2. The Holy Scriptures, as distinguished from all other writings, are the Word of God.
The main error that modern theology finds in the early church, in Luther and the Lutheran dogmatists, is that they "identified" Scripture and the Word of God. We already heard, "The error [of the old dogmatists] ... is in the defective or lack of distinction between the Bible and the Word of God." 741) Ihmels joins in this judgment, extending the censure at the same time from the first church and the church of
739) M. 322, 9 [Trigl. 497, 9 🔗].<w:t xml:space="preserve"> 740) p. 62. 741) Nitzsch-Stephan, p. 245.
257 ><w:t>The Holy Scriptures. [English ed. ~ 213-214]
the Reformation. He says:742) "The old dogmatics tried to ensure the uniqueness of Christianity by letting Christianity rest on a quite unique supernatural revelation. ... In doing so, revelation is understood by it in an essentially intellectualistic sense and factually identified with Scripture. ... In all of this, a heritage from the first times of the church has an effect. ... If the informational Christianity was interested in the pure doctrine, then this interest could seem to be most surely guaranteed by the fact that this doctrine was quite directly covered with the authority of divine revelation. To this was added a second moment, which seemed to spring all the more from the immediate practice of the Reformation need. The church of the Reformation absolutely rejected the authority of Rome, but it had only the authority of Scripture to oppose it. Again, this seemed most assured to the extent that Scripture and revelation could be identified. Meanwhile, however understandable all this may be, viewed historically, the judgment remains that, viewed fundamentally, there is an incongruity between the Reformation understanding of Scripture [according to which Scripture and the Word of God are identified] and revelation." But what is so unanimously blamed as "error" by both liberal and "positive" modern theology on the early church, on Luther, and on the old dogmatists, is the only thing that is correct. It is the doctrines of Scripture about itself. Scripture teaches the identification of Scripture and the Word of God in several ways.
a. The words of Old Testament Scripture are quoted absolutely in the New Testament as the Words of God. Examples: Matt. 1:23 the words are quoted from Is. 7:14 the words are quoted, "Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son." But of these words it is said in the preceding verse (v. 22) that the Lord had spoken them through the prophet, ρηϑεν υπό κυρίου διά τον προφήτου Matt. 2:15 are quoted from Hos. 11:1 the words: "Out of Egypt I have called my son." In reference to these words it is immediately testified that the Lord said them through the prophet, το ρηθεν υπό κυρίου διά τον προφήτου Acts 4:25 is quoted from Psalm 2:1: "Why do the heathen rage and the people imagine a vain thing?"
742) Central Issues 2, p. 56 ff.
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But at the same time it is said of these words that God spoke them through the mouth of his servant David, δ διά στόματος Δαυίδ παιδός σου είπών. In Acts 28:25 the Jews in Rome are held up to the words of Is. 6:9-10: "Go unto this people, and say, With your ears ye shall hear, and not understand; and with your eyes ye shall see, and not know," etc. To these words also is added the judgment that the Holy Spirit must have spoken them (that is, properly, καλώς) through the prophet Isaiah to the fathers of Israel, το πνεύμα το άγιον έλάλησεν διά Ήσαΐον τον προφήτου προς τους πατέρας ημών, Heb. 3:7 reads from a quotation from the 95th Psalm, "As the Holy Spirit, τό πνεύμα το άγιον, saith, Today, if ye shall hear his voice, harden not your hearts." Rom. 3:2, all the Scriptures of the Old Testament, which were entrusted to the Jewish Church, are called τα λόγια τον θεον, God's sayings, God's words. And because the whole Scripture of the Old Testament is God's Word, Christ John 10:35 says of it that it cannot be broken even in a single word. This is the word (elohim) אֱלֹהִ֣ים [HEBREW], θεοί used by authoritative persons in Ps. 82:6. — In addition, there is a whole series of scriptural passages which are not to be disregarded when it comes to the question whether Scripture and the Word of God are to be identified or not. These are the passages of Scripture in which it is said that all events in the world must be directed or happen according to the word of Scripture. Everything that has happened and will happen, from the beginning to the end of the world, must and will happen as it stands written. Thus it is said Matt. 1:22, as we have already heard, of the birth of Christ from the Virgin Mary, that it happened "that (ινα) the Scripture might be fulfilled." Jn. 17:12 the Savior speaks of Judas' apostasy and end, and adds, "that, ινα, the Scripture might be fulfilled." When Peter wants to save Christ from capture with the sword in the garden, Christ resists him, Matt. 26:54, with the words, "How would [else] the Scripture be fulfilled? It must therefore come to pass," οντω δει γενέσϑαι. And of all that happened with Christ, especially of His suffering and subsequent glory, Christ Himself says Luke 24:44 ff:. "All things must be fulfilled (δει) which are written of me in the law of Moses, in the Prophets, and in Psalms," etc. If all that is written in the Scriptures must come to pass,
259 ><w:t xml:space="preserve">The Holy Scriptures. [English ed. ~ 215]
then the Scriptures must not be the word of men, but the word of Him who has everything in heaven and on earth in His hand, who directs all events, without whom nothing, in heaven and on earth, can come to pass, who is omnipotent and omniscient, in short, the great, majestic God Himself. Olshausen remarks about the quotations from the Old Testament in the New: "The quotations from the Old Testament in the New are not attracted as mere proofs from humanly important writings, but as incontrovertible proofs from divine books. This evidential force could come to them only inasmuch as they were not derived from human sages, but from men driven by the Holy Spirit." 743)
b. What has been said so far applies first of all to the Scriptures of the Old Testament. But that the writings of the apostles of the New Testament are of the same nature, namely also God's own Word, is taught in 1 Petr. 1:10-12 taught, where it is first said of the Old Testament prophets that they prophesied of the future grace of the New Testament by the Spirit of Christ which was in them, but then it is added with respect to the New Testament apostles: "Which therefore (at the time of the New Testament) was preached unto you by them which preached the gospel unto you by the Holy Spirit, sent from heaven," έν πνενματι άγίω άποοταλέντι άπ ούρανοϋ. Here it is clearly taught that, as the word of the prophets of the Old Testament, so also the word of the apostles of the New Testament is the word of the Holy Spirit. The objection that only the oral word is addressed here, not the writings of the apostles, does not apply because the apostles explicitly say that they wrote the same thing that they proclaimed orally. Thus the apostle John:744) "What we have seen and heard we declare to you, ... and these things we write to you (καί ταντα γράφομεν νμϊν), that your joy may be complete." Likewise, the apostle Paul exhorts the Thessalonians to make no distinction between what the apostle preached to them orally and what he wrote to them. He says:745) "Therefore, brethren, stand fast, and hold the
743) Nachweis der Echtheit sämtlicher Schriften des Neuen Testaments, 1832, p. 168.
