Anglican views on the Bible’s disputed passages
Every disputed passage in this collection, and how Anglican readers understand it — in their own terms, beside the full article with every other tradition’s reading.
Peter and the rock
Is Peter the rock on which the church is built, and does the papacy rest on this?
The rock is Christ or Peter's confession; some hold a primacy of honor but not universal jurisdiction.
Reformation Anglicans such as John Jewel argued that the rock is Christ himself or the confession of faith, not Peter as an absolute monarch, and that the keys were granted to all the apostles for the preaching of the gospel. Richard Hooker situated binding and loosing within the church's broader ministry of spiritual discipline and absolution. Later Anglo-Catholics and ecumenical dialogues have explored a limited Petrine primacy of honor or service, but the tradition as a whole does not affirm papal jurisdiction. The keys are exercised by priests in absolution and by the church in discipline.
Read the full article: Peter and the rock →Faith and works
Is a person justified by faith alone, or by works as well?
Justification is by faith alone, with works as necessary evidence.
Anglican formularies, especially Article XI of the Thirty-Nine Articles, affirm justification by faith alone, while insisting that good works are the necessary fruit of faith. Richard Hooker harmonizes James with Paul by arguing that James speaks of the outward demonstration of a true, justifying faith before humanity, not the initial ground of justification before God. The Anglo-Catholic movement, represented by John Henry Newman, saw justification as a single reality encompassing both inward faith and its outward realization in works. Broad-church Anglicans emphasize James 2:1-13 as a critique of class distinctions, grounding Anglican social theology. Ephesians 2:8-10 is used to hold together grace and good works.
Read the full article: Faith and works →This is my body
In what sense are the bread and wine Christ's body and blood?
A spectrum: real spiritual presence, objective presence, or memorial.
Anglican theology contains a range of views within one communion. The Book of Common Prayer uses strong language of feeding on Christ's body and blood, and Richard Hooker taught that the sacrament is an instrument of real participation in Christ, without defining the mode. Anglo-Catholics affirm an objective real presence, while Evangelical Anglicans emphasize spiritual communion by faith and a memorial of Christ's death. Article XXXI rejects any notion of a propitiatory sacrifice in the Mass, but the tradition as a whole allows for genuine sacramental grace. This comprehensiveness is reflected in the many ways the same words of institution are understood.
Read the full article: This is my body →Baptism
Is baptism necessary for salvation, and should infants be baptized?
Baptism is generally necessary; infant baptism affirmed, but regeneration debated.
Anglican tradition holds comprehensiveness: Anglo-Catholics read John 3:5 literally as baptismal regeneration; Evangelicals stress the new birth as inner conversion not mechanically tied to water. The Book of Common Prayer's baptismal service quotes John 3:5 and includes infants, based on Acts 2:39 and covenant theology. The Thirty-nine Articles call baptism a sign of regeneration but not absolute necessity for salvation (though ordinary means).
Read the full article: Baptism →Predestination
Does God choose who will be saved, and on what basis?
Predestination to life is comfort; speculative reprobation is avoided.
Article XVII affirms predestination to life as sweet comfort but deliberately refrains from strict double predestination or arbitrary reprobation. The tradition spans Evangelical/Reformed streams (unconditional election) and Anglo-Catholic/Arminian streams (corporate, vocational). Richard Hooker sought a middle way. Pastoral care holds tension between divine sovereignty and human responsibility without fatalism. Paul's sorrow for kinsmen models intercession.
Read the full article: Predestination →Can salvation be lost?
Can a true believer fall away and be lost?
Article XVI rejects denying repentance; Anglicans divide over whether the fallen were regenerate.
The Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion, Article XVI, explicitly rejects the Novatian reading, affirming that the grant of repentance is not to be denied to those who fall into sin after baptism. Anglican divines such as Jeremy Taylor argue from verse 2 that confirmation is an apostolic practice distinct from baptism. Within Anglicanism, Evangelicals have debated whether verses 4-6 describe the apostasy of the truly regenerate or the merely nominal, reflecting wider Calvinist and Arminian tensions. Anglo-Catholic theology focuses on verses 19-20, seeing Christ as the Forerunner who has entered the heavenly sanctuary. Pastoral use moves between stern warning against spiritual stagnation and deep comfort in the 'anchor of the soul,' which appears in the Book of Common Prayer and burial rites.
Read the full article: Can salvation be lost? →Purgatory and prayer for the dead
Is there a purification after death, and do these texts teach it?
Classical Anglicanism rejects purgatory, though practices vary on prayer for the dead.
