Sola Scriptura

Sola scriptura, “Scripture alone,” is the principle that the Bible is the sole rule of faith, sufficient by itself, without Tradition or the authority of the Church to guard and interpret it. It is one of the foundations of the Protestant Reformation. It collapses under its own principle as under the witness of Scripture itself.

A rule Scripture does not teach

The principle first refutes itself. If the rule is to hold what Scripture teaches, and Scripture nowhere teaches that it is the sole rule, then sola scriptura fails its own test: it lays down a norm the Bible does not give. The verse usually cited states the inspiration and usefulness of Scripture, not that it suffices by itself: “All Scripture is inspired by God and useful for teaching, for refuting, for correcting, for training in righteousness.” 2 Timothy 3:16-17 “Useful for” does not mean “sole source”; and when these words are written, the Scripture in question is the Old Testament, from which no one would conclude that it dispenses with the New.

Scripture points to Tradition

Scripture itself commands us to hold to the teaching handed on, whether it comes by word or by letter. The Word of God passes through both. “Hold fast the traditions you have learned, whether by our word or by our letter.” 2 Thessalonians 2:15 Preaching received by living voice and the written text are set on the same level. This deposit is handed on through a living chain, from one generation to the next: “What you have heard from me, entrust to faithful men, able in turn to teach others.” 2 Timothy 2:2 And Scripture praises those who faithfully keep this transmission: “I praise you for keeping the traditions just as I handed them on to you.” 1 Corinthians 11:2

The Church before the Book

The Church preceded the New Testament. Born at Pentecost, she preached, baptized and celebrated the Eucharist for some twenty years before a single line of the New Testament was written: the earliest letters date from the fifties, and the last book was completed only at the end of the first century. More than this, the settled list of the holy books, the canon, was fixed only at the end of the fourth century, at the councils of Hippo in 393 and Carthage in 397: nearly four centuries during which the Church taught, baptized and forgave sins without possessing a closed Bible. Faith is born first of preaching: “Faith comes from what is heard.” Romans 10:17 Above all, the Bible carries in itself no table of its own books: nothing in Scripture says which writings are inspired and which are not. It is the Church, led by the Spirit, that discerned and received this canon. To hold a given book as Scripture is therefore already to rely on the authority of the Church and on her Tradition. Sola scriptura cannot even say which books make up the Scripture alone it invokes.

A word that calls for an interpreter

Scripture does not explain itself to whoever opens it. It contains difficult passages, which the unstable twist to their ruin: “There are in them points hard to understand, which the ignorant and the unstable twist to their own ruin.” 2 Peter 3:16 It shows for itself the need of a guide: to the eunuch who was reading the prophet without grasping him, Philip asks whether he understands what he reads, and the man replies: “How could I, unless someone guides me?” Acts 8:31 Left to each one’s private judgment, reading does not found unity: it breaks it, and one sees the fruit in the multitude of communities that claim the same Bible and contradict one another. Scripture warns of it: “No prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation.” 2 Peter 1:20

The pillar of truth

Christ did not leave a book, he founded a Church, and to her he entrusted the keeping of the truth. He himself wrote nothing; he sent his own to teach and to hand on: “Make disciples of all nations, and teach them to keep all that I have commanded you.” Matthew 28:19-20 He gave this Church an authority that speaks in his name: “Whoever listens to you listens to me.” Luke 10:16 In disputes, it is she who decides: “If he will not listen to them, tell it to the Church.” Matthew 18:17 This is why Scripture gives this title to the Church, and not to a book: “the Church of the living God, pillar and support of the truth.” 1 Timothy 3:15

Scripture within the Church

Scripture remains the Word of God, supremely venerated, the soul of all preaching and all theology. It lives in the Church that received it from God, discerned it, guards it and interprets it. Scripture, Tradition and the authority of the Church form one single Word, handed on through ways that God has joined. To cut it off from the Tradition and the Church that bear it is to sever it from the life in which it was given and in which it is understood.