De Moor II:27: The Sufficiency of Scripture, Part 1

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Finally, Scripture delivers the Substance of Religion Perfectly and Sufficiently.  Bellarmine, book IV de Verbo Dei, chapter IV, busies himself to prove That the Scriptures do not so contain all things that they themselves might suffice without other Tradition; see tome I Controversiarum, column 211.  On the other hand, we hold the Perfection of Scripture, through which that, all by itself, is a total and adequate rule of faith and manners.

For this Perfection of Scripture it is not required that it contain all matters conducted, or all the speeches of the Savior and His Apostles; we readily acknowledge that many things of this sort are not found in Sacred Scripture:  for example, such is the speech of the Savior before the men of Emmaus, Luke 24:27, the many signs performed by Christ and the matters conducted by Him, John 20:30; 21:25.

Neither do we require for this Perfection that the Scripture include whatever temporary or external rites, the ordering of which is left to the prudence of the Overseers of the Church; and concerning which it is able to be sufficient if the common rule of the Apostle be observed, that all things be done decently and in order, 1 Corinthians 14:40.

We are only maintaining this Perfection of Scripture, through which it might contain all things necessary for Salvation, both with respect to Belief, and with respect to Practice:  so that it is not needful to have recourse to some ἄγραφον/unwritten Word beyond Scripture, which might supply certain dogmatic and ethical Traditions, which, where Scripture is deficient, are to be held as the rule of faith and manners no less than the Scripture.

Neither do we assert that such an extensive or quantitative Perfection occurs in each part of Scripture or in the individual Books; but in the whole Scripture, or taken together as an integral whole.

It is not necessary that all things necessary with respect to Belief or with respect to Practice are read in Scripture explicitly, αὐτολεξεὶ, in express words, κατὰ τὸ ῥητὸν, according to the things specified, in so many words; it is sufficient if they be found there either explicitly, or implicitly, κατ᾽ ἰσοδυναμίαν, by equivalence (let allowance be made for the word), κατὰ διάνοιαν, according to the sense, κατὰ συνακολούθησιν, according to necessary implication, in such a way that they are able to be deduced from Scripture by legitimate Consequence:  for it has been seen in Chapter I, § 29, 30, that such things are virtually contained in Scripture, and that truths drawn from the Scriptures by legitimate Consequences are to be admitted as revealed in it.

This Perfection of Scripture, as thus described, we prove, 1.  From a clear passage, Psalm 19:7, תּ֘וֹרַ֤ת יְהוָ֣ה תְּ֭מִימָה, the Law of Jehovah is perfect, in which, α.  those various names conjoined in the context, Law, Testimony, Precepts, Commandment, etc., in verses 7 and 8, denote the entire doctrine of salvation, and hence the whole Scripture, which delivers that doctrine, which here is set over against the heavens and the expanse.  β.  Now, this Law is said to be Perfect, not only with a Perfection, intensive and qualitative, of purity, ἄμωμος, immaculate, as the Septuagint and the Vulgate have it, or free from every blemish of error and impurity, and also from any just charge of obscurity and other reproaches:  but also a Perfection, extensive and quantitative, of integrity, by which it has with sufficient integrity all necessary parts, and to such an extent that it is Sufficient for the end of human salvation, as afterward in this very passage this is deduced and demonstrated at length.  Not only originally from תָּמַם, to be complete, to be perfect, does this signification most aptly agree with the word תָּמִים; but in this sense it is often used also, thus שָׁנָ֣ה תְמִימָה֒, a year whole, complete, Leviticus 25:30;[1] כְּי֥וֹם תָּמִֽים׃, about a whole day, Joshua 10:13; הָאַלְיָ֣ה תְמִימָ֔ה, the whole rump, Leviticus 3:9.  γ.  Now, that Perfection and Sufficiency of the Law is to be understood with respect to that Economy, so that, with the remaining Books of the Old and New Testaments added to those that were then extant, the present Perfection of the Scripture is constructed with complete certainty by an argument from the lesser to the greater.