The Thirty-nine Articles call the Roman doctrine of Purgatory a fond thing, vainly invented, and not grounded in Scripture, and Article VI treats 2 Maccabees as Apocrypha, read for example but not to establish doctrine. In 1 Corinthians 3, Anglican divines like Richard Hooker used the passage to show that even those who build with erroneous doctrines on the foundation of Christ can be saved 'as by fire.' Many Anglicans therefore do not see these texts as teaching post-mortem purification. At the same time, some Anglo-Catholic traditions offer prayers for the departed as an expression of hope, while not affirming a defined purgatorial state.
Read the full article: Purgatory and prayer for the dead →The thousand years
What is the thousand-year reign, and will believers be caught up before the end?
Mainstream Anglicanism reads the millennium as the age of the Church.
The Anglican tradition, following Augustine, generally treats the thousand years as the present era in which Satan is bound and the saints reign sacramentally with Christ. Early English Reformers condemned literal millenarianism. On 1 Thessalonians 4, mainstream Anglican scholarship rejects a secret rapture; N.T. Wright, for example, interprets being caught up in clouds as a civic welcome for a returning king. The chapter is embedded in the Burial Office for pastoral comfort.
Read the full article: The thousand years →Wives and husbands
What does submission between wives and husbands mean?
Provinces differ: some teach ordered headship, others egalitarian mutual submission.
The Anglican tradition is comprehensive on this text. The 1662 Book of Common Prayer reads Ephesians 5:25-32 at marriage to show that marriage signifies the mystical union betwixt Christ and his church, and many provinces still teach a husband's servant headship. At the same time, contemporary Anglican and Episcopal churches contain strong egalitarian readings that make verse 21 the controlling principle, seeing the specific instructions as a culturally bound household code. Provincial and diocesan bodies differ: some retain a complementarian reading, while others affirm full mutuality and same-sex marriage, both appealing to this chapter. The Thirty-Nine Articles recategorized marriage as a state of life allowed in Scripture, not a sacrament of the gospel, which also shapes Anglican debate.
Read the full article: Wives and husbands →Same-sex relationships
What do these texts say about same-sex relations, and do they address orientation as understood today?
Communion divides: traditionalists see universal prohibition; some Western provinces see culturally specific texts.
The 1998 Lambeth Conference Resolution 1.10 and the Global South/GAFCON movement read Leviticus 18:22, Romans 1:26-27, and 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 as enduring, creation-based moral law condemning all same-sex sexual acts. Progressive voices in provinces such as the Episcopal Church argue that the texts condemn ancient exploitative practices—pederasty, cult prostitution, or coercive excess—not faithful same-sex unions, and that the modern category of sexual orientation was unavailable to the authors. They also appeal to baptismal dignity, reason, and experience within the Anglican threefold cord. The dispute affects liturgy, ordination, and Communion structures.
Read the full article: Same-sex relationships →Male and female
What does "male and female he created them" say about sex and gender?
Diverse: from binary complementarity to affirming gender diversity
Anglicanism encompasses a wide spectrum. Traditional Anglo-Catholic and evangelical Anglicans read the verse as establishing a binary, complementary understanding of sex and gender, grounding marriage as between one man and one woman. More liberal Anglicans argue that the text affirms the goodness of embodied difference but does not prescribe fixed gender roles or address gender identity as distinct from biological sex. Some provinces, including the Episcopal Church, have authorized same-sex marriage and ordination of transgender persons, interpreting the image of God as inclusive of diverse gender identities; others reject this as contrary to Scripture. The tradition's appeal to reason and experience allows for ongoing debate.
Read the full article: Male and female →Psalm 137 and its curse
What is a curse on infants doing in the Psalms?
Tension: laments exile; modern rites omit or allegorize the curse.
Anglican reception holds a deep tension between the poignant lament (vv.1–6) and the violent imagery of the imprecations (vv.7–9). The 1662 Book of Common Prayer appoints the entire psalm for recitation, but modern revisions such as the 1979 Episcopal BCP and Common Worship omit the imprecatory verses, judging them incompatible with Christian worship. Anglo-Catholic commentators like Neale and Littledale allegorized the final verses, interpreting Babylon as the sinful world and the 'little ones' as the first stirrings of sin. Some evangelicals and traditionalists argue this omission diminishes the Psalter's honest witness to trauma.
Read the full article: Psalm 137 and its curse →Deuteronomy 22 and the violated woman
What did this law require, and how should its words be translated?
A civil precept whose moral equity requires justice and care for the victim, but not the literal penalty.
Anglican hermeneutics, following Article VII of the Thirty-Nine Articles, distinguish between moral laws, which remain binding, and civil and ceremonial precepts, which do not bind Christian commonwealths. This law is received as an ancient civil regulation; its underlying rational equity demands that sexual violation be punished and that the victim be provided for. The specific remedy of compulsory marriage is not applied, but the principle of lifelong responsibility and restitution endures. Anglicans read the passage as part of the Old Testament's witness to God's justice, interpreted in light of Christ's teaching on mercy and care for the vulnerable.
