The Authority Of Scripture

by Jonathan Sarfati

Abstract

Scripture had supreme authority for the Old Testament saints, Christ and His apostles in all matters it touched upon. In particular, for Christ, what Scripture said, God said. Christ also directly affirmed many of the passages attacked by liberals. The charge that Christ was mistaken or merely accommodating to His hearers is impossible for a consistent Christian to hold. The charge of circular reasoning fails on several counts: the internal and external cross-checks, and the role that axioms play in all philosophical systems.

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I) Old Testament

1) Moses

Moses often testified that his writings were from God:

Exodus 24:4:

'Moses then wrote down everything the LORD had said .'

See also v.7, Ex. 34:7, Nu. 33:1-2, Dt. 31:9,

Deuteronomy 31:11:

'when all Israel comes to appear before the LORD your God at the place he will choose, you shall read this law before them in their hearing.'

2) Joshua

Joshua 1:8:

'Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.'

The book of the Law is the Torah, also called the Pentateuch, or the first five books of the Bible.

3) David (c. 1000 BC)

Israel's greatest king clearly also regarded the Law very highly. At his stage in history, not too many books of Scripture had been written, but the Pentateuch was regarded as God's Law.

Psalm 1:2:

'But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night.'

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II) New Testament

1) Jesus Christ:

Matthew 19:3-6:

³ Some Pharisees came to him to test him. They asked, 'Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any and every reason?'
⁴ 'Haven't you read,' he replied, 'that at the beginning the Creator `made them male and female,'
⁵ and said, 'For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh'?
⁶ So they are no longer two, but one. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate.'

Note:

1. Christ accepted the Genesis Creation account literally

2. He cited from Genesis 1:27 and 2:24, showing that He did not regard Genesis 1 and 2 as separate contradictory creation accounts, but as complementary.

3. v.5, which in Genesis is an editorial comment, is equated with the word of the Creator. This is not the only place where the New Testament cites an Old Testament passage as 'God said'; compare the following pairs: Ps. 2:1 & Acts 4:24-25, Ps. 2:7 & Heb. 1:5, Ps. 16:10 & Acts 13:35, Ps. 95:7 & Heb. 3:7, Ps. 97:7 & Heb. 1:6, Ps. 104:4 & Heb. 1:7, Is. 55:3 & Acts 13:34. The converse is true in the following pairs: Gen. 12:3 & Gal. 3:8, Ex. 9:6 & Rom. 9:17; where a direct statement by God in the OT is cited as 'Scripture said'.

Luke 17:26-32:

²⁶ 'Just as it was in the days of Noah, so also will it be in the days of the Son of Man.
²⁷ People were eating, drinking, marrying and being given in marriage up to the day Noah entered the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed them all.
²⁸ 'It was the same in the days of Lot. People were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building.
²⁹ But the day Lot left Sodom, fire and sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all.
³⁰ 'It will be just like this on the day the Son of Man is revealed.
³¹On that day no one who is on the roof of his house, with his goods inside, should go down to get them. Likewise, no one in the field should go back for anything.
³² Remember Lot's wife!

Note: Christ took the accounts of Noah's flood, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah and the calamity befalling Lot's wife literally. Those who dispute their historicity are therefore defying Christ. Matthew 12:40 ff. show that Christ took the account of Jonah and the whale literally, and even used it as a type of His resurrection.

Luke 16:31:

'He (Abraham) said to him (the rich man in Hell), "If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead."'

Note: Christ clearly shows how important the Old Testament is. Many liberal evolutionary theologians who reject Moses also refuse to believe that Christ rose from the dead.

John 5:46-47:

⁴⁶ If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me.
⁴⁷ But since you do not believe what he wrote, how are you going to believe what I say?

Note: a similar lesson can be learnt - liberals who doubt Moses often doubt what Jesus said (except of course for a selective use of His words if they could somehow be twisted to support a cause they happened to agree with).

Also, this shows that the 'JEDP/Documentary Hypothesis' of the Pentateuch is contrary to Christ, who clearly taught that the Pentateuch was edited by Moses.

