Holy Scripture does not merely attest the fact that it is God's Word: it also explains the peculiar manner in which God gave His Word to men. It clearly teaches that the Word of God was inspired, or inbreathed into certain holy men, whom God called to be the official writers of His holy Book, so that all Scripture is given by inspiration of God" (πᾶσα γραφὴ θεόπνευστος), 2 Tim. 3, 16. Scripture emphatically declares with regard to the sacred writers of God's Book: "The prophecy came not in old time by the will of man, but holy men of God spake as they were moved (φερόμενοι) by the Holy Ghost," 2 Pet. 1, 21. Since the holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost, they evidently wrote not their own words, but those which God Himself put into their minds. This truth is unmistakably taught by St. Paul; for be writes: "Which things also we speak~ not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth, comparing spiritual things with spiritual," 1 Cor. 2, 13. The same apostle also declares that Christ was speaking in him, 2 Cor. 13, 3; and of his writings he states that they are "the commandments of the Lord," 1 Cor. 14, 37. The writings of the prophets and apostles are therefore the Word of God; they were divinely inspired to write the books embodied in our Bible.
In the Scripture-passages which set forth the doctrine of inspiration the following truths are distinctly expressed: -
a. The inspiration was not simply "inspiration of thoughts" (suggestio realis) nor "inspiration of persons" (inspiratio personalis), but verbal inspiration (suggestio verbalis, Verbal inspiration), i. e., an inspiration by which the Holy Ghost inbreathed the very words which the holy penmen were to write. In 2 Tim. 3, 16 Scripture is said to be "God-breathed" (φερόμενοι), which means that it owes its origin to God notwithstanding the fact that it was written by men. In 2 Pet. 1, 21 the apostle distincly declares that the holy men, borne along (φερόμενοι) by the Holy Ghost, spoke, i.e., brought forth words (ἐλάλησαν). Similarly St. Paul says in 1 Cor. 2, 13: "Which things we speak in words taught by the Spirit" (λαλοῦμεν διδακτοῖς λόγοις πνεύματος). In all these passages the verbal inspiration of the Bible is clearly affirmed; for since words are the necessary means for conveying thoughts, it lies in the very nature of inspiration that the very words were supplied to the holy writers.
All those who deny the verbal inspiration of the Bible and substitute for it "personal inspiration" or "thought inspiration" deny the Scriptural doctrine of inspiration altogether and are compelled to teach in its place a mere "illumination," which is common to all believers. Consequently they annul the distinction which Scripture itself makes between the norma normans of the prophetic and apostolic writings and the norma normata of the uninspired books of illuminated dogmaticians and other teachers of the Church. In other words, with the denial of the verbal inspiration the Bible becomes a human book, which has no greater authority than any other Christian book. But just this very thing the Bible stamps as false by proclaiming itself to be the divine source and norm of faith, to which all believers owe their salvation, Eph. 2, 20; John 17, 20; Luke 16, 29; John 8, 31. 32. For this reason we reject the statement of Hastings: "Inspiration applies to men, not to written words" (Encycl. of Rel. and Eth., II, 589) and profess with R. W. Hiley: "This miraculous operation of the Holy Ghost divine inspiration had not the writers themselves for its object,these were only His instruments and were soon to pass away;- its objects were the holy books themselves." (The Inspiration of Scripture, 1885, p. 50.) Baier's definition of inspiration is in full agreement with what Scripture itself teaches on the subject: "Divine inspiration was that agency by which God supernaturally communicated to the intellect of those who wrote not only the correct conception of all that was to be written, but also the conception of the words themselves and of everything by which they were to be expressed and by which He also instigated their will to the act of writing." Doctr. Theol., p. 39.
b. The inspiration was not a mere divine assistance or direction (assistentia, directio, gubernatio divina), but the actual impartation of all the words (suggestio verborum) of which Holy Scripture consists. Just as on Pentecost the Holy Spirit graciously "gave utterance" to the apostles, Acts 2, 4, so He "gave them utterance" when He impelled them to write down God's Word and perpetuate it in Holy Scripture. This truth is clearly expressed in the term "God-breathed" (θεόπνευστος), which declares that Scripture has not merely been directed by God, but inspired by Him. Of course, the Holy Ghost also guided, directed, and governed the holy prophets and apostles, so that they actually wrote down the words which He suggested to them; but it is contrary to Scripture to identify this divine assistance with the divine act of inspiration. Through mere divine guidance or preservation from error Scripture would have become an errorless human book, but mere divine guidance could not have made it an inerrant Book of God, or God's own Word. Such it became only through divine inspiration, or the divine suggestio verborum.
