Apologeticae sive Theologiae Fundamentalis, Tomus II (Pars Altera): Demonstratio Catholica

The inspiration of sacred Scripture is understood as that divine influence upon the sacred writer, by virtue of which the sacred books, although they may seem to have been written by man, in reality have God as their author. Such an influence of God upon the sacred writer, however, since it is a wholly supernatural work, becomes known only through the supernatural revelation of God.

Inspiration is not known from the character of the book. For inspired books are not of such a kind that, when compared with purely human books, they betray God as their author. Indeed, the literary form of the sacred books is entirely assimilated to the form of human books; and the teaching of the sacred books, however true, sublime and useful it may be, can also be present in other pious books, even though uninspired.¹ Nor does inspiration become certainly known from the affirmation of the sacred writer, unless it is already established beforehand that the sacred writer is an instrument of revelation. For even if some writer should affirm: "I wrote this book with God inspiring me," he is not absolutely to be believed. For many false prophets and pseudo-apocalyptic writers have affirmed such things; indeed, even the wisest and holiest of men can be deceived while they attribute to God as author some book composed by themselves. Much less does inspiration become known from the testimony of other men, unless they make use of the authority of God revealing. God alone knows how He conducted Himself in the composition of Scripture, and therefore from God revealing alone can we learn that He so conducted Himself in the composition of Scripture that He Himself must be called the author of the sacred books.

That God revealed the inspiration of the sacred books is established from the teaching of Christ and the apostles, from the consensus of the Fathers and theologians, and from the definitions of the councils and of the Roman Pontiffs.

We know for certain that Christ, the legate of God and God, proclaimed divine revelation through himself and through his apostles. Hence whatever Christ and the apostles taught concerning the inspiration of the sacred books is infallibly true. Now:

1. Christ confirms the faith of the Jews in the inspiration of sacred Scripture. That the Jews attributed certain books to God as author we gather both from the Old Testament and from profane writings. In the Old Testament many texts relate that men were moved by God to commit certain books or parts of books to writing. E.g. Ex 17, 14: "And the Lord said to Moses: Write this for a memorial in a book." Ex 34, 27: "And the Lord said to Moses: Write these words to thyself, by which I have made a covenant both with thee and with Israel." Deut 31, 19: "And the Lord said to Moses ... Now therefore write you this canticle and teach the children of Israel." Is 8, 1: "And the Lord said to me: Take thee a great book, and write in it with a man's pen." Is 30, 8: "Now therefore go in and write for him upon a box, and note it diligently in a book." Ier 30, 2: "Thus saith the Lord the God of Israel, saying: Write thee all the words that I have spoken to thee, in a book." Ier 36, 1. 2. 4: "This word came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying: Take thee a roll of a book and thou shalt write in it all the words that I have spoken to thee ... And Jeremiah called Baruch the son of Nerias, and Baruch wrote from the mouth of Jeremiah all the words of the Lord, which he spoke to him, upon the roll of a book." By these and similar words it is affirmed that certain determinate books or parts of them were written with God moving them. The books thus produced are called sacred books,¹ although all the books that belonged to the collection of sacred Scripture are nowhere enumerated in the Old Testament.

The profane writings of the Jews of the later age speak more clearly of the fact of inspiration and of the collection of the inspired books. Philo (born c. 30 years before Christ) very often mentions "our books", which he calls: "sacred books, sacred scriptures, sacred letters".² Philo does not hand down a complete catalogue of these sacred books, but he cites the books of the Pentateuch, Josue, Judges, Samuel, Kings, Paralipomenon, Esdras, Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Isaias, Jeremias, Jonas, Osee, Zacharias.³ All their writers are prophets, i. e. "interpreters of God, who uses their organs to make manifest those things which he wills",⁴ "through whose mouth the Father of all brought forth oracles",⁵ "who, inspired by the divinity, spoke",⁶ "highly inspired ... speaking in the person of God".⁷

Josephus Flavius: The prophets, he says, "learned by divine inspiration. There are not among us many thousands of books discordant and conflicting, but only twenty-two books ..., to which we rightly give credence ... But it is shown by the very fact how much confidence we place in our books. For since so many ages have already passed away, no one has dared to add anything to them, or to take anything away, or to change anything, but it is innate in all the Jews from their very first childhood to believe that these are the precepts of God, and to hold fast to them, and, if need be, gladly to die for them".⁸ Therefore, according to the most ancient tradition, the Jews had 22 sacred books, which they attributed to hagiographers prophetically inspired by God. The Talmudist rabbis report the same tradition, venerating 22⁹ sacred books, whose authors spoke "in the Holy Spirit".¹⁰

