The analogy of Scripture is the interpretive principle that Scripture is its own best interpreter—that because the whole Bible has one divine Author and therefore one consistent message, every passage must be understood in harmony with the rest, and the clearer texts must govern the interpretation of the more obscure. It rests on two convictions: the unity of Scripture, since the same Spirit speaks throughout and cannot contradict Himself; and the clarity of Scripture in things essential, so that what is taught plainly in one place may shed light on what is stated darkly in another. The principle yields a practical rule of reading: no doctrine is to be built on an isolated or ambiguous verse against the plain teaching of many; the difficult is interpreted by the clear, the symbolic by the didactic, the implicit by the explicit, and the part by the whole. It is closely allied to the analogy of faith, which interprets each passage in light of the whole body of biblical doctrine. The Reformers wielded this principle against both the Roman appeal to an external interpreter and the sectarian abuse of proof-texts wrenched from context. To honor the analogy of Scripture is to read humbly within the whole counsel of God, refusing to set one part of His Word against another, and trusting that the apparent contradictions of a finite reader will dissolve before the perfect consistency of the divine Author.