2.  From the saving Fruit, which it is given to draw from the same, when one may argue thus:  What renders us perfect unto salvation, that contains the perfect doctrine of salvation.  Sacred Scripture renders us perfect unto salvation.  Therefore.  The Major rests upon a Logical axiom:  No effect exceeds the perfection of its cause:  likewise, It is Impossible that a cause be inferior to its effect.  But, that the Scripture renders us perfect unto salvation, is indicated by the saving uses of the Scripture often mentioned; of which sort are the conversion of the soul, the giving of wisdom, the gladdening of the heart, Psalm 19:7, 8, saving instruction and the consolation of conscience, Romans 15:4, faith upon Christ, and eternal life itself, to be obtained in the name of Christ, John 20:30, 31.  In which passage, α.  John speaks of the many things not written; β.  he says that the end of those things that were written is eternal life to be acquired through faith upon Christ.  But if the Scripture be not now Perfectly sufficient for this, that it might be able to lead a man to the obtaining of this end; God would fail of this His end in the inspiration and revelation of His Word:  which is absurd.  Add that 2 Timothy 3:15-17 is not at all to be overlooked, and the uses mentioned there, and you will be obliged to confess that nothing is wanting that a man could need to obtain salvation, whence the Sufficiency of the Scripture is concluded.  This passage of Paul shall furnish for us many instances:  α.  the Sacred Books are able us σοφίσαι, to make wise, that is, to instruct Perfectly (for one that has been taught in only a slight manner is not able to be called σοφὸς/wise), to make wise unto salvation through faith upon Christ; Therefore, they contain the whole doctrine of salvation, and are alone sufficient for man without the addition of another word:  for what do we seek beyond that we might be made sharers of salvation, and that the true way leading to salvation might be pointed out to us?  β.  The Scripture is able to teach all necessary truth, to refute errors, to correct vices, to instruct in righteousness, and to such an extent that it is useful unto all theoretical and practical uses:  Therefore, it is sufficient for salvation.  γ.  The Scripture is sufficient to render Men of God, Prophets, Apostles, Pastors, Perfect in every good work; Therefore, their hearers also.

Upon this passage Bellarmine, book IV de Verbo Dei, chapter X, columns 242, 243, takes exception:  α.  Paul does not say ὅλη γραφὴ, the whole Scripture, but πᾶσα γραφὴ, all Scripture:  if, therefore, you wish to gather the Sufficiency of Scripture from the uses mentioned here, the same should be attributed to the individual parts of Scripture, while the rest would be superfluous; but we do not attribute Sufficiency to each little book.  Responses:  1.  Πᾶς/all is used here, not so much distributively concerning the individual parts of Scripture taken separately; but collectively concerning the integral whole, or the whole Scripture taken together, which is often the signification of the litte word πᾶς, Matthew 2:3;[2] 8:32, 34;[3] 27:45;[4] Acts 2:36;[5] Ephesians 4:16.[6]  2.  Neither would Bellarmine himself be able to find equally all the uses mentioned here in every little part of Scripture.

He takes exception, β.  Paul only says that the Scripture is ὠφέλιμον/profitable for all the uses then mentioned:  but not every useful thing is sufficient to obtain a particular end; so food is useful to nourish, yet it is not sufficient for nourishment, unless natural heat be present in man, and all the organs be well disposed.  Responses:  1.  It is not here asked concerning the power of the Scripture upon the soul of man, so that one might report all the uses enumerated by Paul out of the Scripture:  unto this end we acknowledge that internal Grace and the omnipotence of the Holy Spirit must be added, which might render a man well-disposed to profit from the saving uses of Scripture, and the nourishment of this spiritual food, if we might make use of the similitude of Bellarmine.  2.  But we hold the Scripture at one and the same time to be Perfect and Sufficient in its own class, that is, in its normative use, so that it exhibits all things necessary to know, to believe, and to do; it is able σοφίσαι, to make wise, a man unto salvation; it is useful unto the διδασκαλίαν/teaching of the true, the ἔλεγχον/reproving of the false, the ἐπανόρθωσιν/correcting of evil, and the παιδείαν/inculcating of the good:  but nothing more is required in the rule of faith and manners.  Therefore, what is useful, not only unto a certain thing, but universally unto all things, with a complete and adequate usefulness, that truly has Sufficiency:  it is not therefore an imperfect rule, because the hand of the architect is required to apply it.  3.  The defect, which Bellarmine here pretends, is not able ever to be offset by some ἄγραφον/unwritten Word and unwritten Traditions.

3.  Add the Canonical and Normative use of Scripture.  That is the unique Canon and Rule, by which all other things are to be tested (see § 32), which hence according to the nature of the matter does not admit of addition or subtraction.  For a measure, to which addition or subtraction is possible, by that very fact is not a rule.  Thus FAVORINUS[7] well said:  Κανών ἐστι νόμος ἀπαράβατος, a canon is an inviolable law, καὶ μέτρον ἀδιάψευστον, and an infallible measure, πᾶσαν πρόσθεσιν καὶ ἀφαίρεσιν μηδαμῶς ἐπιδεχόμενον, without any addition and subtraction admitted.  Similarly CHRYSOSTOM, Homily XII, in Epistola ad Philippenses, on chapter III, verse 16, opera, tome II, page 293, ὁ κανὼν οὔτε πρόσθεσιν οὔτε ἀφαίρεσιν δέχεται, ἐπεὶ τὸ κανὼν εἶναι ἀπόλλυσι, the Canon admits neither addition nor subtraction, since such would cease to be a Canon.  Therefore, either the Normative use of Scripture is to be denied, or its adequate Perfection and Sufficiency is to be held.