That Jesus, however, fully approved this faith of the Jews concerning the inspiration of the sacred books is evident from the fact that he never disagreed about this matter, neither with the people, nor with the Pharisees and the scribes. Indeed:

2. Christ and the apostles attribute sacred Scripture to God as author both directly and indirectly. Indirectly, indeed, by ascribing to the sacred books absolute and divine authority. For whether they speak of the whole collection of the sacred books of the Old Testament¹¹ or of the individual sayings of these books, they always employ Scripture as an infallible and ineluctable argument of truth. They often repeat: "The Scripture cannot be broken",¹² "The Scripture must be fulfilled",¹³ "It is necessary that all things be fulfilled which are written",¹⁴ "Until heaven and earth pass away, not one iota or one apex shall pass away from the law, until all things be done".¹⁵ In one word, "It is written", "Scripture says"¹⁶ every controversy is peremptorily settled.

And indeed the testimonies of Scripture are not called infallible because they contain divine revelation, but, on the contrary, they contain revelation because they are written. Therefore the reason for the absolute authority of the sacred books can be none other than that in Scripture God speaks and writes through the hagiographer.

That this is so, Christ and the apostles also profess directly. For they refer the sayings of the sacred books to God in such a way that he himself appears to be the principal cause, and the hagiographer the instrumental cause, of those things which are written and inasmuch as they are written. Christ challenges the Pharisees: "Have you not read what was said by God, saying to you: I am the God of Abraham?"¹⁷ He therefore adduces words written by Moses¹⁸ and affirms that they were said, i. e. written, "by God saying to you". Elsewhere Christ asks the Pharisees: "What think you of Christ? Whose son is he? They say to him: David. He says to them: How then does David in spirit call him Lord, saying: The Lord said to my Lord?"¹⁹ Therefore David spoke and wrote these words of psalm 109 "in the Holy Spirit". Matthew contends that those things which were written by the prophets were said by the Lord: "Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was said by the Lord through the prophet saying ..."²⁰ Peter hands down that in the psalms, as they stand written, the Holy Spirit speaks through the mouth of David: "The Scripture must be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit foretold through the mouth of David".²¹ Paul testifies: "For God said in a certain place of the seventh day thus: And God rested on the seventh day."²² These words of Gen 2, 2, therefore, written by Moses, really have God as their author. Elsewhere the same apostle simply puts Scripture in place of God speaking: "Providing [i. e. foreseeing], Scripture announced beforehand to Abraham: because in thee shall all nations be blessed."²³

Therefore, according to the doctrine of Christ and the apostles, both the whole Scripture of the Old Testament and all and every saying of Scripture are so referred to God speaking that he himself is their principal cause, while the hagiographers are the instruments which God uses for writing. Whence it comes about that the sacred books have God as their author. Hence: 3. The apostles teach in express words that sacred Scripture is inspired, in the two classic passages 2 Tim 3, 14-16 and 2 Petr 1, 19-21.

2 Tim 3, 14-16 Paul admonishes Timothy: "But do thou continue in those things which thou hast learned ... because from infancy thou hast known the sacred letters (τὰ ἱερὰ γράμματα), which can instruct thee unto salvation through the faith which is in Christ Jesus. All scripture, divinely inspired (πᾶσα γραφὴ θεόπνευστος), is useful for teaching, for reproving, for correcting, for instructing in justice."

The Apostle of the Gentiles exhorts his disciple to devote himself to the study of the sacred letters of the Old Testament, which the young Timothy had learned from his Jewish mother. He adds also the reason why he ought to give himself wholly to the study of the sacred letters: all scripture is supremely useful, because it is "θεόπνευστος".

But what the term θεόπνευστος signifies is gathered from the etymology, from usage, and from parallel biblical passages. By force of etymology this word designates that which is breathed upon by God, or, as the Vulgate rightly renders it, "divinely inspired". Usage of the word likewise requires this interpretation. In the sacred books the word θεόπνευστος is read only in this place of ours. Profane authors use it very rarely, and indeed constantly in the sense of divine afflation or inspiration.²⁴ In the same sense the Greek fathers afterwards always employ this word. But neither do the parallel biblical passages praised by us under n. 2 admit any other interpretation of the word θεόπνευστος than that by which God so breathes upon the hagiographers that he himself becomes the principal author of all the sacred letters and of all scripture. It is confirmed chiefly by the parallel passage 2 Petr 1, 19-21.