Together with the divine words also their concepts were suggested to the holy writers (suggestio realis), so that on their part the act of writing was not merely a mechanical effort, but rather a "conscious, volitional, and intelligent act." The Bible written by them was at the same time God's Book (causa principal is) and their own book (causae instrumentales). Gerhard correctly says (II, 26): "The instrumental causes of Holy Scripture were holy men of God, 2 Pet. 1, 21; that is, men peculiarly and immediately elected and called by God for the purpose of committing to writing the divine revelations. Such were the prophets of the Old Testament and the evangelists and apostles of the New Testament, whom we therefore properly call the amanuenses of God, the hand of Christ, and the scribes, or notaries, of the Holy Spirit, since they neither spoke nor wrote by their own will, but, borne along by the Holy Spirit (φερόμενοι ὑπὸ τοῦ πνεύματος ἁγίου), were acted upon, led, moved, inspired, a!\d governed by the Holy Ghost. They wrote not as men, but as 'men of God/ that is, as servants of God and peculiar organs of the Holy Ghost. Therefore, when a canonical book is called a 'book of Moses,' the 'Psalms of David,' an 'epistle of Paul,' etc., this is merely a reference to the agent and not to the principal cause." Concerning the efficient, or principal, cause of Scripture, Quenstedt says (I, 55): "The efficient, or principal, cause of Scripture is the Triune God, 2 Tim. 3, 16 (the Father," Heb. 1, lf.; the Son, John 1, 18; the Holy Ghost, 2 Sam. 23, 2; 1 Pet. 1, 11; 2 Pet. 1, 21): a) by an original decree; b) by subsequent inspiration, or by ordering that holy men of God should write, and by inspiring what was to be written." Doctr. Theol., p. 42.
With regard to the manner in which the holy penmen wrote by divine inspiration, Quenstedt writes (I, 55): "God therefore alone, if we wish to speak accurately, is to be called the Author of the Sacred Scriptures; the prophets and apostles cannot be called the authors except by a kind of catachresis." Again (I, 52): "Not as though these divine amanuenses wrote ignorantly and unwillingly, beyond the reach of, and contrary to, their own will; for they wrote cheerfully, willingly, and intelligently. They are said to be φερόμενοι, driven, moved, urged on, by the Holy Ghost, not as though they were in a state of unconsciousness, as the enthusiasts pretended to be, or in a certain ἐνθουσιασμός, as the heathen claimed with regard to their soothsayers; nor, again, ... as though the prophets themselves did not understand their own prophecies or the things which they wrote, ... but they are properly called amanuenses because they wrote nothing of their own accord, but everything at the dictation of the Holy Ghost." (Doctr. Theol ... p. 43.)
c. Inspiration extends not merely to a part of Scripture, for example, to its important doctrines, or such matters as before were unknown to the holy writers, but the entire Bible (plenary inspiration). This fact is proved by the passage "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God," 2 Tim. 3, 16. From this statement we derive the axiom: "Whatever is a part of Holy Scripture is given by divine inspiration." Hence the inspiration includes the whole of Scripture, no matter whether it was specially revealed to the holy writers or whether they knew it before or whether it was ascertained through study and research. For this reason the historical, geographical, archeological, and scientific matters contained in Scripture are as truly inspired as are its foremost doctrines. Those who deny this and assume degrees of inspiration destroy the very concept of inspiration.
Hollaz thus writes on this point: "There are contained in Scripture historical, chronological, genealogical, astronomical~ scientific, and political matters, which, although the knowledge of them is not actually necessary to salvation, are nevertheless divinely revealed, because an acquaintance with them assists not a little in the interpretation of the Holy Scriptures and in illustrating their doctrines and moral precepts. If only the mysteries of the faith which are contained in the Holy Scriptures depend on divine inspiration and all the rest, which may be known by the light of nature~ depends merely on divine direction, then not all of Scripture is inspired. But Paul declares that the whole of Scripture is divinely inspired. Therefore not only the mysteries of the faith, but also the remaining truths revealed in Scripture, which may be known also from the light of nature, are divinely suggested and inspired." Doctr. Theol., p. 46.
