John Diodati’s Doctrine of Holy Scripture
My first introduction to the Italian Reformed biblical scholar and theologian, Giovanni Diodati, was a memorable one. In preparation for an adult catechism class through the Canons of Dort, I came across his comment upon the arrest, trial, and execution of the Remonstrant politician, Jan Van Oldenbarneveldt. Five days after the Synod of Dort convened Van Oldenbarneveldt was executed as a traitor, to which Diodati remarked: “The Canons of Dort had shot off the Advocate’s head” (Cited in M. W. Dewar, “The British Delegation at the Synod of Dort–1618-1619.” The Evangelical Quarterly 46 (April-June 1974): 115.). In the course of reading Andrea Ferrari’s excellent book, John Diodati’s Doctrine of Holy Scripture, I have come to know more about this man than his ironic comment. Rev. Ferrari brings to the English-speaking world a specialized study on this classic Reformed theologian.
The book is very succinct (129 pages, including notes and bibliography) and simply laid out, as Ferrari opens with a brief word about the state of Diodati studies, chronicles Diodati’s biography, survey’s the doctrine of Scripture in church history, and then offers a translation of Diodati’s Theses theologicae de Sacra Scriptura and exegetes them in the final two chapters. These two chapters alone were worth the price of the book.
Rev. Ferrari sketches the intriguing and productive life of Diodati, which ought to inspire theologians, ministers, and seminary students to be productive and pious laborers in the Lord’s vineyard. Stretching seventy-three years, Diodati was a man of man gifts and many travels, being born in Geneva because of the Inquisition in Italy, serving as in Geneva’s Academy, pastoring in Italty and France, and serving as a delegate to the great Synod of Dort in 1618-19.
What is most edifying about this book are Diodati’s theses, presented to the Genevan Academy for defense at the conclusion of his studies when he was twenty-years old. These twenty-five tightly argued theses present a classic Reformed and Protestant doctrine of Holy Scripture, moving from inspiration, to canonicity, to translations, to the necessity of vernacular versions, to their perspicuity, to their interpretation, to their authority over the church, their self-attestation, to their sufficiency, and necessity. Among those that stand out is thesis 5 and its implications for polemics with Rome: “The Latin version (they call the Vulgate) is an ectype of the original, from which it is lawful to appeal to the archetype” (47). Thesis 9 also is a reminder that Scripture is perspicuous, yet must be approached rightly: “The danger in the reading of the Scriptures is not from themselves, but from human recklessness” (48). Finally, theses 20 and 21 succinctly present the Reformed view of the necessity of Scripture: “Scripture contains most completely all things necessary for salvation,” and, “Scripture is therefore necessary, because those things cannot be sought elsewhere” (50).
Overall, John Diodati’s Doctrine of Holy Scripture is a fine piece of research and writing, which any informed believer may pick and read to their edification. It is especially worth reading Diodati’s theses, especially in our day in which the Bible is so widely read yet so widely abused. Rev. Ferrari is to be commended for this work.
Purchase here.
