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Rembrandt's The Evangelist Matthew Inspired by an Angel.
Rembrandt's The Evangelist Matthew Inspired by an Angel. Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (July 15 1606 &ndash October 4 1669 was a Dutch painter and etcher.

Biblical inspiration is the doctrine in Christian theology concerned with the divine origin of the Bible and what the Bible teaches about itself. Christian Theology is discourse concerning Christian faith Christian theologians use biblical Exegesis, rational analysis and argument Divinity and divine (sometimes 'the Divinity' or 'the Divine' are broadly applied but loosely defined terms used variously within different faiths and belief systems — Etymology According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, the word bible is from Latin biblia, traced from the same word through Medieval Latin and Late Latin

Contents

Etymology

The word inspiration comes by way of the Latin and the King James[1]

c. Latin ( lingua Latīna, laˈtiːna is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. 1303, "immediate influence of God or a god," especially that under which the holy books were written, from O. Fr. inspiration, from L. L. inspirationem (nom. inspiratio), from L. inspiratus, pp. of inspirare "inspire, inflame, blow into," from in-"in" + spirare "to breathe" (see spirit). Inspire in this sense is c. 1340, from O. Fr. enspirer, from L. inspirare, a loan-transl. of Gk. pnein in the Bible. General sense of "influence or animate with an idea or purpose" is from 1390. Inspirational is 1839 as "influenced by inspiration;" 1884 as "tending to inspire. "

found in 2 Tim 3. The Second Epistle to Timothy is one of the three Pastoral Epistles, traditionally attributed to Saint Paul, and is part of the canonical New Testament 16-17: "All scripture is given by inspiration of God [theopneustos], and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works. "

Theopneustos is rendered in the Vulgate with the Latin divinitus inspirata ("divinely breathed into"), but some modern English translations opt for "God-breathed" (NIV) or "breathed out by God" (ESV) and avoid inspiration altogether, since its connotation, unlike its Latin root, leans toward breathing in instead of breathing out. The Vulgate is an early Fifth Century version of the Bible in Latin, and largely the result of the labours of Jerome, who was commissioned by English is a West Germanic language originating in England and is the First language for most people in the United Kingdom, the United States The New International Version is an English Translation of the Christian Bible. This word has distinct meanings in other fields see Connotation (semiotics and Connotation and denotation. Inhalation (also known as respiration) is the movement of air from the external environment through the air ways and into the Alveoli.

The Church Fathers often referred to writings other than the documents that formed or would form the biblical canon as "inspired. The Church Fathers, Early Church Fathers, or Fathers of the Church are the early and influential theologians and writers in the Christian Church A Biblical canon or canon of scripture is a list or Set of Biblical books considered to be authoritative as Scripture by a particular religious "[2]

Basis for the doctrine

The Bible contains many passages in which the authors claim divine inspiration for their message, or report the effects of such inspiration on others. Etymology According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, the word bible is from Latin biblia, traced from the same word through Medieval Latin and Late Latin Besides the direct accounts of written revelation, such as Moses receiving the Ten Commandments, the Prophets of the Old Testament frequently claimed that their message was divine by the formula "Thus says the LORD" (for example, 1 Kgs 12:22–24;1 Chr 17:3–4; Jer 35:13; Ezek 2:4; Zech 7:9; etc. Revelation is the act of revealing or disclosing (see etymology or in the theological perception making something obvious and clearly understood through active or passive communication Moses ( Latin: Moyses,; Greek: grc Mωυσής in both the Septuagint and the New Testament; Arabic: ar موسىٰ The Ten Commandments, or Decalogue, are a list of religious and moral imperatives that according to Judeo-Christian tradition were authored by God and given In Western Christianity, the Old Testament refers to the books that form the first of the two-part Christian Biblical canon. ). The Second Epistle of Peter claims that "no prophecy of Scripture . The Second Epistle of Peter is a book of the New Testament of the Bible, traditionally ascribed to Saint Peter, but in modern times widely regarded as . . was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit" (2 Pet 1:20–21).

In addition, theological conservatives sometimes argue that Biblical inspiration can be corroborated by examining the weight of the Bible's moral teaching and its prophecies about the future and their fulfillment. Morality (from the Latin la moralitas "manner character proper behavior" has three principal meanings Bible prophecy, or " biblical prophecy " is the belief in prophecies in the Bible. Others maintain that the authority of the Church and its counsels should carry more or less weight in formulating the doctrine of inspiration.

