Did St. John Chrysostom teach sola scriptura?

  • Thread starter Thread starter CivisRomanusSum
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
C

CivisRomanusSum

Guest
Hi!

I came across these quotes from St. John Chrysostom which protestants cite to “prove” that sola scriptura was taught by the Church Fathers.

‘Therefore I beg you all that you give up what appeals to this one or
that one and that you address all these questions concerning these
things to the Scriptures.’
Homily 13 on 2 Corinthians

‘If anything is said without Scripture, the thinking of the hearers
limps. But where the testimony proceeds from the divinely given
Scripture, it confirms both the speech of the preacher and the soul of
the hearer’
Commenting on Psalm 95

‘But when Scripture wants to teach us something like that, it
interprets itself and does not permit the hearer to err. I therefore
beg and entreat that we close our ears to all these things and follow
the canon of the Holy Scripture exactly’
Homily 13 on Genesis

‘As a trusty door, Scripture shuts out heretics, securing us from
error…’
Joann. 58

‘Everything in the divine Scriptures is clear and straightforward;
they inform us about all that is necessary’
Epis 2 ad Thess 3,4

How do we interpret these sayings? Did St. John Chrysostom really think that the Bible is self-interpreting?
 
Here is a quote from St. John Chrysostom that shows he most certainly did not teach sola scriptura:
“‘So then, brethren stand fast, and hold the traditions which you were taught, whether by word, or by Epistle of ours’ (2 Thessalonians 2:15). Hence it is manifest, that they did not deliver all things by Epistle, but many things also unwritten, and in like manner both the one and the other are worthy of credit. Therefore let us think the tradition of the Church also worthy of credit. It is a tradition, seek no farther.”
*
  • The Faith of the Early Fathers, Vol. II, “Homilies on the Second Epistle to the Thessalonians,” # 1213. *
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top