These texts do not prove that Scripture alone is the guide or rule of faith. In the first text (John 5:39), Christ is not telling the Jews to read the NEW TESTAMENT to find His gospel because the New Testament did not exist. He is rather insisting upon the fact that they gain no profit from their own reading of the OLD TESTAMENT because they fail to recognize Him as the Messias. The word "search" is in the indicative and not the imperative mood.

Christ is talking here to the Bereans who read the Scriptures to see whether He had correctly cited the Old Testament and whether His interpretation was true.

The text of II Timothy likewise proves nothing in this regard because St. Paul is speaking to Timothy at a time when a good portion of the New Testament had not yet been completed. This is evident from the preceding verse which is seldom quoted along with verses 16 and 17. Verse 15 reads as follows in the King James version:

"And that from a child thou hast known the sacred Scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus."