(2.) The meaning of the genitive in Trann Trpo(f>rjTt'ia ypa(l>r\Q (2 Pet. i, 20) seetns at first sight, anarthrous though it be, distinctly collective. "Every prophecy of (i. e. contained in) the Old-Test. Scripture." A closer examination of the passage will perhaps lead to a dif- ferent conclusion. The apostle, after speaking of the vision on the holy mount, goes on, "We have as some- thing yet firmer, the prophetic word" (here, probably, including the utterances of New-Test. ■Kpo<p7]Tai, as well as the writings of the Old Test.). So 6 irpo^i]TiKoQ \6yoQ is used by Philo of the words of Moses {Lff/. A l- leg. iii, 14; i, 95, ed. Mang.). He, of course, could rec- ognise no prophets but those of the Oil Test. Clement
of Rome (ii, 11) uses it of a prophecy not included in the canons. Men did well to give heed to that word. They needed one caution in dealing with it. They were to remember that no 7rpo(pijTeia ypcKpijg, no such prophetic utterance starting from, resting on, a ypa<pi], came from the ioia tTriXvcng, the individual power of interpretation of the speaker, but was, like the ypcKpi] itself, inspired. It was the law of 7rpo(p7]rtia, of the later as well as the earlier, that men of God spake " borne along by the Holy Spirit." So in the only oth- er instance in which the genitive is found (Rom. xv, 4), ('/ Trnp(iK\i]<ng twi' ypatpuiv is the counsel, admonition, drawn from the Scriptures. Aoyo^ TrapaKXijirtojg ap- pears in Acts xiii, 15 as the received term for such an address, the sermon of the S3'nagogue. napaK\r](ng itself was so closely allied with Tt-po^rjTHa (comp. Bar- nabas = v'wg Trpo<pi]rtiag —- v'log TrapaKXqiJEtog) that the expressions of the two apostles may be regarded as substantially identical.
3. In the plural, as might be expected, the collective meaning is prominent. Sometimes we have simply al ypa^al (Matt, xxi, 42 ; xxii, 29 ; John v, 39 ; Acts xvii, 11; 1 Cor. XV, 3). Sometimes Tranca a'l ypcKpai (Luke xxiv, 27). The epithets uyiai (Rom. i, 2), 7rpo0j;ri(cai (xvi, 2G), are sometimes joined with it. In 2 Pet. iii, 16 we find an extension of the term to the epistles of Paul; but it remains uncertain whether a'l Xonrai ypa- (pai are the Scriptures of the Old. Test, exclusively, or include other writings then extant dealing with the same topics. There seems little doubt that such writ- ings did exist. A comparison of Rom. xvi, 2G with Ephes. iii, 5 might even suggest the conclusion that in both there is the same assertion that what had not been revealed before was now manifested by the Spirit to the apostles and prophets of the Church, and so that the "prophetic writings" to which Paul refers are, like the spoken words of New-Test, prophets, those that reveal things not made known before, the knowledge of the mystery of Christ.
It is noticeable that in the 2d Epistle of Clement of Rome (ch. xi) we have a long citation of this nature, not from the Old Test., quoted as 6 irpcxpriTiKbg Xuyog (comp. 2 Pet.i, 19), and that in the 1st Epistle (ch. xxiii) the same is quoted as ») ypacpi]. Looking to the special fulness of the prophetic gifts in the Church of Corinth (1 Cor. i, 5; xiv, 1), it is obviously probable that some of the spoken prophecies would be committed to writing; and it is a striking coincidence that both the apostolic and the post -apostolic references are connected, first with that Church, and next with that of Rome, which was so largely influenced by it.
4. In one passage, tu \epa ypappara (2 Tim. iii, 15) answers to " The Holy Scriptures" of the A. V, Taken by itself, the word might, as in John vii, 15; Acts xxvi, 24, have a wider range, including the whole circle of Rabbinic education. As determined, however, by the use of other Hellenistic writers, Philo {Ler/. ad Caium, ii, 574, ed. Mang.), Josephus {Ant. Proem. 3, x, 10, § 4; Cont. Apion. i, 26), there can be no doubt that it is ac- curately translated with this special meaning.
SCRIPTURE, ArocKVPHAL. The books which we now call Apocryjdial were read in some of the early churches, but not in all. They were utterly forbidden in the Church of Jerusalem, as appears from Cyril {Catech. 4, n. 22, p. 66, 67), where he (lirects the catechumens to read no Apocryphal books, but onlv the canonical, which he names as they are now found in the Bible, with the exception of Revelation. The like determination was made for some other churches by the Council of Laodi- cea {C'lmc. Laodic. can. 59). In some churches they were allowed to be read with a mark of distinction, as books of piety and moral instruction, to edify the peo- ple ; but they were never named as inspired books, nor made nse of to confirm articles of faith. They were sometimes spoken of as canonical, taking that word in a large sense for such books as were in the rule, or can- on, or catalogue of books authorized to be read in the
SCRIPTURE, INTERP. OF 4^8 SCRIPTURE, INTERP. OF
Church. — Bingham, Christian Antiq. bk. xiv, ch. iii, § 15. See Apocrypha.
SCRIPTURE, Interpretation of, Jewish. We here present some details supplementary to the art. In- terpretation (q. v.).