In the NT, the various parts of the OT are referred to as “the Scriptures”; these are the “sacred letters/writings” (2 Tim. 3:15). “Every Scripture is divinely inspired and profitable for teaching, for conviction, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, fully fitted to every good work” (2 Tim. 3:16, 17). They are, in short, a divinely inspired revelation for man. Especially for those who have entered into a relationship with God through grace, “the Scriptures” have authority that binds the conscience and puts an end to any dispute. It is striking that even at the time the N.T. was written, the New Testament books were counted just as much as the writings of the A.T. as the Word of God: “For the scripture says Thou shalt not muzzle an ox that treads corn” (Deut. 24:4), and, ‘The workman is worthy of his hire (Luke 10:7)’ (1 Tim. 5:18).
“… according as our beloved brother Paul also has written to you, according to the wisdom given to him, as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things, among which some things are hard to be understood, which the untaught and ill-established pervert, as also the other Scriptures, to their own destruction." (2 Pet 3:15-16)
