Chapter III. The Apostolic Deposit of Revelation

The doctrine concerning the Sources of Revelation was formally defined by the Council of Trent (sess. iv.) and the Vatican Council (sess. iii., chap. 2). At Trent the principal object was to assert, in opposition to the early Protestants, the equal value of Oral and Written Tradition. As regards the Holy Scriptures, the controversial importance of which was rather overrated than otherwise by the Protestants, the Council had only to define their extent and to fix upon an authentic text. But the Vatican Council had to assert the Divine character of Scripture, which was not contested at the time of the earlier Council. Both Councils, however, declared that the Written Deposit was only one of the sources of theological knowledge, and that it must be understood and explained according to the mind and tradition of the Church.

§ 16. Holy Scripture the Written Word of God

I. The “Sacred and Canonical Books,” i.e. the definitive collection of the authentic documents of Revelation preserved and promulgated by the Church, have been considered in recent times by writers tinged with rationalistic Protestantism, as being documents of Revelation merely because the Church has acknowledged them to be historically trustworthy records of revealed truth. This, however, is by no means the Catholic doctrine. The books of Holy Scripture are sacred and canonical because they are the Written Word of God, and have God for their Author, the human writers to whom they are ascribed being merely the instruments of the Holy Ghost, Who enlightened their minds and moved their wills, and to a certain extent directed them as an author directs his secretary.

1. The Council of Trent had declared that the whole of the books of the Old and New Testaments with all their parts were to be held as sacred and canonical. To this the Vatican Council adds: “The Church doth hold these [books] for sacred and canonical, not because, after being composed by merely human industry, they were then approved by her authority; nor simply because they contain Revelation without any error: but because, being written under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, they have God for their author, and as such have been handed down to the Church.” And even before the Council of Trent the Council of Florence had said, “[The Holy Roman Church] professeth that one and the same God is the author of the Old and the New Testaments, because the holy men of both Testaments spoke under the inspiration of the same Holy Ghost” (Decret. pro Jacobitis). Again, the Council of Trent takes the Divine origin of Scriptures for granted when it says, “The Holy Synod receiveth and venerateth with like devotion and reverence all the books both of the Old and New Testament, since the one God is the author of both.”

2. The doctrine defined by the councils is likewise taught in Holy Scripture itself. Christ and His Apostles when quoting the Old Testament clearly imply that God is the author. “The Scripture must needs be fulfilled which the Holy Ghost spoke before by the mouth (διὰ στόματος) of David” (Acts i. 16). “David himself saith in the Holy Ghost” (Mark xii. 36; Matt. xxii. 43). Sometimes instead of “the Scripture saith” we find “God saith,” where it is the sacred writer who is speaking (Heb., passim). St. Paul distinctly declares that all Scripture is “breathed by God,” πᾶσα γραφὴ θεόπνευστος (2 Tim. iii. 16). St. Peter also speaks of the Prophets as instruments in the hands of the Holy Ghost: “No prophecy of Scripture is made by private interpretation; for prophecy came not by the will of man at any time, but the holy men of God spoke inspired by the Holy Ghost, ὑπὸ Πνεύματος ἁγίου φερόμενοι (2 Pet. i. 20, 21). This last text, it is true, applies primarily to prophecies strictly so called (foretelling events to come), but it refers also to the whole of the teaching of a Prophet, because he speaks in the name and under the influence of God (cf. 1 Kings x. 6; Mich. iii. 8).