2 Petr 1, 19-21 Peter says: "And we have the more firm prophetical word, to which you do well to attend, as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawn and the day star arise in your hearts; understanding this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is made by private interpretation. For prophecy was not brought at any time by human will, but the holy men of God spoke, inspired by the Holy Spirit (ὑπὸ πνεύματος ἁγίου φερόμενοι)."

The apostle remembered that he had seen the glory of Christ in his transfiguration and had heard the voice coming down from heaven: "Hear him." He attests, however, that the faithful have a greater motive for believing in Christ, namely: "We have the more firm prophetical word", i. e. the whole sacred Scripture of the Old Testament containing the messianic prophecies.²⁵ For "no prophecy of Scripture is made by private interpretation", i. e. the prophets did not find the messianic prophecies placed in Scripture by their own ingenuity. "For prophecy was not brought at any time by human will", i. e. no prophecy properly owes its origin to the hagiographers who wrote the sacred books.²⁶ "But the holy men of God spoke, inspired by the Holy Spirit", i. e. the hagiographers, breathed upon, moved and having undergone the influence of the Holy Spirit, wrote.

Therefore the apostles expressly teach that the Old Testament is inspired by God. On the contrary, concerning the inspiration of the New Testament the apostles are almost silent. S. Paul seems to cite certain words from the gospel of Luke as Scripture. S. Peter warns that in the Pauline epistles there are "certain things hard to be understood, which the unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other Scriptures, to their own destruction".²⁷ Yet the doubt remains whether the prince of the apostles thinks of the surviving Pauline epistles or of the lost ones. Finally, s. John in the Apocalypse often mentions that he received from God the command of writing.²⁸ But no certain testimony concerning the inspiration of the whole New Testament is found in the writings of the apostles. Whence recourse must be had to Tradition, which both confirms the inspiration of the Old Testament and establishes the inspiration of the New Testament.

That the consensus of the Fathers and of the theologians is an irrefutable argument of divine Tradition and therefore a genuine source of divine revelation will be proved later. Whatever, therefore, the Fathers and theologians have established with one voice concerning the inspiration of sacred Scripture was handed down orally to posterity by Christ and the apostles and pertains to the deposit of the revealed faith. But the inspiration of sacred Scripture is attested with one voice by the most ancient Fathers, by the later Fathers, and by the leading theologians alike.¹

But we do not appeal to the mere word of inspiration. For the Fathers and theologians sometimes call certain books inspired that do not pertain to sacred Scripture.² Hence they sometimes understand inspiration in that broad sense in which we too say that pious or talented authors are inspired. Nevertheless, it is evident from their manner of speaking that the Fathers and theologians, when they speak of the inspiration of sacred Scripture, are to be understood strictly.

1. The most ancient Fathers, from the first to the third century, already teach our thesis. According to s. Clemens rom. the sacred Scriptures "were given through the Holy Spirit" and therefore are "divine utterances".³

S. Iustinus, discussing inspiration in many places, testifies: the books of the Old and New Testament were not written, like the books of the philosophers, by human talent alone, but rather the hagiographers, "speaking by the Divine Spirit"⁴, "are divinely borne by the divine Word (θεοφοροῦνται)".⁵ The things that are said in sacred Scripture are said by the Holy Spirit Himself, and they are the words of the Holy Spirit.⁶ The hagiographers, he says, "offered themselves pure to the operation of the divine Spirit, so that that divine plectrum, fallen from heaven, using just men as a kind of cithara or lyre instrument, might open up to us the knowledge of divine and heavenly things."⁷

S. Theophilus antiochenus: "The men of God, filled with the Holy Spirit and made prophets, inspired and instructed by God Himself, became divinely taught, ... so that they might become organs of God and receive wisdom from Him, by which wisdom they spoke concerning the creation of the world and of the rest."⁸

S. Irenaeus: "The Scriptures are perfect, since they were spoken by the Word of God and His Spirit ... And every Scripture given to us by God will be found in harmony with us ... and through the many voices of its utterances one harmonious melody will be perceived among us, praising with hymns the God who made all things."⁹

S. Hippolytus: The prophet-hagiographers, "all fitted by the prophetic Spirit and honored by the Word Himself, after the manner of instruments always having in themselves the Word as a plectrum, moved by which they announced the things that God willed."¹⁰

