Theological glossary · FaithLogic

Sufficiency of Scripture

The teaching that Scripture contains all that is necessary for salvation and for a life pleasing to God — nothing essential is missing.

From Latin sufficere, 'to be enough'.

2 Timothy 3:15–17 (Scripture makes 'wise for salvation' and equips 'for every good work'); Psalm 19:7–11; 119; Deuteronomy 29:29; John 20:31.

A Reformation emphasis (part of sola scriptura), formalised in the Westminster Confession 1.6 — the whole counsel of God is 'either expressly set down in Scripture, or by good and necessary consequence may be deduced' from it — against the view that unwritten traditions supply necessary doctrine.

Sufficiency is for its purpose (salvation and godliness), not a claim that Scripture answers every question (medicine, history, mathematics). It is compatible with using tradition, reason, and scholarship as servants, not as supplementary revelation.

Catholic and Orthodox theology holds that Scripture is materially or formally insufficient apart from apostolic Tradition and the Church's interpretation.

Open in the glossary for related terms and the doctrines this concept appears in.