17. Supernatural Character of the Bible
5. God is the Author of the Bible: Inspiration
“The divinely revealed realities, which are contained and presented in the text of Sacred Scripture, have been written down under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.”1 The divine origin of the Bible is a truth of faith. This belief must be a starting point. When we read the Bible, we must remember that God is its author. We must read it not as we would read a novel; rather, we must carefully search out what God wanted to manifest to us.
5a) The Magisterium of the Church Speaks on Inspiration
All the documents of the Church—professions of faith, councils, encyclicals2—affirm the truth of biblical inspiration. Often, these documents have been written to defend the truth against certain heresies:
· Dualism claimed that the Old Testament is not inspired.
· Protestantism rejected certain books of the Old Testament.
· Modernism said that God is not the author of the Bible.
5b) Inspiration Mentioned in the Old and New Testaments
The Bible gives testimony to its divine origin. In the Old Testament, the divine origin is still somewhat veiled. For example, in the Book of Maccabees, the Law (the Pentateuch) is called “holy” (2 Mc 8:23), as are the other books of the Old Testament (cf. 1 Mc 12:9).
The divine inspiration is even clearer in the New Testament. There are three very important passages:
i) “All scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness” (2 Tm 3:16).
St. Paul tells Timothy to be faithful—to persevere, with the help of other people—in the faith he received as a child, thanks to Sacred Scripture. The Scriptures produce fruit because they are inspired by God.
Protestant exegetes interpret the Greek word for “inspired” in an active sense only, as in “the Bible inspires divine things.” Catholics understand Sacred Scripture as the product of God’s action (inspiration in the passive sense); he is the principal author, and thus, the Bible leads to piety (inspiration in the active sense).
ii) “First of all you must understand this, that … no prophecy ever came by the impulse of man [private interpretation], but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God” (2 Pt 1:20–21).
St. Peter speaks of the second coming of Christ. He gives two arguments to support this truth: The first argument is Christ’s transfiguration, of which he was an eyewitness (cf. 2 Pt 1:17–18); the second argument is the Messianic prophecies of the Bible. This second argument is more convincing for the Jews. He reminds them that these prophecies must be interpreted according to their divine origin. Prophecy means more than foretelling future events; it entails all that is contained in the Old Testament. A prophet speaks in God’s name.
St. Peter’s statement affirms:
· the fact of inspiration: Scripture comes from the Holy Spirit;
· the nature of inspiration: It reveals that God is the principal author, that humans are merely instruments, and that the books did not come about from the “impulse of men”;
· that divine authority is needed to interpret the Bible correctly and validly.
iii) “And count the forbearance of our Lord as salvation. So also our beloved brother Paul wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, speaking of this as he does in all his letters. There are some things in them hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other scriptures” (2 Pt 3:15–16).
This text is important because it refers to the inspiration of the New Testament. St. Peter alludes to inspiration as “according to the wisdom given him.” He also equates the New Testament to “the other scriptures,” that is, the Old Testament.
5c) The Fathers of the Church on Inspiration
The Fathers of the Church are also unanimous on the divine origin of the Bible.
6. What Is Inspiration?
Inspiration is a divine and supernatural action whereby God raises the human writer above his natural capacity in order to make him an instrument in the composition of the sacred books.
The Magisterium of the Church speaks of God as the author of Sacred Scripture; Sacred Scripture is attributed in a special manner to the Holy Spirit. God’s action does not belong to the natural order but to the supernatural order. It is part of God’s extraordinary providence. Inspiration surpasses what all human intelligence could reach. People cannot be inspired by their own power.
6a) God, the Principal Author of the Sacred Scriptures
Even though the human writer (called the hagiographer) is involved in writing the sacred books, God is the primary author; without him, Sacred Scripture would never have been written.3 Like all the ad extra works of God, inspiration is done by the three divine Persons in common, but it is attributed to the Holy Spirit since it is a work of love—a work of salvation, like the performance of miracles.
Often times, the Fathers of the Church compared the action of God in inspiring Sacred Scripture to that of a writer using a pen, the human writer being analogous to the pen. The hagiographer was the instrument God used to write the Bible.
In every action caused with the use of an instrument, we can observe that there is a principal cause (or agent) and the instrumental cause (or instrument). The agent raises the instrument above its nature when the agent applies it to the action.
In the writing of the holy books, God is the principal cause, and the hagiographer is the instrumental cause. God acts by his own perfection, since he is infinitely wise and omnipotent. God uses the hagiographer as an instrument: He makes him capable of writing something beyond natural human capabilities. Inspiration involves an elevation of humanity, not a degradation of God.
