The
phrase, "Given by inspiration of God," or
"Inspired of God," occurs, as is well-known, but
once in the New Testament--in the classical passage, to wit,
II Tim. iii. 16, which is rendered in the Authorized Version,
"All Scripture is given by inspiration of God," and
by the Revised Version, "Every Scripture inspired of God
is, etc." The Greek word represented by it, and standing
in this passage as an epithet or predicate of
"Scripture" "theopneustos" though
occurring here only in the New Testament and found nowhere
earlier in all Greek literature, has nevertheless not hitherto
seemed of doubtful interpretation. Its form, its subsequent
usage, the implications of parallel terms and of the analogy
of faith, have combined with the suggestions of the context to
assign to it a meaning which has been constantly attributed to
it from the first records of Christian interpretation until
yesterday. This unvarying understanding of the word is thus
reported by the leading lexicographers: Schleusner "New
Test. Lexicon." Glasgow reprint of fourth Leipzig
edition, 1824:
"'Theopneustos',
'ou', 'ho', 'he', afflatu divino actus, divino quodam spiritu
afflatus, et partim de hominibus usurpatur, quorum sensus et
sermones ad vim divinam referendi sunt, v.c. poetis, faticidis,
prophetis, auguribus, qui etiam 'theodidaktoi' vocantur,
partim de ipsis rebus, notionibus, sermonibus, et scriptis, a
Deo suggestis, et divino instructu natis, ex 'theos' et 'pneo'
spiro, quod, ut Latinum afflo, de diis speciatim usurpatur,
quorum vi homines interdum ita agi existimabantur, ut notiones
rerum, antea ignotarum, insolito quodam modo conciperent atque
mente vehementius concitata in sermones sublimiores et
elegantiores erumperent. Conf. Cic. pro Archia c. 14; Virgil.
Aen. iii, 358, vi, 50. In N. T. semel legitur II Tim. iii. 16,
'pasa graphe theopneustos' omnis Scriptura divinitus inspirata,
seu, quae est originis divinae. coll. II Pet i. 21. Syrus....
scriptura, quae per spiritum scripta est. Conjunxit nempe
actionem scribendi cum actione inspirandi. Apud Plutarchum T.
ix. p. 583. ed. Reiske. 'Theospeustoi oneiroi' sunt somnia a
diis immissa." Robinson "Greek and English Lexicon
of the New Testament," new ed., New York, 1872:
"'Theopneustos',
'ou', 'ho', 'he', adj. ('theos','pneo'), God- inspired,
inbreathed of God, II Tim. iii. 16 'pasa graphe theopneustos.'
--Plut. de Placit. Philosoph. 5. 2, 'tous oneirous tous
theopneustous'. Phocylid. 121 'tes de theopneustou sophies
logos estin aristos'. Comp. Jos. c. Ap. 1. 7 ['hai graphai']
'ton propheton kata ten epipnoian ten apo tou theou mathonton'.
Cic. pro Arch. 8, 'poetam ... quasi divino quodam spiritu
inflari.'"
Thayer-Grimm
"Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament," New
York, 1887:
"'Theopneustos',
--'on', ('theos' and 'pneo'), inspired by God: 'graphe', i.e.
the contents of Scripture, II Tim. iii. 16 [see 'pas' I. 1
c.]; 'sophin', [pseudo-] Phocyl. 121; 'oneiroi', Plut. de plac.
phil. 5, 2, 3 p. 904f.; [Orac. Sibyll. 5, 406 (cf. 308); Nonn.
paraphr. ev. Ioan. 1, 99]. ('empneustos' also is used
passively, but 'apneustos', 'eupneustos', 'puripneustos', ['dusdiapneustos'],
actively [and 'dusanapneustos' appar. either act. or pass.;
cf. W. 96 (92) note].)"
Cremer "Biblico-Theological
Lexicon of New Testament Greek" ed. 2, E.T., Edinburgh,
1878:
"'Theopneustos',
prompted by God, divinely inspired. II Tim. iii. 16, 'pasa
graphe th'(?). In profane Greek it occurs only in Plut. de
placit. philos. v. 2, 'ovieroi theopneustoi (kat anagken
ginontai)', opposed to 'phusikoi'. The formation of the word
cannot be traced to the use of 'pneo', but only of 'empneo'.
Cf. Xen. Hell. vii. 4, 32, 'ten areten theos men empneusas';
Plat. Conv. 179 B, 'menos empneusai eniois ton heroon ton
theon'; Hom. Il. xx. 110; Od. xix. 138. The simple verb is
never used of divine action. How much the word corresponds
with the Scriptural view is evident from II Pet. i. 21."
And the
commentators generally will be found to speak no otherwise.
The completeness of this lexical consent has recently,
however, been broken, and that by no less an authority than
Prof. Hermann Cremer himself, the second edition of whose
great "Biblico-theological Lexicon" we have just
adduced as in entire agreement with the current view. The date
of issue of this edition, in its original German form, was
1872. The third edition was delayed until 1883. In the
interval Dr. Cremer was called upon to write the article on
"Inspiration " in the second edition of Herzog's
"Realencyklopaedie" (Vol. iv, sub voc., pp. 746
seq.), which saw the light in 1880. In preparing this article
he was led to take an entirely new view[2] of the meaning of 'theopneustos',
according to which it defines Scripture, in II Tim. iii. 16,
not according to its origin, but according to its effect--not
as "inspired of God," but as "inspiring its
readers." The statement of his new view was transferred
to the third edition of his "Lexicon" (1883; E.T. as
"Supplement," 1886) very much in the form in which
it appears in Herzog; and it has retained its place in the
"Lexicon," with practically no alteration, ever
since.[3] As its expression in Herzog was the earliest, and
therefore is historically the most important, and as the
article in the "Lexicon" is easily accessible in
both German and English, and moreover does not essentially
differ from what is said in Herzog, we shall quote here Dr.
Cremer's statement of the case in preference from Herzog. He
says:
"In
theological usage, Inspiration denotes especially the
influence of the Holy Spirit in the origination of the sacred
Scriptures, by means of which they become the expression to us
of the will of God, or the Word of God. The term comes from
the Vulgate, which renders II Tim. iii. 16 'pasa graphe
theopneustos', by omnis Scriptura divinitus inspirita. Whether
the meaning of the Greek term is conveyed by this is at least
questionable. It clearly belongs only to Hellenistic and
Christian Greek. The notion that it was used also in classical
Greek of poets and seers (Huther in his Commentary) and to
express what Cicero says in his pro Archia, p. 8, nemo vir
magnus sine aliquo afflatu divino unquam fuit, is certainly
wrong. For 'theopneustos' does not occur at all in classical
Greek or in profane Greek as a whole. In the unique passage,
Plutarch, de placit. phil., 5, 2 (Mor. 904, 2): 'tous oneirous
tous theopneustous kat anagken ginesthai'. 'Tous de phusikous
aneidolopoioumenes psuches to sumtheron aute ktl'., it is very
probably to be ascribed to the copyist, and stands, as
Wyttenbach conjectures, in the place of 'theopemptous'.
