The Bible in the Reformation

doi:10.1017/CHOL9780521042543.002

Chapter I - The Bible in the Reformation

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 March 2008

Roland H. Bainton

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S. L. Greenslade

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Roland H. Bainton: Affiliation:
Yale University

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‘Sola Scriptura’

The reformers dethroned the pope and enthroned the Bible. This is the common assertion; but when so stated it is not valid, because a book cannot replace a man. A book has to be interpreted. This was the main reason why authority had come to be ascribed to the pope in faith and morals. Catholics argued that if there were no infallible interpreter, there could be no infallible revelation. Scripture at many points is not clear, and when a difference of opinion arises as to the meaning, unless there be some authoritative way of knowing which is right, the inevitable result will be uncertainty. If then God desired to make a revelation of himself in Jesus Christ, and the record of that revelation is a document in some respects obscure, God must have ensured the revealing quality of the revelation by establishing an inerrant interpreter, who is able to declare the truth partly because he is the custodian of the tradition and partly because he is guarded from error by the Holy Spirit. This role was assigned by God to the bishop of the church of Rome, founded by the two martyr apostles, Peter and Paul. Her bishop is the successor of Peter to whom were given the keys of the kingdom of heaven.

Such claims Luther roundly denied. In his Address to the Nobility of the German Nation, in the summer of 1520, the reformer prayed that he might be given the trumpet of Joshua with which to tumble down the three walls of the modern Jericho.

Type: Chapter
Information: The Cambridge History of the Bible , pp. 1 - 37

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CHOL9780521042543.002 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 1963

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Chapter I - The Bible in the Reformation

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