The inspiration of the Bible. No Errors in Bible. Prejudiced critics lu Wti&Jjl ) v /rbe j > vfp> sa.-Hoo of + Bi ble f . \ wo t rrTrir. . . . f\B(Lb01l lOlfc^O The Inspiration of the Bible No Errors in Bible Prejudiced Critics The CatholicMind THE AMERICA PRESS Salt* 4847 Grand Central Terminal New York, N. Y. Volume XXII, No. 21 November 8, 1924 The Catholic Mind Volume XXII, No. 21 November 8, 1924 Published semi-monthly by The America Press, New York, N. Y. President, Richard H. Tierney; Secretary, Joseph Husslein; Treasurer, Gerald C. Treacy. StTd Q aS 1 SQe-rTd " cl A ass patter, October 22, 1914, at the Post Office at New York, N. Y., under the Act ofMarch 3, 1879. Acceptances for mailing at special rate of postage provided for in* Section 1103 Act ef October 3, 1917, authorized on June 29, 1913. Price 5 cents; $1.00 per year NUMBERS STILL TO BE HAD Excellent Pamphlets 1915 8. Was Shakespeare a Catholic ? 1920 7. Jesuit Morality Again. 10. The Orangeman’s Hymn of Hate. 12. 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Albert Power, S.J. Reprinted from the Melbourne “Tribune” I F one were to reckon up and estimate carefully all the various influences which have played a part in molding the Christian mind and character and in the development of our modern civilization, perhaps the most important of these influences would prove to be the belief of mankind in the inspiration of the Bible. Think for a moment of the part the Bible played in the world of pre-Christian thought! For hundreds of years before Christ came, the Books of the Old Testament, as we call them, were the source whence the Jews, both in Palestine and in their various scat- tered communities, drew their religious knowledge. The Hebrew Bible, and in later days the Greek Sep- tuagint Version, were the text book for children in their schools, their Book of Liturgy for the services in the Synagogue, their Ritual for the Divine worship in the Temple of Jersualem. When Christ came He adopted this Jewish Bible and completed it by adding to it His own Divine wis- dom : for the second part of the Bible which we call the New Testament is the record of the life, thoughts and teaching of Jesus of Nazareth along with the story of how His teaching and Personality affected the world around Him. From the days of Christ to our own, no book can be mentioned that has ex- ercised such extraordinary influence over men’s minds as this collection of writings. In the Catholic Church, the Bible has ever been the foundation of all other religious books whatsoever. The Missal or book for the celebration of Mass is al- most entirely a collection of passages or citations from the Bible, both Old and New Testaments. The Office Book or Breviary in like manner consists mainly of the Psalms and Commentaries on the Gospels. Her books of devotion, the writings of the Fathers, the theological treatises of the doctors and schoolmen, the apologetic writings and sermons of her preachers 301 302 INSPIRATION OF THE BIBLE a'l& all of them founded upon, interwoven with the thoughts, sentiments and language of the Bible. One significant fact shows the position which the Bible held in the religious life of the Church; when printing was invented, about the year 1450, the first book printed was the Vulgate or Latin Bible, and within fifty years no fewer than 150 editions of the Latin Vulgate had issued from the printing presses of Europe. (Grannan, “General Introduction to the Bible/’ V & I. p. 137). Books are produced to meet the demands of the public ; and we know that if a book is repeatedly issued it shows the public wants it. The “Reformation” At the time of the great religious upheaval of the sixteenth century, when other doctrines and dogmas were flung to the winds, faith in the Bible as the Word of God and the one reliable source of religious information was trumpeted forth as the principle on which the great “Reform” was to be based. Hence a new impetus was given to the printing and reading of the Bible : new translations were produced, not al- ways too faithful, it is true ; and many strange lib- erties were taken with the text—whole books be- ing sometimes cut out as uncanonical merely at the whim of a reforming editor. Luther, e.g., disliked the Catholic Epistle of St. James because St. James’ clear teaching about the necessity of good works clashed with Luther’s doctrine about salvation by faith alone : so he called it “an epistle of straw,” and rejected it from his Bible. But still for the time being the printing and study of the Bible in the vernacular was greatly increased and the Sacred Books became the staple reading of millions of folk all over the world. We shall see that this new found zeal and fervor about the Bible was in reality a snare leading men in the end to reject the Bible altogether. It happens to nations, as it happens to individuals, an exaggerated and unreasoning adhesion to one idea generally leads to a violent reaction in the opposite direction. Like Shakespeare’s character, those Protestants “protested INSPIRATION OF THE BIBLE 303 so much” about their love and reverence for the Biftle that one suspected their motive : and time has justi- fied the apprehension : for now, alas ! even the au- thorized