4.  If Scripture were imperfect and not quite sufficient, God should not have forbidden all Addition or subtraction.  On the other hand, to what under penalty of anathema nothing is to be added, nothing subtracted, that is to be called Perfect and Sufficient.  But to Sacred Scripture nothing is to be added, nothing subtracted, whether in matters to be known and believed, or in matters to be done.  So it is in Deuteronomy 4:2; 12:32.  But, α.  the Word and Precept, which Moses taught to Israel, at the divine command was recorded by him in the records of the Pentateuch:  whence the Israelites are commanded to observe no other precepts than those which are contained in the Book of the Law written, Deuteronomy 28:58; and the whole Law commanded by Moses is interchangeable with the Book of the Law, Joshua 1:7, 8.  β.  To this Pentateuch many other Books were thereafter added, but they were written at the divine command; while in the passages cited God was expressly forbidding only human Addition.  And in the remaining Books were written dogmas and precepts not so much new, but rather the Mosaic doctrine was declared in more words for the rising generation of the Church; so that Paul, declaring πᾶσαν τὴν βουλὴν τοῦ Θεου, the whole counsel of God, Acts 20:27, speaks nothing beyond Moses and the Prophets, Acts 26:22:  consult DINANT’S de Achtbaarheid van Godts Woord, chapter V, § 53, pages 843, 844, § 64-73, pages 860-872.  In Galatians 1:8, an anathema is declared against anyone evangelizing, not only against, but simply beyond or beside that which was preached, παρ᾽ ὃ εὐηγγελισάμεθα ὑμῖν, the Vulgate rendering it præter/beside.[8]  THEOPHYLACT reasons, Οὐκ εἶπεν ὅτι ἐναντία καταγγέλλουσιν, ἀλλὰ κᾂν μικρόν τι εὐαγγελίζονται, παρ᾽ ὃ εὐηγγελισάμεθα ὑμῖν, he did not say that they proclaim opposite things, but even if they preach a little something beside what we preached to you.  Neither is it possible to make a distinction between Additions corrupting and perfecting:  seeing that there is given no Tradition perfecting that which is already Perfect; and all human Addition in matters of faith is corrupting, whence it is simply forbidden to preach παρ᾽ ὃ, in addition to which.  Finally, John willed that all Addition and subtraction be prohibited with the utmost gravity, Revelation 22:18, 19; this prohibition has regard, α.  most immediately indeed to the book of Revelation, but equally to the remaining divine Books, which human Addition would corrupt.  β.  In this Chapter, John no less expressly seals the whole Canon than Malachi had sealed the Old Testament; so that, with the Apocalypse added to the remaining Books, the Canon of Scripture, which before was substantially Perfect, was now also circumscriptively Perfect.  Therefore, when he forbids to add anything to this Book, which was added as the last to complete the Canon, he forbids at the same time to add to or subtract from the whole Canon of Scripture.

The Fathers agreeing with us in this thesis concerning the Perfection of Scripture are set forth by LEYDEKKER, Veritate Euangelica triumphante, tome I, book I, chapter XII, § 3, page 138.  Indeed, SPANHEIM shows that the Papists themselves sometimes agree, Exercitatione de Præscriptione in rebus Fidei, Section V, § 10, opera, tome 3, column 1105.

The Papists that everywhere hold the contrary, so that from the imperfect condition of Scripture they might show the necessity of Traditions, Object with Bellarmine, book IV de Verbo Dei, chapters IV, V:

α.  John 20:30; 21:25.  Response:  It is an ignoratio elenchi.[9]  In the determination of the state of the Question, I observed that it is not requisite for the Perfection of the Scripture according to our position, that the individual words and deeds of the Lord and His Apostles be commemorated in it; but only those that are necessary to be known and believed by us.  Whence it is to be observed that those things that are passed over are not necessary to be known by us for salvation, by comparison with John 20:31; or that they were not substantially different from those that are written; so that those things passed by were also written κατ᾽ εἶδος, in kind, although not κατὰ μέρος, in the particulars.

