Program / Course 17: Defending Scripture / Lesson 1.2
What you will learn
- Describe at least four models of how God is thought to have inspired the biblical authors.
- State how Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant teaching each speaks about inspiration.
- Explain the main objection to each model in terms its supporters would accept as fair.
- Choose a model for study purposes and say what it does and does not explain.
The big idea
Christians agree that Scripture is inspired but they have never agreed on a single theory of how that happened. Some models stress God’s control over the words. Others stress the human authors’ own voices, or the community in which the books were shaped. Each model tries to protect two truths: that the Bible is God’s word and that it is fully human writing. A good student can state each model fairly, say what worry it answers, and say where it faces difficulty.
Key terms
- Dictation theory
- The model in which God is pictured as giving the words and the human author as writing them down. It is rarely held in a strict form today.
- Verbal plenary inspiration
- The view that inspiration extends to the very words (verbal) and to all parts of Scripture (plenary), while still working through the authors’ personalities.
- Concursus
- A Latin term for the idea that God and the human author both act in one writing, so that the text is fully divine and fully human.
- Dynamic inspiration
- The view that God guided the thoughts and purposes of the authors, who then expressed them in their own words.
- Accommodation
- The idea that God speaks to human beings in forms they can understand, adapting to their language and knowledge.
- Tradition
- In Catholic and Orthodox use, the living handing on of the faith in the church. It includes worship, teaching and the reading of Scripture.
- Magisterium
- In Catholic teaching, the church’s teaching authority, exercised by the pope and the bishops, which interprets Scripture and Tradition.
Background
The early church inherited from Judaism a respect for the written word and from the apostles the habit of reading the Old Testament as pointing to Christ. Early Christian writers such as Justin Martyr and Irenaeus speak freely of the Spirit speaking through the prophets, and sometimes use images such as a musician playing an instrument. These images were not worked out as theories. They describe reverence, not a method.
Detailed theories came later, mostly in reply to challenges. The Reformation put the question of the Bible’s authority at the center of Western Christianity. The rise of historical criticism in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries asked how a book written by people in particular times could also be God’s word. The models in this lesson are replies to that question. They are not rival creeds, and many Christians combine elements of more than one.
Step-by-step explanation
Step 1: Dictation and the strong control models
The simplest picture is that God told the authors what to write. Some early writers used language that sounds like this, and a few seventeenth-century Protestant writers came close to it. The model protects one concern: that the Bible is not merely human opinion.
Its weakness, which most of its recent defenders admit, is that the Bible shows different styles, vocabularies and personal circumstances. Luke tells us that he had investigated the events carefully (Luke 1:1-4), and Paul sometimes distinguishes his own judgment from a command of the Lord (1 Corinthians 7:10-12). A strict dictation model has to treat such details as part of what was dictated. Most Christians therefore speak of a looser form of control.
Step 2: Verbal plenary inspiration
This is the position of many conservative Protestants, set out in the nineteenth century by Princeton theologians such as Charles Hodge and Benjamin Warfield. It says that God so superintended the authors that the very words they wrote were what God intended, while the authors used their own personalities, research and styles. Hodge’s Systematic Theology gives a classic statement.
Supporters point to texts in which an argument turns on a single word or tense (for example Matthew 22:32 and Galatians 3:16). Critics say that these cases are few and that the model can seem to explain too much: if God guarantees every word, it is hard to account for variations among the Gospels or among manuscripts. Supporters reply that inspiration applies to the original writings, and that the differences can be studied and explained.
Step 3: Dynamic and personal models
Another family of models says that God inspired the persons, or their ideas, rather than guaranteeing the exact words. The authors are free witnesses. God guides them, but they write in their own way. Some thinkers also stress that inspiration includes editors and communities who collected and shaped the material, as when the Psalms and the Proverbs were gathered over time.
