Every Scripture is God-breathed and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness,
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Every Scripture is God-breathed and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness,
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For all scripture geve by inspiracion of god is proffitable to teache to improve to amende and to instruct in rightewesnes
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For the whole Scripture is giuen by inspiration of God, and is profitable to teache, to conuince, to correct, and to instruct in righteousnesse,
Examined in Scripture Analysis
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Questions where the Bible appears to say two different things, with the passages on each side set together.
Cross-references (41)
Passages linked to 2 Timothy 3:16 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Romans 15:4 For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that through perseverance and through encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.
- Hebrews 4:12 For the word of God is living and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and is able to discern the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
- 2 Peter 1:19-21 We have the more sure word of prophecy; and you do well that you heed it, as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns, and the morning star arises in your hearts: knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of private interpretation. For no prophecy ever came by the will of man: but holy men of God spoke, being moved by the Holy Spirit.
- Mark 12:24 Jesus answered them, “Isn’t this because you are mistaken, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God?
- Psalms 19:7-11 Yahweh’s law is perfect, restoring the soul. Yahweh’s covenant is sure, making wise the simple. Yahweh’s precepts are right, rejoicing the heart. Yahweh’s commandment is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of Yahweh is clean, enduring forever. Yahweh’s ordinances are true, and righteous altogether. They are more to be desired than gold, yes, than much fine gold, sweeter also than honey and the extract of the honeycomb. Moreover your servant is warned by them. In keeping them there is great reward.
- Proverbs 6:23 For the commandment is a lamp, and the law is light. Reproofs of instruction are the way of life,
- Psalms 119:9 How can a young man keep his way pure? By living according to your word.
- 2 Timothy 4:2 preach the word; be urgent in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort with all patience and teaching.
- Psalms 119:11 I have hidden your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.
- Psalms 119:130 The entrance of your words gives light. It gives understanding to the simple.
- Psalms 119:97-104 How I love your law! It is my meditation all day. Your commandments make me wiser than my enemies, for your commandments are always with me. I have more understanding than all my teachers, for your testimonies are my meditation. I understand more than the aged, because I have kept your precepts. I have kept my feet from every evil way, that I might observe your word. I have not turned away from your ordinances, for you have taught me. How sweet are your promises to my taste, more than honey to my mouth! Through your precepts, I get understanding; therefore I hate every false way.
- 2 Samuel 23:2 “Yahweh’s Spirit spoke by me. His word was on my tongue.
- Ephesians 4:11-16 He gave some to be apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, shepherds and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, to the work of serving, to the building up of the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a full grown man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, that we may no longer be children, tossed back and forth and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in craftiness, after the wiles of error; but speaking truth in love, we may grow up in all things into him who is the head, Christ, from whom all the body, being fitted and knit together through that which every joint supplies, according to the working in measure of each individual part, makes the body increase to the building up of itself in love.
- Proverbs 15:31 The ear that listens to reproof lives, and will be at home among the wise.
- 2 Timothy 2:25 in gentleness correcting those who oppose him: perhaps God may give them repentance leading to a full knowledge of the truth,
- Deuteronomy 4:36 Out of heaven he made you to hear his voice, that he might instruct you. On earth he made you to see his great fire; and you heard his words out of the middle of the fire.
- Matthew 13:52 He said to them, “Therefore every scribe who has been made a disciple in the Kingdom of Heaven is like a man who is a householder, who brings out of his treasure new and old things.”
- John 3:20 For everyone who does evil hates the light, and doesn’t come to the light, lest his works would be exposed.
- Acts 20:20 how I didn’t shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable, teaching you publicly and from house to house,
- Nehemiah 9:20 You gave also your good Spirit to instruct them, and didn’t withhold your manna from their mouth, and gave them water for their thirst.
- Acts 18:25 This man had been instructed in the way of the Lord; and being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught accurately the things concerning Jesus, although he knew only the baptism of John.
- Romans 2:20 a corrector of the foolish, a teacher of babies, having in the law the form of knowledge and of the truth.
- Hebrews 3:7 Therefore, even as the Holy Spirit says, “Today if you will hear his voice,
- Proverbs 15:10 There is stern discipline for one who forsakes the way: whoever hates reproof shall die.
- Galatians 3:8 The Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the Good News beforehand to Abraham, saying, “In you all the nations will be blessed.”
- Ephesians 5:11-13 Have no fellowship with the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but rather even reprove them. For it is a shame even to speak of the things which are done by them in secret. But all things, when they are reproved, are revealed by the light, for everything that reveals is light.
- Acts 20:27 for I didn’t shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God.
- 1 Corinthians 12:7 But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the profit of all.
- John 10:35 If he called them gods, to whom the word of God came (and the Scripture can’t be broken),
- Matthew 21:42 Jesus said to them, “Did you never read in the Scriptures, ‘The stone which the builders rejected was made the head of the corner. This was from the Lord. It is marvelous in our eyes?’
- Matthew 26:56 But all this has happened that the Scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled.” Then all the disciples left him and fled.
- Acts 1:16 “Brothers, it was necessary that this Scripture should be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit spoke before by the mouth of David concerning Judas, who was guide to those who took Jesus.
- Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is assurance of things hoped for, proof of things not seen.
- Romans 4:23 Now it was not written that it was accounted to him for his sake alone,
- Micah 2:7 Shall it be said, O house of Jacob: “Is Yahweh’s Spirit angry? Are these his doings? Don’t my words do good to him who walks blamelessly?”
- Matthew 22:31-32 But concerning the resurrection of the dead, haven’t you read that which was spoken to you by God, saying, ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob?’ God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.”
- Mark 12:36 For David himself said in the Holy Spirit, ‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies the footstool of your feet.” ’
- Acts 28:25 When they didn’t agree among themselves, they departed after Paul had spoken one word, “The Holy Spirit spoke rightly through Isaiah the prophet to our fathers,
- Romans 3:2 Much in every way! Because first of all, they were entrusted with the revelations of God.
- Matthew 26:54 How then would the Scriptures be fulfilled that it must be so?”
- Matthew 22:43 He said to them, “How then does David in the Spirit call him Lord, saying,
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (21 sources)
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain 16 All Scripture; or, the whole of Scripture; though…
16 All Scripture; or, the whole of Scripture; though it makes little difference as to the meaning. He follows out that commendation which he had glanced at briefly. First, he commends the Scripture on account of its authority; and secondly, on account of the utility which springs from it. In order to uphold the authority of the Scripture, he declares that it is divinely inspired; for, if it be so, it is beyond all controversy that men ought to receive it with reverence. This is a principle which distinguishes our religion from all others, that we know that God hath spoken to us, and are fully convinced that the prophets did not speak at their own suggestion, but that, being organs of the Holy Spirit, they only uttered what they had been commissioned from heaven to declare. Whoever then wishes to profit in the Scriptures, let him first of all, lay down this as a settled point, that the Law and the Prophets are not a doctrine delivered according to the will and pleasure of men, but dictated by the Holy Spirit.
If it be objected, “How can this be known?” I answer, both to disciples and to teachers, God is made known to be the author of it by the revelation of the same Spirit. Moses and the prophets did not utter at random what we have received from their hand, but, speaking at the suggestion of God, they boldly and fearlessly testified, what was actually true, that it was the mouth of the Lord that spake. The same Spirit, therefore, who made Moses and the prophets certain of their calling, now also testifies to our hearts, that he has employed them as his servants to instruct us. Accordingly, we need not wonder if there are many who doubt as to the Author of the Scripture; for, although the majesty of God is displayed in it, yet none but those who have been enlightened by the Holy Spirit have eyes to perceive what ought, indeed, to have been visible to all, and yet is visible to the elect alone. This is the first clause, that we owe to the Scripture the same reverence which we owe to God; because it has proceeded from him alone, and has nothing belonging to man mixed with it.
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And is profitable Now follows the second part of the commendation, that the Scripture contains a perfect rule of a good and happy life. When he says this, he means that it is corrupted by sinful abuse, when this usefulness is not sought. And thus he indirectly censures those unprincipled men who fed the people with vain speculations, as with wind. For this reason we may in the present day, condemn all who, disregarding edification, agitate questions which, though they are ingenious, are also useless. Whenever ingenious trifles of that kind are brought forward, they must be warded off by this shield, that “Scripture is profitable.” Hence it follows, that it is unlawful to treat it in an unprofitable manner; for the Lord, when he gave us the Scriptures, did not intend either to gratify our curiosity, or to encourage ostentation, or to give occasion for chatting and talking, but to do us good; and, therefore, the right use of Scripture must always tend to what is profitable.
For instruction Here he enters into a detailed statement of the various and manifold advantages derived from the Scriptures. And, first of all, he mentions instruction, which ranks above all the rest; for it will be to no purpose that you exhort or reprove, if you have not previously instructed. But because “instruction,” taken by itself, is often of little avail, he adds reproof and correction
It would be too long to explain what we are to learn from the Scriptures; and, in the preceding verse, he has given a brief summary of them under the word faith. The most valuable knowledge, therefore, is “faith in Christ.” Next follows instruction for regulating the life, to which are added the excitements of exhortations and reproofs. Thus he who knows how to use the Scriptures properly, is in want of nothing for salvation, or for a Holy life. Reproof and correction differ little from each other, except that the latter proceeds from the former; for the beginning of repentance is the knowledge of our sinfulness, and a conviction of the judgment of God. Instruction in righteousness means the rule of a good and holy life.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain The eighth admonition, which is most precious: A Pastor…
The eighth admonition, which is most precious: A Pastor must be wise by the word of God only: wherein we have perfectly delivered unto us, whatsoever pertaineth either to discern, know and establish true opinions, and to confute false, and furthermore, to correct evil manners, and to frame good.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain 16 All scripture is given by inspiration of God,…
16 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:
Ver. 16. All Scripture is given] Gr. Θεοπνευστος, breathed by God, both for matter and words. What frontless heretics then are our upstart anti-scripturists, that dare affirm that the Scriptures are not divine, but human invention, and that the penmen wrote as themselves conceived; they were the actions of their own spirit, &c. Also that the Scriptures are insufficient and uncertain, &c. Papists likewise speak and write basely of the Holy Scriptures, as Bishop Bonner’s chaplain, who called it "his little pretty God’s book." Gifford and Raynolds say, the Bible contains something profane and apocryphal. A certain Italian bishop told Espencoeus that his countrymen were charged not to read the Scriptures, ne sic fierent haeretici, lest they should thereby be made heretics. (Epenc. in Tit 1:1-16) But Gregory calls the Bible Cor et animam Dei, the heart and soul of God; Augustine, a fortress against errors; Tertullian calleth it Nostra digesta, Our digests, from the lawyers; and others, Our pandects, from them also. Classicus hic locus est, saith Gerhard upon the text. This is a classic place to prove the perfection of the Scriptures against Papists, and whatsoever adversaries, who argue it of insufficiency, accounting traditions or revelations to be the touchstone of doctrine and foundation of faith. If the Scriptures be profitable for all these purposes, and able to make a minister perfect, &c., who can say less of it than that it is the soul’s food, ψυχης τροφη, as Athanasius calleth it; the invariable rule of truth, κανων της αληθειας ακλινης, as Irenaeus: the touchstone of errors, the aphorisms of Christ, the library of the Holy Ghost, the circle of all divine arts, the wisdom of the cross, the cubit of the sanctuary.
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And is profitable for instruction] See my True Treasure, p. 40. And hereunto add, for consolation, according to Rom 15:4, though this also is here comprehended in doctrine and instruction for righteousness. The same Greek word, παρακαλεω, signifieth to exhort and to comfort.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain All Scripture is given by inspiration of God: Scripture…
All Scripture is given by inspiration of God: Scripture signifies no more than writing; some therefore translate this text thus: All Scripture which is inspired of God; not all writings, but all the books of the Old Testament, is θεοπνευστος. This is expounded by Peter, 2Pe 1:21; For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man; but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. And is profitable for doctrine; and it is profitable to instruct us in all propositions of truth which we need believe in order to salvation.
For reproof; elegcon, to convince us either of any truth, that we may believe it without any hesitation, or of any sin, that we may be humbled for it, without any extenuation.
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For correction; for reproof, or correction, or reformation, to reprove us in what we are to be reproved, to correct us in any error, to show us the way to bring us to rights and to reform us.
For instruction in righteousness; to instruct us in the true righteousness, in which we must appear before God; for in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, Rom 1:17.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
William Burkitt 1703 · Public Domain Our apostle closes this chapter with an exhortation to…
Our apostle closes this chapter with an exhortation to Timothy to persevere in his study of the holy scriptues, by an argument drawn,
1. From the dignity and authority of the scriptures; 2. From their utility; 3. From their perfection.
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1. From their dignity and authority,They are given by the inspiration of God: that is, they are not the contrivance of any man’s wit and fancy, but a revelation of the mind and will of God; and those that wrote them were excited to it, and assisted in it, by the Spirit of God; no part of scripture had either angels or men for its author, but every part of scripture is divinely inspired or breathed by God, both for matter and order, style and words.
A second argument is drawn from the utility and sufficiency of the holy scriptures; they are profitable for doctrine and instruction, teaching us what to know and believe in order to salvation, concerning God, and Christ, and ourselves, &c. for reproof of error, and confutation of false doctrines, for correction of sin and evil manners, for instruction in righteousness, directing us how to lead a holy and righteous life, according to the will of God.
A third argument is taken from the perfection of them; they are able to make the man of God perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works; that is, to make the ministers of Christ complete in knowledge, faith, and holiness, every way fitted for their work and duty, as Christians, and as ministers.
Observe here, 1. That the scriptures of the Old Testament, and not of the New, must be the scriptures here intended, they being the only scriptures which Timothy had known from a child; that was before the scriptures of the new Testament were written.
Observe, 2. That the apostle doth not say that these scriptures were of themselves sufficient to make Timothy wise unto salvation, but only that with faith in Christ Jesus they were sufficient for that end; much more then must the scriptures both of the Old and New Testament together, when accompanied with faith in Jesus Christ, be sufficent for that end.
Observe, 3. That the scriptures are a perfect, plain, and sufficient rule, in all things necessary to salvation.
1. They are a perfect rule; because the writers of them were inspired, and consequently their writings are infallible.
2. They are a plain rule; otherwise they would be no rule at all, of no more use to direct our faith and practice than a sun-dial in a dark room is to tell us the hour of the day. A rule that is not plain, whatever it may be in itself, is of no use to us till it is made plain.
3. They are a sufficient rule; they are able to make the man of God perfect, and wise to salvation. Here the church of Rome distinguishes, and says, the scriptures are sufficient to salvation, but not to instruction, to whom one of the martyrs replied, "If so, God send me the salvation and you the instruction."
It is conceived by some that this was the last epistle that ever St. Paul wrote; if so, this is the last charge that ever he gave, and concerns us the more to attend to the solemnity of it. The chapter before us is St. Paul’s Cygnea Cantio, his last and sweetest song; by a spiritual sagacity he saw his end approaching, and the time of his martyrdom to be at hand; he therefore, like a dying man, adjures TImothy in a most awful and tremendous manner, to preach the word with all diligence and care, which he had so highly extolled in the foregoing chapter, as being able to make all persons wise unto salvation.
William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain That the man of God may be perfect,.... By…
That the man of God may be perfect,.... By the man of God may be meant everyone that in a special relation belongs to God; who is chosen by God the Father, redeemed by the Son, and called by the Spirit; but more especially a minister of the Gospel; for as it was usual to call a prophet under the Old Testament by this name, it seems to be transferred from thence to a minister of the New Testament, see Ti1 6:11 and the design of the Scriptures and the end of writing them are, that both preachers of the word, and hearers of it, might have a perfect knowledge of the will of God; that the former might be a complete minister of the Gospel, and that nothing might be wanting for the information of the latter:
thoroughly furnished unto all good works, or "every good work"; particularly to the work of the ministry, which is a good one; and to every part and branch of it, a thorough furniture for which lies in the holy Scriptures; from whence, as scribes well instructed in the kingdom of heaven, do Gospel ministers bring forth things new and old, both for delight and profit: though this may be also applied to all good works in common, which the Scriptures point unto, give directions about, as well as show where strength is to be had to perform them.
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Next: 2 Timothy Chapter 4
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain All scripture is inspired of God - The Spirit…
All scripture is inspired of God - The Spirit of God not only once inspired those who wrote it, but continually inspires, supernaturally assists, those that read it with earnest prayer. Hence it is so profitable for doctrine, for instruction of the ignorant, for the reproof or conviction of them that are in error or sin, for the correction or amendment of whatever is amiss, and for instructing or training up the children of God in all righteousness.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 16. All Scripture is given by inspiration of…
Verse 16. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God] This sentence is not well translated; the original πασα γραφη θεοκνευστος ωφιλιμος προς διδασκαλιαν, κ. τ. λ. should be rendered: Every writing Divinely inspired is profitable for doctrine, c. The particle και, and, is omitted by almost all the versions and many of the fathers, and certainly does not agree well with the text. The apostle is here, beyond all controversy, speaking of the writings of the Old Testament, which, because they came by Divine inspiration, he terms the Holy Scriptures, 2Ti 3:15 and it is of them alone that this passage is to be understood; and although all the New Testament came by as direct an inspiration as the Old, yet, as it was not collected at that time, not indeed complete, the apostle could have no reference to it.
The doctrine of the inspiration of the sacred writings has been a subject of much discussion, and even controversy, among Christians. There are two principal opinions on the subject:
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1. That every thought and word were inspired by God, and that the writer did nothing but merely write as the Spirit dictated.
2. That God gave the whole matter, leaving the inspired writers to their own language; and hence the great variety of style and different modes of expression.
But as I have treated this subject at large in my Introduction to the Four Gospels and Acts of the Apostles, I must refer the reader to that work.
Is profitable for doctrine] To teach the will of God, and to point out Jesus Christ till he should come.
For reproof] To convince men of the truth; and to confound those who should deny it, particularly the Jews.
For correction] προς επανορθωσιν. For restoring things to their proper uses and places, correcting false notions and mistaken views.