Besides this it occurs in Pseudo- Phocylides, v. 121: 'tes de
theopneustou sophies logos estin aristos'-- unless the whole
line is, with Bernays, to be deleted as disturbing to the
sense--as well as in the fifth book of the "Sibyllines,"
v. 308: 'Kume d he mora sun namasi tois theopneustois', and v.
406, 'Alla megan genetera theon panton theopneuston En
thusiais egerairon kai hagias ekatombas'. The
Psuedo-Phocylides was, however, a Hellenist, and the author of
the fifth book of the "Sibyllines" was, most
probably, an Egyptian Jew living in the time of Hadrian. On
Christian ground we find it in II Tim. iii. 16, which is
possibly the earliest written employment of it to which we can
point. Wetstein, on this passage, adduces the sentence from
the Vita Sabae 16 ( Cotelerii Monum.): 'ephthase te tou Chu
chariti he panton theopneuston, panton christophoron autou
sunodia mechri ho onomaton' as well as the designation of
Marcus Eremita as 'o theopneustos aner' That the term has a
passive meaning = 'gifted with God's Spirit,' 'divinely
spirited,' (not 'inspired' as Ewald rightly distinguishes[4])
may be taken as indubitable from 'Sibyll.', v. 406 and the two
passages last adduced. Nevertheless 'graphe theopneustos' does
not seem easily capable of meaning 'inspired by God's Spirit'
in the sense of the Vulgate; when connected with such
conceptions as 'graphe' here, 'nama', 'fountain,' 'Sibyll.' v.
308, it would rather signify 'breathing a divine spirit,' in
keeping with that ready transition of the passive into the
active sense which we see in 'apneustos', 'eupneustos', 'ill-
or well-breathed; = ' breathing ill or well.' Compare Nonnus,
paraphr. ev Jo., i, 102: 'ou podos akrou andromeen palamen ouk
axios eimi pelassas, lusai mounon himanta theopneustoio
pedilou', with v. 129: 'baptizein apuroisi kai apneustoisi
loetrois'. In harmony with this, it might be understood also
in Phocyl. 121; the explanation, 'Wisdom gifted with the
Divine Spirit,' at all events has in its favor the fact that 'theopneustos'
is given the same sense as when it it connected with 'aner', 'anthropos'.
Certainly a transition to the sense, 'breathed by God' =
inspired by God' seems difficult to account for, and it would
fit, without forcing, only Phocyl. 121, while in II Tim. iii.
16, on the assumption of this sense, there would be required a
not altogether easy metonyme. The sense 'breathing God's
Spirit' is moreover in keeping with the context, especially
with the 'ophelimos pros didaskaliav ktl.' and the 'ta
dunamena se sophisai', v. 15, as well as with the language
employed elsewhere, e. g., in the Epistle to the Hebrews,
where what the Scripture says is, as is well known, spoken of
as saying, the word of the Holy Ghost. Cf. also Acts xxviii.
25. Origen also, in Hom. 21 in Jerem., seems so to understand
it: sacra volumina Spiritus plenitudinem spirant. Let it be
added that the expression 'breathed by God, inspired by God,'
though an outgrowth of the Biblical idea, certainly, so far as
it is referred to the prophecy which does not arise out of the
human will (II Pet. i. 21), yet can scarcely be applied to the
whole of the rest of the sacred Scriptures-- unless we are to
find in II Tim. iii. 16 the expression of a conception of
sacred Scripture similar to the Philonian. There is no doubt,
however, that the Peshito understood it simply = 'inspired by
God'--yet not differently than as in Matt. xxii. 43 we find:
Dauid en pneumati lalei. It translates "etcatav cal catav
ger cabodotah", 'for every Scripture which is written 'en
pneumati''--certainly keeping prominently in the foreground
the inspiration of the writer. Similarly the AEthiopic
renders: 'And every Scripture is in the (by the) Spirit of the
Lord and profits'; while the Arabic (deriving from the
original text) reads: 'and every Scripture which is divinely
of spiratio, divinam sapiens auram.' The rendering of the
Peshito and the explanations of the Greek exegetes would
certainly lend great weight to the divinitus inpirata, were
not they explicable from the dominant idea of the time--for
which, it was thought, a suitable term was found in II Tim.
iii. 16, nowhere else used indeed and coined for the
purpose--but which was itself more or less taken over from the
Alexandrian Judaism, that is to say, from heathenism."
Here, we will
perceive, is a carefully reasoned attempt to reverse the
previous lexical consensus as to the meaning of this important
word. We have not observed many traces of the influence of
this new determination of its import. The present writer,
after going over the ground under Prof. Cremer's guidance, too
hastily adopted his conclusion in a paper of "Pauls's
Doctrine of the Old Testament" published in The
Presbyterian Quarterly for July, 1899; and an adverse critcism
of Dr. Cremer's reasoning, from the pen of Prof. Dr. L.
Schulze, of Rostock, appeared in the Theologisches
Literaturblatt for May 22, 1896 (xvii. 21, pp. 253, 254), in
the course of a review of the eighth edition of the
"lexicon." But there has not met our eye as yet any
really thorough reexamination of the whole matter, such as a
restatement of it like Dr. Cremer's might have been expected
to provoke. The case surely warrants and indeed demands it.
Dr. Cremer's statement is more than a statement-- it is an
argument; and his conclusion is revolutionary, not indeed as
to doctrine--for that rests on a broader basis than a single
text or an isolated word--but as to the meaning borne by an
outstanding New Testament term. It would seem that there is,
then, no apology needed for undertaking a somewhat minute
examination of the facts in the case under the guidance of Dr.
Cremer's very full and well-reasoned statement.
It may conduce,
in the end, to clearness of presentation if we begin somewhat
in medias res by raising the question of the width of the
usage of the word. Is it broadly a Greek word, or
distinctively a Hellenistic word, or even a purely Christian
word? So far as appears from the usage as ascertained,[5] it
would seem to be post-Christian. Whether we should also call
it Christian, coined possibly by Paul and used only in
Christian circles, depends, in the present state of our
knowledge, on the determination of two rather nice questions.
One of these concerns the genuineness of the reading 'theopneustous'
in the tract on "The Opinions of Philosophers" (v,
2, 3), which has come doun to us among the works of Plutarch,
as well as in its dependent document, the "History of
Philosophy" (106), transmitted among the works of Galen.