ministers and preachers of the Reformed religions are publicly calling in question the inspira- tion and Divine character of the Bible : and actually re- gard the idea of its being an inspired book as one of those superstitions which must be discarded in the advancing light of scientific knowledge. However, this rationalistic attitude is largely the product of the past hundred years or so, and it is safe to state that up to the nineteenth century no book at all could be compared with the Bible in the influence it exercised on the thoughts and principles and lives of mankind. Secret of Influence of the Bible Now what is the secret of this influence ? How has the Bible secured this unique position in the estimation of the civilized world? The answer is a simple one : because men regarded the Bible as an inspired Book, as a set of writings produced under the action of the Holy Ghost, so that in those Books they believed that they possessed a collection of God’s own thoughts, of truths of morality and religion which God wished to place at the disposal of mankind for its guidance and instruction. In other words, the Bible was the only authentic book of informa- tion we possess, about God and the things of the other world. Its Answer to the Riddle of Life The question of man’s destiny is the supreme prob- lem of life, compared with which all other problems pale into insignificance. Modern unbelievers tell us the problem is insoluble. There is no answer to the Riddle of the Universe. “Hence let us eat, drink and be merry for to-morrow we die.” The Bible is occupied with this problem of man’s destiny and claims to offer a definite solution, and claims that this is the true solution inasmuch as it is supplied by the Master of all problems, God Him- self. And it is because a great multitude of mankind accepted that claim as genuine and believed the Bible 304 INSPIRATION OF THE BIBLE to be in very truth God's teaching about the soul and its destiny that the Bible has exerted such enor- mous influence and played such a wonderful part in the history of human thought. Now our purpose to-night is to examine this doc- trine of the inspiration of Scripture. It is one of the essential and fundamental doctrines of Catholicism, and I propose to deal with it under three headings : — (1) In the first place we shall explain the Catholic doctrine as to the nature of Biblical inspiration. And in explaining its nature we shall, I hope, set forth its reasonableness ; which is in some sense the main point of my discourse, since we are dealing with in- spiration inasmuch as it constitutes to many a “dif- ficulty” against Catholicism. (2) In the second place we shall discuss the grounds or reasons for asserting that the Bible is inspired. That is, we shall try to answer the question: how do you know that the Bible or any book in the Bible — or any writing whatsoever is inspired by God? And we shall show that in the Catholic Church alone is there given a reasonable answer to this question. (3) Lastly, we shall ask ourselves : What are the effects of inspiration? If you or I were inspired by God to write a book (as the Evangelists were), how would that book differ from one which we might \yrite without such inspiration? Does inspira- tion furnish a divine guarantee for the historic ac- curacy of every assertion in such a book? This, then, will be our triple division. First the nature of inspiration and its reasonableness : second- ly, the proof that it exists ; and lastly, its effects. Nature of Biblical Inspiration The word Inspiration is in constant daily use among us. We talk of an inspired article in the morning newspaper or the inspiration of the poet. It is derived from the Latin word inspirare, meaning to “breathe into” and the general idea expresses and represents a fact with which we are all familiar, viz., that one person may use another as the medium through which he expresses his thoughts. If you INSPIRATION OF THE BIBLE 305 call a messenger and instruct him to deliver a certain message for you, you are practising inspiration. The boy in delivering your message is acting as your spokesman, is transmitting your thoughts, and you, as principal agent, are responsible for the effects pro- duced by the message, he is merely your instrument even though he is also using his own power of free will and his own intellect. And if you could in some mysterious way control this messenger whilst actual- ly delivering the message in such wise that he would say exactly what you wished him to say and nothing else, then you would have almost an exact counter- part to the Divine Inspiration of the Scriptures. You see, there is nothing extravagant or unreason- able in the idea of inspiration. If you or I can send a message, convey an idea, impart information through the medium of another human mind and will, may not the Divine Mind also use human minds and wills to convey Its message to mankind? Let me now explain a little more fully the details of this teaching. Catholic doctrine states that the Books of the Bible have been written by men under the direct and immediate control and guidance of the Holy Spirit, so that the things they wrote are the thoughts which God wished to be presented to us as His