Instruction in righteousness] προς παιδειαν την εν δικαιοσυνη. For communicating all initiatory religious knowledge; for schooling mankind. All this is perfectly true of the Jewish Scriptures; and let faith in Christ Jesus be added, see 2Ti 3:15, and then all that is spoken in the following verse will be literally accomplished.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain 2Ti 3:16. All Scripture — Or the whole Scripture,…
2Ti 3:16. All Scripture — Or the whole Scripture, received by the Jewish Church, θεοπνευστος, is inspired of God — Respecting the inspiration of the books of the Old Testament, I find two opinions, says Dr. Benson, on this passage: “1st, That the writers of the several books had all the thoughts, and even the very words, suggested to them by the Spirit of God: and that they were the penmen of the Spirit to commit to writing just what he dictated. 2d, Others think with more latitude; and allow, indeed, that Moses received the Law from God; and that the prophets were inspired by the Spirit to foretel future events, which lay out of the reach of human foresight; but that they were left to express themselves in their own words and phrases, in which they give a faithful account of what the Spirit dictated to them, 2Pe 1:20-21. But as to what was handed down by authentic tradition, or the facts with which they themselves were thoroughly acquainted, they could, as faithful historians, commit them to writing, and that without any extraordinary inspiration. And their account, as far as our present copies are exact, may be depended upon as satisfactory and authentic.” He adds, “If the Spirit presided, strengthened their memories, and preserved them from mistakes, this last opinion may not be much amiss.” See Introduction to the New Testament, pp. 7, 8, where the subject of the divine inspiration of the Scriptures is more particularly considered. Is profitable for doctrine — All the great and important doctrines of religion necessary to be known in order to salvation, are there taught, and that more clearly and fully than elsewhere; and with an authority and influence to be found in no other writings. For reproof — Or conviction, as ελεγχον rather signifies; and that not only of error in judgment, but of sin in practice, and of condemnation and wrath due to us on account of sin; as also the depravity of our nature; of our weakness and inability to save ourselves, and of righteousness and salvation for us in Christ. For correction — Or amendment, as επανορθωσιν may be properly rendered; showing us clearly, 1st, What evils in temper, word, or work, are to be avoided: 2d, What graces and virtues must be possessed and practised; furnishing us, at the same time, with all proper and needful motives to holiness of heart and life, showing us where our strength lies. For instruction — Or training and building persons up, in righteousness — Leading them on from one degree of piety and virtue to another, with a progress which will continually advance in proportion to the regard they pay to these divine writings. For the Spirit of God not only once inspired those who endited them, but continually inspires and supernaturally assists those that read them in humility, simplicity, and faith, with earnest prayer to the Father of lights for a right understanding of them, and for inclination and power to reduce their contents to practice. That the man of God — Not only every Christian minister, or public teacher of religion, but every man devoted to the service of God; may be perfect — May come to the measure of the stature of Christ’s fulness, Eph 4:13, &c., where see the note, and on Col 1:28; or may stand complete in the whole will of God; thoroughly furnished unto all good works — Fitted for discharging every part of his duty. Thus we see that the apostle’s encomium on the Jewish Scriptures consists of two parts; their divine inspiration, and their usefulness for illustrating the gospel revelation; so that a Christian minister, who rightly understands them, is thereby fitted for every part of his work. Our Lord also, on various occasions, bare testimony to the Jewish Scriptures, and to their connection with the gospel. What then are we to think of those teachers who are at so much pains to disjoin the Christian revelation from the Jewish, as if the latter were not of divine original, and had no connection with the gospel; and, instead of illustrating and confirming the gospel, were rather an encumbrance to it?
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain All Scripture - This properly refers to the Old…
All Scripture - This properly refers to the Old Testament, and should not be applied to any part of the New Testament, unless it can be shown that that part was then written, and was included under the general name of “the Scriptures;” compare 2Pe 3:15-16. But it includes the whole of the Old Testament, and is the solemn testimony of Paul that it was all inspired. If now it can be proved that Paul himself was an inspired man, this settles the question as to the inspiration of the Old Testament.
Is given by inspiration of God - All this is expressed in the original by one word - Θεόπνευστος Theopneustos. This word occurs nowhere else in the New Testament. It properly means, God-inspired - from Θεός Theos, “God,” and πνέω pneō, “to breathe, to breathe out.” The idea of “breathing upon, or breathing into the soul,” is that which the word naturally conveys. Thus, God breathed into the nostrils of Adam the breath of life Gen 2:7, and thus the Saviour breathed on his disciples, and said, “receive ye the Holy Ghost;” Joh 20:22. The idea seems to have been, that the life was in the breath, and that an intelligent spirit was communicated with the breath. The expression was used among the Greeks, and a similar one was employed by the Romans. Plutarch ed. R. 9:p. 583. 9. τοὺς ὀνείρους τοὺς θεοπνεύστους tous oneirous tous theopneustous. Phocylid. 121. τῆς δὲ θεοπνεύστου σοφίης λόγος ἐστὶν ἄριστος tēs de theopnoustou sophiēs logos estin aristos.
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Perhaps, however, this is not an expression of Phocylides, but of the pseudo Phocylides. So it is understood by Bloomfield. Cicero, pro Arch. 8. “poetam - quasi divino quodam spiritu inflari.” The word does not occur in the Septuagint, but is found in Josephus, Contra Apion, i. 7. “The Scripture of the prophets who were taught according to the inspiration of God - κατὰ τὴν ἐπίπνοιαν τὴν ἀπὸ τοῦ Θεοῦ kata tēn epipnoian tēn apo tou Theou. In regard to the manner of inspiration, and to the various questions which have been started as to its nature, nothing can be learned from the use of this word. It asserts a fact - that the Old Testament was composed under a divine influence, which might be represented by “breathing on one,” and so imparting life. But the language must be figurative; for God does not breathe, though the fair inference is, that those Scriptures are as much the production of God, or are as much to be traced to him, as life is; compare Mat 22:43; 2Pe 1:21. The question as to the degree of inspiration, and whether it extends to the words of Scripture, and how far the sacred writers were left to the exercise of their own faculties, is foreign to the design of these notes. All that is necessary to be held is, that the sacred writers were kept from error on those subjects which were matters of their own observation, or which pertained to memory; and that there were truths imparted to them directly by the Spirit of God, which they could never have arrived at by the unaided exercise of their own minds. Compare the introduction to Isaiah and Job.
And is profitable. - It is useful; it is adapted to give instruction, to administer reproof, etc. If “all” Scripture is thus valuable, then we are to esteem no part of the Old Testament as worthless. There is no portion of it, even now, which may not be fitted, in certain circumstances, to furnish us valuable lessons, and, consequently, no part of it which could be spared from the sacred canon. There is no part of the human body which is not useful in its place, and no part of it which can be spared without sensible loss.
For doctrine - For teaching or communicating instruction; compare the notes on 1Ti 4:16.
For reproof - On the meaning of the word here rendered “reproof” - ἐλέγγμος elengmos - see the notes on Heb 11:1. It here means, probably, for “convincing;” that is, convincing a man of his sins, of the truth and claims of religion, etc.; see the notes on Joh 16:8.
For correction - The word here used - ἐπανόρθωσις epanorthōsis - occurs nowhere else in the New Testament. It means, properly, “a setting to rights, reparation, restoration,” (from ἐπανορθόω epanorthoō, to right up again, to restore); and here means, the leading to a correction or amendment of life - “a reformation.” The meaning is, that the Scriptures are a powerful means of reformation, or of putting men into the proper condition in regard to morals. After all the means which have been employed to reform mankind; all the appeals which are made to them on the score of health, happiness, respectability, property, and long life, the word of God is still the most powerful and the most effectual means of recovering those who have fallen into vice. No reformation can be permanent which is not based on the principles of the word of God.
For instruction in righteousness - Instruction in regard to the principles of justice, or what is right. Man needs not only to be made acquainted with truth, to be convinced of his error, and to be reformed; but he needs to be taught what is right, or what is required of him, in order that he may lead a holy life. Every reformed and regenerated man needs instruction, and should not be left merely with the evidence that he is “reformed, or converted.” He should be followed with the principles of the word of God, to show him how he may lead an upright life. The Scriptures furnish the rules of holy living in abundance, and thus they are adapted to the whole work of recovering man, and of guiding him to heaven.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain All scripture divinely inspired is profitable to teach, to…
All scripture divinely inspired is profitable to teach, to reprove, to correct, or admonish, to instruct others in justice, and in the ways of virtue, that thus he who is a man of God, a minister of the gospel, may be perfect and instructed unto every good work. But when our adversaries of the pretended reformation, undertake from these four verses to shew, first, that every ignorant man or woman is hereby warranted to read and put what construction his or her private spirit, or private judgment, suggests upon all places of the holy Scriptures; and secondly, that the Scriptures alone contain all truths which a Christian is bound to believe; or at least, that the Scriptures teach him all things necessary to salvation, without regard to the interpretation and authority of the Catholic Church: I may at least say (without examining at present any other pretended grounds of these assertions) that these consequences are very remote from the text and sense of St. Paul in this place. As to the first, does this follow; the Scriptures must be read by Timothy, a priest, a bishop, a man of God, a minister of the gospel, whose office it is to instruct and convert others, therefore they are proper to be read and expounded by every ignorant man or woman? Does not St. Paul say elsewhere, (2 Corinthians ii. 17.) that many adulterate and corrupt the word of God? does not St. Peter tell us also, (2 Peter iii. 16.) that in St. Paul’s epistles are some things....which the unlearned and unstable wrest, as also the other scriptures, to their own perdition? See the preface to [the Gospel of] St. John, where reasons are brought for which it was requisite that the Church should put some restraint to the abuse which the ignorant made of reading the Scriptures in vulgar tongues. As to the second consequence, does it follow: every Scripture divinely inspired is profitable for St. Timothy, for a priest, a bishop, a man of God, a minister and preacher of the gospel, to teach and instruct, and conduce to bring both him and others to salvation; therefore they contain all things that a Christian need to believe? &c. Is not every Christian bound to believe that the books in the canon of the New and Old Testament are of divine authority, as in particular these two epistles of St. Paul to Timothy? Where does the Scripture assure us of this? But of this elsewhere. (Witham) --- Every part of divine Scripture is certainly profitable for all these ends. But if we would have the whole rule of Christian faith and practice, we must not be content with those Scriptures which Timothy knew from his infancy, (that is, with the Old Testament alone) nor yet with the New Testament, without taking along with it the traditions of the apostles and the interpretation of the Church, to which the apostles delivered both the book and the true meaning of it. (Challoner)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain All scripture--Greek, "Every Scripture," that is, Scripture in its…
All scripture--Greek, "Every Scripture," that is, Scripture in its every part. However, English Version is sustained, though the Greek article be wanting, by the technical use of the term "Scripture" being so well known as not to need the article (compare Greek, Eph 3:15; Eph 2:21). The Greek is never used of writings in general, but only of the sacred Scriptures. The position of the two Greek adjectives closely united by "and," forbids our taking the one as an epithet, the other as predicated and translated as ALFORD and ELLICOTT. "Every Scripture given by inspiration of God is also profitable." Vulgate and the best manuscripts, favor English Version. Clearly the adjectives are so closely connected that as surely as one is a predicate, the other must be so too. ALFORD admits his translation to be harsh, though legitimate. It is better with English Version to take it in a construction legitimate, and at the same time not harsh. The Greek, "God-inspired," is found nowhere else. Most of the New Testament books were written when Paul wrote this his latest Epistle: so he includes in the clause "All Scripture is God-inspired," not only the Old Testament, in which alone Timothy was taught when a child (Ti2 3:15), but the New Testament books according as they were recognized in the churches which had men gifted with "discerning of spirits," and so able to distinguish really inspired utterances, persons, and so their writings from spurious. Paul means, "All Scripture is God-inspired and therefore useful"; because we see no utility in any words or portion of it, it does not follow it is not God-inspired. It is useful, because God-inspired; not God-inspired, because useful. One reason for the article not being before the Greek, "Scripture," may be that, if it had, it might be supposed that it limited the sense to the hiera grammata, "Holy Scriptures" (Ti2 3:15) of the Old Testament, whereas here the assertion is more general: "all Scripture" (compare Greek, Pe2 1:20). The translation, "all Scripture that is God-inspired is also useful," would imply that there is some Scripture which is not God-inspired. But this would exclude the appropriated sense of the word "Scripture"; and who would need to be told that "all divine Scripture is useful ('profitable')?" Heb 4:13 would, in ALFORD'S view, have to be rendered, "All naked things are also open to the eyes of Him," &c.: so also Ti1 4:4, which would be absurd [TREGELLES, Remarks on the Prophetic Visions of the Book of Daniel]. Knapp well defines inspiration, "An extraordinary divine agency upon teachers while giving instruction, whether oral or written, by which they were taught how and what they should speak or write" (compare Sa2 23:1; Act 4:25; Pe2 1:21). The inspiration gives the divine sanction to all the words of Scripture, though those words be the utterances of the individual writer, and only in special cases revealed directly by God (Co1 2:13). Inspiration is here predicated of the writings, "all Scripture," not of the persons. The question is not how God has done it; it is as to the word, not the men who wrote it. What we must believe is that He has done it, and that all the sacred writings are every where inspired, though not all alike matter of special revelation: and that even the very words are stamped with divine sanction, as Jesus used them (for example in the temptation and Joh 10:34-35), for deciding all questions of doctrine and practice. There are degrees of revelation in Scripture, but not of inspiration. The sacred writers did not even always know the full significancy of their own God-inspired words (Pe1 1:10-12). Verbal inspiration does not mean mechanical dictation, but all "Scripture is (so) inspired by God," that everything in it, its narratives, prophecies, citations, the whole--ideas, phrases, and words--are such as He saw fit to be there. The present condition of the text is no ground for concluding against the original text being inspired, but is a reason why we should use all critical diligence to restore the original inspired text. Again, inspiration may be accompanied by revelation or not, but it is as much needed for writing known doctrines or facts authoritatively, as for communicating new truths [TREGELLES]. The omission here of the substantive verb is,' I think, designed to mark that, not only the Scripture then existing, but what was still to be written till the canon should be completed, is included as God-inspired. The Old Testament law was the schoolmaster to bring us to Christ; so it is appropriately said to be "able to make wise unto salvation through faith in Jesus Christ": the term wisdom being appropriated to a knowledge of the relations between the Old and New Testaments, and opposed to the pretended wisdom of the false teachers (Ti1 1:7-8).
doctrine--Greek, "teaching," that is, teaching the ignorant dogmatic truths which they cannot otherwise know. He so uses the Old Testament, Rom 1:17.
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reproof--"refutation," convicting the erring of their error. Including polemical divinity. As an example of this use of the Old Testament, compare Gal 3:6, Gal 3:13, Gal 3:16. "Doctrine and reproof" comprehend the speculative parts of divinity. Next follow the practical: Scripture is profitable for: (1) correction (Greek, "setting one right"; compare an example, Co1 10:1-10) and instruction (Greek, "disciplining," as a father does his child, see on Ti2 2:25; Eph 6:4; Heb 12:5, Heb 12:11, or "training" by instruction, warning, example, kindnesses, promises, and chastisements; compare an example, Co1 5:13). Thus the whole science of theology is complete in Scripture. Since Paul is speaking of Scripture in general and in the notion of it, the only general reason why, in order to perfecting the godly (Ti2 3:17), it should extend to every department of revealed truth, must be that it was intended to be the complete and sufficient rule in all things touching perfection. See Article VI, Common Prayer Book.
in--Greek, "instruction which is in righteousness," as contrasted with the "instruction" in worldly rudiments (Col 2:20, Col 2:22).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 16. The divine suitableness of Scripture to fit the…
16. The divine suitableness of Scripture to fit the minister for his work.
All Scripture—The Greek word for Scripture, γραφη, simply signifies writing; hence in 2Ti_3:15 the adjective holy, and, perhaps, here the adjective God-breathed, (which is the literal Greek of the full phrase given by inspiration of God,) are used to qualify the word as meaning the sacred writings. Yet of the fifty times in which the Greek word γραφη, occurs, it does not once designate any thing else than the sacred canon. Scholars find two interpretations for this passage. One is clearly expressed in our English translation: All scripture is inspired and profitable, etc. But the verb for is, not being in the Greek, can be supplied at a different place; and the Greek for and can be emphatic, also. We, then, may have the rendering, All inspired scripture is also profitable, etc. In the former interpretation the inspiration of Scripture is affirmed, in the latter case assumed. Either interpretation is sustainable by the Greek. Ellicott, Alford, and Huther prefer the latter; in which they are sustained by Origen, Grotius, Erasmus, Whitby, and Hammond; also by the Syriac, Vulgate, and Luther’s version. The latter meaning lies most clearly in the train of thought.
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That thought, and, perhaps, words, should be God-breathed into, or on, a human being, is a conception familiar to ancient pagan as well as Hebrew and Christian writers. Josephus says: “The prophets learned the highest and most ancient things by the inspiration (breathing on) that is from God.” Plutarch speaks of “the God-breathed dreams.” Cicero says, “No man was ever great without some divine afflatus, (breathing-on.) Either the thought might be imparted to the man, and then the thought was inspired; or the man might be elevated to a higher tone, and so, speaking spontaneously, his words would have something divine about them. 2Pe_1:21; Mat_22:43, seems to describe the latter inspiration.
Scripture, Paul tells Timothy, is profitable, positively for doctrine, or teaching positive truth; negatively for reproof, or rather, refutation of error; disciplinarily for correction of conduct; formatively as a whole for righteousness or rectitude of character.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 16. All scripture] The word for ‘Scripture’ occurs fifty-one…
16. All scripture] The word for ‘Scripture’ occurs fifty-one times in N.T., always, except 2Pe_3:16, of the recognised Old Testament Scriptures, the Law, the Prophets, and the Hagiographa, or of one or more of them; in 2Pe_3:16 the reference is to St Paul’s epistles and to ‘the other Scriptures.’ The A.V. of a.d. 1611 is therefore not wrong (though many printed copies have altered it) in rendering the word as ‘Scripture’ with a capital S; for it is by itself the recognised technical term.
We should translate Every Scripture probably, as is the proper rendering when there is no article. The word ‘Scripture’ is without the article also in Joh_19:37; 1Pe_2:6; 2Pe_1:20. Those who retain the rendering ‘All Scripture’ with A.V. would lay stress on the technical use of the word shewn above, so that it may be treated as a proper name, comparing Act_2:36, ‘all (the) house of Israel.’ But this is unnecessary, especially as the three places where the word occurs without the article in the singular have the meaning ‘a Book or passage of Scripture’ and they are in date as late as or later than this Epistle.
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given by inspiration of God] One word in the original, a passive verbal, occurring only here in N.T., and meaning ‘filled with the breath of God’ so as to be ‘living oracles,’ Act_7:38. Cf. 2Pe_1:21, ‘holy men of God moved by the Holy Spirit.’ Compare also the following passage written about a.d. 95, at the same time as the last N.T. book, St John’s Gospel: ‘Search the Scriptures, the true Scriptures, the Scriptures of the Holy Ghost: ye know that there is nothing unrighteous, nothing counterfeit written in them.’ Clem. Rom. ad Cor. c. 45.