The other concerns the character, whether Jewish or
Jewish-Christian, of certain portions of the fifth book of the
"Sibylline Oracles" and of the "Poem of
Admonition," once attributed to Phocylides but now long
recognized to be the work of a late Alexandrian Jew,[6]--in
both of which the word occurs. Dr. Cremer considers the
reading to be false in the Plutarchian tract, and thinks the
fifth book of the "Sybillines" and the Pseudo-Phocylidian
poem Jewish in origin. He therefore pronounces the word a
Hellenistic one. These decisions, however, can scarcely be
looked upon as certain; and they will bear scrutiny,
especially as they are accompanied with some incidental errors
of statement. It would certainly require considerable boldness
to decide with confidence upon the authorship of any given
portion of the fifth book of the "Sibyllines."
Friedlieb (who Dr. Cremer follows) and Badt ascribe the whole
book to a Jewish, but Alexandre, Reuss and Dechent to a
Christian author; while others parcel it out variously between
the two classes of sources--the most assigning the sections
containing the word in question, however, to a Jewish author (Bleck,
Lucke, Gfrorrer; Ewald, Hilgenfeld; Schurer). Schurer
pratically gives up in despair the problem of distributing the
book to its several authors, and contents himself with saying
that Jewish pieces preponderate and run in date from the first
Christian century to Hadrian.[7] In these circumstances surely
a certain amount of doubt may fairly be thought to rest on the
Jewish or Christian origin of our word in the Sibylline text.
On the other hand, there seems to be pretty good positive
reason for supposing the Pseudo- Phocylidian poem to be in its
entirety a Christian production. Its Jewish origin was still
strenuously maintained by Bernays,[8] but its relation to the
"Teaching of the Apostles" has caused the subject to
be reopened, and we think has brought it to at least a
probable settlement in favor of Scaliger's opinion that it is
the work 'anonumon' Christiani."[9] In the face of this
probability the brilliant and attractive, but not always
entirely convincing conjectures by which Bernays removed some
of the Christian traits from the text may now be neglected:
and among them that by which he discarded the line containing
our word. So far then as its occurrence in the fifth book of
the "Sibyllines" and in Pseudo-Phocylides is
concerned, no compelling reason appears why the word may not
be considered a distinctiveley Christian one: though it must
at the same time be recognized that the sections in the fifth
"Sibyl" in which it occurs are more probably Jewish
than Christian. With reference to the Plutarchian passage
something more needs to be said. "In the unique passage,
Plutarch de plac. phil. 5, 2 (904 F.):" 'Ton oneiron tous
men theopneustous kat anagken ginesthai. Tous de phusikous
aneidolopoiou menes psuches to sumpheron aute ktl.'" says
Dr. Cremer, "it is with the greatest probability to be
ascrived to the transcriber, in whose mind 'theopneustos' lay
in the sense of the Vulgate rendering, divinitus inspirata,
and it stands, as Wyttenbach conjectures, for 'theopemptous'."
The remark concerning Wyttenbach is erroneous -- only one of a
series of odd misstatements with have dogged the textual notes
on this passage. Wyttenbach prints 'theoneustous' in his text
and accompanies it with this textual note:[10] "'Theopemptous
reposuit editor Lips. ut ex Gal. et Mosc. At in neutro haic
reperio. Sane non est quare compilatori elegantias
obtrudamus."'Theopemptous' is therefore not Wyttenbach's
conjecture: Wyttenbach does not even accept it, and this has
of late been made a reproach to him:[11] he ascribes it to
"the Leipzig editor," that is to Christian Daniel
Beck, whose edition of this tract was published at Leipzig, in
1787. But Wyttenbach even more gravely misquotes Beck than he
has himself been misquoted by Dr. Cremer. For Beck, who prints
in his text: 'ton oneiron tous men theopneustous', annotates
as follows: "Olim: 'tous oneirous tous theopneustous --Reddidi
textis elegantiorem lectionem, quae in M. et G. est. 'theopneustous'
sapere Christianum librarium videtur pro 'theopemptous'."[12]
That is to say, Wyttenbach has transferred Beck's note on 'ton
oneirov tous men' to 'theopemptous'. It is this clause and not
'theopemptous' that Beck professes to have got out of the
Moscow MS. and Galen: 'theopemptous' he presents merely as a
pure conjecture founded on the one consideration that 'theopneustos'
has a flavor of Christian scribe about it; and he does not
venture to put 'theopemptous' into the text. The odd thing is
that Hutten follows Wyttenbach in his misrepresentation of
Beck, writing in his note: "Beck. dedit 'thopemptous' ut
elegantiorem lectionem e Mosq. et Gal. sumptam. In neutro se
hoc reperisse W. notat, addens, non esse quare compilatori
elegantias obtrudamus. Cors. e Gas. notat 'ton oneiron tous
men theopneustous'."[13] Corsini does indeed so report,
his note running: "Paullo aliter" (i.e., from the
ordinary text which he reprints from Stephens) "Galenus,
'ton oneiron tous men theopneustous', somniorum ea quidem quae
divinitus inspirata sint, etc."[14] But this is exactly
what Beck says, and nothing other, except that he adds that
this form is also found in the Moscow MS. We must conclude
that Hutten in looking at Beck's note was preoccupied with
Wyttenbach's misreport of it. The upshot of the whole matter
is that the reading 'theopemptous' was merely a conjecture of
Beck's, founded solely on his notion that 'theopneustous' was
a purely Christian term, and possessing no diplomatic basis
whatsoever. Accordingly it has not found its way into the
printed text of Plutarch: all editions, with one exception,
down to and including those of Dubner-Dohner (Didot's
"Bibliotheca") of 1856 and Bernardakis (Teubner's
series) of 1893 read 'theopneustous'. A new face has been put
on the matter, however, by the publication of 1879 of Diels'
"Doxographi Graeci," in which the whole class of
ancient literature to which Plutarch's "De plac. philos."
belongs is subjected to a searching study, with a view to
tracing the mutual relations of the several pieces and the
sources from which they are constructed.[15] With this
excursion into "higher criticism," into which there
enters a highly speculative element, that, despite the
scientific thoroughness and admirable acuteness which give the
whole an unusually attractive aspect, leaves some doubts in
the mind of the sober reader,[16] we have now happily little
to do. Suffice it to say that Diels looks upon the Plutarchian
tract as an epitome of a hypothetical Aetios, made about 150
A.D. and already used by Athenagoras (c. 177 A.D.):[17] and on
the Galenic tract as in its later portion an excerpt from the
Plutarchian tract, made about A.D. 500.[18] In the course of
his work, he has framed a printed a careful recension of the
text of both tracts,[19] and in both of them he reads at the
place of interest to us, 'theopemptous'. Here for the first
(and as yet only[21]) time 'theopemptous' makes its appearance
in the text of what we may, in deference to Diels' findings
and after the example of Gerke,[22] call, at least, the
"[Pseudo?-] Plutarch."[23] The key to the situation,
with Diels, lies in the reading of the Pseudo-Galen: for as an
excerpt from the [Pseudo?-] Plutarch the Pseudo-Galen becomes
a valuable witness to its text, and is treated in this case
indeed as a determinative witness, inasmuch as the whole MS.
