Scripture in the Anglican Tradition
Charles Simeon once said, “The Bible first, the Prayer Book next, and all other books and doings in subordination to both.” Anglicans love the Bible. In fact, when most people attend an Anglican church, the first thing they notice is the Bible’s central role. Each Sunday, there are usually four readings of Scripture: one from the Old Testament, one from the Psalms, one from the Epistles, and one from the Gospels. Commenting on this grand biblical heritage, bishop and scholar N.T. Wright says, “The reading of Scripture in the Anglican tradition is one of its great glories.”
Anglicanism firmly roots itself in the Reformation tradition of Sola Scriptura (by Scripture alone). Anglicans, along with other Reformation traditions, boldly believe the Bible is not just the work of men to read like a novel or newspaper; instead, the Bible is the Word of the Living God. The Bible says, “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God” (2 Tim. 3:16 NKJV). Inspiration literally means God-breathed. When you believe the Bible is actually God’s inspired Word, the implications become absolutely astounding, and you discover a whole new world of possibilities.
Sponsored
While the traditional documents reviewed in the previous chapter reveal much of the Anglican belief system, Anglicans ultimately turn to the Bible as the source of all beliefs. Time and time again, Christians throughout the ages have searched God’s Word to find strength and encouragement for life’s greatest challenges. Although the Bible isn’t a magical answer book, it remains the place where one learns about God’s plan and purposes. The Bible offers a foundation of faith that helps us find answers to many of life’s toughest questions within the larger story it tells.
The Language of the People
Wycliffe: The Morning Star
One can see this love of Scripture by looking at history and noting that Anglicans have produced many of the earliest translations of the Bible into English. A few notable Anglicans have helped in translating Scripture. In the 1380s, John Wycliffe produced the first English translation of the New Testament from the Latin Vulgate. Wycliffe has been called the “Morning Star of the Reformation” because of his desire to translate the Bible into the language of the common people.
Tyndale: God’s Outlaw
During 1525–1526, William Tyndale translated the New Testament directly from the original Greek. Many people call William Tyndale the father of the English Bible. He studied at Oxford and Cambridge, and eventually left university life to translate the English Bible from the original Hebrew and Greek.
Unfortunately, the church opposed his efforts to translate the Bible into English, so he went into hiding. People began to know him as “God’s outlaw.” Despite persecution and threats to his life, Tyndale completed the translation of the entire New Testament and part of the Old Testament into English. In 1535, a friend betrayed him, and the authorities arrested him. He paid for his work with his life when they strangled and burned him at the stake near Brussels. However, Tyndale ultimately triumphed because his translation became the foundation for all later English Bible translations.
The King James Version
In 1604, King James I of England authorized a new English translation of the Bible for Christians across England to read. He assembled a team of biblical scholars to translate the Bible into English. They finished the translation in 1611, and it eventually became the standard for English-speaking Protestants worldwide. People came to know it as the King James Version of the Bible. Its poetic language and lyrical rhythm profoundly shaped the development of the English language and literature for over 400 years. Today, millions of Christians around the world continue to read the King James Bible.
Prayer and the Bible
Anglicans believe that prayer and Bible study go hand in hand. People should always read Scripture in the context of prayer because prayer brings us into contact with the same Holy Spirit who inspired the Bible’s authors. As we read the Scriptures, the Spirit applies the truths of the Word to our hearts. Prayer allows us to understand the Word of God. Without the Holy Spirit’s help through prayer, our Bible study will not succeed.
Anglicanism arose out of the Reformation and, from its inception, proclaimed that the “Holy Scriptures containeth all things necessary to salvation.” Strongly influenced by Reformation thinkers of his day, Thomas Cranmer wholeheartedly believed in the importance of spending time in the Scriptures daily. This explains why the Word of God functions as the very foundation of the Book of Common Prayer, itself saturated with Scriptures from the Old and New Testaments. Cranmer once said, “The people (by daily hearing of holy Scripture read in the church) should continually profit more and more in the knowledge of God, and be the more inflamed with the love of his true religion.”
For Cranmer, Scripture and prayer hold together through an intricate connection. In his mind, we should not separate these pillars of the faith. Cranmer’s vision for the Daily Office was a matrix of prayer and Scripture woven together, exposing the reader to the presence of the Living Word. Cranmer’s collect for the second Sunday of Advent shows his intimate love for the Scriptures:
Blessed Lord, who hast caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning; Grant that we may in such wise hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, that by patience, and comfort of thy holy Word, we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life, which thou hast given us in our Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.
