DATE: Saturday, October 11, 1997            TAG: 9710100083

SECTION: DAILY BREAK             PAGE: E3   EDITION: FINAL 

COLUMN: Issues of Faith 

SOURCE: Betsy Wright 

                                            LENGTH:   70 lines

DEBATE OVER DIVINE INSPIRATION IS ONE OF DEGREE

Second in a series

AT THE END OF LAST week's column, I noted this one would explore how the books of the Bible were selected, or, ``What is Canon?''

I goofed, got ahead of myself and skipped: ``How was the Bible written?'' and ``Who wrote the Bible and when was it written?'' Sorry about that. We'll tackle ``canon'' later.

As was explained last week, the Bible is a library of many books. Though each has a human author, we who cherish these books as Scripture believe the authors worked under divine inspiration.

Divine inspiration is the ``how'' in the question, ``How was the Bible written?'' In Latin, the word for inspiration means ``to breathe into or upon.'' The centuries-old debate about divine inspiration is mostly one of degree: How much is God's ``breath'' and how much is human?

Before Jesus' time, Jewish scholars focused almost solely on the divinity within the Torah, or first five books of the Bible. Though the meaning of the many laws and codes of the Torah was debated, pre-Christian-era Jews believed, as the Talmud says, that ``the whole Torah is from Heaven.'' Disputing even the most minute point of divine inspiration was likened to blasphemy.

Jesus and the apostles of the early church believed much the same, though by that time the term ``Scriptures'' included not just Genesis through Deuteronomy, but also the other sacred books of prophets and wisdom that make up what Christians now call the Old Testament. (Note: When the New Testament authors used the word ``Scripture,'' they were referring only to the Old Testament, or Hebrew Bible. The ``New Testament'' didn't exist.)

Following Jesus' death, however, theologians began to talk about how divine inspiration works. The first-century Jewish philosopher Philo of Alexandria believed that human authors became possessed by God, lost consciousness of self, thus surrendering to the divine spirit that communicated through these mentally inert human vessels. Many early Christians, like Tertullian, agreed with this ``mantic theory.'' Most others, like Origen, disagreed strongly. They believed God wouldn't use such divine coercion.

During the Middle Ages most churchmen didn't consider the human writers, but believed God to be the absolute author.

During the Renaissance and the Reformation, the ``diction theory'' emerged. This held that God communicated to the human writer each point of Scripture. Humans wrote down exactly what God told them. Every word, every letter of Scripture was inspired by God.

Others at the time disagreed and said the books of the Bible were composed entirely by humans, but were later recognized as divine by the rabbis and the Church. Still others felt that God allowed humans to write the words of Scripture their way, only stepping in to make sure there were no errors.

Reformation leader Martin Luther believed God had imbedded his power into the words of Scripture much the same way as God had made himself incarnate in Jesus Christ's body. John Calvin stressed the concept of accommodation. He felt God had adapted the divine message to better suit the limited ability of humans to understand. God used simple words for simple minds.

From the Enlightenment to present day, the focus of the question changed. Archaeological discoveries and modern biblical criticism led to a preoccupation with the human side of the deal: Who wrote, and when did they write, the books of the Bible, and in what kind of culture did these authors live?

Today, most believers of the Bible would agree that it has sacred authority because God worked through the human authors to produce books that reveal the true nature of God and tell of God's relationship with humanity. While some say the Scriptures are the ``inspired Word of God,'' others say the Bible contains ``the inspired Word of God.'' Again, it is a matter of degree.

Writing on the topic in the ``The Oxford Companion to the Bible,'' William H. Barnes, an associate professor of Biblical Studies at Southeastern College of the Assemblies of God in Lakeland, Fla., states that ``in the end the issue of (divine) inspiration is ultimately a mystery - truly a matter of faith.''

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