These models fit the evidence of human authorship well. Critics, including many conservative Protestants, answer that they risk making it unclear which parts of the text are God’s word and which are the author’s own opinion. Defenders respond that the church has always read the whole text as Scripture and that the question of how to separate the two is not the question the church has asked.
Step 4: Inspiration within the church
Catholic and Orthodox teaching tends to place inspiration within the life of the church. The Second Vatican Council’s constitution on revelation, Dei Verbum, says that God is the author of Scripture, that the human authors were true authors who used their own powers and abilities, and that Scripture is to be read in light of the whole church’s Tradition. This is a form of concursus: God and the human author act together.
Orthodox writers usually say that the Bible is an icon of God’s word, produced by the Spirit within the community that also worships and prays. They are cautious about elaborate theories and say that Scripture is read correctly only with the Fathers and in the liturgy. Protestant critics say that this puts too much weight on the church’s reading. Catholic and Orthodox critics reply that a book cannot interpret itself, and point to the many divisions among those who rely on the text alone.
Step 5: Stating a model fairly
A useful test is to ask what each model is trying to protect. Dictation protects God’s authority. Verbal plenary inspiration protects the trustworthiness of the words. Dynamic models protect the humanity of the authors. Church-centered models protect the unity of Scripture with worship and teaching. Each can be criticized, and each answers a worry that is reasonable. When you disagree with a model, begin by saying what its supporters are trying to protect.
- Which concern about the Bible, its divine authority or its human character, do you find yourself defending more readily?
- Why might a strict dictation model be attractive, and what evidence in the text makes it hard to hold?
- What is the difference between inspiration of the words and inspiration of the authors?
- How would you describe concursus to someone who has never heard the word?
- If a book cannot interpret itself, who should interpret it? How would a Protestant, a Catholic and an Orthodox Christian each answer?
- Which model do you think a skeptic would find hardest to criticize, and which easiest?
Examples
A letter with a personal note
In 1 Corinthians 7:12 Paul writes, “to the rest speak I, not the Lord,” and in verse 10 he says, “not I, but the Lord.” A strict dictation model has to explain why God would distinguish between his own words and the apostle’s. Concursus models say Paul speaks with his own judgment, which the church then receives as inspired.
The Gospels’ different tellings
Matthew, Mark and Luke tell some of the same events in different words. A verbal plenary view says each evangelist’s chosen words are inspired. A dynamic view says each evangelist is a free witness. A church-centered view stresses that the four were received together by the church.
An orchestra comparison
Some writers compare inspiration to a composer writing for particular instruments, so that the music fits each player. Others say the comparison makes the human authors sound like tools. The disagreement shows why comparisons help but do not settle the question. (A constructed illustration.)
Different perspectives
Catholic
Dei Verbum teaches that God is the author of the sacred books and that the human writers were true authors who used their own powers. Scripture is to be read in light of the unity of the whole Scripture, the living Tradition and the analogy of faith. The Magisterium has the task of authentically interpreting it.
Orthodox
Scripture is the church’s book, written by the Spirit through saints, and read within the liturgy and with the Fathers. Orthodox theologians generally speak of a mystery of cooperation between God and the human authors and avoid defining its mechanics. Some Orthodox writers also hold that the Septuagint has a special place in the church.
Protestant (Reformed and evangelical)
Many hold to verbal plenary inspiration, together with the inerrancy of the original writings. They stress that God works through the authors’ personalities, and that the Spirit gives the believer assurance of the Bible’s truth. The Westminster Confession and Hodge are standard statements.
Protestant (mainline and other)
Other Protestants speak of Scripture as the witness to the Word of God, a view associated with Karl Barth in the twentieth century. On this view the Bible becomes God’s word as the Spirit uses it, and the human fallibility of the authors is acknowledged more openly. Evangelical critics say this weakens the text’s authority.
Scholarly
Biblical scholars, whatever their own beliefs, tend to emphasize the long process in which many books were composed, revised and collected. The scholar’s evidence bears on theories of inspiration, but cannot by itself decide among them.
