Chapter VIII: The Holy Spirit and Inspiration (3)

[297] Cf. the quotation in Eusebius, _H. E._ v. 28.

[298] Athan. _de Incarn._ 12. Cf. Ewald's preface to his _History of Israel_.

[299] See Gratry, _Henri Perreyve_, pp. 162, 163.

[300] Delitzsch, _O.T. History of Redemption_, p. 106. Cf. Prof. Robertson Smith, _Prophets of Israel_, p. 108.

[301] See Epiphan. _Haer._ xlviii. 4. Westcott, _Introd. to the Study of the Gospels_, App. B, sect. ii. 4, sect. iv. 4. Mason, _Faith of the Gospel_, p. 255.

[302] See Professor Driver's admirable article on 'the cosmogony of Genesis.' _Expositor_, Jan. 1886.

[303] Professor Cheyne, speaking of such narratives of Scriptures as the record of Elijah, protests against the supposition that they are 'true to fact.' 'True to fact! Who goes to the artist for hard dry facts? Why even the historians of antiquity thought it no part of their duty to give the mere prose of life. How much less can the unconscious artists of the imaginative East have described their heroes with relentless photographic accuracy!' (_The Hallowing of Criticism_, p. 5.) But it seems to me that such a passage, by treating the recorders of the Old Testament as 'artists,' ignores their obvious intention to lay stress on what God has actually done, the deliverances He has actually wrought. They, at least, like the Greek historical 'artist' of the defeat of Persia, would have laid great stress on the facts having happened.

[304] Church, _Discipline of the Christian Character_, p. 57. This work seems to me the best existing answer to the question, in what does the inspiration of the Old Testament consist.

[305] Cf. pp. 161-167. In view of criticisms it may be explained that in the account of the prophet given above only that view of his inspiration is taken into consideration which appeals first to the enquirer (cf. the words in the next paragraph 'in this general sense at least'). When once this primary assurance of inspiration is gained the evidence of detailed prophecies will be found cogent. As we compare the anticipations of the Messiah or of the 'Righteous Servant' in such passages as Ps. xxii., Is. liii., vii. 14, or ix. 6, 7, with their fulfilment in Jesus Christ, we recognise a special action of the Holy Ghost, marking even in details the continuity of His method. Cf. p. 167 referred to above.

[306] See for instance Micah v. 2-6. On the subject of the limitations of prophetic foresight, as on the whole subject of prophecy, let me refer to Dr. Ed. Riehm, _Messianic Prophecy_ (Clark's trans.) pp. 79, 86 ff., 114, 157-162.

[307] Acts i. 8. S. John xiv. 25, 26; xvi. 12, 13.

[308] S. John xix. 35; xxi. 24. 1 S. John i. 1-3.

[309] See Prof. Sanday's _What the first Christians thought about Christ_. (Oxford House Papers: Rivington.)

[310] 2 Tim. iii. 16.

[311] Mr. Horton's book on _Inspiration and the Bible_ is almost naively lacking in this quality of impartial regard to inspired books.

[312] Prof. Robertson Smith, _Prophets of Israel_, p. 6.

[313] Cf. Prof. Robertson Smith, _The Old Testament in the Jewish Church_, Lect. vii. p. 207: 'Another point in which criticism removes a serious difficulty is the interpretation of the imprecatory psalms.'

[314] See _Nineteenth Century_, Feb. 1884, p. 189.

[315] 'When from time to time,' says S. Bernard to his monks, 'anything that was hidden or obscure in the Scriptures has come out into the light to any one of you, at once the voice of exultation and thankfulness for the nourishment of spiritual food that has been received, must rise as from a banquet to delight the ears of God.'

[316] See the Annual Address (1889) delivered at the Victoria Institute by Prof. Sayce, on the cuneiform tablets of Tel el-amarna, pp. 4, 14 f.: 'We learn that in the fifteenth century before our era--a century before the Exodus--active literary intercourse was going on throughout the civilized world of Western Asia, between Babylonia and Egypt and the smaller states of Palestine.... This intercourse was carried on by means of the Babylonian language and the complicated Babylonian script. How educated the old world was, we are but just beginning to learn. But we have already learnt enough to discover how important a bearing it has on the criticism of the Old Testament.'

[317] See Driver, _Crit. notes on Sunday-School lessons_ (Scribner: New York).

[318] Ex. xx. xxii-xxiii. xxxiii.

[319] The Books of Kings seem to be compiled from the point of view of the Deuteronomist.

[320] Origen, _c. Cels._ vii. 4.

[321] E.g. chs. vii. ix. The Roman Church admits that it is, to use Newman's phrase, 'a prosopopeia'; 'our Bibles say, "it is written in the person of Solomon" and "it is uncertain who was the writer,"' l.c. p. 197. It is important to bear in mind that the Western Church in general has, since S. Augustine's day, admitted into the canon a book the literary method of which is thus confessedly dramatic. Newman makes this the ground for saying that the same may be true of Ecclesiastes.

[322] On the evidence of O.T. miracles I may refer to Mr. Samuel Cox's Essay: _Miracles, an Argument and a Challenge_. (Kegan Paul, 1884.)

[323] Of course the distinction must be maintained in the case of the book of Daniel between a 'pious fraud' which cannot be inspired, and an idealizing personification which, as a normal type of literature, can. Further study will probably solve the special difficulty which on the critical hypothesis attaches to the book of Daniel from this point of view: see Stanton, _Jewish and Christian Messiah_, p. 109, note 1.

[324] This is certainly true of the Church as a whole. For the most that can be said in the same sense of the Roman Church, see Newman in the article above cited.

[325] _De Principiis_, iv. 15, 16, 17. His point is that incidents which could not have occurred in fact, or at least did not occur, are inserted in the narrative of the Old and New Testaments, that their very historical impossibility or improbability may drive us to the consideration of their spiritual significance. 'The attentive reader may notice ... innumerable other passages, like these, so that he will be convinced that in the histories that are literally recorded, circumstances are inserted that did not occur.' Cf. Bigg, _Christian Platonists_, pp. 137-8.

[326] Cf. Jerome, _ad Nepotian. ep._ lii. 2.

[327] S. Matt. xii. 40.

[328] S. Matt. xxiv. 37-39.

[329] S. Matt. xxii. 41-46.

[330] See especially S. Mark x. 17-18 (and parallel passages), where our Lord's question, if converted into a positive proposition, suggests a repudiation of personal goodness. Cf. also the question in S. John x. 34-36 where, though the argument is _a fortiori_, still the true character of our Lord's sonship is hardly suggested.

[331] This limitation of knowledge must not be confused with fallibility or liability to human delusion, because it was doubtless guarded by the Divine purpose which led Jesus Christ to take it upon Himself.

[332] Of course He gave prophetic indications of the coming judgment, but on the analogy of inspired prophecy. He did not reveal 'times and seasons,' and declared that it was not within the scope of His mission to do so. See esp. S. Mark xiii. 32. He exhibits supernatural insight into men's characters and lives. But He never exhibits the omniscience of bare Godhead in the realm of natural knowledge; such as would be required to anticipate the results of modern science or criticism. This 'self-emptying' of God in the Incarnation is, we must always remember, no failure of power, but a continuous act of Self-sacrifice: cf. 2 Cor. viii. 9 and Phil. ii. 7. Indeed God 'declares His almighty power most chiefly' in this condescension, whereby He 'beggared Himself' of Divine prerogatives, to put Himself in our place.