De inspiratione sacrae Scripturae: theologica disquisitio

That inspiration consists formally in a motion of the intellect and will, by which the sacred writer is moved divinely, first indeed to form within himself the context of the sentences which God, as principal author, wills to be written in the book, then to delineate by material writing whatever was first mentally composed by divine instinct or afflatus. And that a writing of this kind is truly the writing of God, even though it preserves the proper character of the human writer as regards the modality of the conceptions and the connected manner of style and literary art.

I. — We have already had occasion to observe above that books are written twice among us: first in the mind as on a spiritual and living tablet in which is the true exemplar, then in a codex as in a copy or apograph taken from the exemplar. In the first writing the intellect is a pen to itself, forming from itself and in itself the mental words of the sentences, together with the images of the corresponding words. In the second, however, it needs a material instrument, by means of which it renders outwardly, and as it were transposes, whatever things have been delineated beforehand within itself. Thus certainly the matter stands in every making of a book, of which some man is the principal author and composer by his own effort.

But now the matter concerns a man divinely inspired, who by reason of inspiration is not a principal author, but only an instrumental one. If, however, he is only instrumental, then those two things which have been stated must vary proportionally.

And first indeed there will vary that which pertains to the mental composition of the book, inasmuch as the writer's mind will no longer be moved of itself in forming and determining the sentences, together with their enunciative words, but only under a motion and from a motion received from God will it conceive and describe in its thought all things to be inserted in the book. And see there the analogy with the material pen according to the general principles which are given concerning an instrument. Certainly every instrument has its own operation which the motion of the principal agent elevates: as if we say that the proper operation of a material pen is to trace lines with ink; but its instrumental operation is to trace them in order, namely in such an order and with such a disposition that the signs become the signs of intellectual intentions. Likewise therefore the mind of the hagiographer, which is supposed to be previously furnished with knowledge of all things pertaining to the argument of the book, will have for its proper operation to conceive and form sentences concerning those things which pre-exist in its knowledge; but for its instrumental operation, to conceive in such a way, that is, according to the inflection and determination and leading of God using the intellect of His creature as a certain rational pen, namely so that the sentences conceived and ideally described are now not sentences of any kind, but divine, with the formality of the highest certitude and infallibility which is proper to divine sentences.

Now if the hagiographer stands instrumentally in the mental composition of the book, he will stand in the same way also in the external writing, inasmuch as the divine motion under which he had already pre-formed his plan of writing now extends itself to the external execution. Nor will any peculiar difficulty occur to you there, since in this part an analogous example is at hand from the dictations customary among us. For the difference between the amanuensis and the hagiographer is considered with regard to the context, in the receiving of which the former is passive, while the latter is by no means so, but composes it instrumentally, as has been said. But in relation to the external writing, no longer does any special distinction intervene between the two. See therefore how a man dictating moves his amanuensis, and from that take the analogy which suffices for the present matter.

Thus therefore we must acknowledge the divine motion received within the hagiographers, by which the intellect is predetermined to write ideally that which God wills to be written, and in the manner in which He wills; then the will is infallibly moved to command the external act of transcription in the material codex. It appears, moreover, that it is this very motion which formally makes the book to be referred to God as to its principal author. Since therefore inspiration is nothing other than that by reason of which God is the author of the canonical books, it follows that it must most formally be said to consist in the motion described above.

II. — But now note well how it is necessary that the writing proceeding from that inspiration exhibit impressed upon it the proper character of the human writer, as regards the modality of the conceptions and the connected manner of style. For every instrumental work has in itself the manner of the instrument marked upon it, and its individual form, just as the shapes traced on paper are of one and another workmanship according to the thickness or thinness, hardness or ductility of the pen, and so on concerning other things. And the intrinsic reason is that the action of anything, even if it be its action as an instrument, must proceed from its power, says St. Thomas, De Pot. Q. 3, a. 4 in corp. But whatever proceeds from the power of anything keeps its manner, as is known through itself. Moreover, instrumental motion always adds a new formality or efficacy to the proper operation of the instrument, but never destroys anything of those things which are positively included in it, as is easily established, both a posteriori by running through the individual kinds of instruments, and also a priori, from the fact that the proper operation of the instrument is the very thing which is sought by the principal agent, so far from being taken away by it. If therefore the mind of the hagiographer is an instrument, and, as it were, the living pen of God, in the very composition of the context, it is indeed necessary that it infallibly conceive and express the sentences to which it is moved by God to conceive them, but at the same time it is necessary that it conceive them in its own way, and likewise express them in its own style.

