The idea that
all revealed truth is to be found in "66 books" is not
only not in Scripture, it is contradicted by Scripture (1 Corinthians
11:2, 2 Thessalonians 2:15, 2 Thessalonians 3:6, 1 Timothy 3:15, 2
Peter 1:20-21, 2 Peter 3:16). It is a concept unheard of in the Old
Testament, where the authority of those who sat on the Chair of Moses
(Matthew 23:2-3) existed. In addition to this, for 400 years, there was
no defined canon of "Sacred Scripture" aside from the Old Testament;
there was no "New Testament"; there was only Tradition
and non-canonical books and letters. Once Scripture was defined from
the many competing books, Bibles were hand-copied and decorated by
monks, were rare and precious, so precious they had to be chained down
in the churches so that they would not be stolen. Do you think that the
lack of printing presses affected the salvation of those who could not
peruse Scripture as we have the luxury of doing?
And given the
level of bickering back and forth about what Scripture means, do you
believe that God expects each of us to be a scholar of Greek, Hebrew,
Aramaic, and Chaldean to understand His word and the message of
salvation? No! This is why He, in His wisdom, started a Church with
teaching authority through Peter, the earthly father of the New
Covenant and whose successors sit on the Chair of Peter, just as
Abraham was the earthly father of the Old Covenant and his successors
sat on the Chair of Moses.
Though we are not to "Judaize" because as Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch,
warned in the 1st century, " Christianity did not embrace Judaism, but
Judaism Christianity," Christianity can only be fully grasped by
understanding it for what it is: the Old Covenant growing into the New
Covenant, the fulfillment of the Old Testament religion, the organic
result of the coming of the expected Messiah Who was Himself from the
Tribe of Judah. Tradition and earthly authority have always been an
extremely important part of this:
Malachi 2-7
For the priest's lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the
law at his mouth: for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts. 1
From
a Jewish website:
An oral
explanation had to accompany the Written Torah. Otherwise, much of it
would be incomprehensible. For example:
Exodus 16:29
"See that the L--rd has given you the Sabbath;…let no man go out of his
place on the seventh day." What is the meaning of the term “place”? The
Oral Tradition stipulates that a Jew is forbidden to walk more than 0.7
miles beyond his city's perimeter.
Exodus 31:15
"Six days shall work be done, but on the seventh day is a Sabbath of
solemn rest, holy to the L--rd; whoever does work on the Sabbath day
shall be put to death." What constitutes work? The Oral Tradition
explains that those activities involved in building the portable
Tabernacle in the wilderness are prohibited on the Sabbath.
Deuteronomy 6:8
"And you shall bind them for a sign upon your hand, and they shall be
for frontlets between your eyes." Without the Oral Tradition, one would
never know that this verse is speaking of the tefillin worn by Jewish
men during morning prayer. These black, leather boxes contain verses
from the Hebrew Bible and are strapped to one's arm and forehead.
Deuteronomy 6:9
"And you shall write them upon the doorposts of your house, and upon
your gates." This refers to mezuzoth, parchments inscribed with
Biblical verses, which are placed in small containers and affixed to
the doorposts of Jewish homes.
Numbers 29:1
"In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall have a
holy convocation: you shall do no servile work—it shall be a day of
blowing for you." This description of Rosh Hashanah does not specify
what exactly is to be blown on the Jewish New Year, but the Oral
Tradition does: a shofar (ram's horn).
Numbers 29:7
"On the tenth day of this seventh month you shall have a holy
convocation and afflict yourselves; you shall do no work...." Only the
Oral Tradition teaches us that “afflicting yourselves” on Yom Kippur
means abstaining from all food and drink.
Deuteronomy 12:21
"If the place where the L--rd, your G--d, shall choose to put His Name
be too far from you, then you shall slaughter of your herd and of your
flock, which the L--rd has given you, as I have commanded you.... "The
method of ritual slaughter is not found anywhere in the Written Torah,
but it is part of the Oral Tradition.
If no oral explanation had been taught to the nation from the outset,
the uniform observance of the Torah's commandments would have been
impossible!
Now, the Old
Covenant is fulfilled, and the authority of the Old Covenant priesthood
has passed on to the New Covenant priesthood. The Pharisees after the
Babylonian Captivity corrupted the Oral Tradition (and "sages" and
rabbis later usurped the role of the priests); our Lord spoke against
those "traditions of men" -- but He did not speak against the authority
itself of thse who sat on Moses' seat; quite the opposite:
Matthew 23:2-3
[Jesus speaking] The scribes and Pharisees sit on Moses' seat; so
practice and observe whatever they tell you, but not what they do; for
they preach, but do not practice.
In the same way,
post-Vatican II hierarchs have authority but are now behaving
abominably and corrupting the Sacred Tradition of the Catholic Church
-- those traditions we are commanded to keep:
2 Thessalonians
2:15
Therefore, brethren, stand fast, and hold the traditions which
ye have been taught, whether by word, or our epistle.
2 Thessalonians 3:6
Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,
that ye withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly,
and not after the tradition which he received of us.
