Theological Term of the Week: Bibliolatry

bibliolatry

The worship of the Bible instead of God. (While it may be technically possible to commit bibliolatry, high esteem for and submission to the Bible is not bibliolatry, but rather worship of God through reverence for and obedience to his revelation to us.)

• From scripture, an example of proper reverence for scripture:

I have stored up your word in my heart,

that I might not sin against you.

Blessed are you, O LORD;

teach me your statutes!

With my lips I declare

all the rules of your mouth.

In the way of your testimonies I delight

as much as in all riches.

I will meditate on your precepts

and fix my eyes on your ways.

I will delight in your statutes;

I will not forget your word.

(Psalm 119:11-16 ESV)

• From the London Baptist Confession of Faith 1689:

Chapter 1: Of the Holy Scriptures

5. We may be moved and induced by the testimony of the church of God to an high and reverent esteem of the Holy Scriptures; and the heavenliness of the matter, the efficacy of the doctrine, and the majesty of the style, the consent of all the parts, the scope of the whole (which is to give all glory to God), the full discovery it makes of the only way of man’s salvation, and many other incomparable excellencies, and entire perfections thereof, are arguments whereby it doth abundantly evidence itself to be the Word of God…

• From The Interpretation of Scripture by J. I. Packer:

Scripture yields two basic principles for its own interpretation. The first is that the proper, natural sense of each passage (i.e., the intended sense of the writer) is to be taken as fundamental; the meaning of texts in their own contexts, and for their original readers, is the necessary starting-point for enquiry into their wider significance. In other words, Scripture statements must be interpreted in the light of the rules of grammar and discourse on the one hand, and of their own place in history on the other. This is what we should expect in the nature of the case, seeing that the biblical books originated as occasional documents addressed to contemporary audiences; and it is exemplified in the New Testament exposition of the Old…

The second basic principle of interpretation is that Scripture must interpret Scripture; the scope and significance of one passage is to be brought out by relating it to others. Our Lord gave an example of this when he used Gn. ii.24 to show that Moses’ law of divorce was no more than a temporary concession to human hard-heartedness. The Reformers termed this principle the analogy of Scripture; the Westminster Confession states it thus: “The infallible rule of interpretation of scripture is the scripture itself; and therefore, when there is a question about the true and full sense of any scripture, it must be searched and known by other places that speak more clearly.” This is so in the nature of the case, since the various inspired books are dealing with complementary aspects of the same subject. The rule means that we must give ourselves in Bible study to following out the unities, cross-references and topical links which Scripture provides.

Learn more:

1. Compelling Truth: Bibliolatry - What is it?
2. Don Stewart: Does Innerancy Cause Worship of the Bible?
3. Tim Challies: Feedback Files - Bibliolotry
4. S. M. Baugh: Is Bibliolotry Possible?

 Related terms:

• authority of scripture
• inerrancy of scripture
• infallibility of scripture
• inspiration of scripture
• perspicuity of scripture
• sola scriptura
• sufficiency of scripture

Filed under Scripture

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Theological Term of the Week: Biblical Hermeneutics

biblical hermeneutics

The art and science of interpreting the Bible.

• From scripture:

Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth (2 Timothy 2:15 ESV).

• From The Chicago Statement on Biblical Hermeneutics:

Article XXV

We affirm the necessity of interpreting the Bible according to its literal, or normal, sense. The literal sense is the grammatical-historical sense, that is, the meaning which the writer expressed. Interpretation according to the literal sense will take account of all figures of speech and literary forms found in the text.

We deny the legitimacy of any approach to Scripture that attributes to it meaning which the literal sense does not support.

Article XVII 

We affirm the unity, harmony and consistency of Scripture and declare that it is its own best interpreter.

We deny that Scripture may be interpreted in such a way as to suggest that one passage corrects or militates against another. We deny that later writers of Scripture misinterpreted earlier passages of Scripture when quoting from or referring to them.

