Ps 10
Judith 8:4-27
Acts 25:1-12
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… 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.
Tonight we heard from the book of Judith in our First Lesson. If it left you scratching your head (and I hope you didn’t try looking for it in a pew Bible), then that is OK – it is part of a collection of writings the Church calls “The Apocrypha”, or the “deutero-canonical books”. That is to say, they are not part of the “canon” (the standard of Holy Scripture), but “canon-adjacent”, if you like. They have always been floating around God’s people (they are all pre-New Testament), but the Church has not held them to be of the same category of writing as the books we have in our Bibles. I read out a part of Article 6 of the 39 Articles of Religion just now, which is part of our Anglican formularies, to try and give you some idea of how Tradition views these works, and so I hope you can appreciate the generous yet firm approach the Church has towards these writings.
But what sets Holy Scripture apart from any other scripture? What makes the Holy Bible “holy”, and all other “bibles” (which just means “book”) not-holy? Perhaps we can take a look at how St Paul describes it:
All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: (2 Tim 3:16, KJV)
Here the word is “inspired”. Since we are celebrating Evensong according to the old rite, I thought I’d start with the old translation. That is from the KJV. In my modern ESV, it says that scripture is “breathed out by God”, which much better captures the literal phrase: theopneustos, literally “God-breathed.”
I think this is helpful, because there are many other ways that God inspires his people to do his will. In Exodus 36 we read about the tradesmen who God tells Moses to hire to help build the tabernacle and all the utensils needed to start the sacrificial worship system:
36:1 Then wrought Bezaleel and Aholiab, and every wise hearted man, in whom the Lord put wisdom and understanding to know how to work all manner of work for the service of the sanctuary, according to all that the Lord had commanded.
2 And Moses called Bezaleel and Aholiab, and every wise hearted man, in whose heart the Lord had put wisdom, even every one whose heart stirred him up to come unto the work to do it:
So in some sense, God “inspires” people to have certain talents and skills.
I would like to commend this idea to you: that our talents and skills are a gift from God, that he has given them to us in order to use for his glory and for the blessing of the people around us. And I would encourage you to reflect on what God has given you? If you don’t think you are good at anything, think about the circumstances of your life: who around you could use the blessing of your efforts? How would you do that? And would that perhaps be a talent or skill God has given you?
Let’s return to the inspiration of Scripture according to St Paul. He tells us something about the inspiration that led to the writing of Scripture: that it be “profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.” I think that naturally cuts out a lot of other writing. Consider what I just said about talents and skills. Say someone has a talent for creative writing. If that creative writing is not profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, then I would say it is not “inspired” in the way that the Apostle is describing.
Here we move away from spiritual reflection and into doctrine. Specifically, the doctrine of revelation. The theologians (or the good ones, at least) talk about two types of revelation: special revelation and general revelation. So let’s pull it apart: revelation simply means “revealing”. God is “revealing” something about himself to us. In general revelation he reveals to us the fact that we are made, that he is powerful, and that he is moral. As St Paul says elsewhere, everyone knows this, and those who deny God are without excuse (Romans 1). Yet we cannot discover Christ and his redeeming work on the cross in general revelation. And so God has inspired the writers of Holy Scripture to record for us the books of the New Testament so that we may read, hear, and understand of the great love and justice of Jesus of Nazareth and his passion, death and resurrection.
But what about the Old Testament? Here we have to think about why we have one in the first place. Since I am running out of preaching time, I will be brief, and leave it to you to reflect on further. St Augustine said it best when he wrote that “The New Testament is in the Old Testament concealed, the Old Testament is in the New Testament revealed."
Since the very beginning, the Church has understood Christ to be foreshadowed in the Old Testament: some facet of the brilliant diamond that is the Messiah is lying on every single page, revealed in the light of the writings of the New Testament. Therefore we can say confidently that 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.