β.  What is Perfect and Sufficient neither according to its whole, nor according to its parts, that is in no way Perfect and Sufficient.  Sacred Scripture is Perfect and Sufficient neither according to its whole, nor according to its parts.  Therefore.  They attempt to prove the Minor in this way:  The Scripture is not Perfect in the first way, because many Books truly Canonical of the Old and New Testaments have perished.  Nor in the second way, because no one Book contains all things, by a comparison with 2 John 12 and 3 John 13; or, if the individual parts were Perfect and Sufficient, then the rest would be superfluous:  see Bellarmine, tome I, Controversiis, book IV de Verbo Dei, chapter IV, column 211.

But we are able to convert the disjunctive Minor into a copulative:  because Sacred Scripture is Perfect, both according to its whole with an essential Perfection of the whole; and according to its individual parts, with an integral Perfection of the parts, while the individual parts considered separately have a partial Perfection.

Now, in the proposed Argument the proof of the Minor with respect to the first member is false:  for no Book truly Canonical has perished, as we saw in § 16; and in the Books surviving to the present day the doctrine of salvation is contained with abundance.

The proof of the second member is partly false, because various Books do contain individually all necessary doctrines; partly irrelevant, because Scripture was written not only for Sufficiency of salvation, but also for the greater ἀσφάλειαν/certainty of faith, in comparison with Philippians 3:1:[10]  it is partly an ignoratio elenchi, and it does not harm us; for we taught above that for the Perfection of Scripture it is not required that the individual parts have the Perfection of the whole:  it suffices, if they have partial Perfection, some greater than others, which, joined together in the end, constitute the whole body of Scripture, perfect with an integral Perfection.  For example, as the stomach in the human body does not have the Perfection of the whole, nor is it as perfect as the head; nevertheless, its own partial Perfection is not wanting to it, and together with the remaining parts of the body it contributes to the constitution of the Perfection of the integral whole.

γ.  John 16:12:  see Bellarmine, tome I, Controversiis, book IV de Verbo Dei, chapter V, column 216.  But our AUTHOR sufficiently enervates this Objection in his Response.

δ.  What does not refute heresies, that is not Perfect:  but Pelagius, Socinus, Arminius, etc., are not expressly refuted in Scripture.  Response:  It is sufficient that in Scripture is positively taught what is to be believed by us, whence heresies, opposed to the truth of Scripture, are easily refuted by legitimate consequence:  since what is straight and true reveals both itself and what is crooked.

ε.  To whatever something is ever being added, that is not Perfect:  but to Moses the Prophets were added, to the Prophets the Apostles.  Responses:  1.  To what something is ever being added, sometimes that is at last made Perfect; so that at least now after so many additions the Scripture ought to be judged Perfect.  2.  The additions were more frequently of new Books, not of substantially new doctrine, which endured, and was by degrees explained more clearly and fully.  3.  Of course, revelation has increased by degrees, in keeping with the increasing maturity of the Church, until to the adult Church in the time of the Apostles, and especially of the last of the Apostles, the Canonical Books, joined together into a proper volume now also of adult size, were delivered.

[1] Leviticus 25:30:  “And if it be not redeemed within the space of a full year (שָׁנָ֣ה תְמִימָה֒), then the house that is in the walled city shall be established for ever to him that bought it throughout his generations:  it shall not go out in the jubile.”

[2] Matthew 2:3:  “When Herod the king had heard these things, he was troubled, and all (πᾶσα) Jerusalem with him.”

[3] Matthew 8:32, 34:  “And he said unto them, Go.  And when they were come out, they went into the herd of swine:  and, behold, the whole (πᾶσα) herd of swine ran violently down a steep place into the sea, and perished in the waters….  And, behold, the whole (πᾶσα) city came out to meet Jesus: and when they saw him, they besought him that he would depart out of their coasts.”

[4] Matthew 27:45:  “Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all (πᾶσαν) the land unto the ninth hour.”

[5] Acts 2:36:  “Therefore let all (πᾶς) the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ.”

[6] Ephesians 4:16:  “From whom the whole (πᾶν) body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.”

[7] Favorinus of Arelate (c. 80-c. 160) was a Roman rhetorician and philosopher, teacher and writer.  Fragments of his works survive in other authors.

[8] Galatians 1:8:  “But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you (παρ᾽ ὃ εὐηγγελισάμεθα ὑμῖν; præterquam quod evangelizavimus vobis, in addition to what we have preached to you, in the Vulgate), let him be accursed.”

[9] Ignoratio elenchi, sometimes called the fallacy of the irrelevant conclusion or thesis, is the presentation of an argument that does not address the question at hand.

[10] Philippians 3:1:  “Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord.  To write the same things to you, to me indeed is not grievous, but for you it is safe (ἀσφαλές).”