Spiritual Words

While theologians of the past addressed simony in preaching and teaching, their primary concerns revolved around the issues of their own day. Accordingly, the literature dwells on simony in ordinations more than on any other kind. For many, questions regarding charging for the preached or taught word were often more theoretical than practical.

This was especially the case in the time after the Reformation. John Godolphin demonstrated this reality in his survey of canon law on simony when he declined to wade through the details of “whether it be simony in ecclesiastics to take money for sermons or theological doctrines,” having no desire to “abuse the reader in perplexing him with exotic questions.”¹Godolphin, Repertorium Canonicum, 557–58. This is not to say that none after the Middle Ages addressed the matter, but such occurrences were increasingly rare.

In our own day, a different picture appears. Simony in ordinations has all but ceased to be a present danger among Protestants, and related matters such as systems of patronage hardly arise, even in established—i.e., national—churches where the practice had once been common. Yet the sale of theological instruction now turns over enormous sums. Between Christian books and seminaries alone, theological education is a multibillion-dollar industry.²On religious-book sales, see Milliot, Publishing Industry Sales; on seminary revenues, {Association of Theological Schools}, 2025--2026 Annual Data Tables, Table 4.6. It remains, then, to apply the framework developed in the preceding chapters to this primary sort of commerce in spiritual things that exists today.

Simony in Words

Despite the medieval use of Proverbs 23:23, the clearest demonstration of biblical teaching as spiritual words comes to us from the pen of the apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 2:13 (“And this is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom, but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words”). The precise meaning of the final phrase “πνευματικοῖς πνευματικὰ συνκρίνοντες” remains debated. While each word presents its own difficulties and the exact meaning of each shades the final rendering, the primary issue hinges on the gender of the first word. If the first word is taken as masculine, it signifies applying spiritual truths to spiritual people. If it is to be taken as neuter, then it entails setting them in spiritual words or fitting them to spiritual matters. In either case, the teacher speaks words taught by the Spirit.

The subject of biblical teaching, whether it be distilled or synthesized into other formats, is ultimately the Scripture as given by the Spirit (2 Tim. 3:16–17). Furthermore, though it may have reached him through the work of other men, it is at last revealed to the teacher by the Spirit, by whom he is able to comprehend the thought of God (1 Cor. 2:10–11). The learner, on his side, takes it in not by his natural capacities alone but by spiritual discernment, since “the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God […] because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Cor. 2:14). The contrast Paul draws between the spiritual and the natural is not a contrast between the material and immaterial aspects of the human rational mind, but between the operations of the Spirit and the unaided faculties of man. The godly teacher’s proper hope, then, is to be made by grace an instrument through which the Spirit himself works upon the hearer. Such teaching is spiritual in both of the senses earlier distinguished: it is of the uncreated Spirit (a spiritu increato), and, as it produces a spiritual effect, it is spiritual by cause (per causam).³See Chapter 3, ↗. To set a price on it therefore meets the definition of simony, differing in essence not at all from Simon’s original proposal.

The chief objections that the tradition has raised against simony all apply to the case of biblical teaching. We will examine three of those here, and in each, respond to a potential counterargument against prohibiting its sale.

Stewardship of the Word

In any legitimate sale, the seller must have a proper authority to conduct the transaction. If one owns the thing, he can decide of his own accord; if one is a steward, such a sale needs to be authorized by the owner. As we have seen from 1 Corinthians 4:1 (“Let a man so account us as ministers of Christ and stewards [οἰκονόμους] of the mysteries of God”),⁴See Chapter 11, ↗. the one who teaches God’s word is a steward rather than an owner. Adam was charged to subdue the earth and exercise dominion over it (Gen. 1:28), and from that grant flows the authority by which men buy and sell the goods of the earth as their own. The content of biblical teaching, however—whether it be the bare words of Scripture or the doctrinal truths contained therein—was not given as part of nature or committed to man under this kind of dominion. These mysteries may only be possessed under a stewardship, which entails an ongoing accountability to the master who has delegated their administration as well as a strict prohibition against transacting with his goods.

