Saturday, July 29, 2017

Origen vs. Sola Scriptura

In book 13 sections 27-30 of his Commentary on the Gospel of John, Origen (185-254) wrote the following, proving that he rejected the formal sufficiency of the Bible:

(27) For indeed, Scripture has not contained some of the more lordly and more divine aspects of the mysteries of God, nor indeed has the human voice and the human tongue contained some, as far as the common understanding of the meanings are concerned. "For there are also many other things that Jesus did, which if they were each written, I suppose not even the world itself would contain the books that would be written."

(28) John is forbidden to write when he is about to record all that the seven thunders said. Paul, too, says that he has not heard words that cannot be spoken. These were not words that were not permitted to be spoken by anyone, for angels were permitted to speak them, but not men, "for all things are permitted, but not all things are beneficial."

(29) And he said that "it is not permitted to man to speak" those things that he had heard, "words that cannot be spoken."

(30) Now I think that all of the Scriptures, even when perceived very accurately, are not only very elementary rudiments of and very brief introductions to all knowledge. (Origen: Commentary on the Gospel of John Books 13-32 [The Fathers of the Church vol. 89; trans. Ronald Heine; Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 1993], 74)

One can see the overwhelming biblical case, with an appendix on some of the patristic witness against Sola Scriptura in my new book:



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