Josephus, and even more plainly in the LXX, the influence of the Greek usage may be traced ; but in a writer like Philo, Jewish habits of thought ap2)ear to be absolutely determinative. The fact of importance is that there was nothing left for Christianity to invent here. It merely took over in their entirety the established usages of the Synagogue, and the NT evinces itself in this matter at least a thoroughly Jewish book. The several terras it employs are made use of, to be sure, with some sensitiveness to their inherent implica- tions as Greek words, and the Greek legislative use of some of them gave them, no doubt, peculiar fitness for the service asked of them. But the aj^plication made of them by the NT writers had its roots set in Jewish thought, and from it they derive a fuller and deeper meaning than the most pregnant classical usage could impart to them.
2. To the NT writers, as to other Jews, the sacred books of what was now called by them 'the old covenant' (2 Co 3"), described according to their contents as ' the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms ' (Lk 24:'^), or more briefly as ' the Law and the Prophets' (Mt V\ Lk W^ ; cf. Ac 28=^^ Lk 1629-31), or merely as 'the Law' (Jn W\ 1 Co 14^1), or even, perhaps, 'the Prophets' (Mt 2-^ IP^ 2656, Lk V W 2425-27^ Ac 324 1327, Ro 1^ 16-"), were, when thought of according to their nature, a body of ' sacred scriptures ' (Ro 1^ 2 Ti 3^6), or, with the omission of the unnecessary, because well-under- stood adjective, simply by way of eminence, ' the Scriptures,' 'Scripture.' For employment in this designation either of the substantives ypa.<pr) or ypa.fxfj.a ottered itself, although, of course, each brought with it its own suggestions arising from the implication of the form and the general usage of the word. The more usual of the two in this application, in Philo and Josephus, is ypdfj.ij,a, or more exactly ypafi/j-ara ; for, although it is some- times so employed in the singular (but apjiarently only late, e.g. Callimachus, Epigr. xxiv. 4, and the Church Fathers, passim), it is in the plural that this form more properly denotes that congeries of alphabetical signs which constitutes a book. In the NT, on the other hand, this form is rare. The complete phrase iepd ypdfj.fj.aTa, found also both in Josephus and in Philo, occurs in 2 Ti S^^ as the current title of the sacred books, freighted with all its implications as such. Elsewhere in the NT, howe\'er, ypdfxfiara is scarcely used as a designation of Scrijiture (cf. Jn 5*^ 7^^). Practi*- cally, therefore, ypa(pri, in its varied uses, remains the sole form employed in the NT in the sense of ' Scrijiture,' 'Scriptures.'
3. This term occurs in the NT about fifty times (Gospels 23, Acts 7, Catholic Epistles 6, Paul 14) ; and in every case it bears that technical sense in which it designates the Scriptures by way of eminence, the Scriptures of the OT. It is true there are a few instances in which passages adduced as ypa(pr] are not easily identified in the OT text ; but there is no reason to doubt that OT passages were intended (cf, Hiihn, Die alttest. Citate, 270 ; and Mayor on Ja 4^, Lightfoot on 1 Co 2", West- cott on Jn 7^^ and Godet on Lk ll'*^). We need to note in modification of the broad statement, there- fore, only that it is apparent from 2 P 3^6 (cf. 1 Ti 51^) that the NT writers Avere well aware that the category 'Scripture,' in the high sense, in- cluded also the writings they were producing, as along with the books of the OT constituting the complete ' Scripture ' or authoritative Word of God. In 20 out of the 50 instances in which ypa<p7] occurs in the NT, it is the plural form which is used, and in all but tAvo of these cases the article is present — al ypacpai, the Avell-knoAvn Scriptures of the JeAvish people ; and the tAvo exceptions are exceptions only in appearance, since adjectival de-
SCRIPTUKE
SCRIPTURE
585
finitioiis are jiresent (ypa<pai ayiai, Ito 1-, here first in extant literature ; ypa(pai Trpo^TjriKat, Ko 16-^). The singular form occurs some 30 times, all but four of which have the article ; and here again the exceptions are only apparent, the term being defi- nite in every case (Jn 19^'^ 'another Scripture';
1 P 26, 2 P r-», 2 Ti 3«, used as a proper name). The distribution of the singular and plural forms is perhaps -worth noting. In Acts tiie singular (3 times) and plural (4) occur almost equally fre- quently : the plural prevails in the Synoptics (Mt. plural only ; Mk. two to one ; Lk. three to one), and the singular in the rest of the NT (John 11 to 1, James 3 to 0, Peter 2 to 1, Paul
2 to 5). In the Gospels the plural form occurs exclusively in Mt., prevailingly in Mk. and Lk., and rarely in Jn., of which the singular is charac- teristic. No distinction seems to be traceable between the usage of the Evangelists in their own persons and that of our Lord as reported by them. Mt. and Mk. do not on their own account use the term at all ; in Lk. and Jn., on the other hand, it occurs not only in reports of our Lord's sayings and of the sayings of others, but also in the narrative itself. To our Lord is ascribed the use indifierently of the plural (Mt 21^^ 22^» 26'*- ^\ yik 12-^ 14», Jn 53°) and the singular (Mk W'>, Lk 421, Jn 738- ^2 1035 1318 1712).