Paul revisited this truth in 1 Corinthians 9:17 (“If my preaching is voluntary, I have a reward. But if it is not voluntary, I am still entrusted with a stewardship [οἰκονομίαν]”). Many have interpreted this as a contrast between a minimal requirement Paul was under and his chosen approach of going above and beyond.⁵E.g., “the one is a thing commanded, whereas the other is an achievement of my own choice.” Chrysostom, Homiliae in Epistolam ad Corinthios Priorem, hom. 22.3 (p. 261). However, the apostle considered it unthinkable to do anything less (1 Cor. 9:15–16). To preach the gospel for a price is to do so “unwillingly” (1 Cor. 9:17), the labor being compelled by contract. Because such a man transacts with the master’s goods as an owner rather than as a steward, he forfeits all reward of stewardship. Thus, Paul presented the gospel free of charge (1 Cor. 9:18).

Paul acknowledged a minister’s right to receive. Moreover, he did not absolutely reject funds on account of the gospel in Corinth; he repeatedly spoke of his intentions of coming for such purposes (1 Cor. 16:6; 2 Cor. 1:16).⁶The word “send” (προπέμπω) used in each of these verses implies a material equipping, Bauer, A Greek-English Lexicon, 873. Instead, his commitment, as stated here and elsewhere, was to never exchange his teaching for a price (2 Cor. 2:17; 11:7, 12).

In fact, it is that stewardship that makes one fit to live of the gospel; to accept a price for one’s teaching is to forfeit the grounds by which one can rightly receive material support in any measure. Consider Paul’s appeal to the Old Testament priesthood in 1 Corinthians 9:13 (“those who serve at the altar partake of its offerings”). The priests received from the Lord as their inheritance precisely because they did not possess an inheritance of their own (Num. 18:20). To take ownership over that which one was given to steward forfeits that reward the Lord offers for such service. The laborer is worthy of his wages, but the work that God has given is not unspecified; it is the work of stewardship. For this reason, the priests were forbidden to teach for a price (Mic. 3:11).

One might counter that Paul speaks of “preaching,” not teaching more generally. Yet the concern over stewardship does not lie in the kind of activity, but in the thing that is offered. Those things of the Christian faith that are preached in sermonic fashion remain just as much “mysteries of God” as those things of the Christian faith that might be taught. Thus, while there may be factors that make charging to hear preaching in the formal worship of God more reprehensible, compared to the sale of biblical teaching, nothing differs in the violation of one’s own status as a steward.

The Grace of the Word

Typically appealing to Romans 11:6 (“And if by grace, it is no longer by works; otherwise grace is no longer grace”), medieval theologians contended that simoniacal transactions undermine the grace they ostensibly communicate. Requiring some payment—whether of the hand (munus a manu), the tongue (munus a lingua), or service (munus ab obsequio)—violates the nature of the gift by subjecting it to the terms of a commercial transaction. This is as true for biblical teaching as it is for the sacraments or church office. The “word of his grace” (Acts 14:3; 20:32) is not only the word about the grace of God, but is a word that is given by the grace of God. A teaching of free grace must itself be free of charge or it runs the risk of communicating a different gospel.

Paul speaks of the understanding of biblical teaching as “freely given” (1 Cor. 2:12), and this is precisely what Jesus appeals to in Matthew 10:8 as the grounds for the proclamation of the kingdom being given freely to others. What has been graciously received must be graciously given. To fail to do so suggests it was never graciously received in the first place. Similarly, the one who is forgiven much loves much, and to love little exposes a lack of forgiveness (Luke 7:47).

It may be objected here that those who charge for biblical teaching—especially of the more advanced or specialized variety—do not charge for the gospel. In fact, almost all of these would give the gospel for free to any who ask. Yet, this objection presumes a distinction the apostles rejected. The gospel should not be seen as introductory or separable from other truth in the course of proper biblical teaching.

First, apostolic teaching regards Christ crucified as the essence of all true teaching. Paul knew nothing among the Corinthians except Christ and him crucified (1 Cor. 2:2), yet in Acts 20:26–27 told the Ephesians that he would have blood on his hands had he shrunk from declaring the whole counsel of God. His point in 1 Corinthians 2 is not to confess a failure that renders him guilty, but, as we have already seen, to demonstrate the nature of true biblical teaching as residing in the power of the Spirit rather than the wisdom of man. Similarly, to the Colossians, he summarized the nature of his teaching with the phrase “him we proclaim” (Col. 1:28). Jesus himself instructed the apostles that to understand Scripture rightly it must be interpreted concerning himself (Luke 24:44–45). Rightly proffered, doctrinal teaching communicates the gospel.