transmission of [Psuedo?-] Plutarch, so far as known, reads
here 'theopneustous'. Editing 'theopemptous' in Pseudo- Galen,
Diels edits it also, on that sole documentary ground, in
[Pseudo?- ] Plutarch. That we may form some estimate of the
likelihood of the new reading, we must, therefore, form some
estimate of its likelihood in the text of the Pseudo-Galen, as
well as of the principles on which the text of the [Pseudo?-]
Plutarch is to be framed. The editions of Pseudo-Galen --
including that of Kuhn[24] -- have hitherto read 'theopneustous'
at our place, and from this we may possibly infer, that this
is the reading of the common run of the MSS.[25] Diels
constructs his text for this portion of the treatise from two
kindred MSS. only, and records the readings of no others: as
no variation is given upon our word, we may infer that thses
two MSS. at least agree in reading 'theopemptous'. The former
of them (Codex Laurentianus lxxiv, 3), of the twelfth of early
thirteenth century, is described as transcribed "with
incredible corruptness"; the latter (Codex Laurentianus
lviii, 2), of the fifteenth century, as written more
carefully; both represent a common very corrupt archetype.[26]
This archetype is reconstructed from the consent of the two,
and where they differ the preference is given to the former.
The text thus framed is confessedly corrupt:[27] but though it
must therefore be cautiously used, Diels considers it
nevertheless a treasure house of the best readings for the
[Pseudo?-] Plutarch.[28] Especially in the latter part of the
[Pseudo?-] Plutarch, where the help of Eusebius and the other
eclogoe fails, he thinks the case would often be desperate if
we did not have the Pseudo- Galen. Three examples of the
preservation of the right reading by it alone he hives us, one
of them being our present passage, in which he follows,
therefore, the reading of the Pseudo-Galen against the entire
MS. transmission. Diels considers the whole MS. transmission
of the [Pseudo?-] Plutarch to take us back to an archetype of
about A.D. 1000, and selects from it three codices as nearest
to the archetype,[29] viz., A = Codex Mosquensis 339 (nune
352) of saec. xi. or xii. (the same as the Mosq. quoted by
Beck), collated by Matthaei and in places reexamined for Diels
by Voelkelius;B = Codex Marcianus 521 [xcii, 7], of saec. xiv,
very closely related to A, collated by Diels himself; and C =
Codex Parisinus 1672 of saec. xiii. ex. vel. xin. in which is
a copy of a corpus of Plutarch put together by Planudes or a
contemporary. Through these three codices he reaches the
original apograph which stands at the root of all the extant
MSS., and from it, by the aid of the excerpts from the tract -
- in our passage the Psuedo-Galen's only -- he attains his
text. His note on our reading runs thus: "'Theopemptous'
G cf. Arist. de divinat. 2p. 463b 13: 'theopneustous' (A) B C,
cf. Prol. p. 15." The parenthesis in which A is enclosed
means that A is here cited from the silence of Matthaei's
collation.[30] The reference to the Prolegomena is to the
passage already alluded to, in which the Galenic reading 'thepemptous'
is cited as one of three chosen instances of excellent
readings preserved by Galen alone. The note there runs thus:
"alteri loco christiani librarii pius fraus nocuit. V. 2,
3, 'Hrophilos ton oneiron tous men thepneustous kat' anagken
ginethai'. fuit scilicet 'theopemptous', quod sero intellectum
est a Wyttenbachio in indice Plutarcheo. si Galenum
inspexisset, ipsum illud 'theopemptous' inventurus erat.
simili fraude versus 121 Phocylideis a Byzantinis insertus est,
ubi vox illa sacra [II Tim. iii. 16] I. Bernaysio
interpolationis originem manifesto aperuit." That is to
say, the reading of the Pseudo-Galen is preferred to that of
the MSS., because the reading 'theopneustous' explains itself
as a pious fraud of a Christian scribe, giving a place in the
text of Plutarch to "this sacred word"--another
example of which procedure is to be found in Pseudo-Phoc. 121,
extruded by Bernays from the text on this very ground. On this
remark, as on a hinge, turns, it would seem, the decision of
the whole question. The problem of the reading, indeed, may be
set forth at this point in the from of this alternative:
--Which is most likely,--that 'theopneustous' in the
[Pseudo?-] Plutarch originated in the pious fraud of a
Christian scribe? --or that 'theopemptous' in the text of
Pseudo-Galen edited by Diels originated in the error of a
careless scribe? When we posit the problem in this definite
form we cannot feel at all certain that Diels' solution is the
right one. There is an a priori unlikelihood in its way:
deliberate corruption of texts is relatively rare and not to
be assumed without good reason. The parallel from the Pseudo-Phocylikes
fails, now that it seems probable that the whole poem is of
Christian origin. There seems no motive for such a pious fraud
as is charged: what gain could be had from intruding 'theopneustous'
into the Plutarchian text? and what special sanctity attached
to this word? And if a sacrosanct character be attributed to
the word, could it not be equally plausibly argued that it was
therefore offensive to the Christian consciousness in this
heathen connection, and was accordingly replaced by the less
sacred 'theopemptous', a word of heathen associations and
indeed with a secondary sense not far from
"extraordinary."[31] Or if it be now said that it is
not intended to charge conscious fraud, it is pertinent to ask
what special associations Christians had with the word 'theopneustous'
in connection with dreams which would cause it to abtrude
itself unconsciously in such a connection. One is almost
equally at a loss to account for the intrusion of the word in
the place of the simpler 'theopemptos', whether the intrusion
be looked upon as deliberate or unconscious. On the other
hand, the substitution of 'theopemptos' for 'theopneustos' in
the text of Pseudo-Galen seems quite readily accountable, and
that whether it be attributed to the original excerpter or to
some later copyist of the tract. The term was associated with
dreams in the minds of all acquainted with the literature of
the subject. Diels himself refers us to a passage in Aristotle
where the collocation occurs,[32] and familiar passages from
Philo[33] and the "Clementina"[34] will suggest
themselves to others. "God-sent dreams" must have
almost had the rank of a "terminus technicus."[35]
Moreover the scribe and just written the word in the immediate
context, and that not without close contiguity with the word 'oneirous',[36]
and may be readily supposed to have had it still ligering in
his memory when he came to write the succeeding section. In
fine, the intrusion in to the text of 'theopneustous', a rare
word and one suggested to a dull or inattentive scribe by
nothing, seems far less easy to account for than the intrusion
of 'theopemptous', a common word, an ordinary term in this