An exception common to all the different views of inspiration is that, although the New Testament Scriptures quote, paraphrase, and refer to other works including other New Testament documents, the Septuagint (the Jewish translation of the Old Testament into Greek), including the Apocrypha, and the Greek writers Aratus, Epimenides, Menander, and perhaps Philo, none of the various views of inspiration teach that these referenced works were also necessarily inspired, though each teaches that the use and application of these other materials is inspired, in some sense. The Septuagint (ˈsɛptuədʒɪnt or simply " LXX " is the Koine Greek version of the Hebrew Bible, translated in stages between the Greek (el ελληνική γλώσσα or simply el ελληνικά — "Hellenic" is an Indo-European language, spoken today by 15-22 million people mainly This article is about the didactic poet There was also an Aratus of Sicyon and an Aratus son of Asclepius For the crab Genus, see Epimenides of Knossos ( Crete) (Greek) was a semi- mythical 6th century BC Greek seer and Philosopher - poet Menander ( Greek:, Menandros; ca 342&ndash291 BC Greek Dramatist, the best-known representative of Athenian New Comedy, was the son Philo (20 BC - 50 AD) known also as Philo of Alexandria (gr Φίλων ὁ Ἀλεξανδρεύς Philo Judaeus, Philo Judaeus of Alexandria

Views of the doctrine

Those Christians who receive the Bible as authoritative generally think that the Bible is "breathed out by God", because they think that the Bible itself explicitly states this. A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, a monotheistic Religion centered on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth God is the principal or sole Deity in Religions and other belief systems that worship one deity. The text usually quoted to support this belief is the above quote from Timothy 2. However religious liberals dispute that this understanding of the meaning of this passage is correct. C H Dodd wrote [3]that the passage should be rendered differently so that it reads "Every inspired scripture is also useful. . . " and this translation has been included in the New English Bible and Revised English Bible translations which are accepted by many mainstream Christian denominations. St Jerome's Vulgate translation, one of the best attested early translations of the Bible, uses a similar form of words[4], and this is a valid interpretation of the Greek. Different groups understand the meaning and details of inspiration in different ways.

Roman Catholic view

As summarized by Karl Keating,[5] the Roman Catholic apologetic for the inspiration of scripture first considers the scriptures first as a merely historical source, and then it attempts to derive the divinity of Jesus from the information contained therein, illuminated by the tradition of the Catholic Church and by what they consider to be common knowledge about human nature. Karl Keating (born 1950 a prominent Catholic Apologist and author is the founder and president of Catholic Answers, a lay apostolate of Catholic apologetics and Christology (from Christ and Greek grc -λογία -logia) is a field of study within Christian theology which is concerned with Common knowledge is what "everybody knows" usually with reference to the Community in which the term is used Human nature is the concept that there are a set of logical characteristics including ways of thinking feeling and acting that all 'normal' human beings have in common After offering evidence that Jesus is indeed God, they argue that his Biblical promise to establish a church that will never perish cannot be empty, and that promise, they believe, implies an infallible teaching authority vested in the church. Jesus of Nazareth (7–2 BC / BCE —26–36 AD / CE) They conclude that this authoritative Church teaches that the Bible's own doctrine of inspiration is in fact the correct one.

Protestant views

The Evangelical view

Evangelicals see the Bible as a truly human product whose creation was superintended by the Holy Spirit, preserving the authors' works from error without eliminating their specific concerns, situation, or style. Evangelicalism is a theological movement tradition and system of beliefs most closely associated with Protestant Christianity, which identifies with the Gospel In mainstream Christianity, the Holy Spirit or Holy Ghost is one of the three entities of the Holy Trinity which make up the single substance This divine involvement, they say, allowed the biblical writer to reveal God's own message to the immediate recipients of the writings and to those who would come later, communicating God's message without corrupting it. Some Evangelicals have sought to characterize the conservative or traditional view as verbal, plenary inspiration in the original manuscripts, by which they mean that every word (not just the overarching ideas or concepts) is meaningfully chosen under the superintendence of God.