Matthew 22:23-34:

²³ That same day the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to him with a question.
²⁴ "Teacher," they said, "Moses told us that if a man dies without having children, his brother must marry the widow and have children for him.
²⁵ Now there were seven brothers among us. The first one married and died, and since he had no children, he left his wife to his brother.
²⁶ The same thing happened to the second and third brother, right on down to the seventh.
²⁷ Finally, the woman died.
²⁸ Now then, at the resurrection, whose wife will she be of the seven, since all of them were married to her?"
²⁹ Jesus replied, "You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God.
³⁰ At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven.
³¹ But about the resurrection of the dead - have you not read what God said to you,
³² 'I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob'? He is not the God of the dead but of the living."
³³ When the crowds heard this, they were astonished at his teaching.

Note:

1. the Sadducees only accepted the Pentateuch as Scripture, while the Pharisees accepted the same books as the Protestant OT (as confirmed by the prologue to Ecclesiasticus (ca. 130 BC), Josephus (ca. AD 90), Melito (ca. AD 170)). Jesus accused the Sadducees of not knowing the Scriptures, because they did not accept the Prophets and Writings.

2. Even the Scriptures accepted by the Sadducees taught the resurrection: Christ demonstrated this with an argument depending on the present tense of the implied verb 'to be' implied - the patriarchs were living in a sense in Moses' day, centuries after they had died physically. This passage shows that the Lord believed in verbal plenary inspiration of Scripture.

Matthew 5:18:

'I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.'

Note: the 'jot' was the smallest Hebrew letter, and the 'tittle' was a small part of the letter. So Christ is supporting inspiration even down to the individual letters.

Matthew 23:35:

'And so upon you will come all the righteous blood that has been shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Berekiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar.'

Note: The Pharisees' Bible is the same as the Protestant OT, but the order is different. The first book was still Genesis, but the last book was 2 Chronicles. That generation was to be held responsible for all God's people murdered in the OT, from Abel (Gen. 4:8) to Zechariah (2 Chron. 24:20-21). There were other martyrdoms recorded in the Apocrypha, but Jesus did not regard these writings as Scripture, and never cited them. Jesus agreed with the Pharisaic canon (John 5:39), but not the Saddusaic one.

The Apocrypha was not recognised as canonical by the Jewish scholars at Jamnia (AD 90), and the Talmud stated that the Holy Spirit departed from Israel after Malachi. Many Church Fathers agreed, e.g. Origen, Cyril of Jerusalem, Jerome. Athanasius, in his 39^th Festal Letter of AD 367, listed the same canon as modern Protestants (with the exception of the book of Esther). He also stated that the Apocryphal books Wisdom of Solomon, Wisdom of Sirach, Esther additions, Judith and Tobit were worth reading but not canonical. He made no mention of the books of Maccabees.¹

The apocryphal books abound in geographical and historical errors,² e.g. 2 Macc. 15:1 ff is inconsistent with 1 Macc. 2:41; Judith 1:1 has Nebuchadnezzar reigning in Nineveh rather than Babylon. The morality and doctrine of the apocryphal books also falls short of biblical standards: Ecclesiasticus and Wisdom teach morality based on expedience; God assists Judith in a lie (Judith 9:10,13); salvation by works (Tobit 12:9, 14:10-11); prayers for the dead (2 Macc 12:45-46), pre-existence of souls (Wisdom 8:19-20) and creation out of pre-existent matter (Wisdom 11:17). Even the books themselves disclaim divine inspiration: 1 Macc. 9:27 recognises that prophecy had disappeared in Israel, while 2 Macc. 15:37-39 admits that it was a human composition with possible flaws.

John 10:35:

'. and the scriptures cannot be broken.' - self-explanatory

John 14:26:

'But the Counsellor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.'

Note: Christ here promises his disciples that they would be taught by the Holy Spirit. These teachings eventually became written down in the New Testament.

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2) the Apostle Paul

2 Timothy 3:15-17:

¹⁵ and how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.
¹⁶ All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,
¹⁷ so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

Note:

• the Greek word for 'Scriptures' in v.15 is grammata (grammata), and must refer to the OT alone, as these are the only Scriptures Timothy would have known from his childhood

• in v. 16, the word translated 'Scripture' is grafh (graphè), which would include the OT plus all the NT written by then (AD 63), i.e. all the NT except 2 Peter, Hebrews, Jude, and John's writings. As Paul's writings were divinely inspired, this statement would apply even to the latter books.

