{"id":678,"date":"2004-04-15T13:28:06","date_gmt":"2004-04-15T19:28:06","guid":{"rendered":"\/?p=678"},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"-0001-11-30T06:00:00","slug":"more-prooftexts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/2004\/04\/more-prooftexts\/","title":{"rendered":"More Prooftexts"},"content":{"rendered":"

I was inspired by Kristine\u2019s post<\/a> to think about prooftexts. My nomination is 2 Timothy 3:16:<\/p>\n

All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:<\/i>
\n
\nThe prooftexting part comes when this verse is used (and it frequently is) to argue that all scripture is inspired. There are several problems with this:<\/p>\n

(1) See Article of Faith #8<\/a>. We simply don\u2019t believe that all scripture (as it now stands) is inspired by God.<\/p>\n

(2) Without quibbling about when (or by whom) this verse was written, it was obviously written before the New Testament was canonized. Therefore, it is an open question as to what the word \u2018scripture\u2019 means in this verse. (Note: the Greek word translated \u2018scripture\u2019 is graphe<\/i>, which can mean \u2018sacred writing,\u2019 or, more simply, \u2018writing.\u2019)<\/p>\n

(3) The Greek for the first phrase can be legitimately translated as \u201cAll scripture that is inspired by God is profitable . . .\u201d<\/p>\n

(4) All of the above could, I suppose, be debated. But what\u2019s harder to ignore is the JST: <\/p>\n

And all Scripture given by inspiration of God, is profitable…<\/i><\/p>\n

The JST suggests to me that the rest of the sentence describes the qualities of scriptures that are inspired and acknowledges that some of what we call scripture is not inspired. I\u2019m not someone who likes to hop up and down and insist that big chunks of scripture are uninspired, but I think that when it comes to things like 1 Timothy 2:15<\/a>, we need to be willing to call a spade a spade and say, \u2018this is false doctrine.\u2019<\/p>\n

Given all of the above, I think the use of 2 Timothy 3:16 to suggest that all scripture is inspired is beyond the realm of possibility. While most LDS probably aren\u2019t aware of (2) and (3), ignoring (4) speaks, I think, of either downright laziness or bad motives. <\/p>\n

I don\u2019t think it is coincidental that both this passage and the one Kristine mentioned are used to bolster a belief in inerranacy (mine, of the scriptures, Kristine\u2019s of Church leaders). There is a desire here to find inerrancy; is this, perhaps, the \u2018clinging\u2019 in 1 Nephi 8:24 <\/a>that leads to people falling away as opposed to the \u2018continually holding\u2019 down in verse 30 that leads to the tree of life?<\/p>\n

So . . . what are your (least) favorite prooftexts?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was inspired by Kristine\u2019s post to think about prooftexts. My nomination is 2 Timothy 3:16: All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-678","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-scriptures"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/678","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=678"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/678\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timesandseasons.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}