Clemens alexandrinus: "I could bring before you almost innumerable Scriptures, of which not even a single apex will pass away without being fulfilled. For the Holy Spirit, who is as it were the mouth of the Lord, has spoken them."¹¹

Origenes: "There is also this in the ecclesiastical preaching . . ., that the Scriptures were written through the Spirit of God."¹² "The Scriptures themselves are divine, i. e. inspired by the Spirit of God."¹³ One must believe that "the sacred books are not the writings of men, but were written by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, by the will of the Father of all through Iesus Christus, and have come down to us."¹⁴

2. The later Fathers, both Eastern and Western, proclaim inspiration in innumerable places, so that it suffices to have recalled one or another of them.

S. Gregorius nyssenus: "The divinely inspired Scripture, as the divine apostle himself names it, is the Scripture of the Holy Spirit ... Whatever sacred Scripture says, let these be the voices or utterances of the Holy Spirit ... The holy prophets, breathed upon by the divinity, are inspired by the power of the Holy Spirit; and therefore all Scripture is called divinely inspired, because it is the doctrine of divine inspiration."¹⁵

S. Ioannes Chrysostomus: "God, the founder of the human race, from the beginning spoke to men through Himself ... But because they afterwards became unworthy of His familiarity, wishing to renew His friendship toward them again, He sends letters as to those who are far away ... And these letters indeed God gave, but Moyses brought them."¹⁶

S. Cyrillus hierosolymitanus: "There is one God of both Testaments, who foretold in the Old Testament Christ, who was made manifest in the New."¹⁷ "The Holy Spirit Himself spoke the Scriptures ... He both in the prophets and in the apostles in the New Testament."¹⁸

S. Ambrosius: The hagiographers, "with the divine Spirit supplying the abundance of all words and things, completed them without any effort."¹⁹

S. Hieronymus: "The Scriptures were written and published by the Holy Spirit."²⁰ "All the Scriptures," he says, "were written by the one Holy Spirit, and therefore they are called one book."²¹

S. Augustinus: "From that city, from which we are pilgrims, letters have come to us; these are the Scriptures."²² These letters were written by the Lord. "Therefore, when they [the hagiographers] wrote what He [the Lord] showed and said, it must by no means be said that He Himself did not write, since His members wrought what they had learned with the head dictating. For whatever He willed us to read of His deeds and words, this He commanded them to write as with His own hands."²³

S. Gregorius M.: "What is sacred Scripture but a kind of letter of almighty God to His creature?"²⁴ "It is often asked among many who is to be regarded as the writer of the book of blessed Iob ... But who wrote these things is asked quite superfluously, since nevertheless the author of the book is faithfully believed to be the Holy Spirit. He therefore wrote these things who dictated what was to be written; He wrote them who was both the inspirer of that work and through the voice of the writer transmitted His deeds to us to be imitated. If, having received the letters of some great man, we read the words, but asked with what pen they had been written, it would surely be ridiculous to know the author of the letters and to recognize the meaning, but to investigate with what pen their words were impressed. Since, therefore, we know the matter and hold the Holy Spirit as the author of that matter: when we seek the writer, what else do we do but, while reading the letters, inquire about the pen?"²⁵

3. The leading theologians, following the holy Fathers in age and authority, affirm the inspiration of sacred Scripture with concordant testimony, namely Alexander Halensis, Albertus M., Bonaventura, Thomas Aquinas, Duns Scotus. And since, with these scholastic leaders agreeing, the whole Catholic school agrees, there is no reason to go to other theologians.

Alexander Halensis teaches that the Holy Spirit is the "efficient cause" of sacred Scripture,²⁶ and adds: "Since the doctrine of sacred Scripture is divinely inspired ... antonomastically, that is, by excellence, this Scripture or doctrine is said to be from the Holy Spirit."²⁷

Albertus M. agrees that sacred Scripture arose "by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit",²⁸ and, illustrating the matter with the example of the fourth Gospel, writes: Of this Gospel "the first efficient cause is the divine Wisdom, manifesting itself to Ioannes in the uncreated Word and instructing Ioannes in the uncreated Word and moving him to write ... The proximate efficient cause, however, externally is Ioannes."²⁹

