Sola scriptura

(Latin for "by scripture alone") is a foundational theological doctrine held primarily by Protestant Christian denominations. It asserts that the Bible is the supreme, ultimate, and sole infallible authority for Christian faith, doctrine, and practice.

Key Principles of Sola Scriptura

• The Bible as the Ultimate Authority: While Protestants recognize the value of church history, creeds, tradition, reason, and Christian community, sola scriptura teaches that none of these carry the same divine authority as Scripture. If a tradition or teaching contradicts the Bible, the Bible takes precedence.
• Clarity (Perspicuity) of Scripture: The doctrine holds that the core message of the Bible regarding salvation and Christian living is clear enough that an ordinary believer can understand it, without needing an institutional magisterium (like the Roman Catholic Pope or bishops) to exclusively interpret it for them.
• Self-Interpretation: A common corollary phrase during the Reformation was scriptura sui interpres—"Scripture interprets Scripture." Difficult or ambiguous passages should be understood in light of clearer passages elsewhere in the Bible.

What Sola Scriptura Does Not Mean

A common misconception is that the doctrine rejects all history, tradition, or scholarship. In practice, historical Protestantism clarifies that:

• It is not nuda scriptura ("bare scripture"): It does not mean throwing away church history or abandoning the historic Christian creeds (such as the Apostles' or Nicene Creeds). Rather, Protestants view those creeds as helpful summaries of what the Bible teaches, subordinate to the Bible itself.
• The church still has a teaching role: Pastors, theologians, and councils are valued for guiding and instructing the church, but their human teachings are always open to being tested and corrected by the written text of Scripture.

Historical Context

The doctrine became a rallying cry during the 16th-century Protestant Reformation. Reformers like Martin Luther and John Calvin invoked sola scriptura to challenge certain practices and dogmas of the Roman Catholic Church at the time—such as the selling of indulgences, certain views on purgatory, and the exclusive authority of the Papacy—arguing that these lacked biblical support and sometimes directly contradicted Scripture.

Septuagint is based on the Hebrew Tanakh (specifically, ancient Hebrew source texts).

Here is how the relationship between the two works:

• The Tanakh (The Hebrew Bible): Written primarily in ancient Hebrew (with a few portions in Aramaic), the Tanakh was composed and compiled over centuries, with its texts finalized long before the Septuagint. It serves as the canonical baseline for Judaism.
• The Septuagint (LXX): This is the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible. It was produced in Alexandria, Egypt, starting around the 3rd century BCE (with the Torah translated first, followed by the Prophets and Writings) by Jewish scholars for the Greek-speaking Jewish diaspora.

Because the Septuagint is a translation, it was derived from ancient Hebrew manuscripts—some of which slightly predate or differed textually from the standardized Masoretic Text used for the modern Tanakh today.

Fun Fact: The Septuagint became the primary Old Testament used by the early Christian church and the basis for the Old Testament in many ancient Christian traditions (like the Eastern Orthodox Church), which is why its book order and inclusion of certain texts (the Apocrypha/Deuterocanonical books) differ slightly from the traditional Hebrew Tanakh.

The Septuagint (often abbreviated as LXX) originated precisely in the 3rd century BCE.

According to historical tradition (most famously recorded in the Letter of Aristeas), the translation began around 280 to 250 BCE in Alexandria, Egypt. Ptolemy II Philadelphus reportedly commissioned Jewish scholars to translate the Torah (the first five books) into Koine Greek for the massive Greek-speaking Jewish community in Alexandria and for the famous Library of Alexandria.

The rest of the Hebrew Bible (the Prophets and the Writings) was translated incrementally over the subsequent decades, with the entire Greek collection largely coming together by the 2nd century BCE.

This makes the Septuagint an exceptionally valuable historical artifact because it preserves a Hebrew text-tradition that is older, and occasionally different, than the standardized Masoretic Text finalized centuries later.

Different Christian traditions rely heavily on either the Tanakh (Masoretic Hebrew text) or the Septuagint (Greek text), which directly dictates how many books are in their Old Testaments and how certain passages read.

