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

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.