Why it matters
How a person pictures inspiration quietly shapes how they read. Someone who expects dictation may be disturbed by differences among the Gospels. Someone who expects only human reflection may overlook the claim of the text on the reader. Knowing the options lets you notice your own assumptions, and it lets you understand why intelligent Christians who respect the Bible can still disagree about how it should be read.
Common misunderstandings
Misunderstanding: Catholics and Orthodox Christians think the church is above Scripture.
Correction: Both traditions teach that the church serves the word of God. Dei Verbum says the teaching office is not above the word of God but serves it. The disagreement with Protestants concerns who interprets Scripture and how Tradition is related to it.
Misunderstanding: Protestants reject all tradition.
Correction: The Reformers rejected traditions that they believed contradicted Scripture but valued the creeds and the early Fathers. The principle of sola scriptura means that Scripture is the final norm, not that the church’s earlier reading is irrelevant.
Misunderstanding: Verbal plenary inspiration means God dictated the Bible.
Correction: Its defenders explicitly say that the authors used their own styles and sources. The claim is that God superintended the process so that the words written were those God intended.
Misunderstanding: If a model allows human error in the authors, the Bible is no longer God’s word.
Correction: Models that allow human limitation in the authors differ from one another. Some say God’s word comes through human limits, as God’s love came through a human life. Critics think this goes too far, and the debate is real.
Knowledge check
What is concursus?
Concursus is the idea that God and the human author both act in the writing of Scripture, so that the text is fully divine and fully human. It is used in Catholic and Reformed theology, though the details differ. It tries to avoid two extremes: the view that the author is only a secretary, and the view that the text is only human opinion.
What does verbal plenary inspiration claim?
It claims that inspiration reaches to the words of Scripture, not only the ideas, and to all parts, not only the religious teaching. The authors still used their own personalities, research and style. Supporters typically add that the claim applies to the original writings, and they connect it to the doctrine of inerrancy.
Why do few Christians hold a strict dictation theory?
The books show different vocabularies, styles and circumstances. Luke describes his research, and Paul distinguishes his own judgment from a command of the Lord. These details are hard to square with pure dictation. Most Christians who hold a strong view of inspiration therefore say God worked through the authors rather than replacing them.
How does Dei Verbum describe the human authors?
Dei Verbum, the Second Vatican Council’s constitution on divine revelation, teaches that God is the author of the sacred books and that the human writers were true authors who used their own powers and abilities. It adds that Scripture should be read in light of its unity, the living Tradition of the church and the harmony of the truths of faith.
Why might an Orthodox Christian avoid giving a theory of how inspiration works?
Orthodox theology tends to treat the cooperation between God and the human authors as a mystery rather than a mechanism to be explained. It also holds that Scripture is rightly understood within the church’s worship and Tradition, so it gives less weight to abstract theories about the text alone.
Think it through
- Which model seems closest to the way you now think about the Bible? What experience or argument led you there?
- How might your reading of a difficult passage change if you moved from one model to another?
- What would you want to ask a member of a tradition whose model you find least convincing?
Independent assignment
A comparison chart
In your own notebook, make a chart with four columns: model, what it protects, main objection, who holds it. Fill in at least five models from this lesson. Then write 200 to 300 words saying which model you find most convincing and which objection troubles you most. Do not send this to anyone or post it anywhere.
Further study
- Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology Read the section on inspiration for a classic Reformed statement of verbal inspiration.
- Catholic Church, Catechism of the Catholic Church Read the section on Sacred Scripture for the Catholic teaching on divine and human authorship.
- Origen, On First Principles (De Principiis) Read selectively on Origen’s account of the divine inspiration of Scripture.
- Alister E. McGrath, Christian Theology: An Introduction Use the chapters on Scripture as a neutral overview of the models.
- 1 Corinthians 7 Paul distinguishes his own judgment from a command of the Lord.
- Luke 1:1-4 Luke describes his careful investigation before writing.
- 2 Peter 1:21 Holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.