The Bible Only? Too Many (Cracked) Eggs in One Basket

The founders and heirs of the Stone-Campbell movement have strenuously insisted that the Bible is their only authority for faith and practice, often coupling this claim with an explicit rejection of “man-made creeds and opinions.” This essay argues that the formation of the canon, the reconstruction of critical Hebrew and Greek Bible texts, and the interpretation of the Bible all depend on fallible human decisions. We would have no closed canon, no critical texts, no Bible translations, and no way of making important decisions about congregational practice without the aid of human tradition.