There are two ways of taking this adjective, either as an attribute (so R.V.) or a predicate (so A.V.); either ‘Every Scripture, inasmuch as it is inspired of God, is also useful &c.’ or ‘Every Scripture is inspired and is profitable &c.’ In the latter case the second predicate comes in tamely. In the one case inspiration is assumed, in the other it is asserted.
profitable for doctrine] For teaching.
for reproof] The noun occurs only Heb_11:1, ‘the proving of things not seen.’ The corresponding verb is used five times by St Paul in these epistles, e.g. 2Ti_4:2.
correction] Only here in N.T. though a good classical word, cf. Dem. c. Timocr. 707, 7 ‘they shall lose their promotion to the Areopagus for putting down the amendment of the laws.’
for instruction in righteousness] Lit. discipline which is in righteousness; the verb ‘disciplining’ has occurred, 1Ti_1:20; 2Ti_2:25, where see notes. It occurs with ‘reprove’ in the letter to the church at Laodicea, Rev_3:19, where R.V. ‘chasten.’ ‘Which is in righteousness’ just as ‘faith which is in Christ Jesus’ above; the definite article indicates the definite sphere of exercise for the discipline and the faith. See note on 1Ti_1:2, where without the article the preposition and its case are shewn to be very nearly equivalent to an adjective. Ellicott well sums up the meaning ‘that Holy Scripture teaches the ignorant, convicts the evil and prejudiced, corrects the fallen and erring, and trains in righteousness all men, especially those that need bringing to fuller measures of perfection.’
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (16) All scripture is given by inspiration of God.—Although…
(16) All scripture is given by inspiration of God.—Although this rendering is grammatically possible, the more strictly accurate translation, and the one adopted by nearly all the oldest and most trustworthy versions (for example, the Syriac and the Vulgate), and by a great many of the principal expositors in all ages (for instance, by such teachers as Origen, Theodoret, Grotius, Luther, Meyer, Ellicott, and Alford), runs as follows: “Every scripture inspired by God is also profitable for doctrine, for reproof,” &c.
The rendering followed by the English version, and which is certainly grammatically possible, by making—“all Scripture” the subject, and “given by inspiration of God” the predicate, declares positively the inspiration of all the Old Testament Scriptures, for this is what the Apostle must have referred to, if we understand this verse as we have it rendered in the English version above. The New Testament at this period was certainly not all written; for instance, St. John’s Gospel, St. John’s Epistles, the Epistle to the Hebrews, and the Apocalypse, with several of the Catholic Epistles, probably were composed at a later date than that assigned to this letter to Timothy. St. Paul, massing together an evidently well-known number of writings under the term πᾶσα γραϕή, spoke of the Jewish Scriptures, the “canon” of which was then determined.
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But such a declaration of the inspiration of these writings to Timothy and to those associated with him would seem unnecessary and uncalled for. Timothy and the trained Jew of the first century would never dream of doubting the divine origin of their most prized and sacred writings. There is nothing in the verses immediately preceding which would call out such a statement. It seems, therefore, on exegetical, as well as on grammatical, considerations best to follow the interpretation of those ancient and venerable witnesses the Syriac and Latin (Jerome’s) versions, and to understand St. Paul’s words here, as asserting that every inspired writing (this, it should be observed, does not exclude those recent sacred compositions which—Gospels or Epistles—he had seen or written himself, and the divine origin of which he well knew) is profitable for doctrine, &c. Thus he exhorted Timothy to show himself a contrast to the false teachers—ever shifting their ground and waxing worse and worse—by keeping steadily to the old teaching of doctrine and of life. He was not to change, not to advance, but was to remember that every inspired Scripture was profitable for doctrine and for life. It was by these writings, St. Paul would remind him, that he must test his teaching. On the way in which “inspiration of God” was understood in the Church of the first days, see Excursus at the end of this Epistle.
Inspiration of God.—This thought, perhaps, rather than these words, is admirably paraphrased by St. Peter: “Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost” (2Pe_1:21). The various uses of Holy Scripture in the training of the man of God are set forth in the enumeration which closes this verse. These sacred writings must, in all ages, St. Paul would urge, be the hand-book of the Christian teacher. From it he must prove the doctrines he professes; hence, too, he must draw his reproofs for the ignorant and erring. It must be the one source whence he derives those instructions which teach the Christian how to grow in grace.
EXCURSUS ON NOTES TO II. TIMOTHY.
ON THE WAY IN WHICH “INSPIRATION OF GOD” [2Ti_3:16] WAS UNDERSTOOD IN THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CHURCH.
“See and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls.”
—Jer_6:16.
THE question of “inspiration” is one that in the present day often is the subject of debate. In the hot and often angry controversies on this subject among us, it will be useful and interesting to see what were the opinions held by those learned and devoted men living, many of them, in the times immediately succeeding the first age of the Faith, when those walked on earth who had seen and conversed with the Lord Jesus. We wilt give the words of a few of the more distinguished of the early fathers of the Faith, selecting them from different centres of Christianity.
ROME.—Clement, Bishop of Rome, A.D. 70-96. Ad Cor Ep. i. 45. Ad Cor. Ep. i. 47.
Our quotations begin from the very days of the Apostles. Clement mentioned by St. Paul (Php_4:3), who, as history tells us, was the second Bishop of Rome, exhorts his readers “to look carefully into the Scriptures, which are the true utterances of the Holy Spirit;” and in another place in the same writing he expressly refers to a well-known New Testament Epistle thus:—“Take up the Epistle of the blessed Paul the Apostle, what did he write to you in the beginning [that is, in the first days of the preaching] of the gospel? In truth, divinely inspired πνευματικῶς, divinitus inspiratus], he wrote to you Corinthians about himself, and Cephas, and Apollos, because just then factions [party spirit] existed among you.”
ASIA MINOR.—Polycarp of Smyrna, A.D. 108. Ep. to Philippians, cap. iii.
Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna, a disciple of St. John, in the one letter we possess of his, tells us “that neither he nor any like him is able to attain perfectly to the wisdom of the blessed and glorious Paul, who, when he was with you, before the men who were then living taught the word of truth perfectly and surely.”
SYRIA.—Ignatius of Antioch, A.D. 107. Ep. to Philad., cap. v. Ep. to Magn., cap. viii. Ep. to Romans, cap. iv.
“Let us love the prophets” (of the Old Testament), wrote Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch, the pupil of St. John, to the congregations of Philadelphia, “because they proclaimed the gospel, and believed in Christ, and waited for His coming, and through their faith in Him were saved.” “These most divine prophets lived according to Jesus Christ,” he writes to the Church of Magnesia, “being inspired by His grace.” Again: “I do not command you [Romans] like Peter and Paul: they were Apostles; I am a condemned man.”
EGYPT.—Barnabas of Alexandria, probably A.D. 140-160. Ep. Barnabas, ix. Ep. Barnabas, x. and v.
Barnabas (probably not the friend of St. Paul, but a teacher of Alexandria who lived some seventy or eighty years after St. Paul’s martyrdom), in his well known letter, speaks there of the inspiration of the Old Testament writings. Writing of Ps. 17:45, “The Lord saith in the prophet;” and of Psa_33:13, “The Spirit of the Lord prophesieth;” and in another place he tells us how “the prophets received their gift from Christ and spoke of Him;” also that “Moses spake in the Spirit.”
ROME & EPHESUS. Justin Martyr, A.D. 140-150. Cohortatio ad Gen tiles, 12. Apologia, i. 44. Apologia, i. 44, &c.; i. 40; i. 35. Apologia i. 36. Cohortatio ad Gentiles, 8.
This writer, several of whose works we still possess, was a scholar and thinker of no mean order. He wrote within half a century of St. John’s death. He in several places gives us his view of the inspiration of the divine writings. Referring to the Old Testament, he speaks of the history which Moses wrote by divine inspiration. while the Holy Spirit of Prophecy taught us through the instrumentality of Moses. Of David and of Isaiah he writes in similar terms (propheta Isaias divinitus afflatus a spiritu prophetico). His view, of the prophetic office is remarkable. “We must not suppose,” he writes, “that the expressions go forth from the men who are inspired, but from the divine word which moves them.” Speaking of the writers of the Old Testament, he calls them “holy men who required no eloquence, no skill in argumentative speaking, but who only needed to present themselves pure for the Divine Spirit to act upon, in order that the divine plectrum [an instrument, usually of gold or ivory, used for striking the lyre], coming down from heaven, acting on just men as a plectrum on a lyre or harp, might reveal to us the knowledge of divine and heavenly things.”
ATHENS.—Athenagoras, A.D. 160-180. Leg. pro Christ. 9.
This Athenian philosopher, who, while studying the Holy Scriptures with a view of refuting Christianity, was converted by the very writings he was endeavouring to bring into disrepute, writes (using the same strange, powerful metaphor which we found in the above quotation from Justin): “The prophets, while entranced . . . by the influence of the Divine Spirit, they gave utterance to what was wrought In them—the Spirit using them as instruments as a flute-player might blow a flute.”
LYONS.—Irenœus, A.D. 180. Contra Hœr, iii. 1. Contra Hær.iii. 5.
This famous writer and bishop of the early Church was connected in his early years with Polycarp, the pupil of St. John. He (to choose one out of many passages of his writings on this subject) thus writes of the Apostles:—“After that our Lord rose from the dead, and they [the Apostles] were clothed with the power of the Spirit from on high, they were filled with a perfect knowledge of all things.” “The Apostles, being the disciples of truth, are beyond all falsehood, though they speak according to the capacity of their hearers, talking blindly with the blind.”
Contra Hœr. ii. 28.
In another passage this Bishop of Lyons of the second century tells us, “The Scriptures are perfect, inasmuch as they were uttered by the Word of God and His Spirit.”
NORTH AFRICA: CARTHAGE.—Tertullian, A.D. 200. Apologia xxxi.
Tertullian, perhaps the ablest—and, had it not been for his unhappy choice in later life of a wild and perverted form of Christianity, the greatest—of the Latin fathers, calls the Holy Scriptures the “voices of God” (voces Dei). In another place he writes that “the four Gospels are built on the certain basis of apostolical authority, and so are inspired in a far different sense from the writings of the spiritual Christian. All the faithful, it is true, have the Spirit of God; but all are not Apostles.”
EGYPT: ALEXANDRIA.—Clement master of the Catechetical School of Alexandria, A.D. 199-200. pæd. i. 11. Protr. i. 5
Clement of Alexandria was master of the catechetical school of the most learned city of the world at the end of the second century, only 100 years after the death of St. John; and taught in famous school—as did well-nigh all the early fathers of Christianity—the doctrine of the plenary inspiration of Scripture. “It was by the masters of Israel,” wrote Clement, “that God led men properly to the Messiah—speaking to them in the Law, the Psalms, and the Prophets . . . The word of God, disregarding the lifeless instruments, the lyre and the harp, reduces to harmony . . . man, and through that many-voiced instrument makes melody to God, and says to man, ‘Thou art my harp, my flute, my temple: my harp, from the harmony [of many notes]; my flute, from the Spirit that breatheth through thee; my temple, from the word that dwelleth in thee.’ Truly of man the Lord wrought a glorious living instrument, after the fashion of His own image—one which might give every harmony of God tuneful and holy.”
De Antichriitn 2. ROME.—Hippolytus of Portus, A.D. 218. De antichristo, 2.
Hippolytus, Bishop of Portus (one of the suburban districts of Rome), a most learned and distinguished writer of the Italian Church of the early part of the third century, a pupil of Irenæus of Lyons, in one of his treatises preserved to us, expresses himself very clearly and with singular force on this subject. Speaking of the Jewish prophets, he writes, “These blessed men . . . spake not only of the past, but also of the present and future, that they might be shown to be heralds of things to come, not for a time merely, but for all generations. . . . For these fathers, having been perfected by the Spirit of Prophecy, and worthily honoured by the Word Himself, were brought to an inner harmony like instruments; and having the Word within them to strike the notes, by Him they were moved, and announced that which God wrote. For they did not speak of their own power, be well assured, nor proclaim that which they wished themselves, but first they were rightly endowed with wisdom by the Word, and afterwards well foretaught of the future by visions, and then, when thus assured, spake that which was revealed to them by God.”
ALEXANDRIA.—Origen, A.D. 230. De Principiis, lib. i. Proœmium, 4. De Principiis, i. Proœmium, i. Contr.Celsum, vii. 4 Hom. in Jer. xxi. 2.
The Church, while condemning the errors into which the greathearted Origen fell, still reads in every age with reverence and admiration his marvellous and brilliant teaching. It will be well to close this short paper on a great subject with two or three extracts from this famous Alexandrian master, on the subject of inspiration: “The Holy Spirit inspired each of the Saints, Prophets, and Apostles. . . . The same Spirit was present in those of old times as in those who were inspired at the coming of Christ.” “Christ, the Word of God, was in Moses and the prophet and by His Spirit they sake and did all things.” Again, in his work against Celsus, he writes the following wise and beautiful words:—“The true God acted on the prophets to enlighten and strengthen them, and not to cloud or to confuse their natural powers . . . . for the divine messengers, by the contact of the Holy Spirit with their soul, so to speak, gained a deeper and a clearer intuition of spiritual truth, and they then became more perfect men as well as wise seers.” In one of his homilies Origen does not hesitate even to say that “there is nothing, whether in the Law or in the Prophets, in the Evangelists or in the Apostles, which does not descend from the fulness of the divine majesty.”
Hom. in Ex. xi. Hom. in Gen. xi. 3. De Principiis, iv. 16 Home. in Jos. xx.
This gifted teacher’s noble words on the way in which these God-inspired writings should be read deserve to be graven on the heart of every Christian believer: “We must read them with pure hearts, for no one can listen to the word of God . . . unless he be holy in body and spirit: . . . no one can enter into this feast with soiled garments. He who is a student of God’s oracles must place himself under the teaching of God; such a one must seek their meaning by inquiry, discussion, examination, and, which is greatest, by prayer. . . . Prayer is the most necessary qualification for the understanding of divine things. . . . If, then, we read the Bible with patience, prayer, and faith; if we ever strive after a more perfect knowledge, and yet remain content in some things to know only in part—even as prophets and apostles, saints and angels, attain not to an understanding of all things—our patience will be rewarded, our prayer answered, and our faith increased. So let us not be weary in reading the Scriptures which we do not understand, but let it be unto us according to our faith, by which we believe that all Scripture, being inspired by God, is profitable” (Origen, quoted by Westcott).
[For many other early patristic references on this subject of the teaching of the Church of the first days on the subject of the “Inspiration of the Scriptures,” see the exhaustive paper of the Religious Professor of Divinity (Cambridge), Canon Westcott, in his Introduction to the Study of the Gospels, Appendix C, pp. 383-423, upon which this short Excursus is mainly based.]
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain Every Scripture inspired of God is also profitable for…
Every Scripture inspired of God is also profitable for all Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable, A.V; teaching for doctrine, A.V; which is in for in, A.V Every Scripture, etc. There are two ways of construing this important passage: (A) As in the A.V, in which qeopneustov is part of the predicate coupled by kai with the following wjfelimov; (B) as in the R.V, where qeopneustov is part of the subject (as pan ergon ajgaqon, "every good work,"; (2Co_9:8, and elsewhere) and the following kai is ascensive, and to be rendered "is also." Commentators are pretty equally divided, though the older ones (as Origen, Jerome (Vulgate), the versions) mostly adopt (B). In favour of (A), however, it may be said
(1) that such a sentence as that which arises from (B) necessarily implies that there are some grafai which are not qeopneustoi, just as Pan ergon ajgaqon implies that there are some works which are not good; pasa eujlogia pneumatikh, (Eph_1:3) that there are some blessings which are not spiritual; pan ergon ponhron, (2Ti_4:18) that there are some works which are not evil; and so on. But as grafh is invariably used in the New Testament for "Scripture," and not for any profane writing: it is not in accordance with biblical language to say, "every inspired Scripture," because every Scripture is inspired.
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(2) The sentence, taken according to (B), is an extremely awkward, and, as Alford admits. harsh construction, net supported in its entirety by one single parallel usage in the whole New Testament.
(3) The sentence, taken according to (A), is a perfectly simple one, and is exactly parallel withsma 1Ti_4:4, Pan kti Qeou kalon kai oujdeblhton, "Every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused.
(4) It is in perfect harmony with the context. Having in the preceding verse stated the excellence of the sacred writings, he accounts for that excellence by referring to their origin and source. They are inspired of God, and hence their wide use and great power.
(5) This interpretation is supported by high authority: Chrysostom, Gregory of Nyssa, etc., among the ancients (Alford); and Bengel, Wiesinger, De Wette, etc., among modern. The advocates of (B), as Bishop Ellicott, Dean Alford, etc., speak very doubtfully. With regard to the rendering of pasa grafh, no doubt, strict grammar, in the absence of the article, favours the rendering in the R.V, "every Scripture," rather than that of the A.V, "all Scripture." But Alford"s remark onv Mat_1:20 applies with full force here: "When a word or an expression came to bear a technical conventional meaning, it was also common to use it without the article, as if it were a proper name, e.g. Qeo) nomov uiJov Qeou," etc. Therefore, just as pasa JIerosoluma (Mat_2:3) means "all Jerusalem," not "every Jerusalem," so here pasa grafh means "all Scripture." What follows of the various uses of Holy Scripture is not true of "every Scripture." One Scripture is profitable for doctrine, another for reproof, and so on. Examples of grafh without the article are 2Pe_1:20 and Rom_1:2; and of pav not followed by the article, and yet meaning "all," are in Eph_2:21 and 3:15. Inspired of God, etc. (qeopneustov); here only in the New Testament or LXX, but occasionally in classical Greek, as Plutarch. For teaching, etc. The particular uses for which Scripture is said to be profitable present no difficulty. Teaching, of which Holy Scripture is the only infallible source. Reproof (elegcon or ejlegmon); only here and Heb_11:1; but in classical Greek it means "a proof," specially for the purpose of "refutation" of a false statement or argument. Here in the same sense for the "conviction" or "refutation" of false teachers (comp., (Tit_1:9, Tit_1:13) but probably including errors in living (compare in the "Ordering of Priests," "That there be no place left among you, either for error in religion or for viciousness in life"). Correction (ejpanorqwsin); only here in the New Testament, but occasionally in the LXX, and frequently in classical Greek, as Aristotle, Plato, etc., in the sense of "correction," i.e. setting a person or thing straight, "revisal," "improvement," "amendment," or the like. It may be applied equally to opinions and to morals, or way of life. Instruction which is in righteousness. There is no advantage in this awkward phraseology. "Instruction in righteousness" exactly expresses the meaning. The Greek, thnh, merely limits the paideia to the sphere of righteousness or Christian virtue. By the use of Holy Scripture the Christian is being continually more perfectly instructed in holy living.
Vers. 16, 17.
The authority and utility of the Scriptures.
The apostle is led to emphasize the value of the Scriptures generally for the purposes of spiritual life.
I THE AUTHORITY OF SCRIPTURE. "Every Scripture inspired of God is also profitable.
1. This does not signify that there may be Scripture not divinely inspired, but merely asserts that the Scripture being thus inspired is profitable.
2. The words inspired by God" point to the entire agency of God in producing that Divine element which makes the Bible differ from every other book. The inspired person was the organ of God in what he said, so that his words were the words of God.
3. Scripture says nothing concerning the mode of inspiration. The process is supernatural, and it cannot be explained. It is not with the mode but with the result we are concerned.
