{
  "id": "dict_005123",
  "term": "Scripture",
  "slug": "scripture",
  "letter": "S",
  "entry_type": "doctrine",
  "entry_family": "doctrine",
  "tier": 2,
  "aliases": [],
  "short_definition": "Scripture is a biblical and theological term that names a real doctrine, condition, or aspect of God's work.",
  "simple_one_line": "In Christian theology, Scripture means a biblical and theological term that names a real doctrine, condition, or aspect of God's work.",
  "tooltip_text": "Biblical doctrine or theological term.",
  "lede_intro": "Scripture is a doctrinal category that should be defined from the passages that establish it, located within the biblical storyline, and stated with clear theological limits.",
  "at_a_glance_definition": "Scripture is a biblical and theological term that names a real doctrine, condition, or aspect of God's work. This doctrine should be read from the passages that establish it and kept distinct from nearby theological claims.",
  "at_a_glance_key_points": [
    "Scripture should be defined from the biblical texts that establish it rather than from slogan-level shorthand alone.",
    "It belongs within the larger witness of Scripture and the history of redemption, so related doctrines must be distinguished carefully.",
    "A sound account states what this doctrine affirms, what it does not require, and why it matters for the church's teaching, worship, and discipleship."
  ],
  "description_academic_short": "Scripture is a biblical and theological term that names a real doctrine, condition, or aspect of God's work. As a doctrine, it should be stated from the passages that establish it and distinguished carefully from adjacent theological claims.",
  "description_academic_full": "Scripture is a biblical and theological term that names a real doctrine, condition, or aspect of God's work. This doctrine should be defined from the passages that establish it, located within the larger storyline of Scripture, and stated with care in relation to nearby doctrines. Responsible use clarifies what the term affirms, what limits belong to it, and why it matters for the church's teaching, worship, and discipleship.",
  "background_biblical_context": "Scripture belongs to Scripture's doctrine of revelation and written witness and should be read within that covenantal setting rather than as a detached theory of texts. Its background lies in God's covenant speech through prophets and apostles, preserved in written form so the church receives a stable, public, and norming witness.",
  "background_historical_context": "Historically, discussion of Scripture was shaped by Jewish scriptural interpretation and by Christian debate over promise, fulfillment, covenant continuity, and the relation of Israel, the church, and the canon. The term remained historically important because it helps organize how readers connect disparate biblical texts into a single redemptive history.",
  "background_jewish_ancient_context": null,
  "key_texts_primary": [
    "Jer. 23:29",
    "Acts 17:11",
    "John 5:39",
    "Ps. 119:105",
    "Isa. 8:20"
  ],
  "key_texts_secondary": [
    "Matt. 5:17-18",
    "Matt. 22:29",
    "Acts 20:27",
    "Heb. 1:1-2"
  ],
  "original_language_note": null,
  "original_language_terms": [],
  "theological_significance": "Scripture matters because doctrinal precision in this area protects the church’s speech about God, the gospel, the church, or the last things and helps prevent distortions that spill into neighboring doctrines.",
  "philosophical_explanation": "At the conceptual level, Scripture forces interpreters to account for meaning, reference, and warranted confidence in the reception of Scripture. The main issues are authorial intention, reference, communal reception, and the relation between divine communicative action and ordinary historical-linguistic processes. Used well, these distinctions secure confidence in Scripture without confusing interpretive certainty with infallibility of readers.",
  "interpretive_cautions": "With Scripture, resist treating one later theological synthesis as if it exhausted the biblical data. Let genre, canon, and the argument of the relevant passages govern the doctrine, rather than importing later debates wholesale into every text or assuming one confessional formula answers every interpretive question. Define the doctrine carefully enough to preserve real theological boundaries, but do not promote one tradition's preferred ordering of implications into the measure of orthodoxy where the text leaves room for qualified disagreement.",
  "major_views_note": "Scripture is widely affirmed in conservative theology, but traditions differ over how the category should be defined, defended, and related to exegesis, canon, and theological method. The chief debates concern how revelation, inspiration, canon, textual history, and interpretive method should be related without weakening Scripture's full authority.",
  "doctrinal_boundaries": "Scripture must remain under Scripture's own claims about revelation, inspiration, canon, truthfulness, and interpretation, rather than being settled by proof-texting or skepticism. It must not pit divine authorship against human authors, nor separate textual meaning from literary form, canonical context, and ecclesial use. It should distinguish the church's reception of the canon from the canon's divine authority. Properly handled, Scripture guards the church's confidence that God speaks truthfully in Scripture while leaving exegesis to do its full contextual work.",
  "practical_significance": "Practically, Scripture is not merely a point to define; it must direct prayer, discipleship, and pastoral judgment. It steadies reading, teaching, and discipleship by clarifying why Scripture must be received as clear, trustworthy, necessary, and sufficient for the life of faith.",
  "related_entries": [],
  "see_also": [
    "Inspiration",
    "authority of Scripture",
    "revelation"
  ],
  "meta_description": "Scripture is a biblical and theological term that names a real doctrine, condition, or aspect of God's work.",
  "jsonld_description": "Scripture is a biblical and theological term that names a real doctrine, condition, or aspect of God's work. This doctrine should be defined from the passages that establish it, located within the larger storyline of Scripture, and stated with care in relation to nearby doctrines. Responsible use clarifies what the term affirms, what limits belong to it, and why it matters for the church's teaching, worship, and discipleship.",
  "source_basis": "scripture-led synthesis",
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  "authority_status": "finalized",
  "review_state": "finalized",
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}