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

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.