Scripturalists, a term sometimes applied to Prot- estants on account of their fundamental doctrine that the Scriptures are the only sufficient rule of faith and obedience. The Jews also occasionally use the same word to denote those who reject the Mishna and adhere solely to the Old-Test. Scriptures.
Scripture (-HS, leihdb, Dan. x, 2\,7crilinf/, as else- where rendered; in the New Test, ypa^ij, of the same signification, but always rendered '"Scripture"). The chief facts relating to the books to which, individually and collectively, this title has been apjilied, will be found under Bible; Canon; and ScnirmtES, Hoi.y. It will fall within the scope of this article to trace the history of the word, and to determine its exact meaning in the language of the Old and New Tests. (In doing this we substantially adopt Plumtre's art. in Smith's Diet, of the Bible.')
1. It is not till the return from the Captivity that the word meets us with any distinctive force. In the ear- lier books we read of the law, the book of the law. In Exod, xxxii, K!, the commandments written on the tables of testimony are said to be " the writing of God" (ypaipt) Gfofi), but there is no special sense in the w(«d taken by itself. In the passage from Dan. x, 21 (r.'^X ~Pr3,^Sept. Iv .ypopj (iXijBdat;), where the .A. V. has "the Scripture of truth," the words do not probably mean more than " a true writing." The thought of t/ie Scripture as a whole is hardly to be found there : the statement there given was certainh' not a quotation from any Biblical book. The allusion doubtless is to the divine purposes, which are figurative- ly represented as a book of destiny (comp. Psa. cxxxix, 16 ; Kev. v, 1). See Book. This first appears in 2 Chron, XXX, 5, 18 (i?in32, Sept. Kara ti)i' ypa(p{]v — A. V, "as it was written"), and is probably connected with the profound reverence for the sacred books which led the earlier scribes to confine their own teaching to oral tra-
SCRIPTURE
477 SCRIPTURE, APOCRYPHAL
dition, and gave therefore to '• the wrltiiic;" a distinctive lire-eminence. See Sckiises. Tlie same feeling showed itself in the constant formula of quotation, " It is writ- ten," often without the aiklition of any words defining the passage quoted (Matt, iv, 4, G; xxi, 13; xxvi, 24). The Greek word, as will be seen, kept its ground in this sense. A slight change passed over that of the He- brew, and led to the substitution of another. The d^IlWS (ketfiubi in = \vnt\ngs), in the Jewish arrange- ment of the Old Test., was used for a part, and not the whole, of the Old Test, (the Ilagiographa [q. v.]), while another form of the same root (Jcethib) came to have a technical significance as applied to the text, which, though written in the MSS. of the Hebrew Scriptures, might or might not be recognised as keri, the right in- telligible reading to be read in the congregation. An- other word was therefore wanted, and it was foinid in the Mikra (X'np'3, Neb. viii,8), or "reading," the thing read or recited, recitation. (The same root, it may be noticed, is found in the title of the sacred book of Islam [A'or(!M = recitation].) This, accordingly, we fijid as the equivalent for the collective ypa(pal. The boy at the age of five begins the study of the Mikra, at ten passes on to the Mishna {Pirke Abol/i, v, 24). The old word has not, however, disappeared, and liir.sri, '• the writ- ing," is used with the same connotation (ibiJ. iii, 10).
2. With this meaning the word ypa<p!} passed into the language of the New Test. Used in the singular, it is applied chiefly to this or that passage quoted from the Old Test. (Mark xii, 10; John vii, 38; xiii, 18; xix, 37; Luke iv, 21; liom. ix, 17; Gal. iii, 8, et al.). In Acts viii, 32 (>'/ irtpio-x^i] Tijg ypa<p7]Q) it takes a some- what larger extension, as denoting the icriling of Isaiah ; but in ver. 35 the more limited meaning reappears. In two passages of some difficulty, some have seen the wider, some the narrower, sense.
(1.) Ylaaa ypci(pi) ^enTrvevrrTog (2 Tim. iii, IG) has been translated in the A. Y. "All Scripture is given by inspiration of (iod," as if ypa<p!], though without' the article, were taken as equivalent to the Old Test, as a whole (comp. ivuna oiKodofii), Eph. ii, 21 ; Tvaaa '\tpo- aoXvi-ia, Matt, ii, 3), and SrtoTn'tvaTog, the predicate asserted of it. This is doubtless the correct construc- tion. Even if we should retain the narrower meaning, however, we might still take ^eoTrnvcrTog as the pred- icate. "Every Scripture — sc. every separate portion — is divinely inspired." It has been urged, however, that this assertion of a truth, which both Paul and Timothy held in common, would be less suitable to tlie context than the assigning of that truth as a ground for the fur- ther inference drawn from it ; and so there is a large amount of authority in favor of the rendering, "Every ypafi]. being inspired, is also profitable ..." (comp. Meyer, Alford, Wordsworth, Ellicott, Wiesinger, ad loc). But this renders the latter clause luibalanced, and the Kai is evidently intended as a copulative, and not as a mere expletive adverb. There does not seem any ground for making the meaning of yf}a<pi) dependent on the adjective ^tonvtvyroQ (" every inspired writing"), as if we recognised a ypcKpi) not insiiired. The usus lo- quendi of the New Test, is uniform in this respect, and the word ypa<pi] is never used of any common or secular writing.