4. Inspiration differs from revelation this being that through which apostles and prophets came into possession of Divine information, inspiration being that through which they were able infallibly to communicate it to others.
5. There is nothing in the doctrine of inspiration inconsistent with the idea that the inspired penmen used their own peculiarities of verbal expression or personal idiosyncrasies.
6. The inspiration extends to words as well as thoughts to the form as well as the substance of Scripture. So far as the record is inspired at all, infallible thought must be definite thought, and definite thought implies words. The apostle claimed that the Holy Spirit guaranteed his words as well as his thoughts. 1Co_2:13, "Not in the didactic words of man"s wisdom, but in the didactic words of the Holy Ghost Besides, Christ and the apostles argue from the very words of Scripture (Mat_22:45; Gal_3:16)
7. The term "every Scripture" in the text seems to include the Old Testament and the New Testament so far as it had been written; else there would have been no necessity for a different term from that used in the fifteenth verse, "Holy Scriptures.
II THE UTILITY OF THE SCRIPTURE "Is also profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for discipline in righteousness.
1. It is useful for teaching as a medium for communicating instruction, that we may know and believe what is necessary to salvation.
2. It is useful for reproof for the refutation of error, for convincing a man of his error.
3. It is useful for correction as to what is practically wrong in life.
4. It is useful for discipline in righteousness righteousness being the clement in which this discipline is to take effect, through the agency of Scripture.
III THE RESULT OR DESIGN OF THE SCRIPTURE. "That the man of God may be complete, furnished completely unto every good work.
1. The design is the perfection of the believer in life and service. The description supplies the man of God with all due appliances for this end. They help to make us perfect in knowledge, faith, and holiness, as well as to furnish us with wisdom and guidance in all holy service.
2. Inference to be drawn from the design of Scripture. It is a perfect, a plain, a sufficient rule of faith and life, in answer to Roman Catholics. If it can make wise to salvation, perfect the man of God, and furnish him for all holy work, then there is no need for tradition to supplement its imaginary defects. T.C.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain All Scripture is given by inspiration of God.
2Ti_3:16-17
All Scripture is given by inspiration of God.
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Inspiration of Scripture
The word Inspiration itself is evidently a figure. It may be illustrated by another word. Inspiration is a breathing into: influence is a flowing into: neither word is self-explanatory; the former, like the latter, may clearly admit of degrees and modifications. The word Inspiration occurs twice in the English Version of the Bible. But there is a spirit πνεῦμα in man: and the inspiration πνοὴ of the Almighty giveth them understanding (Job_32:8). All Scripture is given by inspiration of God θεόπνευστος, and is profitable for doctrine, etc. (2Ti_3:16). In the one passage instruction is the chief thought, in the other edification. The word occurs twice also in the Prayer-book. Grant to us Thy humble servants that by Thy holy inspiration we may think those things that be good, etc. (Collect for the fifth Sunday after Easter). Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of Thy Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love Thee, etc. (Collect in the Communion service). In both these sanctification is the end in view. Definition is still wanting. In several passages of the Epistles (as, for example, Rom_15:4, and 2Pe_1:20-21) strong terms are employed to describe the objects and uses of Old Testament Scripture as a whole, and its source in the agency of the Holy Spirit. Nothing can be more inclusive than St. Pauls ὅσα προεγράφη, nothing more emphatic than St. Peters ἐλάλησαν ἀπὸ Θεοῦ. Yet definition is still wanting alike of the word and of the thing. Theories of Inspiration have been many, but it is not in conjecture or in reasoning that our idea of it should be sought. The only true view of Inspiration will be that which is the net result of a lifelong study of Scripture itself, with all freedom in registering its phenomena, and all candour in pondering the question, What saith it concerning itself? It is easy to see (and the Church of the present day is honest in avowing it) that the real truth must lie somewhere between two extremes--the extreme of verbal inspiration on the one side, and the extreme of a merely human composition on the other.
I. Against the idea of a verbal inspiration of Scripture we are warned by many considerations. Amongst these we may place--
1. Its utter unlikeness to all Gods dealings in nature and grace. Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is freedom--freedom, not bondage; freedom, not rigidity.
2. The language of the New Testament as to the difference between letter and spirit, between γράμμα and πνεῦμα--the deadness of the one, the power of the other. As soon as Inspiration itself is tied to the clause and the sentence, to the precise shape and form of the utterance, and the black and white page of the written or printed book, it too is turned from the πονὴ into the χειρόγραφον, and has lost the very φορὰ of the Spirit which made it a προφητεία (2Pe_1:21).
3. Such passages, for example, as the opening verses of St. Lukes Gospel, which speak only of diligent research and a thoughtful judgment as his guides in composing; or St. Pauls expressions in the seventh chapter of his First Epistle to the Corinthians, as to his speaking not always with authority, but sometimes in the tone of suggestion and advice; or again, St. Peters remarks upon the Epistles of St. Paul, which in the same breath he describes, by clear implication, as scriptures, and yet characterises with a freedom which would be irreverent and almost impertinent if each line of those scriptures had been verbally inspired.
4. The observation of differences of style and method between one Scripture writer and another; the employment, for example, by one of irony and sarcasm, by another of no weapons but those of simple persuasion.
5. The fearful importance attached to each reading and each rendering of each verse and clause of Scripture, if one was, and another was not; the very word dictated or the very thought breathed from heaven.
6. Also the utter grotesqueness of such an idea as the revelation of science, whether astronomy, geology, or ethnology--which yet there would have been if, where such objects are involved, the phrases and the sentences had been literally and verbally inspired of God; implying an anticipation, perhaps by many centuries, of discoveries for which God had made provision in His other gift of reason, and which it would have been contrary to all His dealings thus to forestall. Mans extremity is Gods opportunity; that which lie had given faculties for finding out in time, He would not interpose, before the time came, to precipitate.
7. The terrible risk to mankind of pinning down the faith to statements utterly indifferent to spiritual profiting, which yet, if philosophically accurate, must for whole ages bear the appearance of error. And who shall guarantee the Bible, even if accurately written up to the science of the nineteenth century, from being condemned by the science of the twentieth?
II. If such are the confusions and contradictions of the one extreme, the other extreme is yet more perilous. The practical elimination (now so common)of the Divine element in Scripture is fatal in every sense to its inspiration.
1. It reduces Scripture to the level (at best) of works of human genius; and, when this is done, makes the question, for each book, a comparative one, in which some books would be exposed to a disparaging judgment.
2. It sends us back to human reasoning, which is on many topics (such, for example, as immortality, forgiveness, and spiritual grace) human guessing, for all our information on things of gravest concern.
3. It contradicts
(1) express declarations of the New Testament Scriptures as to the Divine authority of the Old, as well as
(2) express assertion of Divine illumination, promised and experienced, in the blew Testament writers themselves.
4. It does violence to the continuous doctrine of the Church of all ages, which has from the very first been express and peremptory in its view of the Divinity of the Scripture.
5. It leaves us practically destitute, even of a revelation. Because, though there might be a revelation without an inspiration (that is, a gospel of Christ, brought into the world by Him, and by Him communicated to His apostles, and by them to after ages, without a separate inspiration of the writers of its records), yet, as a matter of fact, it is by Scripture that we test our revelation, and that which shakes the authority of Scripture shakes the certainty of the revelation which Scripture enshrines.
III. Between these two extremes lies somewhere the very truth itself about inspiration. It would be arbitrary to define it so precisely as to unchristianise those who cannot see with us. That there is both a human and also a Divine element in the Bible is quite certain. Some things we may say with confidence.
1. Inspiration left the writer free to use his own phraseology, even his mode of illustrating and arguing.
2. It did not level the characteristic features of different minds, life one could imagine the Epistle to the Galatians written by St. John, or the Epistle of St. James written by St. Paul.
3. It did not supersede the necessity of diligence in investigating facts, nor the possibility of discrepancies in recording them; though it is more than probable that most or all of these would be reconciled if we knew all.
4. While it left the man free in the exercise of all that was distinctive in his nature, education, and habits of thought, it communicated nevertheless an elevation of tone, an earnestness of purpose, a force and fire of holy influence, quite apart and different from that observable in common men.
5. It communicated knowledge to the man of things otherwise indiscoverable, and also to the writer of things which it was the will of God to say by him to the hearer or reader.
IV. While we refrain from definition, it is our duty as Christians to form a high conception of the thing itself for which inspiration is the name.
1. Let us think what would have become of the παραφήκη itself, under whichever or whatever dispensation, if it had been left to depend upon oral transmission.
2. Let us give weight to the passages (some of them quoted above) which assert Inspiration in the strongest possible terms.
3. Most of all, let us live so much in the study of Scripture, as to acquire that reverent and devout conception of it which is ever deepest and strongest in those who best know it. A Christian man able to treat the Bible slightingly would be a contradiction in terms. (Dean Vaughan.)
Inspiration
The word which is here rendered inspired of God is common enough in heathen writers, but this is the only place in which it occurs in Holy Scripture. As the word was common in heathen writers, so is the idea. Best, says an ancient Greek poet, is the word of inspired wisdom. Another Greek writer speaks of dreams inspired of God. The Roman orator Cicero says, No man was ever great without a certain Divine inspiration. This last example reminds us that in the Bible also inspiration is in the first instance the attribute of men, not of books. The prophet in the Old Testament is also called the man of the Spirit. Men from God, the Second Epistle of Peter tells us, spake as they were moved of the Holy Ghost. There is a spirit in man, we read in Job, and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding. The Divine breath, for that is the idea contained in the words inspired of God, is first in a human soul; it is only through the soul that it can be communicated to any word or work. Scripture can only be a body of inspired writings because it is the work of a body of inspired men. Now let us approach the subject from this side, and I think it will lead us to some serviceable truths. All men are not equally capable of inspiration--some have a much greater fitness than others for receiving the Spirit of God. If we wish to see the perfect type of inspiration--inspiration not limited or hampered by any unfitness in its instrument--we must find one in whom there is no sin, but an entire and perfect sympathy with the mind and will of God. One such there is in Scripture, and one only--the man Christ Jesus. No one ever had the Spirit without measure except Him; in other words, no one ever walked the earth besides who was in the true and full sense inspired of God. The Divine breath was in Him, and Him only, the life of every thought and word. Hence the words of Christ have a solitary and supreme value. He says so Himself: The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life. The difficulties which are felt at the present time in connection with inspiration should all be brought under review in this light. Every scripture, the text tells us, at least by implication, has a Divine breath in it; there is a Divine purpose which it has once served, and which, at a certain stage of human progress, it may profitably serve still; but not every scripture is equally inspired; not every scripture has the final and permanent validity of the words of Christ; and as long as these last find their way to our hearts and work the will of Christ in us, we need not disquiet ourselves because we cannot define the inspiration of Esther, for instance, or of Second Chronicles. When we take the words of Christ as the perfect type of inspired words, and the record of them as the perfect type of inspired Scripture, we see what the essential contents and purpose of inspiration must be. Christs words are not monotonous; they are inexhaustible in their fulness; but in them all there is the undertone: One thing is needful. Christ is always saying the same things, and about the same things. The nature of God, the will of God, the true life and destiny of man--these and all that gathers round these are His theme. He aims at making men wise, but it is wise unto Salvation. He never taught a school of history or of science, or even of speculative theology. It was His meat to do the will of Him that sent Him, to declare that will, to win others to do it likewise. We cannot come nearer than the study of His words brings us to a true idea of inspiration; and if what I have said is true at all, it follows that inspiration has to do only with the will of God. The man of the Spirit is not necessarily an infallible observer, an infallible scientist, an infallible historian; in matters unconnected with his inspiration he may share the ignorance or the prejudices of his uninspired contemporaries; but he is, in the measure of his inspiration, an infallible interpreter of the will of God. Could anything be more true than that the words of Christ are profitable for doctrine, or to put it in commoner words, useful for teaching? The truth about God and man and all spiritual realities is revealed in them, and brought home to the mind and heart. They have filled and fertilised the intellect of Christendom for centuries. Are they not useful also for reproof, or more exactly, for conviction? Are there any words in the world that can quicken a dead conscience and make it sting, like His? How many of us have been revealed to ourselves as we listened to Him, and been compelled to cry like the woman of Samaria--Come, see a man that told me all things that ever I did? Are they not profitable also for correction, for the putting right of what is wrong, and for discipline in righteousness? But, some one may say, though all this is plain enough in regard to Christs words, it is very difficult to apply it to everything in the Bible--for instance, to the historical books; yet the text speaks of every scripture. That is true, and no doubt by every scripture the apostle has the Old Testament in view; there was no other scripture to speak of when he wrote. But I think a little patience and attention will show that this general and practical definition of inspiration is applicable to the whole of the Bible; and if the Bible, from first to last, has this inspiring and educative power for practical spiritual purposes, we must not deny its inspiration on other and alien grounds. Let us take examples from the historical books to make clear what I mean. There are parts of the Old Testament that belong to the clear daylight of history--for example, the story of the last years of David. That story is told in 2 Samuel, from chap. 11. onward. I hardly need to recall it even by mentioning the names of Bathsheba, Uriah, Amnon, Tamar, Absalom, Ahithophel, Joab, Shimei. No one knows who wrote it, but it is not possible to doubt that it rests on the authority of some one in immediate contact with the facts. Now consider how it might have been written. A newspaper reporter often has to deal with the same materials, and the chances are a thousand to one that in his hands they minister to the defilement and degradation of the community. A secular historian would probably handle them lightly, as the inevitable disorders of an oriental despotism--the natural result of such a situation as David occupied. In neither case would there be room to speak of inspiration. But as it stands in the Bible, that terrible record of crime and its consequences, is in the full sense of the word inspired. It is not written by a sensational reporter, or a pragmatical historian, but by a man of the Spirit. We see lust and blood in it, not with the sensual eye which feels the fascination of moral horrors, but with the holy eye of God. No man ever read it but was awed, shocked, disciplined in righteousness by pity and fear. It is in that sense that the story is inspired. The facts were not inspired; they were the common property of men with and without the Spirit. There could not be a more signal illustration of the power of inspiration than that a narrative like this--all of foulest crime compact--should have virtue in it, when told by an inspired man, to quicken the conscience, and educate the man of God. Take one example more, in some ways the most difficult of all, the first eleven chapters of Genesis. According to the usual chronology these cover a space of something like two thousand years. They do not contain many incidents--Creation, the Fall, the Flood, the origin and dispersion of the nations, are the chief. Now nobody lived through all that period, and at the very earliest these narratives were not written as we have them for centuries after it expired. To what extent they embody traditions; how nearly or how remotely, in any given case, tradition may be related to things as they actually happened; whether a primitive revelation survives in them here or there--all these are questions on which men have been very positive, but on which simple regard for truth precludes positiveness. And what I want to insist upon here, is that the inspiration of these chapters, like that of the rest of the Bible, is not affected by any decision to which we may come on these points. Inspiration has to do with the spirit of the writer, not with his materials. The inspiration of Luke did not provide him with facts about the life of Jesus; he had to learn them from eyewitnesses and catechists; he had to scrutinise and compare documents like another historian. Neither did inspiration, as I believe, supply the writer of Genesis with his materials. What is inspired in his story is what speaks to the spirit, what serves to convict, to correct, to discipline in righteousness; and judged by this standard, there is nothing in the Bible better entitled to claim inspiration than the story, e.g., of the Fall. Compare such a narrative with the use made of similar materials by a pagan writer--a comparison that can fortunately be made--and we see how wonderfully the author must have been filled and uplifted by a Spirit above his own. It is because his writing has this spiritual quality, this permanent power to reveal to us both God and our own heart, that it answers to the description given by Paul of every inspired Scripture. There is only one proof, in the long run, that the Spirit of God is in the Bible; and that is, that it exerts its power through the Bible. The perfection of Scripture is perfection for its purpose, and that purpose is the transformation of character. (James Denney, B. D.)
The inspiration and utility of the Scriptures
I. The inspiration of the scriptures.
1. What is inspiration? It is not revelation, but the infallible record of an infallible revelation.
2. The extent of inspiration. How far were these men guided by the Holy Ghost in the composition of the Scriptures? To every line and word. Yet was not the self-control or intelligent consciousness of the writer destroyed. Each writer retains his own style (see 1Co_2:13; 1Co_12:6).
3. The object of inspiration. To give certainty to that written under its guidance.
4. The proofs of inspiration. Internal evidence. Arguments drawn from the history of these books, from their contents. Christs appeal to the Old Testament as of Divine origin. The claim of both writers of Old and New Testaments.
II. The utility of the scriptures. profitable for, etc.
1. As an unvarying standard of doctrine. Not a theological statement, but the germ of all true doctrine. From it all doctrine must be derived, and to it all doctrine must be referred.
2. Useful in the confutation of all religious error. Profitable for reproof.
3. Useful as an infallible standard of right and wrong. We cannot trust a pope, a church.
4. Useful for instruction in righteousness. By following its teachings we are brought into fuller measures of perfection. Our sanctification is by the Word. Sanctify them through Thy truth; Thy Word is truth. (James Hunter.)
Inspired Scriptures, and their Divine purpose
I. The nature of the writings here spoken of.
II. The object for which the scriptures were written. This object is twofold; first, what the Bible would make man; and next, holy it would accomplish its purpose.
1. What the Scriptures would make man. That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works. It does this by first making him a man of God. Religion is not an abstraction--it is a Divine life, and a life which in man makes him a man of God.
2. The standard after which he ever aims is perfection!
3. But we have not only the standard announced, we have also the style of the spiritual education determined--that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished.
III. How the scriptures propose making men of God, throughly furnished, unto all good works. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable.
1. For doctrine; that is, for conveying those truths and that learning needful to salvation.
2. Becoming profitable for reproof. This word reproof, means conviction.
3. It becomes profitable for correction. This is equally necessary in a volume suitable to save men.
4. Lastly--by instruction of righteousness. The unlearning of mans love to sin, the undoing of his evil habits--this is correction. But after all this is but the negative part of Christian character. It is the abegnation of evil. Christianity inculcates positive good.
IV. The work which holy Scripture is yet destined to do.
1. By the Bible the Church of God mast be purified.
2. By the Bible, as an instrument, the Jews must be converted.
3. By the Bible the great apostasy must be destroyed.
4. By the Bible, instrumentally, the heathen must be converted. (A. M. Brown, LL. D.)
The Bible superhuman
I shall content myself with stating some plain facts about the Bible, which can neither be denied nor explained away. And the ground I shall take up is this--
I. That these facts ought to satisfy every reasonable inquirer that the bible is of God, and not of man.
1. It is a fact that there is a superhuman fulness and richness in the contents of the Bible. It throws more light on a vast number of most important subjects than all the other books in the world put together. It boldly handles matters which are beyond the reach of man when left to himself.