3. The Fathers from the very earliest days taught the Divine authorship of Scripture.

(a) “The Divine Scriptures,” “the Divine Oracles,” “the Scriptures of God,” “the Scriptures of the Lord” are the usual phrases by which they expressed their belief in Inspiration. “The Apostle moved by that Spirit by Whom the whole of Scripture was composed” (Tertull., De Or., 22). Gelasius (or, according to Thiel, Damasus) says that the Scriptures were composed “by the action of God.” And St. Augustine: “God having first spoken by the Prophets, then by Himself and afterwards by the Apostles, composed also the Scripture which is styled canonical” (De Civit. Dei, xi. 3). Origen, too, says that “the Scriptures were written by the Holy Ghost” (Præf. De Princ., nn. 4, 8). Theodoret (Præf. in Ps.) says that it does not matter who was the human writer of the Psalms, seeing that we know that they were written under the active influence of the Holy Ghost (ἐκ τῆς τοῦ Πνεύματος ἁγίου ἐνεργείας). Hence the Fifth General Council (the second of Constantinople) calls the Holy Ghost purely and simply the author of Holy Writ, and says of Theodore of Mopsuestia that he rejects the book of Job, “in his rage against its author, the Holy Ghost.” The Fathers frequently call the Bible “an epistle from God.” “What is Scripture but a sort of letter from Almighty God to His creature?” … “The Lord of Heaven hath sent thee His letters for thy life’s sake… . Study therefore, I pray thee, and meditate daily upon the words of thy Creator” (Greg. M., lib. iv., ep. 31). Further, the Scriptures are words spoken by God: “Study the Scriptures, the true words of the Holy Ghost” τὰς ἀληθεῖς ῥήσεις Πνεύματος τοῦ ἁγίου (Clem. Rom. ad Cor. i., n. 45). “The Scriptures were spoken by the Word and His Spirit” (Iren., Adv. Hæres, lib. ii., cap. 28, n. 2). Hence the manner of quoting them: “The Holy Ghost saith in the Psalms” (Cypr., De Zelo, n. 8). “Not without reason have so many and such great peoples believed that when [the sacred writers] were writing these books, God spoke to them or through them” (Aug., De Civit. Dei, xviii. 41).

(b) The Fathers also determine the relation between the Divine author of Scripture and the human writer. The latter is, as it were, the secretary, or the hand, or the pen employed by God—analogies which are set forth in the following well-known passages. “[Christ] by the human nature which He took upon Himself is the Head of all His disciples, who are, as it were, the members of His body. Hence when they wrote what He manifested and spoke, we must by no means say that it was not He Who wrote, for His members have done what they learnt from the orders of their Head. Whatever He wished us to read concerning His words and works He ordered them, His hands, to write down. Any one who rightly understands this union and this ministry of members performing in harmony their various functions under one head, will receive the Gospel narrative as though he saw the hand of the Lord writing, the very hand which belonged to His own body” (Aug., De Cons. Evang., l. i., c. 35). “It is quite useless to inquire who wrote this, since the Holy Ghost is rightly believed to be the author of the book. He therefore Who dictated it is the writer; He is the writer Who was the Inspirer of the work and Who made use of the voice of the [human] writer to transmit to us His deeds for our imitation. When we receive a letter from some great man, and know from whom it comes and what it means, it is folly for us to ask what pen he wrote it with. When therefore we learn something, and know that the Holy Ghost is its author, any inquiry about the writer is like asking about the pen” (Greg. M., In Job, præf.). And St. Justin compares the human writer to a lyre played upon by God through the action of the Holy Ghost (Cohort. ad Græcos, n. 8).

(c) From this dependence of the human writer on the Holy Ghost, the Fathers infer the absolute truth and wisdom of every, even the minutest, detail of Scripture. “We who extend the perfect truthfulness of the Holy Ghost to the smallest lines and letters (ἡμεῖς δὲ οἱ καὶ μέχρι τῆς τυχούσης κεραίας καὶ γραμμῆς τοῦ Πνεύματος τὴν ἀκρίβειαν ἕλκοντες) do not and dare not grant that even the smallest things are asserted by the writers without a meaning” (Greg. Naz., Orat., ii., n. 105). And the following passage of St. Augustine is especially worthy of notice: “I acknowledge to your charity that I have learnt to pay only to those books of Scripture which are already called canonical, this reverence and honour, viz. to believe most firmly that no author of them made any mistake, and if I should meet with anything in them which seems to be opposed to the truth, not to doubt but that either the codex is incorrect, or that the translator has not caught what was said, or that my understanding is at fault” (Ep. ad Hieron., lxxxii. [al. 19.] n. 3).