Read the full article: Deuteronomy 22 and the violated woman →The binding of Isaac
Why does God command Abraham to sacrifice his son?
Test of faith, substitutionary atonement, and divine pedagogy against child sacrifice.
Anglican reading holds together typological, moral, and evangelical interpretations. Evangelicals emphasize the substitutionary ram and Abraham's justifying faith; Anglo-Catholics draw on patristic typology of Isaac carrying the wood. Broad Church theology, following F.D. Maurice, reads the passage as divine pedagogy: God was teaching Abraham to reject child sacrifice, not demand it. The text is embedded in the Book of Common Prayer, especially at the Easter Vigil, as a salvation-history lesson pointing to the ultimate Lamb. The tradition stresses God's final provision in Christ.
Read the full article: The binding of Isaac →Jephthah's daughter
Did Jephthah sacrifice his daughter, and does the text approve?
Classical Anglicans condemn vow; modern Episcopalians center daughter as patriarchal victim
Classical Anglican moral theology, rooted in Article XXXIX and the Homilies, insists vows must be made in justice, judgment, and truth; Jephthah's vow was unlawful and keeping it compounded the sin. Bishop Joseph Hall argued an evil vow is better repented than kept. Contemporary broad and progressive Episcopal readings center the unnamed daughter, reading the chapter as a devastating critique of patriarchal violence rather than spiritualizing her as an obedient model. The passage is used as a warning against transactional faith and as a mandate for lament.
Read the full article: Jephthah's daughter →His blood be on us
Does this verse lay guilt on the Jewish people, as it was long used to claim?
The liturgy has the congregation speak these words to acknowledge universal human complicity.
Many Anglican liturgies of Holy Week assign the crowd's part to the whole assembly, so that verse 25 is not heard as the voice of a particular ethnic group but as the voice of every sinner. The Book of Common Prayer structures the Passion reading to invite this identification. Rowan Williams reads Pilate's hand-washing as the evasion of worldly power in the face of divine truth, not as a transfer of guilt to the Jewish people. The Thirty-Nine Articles interpret the crucifixion as a satisfaction for the sins of the world.
Read the full article: His blood be on us →Your father the devil
Whom are these sayings addressed to, and how have they been misused?
Polemic reflects first-century conflict; must repudiate anti-Jewish application.
Anglican tradition, with its emphasis on reason and historical context, often reads John 8 as a universal challenge: those who refuse the truth Jesus brings are children of the father of lies. In 1 Thessalonians 2, many Anglican scholars, especially in the Broad Church tradition, explicitly note that verses 14–16 reflect a first-century intra-Jewish conflict. They stress that "the Jews" in Paul's context means Judean opponents of the gospel, not all Jews. This reading is used to repudiate anti-Judaism and to place the text in its historical setting.
Read the full article: Your father the devil →No one comes to the Father except through me
Is salvation found only through Christ, and what does that mean for other faiths?
Internally divided: verse 6 exclusive for some, verse 2 inclusive for others.
Anglican reception spans a wide spectrum. Evangelical Anglicans, following J.C. Ryle, read John 14:6 as an absolute and exclusive claim about salvation through Christ alone, rejecting other religious paths. Broad and progressive Anglicans often emphasize John 14:2, 'many dwelling places,' as a sign of God's spacious hospitality and a caution against drawing sharp boundaries around salvation. Both sides find support in the same chapter: one in the exclusivity of the 'way,' the other in the plurality of the 'mansions.' The Book of Common Prayer uses the passage at funerals, where pastoral comfort tends to stress hope rather than judgment.
Read the full article: No one comes to the Father except through me →Virgin or young woman?
Does Isaiah's almah mean 'virgin' or 'young woman', and is the verse about Jesus?
A comprehensive reading: historical sign and Christological fulfillment
Anglican reception is characterized by comprehensiveness, navigating between historical-critical exegesis and classical Christological orthodoxy. Anglo-Catholic and evangelical wings emphasize the miraculous virgin birth, reading the passage through Matthew's Gospel; Lancelot Andrewes preached Immanuel as the union of divine and human natures. Broad and progressive wings, following scholars like Charles Gore, understand almah in its immediate historical horizon as a young woman in Ahaz's court, providing an immediate political sign. This critical reading does not negate orthodox theology but views Matthew's use as theological. The chapter is embedded in the lectionary for Advent and the Annunciation.
Read the full article: Virgin or young woman? →The longer ending of Mark
Did Mark's Gospel end at 16:8, and what of the verses after it?
Anglicans differ: some embrace v.8 as original, others use vv.9-20 for sacrament.
