Did Early Christians Believe in Sola Scriptura?
Early Christians did not plainly teach sola Scriptura in the later sense of Scripture alone as the only rule of faith. They honored Scripture deeply, but writers like Irenaeus, Tertullian, Origen, Clement, and Cyprian also appealed to apostolic tradition and church authority. Bible passages in this set support testing teaching by Scripture, yet they do not settle the whole question by themselves.
127 early-church witnesses · 225 source quotations · compared with Scripture
Did the early Christians believe in sola Scriptura?
Early Christian writings do not support a clean sola Scriptura reading in the later Protestant sense. Writers like Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria, Tertullian, Origen, and Cyprian regularly appeal to Scripture, but they also lean on apostolic tradition, church teaching, and succession as real sources of authority.
Some Bible passages in the set support the use of Scripture and testing teaching by Scripture, yet other passages and early writers point to spoken apostolic tradition alongside the written text. The overall picture is mixed: Scripture is highly valued, but the evidence here does not clearly teach Scripture alone as the only rule of faith. Many more early Christian quotations, Bible passages, and source links are gathered below so you can study the evidence for yourself.
Key Takeaways
- Early Christians treated Scripture as authoritative, but not as the only authority.
- Irenaeus, Tertullian, Origen, Clement, and Cyprian also appealed to apostolic tradition and church succession.
- Bible passages like Acts 17:11 support examining teaching by Scripture, but other passages in the set also point to spoken tradition.
Questions Answered by the Sources
Did the early Christians teach Scripture alone?
No single early writer in this set clearly teaches Scripture alone as the only rule of faith. The clearest early voices here treat Scripture as true and important, but they also point to apostolic tradition, the church, and succession as part of how doctrine is kept.
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Gregory Thaumaturgus, A Sectional Confession of Faith Direct teaching
and it is right that our conceptions should follow the inspired and apostolic doctrines, and not that our impotent fancies should coerce the articles of our divine faith.
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Tertullian, On the Veiling of Virgins Direct teaching
The rule of faith, indeed, is altogether one, alone immoveable and irreformable;
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Tertullian, On Prescription Against Heretics Direct teaching
Now, faith has been deposited in the rule;
How did early Christians use Scripture?
Early Christians used Scripture as a main test for teaching and as a source for doctrine. Writers like Clement, Origen, and Dionysius appeal to Scripture directly, and Acts 17:11 shows believers checking teaching against the Scriptures.
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Dionysius of Alexandria, Miscellaneous Fragments Direct teaching
...ht at once to begin their festival joy and gladness. But in what you wrote to me, you showed very clearly, and with an intelligent understanding of the Holy Scriptures, that they do not seem to give any exact statement of the hour when He rose. For the Evangelists describe differently the people who came one after another to the tomb, and all declare that they found the Lord already risen. Matthew says it was at the end of the Sabbath. John writes that it was early, while it was still dark. Luke says it was very early in the morning. Mark tells us it was very early in the morning, at the rising of the sun. So no one has shown us clearly the exact time when He rose. It is admitted, however, that those who came to the tomb at the end of the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, found that He was no longer lying in it. And let us not suppose that the Evangelists disagree or contradict one another. Even if there seems to be some small difficulty in the matter we are asking about, they all agree that the Light of the world, our Lord, rose on that one night, though they differ about the hour. So we may rightly try, with a wise and faithful mind, to bring their
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Origen, Commentary on Matthew Supporting witness
Jesus, however, does not accuse them concerning a tradition of the Jewish elders, but concerning two of God's most urgent commandments. One of them was the fifth in the Ten Commandments: "Honor your father and your mother, that it may be well with you, and that your days may be long in the land which the Lord your God gives you," Exodus 20:12. The other was written in Leviticus: "If a man speaks evil of his father or his mother, let him surely die; he has spoken evil of his father or mother; he shall be guilty," Leviticus 20:9. But if we want to examine the exact wording as given by Matthew, "He that speaks evil of father or mother, let him die the death," Matthew 15:4, consider whether it was taken from the place where it was written, "Whoever strikes his father or mother, let him die the death; and he that speaks evil of father or mother, let him die the death." For these are the exact words taken from the Law concerning the two commandments. But Matthew quoted them partly and in shortened form, and not in the exact words. But we must consider the nature of the charge that the Savior brings against the Pharisees and scribes from Jerusalem when He says that they transgress the com