II. The Catholic Church expressly teaches that God is the author of the Holy Scriptures in a physical sense. That God may be the author of Scripture in a physical sense, and that Scripture may be the Word of God as issuing from Him, it is not enough that the Sacred Books should have been written under the merely negative influence and the merely external assistance of God, preventing error from creeping in; the Divine authorship implies a positive and interior influence upon the writer, which is expressed by the dogmatic term Inspiration.

Although a negative assistance, preserving from error, such as is granted to the Teaching Apostolate, is not enough for the physical authorship of Holy Scripture, yet, on the other hand, a positive dictation by word of mouth is not required. The sacred writers themselves make no mention of it; nay, they expressly state that they have made use of their own industry; and the diversity of style of the different writers is distinctly opposed to it. Of course, when something previously unknown to the writer has to be written down by him, God must in some way speak to him; nevertheless, Inspiration in itself is “the action of God upon a human writer, whereby God moves and enables the writer to serve as an instrument for communicating, in writing, the Divine thoughts.” Inspiration arises in the first instance from God’s intention to express in writing certain truths through the instrumentality of human agents. To carry out this intention God moves the writer’s will to write down these truths, and at the same time suggests them to his mind and assists him to the right understanding and faithful expression of them. The assistance has been reduced by some theologians to a mere surveillance or watching over the writer; but the stress laid by the Fathers on the instrumental character of the writers in relation to God, and the Scriptural expression, ὑπὸ τοῦ Πνεύματος ἁγίου φερόμενοι, are plainly opposed to it (cf. St. Thom. 2a 2æ, q. 174, a. 2). The diversity of style in the different books is accounted for by the general law, that when God employs natural instruments for a supernatural purpose, He does not destroy their natural powers, but adapts them to His own purpose.

III. 1. Though the Bible is not mere history or mere literature, it nevertheless has to do with history, and it is literature in the highest sense of the word. It has a human element as well as a Divine element; and how far the books are human and how far Divine is the great Scripture problem. The two elements are united somewhat after the fashion of the soul and the body. Just as the soul is present in every part of the body, so too the action of the Holy Ghost is present in every part of Scripture. But the Schoolmen went on to say that though the soul is whole and entire in every part of the body, it does not exercise all its powers in each and every part, but some powers in some parts and other powers in other parts. Hence we must not restrict Inspiration to certain portions of Scripture.¹ On the other hand, the action of the Holy Ghost is not necessarily the same throughout.

2. When it is said that God is the Author of the Sacred Books, we must not take this in the same sense as when it is said that Milton is the author of Paradise Lost. This would exclude any human authorship. The formula was originally directed against the Manichæans, who held that the Evil Spirit was the author of the Old Testament.

3. The Church has never decided the question of the human authorship of any of the Books. There may be a strong opinion, e.g., that Moses wrote the Pentateuch, or that the whole of the Book of Isaias was written by the Prophet of that name; but no definition has ever been given.

4. We cannot admit that the Sacred Author Himself has been guilty of error.² He may, however, make use of a story, not necessarily history, for the purpose of teaching some dogmatic principle or pointing some moral lesson. Again, He must adapt Himself to the circumstances of those whom He addresses. If He acted otherwise, He would fail to be understood. As St. Jerome says (In Jerem. Proph. xxviii.): “Multa in Scripturis Sanctis dicuntur secundum opinionem illius temporis quo gesta referuntur, et non juxta quod rei veritas continebat.”³ And St. Thomas (I, q. 70, a. 1): “Moyses autem rudi populo condescendens, secutus est quæ sensibiliter apparent.”⁴

5. On the Catholic canon of Scripture, see Franzelin, De Script., sect. ii.; Loisy, Hist. du Canon de l’A.T.; Hist. du Canon du N.T.⁵

§ 17. Holy Scripture as a Source of Theological Knowledge

I. Holy Scripture, being the work of God Himself, far surpasses in value and excellence any human account of Revelation. The Old Testament is inspired by the Holy Ghost, “Who spake by the Prophets,” as well as the New. Both are of equal excellence, and form together one general source of theological knowledge. The Old Testament is not a mere history of Revelation. It contains a fuller exposition of many points of Faith and morals than the New; it is as it were the body of which the New Testament is the soul: the two pervade and complete each other.