Second, when the apostles distinguished between levels of instruction, using the terms “milk” and “meat,” they do not isolate the gospel to one or the other. The author of Hebrews calls his audience to move beyond the milk (Heb. 5:12), giving examples of these elementary doctrines of Christ: repentance, faith, washings, laying on hands, resurrection, judgment (Heb. 6:1–2). These are things that relate in some ways to Christ, but the particular instance of “meat” that prompted his comments was the relation between Christ and Melchizedek, the superior nature of his priesthood that guarantees an eternal salvation (Heb. 5:10; 7:1–28). Similarly, when Paul chides the Corinthians for not being ready for solid food (1 Cor. 3:2), he confesses no failure of his own to provide advanced teaching beyond the gospel, but charges them with a failure to receive the full teaching of the gospel. The notions of “flesh” and “merely human” in 1 Corinthians 3:3–4 are designed to contrast with the mind of the Spirit in the preceding chapter of the epistle, where he already demonstrated that the full understanding of spiritual truth hinges on the work of the Spirit. The “solid food” is nothing other than the essential message of Christ and him crucified (1 Cor. 2:2).

Third, such a distinction between introductory teaching that must be graciously given and advanced teaching that may be sold suggests that the Spirit’s work is only required to understand the former. If 1 Corinthians 2 were not enough to demonstrate otherwise, John taught that the anointing of the Spirit teaches “all things” (1 John 2:27). The one who claims to distinguish his own theological instruction from the gospel in order to absolve its sale from charges of simony must likewise assert that it lies outside that which the Spirit would teach. While we may concede that John did not employ the term “all things” (πάντων) to include every range of secular expertise, the term cannot be narrowed so as to exclude any area of biblical revelation or Christian faith.

The Pricelessness of the Word

The chief ground on which the tradition identified simony as heresy was that it puts a price on that which is priceless.⁷See Chapter 13, ↗. As Simon believed the gift of God could be purchased with money (Acts 8:20), the simoniac confesses by action that God’s immeasurable gift is not immeasurable. This same observation applies to the teaching of the word. The word of God is more desirable than gold and better than many thousands of pieces of gold and silver (Ps. 19:10; 119:72), and wisdom is more precious than rubies such that nothing compares (Prov. 3:15).

Some may object to a broad prohibition on the sale of the teaching of the word of God that it fails to distinguish between that which is necessary in the Christian life and that which is optional. This distinction seems to factor into how one should value a thing. Things like baptism would be wrong to sell because they are necessary, but not all need additional theological instruction, especially at the higher academic levels. Yet if the core crime of simony is the activity of placing a price on the priceless, this distinction between necessary and optional is irrelevant. Both produce spiritual development in the believer and therefore both are priceless.

Yet if we are to entertain the necessary/optional distinction for a moment, we will see how quickly it breaks down, depending on what is meant by “necessary.” First, one may refer to that which is required for the Christian life. It is true that advanced theological education is not needed in an absolute way by anyone, but neither is baptism. Baptism is normative and beneficial in the Christian life, but those who find themselves providentially hindered from baptism will not find themselves without salvation.

Second, one may refer to that which would be unavailable elsewhere—e.g., “you don’t have to come here for theological instruction, you have other options.” Once again, the same is true for baptism, and it is on this count that many of the schoolmen directed a man to seek the sacrament elsewhere rather than pay the priest who withheld it. Yet while the rightly practiced baptisms of true churches are identical in benefit, teaching differs from teacher to teacher. On this point, theological instruction is actually less interchangeable than baptism.

Third, one may refer to those activities that are required for a church to be faithful. Indeed, churches must baptize, and they are under no universal obligation to begin higher-level academic institutions, but how would such a distinction apply to other varying functions of churches? Those who would make such an argument would likely recoil at the idea of charging for a midweek prayer meeting, though it is an optional activity of the church, subject to the discretion of the leadership.