• From The Interpretation of Scripture by J. I. Packer:

Scripture yields two basic principles for its own interpretation. The first is that the proper, natural sense of each passage (i.e., the intended sense of the writer) is to be taken as fundamental; the meaning of texts in their own contexts, and for their original readers, is the necessary starting-point for enquiry into their wider significance. In other words, Scripture statements must be interpreted in the light of the rules of grammar and discourse on the one hand, and of their own place in history on the other. This is what we should expect in the nature of the case, seeing that the biblical books originated as occasional documents addressed to contemporary audiences; and it is exemplified in the New Testament exposition of the Old…

The second basic principle of interpretation is that Scripture must interpret Scripture; the scope and significance of one passage is to be brought out by relating it to others. Our Lord gave an example of this when he used Gn. ii.24 to show that Moses’ law of divorce was no more than a temporary concession to human hard-heartedness. The Reformers termed this principle the analogy of Scripture; the Westminster Confession states it thus: “The infallible rule of interpretation of scripture is the scripture itself; and therefore, when there is a question about the true and full sense of any scripture, it must be searched and known by other places that speak more clearly.” This is so in the nature of the case, since the various inspired books are dealing with complementary aspects of the same subject. The rule means that we must give ourselves in Bible study to following out the unities, cross-references and topical links which Scripture provides.

Learn more:

1. Compelling Truth: Biblical hermeneutics — What is it?
2. J. I. Packer: Christians Can Understand the Word of God
3. Jared Jeter: What Is Hermeneutics?
4. J. I Packer: The Interpretation of Scripture
5. D. A. Carson: Must I Learn How to Interpret the Bible?
6. J. I. Packer: Hermeneutics and Biblical Authority
7. Daniel Wallace: The Holy Spirit and Hermeneutics

 Related terms:

• analogy of faith
• authority of scripture
• exegesis
• inerrancy of scripture
• inspiration of scripture
• perspicuity of scripture
• sufficiency of scripture
• textual criticism

Filed under Scripture

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Do you have a a theological term you’d like to see featured as a Theological Term of the Week? Email your suggestion using the contact button in the navigation bar above. 

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Theological Term of the Week: Autographs

autographs

The original physical documents of scripture as written by a sacred writer or their amanuensis; sometimes called original autographs or autographa. 

• From scripture:

I Tertius, who wrote this letter, greet you in the Lord (Romans 16:22 ESV).

I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand. This is the sign of genuineness in every letter of mine; it is the way I write (2 Thessalonians 3:17 ESV).

Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things that have been accomplished among us, 2 just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word have delivered them to us, 3 it seemed good to me also, having followed all things closely for some time past, to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, 4 that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught (Luke 1:1-4 ESV).

• From The Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy, Article X:

We affirm that inspiration, strictly speaking, applies only to the autographic text of Scripture, which in the providence of God can be ascertained from available manuscripts with great accuracy. We further affirm that copies and translations of Scripture are the Word of God to the extent that they faithfully represent the original.

We deny that any essential element of the Christian faith is affected by the absence of the autographs. We further deny that this absence renders the assertion of Biblical inerrancy invalid or irrelevant.

• From Concise Theology by J. I. Packer, page 16:

We use the term autographa, or autographs, to refer to the original, authoritative manuscripts of Bible books. Now, there is no promise in Scripture that when people make copies of these books, they will be perfect copies. Try it yourself: write out a copy of, say, Leviticus. Chances are, you’ll make some mistakes. This is why we say that only the autographs are perfectly authoritative.

Some critics of our position say that this destroys our whole view of biblical authority; for if only the autographs are fully authoritative, and we don’t have the autographs, then for all practical purposes we don’t have a infallible, authoritative Bible. But take the following points into account:

Though we don’t have the actual autographs, we have access to the original text through the science of textual criticism, which compares various manuscript readings to determine the original. The important thing is to have the text, not to have the manuscript. 

Some textual problems remain unsolved; but these are very minor, for the most part, and they never affect any doctrine.

Learn more:

1. R. C. Sproul:The Original Autographs
2. Paul Mizzi: The Autographs of Scripture
3. Michael Kruger: The Difference Between the Original Autographs and Original Texts
4. Aaron Brake: Does the Lack of Original Autographs Make Biblical Inerrancy Irrelevant?
5. Michael Kruger: Is the Original Text of the New Testament Lost? Rethinking Our Access to the Autographs

 Related terms:

• amanuensis
• canon of scripture
• inerrancy of scripture
• infallibility of scripture
• inspiration of scripture
• manuscript
• text criticism

Filed under Scripture

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Clicking on the Theological Terms button above the header will take you to an alphabetical list of all the theological terms.