thoughts and His message to us. In other words, the effect of inspiration is that God is truly the Author of Holy Scripture—which Doctrine is sum- med up in the statement: The Bible is the Word of God. When theologians analyze this more fully they assert that three elements go to constitute inspira- tion : (1) A supernatural impulse given by God to the will of the writer urging him to produce the book or writing in question. (2) A special supernatural light given to his intel- lect to enable him to select and set down the ideas which God wants to have written down : a kind of selective grace. Or, if necessary, God specially re- veals to the writer the facts or mysteries which He 306 INSPIRATION OF THE BIBLE would have communicated: although revelation is not essential to inspiration, as we shall see. (3) A special assistance given by God to the writer when actually writing to safeguard him against er- ror—so that he expresses exactly what God wants him to express. These three elements are required in order that the resulting document may truly be ascribed to God as its Author. What Formally Constitutes an Author We shall understand better why theologians re- quire these elements for inspiration if we examine more fully the idea of authorship. In the production of any writing or document three parts may be distin- guished. (1) The mere material or mechanical setting down of the writing or symbols that represent the sounds of human speech. The art of doing this well is called caligraphy. Not every one excels in this art, though we all aim at it to some extent at school when busy with our copy books. (2) The selection of the words to express certain ideas. One can express the same idea in various ways or in different languages, English, French, Latin, etc. (3) The furnishing the ideas underlying the words. These three elements may proceed from different individuals. One man may suggest the thought, an- other clothe it in words, and a third write or type or print it. Now, corresponding to this triple division one can distinguish a triple sense of the question : Who wrote this? If I hold up a document and ask, “Who wrote this ?” that may mean who put pen to paper and actual- ly wrote it out. This is what the question would mean if one were examining a child’s copy book. In that case the words chosen or the ideas expressed are of no consequence, only the formation of the letters. Secondly: “Who wrote this?” might mean “Who is responsible for the language employed?” So if I hold up a German Bible, and ask the question, the answer might be, “Martin Luther wrote it,” meaning that he INSPIRATION OF THE BIBLE 307 translated it. Such a translator is not the author of theni CaS bUt °f thC langua?e emPloyed to represent Lastly “Who wrote this?” means “Who is respon- se516 for the ideas contained in this book?” Even though the.actual version may be a translation into a language of which the original author knows nothin? Now, when we talk of a man being the author of a book, it is clear we do not mean that he actually penned or personally printed the book. Nor does it al- ways mean that he actually selected the words. Thus if a merchant tells his typist to write a letter to a customer, merely outlining the ideas to be embodied, but leaving the mode of expression to the typist the merchant is. truly the author of the letter. No’ one will ascribe it to the typist. So^alsol might say: “Listen to what St. Augustine says, and then read out a passage in modern English—a language of which St. Augustine never heard- it was not even in existence when he lived. Evidently I mean that Augustine is the author of the thoughts enshrined in this modern English dress. The word author then (Latin, auctor), means the person from whom the thing proceeds as its principal efficient cause. I say principal cause, which does not exclude the employing of subordinate instrumental causes to aid him in producing his work, whether those instruments are inanimate like a pen or a brush, or other rational beings, like a clerk or a typist. To say that John Smith is author of a book implies these two things. First, he it is that produced and arranged the ideas contained therein : he selected them, and as selected by him they represent what he wished to have written down. Secondly, he caused them to be written down, he gave the impulse that has resulted in their finding out- ward expression in writing., • God, the Author of Scripture c No f lt is in „ this sense that God is the author of Scripture. God s plan is to deal with us in a human way. And just as He became man in order to talk 308 INSPIRATION OF THE BIBLE to us with human lips, and to love us with a human heart, so He wished to convey His thoughts to us in a human way and wished to perpetuate them by using the ordinary means in use among men, viz., writing. Moreover, in His work God always wishes to associate His creatures with Himself as His fellow-workers. This explains the whole Sacramental System of the Catholic Church where Christ is working incessantly and producing marvelous supernatural results through the visible ministry of human agents. The priest at the altar and in the confessional, at the bedside anointing the sick, or at the font baptiz- ing the