Authority

How do we know that Scripture is “scriptural”? 

February 9, 2012

Among the range of various local evangelical church’s statements of faith is usually – perhaps even first – some affirmation about the perfection of Scripture.  The National Association of Evangelicals places it first in their list of seven essentials:

We believe the Bible to be the inspired, the only infallible, authoritative Word of God.

From my own home church, an EFCA body, is this:

2. We believe that God has spoken in the Scriptures, both Old and New Testaments, through the words of human authors. As the verbally inspired Word of God, the Bible is without error in the original writings, the complete revelation of His will for salvation, and the ultimate authority by which every realm of human knowledge and endeavor should be judged. Therefore, it is to be believed in all that it teaches, obeyed in all that it requires, and trusted in all that it promises.

These representative evangelical statements both assert the infallibility of the Bible (as long as it is confined to the 66 Canonical books only, and does not include the so-called Apocryphal books).  While the NAE leaves the implications of its statement as inferences one must draw, the EFCA’s draws those implications out more concretely.

Leaving aside the differences in form, function, and priority, I am shocked into a question about the assertion itself.  From whence comes the authority to make these declarations about the Bible?  How do we know such things – how do we dare assert such things – about ancient manuscripts?

To borrow a bit from the ancient Scribes who questioned Jesus: “Who gave this authority?”