Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: mmh@cs.qmw.ac.uk (Matthew Huntbach) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Re: Sola Scriptura Message-ID: Date: 7 Jun 90 04:55:36 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: Computer Science Dept, QMW, University of London, UK. Lines: 24 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu In article wagner@karazm.math.uh.edu (David Wagner) writes: >Matthew 15: 1-9 Then some Pharisees and teachers of the law came to Jesus >from Jerusalem and asked, "why do your disciples break the tradition of the >elders? They don't wash their hands before they eat! My reading of this, and many similar passages is that Jesus is asking the Pharisees to look beyond the narrow rules laid down in the Old Testament, and to consider the spirit behind them. Thus I see them as an argument AGAINST Sola Scriptura. If you take a scripture alone attitude, then you are almost forced to take a narrow Pharisee-like interpretation, because you have no higher authority. The Catholic Church, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, laid down what writings were to be considered Scripture, and with the Holy Spirit still working through it is the ultimate authority on the meaning of scripture. Thus protected from error by communion with the Church (or more properly, the threat of excommunication), the Catholic is free to take a more liberal interpretation of scripture than the Protestant. Matthew Huntbach