In the Lutheran Church, George Calixtus (t 1656) taught that only the chief articles of faith were inspired, while the less important matters or those which were known to the holy writers before they were inspired to write were put down by mere divine direction or guidance so as to preserve them from error. But this doctrine was rejected by the Lutheran dogmaticians as militating against the theopneusty of the whole of Scripture (πᾶσα γραφή). The error of Calixtus has been championed also by Romanistic, Calvinistic, and modern rationalistic Lutheran dogmaticians.
d. Since Holy Scripture is the divinely inspired Word of God, its perfect inerrancy in every part and every statement is a priori certain because of the infallibility of its divine Author. However, Christ directly affirms the absolute inerrancy of Scripture when He declares: "Scripture cannot be broken," John 10, 35. His reference in this instance was to a single word (θεοί,אֱלֹהִים, Ps. 82, 6), and if Scripture cannot be broken in the case of a single term, then the whole of it must be absolutely true. Similarly the apostles frequently refer to single words in the Old Testament as divinely inspired and as able to prove truths which they wished to impress upon their readers. Cf. Gal. 3, 16 with Gen. 17, 7: "He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy Seed, which is Christ"; also Matt. 22, 43. 44 with Ps. 110, 1: "The Lord said unto my Lord"; also John 10, 35 with Ps. 82, 6. Such references. prove that not only the very words (suggestio verbal is), but even the very forms in which they occur (suggestio literal is) have been inspired. In accord with this is God's prohibition not to add to His Word nor to take away from it even the least particle, Deut. 4, 2; 12, 32; Prov. 30, 5. 6; Rev. 22, 18. 19, as also Christ's warning that "whosoever shall break one of these least commandments shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven," Matt. 5, 19, since "it is easier for heaven and earth to pass than one tittle of the Law to· fail," Luke 16, 17; Matt. 5, 18. Hence, as St. Paul professed: "I believe all things which are written in the Law and in the Prophets," Acts 24, 14, so also every believing Christian must regard Holy Scripture in its entirety as divinely inspired and therefore absolutely infallible. Luther writes: "Scriptures has never erred" St. L., XV, 1481, and Calov: "No error, even in unimportant matters, no defect of memory, not to say untruth, can have any place in all the Scriptures" Doctr. Theol., p. 49. Similarly Hollaz declares: "Divine inspiration, by which the subject-matter and the words, those to be spoken as well as those to be written, were immediately suggested to the prophets and apostles by the Holy Spirit, preserved them free from all error in the preaching as well as in the writing of the divine Word." (Ibid.)
e. The inspiration of Holy Scripture includes lastly also the divine impulse and command to write (impulsus et mandatum scribendi). The impulsus scribendi is proved by the fact that the· holy writers are said to have been moved (cpEf!Of'E,ot, 2 Pet. 1, 21 ), to write, and for this reason the apostle adds the statement: "Prophecy came not by the will of man:~ In other words, the Holy Scriptures were written, not because men, but because God willed this. Hollaz is therefore right when he says : "Inspiration denotes the antecedent divine instigation or peculiar impulse of the will to engage in writing as well as the immediate illumination by which the mind of the sacred writer was fully enlightened." Doctr. Theol., p. 43. And Quenstedt writes: "All the canonical books of the Old and the New Testament were written by God, who peculiarly incited and impelled the sacred writers to engage in the work." Doctr. Theol., p. 44. Answering the objection of papistic theologians that it is impossible to trace a special divine command in every instance, Gerhard declares (II, 30): "In the holy men of God the external command and the internal impulse coincide; for what else is that divine impulse than an internal and secret command of precisely the same authority and weight as one that is external and manifest?" (Ibid.) The Roman Catholic doctrine, according to which the inspiration of the Bible is admitted, the impulsus scribendi, however, denied, is self-contradictory; for if God gave Scripture by divine inspiration, then He surely also moved the holy writers to record His Word. Roman Catholic theology denies the mandatum divinum in the interest of exalting the unwritten traditions above the written Word of God, just as modern rationalistic Protestant theologians deny the impulsus scribendi in the interest of elevating their reason (their "Christian consciousness" or "Christian experience") above the Bible. In both cases the denial is prompted by insubordination over against the divine Author of the Bible.