Furthermore, any instrument has two actions: a proper action, according to its nature (to make strokes is proper of a pen); and an instrumental action, influenced by the main agent (to write a poem). In this way, the writer’s activity is at the service of God, without losing his particular traits.
God acts in a fuller sense than the hagiographer does. God is more the cause of the Bible than the human writer is. When we say, “the Gospel according to St. Mark,” we mean that God used St. Mark as an instrument to write the Gospel.
This gift of inspiration is not something permanent; rather, it is a transitory gift to the sacred writer. He can act as an instrument only when God moves him to write (inspiration).
Sacred Scripture is entirely a product of divine wisdom, in spite of the human writer’s intervention. We cannot study the Bible from a purely empirical way, as if it were another scientific book. Inspiration is a gratia gratis data—a grace to benefit others, not the receiver.
6b) The Charisma of Inspiration Moves the Hagiographer
As Leo XIII taught, “With a supernatural power, the Holy Spirit so moved and impelled the hagiographers to write—He was present to them—that the things that He ordered, and only those, they first rightly understood, then willed faithfully to write down, and finally expressed in apt words and with infallible truth. Otherwise it could not be said that God was the author of the entire Scripture.”4
Thus, in the hagiographer, inspiration implies the following:
· The enlightening of the mind. It is a new light to the hagiographer to propose the truth in the name of God. Often, the truths are infused by God into the hagiographer’s mind.
· The movement of the will. God also moves the hagiographer’s will to write without going against his freedom.
· The assistance to the executive faculties—the memory, imagination, external senses, muscles, head, or mouth. God gives positive assistance to the human faculties.
7. The Extent of Inspiration
An inspired book is the result of divine action; it contains all that God wanted to be written, and only that.
The divine action of inspiration is present in the entire Bible and in each one of its parts. We cannot dissect the Bible into parts—some supposedly written by God and others not—nor can we say that the Bible is inspired only when it speaks on “matters of faith and morals.” God is the principal author of the book, even its most minute details.
Divine inspiration affects not only the concepts, but even the very words used (verbal inspiration).
However, only the original text is directly inspired by God. The translations are inspired only insofar as they are in conformity with the original. Thus, a Christian should be prudent in choosing a version of the Bible.
It is hard to believe that God, who made sure that the original text was inspired, would not assure that it be communicated integrally through the ages. Thus, it is valid to conclude that the original text was transmitted faithfully in some copy. Here, the Church plays a vital role: she defined the Latin version of the Vulgate (and later the New Vulgate) as the purest text, and approved it as juridically authentic.
8. Some False Notions of Inspiration
i) Ecstatic inspiration: Proponents of this theory claimed that the writer wrote in ecstasy: He lost the use of his senses and other faculties. This is contrary to Tradition: Some hagiographers tell us how long it took them to write, and some mention the research work they did.
ii) Mechanical dictation: This notion denied the work of the hagiographer, who became an automaton, mechanically writing down what God dictated. The theory’s proponents identified the concept of revelation (locutio Dei) with inspiration. In revelation, only God acts, whereas in inspiration, God uses a person (as a free being) to write.
iii) Subsequent approval: This heresy claimed that the sacred books were written by people, and later approved by the Church.
iv) Negative assistance: Supporters of this theory claimed that God did not influence the hagiographer, inspiring him to write; he merely preserved the writer from error.
v) The modernist heresies of the early twentieth century: These were condemned by St. Pius X. They claimed that the Bible was simply a collection of religious experiences of some exceptional men who had high religious sentiments.
9. Supernatural Content of the Bible
We have seen that the Bible is supernatural because it is of divine origin. It is supernatural also because of its content.
The Bible contains “the hidden treasures of God’s being, of His wisdom, and of His mercy.”5 However, compared with God’s perfection, the Bible is only a faint reflection of the infinite Truth.
The Bible contains two kinds of truths:
i) Supernatural truths. Through revelation, God has made his intimate life and the eternal decrees concerning human salvation known to us.
ii) Natural truths. Through revelation, God also shows fundamental truths, necessary for the salvation of man that human intelligence can, nevertheless, reach on its own. Because of revelation, man can know these truths easily, with absolute certainty, and without error.
All these truths are intertwined, but the natural truths are ordained to the supernatural truths.
The Old Testament reveals two main truths: the nature of God and the nature of man.
The books of the New Testament reveal the mystery made known to the apostles and prophets by the Holy Spirit; it was revealed so that they could preach the mystery of the Gospel, stir up faith in Jesus Christ, and bring the Church together.