744) 1 John 1:3:4.<w:t>745) 2 Thess. 2:15.
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traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word, or our epistle," είτε διά λόγου, είτε δι επιστολής ημών. The apostles were also clearly aware that they were not speaking and writing their own word, but Christ's. We already saw that Paul demands from the "prophets" and "spiritual people" in Corinth submission to his, the apostle's, word on the grounds: "What I write to you are the Lord's commandments," τον κυρίου είσίν εντoAat.746) In his second letter to the Corinthians he reminds the whole congregation that Christ speaks through him, δοκιμήν ζητείτε του εν εμοι λαλονντος Χρίστου.747) And when Paul pronounces the curse upon all teachers who teach a different gospel from that which he himself taught, we have, as has been justly remarked, only the election between two things: either we must suppose that Paul's word is really Christ's word, as he himself says in the Corinthian passages cited, or we would have to suppose that he is speaking in delusion when he puts the curse upon every deviation from the word he preaches. There is no third or middle position. So abundantly is it testified in Scripture itself that, as the Scriptures of the Old Testament, so also the Scriptures of the New Testament are the Word of God. Scripture and the Word of God, then, are truly to be "identified."
The Holy Scriptures are a book of a very unique nature. It is the Word of God, unlike the millions of other books in the world. It forms a class of its own. If we wanted to express the dignity and prestige of the books in a library through the external order, we would have to put the Holy Scriptures on one side and all the other books on the other side. Of course, there are many other books that also contain the Word of God, such as the writings of Luther. But what is contained in other books of God's Word is taken from the Holy Scriptures. It is completely true what Luther says in his Instruction for the Study of Theology that no book teaches (namely, teaches rightly) about eternal life without the Scriptures alone.748) Scripture is neither a human nor a "God-man" account of God's Word and the "facts of revelation," but God's Word itself. This is Luther's position on Scripture. To begin with,
746) 1 Cor. 14:37.<w:t>747) 2 Cor. 13:3.<w:t xml:space="preserve">748) St. L. XIV, 434.
261 ><w:t xml:space="preserve">The Holy Scriptures. [English ed. 216-217]
just two short words from Luther: Luther says, "Thou shalt thus deal with the Scriptures, that thou mayest think as God Himself speaks." 749) Further, "The Holy Scriptures did not grow on earth."750) Gerhard can be considered representative of the old Lutheran dogmatists when he writes: "There is no factual difference between the Word of God and Holy Scriptures, non est reale aliquod discrimen." 751) It is only a difference of expression, not of fact, whether we say, "Scripture says" or, "God says." "Holy Scripture and the Word of God are interchangeable terms."
This truth sometimes recedes into the background, because the Holy Scriptures address us in such simple human words and also — especially in the Old Testament — deal with the things of earthly life, with household, agriculture, animal husbandry, clothing and food, etc. The Holy Scriptures are therefore concerned with how Christ fared during his time on earth. Therefore, the Holy Scriptures tell us how Christ was at the time when he walked on earth. Because Christ was invented as a man, the Jewish public considered him to be a mere man like John the Baptist, Elijah, Jeremiah or the prophets.752) The same thing happens with regard to the Holy Scriptures. Because it is written in human language, it is not considered to be the Word of God, but is put in one class with human books and even criticized by men. This is why Luther warns in his preface to the Old Testament:753) "I faithfully ask and warn every devout Christian not to be offended by the simple address and history that he will often encounter, but do not doubt how badly [lowly] it can always be regarded as vain words, works, judgments and history of the high divine majesty, power and wisdom. For this is the Scripture which makes fools of all the wise and prudent, and stands open only to the small and foolish, as Christ says Matt. 11:25. Therefore let your arrogance and feeling depart, and think of this Scripture as the very highest, noblest sanctuary, as of the very richest treasure, which may never be sufficiently filled, that you may find the divine wisdom, which God here so foolishly and badly puts forward as to damp all arrogance."
749) St. L. III, 21.<w:t xml:space="preserve">750) St. L. VII, 2095.
751) L. de Scriptura Sacra, § 7.<w:t>752) Matt. 16:14.
753) St. L. XIV, 3 f.
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