In his book The Sufficiency of Scripture, Noel Weeks addresses the idea that exhaustive detail is required in order for something to be considered authoritative. Clearly the Bible is not exhaustive in all matters (one generally does not go to the Bible for physics laws and formulas), therefore, according to this proposed requirement, Scripture must not be authoritative. As a result, people seek to supplement or supplant the Bible with other “authorities.”

In the 9th century, Sa’adya Ga’on argued for the authority of the Rabbinic tradition based on an issue with the Jewish lunar year. God commanded the Jews to offer certain sacrifices at various festivals. Because a lunar year is about ten days shorter than a solar year, a problem quickly surfaced. Since God only specified which month the festival should take place, the use of the lunar month meant the specified sacrifices would not be ripe once the lunar months fell out of sync with the solar months.

Ga’on argued that the lack of Biblical detail demonstrated the need of another authority.¹ The question became: “how can the Bible be authoritative without being exhaustive?”² (Continue Reading…)

1. Weeks, Noel. The Sufficiency of Scripture (Banner of Truth, 1998) 7.↩
2. Ibid.↩