14 Σὺ δὲ μένε ἐν οἷς ἔμαθες καὶ ἐπιστώθης, εἰδὼς παρὰ τίνος ἔμαθες,15 καὶ ὅτι ἀπὸ βρέφους τὰ ἱερὰ γράμματα οἶδας, τὰ δυνάμενά σε σοφίσαι εἰς σωτηρίαν διὰ πίστεως τῆς ἐν χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ.
16 Πᾶσα γραφὴ θεόπνευστος καὶ ὠφέλιμος πρὸς διδασκαλίαν, πρὸς ἔλεγχον, πρὸς ἐπανόρθωσιν, πρὸς παιδείαν τὴν ἐν δικαιοσύνῃ•
17 ἵνα ἄρτιος ᾖ ὁ τοῦ θεοῦ ἄνθρωπος, πρὸς πᾶν ἔργον ἀγαθὸν ἐξηρτισμένος.
And just for tracking purposes, here’s the English:
(14) But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them;We can see from the above passage there’s nothing wrong with Timothy remembering what Paul taught him in person. He was a living apostle, after all, and you don’t see those every day. But there's no hint here that anything Paul taught in person was different from anything he wrote in Scripture, or that the written apostolic record could ever be trumped by claims of newly discovered whispers from the past or oracles of the present.(15) And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.
(16) 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 perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.
Here's the problem. These debates tend to get derailed because people get confused about what "sufficiency" we really are talking about. The word that comes much closer to speaking of sufficiency is “artios” (perfect), found in verse 17, and it’s derived form, “exartismenos” (throughly furnished), (both bolded above in verse 17) both of which are used to convey the idea of the total sufficiency of the man of God for any aspect of Christian life as a result of using Scripture!:
Strong’s Greek #739 739 ἄρτιος [artios /ar•tee•os/] adj. From 737; TDNT 1:475; TDNTA 80; GK 787; AV translates as “perfect” once. 1 fitted. 2 complete, perfect. 2A having reference apparently to “special aptitude for given uses”.Strong’s Greek #1822 1822 ἐξαρτίζω [exartizo /ex•ar•tid•zo/] v. From 1537 and a derivative of 739; TDNT 1:475; TDNTA 80; GK 1992; Two occurrences; AV translates as “accomplish + 1096” once, and “thoroughly furnish” once. 1 to complete, finish. 1A to furnish perfectly. 1B to finish, accomplish, (as it were, to render the days complete).
This sort of sufficiency doesn't happen in a vacuum, but is always directed to a purpose, here, the making of a man (and presumably also a woman) of God, and as such must of course begin with the wisdom of salvation by faith in Christ, but it must run on to the other areas mentioned, doctrine, proving error, correcting fault, and cultivating righteousness.
In fact, if you notice, the two words amplify each other. Paul appears to be intentionally using this word play to amplify the sense of total completeness he is trying to convey. And while he certainly wants Timothy to remember the truths he taught him in person, this completeness of preparation has as its proper grammatical referent the God-breathed Scriptures and nothing else.
Think of it this way (I know you've heard this before, but please bear with me). An old prospector who has actually been to King Solomon’s mines tells a young man, look, the mines are real, I’ve seen them myself. It’s all true. But here’s a diary, written in King Solomon own words, and in it everything you need to know for the purpose of finding the mines and making good use of them. And sonny I mean everything you need for those purposes, every map, every trap, every hidden passage, every vein of ore, every user manual for every piece of equipment, it’s all there. I’m old, and when I’m gone, it’ll be up to you. But you can do this, because you have the diary.
That’s the sufficiency we’re talking about. We do not say that Scriptures enables us to know everything that can be known of God's truth. We DO say the Scriptures contain enough information to make a complete job of producing sufficient wisdom about faith in Christ both to be saved and to live in a way that is pleasing to God:
Going back to our passage, consider what Paul says of Scripture’s relevance to salvation:
(verse 15b) τὰ δυνάμενά σε σοφίσαι εἰς σωτηρίαν διὰ πίστεως τῆς ἐν χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ.
"which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus."
The word “able” here means “power,” (dunamena) and describes Scripture as having the power to make Timothy wise (sophisai) unto (up to the level of) (eis), salvation (soterian) which is by faith in Jesus Christ.
So again, not ALL knowledge, but enough to produce salvation in Timothy. Which accords with Paul’s other comment on the Gospel message:
Rom 1:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.
Note the nearly identical pattern of words here, which holds up in the Greek as well. Combining the two passages, we see that Paul understands the Scriptures as having the same power on their own as Paul does in his own preaching, the power to produce salvation. We also see that Paul in neither case is justifying a secondary stream of data different from or additional to Scripture, but instead is showing the essential harmony between the living example of his preaching with the truths already contained in Scripture.