Evangelicals acknowledge that there is textual variation between accounts of apparently identical events and speeches, which would seem to have God saying different things. Some of these differences are accounted for as deviations from the autographa that were introduced by copyists, while other cases are considered intentional deviations that were inspired by God for particular purposes (for instance, the Gospel of Matthew was intended to communicate the Gospel to Jews, while the Gospel of Luke was intended to communicate it to non-Jews). The Gospel of Matthew (Gk Κατά Ματθαίον Ευαγγέλιον is one of the four Canonical gospels in the New Testament and is a Synoptic gospel PLEASE TAKE NOTE************ The Gospel of Luke (Gk Κατά Λουκάν Ευαγγέλιον) is a synoptic Gospel, and is the third and longest of the four canonical Gospels of the

Many Evangelicals consider biblical inerrancy and/or biblical infallibility to be the necessary consequence of the Bible's doctrine of inspiration (see, for example, the Westminster Confession of Faith or the Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy), though not all do. Biblical inerrancy is the conservative evangelical doctrinal position that in its original form the Bible is totally without error and free from all contradiction Biblical infallibility is the theological term to describe the belief that the Bible is free from errors on issues of faith and practice while minor possible contradictions in history The Westminster Confession of Faith is a Reformed Confession of faith, in the Calvinist theological tradition The Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy was formulated in October of 1978 by more than 200 evangelical leaders at a conference sponsored by the International Council on Biblical

Criticism

At times this view has been criticized as tending toward a dictation theory of inspiration,[6] where God speaks and a human records his words. Dodd wrote that

The theory which is commonly described as that of "verbal inspiration" is fairly precise. It maintains that the entire corpus of Scripture consists of writings every word of which (presumably in the original autographs, forever inaccessible to us) was directly "dictated" by the Deity. . . They consequently convey absolute truth with no trace of error or relativity. . . No attempt will be made here to formulate an alternative definition of inspiration. . That I believe to be a false method. There is indeed no question about the original implications of the term: for primitive religious thought the "inspired" person was under the control of a supernatural influence which inhibited the use of his normal faculties

[7] The conservative view has been distinguished from the dictation theory, which none of the parties regard as orthodox. The word orthodox, from Greek orthodoxos "having the right opinion" from orthos ("right true straight" + doxa ("opinion

The Evangelical position has been criticized as being circular by non-Christians and as well as Christians such as Catholic and Orthodox authors, who accept the doctrine but reject the Protestant arguments in favor of it. In Logic, begging the question has traditionally described a type of Logical fallacy (also called petitio principii) in which the proposition The term Orthodox Christianity may refer to The Eastern Orthodox Church: the Eastern Christian churches of Byzantine These critics claim that the Bible can only be used to prove doctrines of biblical inspiration if the doctrine is assumed to begin with. [8] Some defenders of the evangelical doctrine such as B. B. Warfield and Charles Hodge, however, moved away from such circular arguments and "committed themselves to the legitimacy of external verification" to inductively prove the doctrine, though they placed some restrictions on the evidences that could be considered. Benjamin Breckinridge Warfield ( November 5, 1851 &ndash February 16, 1921) was the principal of Princeton Charles Hodge (1797 – 1878 was the principal of Princeton Theological Seminary between 1851 and 1878 Induction or inductive reasoning, sometimes called inductive logic, is the process of Reasoning in which the premises of an argument are believed [9] Others such as Cornelius Van Til, Gordon Clark, and John Frame have accepted circularity as inevitable in the ultimate presuppositions of any system and seek instead to prove the validity of their position by trancendental arguments related to consistency. Cornelius Van Til ( May 3, 1895 &ndash April 17, 1987) born in Grootegast, the Netherlands, was a Christian Gordon Haddon Clark ( August 31, 1902 &ndash April 9, 1985) was an American Philosopher and Calvinist John M Frame (born 1939 Pittsburgh PA) is an American Philosopher and Calvinist theologian especially noted for his work in In Philosophy, the adjective transcendental and the noun transcendence convey three different but related primary meanings all of them derived from the word's literal

The Modernist view

The Modernist (or liberal) view typically rejects the idea that the Bible is divinely inspired in a unique way. For liberal political views within Christianity see Christian left. For liberal political views within Christianity see Christian left. Some advocates of higher criticism who espouse this view even go so far as to regard the Bible as purely a product of human invention. Historical criticism or higher criticism is a branch of literary analysis that investigates the origins of a text as applied in Biblical studies it naturally However, most form critics, such as Rudolf Bultmann and Walter Brueggemann, still regard the Bible as a sacred text, just not a text that communicates the unaltered word of God. Form criticism is a method of biblical criticism that classifies units of scripture by literary pattern (such as parables or legends and that attempts to trace each type to its period Rudolf Karl Bultmann ( August 20, 1884 – July 30, 1976) was a German theologian of Lutheran background who Walter Brueggemann (born 1933 is an American Old Testament scholar and author They see it instead as true, divinely inspired theology mixed with foreign elements that can sometimes be inconsistent with the overarching messages found in Scripture and that have discernible roots in history, mythology, or ancient cultural/cultic practices. The word mythology (from the Greek grc μυθολογία mythología, meaning "a story-telling a legendary lore" This article does not discuss "cult" in the original sense of "veneration" or "religious practice" for that usage see Cult (religious practice As such, form critics attempt to separate the kernel of inspired truth from the husk that contains it, doing so through various exegetical methods. Exegesis (from the Greek 'to lead out' involves an extensive and critical interpretation of an authoritative text, especially of a Holy