Our Lord founded
a Church (Matthew 16:18-19), not a book, which was to be the pillar and
ground of Truth (1 Timothy 3:15). We can know what this Church teaches
by looking not only at Sacred Scripture, but into History and by
reading what the earliest Christians have written, what those who've
sat on the Chair of Peter have spoken consistently with Scripture and
Tradition, and what they've solemnly defined. To believe that the Bible
is our only source of Christian Truth is unbiblical and
illogical. As Cardinal Gibbons in "Faith of our Fathers" wrote:
Let us see sir,
whether an infallible Bible is sufficient for you. Either you are
infallibly certain that your interpretation of the Bible is correct or
you are not. If you are infallibly certain then you assert for yourself
and of course for every reader of the Scripture, a personal
infallibility which you deny to the Pope [those who sit on the Chair of
Peter] and which we claim only for him. You make every man his own
pope.
If God, as you assert, has left no infallible interpreter of His word,
do you not virtually accuse Him of acting unreasonably? or would it not
be most unreasonable for Him to have revealed His truth to man without
leaving Him a means of ascertaining its precise import? Do you not
reduce God's Word to a bundle of contradictions, like the leaves of the
Sybil, which gave forth answers suited to the wishes of every inquirer?
Of the hundred and more Christian sects [we have thousands of
denominations today] now existing in this country, does not each take
the Bible as its standard of authority and does not each member draw
from it a meaning different from that of his neighbor? Now, in the mind
of God the Scriptures can have but one meaning. Is not this variety of
interpretations the bitter fruit of your principle, an infallible Bible
is enough for me, and does it not proclaim the absolute necessity of
some authorized and unerring interpreter?
Some
Protestants like to use 2 Timothy 3:16-17 as a "proof-text" that Sola
Scriptura is a Biblical principle:
All scripture is
given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for
reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man
of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.
No Catholic, of
course, disagrees with these verses, or with any verses of Sacred
Scripture. Of course Scripture is profitable! We Catholics see it as
one of the three pillars of the very Church (the other two being Sacred
Tradition and the Magisterim -- the teaching authority of the Church).
But Protestants are obviously reading into this text what they want to
see. Imagine you are a soldier. Now read this:
All Army
teaching guides are given by inspiration of the experts, and are
profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction
in the life of a soldier: That the soldier may be perfect, thoroughly
furnished unto all a soldier needs to do.
Would you take
it to mean that the soldier, then, no longer needs a Drill Sergeant for
training him, weaponry, ammunition, armor, communications equipment,
etc.? Saying that X is profitable or necessary and that X helps one
become thoroughly furnished for something doesn't say at all that Y is
also not profitable or necessary and that Y helps one become thoroughly
furnished for something. And how can Protestants square their reading
of 2 Timothy 3:16-17 with Ephesians 4:11-12, which reads:
And he gave
some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some,
pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of
the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:
According to
these verses, what is needed for the perfecting of the saints are the
apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers! How could this
possibly be if all we need is the "Bible alone"?
Another point is that the "Scripture" St. Paul was referring to is the
Old Testament, the only formally recognized Scripture in existence.
Should we discard the New Testament because the Old Testament contains
the New within it?
And here is a little something to think on for those who believe in
sola scriptura: Ignatius, appointed as Bishop of Antioch by Peter, came
up against some Jews who resorted to the same mind-set in order to
disprove Christ's Messiahship. In his first century letter to the
Philadelphians he wrote: "When I heard some saying, If I do not find it
in the ancient Scriptures, I will not believe the Gospel; on my saying
to them, It is written, they answered me, That remains to be proved."
And here's something else to ponder: see the sub-section "Ever-Virgin"
on this site's page about Mary to see how
Protestant misunderstanding of one single word -- "firsborn" --
has profound effects on their understanding of Mary, her virginity, and
her place in salvation History. And when you're through reading it,
know that that example is just one of many!
Bottom line, as Catholic apologist Jeff Cassman said: "Christ didn’t
just set up a book club; He founded a Church with real, enduring
authority."
Footnote
1 Note: there is a huge
difference
between the teaching authority of the Church that is guided by the Holy
Spirit, and the "traditions of men" -- the Mishnah -- as
practiced by the Pharisees (not Old Testament Israelites) and which are
preserved for us in the Babylonian Talmud (the Bavli) and in
Kabbalistic practices (the very word "Kabbalah" comes from the Hebrew Qof-Bet-Lamed,
meaning literally "to receive or accept," but translated as
"tradition.") It was these pre-Talmudic rabbinical laws and Babylonian
magical practices -- and the very idea that we can work our way into
Heaven -- that Jesus fought against, and it was those who honored them
that He accused of hypocrisy. The Pharisaic rabbis went beyond Torah
and priestly authority, making up laws out of Babylonian,
Zoroastrian, and other pagan, magical practices -- even contradictory
ones.
