Monday, March 20, 2023

Justin Martyr and Hippolytus on the Perspicuity of Scripture

  

Justin Martyr

 

We will first look at second-century Christian apologist St. Justin Martyr. He wrote in his Dialogue with Trypho the Jew: “Pat attention, therefore, to what I shall record out of the holy Scriptures, which do not need to be expounded, but only listened to.” (ch. 55) Justin martyr made this assertion during a debate with a Jewish person, as to the former, in an attempt to articulate a defense of the Trinity, sought to persuade the latter that some Bible verses indicate that God is not only God the Father. Context indicates that this specific discussion was focused on a debate regarding God’s nature, not whether Scripture is so clear that it can be read by anyone to know what is necessary for salvation.

 

We cannot necessarily assume Justin Martyr believed that Scripture is itself sufficient to resolve interpretive disputes. It may be that his description of what does not require further expounding is only in reference to the specific passages he is discussing, or that he is speaking rhetorically (he was, after all, a pagan philosopher prior to his conversion to Christianity). Indeed, in the very same chapter of the dialogue, Justin, describing the words of Scripture to Trypho, says: “They will appear strange to you, although you read them every day.” Yet if Scripture was clear enough to not require an interpreter, Justin’s explanations would not be required of someone with such extensive familiarity with the Word of God.

 

Finally, consider a few other excerpts from Justin Martyr’s corpus that considerably distance him from Protestantism. In his First Apology, he argued that catechumens in the church should “pray [and[ beseech God in fasting for the remission of their former sins. . . . The reason for doing this, we have learned from the Apostles.” Catechumens, he added, “obtain in the water the remission of past sins.” (ANF 1:54). Justin Martyr believed that prayer, fasting, and Baptism result in the remission of sins—all three of which are odds with Protestant understandings of what is necessary for salvation, which is exactly what the doctrine of perspicuity is intended to illuminate. Even if we were to argue that Justin Martyr thinks Scripture is clear regarding what is necessary for salvation (though he never makes any such explicit claim), his beliefs regarding those criteria contradict those taught by magisterial Protestantism. (Casey J. Chalk, The Obscurity of Scripture: Disputing Sola Scriptura and the Protestant Notion of Biblical Perspicuity [Steubenville, Ohio: Emmaus Road Publishing, 2023], 197-98)

 

St. Hippolytus

 

Another oft-cited Church Father among Protestant perspicuity advocates is St. Hippolytus of Rome (ca. 170-225). He wrote in his Against the Heresy of a Certain Noetus: “There is, brethren, one God, the knowledge of whom we gain from the Holy Scriptures, and from no other source . . . all of us who wish to practice piety will be unable to learn its practice from any other quarter than the oracles of God.” (ch. 9) Protestants readers focus on the phrase “no other source” to interpret this as meaning that Hippolytus is declaring that Christians should consider only the Bible, and not an external authoritative interpreter. If that is the case, then Scripture must necessarily be clear enough for people to read and intuit its doctrines without recourse to an authority.

 

However, an alternative reading of this passage, one in conformity with Catholic doctrine, would be that Hippolytus is explaining the doctrines about God must have their ultimate source in Scripture. Moreover, in his The Apostolic Tradition, Hippolytus noted that catechumens have been taught about Baptism, the Resurrection, and “all else that is taught in the Holy Scriptures,” but that “if there is anything more they ought to be told, let the bishop impart it to them in private” (Apostolic Tradition, 21) Hippolytus’s exhortation here implies that a bishop is responsible for providing additional teaching or interpretation of Christian doctrine above and beyond what a catechumen could learn from a personal examination of the Scriptures. Thus Hippolytus obviously believed that Scripture, while preeminently authoritative, still requires ecclesial interpretation. (Casey J. Chalk, The Obscurity of Scripture: Disputing Sola Scriptura and the Protestant Notion of Biblical Perspicuity [Steubenville, Ohio: Emmaus Road Publishing, 2023], 198-99)

 

Further Reading:

 

Not By Scripture Alone: A Latter-day Saint Refutation of Sola Scriptura