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Clement of Alexandria, The Stromata (Miscellanies) Supporting witness
... will of God: that by doing good you should silence the ignorance of foolish men, "as free, and not using freedom as a covering for evil, but as servants of God." In the same way Paul also writes in the Epistle to the Romans: "How shall we who died to sin still live in it? For our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed," down to this point: "Do not present your members as weapons of unrighteousness to sin," Romans 6:13. And indeed, since I have come to this place, I think I should not pass over the point that the Apostle proclaims the same God through the law and the prophets and the Gospel. For the saying, "You shall not desire," which is written in the Gospel, he attributes to the law in the Epistle to the Romans, knowing that the one who preached through the law and the prophets was one and the same, the Father, and that He was announced through him. For he says, "What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Certainly not. But I did not know sin except through the law. For I would not have known desire unless the law had said, 'You shall not desire,'" Romans 7:7. But if those of another opinion, opposing this, think that Paul, directing his words a
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Origen, Commentary on Matthew Direct teaching
... there is nothing crooked or twisted for such a person, he therefore sees abundant peace in all the Scriptures, even in those that seem to be in conflict and to contradict one another. He also becomes a peacemaker in a third sense when he shows that what appears to others to be conflict in the Scriptures is no conflict at all, and displays their agreement and peace, whether between the Old Scriptures and the New, or the Law and the Prophets, or the Gospels and the Apostolic Scriptures, or the Apostolic Scriptures with each other. For also, according to the Preacher, all the Scriptures are words of the wise, like goads and like nails firmly fixed, which were given by agreement from one shepherd, Ecclesiastes 12:11, and there is nothing unnecessary in them. But the Word is the one Shepherd of rational beings. To those who do not have ears to hear, these things may seem to disagree, but they are really in perfect harmony. For just as the different strings of the psalter or the lyre each give its own sound, and one sound seems different from another, a man who is not musical and does not understand the principle of harmony thinks they are out of harmony because the sounds are differ
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Origen, Against Celsus Supporting witness
But since he is clearly guilty of falsehood in the statements that follow, let us examine his claim when he says, "If all men wanted to become Christians, Christians would not want that." Now it is clear that this statement is false, because Christians do not fail, as far as it depends on them, to spread their teaching throughout the whole world. Some of them have therefore made it their work to travel not only through cities, but even through villages and country houses, so that they might convert people to God. And no one could say that they did this for the sake of profit, since sometimes they would not even accept the food they needed. Or if they were at any time forced by such necessity, they were content with only what they needed, although many were willing to share their abundance with them and give them help far beyond their need. Indeed, at the present time, because of the large number of Christian believers, not only rich men but also people of rank, and refined and high-born ladies, receive the teachers of Christianity. Some perhaps may dare to say that certain people take on the role of Christian teachers for the sake of a little glory. However, it is impossible to hol
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Apostolic Constitutions, Apostolic Constitutions Supporting witness
and if we have omitted any, be so prudent as to select the most valuable out of the Holy Scriptures, and confirm yourselves with them, rejecting all things that are evil, that so you may be found holy with God in eternal life.
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Acts 17:11 Direct teaching
Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.
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John 2:22 Direct teaching
When therefore he was risen from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this unto them; and they believed the scripture, and the word which Jesus had said.
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Romans 15:4 Supporting witness
For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.
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1 Timothy 4:13 Supporting witness
Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching.
Did early Christians also appeal to apostolic tradition?
Yes. Irenaeus, Tertullian, Clement, Cyprian, and Origen all speak of apostolic tradition, church succession, or teaching handed down from the apostles. The Bible passages in this set that mention holding traditions also fit that pattern.