II. There are two fundamentally distinct senses in Holy Scripture: the Literal, conveyed by the words, and the Spiritual, conveyed by the things expressed by the words, whence it is also called Typical. The former is that intended by the human writer, and conveyed by the letter of the text. The Spiritual Sense has its foundation in the all-embracing knowledge of the Holy Ghost, Who inspired the writer. Sentences and even single words written under Divine direction have, in some circumstances, a significance beyond that which they would convey if they were of merely human origin. An historical fact, an institution, a precept, may stand isolated in the mind of the writer, whereas in the mind of God it may be related to other facts and truths, as a type, a confirmation, or an illustration. These relations are the basis of the Spiritual Sense of Scripture. We derive our knowledge of them from the things expressed by the words, and from the words themselves. Thus, to us the spiritual sense is mediate, but to the Holy Ghost it is immediate.

From these different senses of Holy Scripture it follows that a text is capable of many interpretations. All of them, however, must be based upon the Literal Sense. A text may have several spiritual or mediate meanings, but usually only one Literal Sense. Many applications of the Sacred Text commonly adopted by the Church may be regarded as belonging to the Mediate Sense, i.e. as being foreseen by the Holy Ghost, although in purely human writings such interpretations would appear to be distortions. Familiar instances are the passages Prov. viii. and Ecclus. xxiv. as applied to the Blessed Virgin.

A demonstrative argument that a certain doctrine is revealed can be obtained from any sense demonstrably intended by the Holy Ghost, whether literal, or logically inferred from the literal, or purely spiritual. The Literal Sense affords the most obvious proof. Where, however, the language is figurative, the meaning of the figure must be ascertained before an argument can be drawn from it. The Inferential Sense is equal in demonstrative force to the Literal Sense, but in dignity it is inferior because only intended, and not directly expressed by the Holy Ghost. The Spiritual Sense likewise offers a cogent argument, provided that the relation between the type and the thing typified be either directly stated in the Literal Sense or contained in it as an evident consequence. Indirectly, the Spiritual Sense acquires demonstrative force from explanations given in Scripture itself or handed down by Apostolical Tradition. Such explanations are often insufficient to determine the Spiritual Sense with complete certainty, and give us only probabilities. Sometimes a number of them, taken together, form a strong argument. See Wiseman’s Essays: Miracles of the New Testament, where arguments in favour of many Catholic doctrines are drawn from the typical signification of various miracles.

The principal object of Holy Scripture is to give us certain knowledge of Revelation. But the constant practice of the Church has made it serve another purpose, which, however, is quite in keeping with the former. In the book of nature we have a faithful though imperfect image of God’s Wisdom, but in the Inspired Books the defects are remedied, and a more perfect representation is set before us, destined to kindle in our minds a manifold knowledge of the supernatural world. This purpose is attained by that sense and interpretation of Holy Writ, whereby we gather from the Sacred Text pious considerations and suggestions, not necessarily intended by the Holy Ghost in the precise form which they take in the reader’s mind, and yet not wholly arbitrary.

III. The careful study and comparison of different passages of Holy Scripture throws great light on the dogmatic teaching of the Church; and, on the other hand, a sound knowledge of this teaching gives us a deeper insight into the Written Word. Theological Exegesis far surpasses mere philological criticism, and attains results beyond the reach of the latter. Scripture, for instance, tells us that God has a Son, and that this Son is the Word, the Image (Figure), the Mirror, the Wisdom of His Father. The combination and comparison of these expressions are of great help towards understanding the Eternal Generation of the Son; and, on the other hand, the theological knowledge of generation is the only basis of an accurate interpretation of these expressions.

Notes