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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 February 2009
The Primacy of the Church. Christianity is often called the religion of the Book: this is because it is based on things that happened in history. Jesus did not leave behind Him, so far as we know, a single written word. We hear of His writing only once, and then it was on the dust of the floor of the temple (John 8.6). What He did leave was a community—the eleven faithful Apostles, the ministering women, His mother and brothers—about 120 persons in all (Acts 1.15), who met daily for worship because they loved Jesus and believed that God had raised Him from among the dead. When they had to fill the place of the traitor Judas, Peter said: ‘Of the men therefore which have companied with us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John, unto the day that he was received up from us, of these must one become a witness with us of his resurrection’ (Acts 1.2 if). And Matthias was chosen, with all possible care. Six weeks later the company was wonderfully strengthened and increased by the outpouring of the Spirit, and the Church began to spread from Jerusalem to ‘all Judaea and Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth’ (Acts 1.8).
page 14 note 2 See Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible, articles ‘Canon of the New Testament’ and ‘Canon of the Old Testament’.
page 15 note 1 1 Cor. 7.10, ‘That the wife depart not from her husband’, etc.; compare Mark 10.9 and parallels. 1 Cor. 9.14, ‘That they which proclaim the gospel should live of the gospel’; compare Matt. 10.10 = Luke 10.7. 1 Cor. 11.23–25, the account of the Last Supper, including Jesus' own words about the bread and the cup. A doubtful case is 1 Thess. 4.15, when he says he speaks ‘by the word of the Lord’, apparently with reference to the following verse, which resembles Mark I3.26f and parallels: but it has been argued that he means that the words in question came to him by a special revelation.
page 15 note 2 These statements about Paul and the words of Jesus are a summary of Chapter 5 of Paul and his Predecessors, by Hunter, A. M. (1940).Google Scholar
page 15 note 3 Cullmann, O., Scottish Journal of Theology, III.2 (June 1950)Google Scholar. Cullmann argues that for Paul ‘the Lord’ and ‘the tradition’ are interchangeable terms, ‘that which is handed down’ being identified with the Spirit of the Lord making Himself known directly in the life and worship of the Church.
page 19 note 1 See Cullmann, O., ‘Scripture and Tradition’, Scottish Journal of Theology, VI.2 (June 1953).Google Scholar
page 21 note 1 ‘Ye search the scriptures, because ye think that in them ye have eternal life; and these are they which bear witness of me’ (John 5.39). ‘And beginning from Moses and from all the prophets, he interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself’ (Luke 24.27).
page 22 note 1 Richardson, , Christian Apologetics (1947), Chap. 9.Google Scholar
page 22 note 2 Confessions, X [xxix] 40.
page 24 note 1 ‘If, then, we would consult most effectually for our consciences, and save them from being driven about in a whirl of uncertainty, from wavering, and even stumbling at the smallest obstacle, our conviction of the truth of Scripture must be derived from a higher source than human conjectures, judgments, or reasons; namely, the secret testimony of the Spirit… If we look at [the volume of sacred Scripture] with clear eyes and unbiased judgment, it will forthwith present itself with a divine majesty which will subdue our presumptuous opposition, and force us to do it homage… For as God alone can properly bear witness to His own words, so these words will not obtain full credit in the hearts of men, until they are sealed by the inward testimony of the Spirit. The same Spirit, therefore, who spoke by the mouth of the prophets, must penetrate our hearts, in order to convince us that they faithfully delivered the message with which they were divinely entrusted… Some worthy persons feel discontented, because, while the wicked murmur with impunity at the word of God, they have not a clear proof at hand to silence them, forgetting that the Spirit is called an earnest and seal to confirm the faith of the godly, for this very reason, that, until He enlightens their minds, they are tossed to and fro in a sea of doubts’ (Calvin, The Institutes, I.vii.4, tr. J. Beveridge).
page 24 note 2 ‘Now in the Catholic Church itself we take the greatest care to hold that which has been believed everywhere, always and by all’ (Vincent of Lerins, A.D. 434, in Documents of the Christian Church, ed. Bettenson, World's Classics, p. 119).
page 25 note 1 Compare ‘Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: every spirit which confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God’ (1 John 4.2); ‘The things of God none knoweth, save the Spirit of God’, etc. (1 Cor. 2.10–13). ‘There are those to whom it will appear meaningless subtlety to distinguish between having your own opinion and submitting to the truth as it comes to you. But somewhere thereabouts lies the difference between an irreligious and a religious attitude to life—and men of science are often in this sense more religious than theologians’ (Dodd, The Authority of the Bible, 1938, p. 21).
page 25 note 2 ‘The authority of the holy scripture, for which it ought to be believed and obeyed, dependeth not upon the testimony of any man or church, but wholly upon God (who is truth itself), the author thereof; and therefore it is to be received, because it is the word of God.
‘We may be moved and induced by the testimony of the Church to an high and reverend esteem of the holy scripture, and the heavenliness of the matter, the efficacy of the doctrine, the majesty of the style, the consent of all the parts, the scope of the whole (which is to give all glory to God), the full discovery it makes of the only way to man's salvation, the many other incomparable excellencies, and the entire perfection thereof, are arguments whereby it doth abundantly evidence itself to be the word of God; yet notwithstanding our full persuasion and assurance of the infallible truth, and divine authority thereof, is from the inward work of the Holy Spirit, bearing witness by and with the word in our hearts.’ (Westminster Confession, I.4, 5.)
page 26 note 1 C. H. Dodd, op. cit., p. 18.
page 27 note 1 Sprat, Bishop; quoted by Oppenheimer, J. Robert, The Listener, 19th November 1953. P. 862.Google Scholar
page 29 note 1 C. H. Dodd, op. cit., p. 221.