• 'God-breathed' is a correct translation by the NIV of the Greek word qeopneustoV (theopneustos). If Scripture is 'God-breathed' and God cannot err, it logically follows that Scripture cannot err.

• Scripture is able to make a man 'wise unto salvation' and 'thoroughly furnished unto all good works'. This implies that Scripture contains all the doctrine and moral law we need.

• But since v. 16 makes it clear that all Scripture is God-breathed, not just some, inerrancy applies to whatever the Bible affirms, and is not restricted just to those verses deemed to relate to faith and conduct. After all, doctrine is inextricably linked to history and science, so that whatever Scripture affirms on scientific or historical matters is also true. For example, the key doctrine of the Resurrection is linked to the historical fact that Jesus' body had vacated the tomb on the third day. It also impinges on science, because naturalistic scientists assert that it is impossible for dead men to rise. And the meaning of Jesus' death and resurrection is tied to the historical accuracy of the event recorded in Genesis (1 Cor. 15:21-22). And if we bow to uniformitarian 'science' in the area of origins, what should we do when Scriptural teaching on morality conflicts with 'science', e.g. the Bible's prohibition on adultery or homosexual acts vs 'scientific' assertions that such behaviours are 'in our genes'. Jesus asked Nicodemus 'I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things?' (John 3:12).

• 1 Tim 5:18 cites both Deut. 25:4 and Lk 10:7 as graphè; i.e. both the Old and New Testaments. This again shows that the NT was already regarded as Scripture even in apostolic times.

1 Timothy 2:12-14:

¹² I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be silent.
¹³ For Adam was formed first, then Eve.
¹⁴ And Adam was not the one deceived; it was the woman who was deceived and became a sinner.

Note: Paul accepted the Genesis account as a historical narrative, and used it to teach on the role of men and women in Church.

Acts 17:1-3:

¹ When they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a Jewish synagogue.
² As his custom was, Paul went into the synagogue, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures,
³ explaining and proving that the Christ had to suffer and rise from the dead. 'This Jesus I am proclaiming to you is the Christ,' he said.

Note: this shows how important the Scriptures were to Paul's evangelism to Jews, who already accepted them as authoritative.

2 Pet. 1:20-21:

²⁰ Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet's own interpretation.
²¹ For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

Note: The chief Apostle, Peter, believed that God moved (literally 'carried along') the writers of Scripture so that they recorded exactly what He wanted. However, God did not usually dictate the words, but superintended the authors so that, using their own individual personalities, they recorded His revelation without error.

Acts 17:10-11:

¹⁰ As soon as it was night, the brothers sent Paul and Silas away to Berea. On arriving there, they went to the Jewish synagogue.
¹¹ Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.

This shows that even Paul's teaching was subjected to the test of Scripture by people who were commended for it. So Christians today should follow that Berean example and test the teachings of any church (or scientist) by Scripture.

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3) Peter

2 Peter 3:15-16:

¹⁵ Bear in mind that our Lord's patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him.
¹⁶ He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.

Note: Peter affirms that Paul's writings were also Scripture.

4) Jude

Jude 3:

'Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt I had to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints.'

N.B. If the faith was once delivered, then there is no need for additional revelations of doctrine after the canon of scripture was closed).

5) John

John 14:26:

'But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.'

Christ's promise in John 14:26 was to His disciples personally present. John was the last survivor, so his books are the last of the NT Canon. It is possible that Rev. 22:18-19 is an indication that this book closes the Canon.

Note on the Canon: Each book was canonical as soon as it was finished, because its ultimate author was God Himself. The NT scholar FF Bruce writes:

'The NT books did not become authoritative for the Church because they were formally included in a canonical list; on the contrary, the Church included them in her canon because she already regarded them as divinely inspired, recognising their innate worth and generally apostolic authority, direct or indirect.. [Church] councils [did] not impose something new upon the Christian communities but codif[ied] what was already the general practice of those communities.'³