child, is simply Christ’s instrument. It is al- ways Christ who, with and through His human rep- resentative, baptizes, anoints, absolves*and consecrates. This close union of the human and the Divine to pro- duce supernatural effects is found also in the composi- tion of the Bible. And it is this marvelous influence of the uncreated mind of God illuminating, elevating, assisting the finite mind of the human writer, who is His instrument, that explains the unique nature of the inspired writings. But now someone may object: How can God be called the author of Sacred Scripture in the sense that he causes the thoughts or ideas, when it is evident that many parts of the Bible, the Psalms, for example, express the human feelings and ideas of the writer. And we know that the historical writers, both of Old and New Testaments made use of ordinary human documents and records. So St. Luke expressly tells us in the prologue to his Gospel, and the author of second Maccabees informs us that he derived his material from Jason of Cyrene, whose five books of history he condensed. To set forth this difficulty more clearly, we may note the distinction between Revelation and Inspiration. Revelation Revelation means that God communicates truth or knowledge to a created intellect in a supernatural way. The truth thus communicated need not necessarily be a mystery of the supernatural order, it might be INSPIRATION OF THE BIBLE 309 a truth of the natural order such as the doctrine of tree will, or the immortality of the soul, which wemay discover by our own investigation without any revelation. But when God reveals it we then have a luither and a higher motive for assenting to its truth viz., the authority of God Himself. Now, if God wants a book written, He might sim- ply illuminate the writer’s mind with new revelations and order him to write them down as God’s mes- sage to the world or to a particular people: as hap- pened in the case of the Prophets of the Old Testa- ment and to St John when penning the Apocalypse, or Book of Revelation in the New Testament. But in many other cases we have no reason for as- serting or supposing any special revelation. For ex- ample, St. Luke tells us that he consulted all the docu- ments and witnesses available for the compilation of his Gopsel and Acts. How, then, can God be the Au- thor of that Gospel,, since the selection of events the arranging of material, the whole method of produc- tion seem to proceed from Luke, the physician? Process of Inspiration The process may be conceived thus. Let us take as a concrete example the story of the Burning Bush narrated in the Book of Exodus, which Book I as- sume to have been written by Moses, the eye witness of the scene. First God impels Moses to write a description of the scene just as I might urge you to write an account of the earthquake in Japan, supposing you had wit- nessed the disaster in Tokio. Secondly, Mosses proceeds to write his account using his own personal knowledge acquired by actual- ly witnessing the scene. But in the process, God, by flis Almighty power, is so illuminating and directing the intellect, imagination and will of Moses, that only those ideas are by him clearly perceived, accepted and written down which God wishes to have in the Book. Moses acts freely (and perhaps may be quite unconscious that he is being specially directed), still his selecting is influenced by God in such a way that 310 INSPIRATION OF THE BIBLE the resulting description is from God. It is written in the style and method of Moses, it bears the stamp of his human character, it expresses his peronal views ; and yet it also proceeds from the Divine Mind which is working through the mind of Moses to set forth ideas and images which God wants to have placed on record. We may, perhaps, illustrate it from the selective use we ourselves make of language to express our ideas. When you wish to speak and convey your Views to others you don’t start off by coining new words and phrases—or new images and metaphors. In fact, the whole system of social intercourse by language pre- supposes that a pre-arranged conventional code of signals is familiar to those we are addressing. If you want to see the effect of trying to express your views without this antecedent familiarity, try to ad- dress an audience in a foreign tongue which they don’t understand, and see how you get on ! No, the process of speaking or writing is simply a selective one. Each one picks out from the vast arsenal of his native tongue the words which correspond to his ideas, he arranges them as best he may, and launches them on the world. Why may not God also exercise this selective pow- er? He uSes a living mind as His instrument, se- lects from that mind’s store of knowledge the ideas that suit His purpose, secures that these ideas be written down accurately, and thus uses not merely human words but human ideas as the alphabet of His inscrutable thoughts. The explanation just given of the Catholic idea of Inspiration shows how far removed is the Catholic doctrine from the loose notions of inspiration held so commonly outside the Catholic Church. Many non- Catholics, when they talk of the inspired writing of the Bible, use the term in the same sense as