Anglican reception integrates textual criticism and tradition, so the question of Mark's ending is treated as genuinely open. Many Anglicans, following Westcott and Hort, regard v.8 as the earliest recoverable text, and some find theological meaning in its abruptness as a call for the reader to proclaim the resurrection. Others, especially Anglo-Catholic and evangelical Anglicans, receive the longer ending as canonical and use v.16 in baptismal catechesis and v.19 on Ascension Day. The Book of Common Prayer appoints vv.1–8 for Easter and v.19 for Ascension, holding both together in worship.
Read the full article: The longer ending of Mark →The woman caught in adultery
Was this story part of John's Gospel from the start?
A later insertion, yet historically true and canonically authoritative.
Anglican scholars such as B. F. Westcott acknowledge that the passage is a later manuscript insertion but maintain its historical truth and canonical authority. The Anglican appeal to reason permits textual criticism while the tradition retains the pericope in the lectionary and in the Book of Common Prayer. It is read as a profound revelation of divine mercy, consistent with the Gospel's witness. Evangelical Anglican readings emphasize the gospel of grace in Jesus' absolution. Broad church readings see universal truth in Jesus' refusal to condemn.
Read the full article: The woman caught in adultery →The Johannine Comma
Is the explicit Trinitarian line in 1 John 5 original?
Anglicans once received the Comma in the KJV but now reject it as an interpolation.
The King James Version, based on the Textus Receptus, included the Comma, and older Anglican liturgies and theologians sometimes cited it. However, Anglican biblical scholars such as B. F. Westcott demonstrated that the clause is absent from early Greek manuscripts and early versions, leading the Church of England and global Anglicanism to adopt modern critical texts without it. Anglo-Catholic readers may still see the water and blood as witnesses to the dominical sacraments, while evangelical and broad-church readers emphasize the historical reference to Christ's baptism and crucifixion. Neither party grounds Trinitarian doctrine in the Comma; the Thirty-Nine Articles confess the Trinity from Scripture and the creeds.
Read the full article: The Johannine Comma →Divorce and the exception clause
When, if ever, may a marriage be ended and another begun?
Internally divided: historically strict indissolubility, but modern provinces allow remarriage after divorce.
Historically, Anglicanism held a strict view on marital indissolubility based on Matthew 19:4-6, with the exception clause generating debate. Anglo-Catholics have emphasized the unbreakable sacramental bond; Evangelicals have often recognized the exception as permitting divorce and sometimes remarriage in limited cases; Broad Church and progressive Anglicans have used reason and pastoral theology to address human brokenness. Verse 6 is the climactic utterance in the Book of Common Prayer's solemnization of matrimony. Modern Anglican provinces, including the Episcopal Church, have developed canonical processes for the remarriage of divorced persons, reflecting the internal diversity.
Read the full article: Divorce and the exception clause →Tithing
Must Christians tithe, and does giving bring material blessing?
Tithing is a biblical baseline, but anglicans differ on its binding force.
Anglican reception uses Malachi 3 in Advent and Candlemas liturgies, with verses 8-10 frequently read during stewardship campaigns. Many Anglican parishes teach the tithe as a biblical standard and starting point for Christian giving, while others emphasize the New Testament call to free, cheerful generosity rather than a fixed percentage. The prayer book tradition retains the offertory as a central act of worship, and church support is seen as part of Christian discipleship. The promise of opened windows is often applied as an encouragement to trust God's provision, though not as a mechanical guarantee.
Read the full article: Tithing →Obeying the government
Must Christians obey every government, and are there limits?
Historically strict obedience; later tradition allows resistance to tyranny.
The early Church of England used Romans 13:1-7 in the First Book of Homilies and Article 37 of the Thirty-Nine Articles to require obedience to the Crown and condemn rebellion. During the American Revolution, loyalist clergy maintained this reading, while patriot clergy argued that authorities forfeit their divine mandate when they cease to be a minister of God for good, as verse 3 conditions the office. The tradition is therefore internally divided: one stream reads the passage as requiring non-resistance to established government, another as permitting or even requiring resistance to a ruler who becomes a terror to good works. The Book of Common Prayer's collects keep the passage's imagery alive in worship, but political application has varied with context.
Read the full article: Obeying the government →Creation and the age of the earth
Are the days of Genesis 1 literal, and what do these chapters teach about origins?
Days likely literary framework; scripture, tradition, reason allow evolution.
Anglican theology holds together scripture, tradition, and reason, and many Anglican theologians from the Broad Church to scientist-theologians like John Polkinghorne read the days of Genesis 1 as a theological framework rather than literal 24-hour periods. Article I affirms God as creator of all things visible and invisible, and the repeated declaration of creation's goodness grounds a sacramental view of the material world. Genesis 2:7 is often read through a mythopoetic lens compatible with evolutionary biology, with the breath of life signifying the impartation of the divine image. Traditional Anglicans, however, may hold literal readings; the tradition encompasses a spectrum.
Read the full article: Creation and the age of the earth →