Encyclopedia of sacred theology - pagina 497

Chap.

II]

§ 81.

UNITY AND MULTIPLICITY

473

Scripture, utterances from the Psalms were also applied to

New

It was indeed well known that originTestament. such utterances could refer merely to what was then written but it was understood that the same physiological law for one and the same life is valid in all its stages, and

the

ally

;

that for this reason the explanation of what had already appeared on this plant of the Scripture applied also to the branches which sprang from it at a later period. This physiological unity of the organic life of the Scripture

demands that attention shall likewise be paid to the instrumental diversity by which it came into being. The unity lies in

when

the auctor primarius, but this can only be fully the needed light

known

thrown upon the rich multiformity

is

Let attention, therefore,

in the auetores secundarii.

now

be

centred upon that instrumental side of inspiration.

Unity and Multiplicity

§ 81.

The Holy is

Scripture offers itself to faith as a unity, and

that unity which our old theologians called

that which

makes

Scripture.

it

when Jesus simply quotes

it

it

its essentia, i.e.

This unity becomes apparent with an " It is written," and

when, by His authority likewise, the Holy Scy'ijjture becomes the name by which it is called. In this sense the Scripture is the Word of God, and every distinction, by which we have only a Word of God in the Scripture, is a denial of its essentia or being.

This representation of highest right for faith, rible abuse, it

might

its

and

serve,

unity

if it

if

is

not only riyht but of

did not give rise to such ter-

necessary, as the sole sufficient

one in the realm of faith. Since, however, this representation tempts one so readily to quote every sentence which occurs in the Scripture, in whatever place, as forming by itself a Divine saying, and thus to destroy the organic character of revelation,

it is

the mission of the church to keep

alive also the sense of the multiformity of the

Even though

it is

Holy

Scripture.

entirely true that Jesus briefly quotes with

an " It is written," and does this also when a word is quoted which in the Old Testament does not occur immediately as

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