L15 & 16

Protestant Reformation and the Bible

The Protestant Reformation of the 16^th century placed an emphasis on the authority of the Bible, unprecedented in Christian history.

1. The Protestant Reformation challenged medieval Catholicism on the basis of the Bible. Prophets and Gospel alike provided fuel for the criticism of moral corruption among monks and clergy. The use of indulgences and misuse of sacramental systems not affirmed in Scripture called the practices into question. Monasticism with its vows of poverty and chastity was regarded as a corruption of discipleship. The reformation did not entirely dismiss tradition but it made the Bible the norm by which tradition should be measured.

2. Confessional statements asserted a supreme place for the Bible, over or extending the Apostles’ Creed and Nicene Creed, neither of which mention the Bible.

   1. Augsburg Confession of 1530 is a conservative statement presented to Emperor Charles V. The opening sections state the conviction of Christians regarding faith and works, the cult of the saints, and grounding all things on Scripture. The closing sections deal with Matters in Dispute: the elements of the Eucharist, marriage of priests, the Mass, confession, monastic vows, and the power of bishops. In each case an argument is made against the Catholic practice on the basis of New Testament texts.

   2. Early confessional statements from the Reformed tradition are even more explicit in the status assigned to the Bible. The Ten Conclusions of Berne (1528): “The Church of Christ makes no laws or commandments apart from the word of God” and no human tradition is acceptable except as grounded in or prescribed by the Word of God. The Second Helvetic Confession (1566) begins: “We believe and confess the canonical Scriptures of the holy prophets and apostles of both testaments to be the true word of God and to have sufficient authority of themselves, not of men.” The Westminster Confession (1646) devotes its first chapter to a lengthy discussion of the authority of Scripture and its interpretation: “The infallible rule of interpretation of Scripture is the Scripture itself.”

   3. The English Reformation also commented on the authority of Scripture. In The Edwardian Homilies, composed by Thomas Cranmer (1547) we find “A Fruitful Exhortation to the Reading and Knowledge of Holy Scripture” which declares, “there is no truth or doctrine necessary for our justification and everlasting salvation, but that is, or may be drawn out of that fountain and well of truth” and then in the 6^th of the 39 Articles: “Of the Sufficiency of the Holy Scriptures for Salvation” which again declares that nothing should be believed except what can be based in Scripture.”

3. Martin Luther’s principle of sola fide, sola scriptura (on scripture alone), was a plea for a simpler, biblical religion, rather than the complexities and corruption of medieval Catholicism. Luther rejected all forms of allegory in favor of a literal sense of Scripture. To deal with issues of inconsistencies and contradictions, Luther called for sachkritik (context criticism): writing was the Word of God insofar as it testified to Christ. Thus, Luther dismissed the Letter of James because it did not agree with Paul on faith and works. Content criticism directly conflicts with the notion of “Scripture alone” leaving an inconsistency in the directives. Luther’s notion of the “priesthood of all the faithful” led to the principle of individual interpretation of the Bible. The individual reading and interpretation of Scripture based on a literal understanding inevitably leads to disunity because of the contradictions and inconsistencies, thus the Protestant Reformation led to sequential fragmentation in terms of denominations of Christianity.

4. Protestant worship takes many forms, but one unifying principle is the central place given to Scripture. The pulpit rivals the altar as the focal point of the church in some denominations. Sermons are intended to open the Word. Prayers are biblically based. Scriptural piety is expressed in hymns. The music of Johann Sebastian Bach was affected by his Lutheran piety as was the oratorios of George Handel. In literature, the distinctive scriptural outlook of the Reformation unmistakably marks John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress and John Milton’s Paradise Lost.

5. The Constantinian unity of state and church was lost in the Reformation and Catholic counter-reformation. The religion of the prince is the religion of the realm dictated which religious denomination would have sanction of the state: Catholicism in France, Italy and Spain; one or another form of Protestantism in Germany, Scandinavia, England and the low countries. The Crusades expressed itself in a long series of religious wars between Protestant and Catholic nations.

6. In the aftermath of the Reformation, we can identify 4 distinct collections all carrying the “Bible” label.

   1. The Jewish Bible consists of 39 compositions in Hebrew (5 books of Moses “Torah”, 21 books of Prophets “Neviim” and the 13 books of the Writings “Ketuvim”.

   2. The Protestant Bible has 66 books, retaining the traditional 27 Greek writings of the New Testament and the Hebrew canon for the Old Testament. The books in the Old Testament were rearranged: the Pentateuch, the 12 historical books (Joshua through Esther), the 5 wisdom books and the 17 books of the prophets.

   3. The Council of Trent in 1546 affirmed the traditional canon used in Catholicism and the authority of the Vulgate text: 27 writings of the New Testament, the Old Testament canon found in the LXX which included the Apocrypha (47 total) and thus has 74 books.

   4. The largest canonical collection is held by the Eastern Orthodox (77 books): 27 books of New Testament + 39 books of Hebrew Bible + 11 from LXX.

7. The Bible became the people’s book when translated into modern European languages. Luther translated it into German, as parallel translations were made in French, Spanish, Dutch, Swedish, and English, etc. As each nation translated the bible into it’s own language, it helped shape national identity and national literature. The faith of Europe was decisively changed and the Bible was a part of the change. On the positive side, the Bible was no longer remote from ordinary people. On the negative, the proliferation of Bibles, translations, and usage divided Christianity.