The Neo-orthodox doctrine

The Neo-orthodox doctrine of inspiration is summarized by saying that the Bible is "the word of God" but not "the words of God". Neo-Orthodoxy can also refer to a form of Orthodox Judaism following the philosophy of " Torah im Derech Eretz " and can additionally refer to the It is only when one reads the text that it becomes the word of God to him or her. This view is a reaction to the Modernist doctrine, which, Neo-orthodox proponents argue, eroded the value and significance of the Christian faith, and simultaneously a rejection of the idea of textual inerrancy. Karl Barth and Emil Brunner were primary advocates of this approach. Karl Barth ( May 10, 1886 &ndash December 10, 1968) (pronounced "bart" a Swiss Reformed theologian was one Emil Brunner ( December 23, 1889 &ndash April 6, 1966) was an eminent and highly influential Swiss Theologian.

Other views

Historically, there have been other views of inspiration such as verbal dictation, which suggests that the writers of the Bible transcribed God's own words but which is not a commonly held view today. Verbal dictation describes a theory about how the Holy Spirit was involved with the people who first physically indited the Bible.

Another view is thought inspiration, which some say co-founder of the Seventh-day Adventist Church Ellen G. White advocated. Thought inspiration is a form of Divine inspiration in which revelation takes place in the mind of the writer as opposed to Verbal inspiration, in which the word The Seventh-day Adventist (abbreviated " Adventist " Church is a Christian denomination which is distinguished mainly by its observance

She wrote many times regarding the Bible that "the words are inspired".

"Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man. " Shall we be obedient to these inspired words that come sounding down the line to our time? [10]

I take the Bible just as it is, as the Inspired Word. I believe its utterances in an entire Bible. Men arise who think they find something to criticize in God's Word. They lay it bare before others as evidence of superior wisdom. These men are, many of them, smart men, learned men, they have eloquence and talent, the whole lifework [of whom] is to unsettle minds in regard to the inspiration of the Scriptures. They influence many to see as they do. And the same work is passed on from one to another, just as Satan designed it should be, until we may see the full meaning of the words of Christ, "When the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?" (Luke 18:8). [3]

She also wrote that the Bible was "dictated",[11] but not in the sense of a verbal voice. It is more like a special indwelling of the Holy Spirit, that only a select few in history have ever had. And even they are not continually under the control of the Holy Spirit, but only when they are speaking or writing under the Spirit's control can they be said to be "inspired", and the words produced by them coming directly from God. These words can be rightly called: "The Words of God". [12]

See also

References

  1. ^ http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=inspiration&searchmode=none Online Etymological Dictionary
  2. ^ See Bruce Metzger, The Canon of the New Testament. The doctrine of Scripture plays a vital role in the writings of John Calvin. Scientific foreknowledge in Sacred Texts is the belief that certain sacred texts document an awareness of the natural world that was later discovered by Technology and Science Bruce Manning Metzger ( 9 February, 1914, Middletown Pennsylvania – 13 February, 2007, Princeton New Jersey) was a professor
  3. ^ C H Dodd, 'The Authority of the Bible', Collins 1960
  4. ^ New Jerusalem Bible study edition- footnote 'e', page1967 Darton Longman Todd 1985. ISBN 0-232-52077-1
  5. ^ Proving Inspiration
  6. ^ C H Dodd, 'The Authority of the Bible', Collins 1960
  7. ^ C H Dodd, 'The Authority of the Bible', Collins 1960
  8. ^ Proving Inspiration
  9. ^ Theology Today - Vol 31, No. 4 - January 1975 - ARTICLE - Biblical Inerrancy: Are We Going Anywhere?
  10. ^ Youth Instructor July 18, 1895
  11. ^ The Great Controversy Between Christ and His Angels, and Satan and His Angels, chapter 30 - Spiritualism [1]
  12. ^ Testimonies for the Church, as quoted in "Inspiration of the Scriptures in the Writings of Ellen G. White" © P. Gerard Damsteegt. Journal of the Adventist Theological Society, 5/1 (1994):155-179. [2]

6. CH Dodd, 'The Authority of The Bible. '

Bibliography

External links

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