Thoroughly Biblical? - Article 6/39

6. OF THE SUFFICIENCY OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES FOR SALVATION

HOLY Scripture containeth all things necessary to salvation: so that whatsoever is not read therein, nor may be proved thereby, is not to be required of any man, that it should be believed as an article of the Faith, or be thought requisite or necessary to salvation. In the name of the holy Scripture we do understand those Canonical Books of the Old and New Testament, of whose authority was never any doubt in the Church. Of the Names and Number of the Canonical Books:

Genesis
Exodus
Leviticus
Numbers
Deuteronomy
Joshua
Judges
Ruth
The First Book of Samuel
The Second Book of Samuel
The First Book of Kings
The Second Book of Kings
The First Book of Chronicles
The Second Book of Chronicles
The First Book of Esdras
The Second Book of Esdras
The Book of Esther
The Book of Job
The Psalms
The Proverbs
Ecclesiastes or Preacher
Cantica, or Songs of Solomon
Four Prophets the greater
Twelve Prophets the less

And the other Books (as Hierome saith) the Church doth read for example of life and instruction of manners; but yet doth it not apply them to establish any doctrine; such are these following:

The Third Book of Esdras

The Fourth Book of Esdras
The Book of Tobias
The Book of Judith
The rest of the Book of Esther
The Book of Wisdom
Jesus the Son of Sirach
Baruch the Prophet
The Song of the Three Children
The Story of Susanna
Of Bel and the Dragon
The Prayer of Manasses
The First Book of Maccabees
The Second Book of Maccabees

All the Books of the New Testament, as they are commonly received, we do receive, and account them Canonical.

There are dangers with a blind approach to Scripture as 'inerrant'. That is a higher standard than Scripture has for itself. Vast chunks of the Book of Job are dismissed at its end as bad advice. As my regular readers will know the great danger for the uneducated scripture reader is mistaking passages for history which are not. It doesn't make the Book of Job lack truth to say it wasn't history. That book of black comedy is full of insight, truth and beauty. But it didn't happen. To begin with, if God and Satan had a wager, how would we know?

The purpose of this Article is to establish that nothing 'necessary for salvation' will be found outside the Scriptures, duly listed.

But there is space for discussion of the text and a divergence of spiritual exercises in response. So? The possibility of aborting a foetus? The acceptability of taking a life-partner of the same gender? The advisability of owning a nuclear deterrent? The rightness or wrongness of various stimulants and suppressants? Feel free to ponder. Your answer is not anti-Article 6 nor a threat to your salvation. That has been made certain for you already. But you may reference Scripture in your answer.

Furthermore, the church can play around all it likes with times and seasons, people and places, ways and means of public worship. But Article 20 will tell us the church can do no thing contrary to Scripture. O'Donovan tells us, '...the books of Scripture are not authoritative because the Church views them in a certain way; the Church views them in a certain way because they are authoritative.'

Allow Martin Percy a word. 'The Bible is not one message spoken by one voice. It is, rather, symphonic in character – a restless and inspiring chorus of testaments, whose authority rests in its very plurality.'

Oh, and in case you wondered. Hierome is St Jerome.