2. It is another fact that there is a superhuman wisdom, sublimity, and majesty in the style of the Bible. Strange and unlikely as it was, the writers of Scripture have produced a book which even at this day is utterly unrivalled. With all our boasted attainments in science and art and learning we can produce nothing that can be compared with the Bible. To talk of comparing the Bible with other sacred books so called, such as the Koran, the Shasters, or the book of Mormon, is positively absurd. You might as well compare the sun with a rushlight--or Skiddaw with a mole-hill--or Saint Pauls with an Irish hovel--or the Portland vase with a garden pot--or the Koh-i-noor diamond with a bit of glass. God seems to have allowed the existence of these pretended revelations in order to prove the immeasurable superiority of His own Word.
3. It is another fact, that there is a superhuman accuracy in the facts and statements of the Bible, which is above man. Here is a book which has been finished and before the world for nearly 1800 years. These 1800 years have been the busiest and most changeful period the world has ever seen. During this period the greatest discoveries have been made in science, the greatest alterations in the ways and customs of society, the greatest improvements in the habits and usages of life. But all this time men have never discovered a really weak point or a defect in the Bible. Over and over again the enemies of the Bible have fancied they have detected defects. Again and again they have proved to be mistaken. The march of intellect never overtakes it. The wisdom of wise men never gets beyond it. The science of philosophers never proves it wrong. The discoveries of travellers never convict it of mistakes. Are the ruins of Nineveh and Egypt ransacked and explored? Nothing is found that overturns one jot or tittle of the Bibles historical statements.
4. It is another fact that there is in the Bible a superhuman suitableness to the spiritual wants of all mankind. It feeds the mind of the labourer in his cottage, and it satisfies the gigantic intellects of Newton, Chalmers, Brewster, and Faraday. It is the only book, moreover, which seems always fresh and evergreen and new. I place these four facts about the Bible before you, and I ask you to consider them well. Take them all four together, treat them fairly, and look at them honestly. Upon any other principle than that of Divine inspiration, those four facts appear to me inexplicable and unaccountable. Not only were its writers isolated and cut off in a peculiar manner from other nations, but they belonged to a people who have never produced any other book of note except the Bible! There is not the slightest proof that, unassisted and left to themselves, they were capable of writing anything remarkable, like the Greeks and Romans. Yet these men have given the world a volume which for depth, sublimity, accuracy, and suitableness to the wants of man, is perfectly unrivalled. How can this be explained? To my mind there is only one answer. The writers of the Bible were Divinely helped and qualified for the work which they did.
II. Let us now consider the privileges which the possession of an inspired book confers upon us.
1. It is a privilege to possess the only book which gives a reasonable account of the beginning and end of the globe on which we live.
2. It is a privilege to possess the only book which gives a true and faithful account of man.
3. It is a privilege to possess the only book which gives us true views of God.
4. It is a privilege to possess the only book which gives a clear account of the full, perfect, and complete provision which God has made for the salvation of fallen man.
5. Finally, it is a privilege to possess the only book which explains the state of things that we see in the world around us.
III. Let us now consider the duties which the possession of Gods oracles entails upon us.
1. First and foremost, let us honour the Bible by making it the supreme rule of faith, the standard measure of truth and error, of right and wrong in our churches.
2. In the next place, if we believe the Bible to be the oracles of God, let us show the reality of our belief by endeavouring to spread it throughout the world. (Bp. Ryle.)
Inspiration of the Holy Scriptures
I. In confirmation of this doctrine, we would ask attention to the following considerations and arguments.
1. We would offer a short, clear, and strong argument, from Mr. Wesley. The Bible, says he, must be the invention either of good men or angels, bad men or devils, or of God.
(1) It could not be the invention of good men or angels; for they neither could nor would make a book, and tell lies all the time they were writing it, saying, Thus saith the Lord, when it was their own invention.
(2) It could not be the invention of bad men or devils; for they would not make a book which commands all duty, forbids all sin, and condemns their souls to hell to all eternity.
(3) Therefore we must draw this conclusion, that the Bible must have been given by Divine inspiration--that it is the work of God.
2. Our second argument is derived from prophecy. The ability to foretell future events, especially hundreds of years beforehand, belongs to God alone.
3. The declarations of the Scriptures themselves plainly prove this doctrine. But will not this be proving inspiration by inspiration? It would be so, indeed, did we assume the Bible in this argument to be inspired. But now we take it only as a book of truth, declaring true doctrines and true history; as such we receive it, and by itself prove its inspiration.
II. We pass to consider some objections.
1. The first, and one which is frequently in the mouths of infidels, is that there are contradictions in the Scriptures, and therefore they cannot be inspired.
2. Another class of objections against the plenary inspiration of the Scriptures is founded on the imperfect state of the text, its variations in the reading and punctuations.
3. Another objection which has been urged against plenary or verbal inspiration is founded on the individuality of the sacred writers. The following is our answer:--God speaks to man after the manner of men; and hence He uses human language, and, of course, human language with its imperfections.
Inferences:
1. If the Holy Scriptures are Divinely inspired, human reason ought to be held in abeyance to their teachings.
2. If Divinely inspired, they must teach us truth without any admixture of error.
3. We also infer that, if Divinely inspired, they contain a sufficiency of truth for our salvation. (Stephen M. Vail, M. A.)
The Word of God commended to the man of God in the perilous times of the last days
1. The subject of this text is our own precious Bible.
2. And, assuredly, of the very deepest interest must such a subject be to the sort of person to whom in the text the Spirit, by Paul, addresses Himself, on the Divine inspiration, and authority, and profitableness of the Bible. For it is to the man of God the apostle here speaks in commendation of the Word of God. It is to one he writes who (2Ti_3:14-15) had learned and been assured of the things revealed in the Holy Scriptures, which from a child he had known--who had experimentally proved them to be able to make him wise unto salvation, through faith which is in Christ Jesus. To that sort of person no theme could be more attractive of the deepest interest, than the incalculable preciousness of the Holy Bible (Psa_19:7-11). One thing only could enhance such a mans estimate of their infinite value, and that one thing was the character of the times in which, as peculiarly threatening of dangerous assaults on the Christian faith, the apostle commended the profitableness of the Scriptures and exhorted the man of God to continue to confide in the profitableness of all Scripture as given by inspiration of God.
3. And yet, though thus employed as the means of enforcing his exhortation to Timothy to continue in the things which he had learned, the perilous controversies of the times are not suffered by any insinuation on the part of the apostle to disturb the certainty in which his young disciple had been assured of the things which he had learned.
4. Are we men of God, taught of God to know Him, and with profoundest reverence to acknowledge His authority speaking in His own Word? Then we are of those who spiritually see. To our renewed hearts, as to open healthy eyes, the light of Holy Scripture has come and entered in, carrying with it its own evidence of its Divine authority, and with a power that is irresistible.
I. Whence have we the Bible? It is of God--its authority is Divine. When God speaks the highest exercise of mans reason surely is, in silent submission, to believe and obey, simply because it is the Word of God that is spoken. It is the exercise of a prerogative the noblest birthright of man, to believe Gods truth. In that submission of human reason to the authority of Divine truth, man escapes into freedom! The truth as nothing else can do, emancipates the mind from the debasing slavery to the opinions of men. It puts man as to unseen things in immediate and direct communication alone with God. No creature is allowed to intervene as the Lord of the conscience, when, for the authority of God speaking in it, the word in Holy Scripture is believed. God is then by His Word and Spirit in actual contact with your soul, for your enjoying the most ennobling fellowship with Himself, in the light of truth, and in the perfect freedom of a willing obedience of the truth.
II. In what manner is it given us by God?--It is given by inspiration of god! The text here, you observe, does not point to such a mode of communication with man as was used in the Garden of Eden, when, in the cool of the day, the voice of God was heard by Adam talking with him. Nor yet does the text here refer to such a mode of writing down what the voice of God had uttered in mans hearing, as was once and again practised, when, on two tables of stone, the ten words of the Holy Moral Law were engraven by the immediate finger of God. The text does plainly testify to the Word of God being written, but observe, to that result being attained by what is called inspiration. It is God-breathed. That, what is written in the Bible is the Word of God, results from the inspiration by God of men employed by Him to write it. The Word in Holy Scripture results from that miraculous operation of the Spirit of God, whereby He did so communicate Himself to the writers of these Scriptures for the revelation of His will to man, as to secure the infallible truth and Divine authority of what is written in the Bible. Of the manner of that miraculous operation of the Spirit of God we know nothing.
III. To what extent is the Bible inspired?--All Scripture is given by inspiration of God. It is thus that the Divine Author of the book Himself declares to what extent it is inspired. In whatever manner the Divine influence that gave the Word worked--by whatever means, by means of however many varied manuscripts, as by many different compilers--the result we have in this Bible is throughout Divinely inspired.
IV. With what design has it been given by inspiration of God? It was given to be profitable, in order that the man of God may be thoroughly furnished unto all good works, and for that end profitable in a way manifold and many-sided.
1. The Bible is profitable for doctrine. By its revelation of truth as an objective reality, it really gives man truth to love. It thus stands in the boldest contrast to the utterly unsatisfying vanity of modern rationalism, which gives you nothing but the question whether there be revealed truth at all.
2. The Bible is profitable, too, for reproof. By its deep and searching spirituality the Bible deals with mans state as a sinner before God. It reveals the truth as to man lost. It reaches the deepest needs of his condition. It thus utterly dispels all the delusive fancies of modern rationalism, whereby man is tempted to think well of himself; and so to count that a gain to him which, if ever lie be saved, he must be content to count as loss for Christ.
3. The Bible is profitable, besides, for correction of every such groundless hope in man. By the revelation of grace to us as fallen, and of deliverance from the guilt and power of our sin by the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus, the Bible gives a Divine contradiction to every rationalistic theory of human progress, by which redemption is attempted to be explained without the cross and the sacrifice of the Redeemer.
4. The Bible is profitable, finally, for instruction (or discipline) in the life and walk of righteousness. In direct opposition to the wild ravings of modern rationalism about emancipation from the external law of revealed truth--for the solemn rebuke of that delusive licence which is sought in following the light within us, rather than the Word of God without us--the Bible plainly asserts that, under the law to Christ, this is the love of the new life in Christ, that we keep His commandments--a life of obedience of the law of liberty--even as Christ Himself kept His Fathers commandments and abode in His love. (R. H. Muir.)
On the Scriptures
I. Human ability has been inadequate to the production of anything which would justify us in attributing to it the production of the scriptures.
II. God having graciously resolved to recover the human race from the state into which they had fallen, and to this end having spoke in times long past to the fathers by the prophets, and in the latter days to the world, by His Son, it is reasonable to suppose that, for the benefit of the generations to come for ever, He would cause a record to be made of the communications of His will.
III. The connection and agreement of the several parts of the sacred volume, intimate strongly its divine inspiration.
IV. Tradition has accompanied the holy volume in all ages and places of its being, testifying its claim to be considered as the word of god.
V. The providential care of god over the holy scriptures may well lead us to believe that they are his offspring.
VI. The completeness of the sacred writings, whereby I mean their sufficiency and perfection as a rule of faith and conduct; their adequateness to our necessities in this present state.
1. This we may clearly deduce from what has already been established. Being given by inspiration of God, the Scriptures must be perfect for the purpose whereunto He sends them; and if they are finished, so that no further addition to them is to be expected, they must be perfect in all generations for ever, for the use of the children of men.
2. And this, if we now advert to the sacred writings, will be found to be really the case. Upon every subject of a religious or moral nature, concerning which mankind have been inquisitive, we may here find ample information. And concerning the conduct which is proper, in every situation in which mankind may be placed, we may here find explicit instruction.
3. But, it may be objected, if the Scriptures are thus complete, whence is it that so many to whom they are sent, are brought by them neither to right faith nor to right practice?
4. And this brings me to observe in illustration of the completeness of the sacred volume, that if any who have access to it are deficient in knowledge or virtue, the cause of the deficiency is altogether in themselves. The Law of the Lord is perfect; and His Spirit is ready to render His Word efficacious to every attentive and humble mind. But we must approach it with docility. It is owing to mens lusts and passions, to the pride of their minds, to the perverseness of their hearts, to the carnality and viciousness of their lives, that they do not all perceive the excellence and perfection of the Word of God, and find it a savour of life unto life to their souls.
VII. We find ourselves in possession of a volume, wonderfully adapted to the necessities of our nature, and given by inspiration of God. It becomes us to inquire, what is the object for which it is given?
1. And let me observe that it is for no purpose of benefit to the Almighty that the volume of His Word is given to our world. Neither our faith nor our obedience can profit the Most High.
2. I must also premise that whether any other beings than ourselves are interested in them, and whether their contents will be of utility to us in the other world, are questions which need not be discussed as essential to the inquiry we are about to consider. It is enough, in order to raise our estimation of them, to be assured that into the mysteries revealed to us the angels desire to look, and that by the dispensations of God to the Church on earth His manifold wisdom is made known to higher orders of beings. From the nature of things we may also be certain that those general principles of duty and virtue which have not respect to mutable stations and relations are the principles by which the conduct of perfect beings is regulated in all worlds.
3. But what I am now principally concerned to consider is the end or uses of the sacred volume to men, to whom it is given, in the present world. And this is nothing less than our recovery from the state of ignorance, sinfulness, and misery into which we are fallen, and our exaltation to the hope of eternal life. That I may more distinctly set before you the gracious design of the Almighty in giving us the volume of His Word, allow me more particularly to observe that it is the efficacious means of all those changes and graces by which the Christian character is formed and perfected. We are told, you know, that we must be born again in order to the knowledge and enjoyment of the kingdom of God. It is through the instrumentality of the Scriptures that this regeneration is accomplished. They are the seed of this new birth. Again: it is necessary that we should be sanctified and made holy in heart and life before we can enter into the kingdom of heaven. And the Holy Scriptures are the means by which the Spirit of God accomplishes this important part of our salvation. Further: it is required of us to grow in grace; and we have need to be constantly nourished in all goodness, if we would not relapse into our vile state, but advance to perfection in knowledge and virtue. The sacred writings are the granary from which this daily sustenance of our souls is to be obtained. They reveal the truths, they contain the virtues, they give efficacy to the ordinances, by which we are nourished into eternal life. Finally: it is necessary to our comfort, and to the full accomplishment of our deliverance from the miseries of our natural state, that we should have joy and peace in believing. And the reservoir of all spiritual joy is the Word of God--the gospel of our salvation.
VIII. From these truths there are several inferences of a very serious nature and great practical importance to which I must now ask your attentive consideration.
1. And from the views we have taken of the sacred volume we may perceive its claim to our highest estimation.
2. But if we value the Scriptures we shall also study them. The consequences of not reading the Holy Scriptures are of a more serious nature and greater in extent than you may suppose. It is to this, I apprehend, that we are to attribute, in a great measure, the total ignorance of religion in some and the decay of it in others. It is in this that we are to look for the cause of the instability of Christians. Here we may find the reason why error prevails. Here we may discover the source of fanaticism and of superstition. To this it is owing that the best seem unconscious of the degree of holiness to which they are called; and that all rest easy under imperfections of knowledge and deficiencies of virtue which a thorough acquaintance with the Scriptures would both reprove and correct.
3. In the course of our observations upon the Holy Scriptures, we have shown that God hath a merciful purpose in conferring them upon us, even to recover us from our ignorance, sinfulness, and misery, and exalt us to the hope of everlasting life. It behoves us, therefore, to inquire how far His desire and gracious intention have been accomplished in us? And this inquiry you will most safely answer, not by adverting to your occasional feelings and transient fervours, but by looking to your principles and your lives. Are you brought to a clear knowledge of the only true God, and of Jesus Christ whom He hath sent? Are those traits of excellence which are distinctly exemplified in the lives of the Scripture worthies, and which are all combined and perfected in the example of our blessed Lord, imitated by you in the several conditions and relations in which the Most High hath placed you? If, at the day of judgment, we shall be found, notwithstanding cur advantages, to have remained unchanged and unrenewed, the very heathens will rise up in judgment and condemn us.
4. On this solemn account I cannot forbear adding what is powerfully enforced by our subject, the importance of bringing to the oracles of truth, whenever we recur to them, becoming dispositions and conduct. Endeavour, if possible, to make it the standard by which you would regulate all your thoughts and actions.
5. The character of the sacred writings, and your privilege in possessing them, impose on you an obligation to extend the knowledge of them as far as you are able, and especially to make them the source from which you furnish your children with the principles and rules of life. (Bp. Dehon.)
The true teachings of the Bible
Every Scripture inspired of God, is the declaration, is profitable. Profitable for what? Well, for teaching, for reproof, for correction. It is a good teaching-book. It is a good book out of which to get instruction, provided you seek the right sort of instruction--instruction in righteousness. What is righteousness? Right living. In the Old Testament and the New the ideal pattern is that of a man living right in himself, in his social and civic relations, in his whole orb of self. A man must have some ideal pattern before him, and he must live according to it. The Bible is said to be inspired--that part of it which is inspired. Every Scripture inspired of God is also profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. For what purpose? Why, that the man of God may be complete, furnished completely unto every good work. There are two radical views of the function of sacred Scripture. First, it is held that it is a book proceeding directly from the mind of God, in the same sense in which Miltons poems proceeded from his mind, or in which Newtons discoveries proceeded from his mind, or in which any legislation proceeds from the minds of the legislators, and that it contains a substantial revelation of Gods moral government, both in this life and in the other world. In part, it is such a book; but that is not the genius of the Bible. Such is not the grand end of this book. The second view is the Scriptural theory. It is contained in the text. The Bible is a book that under takes to teach men how to live so that they shall live hereafter; and in regard to that aim and design of the Bible there is no divergence of opinion. All Scripture, then, is not inspired. Why should we suppose that the genealogies, and the land laws, or the laws of property, among the Jews, needed to be either inspired or revealed? Was it to supersede the natural operation of human reason that the Bible was given? If the division of property sprang up in the Hebrew commonwealth, and if there were many minute economies, all of which were of a nature such as that they could be born out of the human mind, and it was perfectly within the power of the human mind to write them down, what inspiration was needed for that purpose? No inspiration is necessary to record things that common human intelligence cannot miss, and cannot very well fail of recording. Proverbs and national songs, manners and customs, of the Hebrew commonwealth--all lay within the natural function of human reason; and when it is said, All Scripture that is inspired, doubtless it was with the conception that many of these things were natural and not supernatural. The existence of God; a belief in the moral order of the universe, or supervising Divine Providence; conscience, or the knowledge of what is right and what is wrong, and sensibility to that which is right as well as reaction from that which is wrong; the nature of things that are right and the nature of things that are wrong; sanctions for virtue, and sanctions also, penal, for vice, selfishness, wickedness, cruelty--all these things are constitutional, if I may say so, in the Bible. Here, then, is the life that you must not live, and here is the life that you must live. Was there ever a man that wanted to take anything away from that? The whole Bible is aa attempt to correct a man, and take him away from this under-passionate life of which we have been hearing the registration, and to persuade him to come out of it into the higher and spiritual life. The genius of the Bible is to lift men to righteousness, and to show the things to be avoided, and the things to be taken on. It is a book of instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be thoroughly furnished to every good work; and here are the work and the qualities. Now, I should like to know if there is any infidel in this world on that subject, or can be. A great many do not believe that God can exist in three persons; but is there anybody that ever doubted that love was beautiful, was true, was desirable? A great many men have had theories of the Atonement of Jesus Christ; there are some fifteen or twenty different theories or modifications on that subject; but did men ever have any difference of opinion as to love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, or any of these other qualities? About them there is absolute unity. (H. W. Beecher.)
