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