connection, and a term suggested to the scribe by the
immediate context. On transcriptional grounds certainly the
former appears far more likely to be original--"proclivi
scriptioni praestat ardua." The decisive consideration
against 'theopneustous' in the mind of Diels--as it had been
before him in the mind of Beck--seems to have been, indeed,
nothing but the assumption that 'theopneustos', as a
distinctively Christian word, must argue a Christian hand,
wherever it is found. That, however, in our present study is
precisely the matter under investigation; and we must
specially guard against permitting to intrude decisively into
our premises what we propose to arrive at only by way of
conclusion. Whether the word be genuine in the [Pseudo?-]
Plutarch or not, is just one of the most important factors in
deciding whether it be a peculiarly Christian word or not. An
instructive parallel may be found in the teatment accorded by
some great authorities to the cognate word 'theopnoos' when it
turned up on an inscription which seems obviously heathen.[37]
This inscription, inscribed (about the third century) on the
face of a man-headed sphinx at Memphis, sings the praises of
the sphinx's beauty--among the items mentioned being that 'ephuper[th]e
prosopon echei to th[e]o[pn]oun', while, below, the body is
that of the lion, king of beasts. Boeckh comments on this:
"Vs. 4, 5, recte legit Letronnius, qui 'theopnoon' money
Christianum quidam sonare." But why sould Letronnius
infer Christianity from the word 'theopnoon', or Boeckh think
it worth while to record the fact? Fortunately the heathen use
of 'theopnoos' is beyond question.[38] It provides an
excellent illustration, therefore, of the rashness of
pronouncing words of this kind to be of Christian origin; and
suggests the hesitancy with which we should extrude such a
word from the text of [Pseudo?-] Plutarch on the sole ground
what it "tastes of a Christian scribe." Surely if a
heathen could invent and use the one word, he might equally
well invent and use the other. And certainly it is a great
mistake to look upon compounds with 'theos' of this kind as in
any sense exclusively Christian. The long list of heathen
terms of this character given by Dr. Cremer, indeed, is itself
enough to indicate the heathen facility for their coinage.
Many such words, we may well believe, were found by Christians
ready made to their hand, and had only to be adapted to their
richer useage. Ahat is mroe distinctively Christian is the
parallel list of words conpounded with 'pneuma'[39] or even 'christos'[40]
which were placed by their side, such as ['pneumatikos'], 'pneumatokinetos',
'pneumatophoros', 'pneumatemphoros'; 'christographos', 'christokinetos',
'christoleptos', 'christophoros'. As the reasons which have
been determining with Diels in framing his text do not appear
to us able to bear the weight laid on them, we naturally
cannot adopt his text with any confidence. We doubt whether 'theopemptous'
was the original reading in the Pseudo-Galen; we doubt
whether, if that were the case, we should on that ground edit
it in the [Pseudo?-] Plutarch. Our feeling is decided that the
intrusion of 'theopemptous' into the text which originally
read 'theopneustous' would be far more easily accounted for
that the reverse. One should be slow, of course, in rejecting
a reading commended by such a scholarly tact as Diels'. But we
may take courage from the fact that Bernardakis, with Diels'
text before him, continues to read 'theopneustous' even though
recognizing 'theopemptous' as the reading of Galen. We think
we must be permitted to hold the matter still at least sub
judice and to profess our inability in the circumstances to
look upon the word as a purely Christian term.[41] It would be
interesting to know what phraseology was used by Herophilus
himself (born c. B.C. 300) in the passage which the [Pheudo?-]
Plutarch excerpts. But this excerpt seems to be the only
source of information we have in the matter,[42] and it would
perhaps be overbold to suppose that the compiler had preserved
the very words of the great physician. Were such a presumption
deemed plausible we should be forced to carry back the first
known use of the word 'theopneustos' to the third century
before Christ, but not to a provenance other than that
Alexandria where its earliest use is otherwise traceable.
Perhaps if we cannot call it a purely Christian term or yet,
with Dr. Cremer, an exclusively Hellenistic one, we may
venture to think of it, provisionally at least, as belonging
to Alexandrian Greek. Whether we should also say to late
Alexandrian usage will possibly depend on the degree of
likelihood we ascribe it its representing in the text of the
[Pseudo?-] Plutarch an actual usage of Herophilus. Our
interest in determining the reading the [Pseudo?-] Plutarch
culminates, of course, in its hearing on the meaning of 'theopneustos'.
Prof. Schulze's remark[43] that no copyist would have
substituted 'theopneustos' here for 'theopemptos' if
linguistic usage had attached an active sense to the former,
is no doubt quite just. This is admitted, indeed, by Dr.
Cremer, who considers that the scribe to whom the substitution
is thought to be due "had 'theopneustos' in his mind in
the sense of the Vulgate rendering, divinitus inspirata";
and only seeks to break the force of this admission by urging
that the constant exegetical tradition which assigned this
meaning to 'theopneustos', rests on a misunderstanding of the
word and reads into it a sense derived from Alexandrian-Jewish
conceptions of inspiration. This appeal from a fixed later to
an assumed original sense of the word possesses force, no
doubt, only in case that traces of such as assumed original
sense can be adduced; and meanwhile the presence of 'theopneustos'
as a synonym of 'theopemptos', even in the vocabulary of
somewhat late scribes, must rank as one item in the evidence
by which its meaning is to be ascertained. The whole face of
the matter is changed, however, if 'theopneustos' be allowed
to be probably or even possibly genuine in the [Pseudo?-]
Plutarch. In that case it could scarcely be thought to reflect
the later Christianconception of inspiration, imposed on
Paul's term by thinkers affected by Philo's doctrine of
Scripture, but would stand as an independent bit of evidence
as to the original meaning of the term. The clerical
substitution of 'theopemptos' for it under the influence of
literary associations would indeed, in this case too, only
witness to a synonymy in the mind of the later scribes, who
may well be supposed Christians and sharers in the common
conception that Christians read into 'theopneustos'. But the
implications of the passage itself would be valid testimony to
the original import of the term here used. And it would seem
quite clear that the implications of the passage itself assign
to it a passive sense, and that a sense not very remote from 'theopemptos'.
