Exception to the passage 2 Timothy 3:15.
Exception to the passage 2 Timothy 3:15.
§ 374. They make the following exceptions to the passage 2 Tim. 3:15-16. (1) “Scripture sufficiently instructs and perfects the man of God in this manner: it contains many things expressly, and it reveals where one must seek what it does not contain.” We respond. Again, they are begging the question since they have not yet proved, nor can they prove, that one must seek from the Church a dogma of saving faith that is not revealed in Scripture. Nowhere does Scripture teach that one must seek new dogmas not revealed in Scripture from the shrine of the papal breast or from the accumulation of traditions. Instead, Scripture instructs us sufficiently regarding that which is necessary, strengthens us with comfort against adversities of every type, arms us against every kind of heresy, and equips us for every good work, not only by showing where we must seek these but also especially by giving them to us specifically. Thus when the apostle said that “Scripture [is able to] 
us (“to make us wise”) to salvation,” namely, through faith in Christ, he later explained specifically what Scripture gives us in this making wise: teaching, reproof, correction, and training in righteousness.
(2) “The apostle attributes this praise not only to the entire corpus of Scripture but also to the individual books: that they are useful for teaching and reproving, as the specification 
[“all Scripture” or “every Scripture”] shows; nevertheless not every book of the Bible is sufficient for this.” We respond. The syncategorema64
[“all”] is not taken distributively for the individual books and statements of Scripture but collectively, so that 
means the same as “the entire,” in which sense also Dionysius Carthusianus takes it in his commentary. One must pass judgment on the nature and quantity of a subject from its predicates. But now, such great things are predicated of Holy Scripture both in the preceding and in the following words, by which the individual books, chapters, verses, and statements are not equal but rather are the entire system of the Bible. To it pertain both the books of the Old Testament and the books of the New Testament that were already extant when the apostle was writing this second letter to Timothy, namely, the Gospels of the three evangelists Matthew, Mark, and Luke and almost all the apostolic letters with the exception of those that John wrote. In Romans, Timothy had added his own greeting. He was the one who had carried the first letter to the Corinthians; he had added his subscript to 2 Corinthians, both letters to the Thessalonians, Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon; and he had read the first letter Paul had written to him. Thus the apostle was considering the entire system of canonical Scripture which he had said Timothy had known “from childhood.” The apostle is predicating this praise of all those books that were included in the canon of Scripture and that were already extant therein. The word “all” is used in this sense in Matt. 3:5: “Then all Judea went out to John”; and in Col. 2:9: “In Christ dwells all the fullness of deity,” that is, “the entire fullness of deity.”
Bellarmine objects that: [a] “In the judgment of all who know Latin, what is said about ‘all Scripture’ is said also about the individual books as about its parts.” We respond. This would follow were one to accept the word “all” distributively; but here it is taken collectively, as we have shown. The Syriac paraphrase has it word for word as follows: “In Scripture there is usefulness for teaching,” etc., unless someone would wish to claim that 
was written instead of 
.
[b] “When this letter was being written, neither John’s Gospel nor his Revelation existed, and perhaps something else was missing from the corpus of Scripture.” In Refut. confess. Antuerp., Tiletanus writes more boldly: “When the apostle wrote this, there was no other Scripture except the Old Testament.” We respond. On the contrary, Romans and the other Epistles that the apostle wrote existed before he came to Rome. Luke finishes the Acts with Paul’s coming to the city, at the time when he had already written his Gospel, and Matthew and Mark wrote before him. Although all the books of the New Testament were not as yet extant when the apostle wrote this, nevertheless the sacred books that did exist at that time were able to make Timothy and all the devout “wise to salvation, and to equip them for every good work.” Therefore it is right to attribute this praise to them. Accordingly we invert the argument. If at a time when all the books of the New Testament were not yet extant the apostle could declare about Scripture the truth that it is perfect and sufficient, how much more can we attribute this perfection to it today when all the books of the New Testament exist? But the former is true. Therefore the latter is also true. But even if only the books of the Old Testament had existed at that time, this still would not be harmful to our argument because one must not evaluate the perfection of the canon according to the quantity of books but according to the perfection of the dogmas that were given sufficiently in the canonical books that were extant at any time. Furthermore, in those general declarations the Holy Spirit is considering not just one person nor merely the present time but the future.
