The first article of the Chicago-Lambeth Quadrilateral states:
“The Holy Scriptures of the Old and New testaments contain all things necessary to salvation and are the rule and ultimate standard of the faith.”
We are a people of the Word, God’s Word, and that Word has been made known to us incarnationally in the living Word, Jesus, the Son of God.
But what do we mean when we say that we are a people of the Word or that Holy Scriptures contain all things necessary to salvation?
Script for salvation
We might begin by looking at the word scripture itself. The word scripture, though normally associated with the Old and New Testaments of the Bible, comes from the root word “script” which is any document prepared or written by a scribe.
We know about scripts through their use in plays. Such dramatic narratives give directions to actors and actresses who act out a story or plot. This more fundamental understanding of script and its relationship to scripture reminds us that the Holy Scriptures of both the Old and New Covenants present us with a play, act, plot or story that we call salvation.
Said differently, the Holy Scriptures reveal to us a story of salvation and provide a dramatic history of God’s ways with humanity. The story is a universal story which provides a way for us to identify who we are and whose we are as God’s people within that story.
Read the directions
The fact that scripture is a script that rehearses salvation history is often overlooked. While teaching at the University of the South and living in Sewanee, TN, I can remember being amused by a particular sign that I passed with some frequency on the way from Sewanee to Winchester, TN. The sign depicted a large Bible with the words, “when all else falls, read the directions”.
This particular understanding of Holy Scripture as a book of directions is not confined to Tennessee or to the Bible Belt of the south. Many people use the Holy Scriptures as a way of ordering their life as God-fearing Jews or Christians.
We certainly recognize that contained within Holy Scriptures are laws, guidelines, ethical precepts and moral injunctions. However, Holy Scriptures is not a book of instructions that can be simply applied to any and all situations.
As Anglicans and Episcopalians, we do not use Holy Scripture in this literal sense. We recognize that scripture must be reinterpreted for each generation and every new age.
We also recognize that Holy Scripture, in addition to revealing God’s Word, reflects the values and ethos of the time in which it was written and was influenced by the cultural biases of its authors.
To use scriptures as a “proof text” is to fall into the fallacy of seeing Holy Scripture as a book of
rules to be applied to any and all situations. A wise biblical theologian has noted that you can prove anything, including opposite points of view, with a selective reading of the Bible.
Rather than regarding Holy Scripture as a book of rules, we regard Holy Scripture as the revelation of God to His people. In that revelation, story or script, we are invited to participate and become a part of the story as God’s people.
While the Bible certainly provides a direction for life, it is not a book of directions. It is rather primarily a salvation story that provides identity and depth of meaning to all of life.
The Jewish Canon
A helpful way to get at our understanding and use of scripture is to examine the term, “Canon of Scripture.” The term “canon” comes from a Greek word which means measuring rod or rule. When applied to scripture, the term is used in a larger sense: a list or catalogue of the books that were officially received as containing the rule of the Christian faith.
The idea of a “Canon of Scripture” goes back to Old Testament times. The Jews classified their scriptures in three groups: 1. the law (Torah), 2. the prophets, and 3. other books known collectively as the “writings”.
By the time of Christ, Jews everywhere recognized the law and prophets as Holy Scriptures, but the exact works that encompassed “the writings” were still undefined. The canon of Jewish scripture was probably settled at about the end of the first century AD and certainly by the end of the second century.
The respect shown by Christ and the apostolic Church to the scriptures of Judaism forms the basis of Christian attitudes toward the Bible. These Old Testament or Hebrew scriptures were regarded as inspired by the Holy Spirit and yet were seen as an imperfect and partial revelation of God and a preparation for the coming of Christ, which in various ways these scriptures foretold.
The Christian Canon
The formation of the New Testament Canon which included the four Gospels and the thirteen Epistles by St. Paul came to be accepted around the year 130 AD and had the same authority as the Old Testament. The other New Testament writings that make up the present New Testament Canon were received later.
Certain doubts persisted, especially in the case of the books that we call Hebrews, Jude, 2nd Peter, 2nd and 3rd John and Revelation, as to whether or not these books should be included in the New Testament Canon. A council held in Rome in 382 gave a complete list of the canonical books of both the old and New Testaments which is identical with the list given at the Council of Trent.
The Canon of Scriptures thus came to be defined as the collection of inspired writings, made by the tradition and authority of the Church, which contained the rule of faith. The principle that only the Church has the right to declare a book canonical is recognized by the Roman Catholic Church, the Orthodox Churches and the Anglican/Episcopal Church.
The Venerable Bede helps us to understand how scripture is to be interpreted: “the whole series of the divine scripture is interpreted in a fourfold way. In all holy books one should ascertain what everlasting truths are therein intimated, what deeds are narrated, what future events are foretold, and what commands or councils are there contained.”
As we celebrate our “blessings of the past” and anticipate our “promises of the future”, in line with last year’s Diocesan Convention, we recognize that the Holy Scripture provides us with a clear identity of who we are by rehearsing our past, giving us guidance for the present and pointing us to the promises of the future.
Finally, we recognize that as a people of the Word, we are called to read and study that Word. In the worth of St. Jerome, “to be ignorant of the scripture is not to know Christ”.
The daily office of The Book of Common Prayer provides us with a way to begin our day with God’s Word. Beginning on page 934 of The Prayer Book, one finds lessons laid out for a two-year period which allow for reading almost all of scripture through the use of the daily lectionary during the course of two years.
It is my hope and prayer that we will continue to grow as a people of the Word, God’s Word. This Word is the basis for our ministry as individuals in the larger community of the Word, the Church.
In Christ,