"Herophilus says," we read, "that theopneustic
dreams" ("dreams divinely inspired," Holland;
"the dreams that are caused by divine instinct,"
Goodwin), "come by necessity; but natural ones"
("natural dreams," Holland; "the dreams which
have their origin from a natural cause," Goodwin),
"from the soul's imagery of what is fitting to it and its
consequences," etc.[44] The contrast here between dreams
that are 'theopneustoi' and those that are 'psusikoi', the
former of which are imposed on the soul while the latter are
its own production, would seem certainly to imply that 'theopneustos'
here imports something nearly akin to "God-given,"
though naturally with implications of its own as to the mode
of the giving. It might be possible to read it as designating
dreams that are breathed into by God, filled with His
inspiration and thus made the vehicles of His message, if we
otherwise knew that such is the implication of the term. But
nothing so subtle as this is suggested by the language as it
stands, which appears to convey merely the simple notion that
theopneustic dreams differ from all natural ones, whether the
latter belong to the higher or lower elements of our nature,
in that they come from God and are therefore not necessarily
agreeable to the soul's own image-making faculties or the
product of its immanent desires, but take form and bear a
meaning imposed on them from without. There are few other
instances of the occurrence of the word which have much chance
of lying entirely outside the sphere of influence of its use
in II Tim. iii.16. In the first rank of these will certainly
be placed the two instances in the fifth book of the "Sibyllines."
The former of these occurs in a description of the city of
Cyme, which is called the "foolish one," and
described as cast down by wicked hands, "along with her
theopneustic streams ('namasi theopneustois')" no longer
to shout her boasts into the air but henceforth to remain
"dead amid the Cymean streams."[45] The description
skillfully brings together all that we know of Cyme -- adverts
to her former greatness ("the largest and noblest of all
the AEolian cities," Strabo tells us,[46] and with Lesbos,
"the metropolis" of all the rest), her reputation
for folly (also adverted to and quaintly explained by Strabo),
her present decadence, and her situation by running waters (a
trait indicated also by her coins which show that there was a
stream near by called Xanthus). It has been customary to
understand by "the theopneustic streams" mentioned,
some streams or fountains in the neighborhood known for the
presumptively oracular powers of their waters.[47] But there
does not seem to have been preserved any notice of the
existence of such oracular waters belonging to Cyme, and it
makes against this assumption that the Cymeans, like the rest
of the Ionians and AEolians, were accustomed to resort for
their oracles to the somewhat distant Branchidae, in the
south.[48] It appears much more likely, then, that the streams
adverted to are natural streams and stand here only as part of
the rather full and very exact description of the town -- the
reference being primarily to the Xanthus and to it as an
element merely in the excellence of the situation. In that
case "theopneustic," here too, would seem to mean
something akin to "God-given," or perhaps more
broadly still "divine," in the sense of specially
excellent and desirable. The second Sibylline passage is a
portion of a lament over the destruction of the Temple at
Jerusalem, wherein (we are told) gold, "deceiver of the
word and souls," was not worshiped, but men "adored
in sacrifices, with pure and noble hacatombs, the great
Father-God of all theopneustic things."[49] Here
Alexandre translates, "Qui caelestis vitam pater omnibus
afflat"; and Terry, "The God and mighty maker of all
breathing things."[50] And they seem supported in their
general conception by the fact that we appear to have before
us here only a slightly varied form of a formula met with
elsewhere in the Sibyllines. Thus, a Rzach points out, we have
at iii, 278[51] a condemnation of those who "neither fear
nor desire to honor the deathless Father-God of all
men,"[52] and at iii, 604, essentially the same phrase is
repeated. We seem, in a word, to meet here only with the
Sibylline equivalent of the Homeric "'pater andron te
theon te'." Accordingly 'theopneuston' would seem to
stand here in the stead of 'anthropon' in the parallel
passages, and merely to designate men, doubtless with a
reminiscence of Gen. ii. 7 -- or perhaps, more widely,
creatures, with a reminiscence of such a passage as Ps. civ.
30. In either event it is the creative power of God that is
prominently in the mind of the writer as he writes down the
word 'theopneuston', which is to him obviously the proper term
for "creatures" in correlation with the 'genetes
theos'. By the side of these Sibylline passages it is perhaps
natural to place the line from the Pseudo-Phocylides, which
marks the culmination of his praise of "speech" as
the greatest gift of God -- a weapon, he says, sharper than
steel and more to be desired than the swiftness of birds, or
the speed of horses, or the strength of lions, or the horns of
bulls or the stings of bees -- "for best [of all] is the
speech of theopneustic wisdom," so that the wise man is
better than the strong one, and it is wisdom that rules alike
in the field, the city and the sea. It is certainly simplest
to understand "theopneustic wisdom" here shortly as
"God-given wisdom." Undoubtedly it is itself the
inspirer of the speech that manifests it, and we might manage
to interpret the 'theopneustou' as so designating it --
"God-inspiring, God-breathing wisdom." But this can
scarcely be considered natural; and it equally undoubtedly
lies more closely at hand to interpret it as designating the
source of the wisdom itself as lying in God. Wisdom is
conceived as theopneustic, in a word, because wisdom itself is
thought of as coming from God, as being the product of the
divine activity -- here designated, as so frequently in the
Old Testament, as operating as a breathing. A passage that has
come to light since Dr. Cremer's investigation for this
word-study was made, is of not dissimilar implication. It is
found in the recently published "Testament of
Abraham,"[53] a piece which in its original form, its
editor, Prof. James, assigns to a second- century Egyptian
Jewish-Christian, though it has suffered much mediaevalization
in the ninth or tenth century. It runs as follows: "And
Michael the archangel came immediately with a multitude of
angels, and they took his precious soul ('ten timian autous
psuchen') in the hands in a God-woven cloth ('sindoni
theouphanto'); and they prepared ('ekedeusan') the body of
righteous Abraham unto the third day of his death with
theopneustic ointments and herbs ('murismasi theopneustois kai
aromasin'), and they buried him in the land of promise."
Here 'theopneustos' can hardly mean "God-breathing,"
and "God-imbued" is not much better, and though we
might be tempted to make it mean "divinely sweet" (a
kind of derivative sense of "God-redolent ointment";
for 'pneo' means also "to smell," "to breathe
of a thing"), it is doubtless better to take it semply,
as the parallel with 'theophanto' suggests, as importing
something not far from "God-given." The cloth in
which the soul was carried up to God and the unguents with
which the body was prepared for burial were alike from God --
were "God-provided"; the words to designate this
being chosen in each case with nice reference to their
specific application, but covering to their writer little more
specific meaning than the simple adjective "divine"
would have done. It is surely in this same category also that
we are to place the verse of Nonnus which Dr. Cremer adduces
as showing distinctly that the word 'theopneustos' "is
not to be taken as equivalent to inspiratus, inspired by God,
but as rather meaning filled with God's spirit and therefore
radiating it." Nonnus is paraphrasing John i.27 and makes
the Baptist say: "And he that cometh after me stands
to-day in your midst, the tip of whose foot I am not worthy to
approach with human hand though only to loose the thongs of
the theopneustic sandal."[54] Here surely the meaning is
not directly that our Lord's sandal "radiated
divinity," though certainly that may be one of the
implications of the epithet, but more simply that it partook
of the divinity of the divine Person whose property it was and
in contact with whom it had been. All about Christ was divine.
