:: St. Stephen's Musings ::

:: Tuesday, June 17, 2003 ::

Plain English: Sola Scriptura and a Length of Rope

Someone recently asked me the familiar question, "Why do you call your priests 'father' when Jesus explicitly tells us not to?" (See Matt. 23:9)

This is a good question and, of course, there is a solid, patristic, historical, and theologically sound explanation for this ancient practice.

This incident reminded me how amusing it is to see people take the Scriptures out of context and create new doctrines, practices and teachings. "It is written in plain English!" they'll say if you try and explain the necessity of context, history, or in any way a more holistic hermeneutic.

So, with sola scriptura as my only tool, I will attempt to find the will of God for myself today in the plain English text of my RSV Bible. Here are the passages I turned to:

"He [Judas] went and hanged himself" (Matt. 27:5b)

"Go and do likewise." (Luke 10:37b)

"What you are going to do, do it quickly." (John 13:27b)

Hmmm. I know I saw a length of rope in the office earlier this morning....

:: Karl :: 8:59:00 AM [Link] ::