" Athanasius, To Dracontius, Epistle 49 (A.D. 355)
Patrick Phillips
Patrick, great response. Even further, the scriptures themselves tell us, numerous times, to obey the tradition. For example: "Therefore, brethren, stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word, or our epistle." - 2 Thes 2:15
Warning: bit of a tangent in this comment.
As a young man who came from an Evangelical background to the Orthodox Church, I just want to say something that helped me out with Holy Tradition instead of Sola Scriptura. Holy Tradition is the right interpretation of Scripture. I think anyone who has been to Protestant Bible studies will admit that there is a lot of interpreting going on, and not a lot of absolute answers. Within Orthodoxy, there does exist the absolute: Holy Tradition.
Tradition must never contradict Scripture, and Scripture must never contradict Tradition. (In the latter part of that statement I am referring to the canonization of Scriptures)
With this said, there doesn't need to be a conflict between Scripture and Tradition. There is only One Authority in the Orthodox Church, and that is the Word of God actualized in the Person of Jesus Christ along with the other two members of the All Holy Trinity.
I hope that this helps in some regard.
Letters from the 1st Century
August 15, 2008 by patrick2ahora
¨They dispute and negate facts simply because they are facts, because they do not want facts to be facts, and they try with all their might to transform facts into hypotheses, into illusions, into fictions.¨
Justin Popovich.
When I visited the monastery of Fr. Jonah for the first time, now Bishop of Texas, I was overwhelmed when the monks presented me with a book of letters from the 1st century. Expanding upon where Paul had left off, the letters of St. Ignatious and St. Polycarp offer a window into early Christian practice and make frequent references to ¨the wisdom and blessing of the glorified Paul…who, when among you, accurately and stedfastly taught the word of truth.¨
Why was it I had never heard of these letters written so soon after the passing of Paul? I felt cheated. I had been around Christian bookstores all my life, around bible studies and deep thinking Christian people and yet the modus apparandi was to treat Christian history as if it stopped after the book of Revelation. I´ve often wondered if the ideology of solo-scriptura had anything to do with this ommission. St. Ignatious and St. Polycarp´s strong injunctions to follow the Bishops in the Catholic church, to avoid Hebrew/Jewish customs, along with their belief in the Eucharist as the real presense, would not have sat comfortably with many I´m afraid.
Here is a quote from a letter by St. Ignatious.
¨Every kind of wound is not healed with the same plaster. Mitigate violent attacks of disease by gentle applications…For this purpose you are composed of both flesh and spirit, that you may deal tenderly with those evils that present themselves visibly before you. And as respects those that are not seen, pray that God would reveal them unto you, in order that you may be wanting in nothing, but may abound in every gift. The times call for you, as pilots do for the winds, and as one tossed with tempest seeks for the haven, so that both you, and those under your care, may attain to God. Be sober as an athlete of God: the prize set before you is immortality and eternal life, of which you are also persuaded. In all things may my soul be for yours, and my bonds also, which you have loved.¨
Patrick Phillips
Letters from the 1st Century
August 15, 2008 by patrick2ahora
¨They dispute and negate facts simply because they are facts, because they do not want facts to be facts, and they try with all their might to transform facts into hypotheses, into illusions, into fictions.¨
Justin Popovich.
When I visited the monastery of Fr. Jonah for the first time, now Bishop of Texas, I was overwhelmed when the monks presented me with a book of letters from the 1st century. Expanding upon where Paul had left off, the letters of St. Ignatious and St. Polycarp offer a window into early Christian practice and make frequent references to ¨the wisdom and blessing of the glorified Paul…who, when among you, accurately and stedfastly taught the word of truth.¨
Why was it I had never heard of these letters written so soon after the passing of Paul? I felt cheated. I had been around Christian bookstores all my life, around bible studies and deep thinking Christian people and yet the modus apparandi was to treat Christian history as if it stopped after the book of Revelation. I´ve often wondered if the ideology of solo-scriptura had anything to do with this ommission. St. Ignatious and St. Polycarp´s strong injunctions to follow the Bishops in the Catholic church, to avoid Hebrew/Jewish customs, along with their belief in the Eucharist as the real presense, would not have sat comfortably with many I´m afraid.
Here is a quote from a letter by St. Ignatious.
¨Every kind of wound is not healed with the same plaster. Mitigate violent attacks of disease by gentle applications…For this purpose you are composed of both flesh and spirit, that you may deal tenderly with those evils that present themselves visibly before you. And as respects those that are not seen, pray that God would reveal them unto you, in order that you may be wanting in nothing, but may abound in every gift. The times call for you, as pilots do for the winds, and as one tossed with tempest seeks for the haven, so that both you, and those under your care, may attain to God. Be sober as an athlete of God: the prize set before you is immortality and eternal life, of which you are also persuaded. In all things may my soul be for yours, and my bonds also, which you have loved.¨
Patrick Phillips
Seeing that our host has also quoted St. Iranaeus, I thought I'd provide this as well to Mr. Phillips' quotes:
"Wherefore it is incumbent to obey the priests who are in the Church, those who, as I have shown, possess the succession of the episcopate, have received the certain gift of truth, according to the good pleasure of the Father. But it is also incumbent to hold in suspicion others who depart from the primitive succession, and assemble themselves together in any place whatsoever, looking upon them either as heretics of perverse minds, or as schismatics puffed up and self-pleasing, or again as hypocrites acting thus for the sake of lucre and vainglory. For al these have fallen from the truth. And the heretics, indeed, who bring strange fire to the alter of God - namely, strange doctrines - shall be burned up by the fire from heaven, as were Nabab and Abihu."
Referencing Lev. 10:1-2.
the sinner,
Scott
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