For reference:
2Tim 3:16-17 All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, [17] that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.
Ophelimos is by standard lexical usage “profitable,” true. But if you’ve ever had to do real translation of the Biblical text into modern idiomatic forms, you know that cutting and pasting the lexicon can sometimes fail to fully communicate the idea in the original. It turns out Ophelimos comes from a more basic term Ophello, which conveys the idea of heaping something up. This is money going into the cash register, or grain going into the grain elevator. If you are profiting, you are gaining something, you are going from having less to having more, you are getting positive economic results.
Put this together with the structure of the passage. You start out with a resource, Scripture. This Scripture has certain qualities. First it is theopneustos, primary authority, because it is God speaking clearly to his people. Next, because it is God’s word, it gets you something of value. In business parlance, we might call that yield, or productiveness. It produces something for you, it gets you a return on your investment.
But as I pointed out before, that leaves the question of quantity unanswered. If I went to a client and said, you’re going to get a return on your investment, and just left it there, my poor client would scratch his head and wonder how much of a return, because just saying profitable doesn’t answer that question. It merely sets the stage for answering the “how much profit” question.
And Paul does answer that question with the word artios, “complete,” and redoubles that sense of completeness with exaritzo, “thoroughly equipped,” the same root word cranked up to maximum volume, as in “Seriously.Total.Preparation.”
BTW, the “perfect” of James 1:4 is telios, not artios. It conveys the idea of maturation, and it is in regard to learning patience as the path to spiritual maturity. We learn both to wait for and to wait on God. It is not directly relevant to sense of “fully qualified,” or “sufficient” that we find in artios. This is an important distinction because artios invites the question, qualified for what? Paul answers by saying “totally prepared for every good work.”
That leaves nothing out. Every good work would include every quality of character, belief, and action that one would need to be a man of God. So if some man came up with an extra belief or two, and it wasn’t in Scripture, Paul is here implying he doesn’t need it. Its extra baggage. If you have Scripture, you have what you need to be a totally outfitted man of God. And that’s all Sola Scriptura really says.
Thanks for your post. Nicely done - but still plainly just wrong.
If your exegesis requires so much explanation and redefining and convoluted reasoning, I think it most likely is prima facia evidence it is replacing clear meaning with on-its-head arguing, worthy of a lawyer with a guilty client. :)
Profitable or useful are pretty clear. If Paul wished to say entirely sufficient, Occam would say he would have used different words.
>>>”If you are profiting, you are gaining something, you are going from having less to having more, you are getting positive economic results.
Doesn’t change a thing. Profitable does not mean exclusive. Useful is the better reading.
Pasa graphe means every - not all - Scripture. Every passage of Scripture is useful. Very simple and clear sentence when compared with your, forgive me, tortured rewrite.
“Complete,” and “thoroughly equipped” describe the clergyman, not the Scriptures which are useful to this end.
As for James 1:4, teleioi (perfect) and holoklepoi (complete), lacking nothing” are much stronger, not weaker, words than “artios”
If Paul was teaching sola scriptura why does Paul teach that he is giving Revelation from God orally?
“For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe.” [1 Thess. 2:13]
And good luck claiming St. Paul as teaching sola scriptura in the face of this:
“Therefore, brethren, stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word, or our epistle.”
.. which negates your argument completely.