THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
old idea of inspiration, on the ground of its mantic content, apparently derived from a pagan source, by one which treats the Scriptures as venerable primitive documents; their value is decided by a historical judgment, which requires scientific investigation for its full validity. This limitation is balanced in some degree by the position given to the substance of the Bible, to the revelation of which it constitutes documentary evidence. Faith in this revelation is required in order to form a complete and perfect judgment of the Bible. The revelation works through the written word, though not as if this word were a direct product of the spirit of revelation. The written word is influenced by the ideas of the various periods, by defective conceptions, and by limited intelligence. It is the province of theological investigation to decide how far these influences have extended, in order to be able to designate the authoritative content or the permanent constituents of the revelation. It may not unnaturally be asked whether a purely documentary value will sufficiently explain the peculiar power and significance of the Scriptures in the history of the Church. From this point of view, Lipsius felt obliged to distinguish between the documentary character of the Bible, as the collection, officially made by the historical judgment of the Christian Church, of the records of its primitive spirit, and its religious significance resting on inspiration. According to this view, the Scripture is inspired because it is the historic record of the revelation in Christ, and at the same time the original witness of the salutary working of that revelation in the hearts of the first disciples, in which regard it is a product of the spirit of that revelation. That which is a permanent standard in it is not its outer form, on account of changing theological conceptions, but its inner content — that which remains after these outworn conceptions have been subtracted, as well as what may be referred to the personal limitations of its writers. It is imperative to separate the form from the content.
The attempt to explain the peculiar character of the Bible leads sooner or later to inspiration — i.e., to the belief that it owes this peculiar 7. The character to the operation of .the Spirit Bible and of God upon its origin. It would be Inspiration, easy, but unjustifiable, to deny inspiration on the assumption that this must necessarily mean mantic inspiration. In order to understand the manner of the operation of the Holy Spirit, it must be known what Scripture says of this operation on its own origin; and to understand this again, the meaning of Paul's question in Gal. iii. 2 must be apprehended. There is nothing to justify drawing a sharp dividing-line between the indwelling of the Holy Ghost and his special operation upon the origin of Scripture. And some other answer to the question as to the true nature of the Bible than that it is merely a record of revelation is obligatory. From this point Kahler proceeds, and makes possible a successful attempt to answer the question as to the nature and value of the Bible and the nature and manner of inspiration. According to him, the Bible (primarily the New Testament, the Old only in conjunction with it) is the record
of the fundamental Gospel of Christ and of salvation in him. In it exists the memorial of the primitive Christian assurance of salvation, intended to promote the salvation of the reader or hearer. This definition includes both the purpose and tbe content of the Bible, whereas that which reg <raa it as merely a record of revelation neglects its inmediate purpose, and moreover requires the f o • . , 1tion of a historical judgment, for which not e\ ■ y one is competent. No such equipment is requir d in order to know that the New Testament is p <marily the record of the fundamental Gospel f Christ, or that it bears the same witness of him ; s that with which Christianity began its conquerirg progress through the world. Whether men aie willing to accept this salvation, so attested, is another question; but this Gospel is the Christian proclamation, in regard to which man must tako one side or the other. This is the point so strongly insisted on by Frank, that every witness of Christ and of God's redeeming will is credible only in tha measure in which it is in harmony with or confirmed by the Scriptures. These have the power in a special way to create obligation and to make him guilty before God who rejects their message. This power, this authority, is independent of the recognition of them, and through it they show themselves to be in a unique measure filled with the Spirit of God. It is this connection between the Holy Ghost and the witness of the Bible to which (in harmony with the Scriptural expressions themselves) is given the name of inspiration. It is this operation of the Spirit that Paul means when he says (I Cor. ii. 13) that he speaks " not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth," and to which Christ himself refers when he tells his disciples (John xvi. 13) of the Spirit of truth that shall guide them " into all truth " — an operation which does not exclude, but empowers, the action of those who are to be the witnesses of the truth.
If the fact of inspiration is admitted in the sense of a special operation of the Holy Spirit on the
origin of the Scriptures, on the ground
8. Nature of their unique significance as the pri-
and mary record of the fundamental preach-
Method of ing of Christ, and their unique power
Inspiration, to impose obligation, the next question
which arises concerns the nature and method of this inspiration. To answer this, the first thing to notice is what this message tells — the redeeming acts of God in behalf of man, summed up and realized in Christ before the eye. It is with this that the entire Bible has to do. Its content is a history of the relations which have existed, or are to exist, between God and man, of the origin and execution of the plan of salvation. From this special connection between the Bible and the revelation of the redemption, faith easily perceives that its writers stand themselves in a special relation to the Holy Spirit. But of what nature this relation is can be determined only from the course of the history contained in their works, since it is a historical relation. Now, the relation varies with the period of history. The distinction between the Oldand New-Testament revelation is that between
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