The Scope of Application

Having identified the sale of biblical teaching as a species of simony, we may now consider where this prohibition bears on contemporary practice. The examples below do not exhaust potential application, but they do cover a number of the more common venues where spiritual teaching is presently offered for sale.

Biblical Counseling

Biblical counseling is a form of teaching where one applies the truths of Scripture to the personal life of another. Distinguished from something like Christian therapy, where Christian principles may be applied but Scripture teaching is not the essence of the counsel, biblical counseling seeks to give that which is priceless. Beyond the simple fact that wisdom is “more precious than rubies” (Prov. 3:15) and the law is “better than thousands of pieces of gold and silver” (Ps. 119:72), many who have received biblical counseling have personally found it to be invaluable.

None can appeal to the fact that the Bible is already available; presumably, such counsel is sought because understanding is lacking. Furthermore, it would be misguided to justify commerce in counseling by claiming to place the price on time rather than instruction. If the counselor is called to “reprove, rebuke, exhort, with all patience and doctrine” (2 Tim. 4:2), then both time and teaching must be given graciously. How can the counselor who charges by the hour be said to exhort with all patience?

Christian Conferences

Falling under the same restrictions are Christian conferences. By Christian conferences, we have in view those gatherings whose essence is biblical preaching or teaching, not events with a merely Christian slant or cultural veneer. Additionally, these restrictions do not apply to third parties who may levy their own incidental charges (e.g., a toll for a bridge to reach the conference), and they do not apply to other factors that may limit attendance (e.g., a lack of space). However, regarding attendance at the conference itself, to charge for admission is to charge for access to priceless teaching.

It may seem that such charges could be warranted since the venue is a physical thing rather than a spiritual one. However, James’s prohibition of special seating should give us pause (James 2:1–4). Though he may have in mind worship services proper, his application to them extends from a universal principle that Christians should not show partiality in holding out the faith (James 2:1). A faithful application of this precept does not permit the finance-based partiality that admits to an in-person space those willing to pay and requires others to sit at home, potentially watching online.

The notion of annexation offers further clarity here. Because the nature of a conference is live teaching, the physical space is not annexed to the spiritual thing by mere direction (ordinatum) but by dependence (dependens).⁸See Chapter 4, ↗. Just as a benefice presupposes the office it pertains to, so a conference space presupposes the conference. The distinction between dependence and direction may not be intuitive; considered differently, we might observe that the money of a benefice could have been put to another purpose, as could a conference venue. However, just as the grant of a benefice secures an office that cannot be had without it, presence in the conference space during the event secures a fullness of teaching that cannot be had without that access. Other teaching may pre-exist the medium that communicates it, being perfectly captured and reproduced without loss elsewhere, but this is not the case with live teaching. Recall that teaching is a spiritual activity that extends beyond the transmission of raw propositions (1 Cor. 2:13), so we should not discount these details of access as incidental.

Seminary Education

No degree of academic sophistication exempts seminaries from the prohibition on the sale of biblical teaching. Seminary tuition is therefore simony on the ground used by the masters at Paris when they argued that the labor of teaching theology could not be sold. Just as they distinguished, we should not include the liberal arts; even Greek and Hebrew are not spiritual things that must be given freely. Likewise, Bible colleges that offer a Christian slant to the humanities need not fall under this regulation, save in those courses that teach the word of God and what arises from it.

Scholarship programs do not resolve the difficulty. They do not extend to every student, and the very requirement to apply for relief is itself a kind of price. Neither does the common mechanism of having churches pay on behalf of their members who attend. As we have seen, payments on behalf of another still fall under the purview of the doctrine of simony.⁹See Chapter 5, ↗.

As conceded with conferences, a seminary need not admit all who apply; while a finance-based partiality is prohibited, other forms of partiality may be acceptable. As concerns around simony in office are designed to exclude poorly suited officers, a seminary would be wise to admit only the best-qualified candidates, or even to restrict admission to students belonging to a particular roster of churches. Regarding additional financial limitations on an institution, we may observe the conclusions of medieval theologians on the same concerns with respect to religious societies.¹⁰See Chapter 6, ↗. Should the burden of a student’s presence exceed what the institution can absorb, it may gate entry upon his ability to provide for his own space. What it may not do is gate entry upon the willingness to pay for the teaching itself.