[c] “From a universal principle the apostle wants to draw a conclusion in the particular: that the Scripture of the Old Testament—which was the only Scripture in existence when Timothy was a child—was useful for teaching, for reproof, etc., because it was divinely inspired.” We respond. The apostle passes from an exhortation, in which he had urged Timothy to continue faithfully in Christian instruction because it is in harmony with sacred writing, to an encomium of the entire Scripture. When he saw that the time of his departure and offering was near (2 Tim. 4:6), he wanted to recommend to Timothy the Scripture, according to whose rule and prescription Timothy would conduct his office. But he takes the word “Scripture” generally, meaning all the books of the Bible that existed at that time, if indeed 
[“from childhood”] denotes the young age of Timothy, so that at the same time it includes the entire time that lay between the childhood and current age of Timothy, during which many New Testament books—by no means unknown to Timothy—had been published, which were not at all unknown to him. Therefore we draw the following conclusion: The apostle is speaking about every Scripture and that Scripture alone which is God-breathed. But now, those books of the New Testament that were already extant when the apostle wrote this are not less God-breathed than are the books of the Old Testament. Also, we always urge that point which we mentioned earlier: If the apostle can attribute this perfection to Scripture before all the books of the New Testament had been written, all the more can we attribute it to Scripture today, when all the books of the Old and New Testaments are now extant.
[d] “The apostle is speaking about usefulness rather than sufficiency. Whoever says that food is useful for nourishment actually is saying that food was created for the purpose of nourishing; he is not saying, however, that food alone is sufficient. Thus the apostle is saying that Scripture profits for and aids in teaching, reproving, etc.; he is not saying, however, that it alone is sufficient for this.” We respond. Usefulness is double: one is adequate, total, sufficient, and removes every lack; the other is partial and removes a need not by itself but with other aids. We show that the apostle is speaking about the first with the following argument. Whatever is useful for teaching, reproof, etc., in such a way that it makes a man perfect, that is also sufficiently useful for that end. Scripture is useful for teaching, reproof, etc., in such a way that it “makes a man perfect and equipped for every good work” (v. 17). Therefore Scripture is sufficiently useful. The logic of the major premise is obvious because the perfection of the effect bears witness to the perfection of the cause. We readily admit that not everything that is useful is immediately perfect; yet at the same time, whatever is useful can at the same time be sufficient. And the actual words of the apostle show that Scripture is useful in that way. He says that “for the man of God,” that is, for a teacher of the Church, Scripture “is useful for every good work,” that is, for those things that are required for the right administration of his office, so that the theologian of the Church comes out of this 
and “equipped for every good work.” The Greek word 
signifies that which is perfect, complete, and absolute. Suidas: “
is read as things that are fit, perfect, and healthy, and comes from 
, which means ‘I make perfect and absolute.’ “From this, Oecumenius explains 
as 
[“completed”]. In some codices we read 
[“equipped”], but this reading is recent. Furthermore, to Suidas 
[“to be equipped”] is the same as 
[“to be fulfilled”]. In the Syriac paraphrase we have the word 
, which means “perfect and absolute.” But if Scripture is sufficiently useful for equipping a teacher of the Church in his office, then it will also be sufficiently useful for the correct equipping of the rest of the Christians. But the former is true; therefore the latter is also true. In his commentary on this passage, Thomas writes: “The effect of Scripture is fourfold: to teach the truth, to reprove the false (as far as the speculative is concerned), to deliver from evil, and to lead to good (as far as the practical is concerned). Its ultimate effect is to lead men to perfection, for it does not make them good in just any way but perfects them.” There is one who distinguishes between two kinds of usefulness. One is accidental and secondary. In this way one thing can be useful for something else, though it was not made for this purpose. The other is useful primarily and of itself, which was made by its maker for that very thing for which it is useful. Scripture is useful in the latter sense. If this sort of useful thing proceeds from a perfect cause, it, too, is usually perfect and sufficient. We see that the apostle is speaking about the usefulness of the latter kind both by the word 
[“God-breathed”], which leads us to the perfect efficient cause of Scripture, and by the added enumeration of all the parts that pertain to its final cause, for Scripture is said to be useful “for teaching, for reproof, for training, for correction,” and consequently for salvation; in this manner Holy Scripture is established as the instrumental cause [causa organica] of our salvation. But now, when usefulness is declared about an instrument [de organo] in an adequate subject, then it means the same thing as “sufficiency,” just as bread—because it is useful for satisfying hunger—is therefore also sufficient for this end.