The Divine authority and perfection of the Scriptures
I. That the scriptures are given by inspiration of God.
1. In order to judge whether persons are inspired, we must carefully inquire into their moral character; into their doctrine or message; and into the credentials or proofs of their mission.
2. The other external proof of an inspired person is the fulfilment of prophecy.
II. The perfection or sufficiency of the Scriptures.
1. They are profitable for doctrine to acquaint us with our lost and miserable condition by the entrance of sin into the world, and the train of fatal consequences that attended it; with our recovery by Christ; the covenants of redemption and grace; the offices of Father, Son, and Spirit in the work of our redemption, and with all those other mysteries which were kept secret since the world began, but are now made manifest by the Holy Scriptures for the obedience of faith (Rom_16:26).
2. For reproof, or the discovery of our pernicious errors in doctrine and practice.
3. The Scriptures are profitable for correction of vice and wickedness. Wherewithal, says the Psalmist, should a young man cleanse his way but by taking heed thereto according to the Word of God? There we have a collection of all Christian graces and duties, with their opposite vices. The fruits of the spirit and of the flesh are distinguished with the greatest propriety; and the most engaging motives to the practice of the one, and awful threatenings against the other, are represented with the greatest strength and advantage.
4. For instruction in righteousness. That is, either in the righteousness of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all that believe, or in the practice of moral righteousness, the nature and excellency of which is better explained and illustrated in the sermons of our blessed Saviour than in all the writings of the ancient philosophers.
III. The clearness and perspicuity of the Scriptures.
1. They were written in the vulgar language, and therefore designed for the use of the common people.
2. Our Saviour, in His sermons to the people, appeals to the Scriptures, and exhorts His countrymen, the Jews, to search them. The Bereans are commended for this practice (Act_17:11), and Timothy appears to have been acquainted with them from his childhood. If, then, it be proper to teach our children the Scriptures, and if it be the duty of grown persons to search them, it must follow that they are sufficiently clear in all points necessary to salvation.
Lessons:
1. Hence we may learn that the religion of a Christian should be his Bible, because it contains the whole revealed will of God, and is a perfect rule of faith and practice.
2. Let us be thankful that we have the Scriptures in the vulgar language.
3. Let Christians of all ranks and capacities revive this neglected duty of reading the Scriptures in their families and closets: it is both a delightful and useful employment.
4. When we read the Scriptures, let us consider them, not as the words of men, but as in deed and truth the Word of God.
5. In judging of controversies among Christians, let us not be carried away by the authority of great names or the numbers of them that are on one side, but keep close to the Scriptures.
6. When we read the Scriptures, let us pray for the instructions and teachings of the Holy Spirit, whose office it is to remove the prejudices and enlighten the understandings of those who are truly sincere. (Daniel Neal.)
The inspiration of the Scriptures
I. The nature of the inspiration. Inspiration means that which is breathed into the human mind of God. In the same way as Christ breathed upon the apostles, and said, Receive ye the Holy Ghost, so inspired men receive that influence and power which enlightens, and purifies, and sustains their judgment and their capacity whilst they are writing it. Exactly in the same way as a musician, out of an instrument, by the touch of his fingers, will evoke such sounds, such harmonies, as his own skill, his own will, or his own pleasure may design, the writers of the Holy Scriptures are the instruments out of which the Holy Ghost evokes the melodies of truth--the harmonies of heavenly and Divine doctrine--that which makes us happy in time, and prepares us for the happiness of eternity. There is a slight distinction to be made between inspiration and dictation. Dictation addresses itself to the ear, and goes through the ear into the understanding and the heart; inspiration is more that which is within a man--it is a power dwelling in the interior of his soul, and influencing his thoughts and expressions accordingly.
1. There is inspiration in matters historical--that which relates to the histories and biographies contained in the Bible.
2. We come to the inspiration which is doctrinal, or which has to do with abstract truth, such truth as the human faculties could never elicit, invent, or evolve; such truth as, if known at all by man, must be made known by God.
3. I advert to that inspiration which I denominate legislative--that which is associated with the giving of law and the enunciation of commandments.
4. There is the inspiration which is devotional.
5. I shall mention but one other form: that is, the form of prophecy--the inspiration which relates to the prophetic Word. I take this to be the fullest, most perfect, and unmingled of all the inspirations, because to man in no case is there vouchsafed any foresight.
II. Some of the leading evidences, the more striking proofs, that the Bible does come from that sacred and celestial source to which we ascribe it.
1. First it claims to be so; it says of itself that it is so. Moses did as the Lord commanded him. Again and again we read, the Lord spake unto Moses; and every prophet came with this annunciation, Thus saith the Lord. We find Paul saying, I command; yet not I, but the Lord; The Spirit speaketh expressly; Ye have received the Word of God.
2. There is another evidence which arises from the nature of its contents--from the original, exalted, enlightened, amazing principles, which it contains. I hold it as an axiom that God only can reveal God--that God is never known but by His own teaching and by His own inspiration. Here is God revealed.
3. There is also an argument arising from the self-evidencing power of truth. Light is self-evidencing. When a child sees light, it does not want any logical argument to say that it is light. When mind flashes, when intellect sparkles, when genius coruscates, you say, this is mind; you want no other evidence--the thing demonstrates itself. So does the truth in the book of God. Read out the doctrine, make known the precept, let us see the history; why, it is of God; it carries its own evidence.
4. Then there is the harmony of all its parts.
5. I must add the evidence of its holiness. The Bible, received in the heart and mind, makes a man pure, gentle, and Christlike; received into a family, it makes a scene of peace and unity; received into a nation, it purifies and elevates; and the world, did it receive the Bible and act upon its principles, would be paradisaical; almost all the miseries of it would be gone at a stroke; whatever is peaceful and felicitous for the glory of God and for the happiness of man would multiply, prosper, and abound.
6. There is one other argument, that arising from prophecy, in connection with the total want of human foresight, and the vastness and extent of this proof: We have a more sure word of prophecy, whereunto we do well to take heed, as to a light shining in a dark place.
III. The use and purpose: That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works. You note the expression, man of God. I take it to be a very noble and magnificent thing to be a man; I glorify God every day of my life that I am a man; I mean, that I have the capacities, the mind, the thinking powers, the will of a man. Then it is said, man of God. There are the faculties consecrated, the grace and light, the emanation and power of Deity beaming upon the man, making him a man of God. (James Stratten.)
The inspiration of Scripture
We can form no more distinct conception of what inspiration is in itself than that implied in the word--the breathing of God upon, or into, the minds of His servants. He imparted to them an extraordinary degree of influence, whereby they were instructed what and how to speak and write. This special Divine influence distinguishes them from all other teachers, and their writings from all other books. The manner of inspiration is beyond our knowledge; indeed, the working and influence of the Divine Being anywhere are to us a profound mystery. Motion, life, and growth, the fruitfulness of the earth, and the order and harmony of all things must be traced to Him; but how they are produced we know not. In Him we live and move and have our being; He besets us behind and before, and lays His hand upon us; but His manner of doing this is too wonderful for us to understand. We are bound to recognise His influence in the mental power, wisdom, and goodness of men; but how He comes into contact with the mind it is impossible to explain. So also of the prophets and apostles. They were inspired of God; He breathed into their minds, and endued them with a supernatural power of seeing and teaching spiritual truth--this we know; but beyond this point we cannot pass. Observe a threefold effect of inspiration--the revelation of truth, intensity of feeling, and abiding power in the words.
I. First, the inspired man was a seer; the veil was turned aside, and he was permitted to look into the sanctuary of truth. Think of the Hebrew prophets to whose writings the text refers. The unity, personality, and spirituality of God were revealed to them. They beheld His glory as others did not, and therefore spoke of it in sublime and incomparable language. The teaching of the Bible should be judged of by this: Do the prophets and apostles reveal spiritual truths in a clearer light than the ancient philosophers did? To this a thoughtful man can only return one answer--they do. Read, for instance, the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius, and then turn to the Epistles of St. Paul, and I think you will be obliged to acknowledge that moral and spiritual truth shines in the verses of the apostle with a brilliancy and strength not to be found in the words, wise and beautiful though they are, of the imperial Stoic. Seeing, then, that the prophets and apostles speak with such deep spiritual insight, the question is, How this came to pass? They were not philosophers, scholars, and orators, as the great and learned men of Greece and Rome were. The true explanation is, holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.
II. Their mental illumination was accompanied by deep and intense feeling. Their spirits were moved--they felt the burden of the word of the Lord--the truth was in their heart as a burning fire. Therefore speech became a necessity, for by speaking they lightened the burden that oppressed them and gave out the fire that burned in their bosoms. When they had messages of peace and good tidings to deliver, their doctrine dropped as the rain, their speech distilled as the dew, and as the small rain upon the tender herb. But when the sins of the nation and the judgments of heaven were their themes, they cried aloud, and their language was as terrible as a midnight alarm. To speak as the prophets spoke we also must be enlightened and moved by the Holy Ghost.
III. The abiding power in the words. They are instinct with the love, the pity, the sympathy, and the power of the Divine mind. They are spirit, and they are life. The ancient sacred fire that descended from heaven continues to burn on the altar of the Bible. (T. Jones.)
The Bible
I speak of the Bible first as the great teacher of mankind, because it must ever continue to be of the supremest importance to the race of mankind. It contains the record of Gods special revelations to one chosen people, and of that final all-inclusive revelation, wherein He has spoken and is speaking to us by His Son. The Bible is not by any means Gods only revelation. It always has been an evil when it has been so considered. It contains, however, some of the clearest and directest lessons which God has ever spoken to man through the mind and utterance of his brother man. Take but one illustration of its unique supremacy. After all these thousands of years of the worlds existence, after all splendours of literature in all the nations and in all ages, there is no book in the whole world which can supersede the Bible as an instrument for the education of the young. After all these millenniums it remains the most uniquely glorious book which the world has ever known. Its light, says Cardinal Newman, is like the beauty of heaven in all its clearness, its vastness like the bosom of the sea, its variety like the scenes of nature. Perhaps testimony from a religious teacher might be regarded as purely official. Let me, then, quote the testimony of an eminent living man of science; the testimony of a man like Professor Huxley on this subject will, at least, not be suspected. I have been seriously perplexed to know, he says, how the religious feeling which is the essential basis of conduct can be kept up without the use of the Bible. The pagan moralists lacked fire, and life, and colour, and even the noble Stoic, Marcus Aurelius, is too high and refined for an ordinary child. For three centuries this book has been woven into the life of all that is best and noblest in English history. It forbids the veriest hind who never left his village to be ignorant of the existence of other countries and other civilisations, and of the great past stretching back to the furthest limit of the oldest nations of the world. By the study of what other book could children be so much humanised or made to feel that each figure in that vast historical procession fills, like themselves, but a momentary inter-space between two eternities, and earns the blessings or the curses of this end of all time, according to his efforts to do good and to hate evil, even as they also are earning their payment for their daily work? Unhappily, however, the Bible in age after age has been liable to such boundless misinterpretation, that it is not possible or honourable to speak of it as the most blessed among the teachers of mankind, without admitting, as St. Peter did eighteen hundred years ago, that it may very easily be wrested to our own destruction. Century after century men, misled by their religious teachers, have failed altogether to see what the Bible is; they have made a fetish of it, and under the plea of its sacredness have taken advantage of its many-sidedness to get rid of its most central and essential teaching; they have made it like the faineant monarchs who have been surrounded with splendid state and almost Divine reverence, while care was taken that their real voice should never be heard, and their real wishes never known. Men have used the Bible to find an excuse for hating and cursing and burning one another, they have torn it into shreds and turned each shred of it into a fluttering ignoble ray of some party pennon; they have dislocated its phrases and built false theologies on the perversions of its texts … But having eliminated these errors, we may dwell without stint on the priceless value of Scripture as a whole--of Scripture in its best and final teaching to the heart of man. The Talmud and the Koran, and even the writings of the Indian and the Buddhist, have stolen its precious gems. It has exercised the toil of men like Origen and Jerome, and fired the eloquence of Chrysostom and Augustine. It dictates the supreme and immortal songs of Dante and of Milton. It has inspired the pictures of Fra Angelico and Raphael, the music of Handel and Mozart. There is scarcely any noble part of knowledge worthy of the mind of man, but from Scripture it may have some direction and light the hundred best books, the hundred best pictures, the hundred best pieces of music, are ten times over involved in it. The sun never sets upon its gleaming page. What a book, exclaimed the sceptical poet Heine, after a day spent in the unwonted task of reading it. Vast and wide as the world, rooted in the abysses of creation and towering up beyond the blue secrets of heaven; sunrise and sunset, promise and fulfilment, birth and death, the whole drama of humanity, are all in this book. In this book, said Ewald, the foremost of modern critics, when Dean Stanley visited him, and the New Testament, which was lying on the table, fell accidentally to the ground--in this book, he said, as he stooped to pick it up, is all the wisdom of the world.
II. Test it once more by the immeasurable comfort and blessing which it, and which it alone, has brought and ever can bring to dying men. Millions have loved it passionately who have cared nothing for any other literature, and it alone has been sufficient to lead them through life as with an archangels hand. Into Thy hands I commend my spirit; in age after age Polycarp, Augustine, John Huss, Jerome of Prague, St. Bernard, Luther, Melane then, Columbus, Francis Xavier, and I know not how many thousands more, have died with these words upon their lips. That book, sir, said Andrew Jackson, President of the United States, pointing to the family Bible upon the table, as he lay upon his death-bed, that book, sir, is the rock on which our Republic rests. I have only one book now, said the poet Collins, but that is the best. Bring me the book, sir, said Sir Walter Scott to Lockhart on his death-bed. What book? asked Lockhart. The book, the Bible, said Sir Walter, there is only one. Every shallow and ignorant freethinker thinks he can demolish the Bible; he might am well try to demolish the Himalayas. The greatest men have esteemed it most. Infidels babble about the contradictions between Scripture and science. I have quoted the testimony of one of the most eminent living men of science; let me quote one of the most illustrious dead. Once, when the famous Faraday was lying ill, his physician, Dr. Latham, found him in tears with his arm resting upon a table on which lay the open book. I fear you are worse, said Dr. Latham. It is not that, said Faraday, with a sob; but why will people go astray when they have this blessed book to guide them? Its words speak to the ear and to the heart as no other music will, even after wild and sinful lives. Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil, for Thou art with me, Thy rod and Thy staff comfort me. Those words were written by his physician to Daniel Webster on his death-bed, and the great man, the despised, broken idol of a great nation, who had cast the destiny of all his life on one throw of ambition and had lost the cast--the great man faltered out, That is what I want--Thy rod, Thy rod, Thy staff, Thy staff, and they were the last words he said.
III. I would then urge you all to a constant and reverent, but at the same time a wise and spiritual, study of this book. If we be ignorant, said the translators of 1611, the Scriptures will instruct us; if out of the way, they will bring us home; if out of order, they will reform us; if in heaviness, comfort us; if dull, quicken us; if cold, inflame us. Tolle lege, Tolle lege; take them and read, take them and read. Only beware how you read. Read as a scoffer read as a pharisee, and it will be useless. Read rightly, and then the Bible will be a light unto your feet, and a lamp unto your path. Read teachably, read devotiouably. The saving knowledge of Scripture is a science, not of the intellect, but of the heart. Read, above all, as Christ taught us to read, not to entangle yourselves in the controversial or the dubious, but go to the very heart of the central significance. (Archdeacon Farrar.)
The Holy Scriptures
I. The Bible is the most ancient book in the world, and yet it is not antiquated, but always fresh and fragrant, as the beauty of the morning, and the breath of spring. Like the angel of the resurrection, the spirit of the Bible is clothed and crowned with immortal youth, and rejoices in the possession of undecaying strength.
II. The Bible is the most expansive book in the world. It was the saying of Malebranche, the great philosopher, that if he had all truth, be would let forth only a ray at a time, lest it should blind the world. And this seems to be the principle which underlies the whole revelation in the Word of God. The truth is unveiled to men according as they are able to bear it.
III. The Bible is the most inspiring book in the world. We may hold certain mechanical views of inspiration, but the question for each one of us is to ask, Does the Bible really inspire us? The Bible is inspired because it is inspiring, and if it fails of this effect, then the mere theoretical knowledge of the inspiration will be of little value. And yet if we derive no inspiration from Scripture, we must not therefore lay the blame upon the Bible, and conclude that it has failed to stand the test. There are certain qualities of mind and heart which we must bring to the interpretation of all things. Nature herself will not inspire us if we have no eye to see her beauty, or heart to understand her charm. It is the poet who sees in nature a glow and glory which may be hidden from others, because he is possessed with a certain sympathy. So it is in regard to the Bible. We must bring to its study an innocent eye and a pure heart, a longing desire for truth, and a purpose to obey it; and then we shall feel inspired by the revelations which it makes known to us.
IV. The Bible is the only perfect book in the world. Perfection is the sign and signature of all Gods works. If you put under the microscope a bees sting and an ordinary sewing needle, you will at once see the difference between mans handiwork and Gods. They are both very like each other when examined by the naked eye; but when brought beveath the lens we perceive the mighty difference. The needle is rough and rugged, full of bulges and bends, like the undressed bough of a tree, whereas the sting of the bee retains its arrowy point and perfection under the closest scrutiny. And so it is with all Gods works in contrast with mans. The Bible is the only perfect book, because it is the work of God. The law of the Lord is perfect, says the Psalmist, the sun rules in the heavens, and divides the day from the night. And so with the Word of God. The light which shines through it rules the mind and will and heart of man, and divides the darkness from the light. But the Word of God is not only perfect, but it is designed to make man perfect--that the man of God may be perfect--fully furnished unto every good work. (J. Coats Shanks.)
The incidental advantages of study of the Bible
It is common to urge upon men a study of the Bible as a matter of duty--a part of the thou shalt of God; and also as a matter of worship--the other part of prayer and praise. While it is fortunate that we have a book which can lay the claim of duty upon us, and still more fortunate that we have a book worthy to be incorporated into our worship, there are other aspects in which the Bible offers itself, which might be called its advantages. Set aside now the fact that it is a religious book, and all religious considerations, and regard it simply as a book to be studied, and there is no book the study of which brings so many advantages as the Bible, because there is no other one book that embraces so many departments of truth and knowledge or treats them in so wise a way.