Which gets us to another key misrepresentation of Sola Scripture. Like Paul, we do NOT see Scripture as simply words on a page. The communication of God’s message to the world isn’t some dead intellectual process. It is a living word, because it is energized by God Himself in hearts and minds of those who hear it:
Heb 4:12 For the word of God is quick [old English “alive”], and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
So God’s word is alive. As such, it always accomplishes exactly what God send it out to do. Always:
Isa 55:10-11 For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater: (11) So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.
And this is true. God’s word in any form will accomplish the task to which He sends it. Not everyone receives the Holy Spirit. These are the carnal hearers, as Paul says, who cannot understand spiritual things, who can know intellectually that Messiah must be born in Bethlehem, but cannot accept Jesus of Bethlehem, even though he raises the dead, because they are trapped in their carnality.
But for the man of God, one who has a heart open to the Holy Spirit of God, those Scriptures were indeed sufficient for guidance in all important matters of faith and life, as with Simeon, who anticipated the coming Christ, and no doubt was well familiar with the OT Scriptures concerning the Consolation of Israel, as was Timothy, but not as a strictly intellectual matter, but bound up with his personal faith and the work of the Holy Spirit in his life:
Luk 2:25 And, behold, there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon; and the same man was just and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel: and the Holy Ghost was upon him. (26) And it was revealed unto him by the Holy Ghost, that he should not see death, before he had seen the Lord's Christ.
Which gets us back to the typical error in understanding how we employ this passage in Timothy to support the sufficiency of Scripture. We do not see 2Tim3:16 as describing only OT Scripture, because Paul, after making his point to Timothy about indeed being able to discover salvation in the then extant Scriptures, goes on to generalize the principle. He explains the “Why.” Scripture has this power, Paul is effectively saying, because it is God-breathed (theopneustos). He then llists the characteristics of such God-breathed writings. They have, taken as a whole (which is what Paul does), the power to lead one not only to a saving understanding of Christ, but also to successfully live the life of a Christian fully equipped for all righteousness.
BTW, Paul, especially in the Greek, is emphatic here that the scope of this preparation for Godly living is absolutely comprehensive. The preparation provided by Scripture, taken as a whole, is compete. There is no equivocation here, and no looking to alternate streams of necessary information missing from the Scripture. Besides, all of our righteousness as believers is by way of calling:
Eph 2:10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
And these are the same set of good works for which, Paul says, we are completely prepared by way of Scripture. No Christian can get by without these essentials, whether ministering or being ministered to, and they are all covered in Scripture.
Peace,
SR
A logical, well reasoned post grounded in Scripture.
You will no doubt get slimed for posting this.
You knocked it out of the park!
Rom 1:16
"For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.
SR, Thank you for your good thoughts, and even your good cut-and-pastes. I appreciate your time and also your insight.
Every reference to the "Gospel" in St. Paul --- certainly all which you quoted --- confirm the point about the essential role of tradition, since at the time Paul's letters were written, the entire Gospel was Oral Tradition.
I am referencing the generally agreed fact that Paul's Epistles were all written before his death (duh!) around 67 AD, and this was before at least 3 of the four gospels were written, and probably even before Mark.
This means people were constantly being urged to keep, cling to, follow, be faithful to, be obedient to, the Gospel as transmitted by Apostolic preaching. Which is what we mean by Oral or Apostolic Tradition.
No, rather we can see from the above passage that Timothy should continue in the things he has learned and been assured of from the Apostle. That is not a nothing wrong with option. That is the first item and is fundamental to the rest of the passage.
Without that, we might have a new sect or faith group called the Timothians. ... Oh wait ... Looks like that name is used. Well, we certainly cannot blame Timothy. He continued in the same holy catholic apostolic church.
The warning by the Apostle Peter does not indicate that what Paul taught in person was different from anything he wrote in Scripture, but rather that it was difficult to understand. Having the Apostle Paul in person to explain not only his teaching but giving commentary on the rest of the scriptures was priceless, and a sure antidote to confusion and error, providing his sons in the faith followed his first fundamental instruction to Timothy. We have some of that in his books. We do not have a complete record of everything he taught and wrote, nor the ability for follow up posts, other than the communion of the saints, which I assume you do not share.
No, it doesn’t follow. The passage speaks of oral and personal teaching and of the scripture and explains that with those things together, the cleric is perfect and fully equipped. That the knowledge of scripture is necessary for a priest (man of God) no one denies. That scripture alone makes him so is not in the text and is an absurd proposition, because, for example, it is also required from the priest to be of certain behavior, not just filled with book knowledge.