Footnotes:
1. DV, 11; cf. CCC, 105–106.
2. Cf. DV, 11.
3. Cf. CCC, 106.
4. Leo XIII, Enc. Providentissimus Deus. Nov. 18, 1893: DS 3293. Author’s emphasis.
5. Ibid.
“The divinely revealed realities, which are contained and presented in the text of Sacred Scripture, have been written down under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.”1 The divine origin of the Bible is a truth of faith. This belief must be a starting point. When we read the Bible, we must remember that God is its author. We must read it not as we would read a novel; rather, we must carefully search out what God wanted to manifest to us.
5a) The Magisterium of the Church Speaks on Inspiration
All the documents of the Church—professions of faith, councils, encyclicals2—affirm the truth of biblical inspiration. Often, these documents have been written to defend the truth against certain heresies:
· Dualism claimed that the Old Testament is not inspired.
· Protestantism rejected certain books of the Old Testament.
· Modernism said that God is not the author of the Bible.
5b) Inspiration Mentioned in the Old and New Testaments
The Bible gives testimony to its divine origin. In the Old Testament, the divine origin is still somewhat veiled. For example, in the Book of Maccabees, the Law (the Pentateuch) is called “holy” (2 Mc 8:23), as are the other books of the Old Testament (cf. 1 Mc 12:9).
The divine inspiration is even clearer in the New Testament. There are three very important passages:
i) “All scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness” (2 Tm 3:16).
St. Paul tells Timothy to be faithful—to persevere, with the help of other people—in the faith he received as a child, thanks to Sacred Scripture. The Scriptures produce fruit because they are inspired by God.
Protestant exegetes interpret the Greek word for “inspired” in an active sense only, as in “the Bible inspires divine things.” Catholics understand Sacred Scripture as the product of God’s action (inspiration in the passive sense); he is the principal author, and thus, the Bible leads to piety (inspiration in the active sense).
ii) “First of all you must understand this, that … no prophecy ever came by the impulse of man [private interpretation], but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God” (2 Pt 1:20–21).
St. Peter speaks of the second coming of Christ. He gives two arguments to support this truth: The first argument is Christ’s transfiguration, of which he was an eyewitness (cf. 2 Pt 1:17–18); the second argument is the Messianic prophecies of the Bible. This second argument is more convincing for the Jews. He reminds them that these prophecies must be interpreted according to their divine origin. Prophecy means more than foretelling future events; it entails all that is contained in the Old Testament. A prophet speaks in God’s name.
St. Peter’s statement affirms:
· the fact of inspiration: Scripture comes from the Holy Spirit;
· the nature of inspiration: It reveals that God is the principal author, that humans are merely instruments, and that the books did not come about from the “impulse of men”;
· that divine authority is needed to interpret the Bible correctly and validly.
iii) “And count the forbearance of our Lord as salvation. So also our beloved brother Paul wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, speaking of this as he does in all his letters. There are some things in them hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other scriptures” (2 Pt 3:15–16).
This text is important because it refers to the inspiration of the New Testament. St. Peter alludes to inspiration as “according to the wisdom given him.” He also equates the New Testament to “the other scriptures,” that is, the Old Testament.
5c) The Fathers of the Church on Inspiration
The Fathers of the Church are also unanimous on the divine origin of the Bible.
6. What Is Inspiration?
Inspiration is a divine and supernatural action whereby God raises the human writer above his natural capacity in order to make him an instrument in the composition of the sacred books.
The Magisterium of the Church speaks of God as the author of Sacred Scripture; Sacred Scripture is attributed in a special manner to the Holy Spirit. God’s action does not belong to the natural order but to the supernatural order. It is part of God’s extraordinary providence. Inspiration surpasses what all human intelligence could reach. People cannot be inspired by their own power.
6a) God, the Principal Author of the Sacred Scriptures
Even though the human writer (called the hagiographer) is involved in writing the sacred books, God is the primary author; without him, Sacred Scripture would never have been written.3 Like all the ad extra works of God, inspiration is done by the three divine Persons in common, but it is attributed to the Holy Spirit since it is a work of love—a work of salvation, like the performance of miracles.
Often times, the Fathers of the Church compared the action of God in inspiring Sacred Scripture to that of a writer using a pen, the human writer being analogous to the pen. The hagiographer was the instrument God used to write the Bible.
In every action caused with the use of an instrument, we can observe that there is a principal cause (or agent) and the instrumental cause (or instrument). The agent raises the instrument above its nature when the agent applies it to the action.
In the writing of the holy books, God is the principal cause, and the hagiographer is the instrumental cause. God acts by his own perfection, since he is infinitely wise and omnipotent. God uses the hagiographer as an instrument: He makes him capable of writing something beyond natural human capabilities. Inspiration involves an elevation of humanity, not a degradation of God.
Furthermore, any instrument has two actions: a proper action, according to its nature (to make strokes is proper of a pen); and an instrumental action, influenced by the main agent (to write a poem). In this way, the writer’s activity is at the service of God, without losing his particular traits.