I. Look at it as a book of history. The Bible begins with the creation out of chaos, and ends with humanity lifted into the heavens, and the whole mighty sweep is history. But the great advantage of studying history through the Bible is that we thus follow the main current of human progress in all the ages; we are tracing an idea, a principle, a force, and that the greatest the world has ever felt.
II. Look at it as a book of political science. A study of the Hebrew Commonwealth is valuable because it shows how close and real is the relation of the nation to God, and how vital is righteousness and fidelity to God. We have in the Bible the finest illustration of patriotism to be found in all history. There was no individualism, there was no communism, but a happy balance between man as an individual and as a member of the race, such as we find in nature. We are individuals; we are also members of the race, and both exist in God. A true nation is a true expression of this threefold fact. Nowhere is it so clearly set forth as in the Hebrew Commonwealth. Its institutions, also, are well worth studying. The details of life are treated sacredly. A Divine emphasis is laid upon trivial matters of well-being. Filth and contagious diseases are an abomination in the sight of God. Health is well pleasing to God. Family, property, personal rights, sex are guarded by Divine sanctions.
III. Look at it as a book of biography. The proper study of mankind is man. The Bible is permanently a book of biographies. It is a book of religious history, but the history is always turning on a man. It is a book of religion, but the religion is that of real life, and of separate men. When men of great natures move through great scenes, and do great deeds, or when they unfold qualities and traits that are fine and rare and strong, then we have the materials for biography. By such a standard the Bible is most rich in this material for study.
IV. Look at it as a book of literature. Dr. Johnson once read the Book of Ruth to a company of literary infidels. What a charming idyl! they said. Where did you find it? There are four fields of literature in which the Bible rises higher than all other books--ethics, religious poetry, religious vision, and the drama in its high sense as a discussion of human life. The Proverbs and Book of Ecclesiastes are the wisest, aptest, most varied, and best expressed maxims of practical life ever made, and outweigh in value all others taken together. The Psalms, considered simply as expressions of religious feeling, find no rival. They touch every mood, sink to all depths, rise to all heights; they are as free and natural as the winds, and cover human nature as it weeps and struggles and hopes and rejoices. The prophetic utterances are not only unique, but are fuller of passion, sublimer in expression, bolder in imagery, loftier in conception, than anything to be found in profane literature. And they have this unique quality: they are the products of an actual experience, and not mere creations of the imagination. They have also this transcendent value--one that should make them dear to every thoughtful man: they are expressions of patriotism, and contain the philosophy of national life as existing in God.
V. Look at it as a book full of undeveloped forces and truths. I mean the opposite of the common assertion that it is an exhausted book. I mean it in a sense that excludes it from being classed with other books called sacred. I admit that there are a few books which seem to hold within themselves truths capable of infinite expansion, and to touch truths not yet realised. Such are some of the great philosophies and poems and essays; but, after studying them awhile, the sense of finiteness begins to gather about them; we come to limitations, to boundaries; there is a solid firmament above, and the truths run round the world and not into endless heavens; we detect faults; we feel the weakness of a human personality; we say, Thou hast seen far, but not the end, nor the whole. It is not so when we read the Bible. One reason why some men reject it or pass it by is that it so quickly carries them beyond their depth and outruns their conception. And one reason why other men delight in it, and write books upon books about it, is that it brings the infinite and the mysterious within reach, enkindling their imaginations and stirring their spirits by the outlooks thus gained. I spoke of the Bible as a book of undeveloped spiritual forces. I mean that we find in it those facts and laws and truths which are working out the destiny of man. They are spread out in a ]ire; they are uttered in words. The parables of Christ--if we but knew it--contain the history of the world and of mankind for all eternity. The Sermon on the Mount states the laws by which human society progresses, and will reach its goal of perfection. The acts of Christs life illustrate or reveal how this material world is immersed in the real world of the spirit, where the miraculous becomes natural. The whole life of Christ is simply a true life--perfectly obedient to God, wholly sacrificed for man, duty itself, love itself, lost and so found, Divine and human, and claiming a oneness for humanity with itself in God. I anticipate the day when the Bible will stand higher in the estimate of men than ever before. It will not be blindly worshipped as in the past, but it will be more intelligently read. It is not a book of the past, but of the future. As we move up toward it we shall find that it reflects the world on its pages, and that it contains the true order of human life. Meanwhile, it is not amiss for us to study the Decalogue for social guidance; the Beautitudes for guides in daily life; and Christ, in all the light and mystery of His being and character, as the Way, the Truth, and the Life--the way through this tangled world, the truth in this world of perplexity, the life in this world where all things else perish and pass away. (T. T. Munger, D. D.)
What is the Bible?
The first thing I want to say to you is this: You are not to look in the Bible for a complete and comprehensive presentation of Divine truth. You are not to look in it for a revelation or disclosure of science of any kind, physical or metaphysical, natural or supernatural. It is not at all a scientific treatise. It does not aim or purport so to be. Nor are you to regard the Bible as an infallible book of equal value and equal authority in all its utterances and all its parts; as a book without any intermixture of error. An infallible book would require, first of all, that the writers should be infallibly informed as to the truth; in the second place, that they should be able to utter it infallibly; in the third place, that they should have a language for the communication of their ideas which was an infallible vehicle of thought; in the fourth place, that, if they died, the manuscripts in which their thoughts were contained should be infallibly preserved, without any intermixture of error, through the ages after their death; fifthly, that, if the language in which they wrote were changed, the translators should be themselves capable of giving an infallible translation; sixthly, that, if the book were to be infallibly applied to the actual conditions of life, men who interpreted and applied these principles should be infallible interpreters. And, finally, it would require that the men who received should be able in fallibly to apprehend what was given. The treasure of truth in the Bible is not a minted treasure with the stamp of the Divine image upon it. It is like the gold hid in the bosom of the mountain. It must be mined, dug out with the alloy with which it is intermixed, washed, burned in the furnace, and the stamp must be put upon it before it is ready for currency. But as soon as this is done, the process begins over again. The Bible yields its treasure only to him who digs for it as for a hid treasure; the promise of the Bible is only to him who seeks and knocks. No age can do this seeking, this knocking, for another. The structure and the history of the Bible alike demonstrate that what God has given us here is not a substitute for thought, but an incentive to thinking. Lessing said, If God were to offer me in one hand Truth and in the other Search for Truth, I would accept Search for Truth. What God gives us in the Bible is Search for Truth. What, then, is the Bible? It is a selection of literature evolved out of eighteen centuries of human life, comprising all various literary forms, written by men of all various types and temperaments, without concord, without mutual understanding, without knowing that they were making a book that was to last for all time. It is a collection of the most spiritual utterances, of the most spiritual men, of the most spiritual race, of past time. You are to come to it as such a collection. It is as such that you are to study and take advantage of it--as such a record of spiritual experiences.
I. In the first place, then, in view of this generic statement, I urge on you to have your Bible--not merely a Bible, but Your Bible. Mr. Shearman has a copy of the Bible which Mr. Beecher carried for something like forty years--perhaps more--with his marking scattered through it. It is more than a Bible--it is Mr. Beechers Bible; and the pencil-marks in it tell the story of his own spiritual experience, while they emphasize the spiritual experiences of the ages that are past. So, have your own Bible, into which your life shall be woven, around which your spiritual associations shall cluster, and which shall become sacred to you, not so much for the voice that spake to Abraham, to Moses, to David, to Isaiah, or Paul, so many centuries ago, but for the voice that has spoken to you--through Abraham, Moses, David, Isaiah, or Paul--in your own life-experience.
II. Use your Bible. The Bible that is to lay hold on you is a Bible that you must lay hold upon. Familiarise yourself with the Bible. It is a coy acquaintance. It does not let every one into its heart, or disclose to the chance acquaintance the secret of its power. You must love it. If you are to love it you must acquaint yourself with it. You must take it with you into your experience. You must make it the man of your counsel in your perplexity; you must go to it for comfort in your sorrow; you must find in it inspiration when the deadening process of life has brought you earthward; you must seek in it those experiences for which your own heart and soul hunger.
III. You must, in your use of the Bible look behind the book to the truth which is in the book, and which really constitutes the book. Studying Biblical criticism is not studying the Bible. Behind all form and structure is the truth which makes the Bible. What is the Bible? This thing that I hold in my hand? Not at all. Were it in Greek, it would still be the Bible. Not the book--the truths that lie behind the book, they make the Bible. Such truths as these: the man is immortal--not that he is going to live a thousand or a hundred thousand years after death, but that he has in him a spirit that death cannot and does not touch; that he is under other laws than those that are physical, that he is under the great moral laws of right and wrong; that there is a God who knows, thinks, feels, loves; and that there is a helping hand reached down out of heaven to lay hold of and to give help to every struggling man seeking, working, praying, wrestling toward a nobler manhood; an immortal spirit, a personal God, a forgiveness of sins--that is the Bible. Go to the Bible, not for an infallible philosophy of human life, but for unveilings and disclosures of infinite, helpful, inspiring truth.
IV. But behind this truth there is something further to be sought. For life is more than truth, and experience is more than philosophy. The Bible is the most human of books. It is the record of human life, and of the noblest and divinest experiences in human life. It is because it is a human book that it appeals to humanity. It is because it is a human book that humanity finds light and life and power in it. Writers of the Bible are not like lead pipes that take water from a distance and bring it a long way and deposit it for you, without the trouble of your drawing. Writers of the Bible are like the mountain-side, saturated with water which pours from its side in springs when we ask to drink. The Bible writers were saturated with Divine truth; then out of that saturation the truth sprang forth into utterance. In the Bible you come into association and fellowship with men who are living in the spiritual realm; you come in contact with men who are struggling, not for art, not for wealth, not for culture, not for refinement, but for walking with God. They blunder; they do not know; they have dim visions, oftentimes, of God--they see Him as that blind man saw the trees as men walking. Their notion is intermingled with the notion of their time; but in it all, throughout it all, inspiring it all, is that hunger and thirst after righteousness that shall be filled. To come into the Bible is to come, not into words graven on stone, however true, but into living experiences of love, of faith, or hope, wrought in imperfect lives, but glorifying them by the glory of an indwelling God.
V. And behind the truth and behind the experience you are to look for something still more than either--You are to look for God himself. Back of all Bible truth is the human experience of the Divine. Back of all human experience of the Divine is the God that inspires, irradiates, and creates it. Do I value the locket less because I know it is a human handiwork? It is not the locket I care for. It is the picture of the beloved that is in the locket. It is not the frame and form and structure of the book, but it is the God who dwells in the book that makes it dear to me. Kaulbachs famous cartoon of the Reformation presents Luther holding aloft an open Bible, while grouped around and before him are the inventors, the discoverers, the thinkers, the writers of genius, that were nurtured in the cradle of the Reformation. It is a true picture. Where that open Bible has not gone, there to-day is darkness illimitable. Where that Bible has gone, partly opened and partly closed, there is a dawning of the day. And where it is an open Bible with a free page and a well-read one, there is the illumination of civilisation. (Lyman Abbott, D. D.)
What use do we make of the Scriptures?
All our practical knowledge of God is comprised in the Bible. The Bible then ought to be to us that which the chart and the compass are to the mariner on a stormy ocean; we have absolutely no other guide, no other directory to our course. In what light, then, do we practically regard the Bible? Is it enough to possess the Scriptures, to have been instructed out of the Scriptures in infancy, to hear them read in public worship, to have a general approbation of their contents? Would it be satisfactory to the mariner merely to possess a compass on board his vessel; to have received information as to its use in infancy, to admire its utility, or to discourse sometimes publicly of its merits; meanwhile he is driving on, it may be, to rocks, to shoals, to sands, or quite away from his course? But how many an individual lives in this precise manner, as to his use of the Scriptures! Day passes after day, week after week, month after month, year after year, and God marks not his anxious eye pondering over this chart of life. Politics, science, poetry, history, it may be lighter productions--these can arrest his attention and interest his mind; but the Bible which notifies the waymarks to eternity--this excites no interest. And yet such a person perhaps expects Gods favour--expects to reach the harbour of endless peace, and never even dreams of the probability of intervening shipwreck! Mournful and inconsistent expectations! Many, however, are to be found who are by no means chargeable with this entire neglect of the Scriptures. Some have, from infancy, acquired regular habits of reading the Bible, and peruse, as a daily or at least as a weekly task, their allotted chapters. But they do this oftentimes without anxiety, and without progress in religious knowledge. The fact of reading is to them more important than the contents which they read. They manifest no submission of the heart to Gods teaching--no godly diligence to lay up in the soul His statutes and promises. Eternity fastens not upon their thoughts--the wonders of redeeming love attract not their affections. They read with coldness, and languor, and unconcern. There is no scrutiny as to the effect of their knowledge--as to the conformity of their views, and sentiments, and habits, with the decisions and intentions of God! The heart makes no progress in its voyage--it is no nearer to God--no nearer to the dispositions of Heaven than it was many years ago. Think again of the mariner--his eye glances daily upon his compass--or once a week he fixes his look upon the needle; but he uses not the helm--he brings not the vessel into the prescribed course I As well then might the compass be cast into the depths of the sea I Now, it is evident that this is not the use of the Scriptures which God demands--this is not to possess any anxiety as to the knowledge of Gods will. Those who thus neglect, or thus imperfectly respect the Scriptures, are not among those who work out their salvation with fear and trembling. (Christian World Pulpit.)
Scripture manifold yet one
The Bible is, to use the language of Prof. Westcott, a book manifold by the variety of times and circumstances in which its several parts had their rise, else by the inspiring presence of the same spiritual life. It may be compared to a cathedral whose parts have been built at different successive ages: the traces of these ages are easily seen in the architectural style, but all are knit together in one holy temple of God. Closer investigation of this cathedral shows that the historical range of its growth is greater and wider than was at first supposed. The stones which have been built in, it seems, were drawn from widely scattered quarries; here are marbles which must have been imported from distant lands; here are great blocks of stone which must have been conveyed from unthought-of hills; here are richly-carved capitals which show some foreign skill: but all these have found their fitting place. Each stone, each ornament, drops into the spot prepared for it; arch, pillar, buttress, mullion and pinnacle, whatever their greater or their lesser antiquity, are lending support or beauty, and fulfilling their functions as parts of one vast sanctuary, whose purpose is not lost or altered because antiquarians have made its stories doubly interesting and doubly dear by enlarging the bounds of its history and adding new elements to the story of its growth. (Bp. W. B. Carpenter.)
Profitable for doctrine, etc.
The uses of the Scriptures
The Scriptures give Divine, and therefore infallible, direction for doctrine--the didactic teaching of the truth concerning God; for reproof--the refutation by proof of error concerning God; for correction--the setting right or rectifying the wrong principles of practical ethics; for instruction in righteousnsss--the positive nurture of the soul in experimental knowledge of the way in which a sinner may be accounted righteous before God. And this, it will be perceived on a little reflection, is a marvellously logical classification of their uses; and it is exhaustive, as covering all the possible wants that man can desire to have met by a revelation. As a being endowed with reason, and capable of believing only what he conceives to he truth, his religion must embrace a doctrine of God and his relations to God. As a creature liable to be deceived, by error and unbelief concerning God and his relations to God, his religion must have a guide to warn against and expose the wiles of error, that are ever tampering with his evil heart of unbelief. As a being whose passions are ever blinding his conscience in reference to duty toward God and man, his religion must supply him with a rule of right, by which to correct his crooked judgments and amend his crooked ways. As a being capable of a birth to a new and everlasting life, his religion must supply him with a nurture under the new law of righteousness which the faith that is unto salvation teaches him. So that it may be affirmed with truth, that no want of the human soul can be conceived, which is not provided for under one or other of these four heads. (S. Robinson, D. D.)
The profitableness of Scripture
The Scriptures are profitable for reproof. The word here means conviction. The teaching has reference to the ignorance of men the conviction refers to their errors and prejudices. The mental state presupposed here may be thus expressed: First, there is ignorance; secondly, error, wrong thoughts and beliefs; thirdly, prejudice in favour of the errors that are present, and against the truth that is absent. The declaration of the apostle is that the Word of God has power to convince those who are in this state; that it will destroy their errors and remove their prejudice. One great reason why there is so much prejudice in many minds with regard to religion is, that they do not study the sacred Scriptures. They read all sorts of books concerning the Bible, but the Divine book itself is neglected. They prefer the water that is brought to them through pipes and curious contrivances of men to the fountain of living water, pure, clear as crystal, which springs up from the primeval rocks close to their own door. They gaze upon the cold and spiritless engraving rather than examine the grand original picture. The honest and earnest study of the Bible would produce a mighty revolution in the minds and hearts of thousands, both Christians and others. Akin to this there is another thought that follows. The Scriptures are profitable for correction. Some read to criticise. They cannot admire the great opening poem of the Book of Genesis, in which the inspired muse sings the creative power of the Almighty in notes harmonious with the morning stars, because it does not speak with scientific precision. It is quite right to point out whatever inaccuracies may be discovered in the history of the deliverance from Egypt and the sojourn in the Wilderness, but one cannot help remarking that that is a peculiar state of mind in which a man can read through the wonderful story without being once struck with its spirit, its grandeur, and its awfulness. Others turn the sacred pages to find supports for the systems they have formed. This is the same as if a man constructed a theory of nature, and afterwards went in search of the facts whereby its truth must be proved. Others, again, read for comfort. They have been disappointed by the world in which they placed too much trust; or death has broken in upon their charmed circle and filled their hearts with sorrow; or their health is failing, and there are indications that the end is not distant; or their sin has been a burden from which they seek rest. Well, let them read for comfort, for the Bible is the book for sorrowful people. Its deep expressions of Divine love, sympathy, and tenderness have in them a power to heal the broken heart. But we should also know that the Scriptures are given for our correction. He is the wise reader of Gods Word who tries his opinions, beliefs, principles, life, and character by the Divine standard, and is willing to have them corrected. This brings us to the high purpose for which the Scriptures were given to us, namely, to impart instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect--right in every respect, in thought, feeling, character, and therefore right in state and condition--right in himself, right in his relations to his fellows, and right before God. The aim of the husbandman in the plants he cultivates is to have fruit; but Nature is as careful of the blossoms and the foliage as of the fruit, for her purpose is a perfect tree. Men cultivate parts of their nature. Some educate and develop their physical nature, and not much else. Others pay attention to the sensuous soul--they love music, art, eloquence, and light literature. There are persons who are mere thinkers; the cultivation of the intellectual powers is the one important thing in their estimation. Some spend their lives in small activities--things that are good in themselves, but which become harmful when done to the neglect of more important duties. There is good in all of these; but none of them aim high enough. The Divine purpose is not physical perfection, nor intellectual strength, nor refinement of taste, not even morality and devotion, but the full development of the whole nature, that the man of God may be perfect. (T. Jones.)
