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Hey Dave, Thanks for your comment. Two observations. First, the believers in 47 AD did have a book. They had the Old Testament which the NT writers affirm in writing and practice as authoritative. This is explicitly affirmed in Romans 15:4 as well as in 1 Tim 3:15-16. Second, the Apostles affirmed their writing as Scripture and as such authoritative and this was accepted by the church. For example, Paul quotes Luke 10:7 in 1 Timothy 5:18 so he recognized Luke's gospel as authoritative. In 2 Peter 3:15-15, Peter recognizes Paul's writings as Scripture. Paul refers to what he and the Apostles were preaching as "the word of God" in 1 Thess 2:13. In addition, we need to remember that the canonization of the New Testament was really a formal recognition of the authoritative nature of the NT Scripture which we have today. That is to say that as these letters were written and then copied and distributed, they carried with them the weight of Scripture and were recognized by the church as authoritative prior to the council of Nicea which is why there were specific criteria for the letters that were included. This included widespread acceptance and dissemination among the churches and Apostolic authorship (or authorship of someone gathering first-hand knowledge in the case of Luke and Acts). The issue addressed in the quote you mentioned above was the raising of councils of the Roman Catholic Church and Papal authority to the same level (in some cases higher than) Scripture. That was not the practice in the early church. Scripture (both the Old Testament and the writings of the Apostles that they had) were the source of authority for faith, life, and practice. This is seen clearly in the writings of the early church fathers for example. So to answer your question, the internal witness of both the Old and New Testament coupled with the witness of history in the plentiful writings of the early church fathers in particular bear witness to the fact that the early church viewed Scripture as the sole source of authority for the church. This was lost over time as papal authority increased. Hope that helps. Blessings.

Thanks for responding. You said “So to answer your question, the internal witness of both the Old and New Testament coupled with the witness of history in the plentiful writings of the early church fathers in particular bear witness to the fact that the early church viewed Scripture as the sole source of authority for the church.” A person in 47AD didn’t practice sola scriptura the way it is practiced it, at all, especially the way it’s practiced today. A new Christian had OT scriptures but no books about Jesus or the Christian faith, they had the oral tradition, and they didn’t have any early church fathers writing at that time, so this sole source of authority for the church didn’t exist in 47 AD. The Jews accepted the oral Torah as equally authoritative, the canon of the Old Testament was only gradually formed and authoritative and binding Talmudic speculation and interpretation flourished even after the old testament had been completed and organized. So if he only used the OT as the only stand alone authority that would be saying something like sola OT. That all that you need is the OT and that’s absurd as a new Christian. That gets me to my last question, what was the provision Jesus gave to hand on the Christian faith. Just look at the data of history and revelation, we see that no where does Jesus, the prophets, the Apostles, no where has God revealed that if you want to know the content of the Christian faith you should look to the Bible alone. None of those said anything about the Bible is the sole source of authority but a bipolar, manic depressed monk named Martin Luther did. Jesus's provision was not the Bible. Jesus never wrote a word; Jesus never mentions the Bible and the 27 books of the NT. Well in fact the Bible as it is presently constituted, it did not even exist at the time of Christ’s ascension. At least 27 of those books were not even composed at the time of His ascension. So that’s not the prevision that Christ made. He said to the eleven, go into all nations, teach them everything I have commanded you. His oral Tradition, his oral teaching cause Jesus never wrote a word down. I’ll be with you until the end of the age. Peter you are the Rock on which I build this Church, the gates of hell will not prevail against it. Whoever hears you, hears me, whoever rejects you, rejects me. Whatever you bind on earth is bound in heaven; whatever you loose on earth is loosed in heaven. Whoever sins you forgive are forgiven and whoever sins you retain are retained. That’s the provision that Christ made, His oral Tradition, His Sacraments, do this in memory of me, Baptistize, absolve sins. His form of worship, entrusted to authorized individuals, possessing His divine authority with a promise of divine assistance to the end of the age. That’s the Catholic Church. That’s the provision Christ made for handing on the faith not the Bible alone.