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Irenaeus, Against Heresies: Book III Direct teaching
...les, still had their preaching echoing in his ears and their traditions before his eyes. He was not alone in this, for many others remained who had received instructions from the apostles. During Clement's time, a significant disagreement arose among the brethren in Corinth, and the Church in Rome sent a powerful letter to the Corinthians. This letter exhorted them to peace, renewed their faith, and declared the tradition recently received from the apostles, proclaiming the one omnipotent God, the Maker of heaven and earth, the Creator of man, who caused the deluge, called Abraham, led the people out of Egypt, spoke to Moses, established the law, sent the prophets, and prepared fire for the devil and his angels. From this document, anyone who wishes may learn that He, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, was preached by the Churches and may also understand the apostolic tradition of the Church. This Epistle predates those who now spread falsehoods and invent another god beyond the Creator and Maker of all things. Clement was succeeded by Evaristus, followed by Alexander; then, sixth from the apostles, Sixtus was appointed; after him, Telesphorus, who was gloriously martyred; fol
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Tertullian, On Prescription Against Heretics Supporting witness
But if there are any heresies bold enough to place themselves in the middle of the apostolic age, so that they may seem to have been handed down by the apostles because they existed in the time of the apostles, we can say this: Let them bring out the original records of their churches. Let them unfold the list of their bishops, coming down in proper succession from the beginning, in such a way that their first bishop can show that his ordainer and predecessor was one of the apostles or one of the apostolic men, and moreover, a man who remained faithful with the apostles. For this is how the apostolic churches pass down their records. The church of Smyrna records that Polycarp was placed there by John. In the same way, the church of Rome says that Clement was ordained by Peter. In exactly the same way, the other churches also present their own notable men. Since these men were appointed to their places as bishops by apostles, the churches regard them as those who pass on the apostolic seed. Let the heretics invent something similar. After their blasphemy, what is unlawful for them to attempt? But even if they manage to invent such a thing, they will gain nothing by it. For when thei
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Origen, De Principiis (On First Principles) Supporting witness
so, seeing there are many who think they hold the opinions of Christ, and yet some of these think differently from their predecessors, yet as the teaching of the Church, transmitted in orderly succession from the apostles, and remaining in the Churches to the present day, is still preserved, that alone is to be accepted as truth which differs in no respect from ecclesiastical and apostolic tradition.
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Cyprian, Epistles Supporting witness
Whence is that tradition? Whether does it descend from the authority of the Lord and of the Gospel, or does it come from the commands and the epistles of the apostles?
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Cyprian, Epistles Supporting witness
5. For which reason you must diligently observe and keep the practice delivered from divine tradition and apostolic observance, which is also maintained among us, and almost throughout all the provinces;
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Irenaeus, Against Heresies: Book III Direct teaching
2. But, again, when we refer them to that tradition which originates from the apostles, [and] which is preserved by means of the succession of presbyters in the Churches, they object to tradition, saying that they themselves are wiser not merely than the presbyters, but even than the apostles, because they have discovered the unadulterated truth.
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Cyprian, Epistles Supporting witness
Nor let any one say, We follow that which we have received from the apostles, when the apostles only delivered one Church, and one baptism, which is not ordained except in the same Church.
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2 Thessalonians 2:15 Supporting witness
So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the traditions that you were taught by us, either by our spoken word or by our letter.
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1 Corinthians 11:2 Supporting witness
Now I praise you, brethren, that you remember me in all things and keep the traditions just as I delivered them to you.
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Acts 2:42 Supporting witness
And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers.
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Acts 15:27 Supporting witness
We have sent therefore Judas and Silas, who shall also tell you the same things by mouth.
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2 Timothy 1:13 Supporting witness
Hold fast the pattern of sound words which you have heard from me, in faith and love which are in Christ Jesus.
More related quotations from this section 1 shown
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Clement of Alexandria, The Stromata (Miscellanies) Supporting witness
for as the teaching, so also the tradition of the apostles was one.
Common Questions
Did the early church believe in Scripture alone?
Not in the later sola Scriptura sense. The early writers here use Scripture often, but they also appeal to apostolic tradition and church teaching.
Did early Christians test teaching by Scripture?
Yes. Acts 17:11 says the Bereans examined the Scriptures daily, and some early writers also argued from Scripture.
Did early Christians value apostolic tradition?
Yes. Several writers in this set speak of traditions received from the apostles and of the church preserving them.
Source Index for Did the early Christians believe in sola Scriptura
The guided sections above show the strongest quotations. This compact index highlights 160 ranked source links from 225 compiled sources for deeper study.
Source index 160 ranked links shown
Early Christian Writings 80 shown of 127
Primary-source quotations from early Christian writers and church documents.
Bible Passages 80 shown of 98
Related Bible passages saved for comparison with the early Christian quotations.
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