when they talk of the inspiration of Shakespeare or Shelley: it denotes that quality of literature which results from, and is evidence of, poetic exaltation, deep in- sight into the beauty of nature, esthetic sensitiveness, and so on. So that “Macbeth,” or the "Skylark,” or INSPIRATION OF THE BIBLE 311 the “Hound of Heaven,” rank with the Gospels as in- spired writings. Such loose notions the Catholic Church resolutely rejects. For her the true notion of Biblical Inspiration is crystallized in that short sen- tence which has been canonized by the Councils of Trent and the Vatican : God is the author of the Scrip- tures. Proof of Inspiration Having thus dealt with the meaning and nature of Biblical Inspiration, we may next consider the ques- tion : How can we know for certain that a book or document is inspired? On what evidence does the inspiration of the Bible rest? Here we are face to face with an all-important and fundamental question which has never, to my mind, been fairly met or dealt with except in the Catholic Church alone. The Church gives to that question a full, and I think, a completely sat- isfactory answer. Religious bodies outside the Cath- olic Church which accept the Bible as God's Word, have offered various other solutions, and all are quite unsatisfactory. Now the Catholic answer to the ques- tion : How do we know the Bible is inspired? is this: We know the Bible is inspired, because the permanent living organ or teacher of Truth, namely, the Church, assures us that it is so. Try to grasp firmly the fact that the Church has been established by Christ, and is actually functioning as a living, teaching organiza- tion, specially set up to safeguard and promulgate religious truth. Just as a university is an organiza- tion for the collecting and distributing of literary and scientific knowledge, just as a historical or an arche- ological society exists to gather and impart facts about the past; so the Church is (regarded as, the Ecclesia docens) a permanent Board of Teachers with a divinely appointed Head, supernaturally assisted to discharge its duties properly when functioning in its capacity as Teacher of faith and morals. Grasp this fact, I. say, and at once you see why the Church’s authoritative declaration that the Bible is inspired by God at once settles the matter, satisfies the mind and excludes all reasonable doubt. For the question as to whether a book is inspired 312 INSPIRATION OF THE BIBLE by God or not is surely one that cannot be determined either by internal evidence or by the mere statement of the human writer himself that he is inspired. For we have seen that the ideas and language of the in- spired book may proceed entirely from the human au- thor (though God is exerting His selective influenced and need not have anything peculiarly distinctive of their Divine origin. Again, in the case of bald state- ments of facts such as genealogies, lists of kings, de- scription of rites and ceremonies, like those in the Book of Leviticus—who would venture to say that such passages could from internal evidence be shown to be inspired? And, secondly, the mere statement of a writer that he believes that he is inspired is evi- dently inadequate. For unless you assume the very point at issue you must suppose him capable of error : we know that thousands of people have laid claim to Divine inspiration without there being sufficient grounds to justify the claim. Every religious teach- er, from Mohammed, the Prophet of the Koran, to Joseph Smith, the Prophet of Mormonism, has set up in the teaching line on the ground of being divinely inspired. All these various claimants who teach such totally contradictory and in many cases absurd doc- trines, may, all of them, be wrong, but most certainly cannot all of them be right. The only satisfactory proof that a book is inspired by God is if God Himself says it is so. In other words, God must reveal the fact. And the Church declares that this revelation about the inspired character of the Bible is one part of the primitive deposit of doc- trines confided to her care in Apostolic times to be guarded and transmitted without loss, and commun- icated to mankind all down the ages. The special guarantee which secures the Church against making mistakes in expounding and inter- preting this body of doctrine is called the gift of in- fallibility, and about this you will hear at length in another lecture of this series. Consequently the logi- cal process whereby a Catholic reaches certitude about the inspiration of the Bible is the same as that whereby he reaches certitude about the Real Presence, INSPIRATION OF THE BIBLE 313 about the efficacy of the Sacraments, the dogma of the Trinity, or any other Catholic doctrine. He assures himself by Reason and investigation that the Catholic Church is the duly authorized custodian and teacher of Divine Truth in the world, and that God Himself guarantees the faithful discharge of this teaching function. God will see that she makes no mistakes on fundamental points of truth or morality. She will never, e.g., teach that the Virgin Birth or the Resur- rection are myths or that divorce or race suicide can be moral. And once he learns that the Church has defined that the Bible is