THE DREAM OF A PERFECT TEXT

 THE DREAM OF A PERFECT TEXT

The Protestants had not held a doctrine of uniform biblical inerrancy. For Luther “inspiration did not insure inerrancy in all details.” Luther recognized mistakes and inconsistencies in Scripture and treated them with lofty indifference because they did not touch the heart of the Gospel. [1] Where minor errors occur, as when Matt 27:9 mistakenly cites Jeremiah instead of Zechariah, Luther responds: “Such points do not bother me particularly.”[2] Similarly, in his commentaries Calvin is not bothered by errors in the text where they are unrelated to matters of faith and salvation.[3] He acknowledges minor errors without anxiety, as in the contradictions among the gospels: “It is well known that the Evangelists were not very concerned with observing the time sequences.” [4]

 

Calvin and Luther also accepted the traditional doctrine of accommodation, which holds that God simplified his biblical discourse in order for it to be understandable to uneducated people.[5] Regarding the cosmology of Gen 1– 3, Calvin commented, “Moses is by no means to be blamed, if he, considering the office of schoolmaster as imposed upon him, insists on the rudiments suitable to children.”[6] As Paul Helm explains, “It is an accommodation because Calvin believes that such a statement is not strictly true.”[7] A comparable flexibility occurs, as Brian Gerrish observes, in those “interesting places where Calvin speaks not of the fallibility of the text, but of its historical relativity,” including directives in the New Testament that are no longer relevant in Calvin’s time, such as “Christian communism, the regulation of usury, and Paul’s directives on masculine hairstyle.” [8]

For the Reformers, the Bible’s inerrancy is where it needs to be: on matters of faith and doctrine and on historical events basic to the history of salvation.

 

The Dream of a Perfect Text: Findings and Conclusion

 

The Reformers Martin Luther and John Calvin approached the authority of Scripture with a nuanced understanding. Unlike later traditions that insisted on a rigid doctrine of biblical inerrancy in every detail, both Luther and Calvin distinguished between the essential truths of the Gospel and peripheral matters of history, science, or culture.

 

For Luther, divine inspiration did not guarantee freedom from every textual mistake. He acknowledged inconsistencies such as Matthew 27:9’s mistaken citation of Jeremiah instead of Zechariah, but he dismissed them as inconsequential since they did not touch on salvation. His focus was always on the central message of Scripture—the proclamation of Christ and the heart of the Gospel.

 

Similarly, Calvin was not disturbed by textual difficulties or contradictions. He openly admitted that the Evangelists were not always precise in matters such as time sequences, yet he regarded this as irrelevant to the truth of faith. Calvin also applied the doctrine of accommodation, affirming that God, in communicating through human language, simplified His message so that ordinary people could understand it. For example, Calvin interpreted the cosmology of Genesis 1–3 not as a scientific account but as elementary teaching suitable for learners. Furthermore, he acknowledged the historical relativity of certain biblical commands, such as communal living, regulations on usury, and cultural prescriptions about hairstyles, which were no longer binding in his own time.

 

In summary, both Luther and Calvin located biblical inerrancy where it mattered most: in matters of faith, doctrine, and the central events of salvation history. They were willing to accept textual imperfections and cultural limitations without anxiety, because they were confident that the Word of God remained trustworthy and sufficient for revealing Christ and guiding believers in the essentials of the Christian faith.

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[1] Roland H. Bainton, “The Bible in the Reformation,” in The West from the Reformation to the Present Day , vol. 3 of The Cambridge History of the Bible , ed. Stanley L. Greenslade (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1963), 12.

 

[2] Ibid., 13.

[3] See Brian A. Gerrish, “The Word of God and the Words of Scripture: Luther and Calvin on Biblical Authority,” in The Old Protestantism and the New: Essays on the Reformation Heritage (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1982), 62– 63.

 

[4] John Calvin, Commentaires sur le Nouveau Testament. Tome premier: Sur la concordance ou harmonie composée de trois évangélistes (Paris, Meyrueis, 1854), 319 (at Luke 8:19): “On sçait bien que les Evangélistes ne se sont pas guères arrestez à observer l’ordre des temps.” Cited in William J. Bouwsma, John Calvin: A Sixteenth Century Portrait (New York: Oxford University Press, 1988), 121– 22.

 

[5] See generally, Stephen D. Benin, The Footprints of God: Divine Accommodation in Jewish and Christian Thought (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1993).

 

[6] John Calvin, Genesis , trans. John King (Edinburgh: Calvin Translation Society, 1847; repr. 1984), 141 (at Gen 3:1); see similarly at Gen 1:5– 6, 14– 16, 22, 31; 2:8, 10; 3:23.

 

[7] Paul Helm, John Calvin’s Ideas (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004), 394.

 

[8] Gerrish, Brian A. “The Word of God and the Words of Scripture: Luther and Calvin on Biblical Authority.” Pages 51– 68 in The Old Protestantism and the New: Essays on the Reformation Heritage . Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1982.