The proper way to test the Bible
You see a recipe for making bread. What is the way to test that recipe, but to put the materials together according to its direction? If the bread is good, the recipe is good, is it not? If it is good, I do not care where it came from--I do not care if King Pharaoh wrote it; and if it is not good, I would not care any more for it if it came from the angel Gabriel. It is the thing that proves the thing, The effect proves what is the nature of the cause. And if there are prescriptions in Gods Word to heal pride, and selfishness, and all forms of sin and diseases, and on trial the prescriptions are found to do what they profess to be able to do, the effect justifies the cause. Now, the Bible does not profess to be a book of theories or philosophies. It professes to be profitable for doctrine, for reproof--it is the best book in this world for all sorts of reproof addressed to the weaknesses and wants of human life--for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works. Where a man wants to be a good man, where a man wants to be thoroughly furnished, and he goes to the Bible, he will have the best evidence that any man can have that it is a Divine book; for it will furnish him with those things which his experience shows him he needs. Here is a roll of charts of a difficult harbour. They were drawn, it may be, by Robert Small. They are handed by him to Admiral Dupont. The Admiral, the moment he sees them, laughs right out, and says, Do you call this a chart? It was made with a burnt stick. Robert Small, you know, was a slave; and he had to get his knowledge as other slaves get theirs. He was a pilot in Charleston harbour, however, and he knows where the shallow places are, where the deep places are, where the obstructions are, and where it is clear sailing; and he makes a rough sketch of the whole vicinity, and puts it into Admiral Duponts hand; and the Admiral says, Do you suppose I am going to steer my ships by a chart that a nigger made? Or he says, When did you make this? On what kind of a table did you make it? What did you use to make it with? Does he say this? Under such circumstances what would Admiral Dupont do, who is a sensible man, and who has so much sense that he knows how to employ negroes, and take the advantage of their aid? He would say to those under him, Take a cutter, man it, and go out, and sound, and see if the chart is correct; and they would find the shoals and channels to be just as they were represented to be; and after they had put the chart to proof, and found it to correspond to the fact, they would report to him, and he would say, That is a good chart, if a black man did make it. It is true, and that is the reason why it is good. Now, the Bible is a chart. It teaches men how to steer where that sandbank of temptation is; where that reck of danger is; where that whirling vortex of passion is. The Bible is a chart of salvation; and if a man only knows his course by this, he will go through life, with all its storms, and come safely into the port of heaven. The way to test the Bible is not to criticise it, and compare its rude marking with the more modern ways of making charts: the way to test the Bible is to put your sounding lines into the channel, and try it, and see if it is not true. But that is the test men do not employ. (H. W. Beecher.)
Scripture teaches a religion of grandeur and joy
I do not wonder that the men nowadays who do not believe the Bible are so very sad, when they are in earnest. A writer in one of our Reviews tells that he was studying the poems of Matthew Arnold, who believes not in a living God, but in a something or other, which somehow or other, at some time or other makes for righteousness. The sad and hopeless spirit of the poet passed for the time into the reviewer, and he felt most miserable. He went out for a walk. It was a bleak wintry day, and he was then at Brodick in Arran. The hills were in a winding-sheet of snow, above which arose a ghastly array of clouds. The sky was of a leaden hue, and the sea was making its melancholy moan amid the jagged, dripping rocks. The gloom without joined the gloom within, and made him very wretched. He came upon some boys shouting merrily at play. Are you at the school? he asked. Yes, was the reply. And what are you learning? I learn, said one, what is the chief end of man. And what is it? the reviewer asked. The boy replied, Mans chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him for ever. He at once felt that the boy was taught a religion of grandeur and joy, while the poets was a religion of darkness and despair. (J. Wells, M. A.)
All Scripture profitable
In the plainest text there is a world of holiness and spirituality: and if we, in prayer and dependence upon God, sit down and study it, we shall behold much more than appears to us. It may be, at once reading or looking, we see little or nothing; as Elijahs servant went once and saw nothing, therefore he was commanded to look seven times. What now? says the prophet. I see a cloud rising like a mans hand, and by and by the whole surface of heaven was covered with clouds (1Ki_18:44). (J. Caryl.)
Scripture to be used in daily life
A good husband having received a bag of money, locketh, it up safe, that none may rob him of it, and as occasion is he fetcheth it down and layeth it out, some of it for food, some for clothes, some for rent, some for servants wages, some for this thing, and some for that, as his necessities require; so, friend, do thou lay up the precious treasure of the Word safe in the cabinet of thine heart, and bring it out as occasion calls for it, in thy daily life. (G. Swinnock.)
Adaptation of the Bible
The eyes of a good portrait follow the spectator wherever he stands, to look him exactly in the face; and so, whoever a man may be, and whatever his case, the Bible confronts him with its warning if he be doing ill, its warranty if he be doing well, and its wisdom under any, and for all, circumstances.
Apology for the Bible
King George III. on first hearing of Bishop Watsons Apology for the Bible, said, Apology for the Bible! I did not know that the Bible wanted any apology.
The pulpit and the reading-desk
John Wesley said to one of his followers, who urged upon him the deficiencies of some of the clergy, as a cause of separation, If you have nothing but chaff from the pulpit, you are abundantly fed with the finest of the wheat from the desk.
Scripture its own evidence
It has been for thirty years the deep conviction of my soul that no book can be written on behalf of the Bible like the Bible itself. Mans defences are mans word … the Bible is Gods Word, and by it the Holy Ghost, who first spoke it, still speaks to the soul that closeth itself not against it. (E. B. Pusey, D. D.)
Revelation and conscience
If we admit the agreement of revelation with conscience to be an evidence of Divinity in the Bible, do we thereby make conscience the criterion of what is Divine in it? Some say so and make this the door to Rationalism. But it is surely possible to make conscience a witness, without exalting it into a judge. (J. Ker, D. D.)
The Bible penetrative
In the Bible there is more that finds me than I have experienced in all other books put together; the words of the Bible find me at greater depths of my being; and whatever finds me brings with it an irresistible evidence of its having proceeded from the Holy Spirit. (S. T. Coleridge.)
Scripture profitable
A threefold account.
1. For their dignity and authority.
2. For their utility.
3. For their perfection.
(1) They are profitable for doctrine and instruction: they teach men what to know and believe, they instruct us in all truth necessary to salvation, viz., concerning God, man, Christ, law, gospel, heaven, hell. He first begins with doctrine, which in order must go before all the rest; for it is in vain to reprove or exhort unless we first teach a man and inform him of his duty.
(2) For reproof of error and confutation of false doctrine. We need not run to general councils or send for ancient fathers to determine controversies or confute errors; we have the Holy Scriptures that enable the man of God, and furnish him richly for that purpose.
(3) For correction of sin and evil manners, which is done by admonition and reproof denouncing Gods judgments against them, that those which go astray may be brought into the way by repentance.
(4) The Scripture teacheth us how to lead a holy and righteous life according to the will of God, and so is profitable for instruction in righteousness and good works, it being the most perfect rule of righteousness.
(5) The Scripture allures us to piety by the sweet promises of the gospel, and so is profitable for consolation (Rom_15:4). This God hath ordained as a lamp for our feet, that we miscarry not amidst those many by-paths that are in the world. Let us, then, make use of it in the course of our lives. If a carpenter have a rule or line, if he tie it to his back and never use it, his work must needs be crooked; so if we have Bibles and never read them, nor meditate on them to practise them, our lives must needs be irregular. They are, then, to be reproved who set up false rules to walk by, as--
1. Antiquity.
2. Custom.
3. Fathers.
4. The Church.
5. Reason.
6. Universality.
7. Enthusiams. (T. Hall, B. D.)
Profiting in Scripture to appear
Let us imitate the sheep, which boast not how much they have eaten, but show it actually by their fat, fleece, and young. (T. Hall, B. D.)
How to profit by Scripture
Observe, such as meddle with Gods Word must profit by it. We abuse the Word when we read or hear it only for speculation, novelty, and curiosity, but not for practice, that we may know, love, and fear God, and so be happy for ever. God gave them for this end, that we might profit by them, Those ministers, then, are to be blamed that play with Scripture and feed their people with the chaff of airy notions, frivolous questions, idle distinctions, and foolish controversies, seeking their own ends and praise, and not the benefit of Gods people. Let such remember that the Scripture was given to profit us, but not play withal. (T. Hall, B. D.)
Perfection of Scripture should win regard
This perfection of the Scripture should stir up our love to it. As imperfect things are slighted by us, so complete and perfect things are highly esteemed by all the sons of wisdom. No book to be compared to this for perfection, and therefore no book should be so loved, read, studied, and prized by us. Heres nothing vain or superfluous, but all things full of life and spirit; whatever good the soul can desire, tis here to be had. Here is food for the hungry, water for the thirsty, wine for the wearied, bread for the weak, raiment for the naked, gold for the poor, eye-salve for the blind, and physic for the sick. If thy heart be dead, this will quicken thee; if hard, this will soften it; if dull, revive it. In all our temptations, this is a Davids harp that helpeth to still them (Act_15:31). We should therefore with joy draw water out of these wells of salvation (Isa_12:3). We see how worldlings delight to view their bills and bonds, their leases and indentures, by which they hold their lands and livings; and shall not we delight to study the Scripture, which assureth us of never-fading riches? (T. Hall, B. D.)
Plainness of Scripture
A lady of suspected chastity, and who was tinctured with infidel principles, conversing with a minister of the gospel, objected to the Scriptures on account of their obscurity and the great difficulty of understanding them. The minister wisely and smartly replied, Why, madam, what can be easier to understand than the Seventh Commandment--Thou shalt not commit adultery? (C. Buck.)
The Bible a guide
The Bible is not a puzzle to wise heads, but a lamp for the wayfaring man. (Daniel Moore.)
The Bible a guide
No; I say, destroy the Bible, and still everything remains the same--except that you have lost your guide. If a party of voyagers who are passing through a dangerous channel were to say, Away with the chart! it is such a worry to be always looking at it; and it expects one to be so very careful, too; away with it; its a nuisance! you might easily get rid of your chart, but the rocks and shoals and sunken reefs and all the perils of the channel would remain there lust the same. Suppose a community were to say, Banish your doctors. Lets have no medical books here, no treatises on disease. Throw physic to the dogs. Well none of it! They could do that, of course, if they liked. But the laws and conditions of health and disease, of life and death, would remain precisely where they were before. And it is conceivable that men might get rid of the Bible. Practically, many do get rid of the Bible; but what do they gain? Only the loss of a guide. The facts of the universe, the facts about man and about God, the facts about the mutual relation of the one to the other, remain precisely the same. (G. Calthrop, M. A.)
Restraining power of the Bible
The Rev. Charles Vince, of Birmingham, told the following incident at a meeting of the Bible Society in 1863:--The Hill-top Auxiliary in the Black Country determined to send round two or three Christian men every Saturday evening, with packages of Bibles, to visit the public-houses and persuade the miners and puddlers of the district, while they had their money, to spend some part of it in buying the Word of God. While they were carrying out this plan a miner said, Wouldnt it be a good thing for us to have a copy to read down in the pit at dinner-time? The proposition met with general approval, and they agreed to buy a copy for this purpose. Of the first copy handed to them the landlord said the print was too small to read down in the pit, and offered to give a shilling towards the cost of a better type. This was bought, and one of the men said with great simplicity, If we have the Bible at dinner-time, we mustnt have any swearing. This, too, was carried, and a fine imposed upon the man that should break the rule. Is there any other book in the world that you could carry into the company of men and make them say, If we open this, and begin to look at it, we must begin to put away some of our sins? (Family Treasury.)
The Bible instructive
A Hindoo paper, published in Bengal, speaks as follows of the excellence of the Bible:--It is the best and most excellent of all English books, and there is not its like in the English language. As every joint of the sugar-cane, from the root to the top, is full of sweetness, so every page of the Bible is fraught with the most precious instruction. A portion of this book would yield to you more of sound morality than a thousand other treatises on the same subject. In short, if anybody studies the English language with a view to gaining wisdom, there is not another book which is more worthy of being read than the Bible. (Sword and Trowel.)
Faradays testimony to the value of Scripture
One of the best and greatest Fellows of the Royal Society in the present century was ill, and sitting in his room, when one of the best of my profession that ever lived in this country, Dr. Latham, went in to him and found this great man in tears, sitting by his fireside. Latham told me this story himself. He said, My good friend, I fear you feel more ill to-day; what is it? No, he said, not that; I was thinking what a sorrow it is that the world will go astray when it has this blessed book to guide it. This man was Faraday, and I need not say that the book on his table was the Bible. (Sir H. W. Acland, M. D.)
The poor widows treasure
Did ye ask me if I had a Bible? said a poor old widow in London; Did ye ask me if I had a Bible? Thank God I have a Bible. What should I do without my Bible? It was the guido of my youth, and it is the staff of my age; it wounded me, and it healed me; it condemned me, and it acquitted me; it showed me I was a sinner, and it led me to the Saviour; it has given me comfort through life, and I trust it will give me hope in death.
The principles of Scripture to be applied
Professor Newman complained, some years ago, against our Bible, because it does not tell every father to what business or profession he should put his sons. For such infinite particulars and detailed advices we should require, not a portable manual, but a British Museum. Far wiser and truer is the principle enunciated by the orator Burke, when he says, Reading, and much reading, is good. But the power of diversifying the matter infinitely in your own mind, and of applying it to every occasion that arises, is far better; so dont suppress the living force. (J. Clifford, D. D.)
The Bible a lighthouse
A light house looks like a tall pillar rising out of the sea, or built upon some high bluff. The top is a large lantern, where a bright light is kept burning all night, which is seen far out at sea; and it says to all ships and sailors sailing by, Take care! take care! One is built on a ledge of rocks; its warning light says, Give wide berth to these sunken rocks. Another says, Steer clear of this dangerous reef. Another, Keep clear of this dangerous headland. If you come here, you are lost. There are a great many lighthouses on the coast: how does a sailor know which is which? He sees a light gleaming through the darkness and the storm; but where is it? He has a chart in the ship, and that tells. A chart is a map of the coast, with all its rocks and sandbanks and lighthouses put down, and everything that a sailor ought to know in order to steer his ship safely across the ocean. If he faithfully consults it, and keeps a good look out, he is likely to ride out the storm and come safely into port.
That the man of God may be perfect.--
Character
The superiority of man is everywhere manifested on earth. True greatness is measured by character.
I. To perfect the character of man is the aim of Christian truth.
II. In developed character is to be found the great moral riches of the world.
III. In it we have a striking proof of mans immortality.
IV. It supplies a test by which to measure the value of the services of the sanctuary, the value of the Bible, of all things--its ability to develop true manhood. Have we grown in Christian character? Have the Church services proven barren or fruitful to us? (R. S. Storrs, D. D.)
The Bible the book for the man of God
Jerome was versed in the polite literature of his day and in the works of classic writers. He tells us that in a dream he once thought himself arraigned before the judgment seat of Christ, where he was asked the nature of his profession. He answered, I am a Christian. Thou art not! said the Judge; thou art a Ciceronian, for the works of that author possess thy heart. The Judge then gave order that he should be scourged by angels. Although it was only a dream, his chastisement never was forgotten; it changed the direction of his thoughts. From that time, he says, I gave myself to the reading of Divine things with greater diligence and attention than I had ever read the other authors. To give undue attention to secular reading, to the neglect of sacred literature, is a temptation peculiar to the cultivated believer, and it is a real temptation; for one may be as sordid in the acquisition of knowledge as in the pursuit of wealth.
The man of Gods equipment:--
I. The man of God is instructed--
1. Concerning God.
2. Concerning man.
3. Concerning duty.
4. Concerning responsibility.
II. The man of God is disciplined.
1. Joy in prosperity.
2. Hope in adversity.
3. A cheerful submission to the will of God at all times.
III. The man of God is inspired.
1. The mind is illumined.
2. The affections are sanctified.
3. The whole life is made the reflex of revelation. (Weekly Pulpit.)
Development of character
An English barrister who was accustomed to train students for the practice of law, and who was not himself a religious man, was once asked why he put students, from the very first, to the study and analysis of the most difficult parts of the Sacred Scriptures? Because, said he, there is nothing else like it, in any language, for the development of mind and character.
The Bible the text-book of character
Professor Matthew Arnold represents modern literature, and is often regarded as one of the severest critics of the current Christianity; yet he says, As well imagine a man with a sense for sculpture not cultivating it by the help of the remains of Greek art, or a man with a sense for poetry not cultivating it by the help of Homer and Shakespeare, as a man with a sense for conduct not cultivating it by the help of the Bible. Professor Huxley represents modern science, and is the bete noire of controversial theologians; yet he says, I have been perplexed to know by what practical measures the religious feeling, which is the essential basis of conduct, was to be kept up … without the use of the Bible.
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain 16. All Scripture. The Revision is much better. “Every…
16. All Scripture. The Revision is much better. “Every Scripture inspired of God is also profitable,” etc. Whether it is, depends on its inspiration. For instance, the Apocrypha is called Scripture, but is not inspired. For doctrine. For teaching.
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain (See Scofield "1Jn 3:7").
righteousness
(See Scofield "1Jn 3:7").
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 All scripture has been inspired by God
All scripture has been inspired by God
Some Bibles translate this as "All scripture is God-breathed." This means God produced the scripture through his Spirit by telling people what to write. This can be stated in active form. AT: "God has spoken all scripture by his Spirit" (See: Active or Passive)
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It is profitable
"It is useful" or "It is beneficial"
for conviction
"for pointing out errors"
for correction
"for fixing errors"
for training in righteousness
"for training people to be righteous"
the man of God
This means any believer in God whether male or female. AT: "all believers" (See: When Masculine Words Include Women)
may be competent, equipped
"may be completely prepared"
translationWords
word of God
doctrine
righteous
good
works
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 3:16-17 These verses elaborate on 3:15 by explaining Scripture’s…
3:16-17 These verses elaborate on 3:15 by explaining Scripture’s effectiveness, its source, and the ways that it gives wisdom to live out our salvation. Paul was speaking of the Hebrew Scriptures (the Old Testament), but his statement can now apply to all Scripture, including the New Testament (see, e.g., 2 Pet 3:15-16).
3:16 The fact that Scripture is inspired by God (literally God-breathed, breathed out by God’s own speech; see also Heb 4:12-13; 2 Pet 1:20-21) does not negate the active involvement of the human authors. But it does affirm that God is fully responsible for his word. Scripture is true, reliable, authoritative, permanent, and powerful because it comes from God himself. Its message is coherent, and it is consistent in its testimony about Jesus Christ (see Luke 24:25-27, 44; John 5:39-40; Acts 3:24; 1 Cor 15:3-4). Thus it has the power to bring salvation and elicit faith. It must not be abused, as the false teachers had been doing (2 Tim 4:2-4; 1 Tim 1:4-7; cp. 2 Pet 3:16), but must be taught properly (2 Tim 2:2, 15). • As a consequence of inspiration, all Scripture is useful. Both the Old Testament and the New Testament are together our guide and teacher in life.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.