1. Bibles Based on the Tanakh (Masoretic Text)

• Protestant Bibles (e.g., King James Version, English Standard Version, New International Version):
• The Source: Their Old Testaments are translated directly from the Masoretic Text (the traditional Hebrew Tanakh).
• The Books: They contain 39 books in the Old Testament. (Note: These are the exact same content as the 24 books of the Jewish Tanakh, just split and counted differently—for example, Samuel and Kings are divided into two books each, and the 12 Minor Prophets are separated).
• Exclusions: They exclude the Apocrypha / Deuterocanonical books because those texts were not part of the finalized Hebrew canon.

2. Bibles Based on the Septuagint (or Mixed Traditions)

• Eastern Orthodox Bibles (e.g., Eastern Orthodox Bible, Septuagint-based translations):
• The Source: They use the Septuagint (LXX) as the foundational text for their Old Testament.
• The Books: They include roughly 49+ books in the Old Testament.
• Inclusions: Because the Septuagint contained a wider collection of Jewish literature popular in the ancient Hellenistic world, Orthodox Bibles include texts like Tobit, Judith, 1 and 2 Maccabees, Wisdom of Solomon, Sirach, Baruch, and additional sections in Esther and Daniel.
• Catholic Bibles (e.g., New American Bible, New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition):
• The Source: Modern Catholic Old Testaments use a hybrid approach—relying primarily on the Masoretic Hebrew text for base translation, but heavily cross-referencing the Septuagint and the Dead Sea Scrolls where the Hebrew is unclear or damaged.
• The Books: They contain 46 books in the Old Testament.
• Inclusions: While their translation base leans on the Hebrew text today, their canon follows the ancient Greek Septuagint tradition, incorporating the 7 "Deuterocanonical" books (which Protestants call the Apocrypha).

Quick Comparison Summary

From <https://gemini.google.com/app/0f90c32dd91c5eca?utm_source=gemini>

The New Living Translation (NLT) uses a fascinating text-critical approach. Rather than relying on just one historical textual stream, the translation team utilized a primary foundation backed by a robust "eclectic" method of cross-referencing alternative historical witnesses.

The historical versions and manuscripts utilized for the NLT include:

1. Old Testament: The Tanakh Foundation with Septuagint & Scroll Cross-Checks

• Primary Source (The Tanakh): The core baseline for the NLT Old Testament is the traditional Masoretic Text of the Hebrew Bible, specifically using Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia (1977 edition). This means its primary bedrock is the classic Hebrew text tradition.
  Tyndale House
• Secondary Sources (The Septuagint & Others): When the Hebrew text of the Tanakh is obscure, damaged, or famously ambiguous, the NLT translation team actively consulted and cross-referenced alternative ancient witnesses. This explicitly includes:
• The Septuagint (LXX): The 3rd-century BCE Greek translation you mentioned.
• The Dead Sea Scrolls: Older Hebrew fragments that often predate the standard Masoretic text.
• Other Ancient Tools: The Samaritan Pentateuch, the Syriac Peshitta, and the Latin Vulgate.
  Tyndale House
• Note: While the NLT handles these variants in difficult passages, its Old Testament canon count matches the Protestant 39-book layout derived from the Hebrew Bible.

2. New Testament: The Critical Greek Text

• Primary Source: For the New Testament, the NLT completely bypasses the later Textus Receptus (the Byzantine-majority text used by older translations like the King James Version).
  GospelRiver.com
• The Critical Editions: Instead, they relied on modern Critical Greek Texts—specifically the United Bible Societies' Greek New Testament (UBS4) and the Nestle-Aland Novum Testamentum Graece (NA27). These critical texts are compiled by weighing thousands of surviving ancient Greek manuscripts, including early papyri and major 4th-century codices (like Codex Sinaiticus and Codex Vaticanus).
  Tyndale House

In short, the NLT uses the Tanakh (Masoretic Text) as its main highway for the Old Testament, but it frequently pulls directional signs and clarifications from the Septuagint and the Dead Sea Scrolls when the Hebrew trail gets rocky!