Hilary of Poitiers on Scripture and Tradition [Part 1]

 

Homily 13:1 on Matthew

"They who are placed without the Church, cannot attain to any understanding of the divine word. For the ship exhibits a type of Church, the word of life placed and preached within which, they who are without, and lie near like barren and useless sands, cannot understand." (https://books.google.com/books?id=2398ZZ9dIQoC&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&dq=hilary+of+poitiers+matthew&source=gbs_navlinks_s)

I would say that Hilary may be at variance with himself. He elsewhere views Scripture as self-interpreting. Here is an example of this principle:

"All these passages they neither understand rationally, nor distinguish as to their occasions, nor apprehend in the light of the Gospel mysteries, nor realize in the strict meaning of the words and so they impugn the divine nature of Christ with crude and insensate rashness, quoting single detached utterances to catch the ears of the unwary, and keeping back either the sequel which explains or the incidents which prompted them, though the meaning of words must be sought in the context before or after them." (On the Trinity, Book 9, section 2)

He doesn't say "the meaning of words must be sought in the teaching of the infallible magisterium of the Roman church."

On the Trinity, Book 7, section 4

"I trust that the Church, by the light of her doctrine, will so enlighten the world’s vain wisdom, that, even though it accept not the mystery of the faith, it will recognise that in our conflict with heretics we, and not they, are the true representatives of that mystery.  . . . It is the peculiar property of the Church that when she is buffeted she is triumphant, when she is assaulted with argument she proves herself in the right, when she is deserted by her supporters she holds the field." (https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/330207.htm)

Once again, context is important here:

"The Church, ordained by the Lord and established by His Apostles, is one for all; but the frantic folly of discordant sects has severed them from her. And it is obvious that these dissensions concerning the faith result from a distorted mind, which twists the words of Scripture into conformity with its opinion, instead of adjusting that opinion to the words of Scripture."

This at least implies that Hilary viewed Scripture as being what holds the unity in the church together in the first place, since misusing Scripture is what causes disunity (according to the above quote).

There are other passages (I am using the ones from RC apologist Dave Armstrong) in which Hilary speaks about the "church's faith" and the "faith of the Church" which are appealed to to disprove Sola Scriptura, but are obviously not inconsistent with it, and thus I won't waste the time to address them. I am mainly dealing with the passages that are cited which are clearer in what the meaning is and obvious what RC apologists are trying to get from them.