S. Bonaventura: "Sacred Scripture is therefore like a very broad river, which is gathered together more and more from the confluence of many waters, according as it runs farther ... so that thus [the apostles], taught all truth by the Holy Spirit according to the divine promise ... completing sacred Scripture, might extend the knowledge of truth ... God provided this Scripture with the certainty of authority, which is so great that it surpasses all perspicacity of the human mind ... Therefore in it nothing is to be despised as useless, nothing rejected as false, nothing repudiated as unjust, for this reason, that the Holy Spirit, its most perfect author, could say nothing false, nothing superfluous, nothing defective."³⁰

S. Thomas Aq.: "Faith supposes that Scripture was promulgated with the Holy Spirit dictating."³¹ "The principal author of sacred Scripture is the Holy Spirit ... Man was the instrumental author of sacred Scripture."³² "Therefore the tongue of man is disposed in sacred Scripture as the tongue of a child speaking the words that another supplies."³³

Duns Scotus proves that Scripture is inspired by eight arguments, "which are: prophetic foretelling, the concord of the Scriptures, the authority of the writers, the diligence of the recipients, the reasonableness of the contents, the unreasonableness of individual errors, the stability of the Church, the clarity of the miracles."³⁴

It is therefore established that the Fathers and the theologians attribute the sacred books to God as author with unanimous consent. Therefore the inspiration of sacred Scripture of both Testaments is in reality revealed.

Finally, the councils and the supreme pontiffs have authentically and infallibly defined that the inspiration of sacred Scripture of both Testaments is a revealed dogma. In truth, there was no need of a formal definition, since the unanimous tradition, taught through the ordinary magisterium of all the churches and ages, attributed Scripture to God as its author, as we have seen. Because, however, the Manichaeans, Gnostics, and other heretics excepted the books of the Old Testament or other parts of sacred Scripture from inspiration,¹ the Church the more often affirmed her faith by a formal and solemn proposition. This indeed happened especially in the "Ancient Statutes of the Church" and in the Councils of Florence, Trent, and the Vatican.

1. The "Ancient Statutes of the Church" are the name given to canons collected from certain early councils before the end of the sixth century.² Among other things they prescribe that this question be put to a bishop about to be ordained: "Whether he believes in one and the same author and God of the New and Old Testament, i. e. of the Law and of the Prophets and of the Apostles."³ The same profession of faith, according to the Roman Pontifical, was thereafter prescribed to be made by all bishops;⁴ the same profession is found in the symbol of Leo IX (1053);⁵ the same profession was imposed on the Manichaeans and Waldensians returning to repentance by Innocent III (1208);⁶ the same was proposed to the Greeks returning to the Church by Clement IV and was offered by the emperor Michael Palaeologus at the Council of Lyon (1274).⁷ Therefore in all ages the ecclesiastical magisterium publicly and formally professed the inspiration of sacred Scripture.

2. The Council of Florence (1441) in the decree of Eugenius IV for the Jacobites pronounces still more solemnly: "The Most Holy Roman Church ... professes one and the same God as author of the Old and New Testament, that is, of the Law and of the Prophets and of the Gospel: since the saints of both Testaments spoke by the inspiration of the same Holy Spirit: whose books it receives and venerates, which are contained under the following titles: Genesis, Exodus ..."⁸ By this decree that most ancient profession of faith is repeated, and moreover the concept of inspiration is set forth more earnestly, with the canon of all the inspired books of both Testaments added as well.

3. The Council of Trent (1546) "receives and venerates all the books of both the Old and the New Testament, since one God is the author of both, ... with an equal affection of piety and reverence. It thought that the index of the sacred books should be attached to this decree, lest any doubt could arise as to which are the ones received by the synod itself ... If, however, anyone does not receive the books themselves, whole with all their parts, as they have been accustomed to be read in the Catholic Church and are contained in the old Latin Vulgate edition, as sacred and canonical, let him be anathema."⁹ In this document the Tridentine fathers set forth the same judgment concerning inspiration as the Council of Florence, enumerate the same catalogue of inspired books, and moreover add that "the books themselves, whole with all their parts," are inspired. Finally:

4. The Vatican Council: "The books of the New and Old Testament, whole with all their parts, as they are contained in the old Vulgate edition, are to be received as sacred and canonical. The Church, however, holds them as sacred and canonical not because, having been composed by mere human industry, they were afterwards approved by her own authority, nor merely because they contain revelation without error; but because, having been written by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, they have God as their author, and as such they were handed down to the Church."¹⁰

This Vatican definition not only, after the manner of the Council of Trent, proposes anew the fact of the inspiration of all the sacred books, but also sets forth the nature of inspiration.