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Against All Odds

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Against All Odds

Category Archives: inspiration

Infallibility of Scripture: Preservation and Preparation

05 Friday Dec 2014

Posted by Prime Theologian in Infallibility, inspiration, preservation

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Infallibility, inspiration, preservation

When considering the inspiration and “God-ness” of the Bible, bear in mind that accounting for the human side of the inspiration/preservation process is not a denial of the divine origin of the content of Scripture. Rather, maintaining some measure of proportionality between the divine and human nature of the text is “an accounting for how the Bible is God’s word,” not a denial of it. What we have to get at is how Scripture is both a divine Word (from God) and a human Word (through man in history). The danger of affirming Scripture as God’s Word without accounting for the human side is that it denies God’s own choice and activity in how God delivered His Word to man. The scope of our theory of inspiration must be about to discuss and unpack (to some degree) how the biblical authors are not only chosen to write but are also prepared for that task. If we don’t do this, we will end up affirming a theory that is unhappily dictation-like: God just takes them over and those humans end up becoming nothing more than a pen. It is problematic to hold such a view because the biblical data is not represented in any substantial way. For instance, Jeremiah curses the day he was born and wishes that the man who brought the news to his father would be cursed as well (Jer. 20:14 – 15). If we say that Jeremiah is only a pen, then how are we to attribute these words to the Spirit? If, however, we can include God’s preparatory work of the authors — not divesting them of their words — then we can attribute these words to Jeremiah as expressing His ongoing relation to God the Spirit in and through such turmoil. These words only arise in the way they do because Jeremiah is taking his responses and cues from God in his relationship with God. In this way, we might be able to find a way forward in explaining how those words are God’s word instead of just vainly saying that those words are God’s word (denying any contribution from Jeremiah) without any clear way how that could be the case. God does not drop the Bible from heaven, but He does give it in and through the historical conditions man is subject to. This is God’s choice, and we have to honor it. As pious as it sounds to affirm Scripture as God’s word while denying or disregarding its human characteristics and limitations is actually a heresy called “Docetic Bibliology,” which means something like “only a divine Bible.” Docetism is the ancient heresy of the denial of the humanity of Jesus; Jesus is both God and man, not one or the other and not a mixture of the two. The same heresy occurs when we deny the humanity of Scripture. If we take Christ as our precedent who was 100% man and 100% God — and I believe we should — then we should formulate Scripture in a similar way: it is divine, delivered through historical processes proper to humanity. It may be one of the sad facts of our contemporary situation that the conservative Christians are practically docetic in their understanding of both Christ and the Bible (only 100% divine) with little regard for the humanity while more liberal Christians are happy to hold to the 100% humanity of both Jesus and the Bible forgetting its divine side (heresy of Samosasta). Both are heresies and subtle denials of how God has manifested Himself to us by virtue of Scripture and the Spirit who enables us to take Scripture to heart.

Dr. Scalise

Infallibility of Scripture: The Church Father Origen’s Thoughts

30 Sunday Nov 2014

Posted by Prime Theologian in Infallibility, inspiration, Origen, Scripture

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Hexapla, Infallibility, inspiration, Origen, Scripture

Continuing on with this discussion about infallibility, inerrancy, and inspiration, Origen has a bit to say about this. Although some of Origen’s theology and perhaps interpretive principles are less than applaudable, his work as a textual critic and biblical scholar is of highest praise. He worked from the late 2nd century A.D. to the mid 3rd century (roughly 185 – 250), and other immeasurably important Church Fathers admired Origen in respect to his great learning and copious understanding of biblical manuscripts and scribal practice of copying: Jerome, Athanasius, and Gregory Nazianzen are known to laud Origen at one place or another in this way. Origen may be best known for his Hexapla, a six column (or seven some speculate) Old Testament, laying out the various versions of the OT in Hebrew and Greek. The first column had Hebrew, the second was a transliteration of the Hebrew in Greek, the third and fourth were of Greek translations of the OT by two prominent Jews (and maybe one was a Christian), the 5th was the LXX (the early Church’s most respected version of the OT), and the 6th was another translation from Hebrew into Greek that was similar to the LXX. Origen certainly knew if there were textual variations among these, and he had the learning to speak about these things with authority, having spent twenty-seven years of his life creating the Hexapla.

Origen speaks about textual variations in detail in a letter he writes to Africanus. He writes, “But why should I enumerate all the instances I collected with so much labour, to prove that the difference between our copies and those of the Jews did not escape me? In Jeremiah I noticed many instances, and indeed in that book I found much transposition and variation in the readings of the prophecies. . . . And, forsooth [truly], when we notice such things, we are forthwith [immediately] to reject as spurious [counterfeit] the copies in use in our Churches, and enjoin the brotherhood to put away the sacred books current among them, and to coax the Jews . . . to give us copies which shall be untampered with, and free from forgery [Origen is being sarcastic here]! Are we to suppose that that Providence which in the sacred Scriptures has ministered to the edification of all the Churches of Christ had no thought for those bought with a price, for whom Christ died. . .” (Letter to Africanus sec. 4, cf. 2 – 5; Origen, First Principles 4.1.15, 27).

This should strike us as an odd way to argue since Origen is not put off by the variations and admits their existence. He didn’t see the variations as an obstacle but as further evidence for Scripture’s inspiration, as seen in his phrase, “sacred Scripture.” He is calling the early church’s Scripture, which he admits has differences from the Scripture as kept by the Jews, “sacred” which means he understands the variations to be within the Spirit’s providential work of leading the Church. He took the slight differences in the manuscripts as part of God the Spirit’s inspiration because the slight changes allowed for more edification of the Church. To this Church Father, inerrancy would be a denial of this way of understanding inspiration — and he was writing in the 2nd century (around 240 AD) — since the variations, as he understood it, were part of God’s plan and God the Spirit’s preserving work. I do not recommend this way of understanding these matters, but I note Origen’s position because of his excellent scholarship and for the sake of laying out many options for us to consider. Origen effectively reverses the issue: the inclusion of variation among the manuscripts was evidence of God the Spirit’s activity, not His absence. We usually think the opposite, that the more variation, the less likely it is that God the Spirit is present in overseeing the copies of the manuscripts. This is a shocking change up for sure!

Dr. Scalise

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