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Letters concerning the Establishment of the Holy Synod (1723)

Eastern Patriarchs, tr. King, 1865

2. Question 2

Is Scripture plain to all Christians who read it?

Answer.

If Holy Scripture were plain to all Christians who read it, the Lord would not have commanded those wishing to obtain salvation to search it, and in vain would it be said, that the gift of teaching in the Church was given by God to Paul; and Peter would not have said concerning the Epistles of ‘Paul, that they have some things hard to be understood. It is manifest, therefore, that the Scripture has great depth, and greatness of conception, and needs learned and holy men for the investigation and true comprehension, (of it,) and a knowledge which is correct and in harmony with the whole Scripture, and with the Holy Ghost, whose work it is; so that though the faith concerning the Trinity, and the incarnation of the Son of God, his passion, the resurrection, the ascension into heaven, the word concerning regeneration and the judgment to come, on account of which many have not hesitated to endure death, may be known by those born again, still it is not necessary, or rather it is impossible for all to know those things which the Holy Ghost manifests only to those who have been exercised (trained) in wisdom and holiness.