In the Hands of the People
Thomas Cranmer’s vision for Anglicanism included reading Scripture daily throughout the year. He restored the ancient practice of reading through the entire Bible in daily prayer. His greatest desire was to put the Bible and prayer in the hands of ordinary people so that they would be in a place where the God of the Bible could transform their hearts and lives. This is why Cranmer devised a Bible reading plan (lectionary) through which everyone could hear the Scriptures regularly.
Bishop John Howe said of Cranmer’s scriptural legacy, “In a stroke, he made the Church of England the greatest Bible-reading church in the world. Nowhere else is the Bible read so regularly, so comprehensively, and at such length as in the public worship of the Anglican Communion.”
The enduring legacy of the Book of Common Prayer owes a debt to the book’s scriptural basis and doctrinal accuracy. The book contains the entire book of Psalms and also a reading plan for the entire Bible. Thus, biblical references and doctrinal themes pervade its words and prayers. Dr. John Sentamu, archbishop of York, reminded us, “The Prayer Book places the Bible at the heart of the church’s worship and on the lips of the people. It teaches the grace and mercy of God, and it preaches Jesus as a living Savior, not a dead master of a bygone age.”
Daily Lectionary
Reading the Bible can be a little overwhelming at first because of its sheer size and the extent of its different doctrines, characters, stories, and themes. But there is good news: we don’t have to be systematic theologians to read and understand God’s Word. Reading the Bible is more like a marathon than a sprint, so I recommend that you start small and finish big. It will take a lifetime to study the entire Bible, and even then, we will never know all there is to know about it.
Wisdom from Cranmer’s Preface
To help with this daunting task, the Anglican tradition offers a historical and systematic way for every Christian to read and hear the Scriptures throughout the Christian year. Here are several things that we can learn about reading the Bible, from Cranmer’s preface to the 1549 Book of Common Prayer.
- The Bible should be read by everyone. In the spirit of the Reformation, Cranmer wanted every man, woman, boy, and girl to have access to the Word of God in their own language.
- The Bible should be read every day. Cranmer wanted Christians to be exposed to the Word of God daily through morning and evening prayer.
- The Bible should be read through in a year. Cranmer devised a Bible reading plan that would allow people to hear the Bible read through in a year.
- The Bible should be read privately and publicly in worship. The uniqueness of Cranmer’s common prayer is that it was meant to facilitate both private and public reading of Scripture.
As mentioned above, the Book of Common Prayer includes a systematic Bible-reading plan called a “lectionary.” A lectionary is simply a list of Bible passages for personal reading and study or for preaching in worship services. The lectionary readings from the Book of Common Prayer appear in daily worship services and Morning and Evening Prayer. In Cranmer’s first Prayer Book of 1549, the lectionary appeared as a twelve-month guide from January to December. It provided Old Testament and New Testament lessons for every day of the year. Cranmer intended churches to read the Scriptures at Morning and Evening Prayer so that they would become ingrained in people’s daily rhythms.
Modern Lectionaries
Since that time, there have been many versions of the daily lectionary. Some lectionaries go through the Bible in a year, while others follow a two or three-year cycle. Many of the most recent lectionaries for Sunday worship services follow the church calendar. In recent years, there has been a move toward uniformity among the various lectionaries, such as the Revised Common Lectionary. Whatever lectionary or Bible-reading plan you follow, nothing is more important than a regular reading of the Scriptures.
The Fat Pastures of the Soul
Cranmer poetically said, “In the Scriptures be the fat pastures of the soul.” This means that the Scriptures are the very place where we encounter the Lord and where He feeds us with His daily bread. It was Cranmer’s deep hope that, in this way, all Anglicans would hear, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest the Scriptures. Just as Moses encountered God in the burning bush, we also come face to face with God through the Scriptures. A. W. Tozer reminded us: “The Bible is not an end in itself, but a means to bring men to an intimate and satisfying knowledge of God, that they may enter into Him, that they may delight in His Presence, may taste and know the inner sweetness of the very God Himself in the core and center of their hearts.”
Image: Gannet77 from Getty Images Signature, courtesy of Canva. Digitally edited by Jacob Davis.
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