In A.D. 77, the Jewish historian Josephus wrote in Antiquities (13:10),
“What I would now explain is this: the Pharisees have delivered to the
people a great many rituals by succession from their fathers which are
not written in the laws of Moses; and for that reason the Sadducees
reject them, and say that we are to accept those rituals to be
obligatory which are in the written word, but are not to observe what
are derived from the [Babylonian] tradition [Mishnah] of our
forefathers.” The Talmud that preserves these Babylonian "traditions of
men" can only be known by reading the original Hebrew or by reading the
works of an honest, non-racist, Godly person who does, because neo-Nazi
types use such writings to imply some sort of bogus "racial contagion"
inherent in those of Jewish ancestry and because English editions are
often edited so as to not cause scandal and to keep the Truth hidden.
Parts that were removed from the Talmud (sections which assert, for
ex., that Jesus was a demonic sorcerer Who is boiling in excrement in
Hell, that Mary was a whore, that Gentiles are animals, that it is OK
to steal from Gentiles and to not pay them for their labor, etc.) were
published separately in Hesronot Ha-shas, which was circulated
secretly among rabbis.
Bottom line: the differences between Old Testament religion, rooted in
Torah and priestly authority, and Pharisaic Judaism -- the
brand of Judaism that survives today and which is rooted in the
Babylonian Talmud and rabbinical authority -- are so great as
to make them worlds apart, often diametrically opposed. The authority
of the Jewish priesthood transferred to the priesthood of the New
Covenant, not to rabbis; there have been no sacrifices, no Temple,
etc., in Judaism since A.D. 70 -- and after Christ's once and for all
sacrifice at Calvary, there is only ONE Scriptural sacrifice to be made
anyway (the Eucharist). See Malachi 1:10-11, John 6, etc.
Relevant Scripture
Nehemiah 8:7-8
... and the Levites, caused the people to understand the law: and the
people stood in their place.
So they read in the book in the law of God distinctly, and gave the
sense, and caused them to understand the reading.
Malachi 2-7
For the priest's lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the
law at his mouth: for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts.
Matthew 2:23
And he came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth: that it might be
fulfilled which was SPOKEN by the prophets, He shall be called a
Nazarene. [Here, Matthew is quoting an oral Tradition that the Messiah
will be called a Nazarene. This is NOT in the OT; it was only TRADITION]
Matthew 23:2-3
[Jesus speaking] "The scribes and Pharisees sit on Moses' seat; so
practice and observe whatever they tell you, but not what they do; for
they preach, but do not practice" [i.e., His problem with the Pharisees
was not because of law, authority or tradition; His issue with them was
with their hypocrisy, their putting the Law before Love, and the
pre-Talmudic practices!]
John 5:39-40
Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and
they are they which testify of me. And ye will not come to me, that ye
might have life. [NIV: You diligently study the Scriptures because you
think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures
that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life.]
Acts 8:30-31
And Philip ran thither to him, and heard him read the prophet Esaias,
and said, Understandest thou what thou readest? And he said, How can I,
except some man should guide me? And he desired Philip that he would
come up and sit with him.
1 Corinthians 11:2
Now I praise you, brethren, that ye remember me in all things, and keep
the ordinances, AS I DELIVERED THEM TO YOU.
1 Corinthians 4:14–15
I do not write this to make you ashamed, but to admonish you as my
beloved children. For though you have countless guides in Christ, you
do not have many fathers. For I became your father in Christ Jesus
through the gospel
2 Thessalonians 2:15
Therefore, brethren, stand fast, and hold the TRADITIONS which ye have
been taught, whether by WORD, or our epistle.
2 Thessalonians 3:6
Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,
that ye withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly,
and not after the TRADITION which he received of us.
1 Timothy 3:15
But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave
thyself in the house of God, which is the CHURCH of the living God, the
PILLAR AND GROUND OF TRUTH.
2 Timothy 2:2
And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the
same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others
also.
2 Timothy 3:16-17
All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for
doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in
righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished
unto all good works. [At the time this verse was written, the only
"scripture" around was the Old Testament. Was Paul telling Timothy he
needed nothing but the Old Testament? And in what way does "profitable"
mean "sufficient"?]
Hebrews 5:12
For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one
teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God;
and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat.
2 Peter 1:20-21
Knowing this first, that NO PROPHECY OF THE SCRIPTURE IS OF ANY PRIVATE
INTERPRETATION. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of
man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.
2 Peter 3:16
As also in all his [Paul's] epistles, speaking in them of these things;
in which are some things hard to be understood, WHICH THEY THAT ARE
UNLEARNED AND UNSTABLE WREST, as they do also the other scriptures,
UNTO THEIR OWN DESTRUCTION.
2
John 1:12
Having many things to write unto you, I would not write with paper and
ink: but I trust to come unto you, and speak face to face, that our joy
may be full.
3 John 1:13-14
I had many things to write, but I will not with ink and pen write unto
thee: But I trust I shall shortly see thee, and we shall speak face to
face. Peace be to thee. Our friends salute thee. Greet the friends by
name.
Further Reading
 Catholic
Answers: Sola Scriptura
|
