What is the analogy of Scripture?  It is a hermeneutical principle or a basic principle of Biblical interpretation which re-emerged within the Protestant Reformation.  The principle is founded upon the belief that the Scriptures have one primary author, the Holy Spirit, who inspired Scripture. Identifying the Holy Spirit as the primary author does not reduce all other human authors of the Bible to mere automatons but it does place them under the Spirit’s superintendence.  Obviously, more could be said of the mode of the Spirit’s inspiration but for now let’s think about the principle that arises from the Spirit’s work. 

Panel discussions are great.  I love the unscripted “off the cuff” format because it is in those moments that you often get the best help from a speaker.  I remember listening to one such discussion and the speakers were asked what three or four books in addition to their Bible they would take to a desert island.  As each speaker listed his books the lot finally fell to the man from whom I eagerly awaited an answer.  What were his favorite books?  What books helped to form his piety?  What reading shaped his theological demeanor?  What was his answer?  A simple concordance is what he would take.

If memory serves, I think one of his fellow panelists jabbed him saying, “You already get to take a Bible!” But apparently the speaker had more in mind than simply reading through His Bible, which is obviously a godly and spiritually productive exercise.  This speaker had a mind to study the Bible using what has been historically described as the analogia scripturae or the analogy of Scripture.

Now, that obviously prompts a basic question. What is the analogy of Scripture?  It is a hermeneutical principle or a basic principle of Biblical interpretation which re-emerged within the Protestant Reformation.  The principle is founded upon the belief that the Scriptures have one primary author, the Holy Spirit, who inspired Scripture. Identifying the Holy Spirit as the primary author does not reduce all other human authors of the Bible to mere automatons but it does place them under the Spirit’s superintendence.  Obviously, more could be said of the mode of the Spirit’s inspiration but for now let’s think about the principle that arises from the Spirit’s work.

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