Theological Books

The prohibition on the sale of biblical teaching extends to theological and devotional literature. The material, printed volume is not the spiritual thing under consideration. Rather, the words that compose the teaching are. Access to digital editions of theological texts is typically sold at a premium that neither the cost of electronic transmission nor any value the distributor adds in formatting or otherwise can account for.

For physical books, the notion of annexation is once again helpful here. In this case, the printed volume is annexed by direction (ordinatum). The essence of the spiritual thing in the book is the words, which are separable from the physical ink and paper, perfectly reproducible elsewhere. This distinguishes books from Christian conferences as treated above. Live teaching is defined by that space wherein it is given, but the written word may be losslessly copied and distributed, even by an independent third party. Therefore, the physical volume might be sold as a purely material thing.

This does not, however, dismiss every concern raised by the sale of a physical book. The price set on the bound volume may demonstrate a sale of a spiritual thing. As indicated by the schoolmen about consecrated vessels, a high price may indicate a simoniacal transaction since it suggests that the thing is not being sold for itself, but for the sake of its annexation, much as Hus remarked on substantial fees for ordination certificates.¹¹See Chapter 4, ↗.

The Advent of Copyright

Having considered these applications, we ought to reflect on what has changed to so increase the sale of biblical teaching in our own day. Many factors might be catalogued, but a primary catalyst appears to be the advent of modern copyright. While there had previously been the occasional regulation of the press that restricted the printing of certain works to certain stationers, the Statute of Anne (1710) was the first law that vested a general proprietary right over the text in the author himself. Before, authors of theological works had been financially supported by their own churches or patrons. As we saw with Martin Luther, he never received money for his works and even refused to sell a guarantee of first access.¹²See Chapter 4, ↗. However, the Statute of Anne opened a legal mechanism for royalty schemes by which the author could sell the final product rather than rely on others to support the production of it. What Luther declined as unconscionable, later authors accepted as default. While this only directly accounts for books in our previous list of examples where teaching is sold today, it is not hard to imagine how the sale of ideas themselves would normalize the sale of the same in any given medium.

Considered in the medieval categories, copyright provides a legal mechanism by which spiritual things may be annexed to temporal things. Recall the right of patronage: when law ties a right of presentation to the ownership of land, a spiritual thing is annexed to a temporal thing such that selling one sells the other.¹³See Chapter 4, ↗. The same happens with a printed book. The one who sells a printed book with “All Rights Reserved” does not merely sell the paper but the right to access its contents, since access by any other route, such as reading from a copy a friend has reproduced, could be subject to litigation. In our established technical terms, this converts the book from a directed annex into a dependent one. No longer are the paper and ink merely directed toward the use of reading spiritual words; annexed to them is the right of reading spiritual words. In this scenario where rights transfer with the printed volume, simony is not discerned merely by price as discussed previously; the transaction is inherently simoniacal, at least in regard to the seller.¹⁴See Chapter 5, ↗.

The Prevention of Alterations

One supposed advantage of copyright is the prevention of alterations. While corruptions may always be introduced—with or without legal grounds—both Scripture and the Reformed tradition require the adaptation of divine revelation. Namely, Paul instructs the Colossians, “let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs” (Col. 3:16). The Westminster Confession appeals to this verse to justify Bible translation,¹⁵“[the Scriptures] are to be translated into the vulgar language of every nation unto which they come, that the Word of God dwelling plentifully in all, they may worship him in an acceptable manner.” {Westminster Assembly}, The Westminster Confession of Faith, 1.8. and it does not require a stretch from there to see how it would also motivate additional arrangements, such as Calvin’s explanation for setting the Psalms to meter.¹⁶“For the rest, we must remember what St. Paul says: that spiritual songs cannot be well sung except from the heart. Now the heart requires understanding. And in this (says St. Augustine) lies the difference between the singing of men and that of birds. For a linnet, a nightingale, a parrot will sing well, but it will be without understanding. Now the proper gift of man is to sing knowing what he says: after the understanding must follow the heart and the affection, which cannot be unless we have the canticle imprinted on our memory, that we may never cease from singing. For these reasons this present book—even on this account, besides the rest that has been said—ought to be singularly commended to everyone […].” Calvin, Preface to the Genevan Psalter, (CO 6:171–72). On similar grounds, the Second Helvetic Confession remarks that the preaching of the word of God is the word of God.¹⁷Bullinger, Second Helvetic Confession, 1. If the word of God commands adaptations of itself for the sake of pedagogical utility, and it retains power (authority and efficacy) in the process, then that which is derivative of it must be subject to the same, lest the human author sacrifice the authority of his teaching, conceding it to be merely of human wisdom rather than a transmission of divine truth which must be propagated. The use of copyright to restrict the alteration of theological resources does not so much guard the word as it commodifies the very obedience it requires.