And it is confirmed, because prophetic revelation itself also, although coming from without, must put on the manner of the subject, in that it is made through species impressed on the mind and received in the mind, and hence commensurate with it, since whatever is received is received according to the manner of the receiver, as the well-known axiom has it. Much more therefore will you judge the same of the inspired context, which always also arises from the inmost mind of the hagiographer, inasmuch as inspiration inflects and determines the activity of the intellect in the composition and construction of the sentences, but does not suppress or supply it. Whence it happens that as regards workmanship, that context has the manner of the writer from whom it immediately takes its origin, and as regards authority, it puts on the manner of God, by whose motion, inflection and determination it was formed and traced out from human thought and in human thought.

In this way, therefore, you will without difficulty attribute the literary garment to the hagiographers, provided however that you do not now take the word in the sense in which the new exegetes of the school of the critics take it. For by literary garment these men understand the romantic or mythical form bestowed on many books of Sacred Scripture, for commending certain religious or moral truths. And this they say was conceived or sought by the hagiographers by their own effort, so that it might serve as a vehicle for the ideas or doctrines coming down from God's revelation. But leaving aside for now many other considerations, these things are openly contrary to the dogma by which God must be believed to be the author and inspirer of Scripture, especially as regards all and each of its parts. For if the writer of the Pentateuch, led by his own imagination, assumed Chaldean or Egyptian myths in order to propose in them revealed truths concerning creation, concerning the fall, concerning original sin, and other things of this kind; if the writers of the books of Tobit or Judith of themselves invented the whole course of the narrative to inculcate the merit of almsgiving, of prayer, or of trust in God: then in that case there will be, in reality, two plainly distinct parts, no otherwise than in the fables of Phaedrus or Aesop. One which consists of the fable itself, the other which consists of the sense and morality of the fable, as when Aesop concludes saying: ο μυθος δηλοι οτι. And whatever the case may now be, whether this latter part could still be called divinely inspired, most certainly that former one could not. Hold firmly therefore to what has been shown above, namely that God did not stand to the hagiographers as one supplying a general argument, to be afterwards extended by them at will by their own wit, but altogether as one dictating, for the reason already stated, the whole context from beginning to end. Consider diligently also that the form of the book—romantic, historical, allegorical, didactic—is by no means among its accidents, and therefore it cannot fail to be altogether determined by Him who is truly and properly called the principal author of the book itself. We do not therefore acquiesce in such pernicious novelties, but we say only that within the latitude of each kind, each writer has his own personal manner. And if you wish to call this manner the literary garment of Scripture, then not undeservedly will you attribute the making of this garment to the hagiographer, to whose proper character and condition, as always at other times, the divine motion accommodates itself.

III. — But now in the last place, it can be asked concerning the motion itself in which inspiration formally consists, of what nature it is, and in what it is received.

And it must be said that it consists principally in a motion received in the intellect, because the composition of a book is an intellectual work. If further inquiry be made concerning the quiddity of this motion, nothing else occurs but that it is something flowing and transient, standing in the mind of the writer whom the Holy Spirit uses proportionally as the power of art stands in the instruments which we men use. For « that divine plectrum come down from heaven, using just men as a kind of instrument of the cithara or lyre, has opened to us the knowledge of divine and heavenly things », says Justin in the Exhortation to the Gentiles, no. 8. And again Athenagoras in the Embassy for the Christians, no. 9: « The prophets..., they spoke the things that were inspired in them, the Holy Spirit using them, as if a piper should blow his pipe ». Finally, as Gregory the Great has it, praef. in Iob, n. 2: « He (the Holy Spirit) wrote these things who dictated the things to be written. He wrote who also stood as inspirer in his work, and through the voice of the writer transmitted his deeds to us to be imitated... When therefore we know a thing, and hold the Holy Spirit as its author, because we seek the writer, what else do we do but, reading the letters, question the pen? »

But since the composition of a book is not a work of the intellect unless the will be joined, you will undoubtedly acknowledge a motion received in the will as well. It differs, however, from the preceding one, because the motion of the intellect is required for this, that the sentences of which the context of the book consists be God's sentences. But the motion of the will is required only for this, that they be transmitted to us in the material sign of writing. And therefore it need not be predetermined as that former one, but it is enough that it infallibly bend the will, according to the manner or modes which are customarily expounded in the matter of efficacious grace.

And these are the things that came up for statement concerning the formality of inspiration itself. It remains only that we see the consequences of the premises.