That this promise was fiiUilliil i- cTtain. The relation of the risen Lord t^^ Hi- I'hurch, His presence with those who nin -i nt. J Him, and tlie aid He attbrded them in .ici ..iiiiili>liiiig His pur- poses, compel the conclusion that His Spirit dwelt in those who taught and built up the Church by word and letter. Those who preached the gospel discharged their function 'with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven' (1 P 1'=). Of this the outpouring of the Spirit at Pentecost was the earnest. In guiding the Church the aid of this
INSPIRATION
INSPIRATION
833
Spirit was experienced (Ac 13- 15"" etc.). In writ- ing to the Galatians, St. Paul claims to have been instructed by the Lord in the gospel he preached. In 2 Co IS'' he is prepared to give 'a proof of Christ that speaketh in me.' And even in less essential matters regarding which he can claim no definite instructions or revelation, he yet in the exercise of his own judgment believes himself to be guided by the Spirit of God (1 Co V). In his enumeration of tlie various manifestations of the Spirit, tlie writing of sacred books, it is true, finds no place, neither do the writers of the Gospels claim to be inspired. But ' the word of wisdom,' ' the word of knowledge,' the charism of ' the prophet and the teaeiier, may quite reasonably, if not even necessarily, be supposed to include written as well as spoken discourse.
2. The significance of the claim to be inspired, ok the meaning and effects of INSPIRATION. — Several opinions or theories pre- sent themselves. And in determining which of these is correct, we must be guided not by a priori ideas of the results wliich must flow from inspira- tion, but only by the phenomena presented in the Bible ; in other words, by the actual effects of inspiration as these are seen in the writings of inspired men. ' What inspiration is must be learned from what it does. . . . We must not determine the character of the books from the inspiration, but must rather determine the nature of the inspiration from tlie books ' (Bowne's Christian Bcvelntion, p. 45).
(\) The 'mechanical or 'dictation' theory, or theory of verbal inspiration. — This is the theoiy that in writing the books of Scripture the human author was merely the mouthpiece of the Divine, and that therefore every word in the Bible as truly represents the mind of God as if He had dictated it. ' Facts, doctrines, precepts, references to history or chronology, quotations from writers sacred or profane, allusions to scientific truth, visions or prophetic declarations, mere references to the most ordinary actions of life, according to this view, are not the work of man but of Om- niscience. The only use which has been made of human agency in the book has been to copy do\vn with pen, ink, and paper what has been dictated by the Divine Spirit.' Absolute inerrancy is on this theory presumed to be the accompaniment of inspiration. As one of its defenders says : ' God employed men in writing. But these men were so controlled Ijy llim, that He is the Author of the \.t'\V. tin; Author, that any charge of
inac< u list the record, or Scripture, as
origi7..., , _ must be preferred against Him'
(Kennedy, I A. Doctrine of Insp. 1878, p. 6). To use the comnuin way of putting it, the writers were 'the pens, not the penmen' of God. They were possessed by God, so that it was not so much their own mind and their own experience, but the mind of God tliat was represented in their writ- ings.*
This theory has all the prestige which antiquity can give it, for it runs back to those primitive stages of civilization in which possession by a deity was produced by inhaling fumes, or by violent dancings and contortions. This frenzied state being induced, the words spoken were believed to be Divine. The theoiy has also the prestige which
**Omnea et singula resqnn^ in S' S'-vi]iftir,T ''nntinentur, sive
iUa) f uerint S. Scriptoribus nrd 1 1 1 : : t m mi > . si\t* naturnliter
quidem cogniscibiles, actu (:iii: .\r denique non
tantum natxiralitercogniscil.ll ■; ii'so nota), vel
aliunde, vel per ex]ierienti;iiii, . t ^> n mmi ininiyterium, non solum per assirtentiam et diniu.ij.ciu duinaiii infallibilem literis consignat:e sunt, sed singulari Spiritus S, suggestioni, inspiratiojii, et. diftamini aoceptae fercndaj sunt' (Quenstedt, '"'~'' """'^ -*'^r similar dicta, in Butterus Jiedivivus, s.v.
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IS conferred by the advocacy of great names. Plato countenanced the idea that the inspired man is so possessed by the Divine that his words and thoughts are not his own. In the Timceus (p. 71) and in the Phmclrus (p. 244) he maintains tliat when a man receives the inspired word, either his intelligence is enthralled in sleep, or he is demented by some distemper or possession. The relation of the Divine to the human is viewed quantitatively. As the Divine comes in, the human must go out and make room for it. It was probably through Pliilo that this view gained currency in the Church. Philo's account of Inspiration is quite explicit. 'A prophet,' he says, ' gives forth nothing of his o^vn, but acts as interpreter at the prompting of another in all his utterances ; and as long as he is under inspiration he is in ignorance, his reason departing from its place and yielding up the citadel of his soul, when the Divine Spirit enters into it and dwells in it, and strikes at the mechanism of his voice, sounding through it to the clear declaration of that which he prophesieth' {de Sp. Legg. ii. 343, quoted in Sanday's Insp. p. 74). Again (in the tract Quis rer. div. i. 511) Philo explains that ' so long as we are masters of ourselves we are not possessed ; but when our own mind ceases to shine, inspiration and madness lay hold on us. For the understanding that dwells in us is ousted on the arrival of the Divine Spirit, but is restored to its own dwelling when that Spirit departs ; for it is unlawful that mortal dwell with immortal.' A theory identical with or similar to this of Philo's has been largely held in the Church.