Encyclopedia of sacred theology - pagina 468

44-4

§ 78.

heaven"

THE TESTIMONY OF THE APOSTLES

even as

;

it

was "the

Spirit of Christ"

[Div. Ill

who

in the

Even

prophets did signify beforehand (jrpofiaprvpoixevov).

though the

eV TrvevfiuTL point to a different

modality from the

Trpofiapjvpofxevov, botli expressions, nevertheless, in their con-

nection refer to one and the same idea of inspiration, which receives its

more general description

in 2 Pet.

i.

21,

by the

authentic declaration that prophecy did not find its origin in the " will " of the prophets themselves, but in the fact, that they, as

"men

of

God"

spoke that which entered into their

moved by the Holy which was evidently applied by

consciousness while "they were being

Ghost

*' :

a representation

them, even though in modified form, to the entire Scripture of the Old Testament, as appears from the " all Scripture is theopneustic," in 2 Tim.

iii.

16.

The

fact, therefore, that

the apostles held the idea of inspiration, and applied

Old Testament, admits In the second place, also,

of

it

it

to the

no difference of opinion.

must

also be noted that the apostles,

did not look upon the Old Testament as a collection

which was organiand clothed with Divine authority. That already expressed in the Traa-a 'ypa^rj of 2 Tim, iii. 16,

of literary documents, but as one codex, cally constructed

unity

lies

which does not mean the ivhole Scripture but every Scripture, and hence does not emphasize the unity only, but simultaneously the organic unity. The same thought lies in 1 Pet. i. " To whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, 12 but unto you, did they minister these things." First, all the prophets are here taken under one head, and to their collec:

tive labor the character is attributed, not of its being a

work

which they have the right of disposal, but of its being a labor which they have performed with another purpose, which lay outside of them, and which was determined by God. According to Heb. i. 1, it is not human insight, but God Himself, which spake to the fathe.-s when they were spoken to by the prophets, and however much this took place "by divers portions and in divers manners," it all belonged together, formed one whole, and together constiof their own, over

tuted God's testimony to the fathers. of quoting confirms this.

They

also

The

apostolic

manner

do not quote by the name

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