Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 8.djvu/75

 INSPIRATION

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INSPIRATION

refers to the pontificate of C'elestine I, during which period an Illyrian priest named Peter founded the church.

Other parts of the early Christian churches were also occasionally decorated with inscriptions, e. g. the titles of roofs and walls. It was also customary to decorate with inscriptions the lengthy cycles of fres- coes depicted on the walls of churches. Fme examples of such inscriptions have reached us in the "Ditto- chEeon" of Prudcntius, in the Ambrosian tituli, and in the writings of Paulinus of Nola.

It should be adtled that many dedicatory inscrip- tions belong to the eighth and ninth centuries, espe- cially in Rome, where in the eighth ccntiuy numerous bodies of saints were transferred from the catacombs to the churches of the city (see Catacombs).

Graffiti. — .\lthough apparently of little value and devoid of all monumental character, the graffiti (i. e. writings scratched on walls or other surfaces) are of great importance historically and otherwise. Many such are preserved in the catacombs and on various early Christian monuments. Of special importance in this rcs]iect are the ruins of the fine edifices of the town of .Menas in the Egyptian Jhireotis (cf. "Proceedings of Society for Bibl. Archreology ", 1907, pp. 25, 51, 112). The graffiti help in turn to illustrate the literary sources of the life of the early Christians. (See also

OSTRAKA.)

De Rossi, Inscriptiones christiancB urbis Romas septirno Bceculo aniiquioTes (Rome. 1S61); Le Blant. Manuel dU-pigraphie chrt'tiennc (Paris, 1869): Ritter, De compositione titulorum christianorum sepuleralium (Berlin, 1877); M'C'aul, Christian Epitaphs of the First Six Centuries (London, 1869) ; Nohthcote AND Brownlow, Epitaphs of the Catacombs (London, 1879) : Kaufmann, Handbxwh der christlichen Archaologie, pt. Ill, Epigraphische Denkmiiler (Paderborn, 1905); Systos. Notiones arch<solofficB christiancE, vol. Ill, pt. I, Epigraphia (Rome, 1909).

C. M. Kaufmann.

Inspiration of the Bible. — The subject will be treated in this article mider the four heads: I. Belief in Inspired Books; II. Xature of Inspiration; III. Extent of Inspiration; IV. Protestant Views on the Inspiration of the Bible.

I. Belief in Inspired Books. — A. Among the Jews. — The belief in the sacred character of certain books is as old as the Hebrew literature. Moses and the Prophets had committed to writing a part of the message they were to deliver to Israel from God. Now, the nab;i (prophet), whether he spoke or wrote, was considered by the Hebrews the authorized inter- preter of the thoughts and wishes of Yahweh. He was called, likewise, "the man of God", "the man of the Spirit " (Osee, ix, 7). It was arouml the Temple and the Book that the religious and national restora- tion of the Jewish people was effected after their exile (see II Mach., ii, 13, 14, and the prologue of Ecclesiasticiis in the Septuagint). Philo (from 20 B.C. to A. D.40) speaks of the "sacred books", "sacred word ", and of "most holy scripture " (De vita Moysis, iii, §2.3). The testimony of Flavius Josephus (a. d. 37-95) is still more characteristic: it is in his writings that the word inspiration (i-n-lirvota) is met for the first time. He speaks of twenty-two books which the Jews with good reason consider Divine, and for which, in case of need, they are ready to die (Contra .\pion., I, 8). The belief of the Jews in the inspiration of the Scriptures did not diminish from the time in which they were dispersed throughout the world, without temple, without altar, without priests; on the contrary this faith increased so much that it took the place of everything else.

B. Among the Christians. — The Gospel contains no express declaration about the origin and value of the Scriptures, but in it we see that Jesus (^'hrist used them in conformity with the general belief, i. e. as the Word of God. The most decisive texts in this respect are found in the Fourth Go.spel, v, 39; X, 35. The words scripture, Word of God, Spirit of

God, God, in the sayings and writings of the Apostles are used indifferently (Rom., iv, 3; ix, 17). St. Paul alone appeals expressly more than eighty times to those Divine oracles of which Israel was made the guardian (cf. Rom., iii, 2). This persuasion of the early Christians was not merely the effect of a Jewish tradition blindly accepted and never understood. St. Peter and St. Paul give the reason why it was accepted: it is that all Scripture is inspired of God ((^eiTrm-cTTos) (II Tim., iii, 16; cf. II Pet., i. 20, 21). It would be superfluous to spend any time in proving that Tradition has faithfully kept the Apostolic belief in the inspiration of Scripture. Moreover, this demonstration forms the subject-matter of a great number of works (see especially Chr. Pesch, "De inspiratione Sacrae Scripturie", 1906, p. 40- 379). It is enough for us to add that on several occasions the Church has defined the inspiration of the canonical books as an article of faith (see Den- zinger, "Enchiridion", 10th ed., n. 1787, 1809). Every Christian sect still deserving that name be- lieves in the inspiration of the Scriptures, although several have more or less altered the idea of inspira- tion.

C. Value of this Belief. — History alone allows us to establish the fact that Jews and Christians have always believed in the inspiration of the Bible. But what is this belief worth? Proofs of the rational as well as of the dogmatic order unite in justifying it. Those who first recognized in the Bible a superhuman work had as foundation of their opinion the testimony of the Prophets, of Christ, and of the Apostles, whose Divine mission was sufficiently est;iblisli<'(l l)y imme- diate experience orby history. Tothis pnnly rational argument can be added the authentic tcacliini; of the Church. A Catholic may claim this ailililional ciiti- tude without falling into a vicious circle, because the infallibility of the Church in its teaching is proved independently of the inspiration of Scripture; the historical value, belonging to Scripture in common with every other authentic and truthful writing, is enough to prove this.

II. Nature of Inspiration. — A. Method to be followed. — (1) To determine the nature of Biblical inspiration the theologian has at his disposal a three- fold source of information: the data of tradition, the concept of inspiration, and the concrete state of the inspired text. If he wishes to obtain acceptable results, he will take into account all these elements of solution. Pure speculation might easily end in a theory incompatible with the te.xts. On the other hand, the literary or historical analysis of these same texts, if left to its own resources, ignores their Divine origin. Finally, if the data of tradition attest the fact of inspiration, they do not furnish us with a complete analysis of its nature. Hence, theology, philosophy, and exegesis have each a word to say on this subject. Positive theology furnishes a starting- point in its traditional formula": viz., God is the author of Scripture, the inspired writer is the organ of the Holy Ghost, Scripture is the Word of God. Speculative theology takes these formulse, analyses their contents, and from them draws its conclusions. In this way St. Thomas, starting from the traditional concept which makes the sacred writer an organ of the Holy Ghost, explains the subordination of his faculties to the action of the Inspirer by the philo- sophical theory of the instrumental cause (QviotlL, VII, Q. vi, a. 14, ad ou™). However, to avoid all risk of going astray, speculation must pay constant atten- tion to the indications furnished by exegesis.

(2) The Catholic who wishes to make a correct analysis of Biblical inspiration must have before his eyes the following ecclesiastical documents: (a) "These books are held by the Church as sacred and canonical, not as having been composed liy merely human labour and afterwards approved by her au-