Scripture Library

Scripture topics

Questions on which Christians have read the same passages differently. Each topic separates what the text says from what interpreters conclude, and names who has argued each position. Researched with AI assistance; not yet specialist-reviewed.

• Early Christian diversity and the extracanonical gospels

  Luke 1:1

  Early Christians produced many writings beyond those later collected in the New Testament. Some, such as the Gospel of Thomas, are sayings collections; others, such as the Gospel of Judas, reflect particular movements (often labelled 'Gnostic', a label scholars debate). They are evidence for the variety of early Christian thought, not a single alternative canon.

• Eucharistic theology

  Matthew 26:26 · Mark 14:22 · Luke 22:19 · 1 Corinthians 11:24

  In what sense Christ is present in the bread and wine of the Eucharist, and what the rite accomplishes. The words 'This is my body' have been read in several ways.

• Faith and works (justification)

  Romans 3:28 · Galatians 2:16 · James 2:24 · Ephesians 2:8

  How a person is made or declared righteous before God, and how faith relates to works. Central to the sixteenth-century Reformation and to later ecumenical agreements.

• Formation of the scriptural canon

  2 Timothy 3:16 · 2 Peter 3:16 · Luke 24:44

  Which books belong in the Bible and why traditions differ. The New Testament's 27 books are shared by most churches; the Old Testament differs, chiefly over the books found in the Greek Septuagint but not in the Hebrew Bible.

• Mary and perpetual virginity

  Matthew 1:25 · Matthew 1:18 · Luke 2:7 · Mark 6:3

  Whether Mary remained a virgin after Jesus' birth. The question turns partly on how to read Matthew 1:25 ('until she had given birth') and partly on who the 'brothers and sisters' of Jesus were. Three historic explanations of the brothers have been argued since the fourth century; two of them are compatible with perpetual virginity.

• Mary Magdalene

  Luke 8:2 · Mark 15:40 · John 20:1 · John 20:18

  A follower of Jesus named in all four canonical Gospels as a witness of the crucifixion and the first witness of the resurrection, and a prominent figure in some extracanonical texts.

• Peter and papal primacy

  Matthew 16:18 · Matthew 16:19 · Matthew 18:18 · John 1:42

  What Jesus' words to Peter establish, whether any role of Peter passes to successors, and whether that role belongs to the bishop of Rome.

• The Holy Spirit and the Filioque

  John 15:26 · John 14:26 · John 16:7 · Galatians 4:6

  Whether the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father alone or from the Father 'and the Son' (Latin filioque), and whether the Western church could add the phrase to the creed of 381. A principal theological issue between Eastern and Western Christianity.

• Violence, murder and warfare

  Exodus 20:13 · Deuteronomy 5:17 · Genesis 9:6 · Numbers 35:11

  What the commandment לֹא תִרְצָח ('you shall not murder / kill') forbids, and whether Christians may kill in war, in self-defence, or as agents of the state. Christian traditions have answered differently, from just-war reasoning to principled nonviolence.

Topics in the Scripture Library · Open the Scripture Library