We should not go far wrong, therefore, it we interpreted 'theopneustos'
here simply as "divine." What is "divine"
is no doubt "redolent of Divinity," but it is so
called not because of what it does, but because of what it is,
and Nonnus' mind when he called the sandal theopneustic was
occupied rather with the divine influence that made the sandal
what it was, viz., something more than a mere sandal, because
it had touched those divine feet, than with any influence
which the sandal was now calculated to exert. The later line
which Dr. Cremer asks us to compare is not sell calculated to
modify this decision. In it John i. 33 is being paraphrased
and the Baptist is contrasting his mission with that of Ghrist
who was to baptize with fire and the Holy Spirit 'en puri
baptizon kai pneumati). He, John, was sent, on the contrary,
he says, to baptize the body of already regenerate men, and to
do it in lavers that are destitute of both fire and the spirit
-- fireless and spiritless ('apuroisi kai apneustoisi loetrois').[55]
It may indeed be possible to interpret, "unburning and
unspiritualizing"; but this does not seem the exact shade
of thought the words are meant to express; though in any case
the bearing of the phrase on the meaning of 'theopneustos' in
the former line is of the slightest. Of the passages cited by
Dr. Cremer there remain only the two he derives from Wetstein,
in which 'theopneustos' appears as an epithet of certain men.
To these chould be added an inscription found at Bostra, in
which a certain acclesiastic is designated an 'archiereus
thepneustos'.[56] Dr. Cremer himself thinks it clear that in
such passages we have a passive sense, but interprets it as
divinely spirited,"endued with the divine spirit,"
rather than as "divinely inspired," -- in accordance
with a distinction drawn by Ewald. Certainly it is difficult
to understand the word in this connection as expressing simple
origination by God; it was something more than the mere fact
that God made them that was intended to be affirmed by calling
Marcus and Antipater theopneustic men. Nor does it seem very
natural to suppose that the intention was to designate them as
precisely what we ordinarily mean by God-inspired men. It lies
very near to sppose, therefore, that what it was intended to
say about them, is that they were God-pervaded men, men in
whom God dwelt in an expecial manner; and this supposition may
be thought to be supported by the parallel, in the passage
from the "Vita Sabae," with 'christophoros'. Of whom
this "caravan of all theopneustics, of all his
christophers," was composed, we have no means of
determining, as Cotelerius' "Monumenta," from which
Wetstein quoted the passage, is not accessible to us as we
write. But the general sense of the word does not seem to be
doubtful. Ignatius, ("ad Ephes." ix.) tells us that
all Christians constitute such a caravan, of "God-bearers
and shrine-bearers, holy-thing-bearers, completely clothed in
the commandments of Christ"; and Zahn rightly comments
that thus the Christians appear as the real " 'enitheoi'
or 'enthousiazontes', since they carry Christ and God in
themselves." Particularly distinguished Christians might
therefore very properly be conceived in a supereminent sense
as filled with God and bearers of Christ; and this might very
appropriately be expressed by the double attribution of 'theopneustos'
and 'christophoros'. Only it would seem to be necessary to
understand that thus a secondary and derived sense would be
attributed to 'theopneustos', about which there should still
cling a flavor of the idea of origination. The 'theopneustos
aner' is God-filled by the act of God Himself, that is to say,
he is a God-endowed man, one made what he is by God's own
efficiency. No doubt in usage the sense might suffer still
more attrition and come to suggest little more than
"divine" -- which is the epithet given to Marcus of
Scetis[57] by Nicephoeus Callistus, ("H. E.,"xi, 35)
--'ho theios Markos'-- that is to say "Saint Mark,"
of which 'ho theopneustos Markos' is doubtless a very good
synonym. The conception conveyed by 'theopneustos' in this
usage is thus something very distinct from that expressed by
the Vulgate rendering, a Deo inspiratus, when taken strictly;
that would seem to require, as Ewald suggests, some such form
as 'theempneustos'; the theopneustic man is not the man
"breathed into by God." But it is equally distinct
from that expressed by the phrase, "pervaded by
God," used as an expression of the character of the man
so described, without implication of the origin of this
charateristic. What it would seem specifically to indicate is
that he has been framed by God-made as the man as such; and
the distinguished Christian as duch as much as the Christian
at large; and the use of 'theopneustos' to describe the one or
the other would appear to rest ultimately on this conception.
He is, in what he has become, the product of the divine energy
-- of the divine breath. We cannot think it speaking too
strongly, therefore, to say that there is discoveragle in none
of these passages the slightest trace of an active sense of 'theopneustos',
by which it should express the idea, for example, of
"breathing the divine spirit," or even such a
quasi-active idea as that of "redolent of God."
Everywhere the word appears as purely passive and expresses
production by God. And if we proceed from these passages to
those much more numerous ones, in which it is, as in II Tim.
iii. 16, an epithet or predicate of Scripture, and where
therefore its signification may have been affected by the way
in which Christian antiquity understood that passage, the
impression of the passive sense of the word grows, of course,
ever stronger. Though these passages may not be placed in the
first rank of material for the determination of the meaning of
Ii Tim. iii. 16, by which they may have themselves been
affected; it is manifestly improper to exclude them from
consideration altogether. Even as part bearers of the
exegetical tradition they are worthy of adduction: and it is
scarcely conceivable that the term should have been entirely
voided of its current sense, by the influence of a single
employment of it by Paul -- especially if we are to believe
that its natural meaning as used by him differed from that
assigned it by subsequent writers. The patristic use of the
term in connection with Scripture has therefore its own
weight, as evidence to the natural employment of the term by
Greek-speaking Christian writers. This use of it does not seem
to occur in the very earliest patristic literature; but from
the time of Clement of Alexandria the term 'theopneustos'
appears as one of the most common technical designations of
Scripture. The following scattered instances, gathered at
random, will serve to illustrate this use of it sufficiently
for our purpose. Clement of Alexandria; "Strom.,"
vii. 16, section 101 (Klotz, iii. 286; Potter, 894),
"Accordingly those fall from their eminence who follow
not God whither He leads; and He leads us in the inspired
Scriptures ('kata tas theopneustous graphas')";
"Strom.," vii. 16, section 103 (Klotz, iii. 287;
Potter, 896), "But they crave glory, as many as willfully
sophisticate the things wedded to inspired words ('tois
theeopneustois logois') handed down by the blessed apostles
and teachers, by diverse arguments, opposing human teaching to
the divine tradition for the sake of establishing the
heresy"; "Protrept." 9, section 87 (Klotz., i.
