II. The Fact of the Inspiration of the Bible. — (On this point we condense the arguments of Dr. Leonard Woods in Kitto's Cyclopcedia, s. v., confining ourselves chiefly to the question of the inspiration of the written word.) To prove that the Scriptures are divinelj' inspired, we might with propriety refer to the excellence of the doc- trines, precepts, and promises, and other instructions which they contain ; to the simplicity and majesty of their style ; to the agreement of the different parts, and the scope of the whole; especially to the fidl discovery they make of man's fallen and ruined state, and the way of salvation through a Redeemer; together with their power to enlighten and sanctify the heart, and the ac- companying witness of the Spirit in believers. But the more direct and conclusive evidence that the Scriptures were divinely inspired is found in the testimony of the writers themselves. As the writers did, by working mir- acles and in other ways, sufficiently autlienticate their divine commission, and establish their authority and in- fallibility as teachers of divine truth, their testimony, in regard to their own inspiration, is entitled to our full confidence. For who can doubt that they were as com- petent to judge and as much disposed to speak the truth on this subject as on any other? If, then, we ad- mit their divine commission and authority, why shoidd we not rely npon the plain testimony which they give concerning the divine assistance afforded them in their work? To reject their testimony in this case would be to impeach their veracity, and thus to take away the foundation of the Christian religion.
1. The prophets generally professed to speak the icord of God. What they taught was introduced and con- firmed by a " Thus saith the Lord ;" or " The Lord spake to me, saying." In one way or another they gave clear proof that they were divinely commissioned, and spdke in the name of God, or, as it is expressed in the New Testament, that God spake by them.
2. The Lord Jesus Christ possessed the spirit of wis- dom without measure, and came to bear witness to the truth. His works proved that he was what he declared himself to be— the Messiah, the great Prophet, the in- fallible. Teacher. The faith which rests on him rests on a rock. As soon, then, as we learn how he regarded the Scriptures, we have reached the end of our inquiries. His word is truth. Now every one who carefulty at- tends to the four Gospels will find that Christ every- where spoke of that collection of writings called the Scripture as the word of God; that he regarded the whole in this light ; that he treated the Scripture, and every part of it, as infallibly true, and as clothed with divine authority — thus distinguishing it from every mere human production. Nothing written by man can be entitled to the respect which Christ showed to the Scriptures. This, to all Christians, is direct and incon- trovertible evidence of the divine origin of the Scrip- tures, and is by itself perfectly conclusive.
3. But there is clear concurrent evidence, and evi- dence still more specific, in the writings of the apostles. Particularly in one passage (2 Tim. iii, IG), Paid lays it down as the characteristic of " all Scripture" that it "m given by inspiration of God"' {BtoTTViimrog, " divinely insi)ired") ; and from this results its profitableness. Some writers think that the passage should be rendered
thus: Ml dirbirl,, being dircnc/,/ iu.yiir,,/, /x jirojltiihlr, common rendering, iuspiratiuu Is [iredicated of all Scrip- ture. According to the other, it is presupposed as the
, or, (dl Scripture, According to the
INSPIRATION
013
INSPIRATION
attribute of the subject. But this rendering is hablc to insuperable objections. For OiOTrvivaTOC and ucptXii^iui; are connected by the conjunction Kai, and must both be predicates, if either of them is ; and unless one of them is a predicate there is no complete sentence. Hender- son remarks that the mode of construction referred to '•is at variance with a common rule of Greek syntax, which requires that when two adjectives are closely joined, as BioirvevaTog and w^f Ai/nof here are, if there be an ellipsis of the substantive verb tor/', this verb must be supplied after the former of the two, and re- garded as repeated after the latter. Now there exists precisely sucli an ellijjsis in the case before us ; and as there is nothing in the context which woidd lead to any exception to the rule, we are bound to yield to its force." He adds that " the evidence in favor of the common rendering, derived from the fathers, and almost all the versions, is most decided." It cannot for a moment be admitted that the apostle meant to signify that divine inspiration belongs to a part of Scripture, but not to the whole ; or that he meant, as Semler supposes, to furnish a criterion by which to judge whether any work is in- spired or not, namely, its utiliti/. •' That author pro- ceeds fearlessly to apply this criterion to the books of the Old Testament, and to lop off eight of them as not possessing the requisite marks of legitimacy. Jlany of the German divines adopt Semler's hypothesis." But it is very manifest that such a sense is not by any means suggested by the passage itself, and that it is utterly precluded by other parts of the New Testament. For neither Christ nor any one of his apostles ever intimates a distinction between some parts of Scripture which are inspired and other parts which are not inspired. The doctrine which is plainly asserted in the text under consideration, and which is fully sustained by the cur- rent language of the New Testament, is, that all the icritings denominated the Scriptures are divinely inspired. ■\Vhat particular books have a right to be included un- der this sacred designation in the general opinion of the Church is a question considered under the article Can- on OF Scripture.