The Prevention of Plagiarism

Another supposed advantage of copyright is the prevention of plagiarism. While Christians have always contended for the truth, this particular wrangling over credit, especially in theological works, is a modern development. The synoptic gospels were given to us in just such a form, authors drawing from each other without specific attribution (Luke 1:1–2). Chrysostom witnessed the rise of a contrary instinct and lamented that any would compare to a thief the preacher who uses another man’s words without credit.¹⁸“If any preacher should chance to weave into his own discourses some part of what others have labored to produce, he incurs greater reproach than those who steal money. Often, when he has taken nothing whatever from anyone but lies under mere suspicion, he suffers the fate of one caught in the act.” Chrysostom, De Sacerdotio, 5.1 (PG 48:672–73). Recall that Hus’s own treatise on simony was largely a Czech rendering of Wycliffe’s earlier work, with no particular acknowledgment.¹⁹See Chapter 2, ↗.

Waiving the Right

Even after the advent of copyright, many Christians have noted the negative impacts and made efforts to either partially or wholly waive these rights.²⁰See Jore, Christian Commons. To cite one notable example, Loraine Boettner placed such a notice on the copyright pages of his books. While the wording in some works differ slightly, in Studies in Theology, it reads:

Any one is at liberty to use material from this book with or without credit. In preparing this book the writer has received help from many sources, some acknowledged and many unacknowledged. He believes the material herein contained to be a true statement of Scripture truth, and his desire is to further, not to restrict, its use.²¹Boettner, Studies in Theology, 4; cf. Boettner, The Millennium, ii; Boettner, Reformed Doctrine of Predestination, 4.

At least some others followed suit.²²E.g., Reisinger, God’s Will, Man’s Will and Free Will, Author's Note. More recently, some Christian authors have begun adopting public domain dedications.²³Most notably, Creative Commons Zero is a public domain dedication that provides a license fallback in jurisdictions that do not permit a full waiving of rights. See Owens, Dorean Principle, 129–30.

Large Language Models

A further consideration has arisen in our own generation. Large language models—the artificial intelligences increasingly consulted on every subject, theology included—gather their information from the texts available to them, which is to say, predominantly from texts that are free. From an outside perspective, what any particular training corpus contains is not known, but a work restricted by copyright is almost certainly less likely to be included than one that is not, all else being equal. Therefore, whatever picture of Christian doctrine such a system forms is drawn disproportionately from those who have made their teaching freely available. If Christ commanded his disciples to teach all nations, and the nations now mediate much of their inquiry through tools fed on open text, a new reason has been added for the Christian to forgo the control copyright affords.

Conclusion

Theological education, teaching the word of God, falls under the various concerns of the medievals who wrote on simony: it fails to recognize man’s stewardship of the mysteries of God, it undermines the nature of grace, and it prices the priceless. This applies to various forms of biblical teaching, from conference tickets to seminary tuition to theological book prices. Arguably, the problem as it exists today arose from the legal innovation of copyright in the eighteenth century. Regardless, the history of practices around theological teaching does not testify to a commerce that has been forever accepted by Christians, but one that has only been tolerated in recent centuries, requiring a new address, appealing back to the foundations of older sources.

Biblical teaching, properly taught, is not a matter of human wisdom but that which is taught by the Spirit (1 Cor. 2:13). To sell such a spiritual thing is simony. The dilemma it poses to the would-be seller of theological instruction is therefore unavoidable. Either he confesses his guilt before God, or he concedes that what he sells is merely the wisdom of man. The word is manna from heaven, and those who hoard it by withholding it from all but those who pay will find their surplus to be rot (Deut. 8:3; Exod. 16:20).