inspired, he accepts the de- cision unhesitatingly and is at rest on the matter. Non-Catholic Views Now, when we turn to other so called Christian bodies outside the Catholic Church, and ask what their proof or arguments are for the inspiration of the Bible, the first thing that strikes us is that what- ever those arguments may be like, they cannot be very efficacious or convincing, since, as a matter of fact, they have not succeeded in keeping alive in those bod- ies a true belief in the Inspiration of the Bible. Those of you who have been watching the papers will re- member a recent violent controversy in New York and other American cities between non-Catholic preachers and teachers over, the “Literal Bible” as it was called. And you will have noted that many of these people have really given up all faith in the Bible as an inspired record. I remember a couple of years ago reading a very enterprising suggestion made by a prominent and well- known English writer : a man not at all inclined to hide his light under a bushel, nor one that you would say suffered from acute shyness in any shape. His suggestion with regard to the Bible was this : that a supplementary chapter or Book should be written and incorporated with the Bible as a part of the in- spired Volume, in order to bring it up to date : much as the “Encyclopaedia Britannica” publishes extra volumes now and then to keep the work abreast of modern discoveries. 314 INSPIRATION OF THE BIBLE I presume that a part of the plan would be that the King and Parliament should be asked duly and authoritatively to proclaim the new chapter as of equal value with the original parts and order it to be read in churches : and, remark, not only does this estimable gentleman propose this modern addition to the Bible, but he himself would be ready, I think, on very little provocation, to undertake the task himself. Surely the mere bald fact that a prominent literary man of modern times could dream of making such a sugges- tion is an indication of the utter deadness of faith in men of his type, and of their complete rejection of the Divine inspiration of the Bible. Shifting of Protestant View As hinted already the simplest way to convince one- self of the inadequacy of Protestant doctrines about the inspiration of the Bible is to study the extra- ordinary change of opinion that has come about in the last four centuries. The first Reformers started off with a kind of idolatry of the Bible. They never stopped to ask what reason they had for regarding the Bible as the Word of God : but in a blind, fanatical way set up this book as the supreme, the only arbiter and court of appeal in matters of religion. They were delighted (I pre- sume) to find at hand a ready-made authority to which they could appeal against the authority of the Pope and the Catholic Church. They did not reflect that by rejecting the Church they were cutting through the branch on which they themselves sat : since it was the Church that had given them the Bible, and taught them that it was God’s Word. Still, it was a clever move to appeal to the Bible, since no Catholic could or would call in question the authority of Scripture; the Catholic Church always turned to the Bible as a Charter of her authority and privileges. These Reformers refused, to do homage to the liv- ing Voice of Pope or Council, but fell down and wor- shipped the written word of the Bible. And their reverence and adoration went so far that the very words and letters of the Bible were declared to be INSPIRATION OF THE BIBLE 315 divinely inspired, nay, even the vowel points of the Hebrew Text (which everyone now knows were add- ed by the Massoretic Scholars centuries after Christ), and this extreme view was actually imposed under pain of fine, imprisonment and exile by the Confession of the Swiss Church in 1675. (“The Catholic Ency- clopedia” Vol. VIII, p. 48, “Inspiration”). Modernists At the opposite extreme are the Protestant Modern- ists who have not only ceased to regard the Bible as inspired by God, but consider that the Bible cannot be treated as in any true or scientific sense an historical record. Its contents are merely facts as “faith” re- gards them : faith according to Modernists being a special innate sense distinct from the intellect. Thus, as a Christian believer, I may assert that Christ rose from the dead, though as a philosopher or scientist I cannot admit such an event as historical. The Bible is a compilation written from this faith-view-point; and this it is that constitutes its inspiration. Between these two extremes of unreasoning wor- ship on the one hand, and complete denial of its Divine origin on the other, one can find every shade and va- riety of opinion among non-Catholics. Among those who did maintain in a true sense Biblical inspiration, the theory most in vogue to prove its inspiration was this : the Divine origin and authorship are recognized by the internal experiences of light and sweetness and comfort which accompany or result from the read- ing of Holy Scripture. The Holy Ghost Himself thus testifies in our hearts that the words we read are from Him. Now, whilst we admit that the nature of the doc- trine taught in Scripture and the effects it produces in our souls