God acts in a fuller sense than the hagiographer does. God is more the cause of the Bible than the human writer is. When we say, “the Gospel according to St. Mark,” we mean that God used St. Mark as an instrument to write the Gospel.
This gift of inspiration is not something permanent; rather, it is a transitory gift to the sacred writer. He can act as an instrument only when God moves him to write (inspiration).
Sacred Scripture is entirely a product of divine wisdom, in spite of the human writer’s intervention. We cannot study the Bible from a purely empirical way, as if it were another scientific book. Inspiration is a gratia gratis data—a grace to benefit others, not the receiver.
6b) The Charisma of Inspiration Moves the Hagiographer
As Leo XIII taught, “With a supernatural power, the Holy Spirit so moved and impelled the hagiographers to write—He was present to them—that the things that He ordered, and only those, they first rightly understood, then willed faithfully to write down, and finally expressed in apt words and with infallible truth. Otherwise it could not be said that God was the author of the entire Scripture.”4
Thus, in the hagiographer, inspiration implies the following:
· The enlightening of the mind. It is a new light to the hagiographer to propose the truth in the name of God. Often, the truths are infused by God into the hagiographer’s mind.
· The movement of the will. God also moves the hagiographer’s will to write without going against his freedom.
· The assistance to the executive faculties—the memory, imagination, external senses, muscles, head, or mouth. God gives positive assistance to the human faculties.
7. The Extent of Inspiration
An inspired book is the result of divine action; it contains all that God wanted to be written, and only that.
The divine action of inspiration is present in the entire Bible and in each one of its parts. We cannot dissect the Bible into parts—some supposedly written by God and others not—nor can we say that the Bible is inspired only when it speaks on “matters of faith and morals.” God is the principal author of the book, even its most minute details.
Divine inspiration affects not only the concepts, but even the very words used (verbal inspiration).
However, only the original text is directly inspired by God. The translations are inspired only insofar as they are in conformity with the original. Thus, a Christian should be prudent in choosing a version of the Bible.
It is hard to believe that God, who made sure that the original text was inspired, would not assure that it be communicated integrally through the ages. Thus, it is valid to conclude that the original text was transmitted faithfully in some copy. Here, the Church plays a vital role: she defined the Latin version of the Vulgate (and later the New Vulgate) as the purest text, and approved it as juridically authentic.
8. Some False Notions of Inspiration
i) Ecstatic inspiration: Proponents of this theory claimed that the writer wrote in ecstasy: He lost the use of his senses and other faculties. This is contrary to Tradition: Some hagiographers tell us how long it took them to write, and some mention the research work they did.
ii) Mechanical dictation: This notion denied the work of the hagiographer, who became an automaton, mechanically writing down what God dictated. The theory’s proponents identified the concept of revelation (locutio Dei) with inspiration. In revelation, only God acts, whereas in inspiration, God uses a person (as a free being) to write.
iii) Subsequent approval: This heresy claimed that the sacred books were written by people, and later approved by the Church.
iv) Negative assistance: Supporters of this theory claimed that God did not influence the hagiographer, inspiring him to write; he merely preserved the writer from error.
v) The modernist heresies of the early twentieth century: These were condemned by St. Pius X. They claimed that the Bible was simply a collection of religious experiences of some exceptional men who had high religious sentiments.
9. Supernatural Content of the Bible
We have seen that the Bible is supernatural because it is of divine origin. It is supernatural also because of its content.
The Bible contains “the hidden treasures of God’s being, of His wisdom, and of His mercy.”5 However, compared with God’s perfection, the Bible is only a faint reflection of the infinite Truth.
The Bible contains two kinds of truths:
i) Supernatural truths. Through revelation, God has made his intimate life and the eternal decrees concerning human salvation known to us.
ii) Natural truths. Through revelation, God also shows fundamental truths, necessary for the salvation of man that human intelligence can, nevertheless, reach on its own. Because of revelation, man can know these truths easily, with absolute certainty, and without error.
All these truths are intertwined, but the natural truths are ordained to the supernatural truths.
The Old Testament reveals two main truths: the nature of God and the nature of man.
The books of the New Testament reveal the mystery made known to the apostles and prophets by the Holy Spirit; it was revealed so that they could preach the mystery of the Gospel, stir up faith in Jesus Christ, and bring the Church together.
Footnotes:
1. DV, 11; cf. CCC, 105–106.
2. Cf. DV, 11.
3. Cf. CCC, 106.
4. Leo XIII, Enc. Providentissimus Deus. Nov. 18, 1893: DS 3293. Author’s emphasis.
5. Ibid.