Anglicans and the Bible
Although the Anglican Church of today was not born at the time of the Reformation, it was profoundly shaped by it. The Reformation cry of Sola Scriptura (“by scripture alone”) was accepted by all the Anglican reformers. Scripture has historically been seen as the primary witness in the Anglican Church for matters of both church doctrine and practice.
The great apologist of the Elizabethan settlement, Richard Hooker, wrote: “What scripture doth plainly deliver, to that the first place both of credit and obedience is due.” This position was enshrined in Article VI of the 39 Articles of Religion (1571): “Holy Scripture containeth all things necessary to salvation: so that whatsoever is not read therein, nor may be proved thereby, is not to be required of any man” (1928 BCP p. 603).
What Is Scripture?
The books of the New Testament were not in dispute at the time of the Reformation. These were firmly established by the end of the 4th century as the twenty-seven books in our modern Bibles.
As for the Old Testament, the Anglican reformers accepted the Hebrew Bible as authoritative, but not those Jewish works written in Greek which we call the Apocrypha. This is a distinct point of difference between Anglicans and Roman Catholics. Article VI (referenced above) says that the Church reads the books of the Apocrypha “for example of life and instruction of manners; but yet doth it not apply them to establish any doctrine.”
How do we interpret Scripture?
Christians’ esteem for the Bible is rooted in the respect shown to the Jewish scriptures by Jesus himself and the early Church. Our unique approach to the Old Testament is based on Jesus’ words to his disciples that he was the fulfillment of the Law and the Prophets (e.g. Matt 5.17; Luke 24.27, 44). Thus Article VII of the 39 articles states: “The Old Testament is not contrary to the New: for both in the Old and New Testament everlasting life is offered to mankind by Christ, who is the only Mediator between God and Man.”
In many Anglican churches, the scripture reading is followed by the acclamation: “The Word of the Lord”. One catechism explains: “We call [the Holy Scriptures] the Word of God because God inspired their human authors and because God still speaks to us through the Bible.” This doctrine of inspiration applies equally to both Old and New Testaments, which is the implication of Thomas Cranmer’s famous Collect on Scripture (1928 BCP p. 92—itself an echo of 2 Timothy 3.16).
Anglicans value the tools and insights that modern scholarship has made available to the reader of the Bible, while being careful never to accept anything that may impugn its authority. We are also taught to read the Bible as a whole and not take individual verses out of context: “It is not lawful for the Church to…expound one place of Scripture, that it be repugnant to another.” (Article XX, 1928 BCP p. 607).
Above all else, when approaching the words of scripture, let us “hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them.” (1928 BCP p. 92