are confirmatory proofs of its Divine origin just as the style, eloquence or elevation of a written speech may be confirmatory evidence of its being by' a certain author, still we deny that this sub- jective criticism can be a satisfactory one of general application. For in the first place many people never experience 316 INSPIRATION OF THE BIBLE those feelings or emotions at all when reading the Bible. Is it then not inspired for them? Secondly, such subjective sensations and impres- sions are evidently liable to illusion as sad experi- ence has proved. Surely, i£God has sent us documents to be read and utilized as coming directly from Him- self, He must have provided some definite, clear, easily applied method of establishing for all the fact of the Divine authorship, seeing that the whole force and value for us of those documents depends on this au- thorship. There are many human writings whose value and authority depend on the identity of the writ- er being clear beyond dispute, as for example, a will, a check, or a letter. If you get a check drawn in your favor for £10,000 you will scrutinize the signa- ture pretty carefully since it makes a considerable dif- ference whose name is at the foot of the check. The authority of the check depends on its authorship be- ing clear beyond dispute. So the value of a letter from a friend depends on your being certain that it was really your friend who wrote it. God’s Letter to Us St. Augustine calls Holy Scripture the letter which God has written to us for our instruction and com- fort ; and clearly the authorship of this Divine letter must be established beyond a doubt if the letter is to produce its effects. When a King or Emperor sends a despatch to one of his subjects, he sends a trustworthy courier to deliver the missive and guar- antee its royal origin. Thus, also (according to Cath- olic teachers), did the Heavenly King act when send- ing His letters to us. He sent His ambassadors to testify to its genuineness : and the most important of these witnesses was is own Son made Man, Jesus Christ: and after Him those other specially appointed mouthpieces of His wisdom whom we call Apostles. It is from Jesus Christ and from His Apostles that the Church received definite assurance of the Divine origin of the Bible and this message has been faith- fully handed on to us by His duly accredited messen- ger, the never-dying Church. NO ERRORS IN BIBLE 317 Effects of Inspiration It remains now to say something about the effects of inspiration on the written documents produced un- der its influence. This subject is a wide one and we can deal with only one or two aspects of it. The question that is of chief consequence and that is most widely discussed is this : Does Divine inspiration guarantee the truth of every statement in the Bible? Are there not errors at least in matters of history and science? and if so, how can we reconcile them with the statement that'God is its Author ? In this matter I will try to explain the Catholic doctrine, and indicate certain general principles that have to be applied to meet difficulties like the above. The fundamental Catholic position may be stated in two propositions : — (1) The whole Bible is inspired, that is, all the books and every part of them. This statement was opposed by those who maintained that only matters of faith or morals fell under inspiration : and that all purely scientific or historical matters were given simply on the human authority of the writer. Such people apply to Biblical inspiration principles which are true when applied to the prerogative of infalli- bility in the teaching Church. The Pope is infallibile only when teaching dogmas of faith and morals. But the Catholic Church has decisively declared that this doctrine cannot be applied to Scripture. (2) The second principle is that as a result of in- spiration everything in the Bible is true : we cannot admit formal error as having been communicated to the world on God’s authority. This second statement needs fuller elucidation. No Errors in Bible NOW, in the first place, in making this statement,we do not mean to exclude the possibility of errors creeping into the copies of the Bible that have been made from the original or autograph. It is evident 318 NO ERRORS IN BIBLE to any student of the Bible text that while we are more certain of the substantial integrity of the bib- lical text than of that of any other ancient book, still, minor errors have from time to time occurred in the MSS. as e.g., in numerals, names or dates, and such like. The Hebrew letters (which stand for numerals) are easily confounded, and through misreading a sin- gle letter quite a large error in computing years may occur. God has handed over the Bible just as He has handed over the Blessed Sacrament, to be guard- ed and preserved by mankind, and it is man’s duty to exercise all diligence to get at the exact text of the documents. In the second place, we must remember that God is using men and human language as His instruments to convey His thoughts to us. Now, every artist is conditioned by the material he works in. Michael- angelo had to use as best he might the blocks of marble at his disposal : even the great violinist, Pag- anini, was dependent on the quality of his instrument for the production of his marvelous music. So the Divine Artist also is dependent on the material He works in : and if God wishes to employ human liter- ature produced by human writers as a means of com- municating with us, then He must use it as He finds it, employing the various forms and modes of speech in use among men—such as metaphor, parable, story, fable, drama, as well as historical composition, proverbs, poetry and so on. And to know what exactly is the truth which God intends to convey, we must take into account the particular form of speech or writing, which is employed. Parables A favorite method of teaching truth employed by Our Lord was one which is familiar to all Eastern peoples, viz., that of parables or stories with a moral. In the New Testament we have no fewer than thirty- six distinct parables used by Our Lord. He used them to convey truth, and we have His own Divine Author- ity for the truths they convey. In the Parable of the Prodigal Son, e.g., He enshrines for us in im- NO ERRORS IN BIBLE 319 mortal language the overwhelming truth of God’s infinite mercy to the repentant sinner. In the story of the merchant seeking pearls, we learn the supreme importance of the human soul and its salvation. The parable is a medium for conveying glorious truth and yet need not itself be historically true. When Jesus tells us of the man with two sons, one of whom left His father to see the world, we are not bound to take this as literally true, or to think that the merchant seeking pearls represents an actual individual mer- chant. It is not historical truth that is taught, but moral truth under an allegory. So again, when in the Book of Judges, Joatham told the men of Sichem the story of the trees that wanted a king and applied in turn to the olive tree, the fig tree, the vine, and the bramble, evidently we are not expected to believe that the trees actually spoke, or tried to set up a monarchical form of govern- ment, and yet the story conveyed a very pointed truth. Drama or lyric poetry can be made the vehicle of very exalted teaching, although the persons and in- cidents introduced in such poems may be entirely fictitious. It is quite immaterial to the sublime lessons conveyed by the Merchant of Venice, Hamlet, or Othel- lo, whether such persons as Shylock, or the Prince of Denmark, or the Moor of Venice, ever actually ex- isted. There are portions of Scripture such as the Book of Job and some of the Psalms, which are set forth in dramatical form and it matters not in the least whether the characters in the Book of Job ever actually existed or not : the magnificent truths about God and His Providence so gloriously taught in the book really matter. Consequently, when we say that all Scripture is true, we do not mean to say that every part of Scripture is true in the same way. We have to examine care- fully the particular form of literary expression that is being employed before we can judge whether it is historic, moral, or didactic truth that is being taught. But special difficulties are frequently raised about the parts of the Bible that are confessedly written as historical records, such as Genesis and the Pen- 320 PREJUDICED CRITICS tateuch generally, the Book of Kings, the four Gos- pels, the Acts of the Apostles. About the historical accuracy and trustworthiness of these books, a mighty battle has been waged in recent times. Prejudiced Critics A GREAT many of the charges of inaccuracy or error made against the Bible arise simply from the preju- dice and blindness of hostile critics. To begin with, an extraordinary flood of light has been thrown on the historical part of the Bible (Old and New Testament) by the discoveries made during the past fifty or sixty years. Through excavations and researches in Bible lands, monuments have been unearthed, long-forgotten languages have been de- ciphered, buried civilizations have been brought to light. In Assyria, Babylonia, Persia, in Palestine it- self, and especially in Egypt, marvelous and undreamt of treasures have been recovered. Now, what is the general result of all these discoveries? Have they tended to discredit the Bible or prove its record to be in error? The answer is emphatically no. On the contrary, the discoveries have tended in a marvelous manner to substantiate the truth, even in minute details, of the Bible narrative. To no part of the Bible has criticism ' directed its efforts more assiduously than the New Testament. And in spite of a century and a half of untiring investigation, not a single historical error has ever been proved in the New Testament. I make this assertion advisedly, because in books of hostile criticism of the Bible, such as Schurer’s History of the Jewish people, you will see the opposite state- ment boldly made. There are, of course, historical difficulties which we cannot solve for want of fuller information, but time will solve them. As an example I cite the journey of Mary and Joseph from Nazareth to Bethlehem, with the accompanying details, once decried by higher critics but later triumphantly vin- dicated by the Oxyrhynchus finds deciphered and described by Professor Ramsay. 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