73, 74; Potter 71), "This teaching the apostle knows as
truly divine ('theian'): 'Thou, O Timothy," he says,
'from a child hast known the holy letters which are able to
make thee wise unto salvation, through faith that is in Jesus
Christ'; for truly holy are those letters that sanctify and
deify; and the writings or volumes that consist of these holy
letters or syllables, the same apostle consequently calls
'inspired by God, seeing that they are profitable for
doctrine,' etc." Origen: "De Principiis," iv, 8
(cf. also title to Book iv), "Having thus spoken briefly
on the subject of the Divine inspiration of the Holy
Scriptures ('peri tou theopneustou tes theias graphes')";
Migne, (ii, 1276), "The Jews and Christians agree as to
the inspiration of the Holy Scripture ('theio gegraphthai
pneumati'), but differ as to its interpretation"; (12,
1084), "Therefore the inspired books ('theopneusta biblia')
are twenty-two"; (14, 1309), "The inspired
Scripture"; (13, 664-5), "For we must seek the
nourishment of the whole inspired Scripture ('pases tes
theopneustou graphes'); "Hom. xx. in Joshuam," 2
(Robinson's "Origen's Philocalia," p.63), "Let
us not then be stupefied by listening to Scriptures which we
do not understand, but let it be to us according to our faith
by which we believe that 'every Scripture, seeing that it is
inspired ('theopneustos'), is profitable': for you must needs
admit one of two things regarding these Scriptures, either
that they are not inspired ('theopneustoi') because they are
not profitable, as the unbeliever takes it, or, as a believer,
you must admit that since they are inspired ('theopneustoi')
they are profitable"; "Selecta in Psalmos," ps.
i, 3 (Migne XII, ii. 1080; De la Rue, 527), "Being about
to begin the interpretation of the Psalms, we prefix a very
excellent tradition handed down by the Hebrew[58] to us
generally concerning the whole divine Scripture ('katholikos
peri pases theias graphes'); for he affirmed that the whole
inspired Scripture ('ten holen theopneuston graphen').... But
if 'the words of the Lord are pure words, fined silver, tried
as the earth, purified seven times' (Ps. 11. 7) and the Holy
Spirit has with all care dictated them accurately through the
ministers of the word ('meta pases akribeias exetasmenos to
hagion pneuma hupeobebleken auta kea ton huperton tou logou'),
let the proportion never escape us, according to which the
wisdom of God is first with respect to the whole theopneustic
Scripture unto the last letter ('kath hen epi pasan ephthase
graphen he sophia tou theou theopneuston mechri tou tuchontos
grammatos'); and haply it was on this account that the Saviour
said, "One iota or one letter shall not pass from the law
till all be fulfilled': and it is just so that the divine art
in the creation of the world, not only appeared in the heaven
and sun and moon and stars, interpenetrating their whole
bodies, but also on earth did the same in paltry matter, so
that not even the bodies of the least animals are disdained by
the artificer.... So we understand concerning all the things
written by the inspiration ('ex epipnoias') of the Holy
Spirit...." Athanasius (Migne, 27, 214): 'pasa graphe
hemon ton christianon theopneustos estin; (Migne, 25, 152): 'theopneustos
kaleitai'; (Bened. Par., 1777, i. 767): "Saying also
myself, 'Since many have taken in hand to set forth to
themselves the so- called apocrypha and to sing them with 'te
theopneusto graphe....'" Cyrillus Hier., "Catechet.,"
iv. 33: "This is taught us by 'hai theopneustoi graphai'
of both the Old and New Covenant." Basil, "On the
Spirit," xxi (ad fin.): "How can he who calls
Scripture 'God-inspired' because it was written through the
inspiration of the Spirit ('ho theopneuston ten graphen
onomaxon, dia tes epipnoias tou hagiou pneumatos suggrapheisan'),
use the language of one who insults and belittles Him?"
"Letters," xvii. 3: "All bread is nutritious,
but it may be injurious to the sick; just so, all Scripture is
God-inspired ('pasa graphe theopneustos') and
profitable"; (Migne, xxx. 81): "The words of God-
inspired Scripture ('hoi tes thepneustou graphes logoi') shall
stand on the tribune of Christ"; (Migne, 31, 744):
"For every word or deed must be believed by the witness
of the 'theopneustou graphes', for the assurance of the good
and the shame of the wicked"; (Migne, 31, 1080):
"Apart from the witness of the 'theopneuston graphon' it
is not possible, etc."; (Migne, 31, 1500): "From
what sort of Scripture are we to dispute at this time? 'Panta
homotima, kai panta pneumatika. Panta theopneusta, kai panta
ophelima'"; (Migne, 31, 1536): "On the
interpretation and remarking of the names and terms 'tes
theopneustou graphes'"; (Migne, 32, 228): 'mengiste de
hodos pros ten tou kathekontos heresin kai he melete ton
theopneuston graphon'. Gregory Naz. (Migne, 35, 504): 'peri
tou thepneustou ton hagion graphon; (Migne, 36, 472, cf. 37,
589), 'peri ton gesion biblion tes theopneustou graphes'; (Migne,
36, 1589), 'tois theopneustois graphais'. Gregory Nyssen,
"Against Eunom.," vii. 1: "What we understand
of the matter is as follows: 'He theopneustos graphe', as the
divine apostle calls it, is the Scripture of the Holy Spirit
and its intention is the profit of men"; (Migne, 44, 68),
'mones tes theopneustou diathekes'. Cyrillus Alex. (Migne, 68,
225), 'polumeros kai polutropos he theopneustos graphe tes dia
christou soterias proanaphonei tous tupous'. Neilos Abbas (Migne,
79, 141, cf. 529): 'graphe he theopneustos ouden legei akairos
ktl'. Theodoret of Cyrrhus ("H. E.", i. 6; Migne,
iii. 920). John of Damascus (Migne, 85, 1041), etc. If, then,
we are to make an induction from the use of the word, we shall
find it bearing a uniformly passive significance, rooted in
the idea of the creative breath of God. All that is, is
God-breathed ("Sibyll." v. 406); and accordingly the
rivers that water the Cymean plain are God-breated ("Sibyll."
v. 308), the spices God provides for the dead body of His
friend ":Testament of Abraham," A. xx), and above
all the wisdom He implants in the heart of man (Ps.-Phocyl.
121), the dreams He sends with a message from Him (Ps.-Plut.,
v. 2, 3) and the Scriptures He gives His people (II Tim. iii.
16). By an extension of meaning by no means extreme, those
whom He has greatly honored as His followers, whom He has
created into His saints, are called God-breated men
("Vita Sabae" 16. Inscription in Kaibel); and even
the sandals that have touched the feet of the Son of God are
called God-breathed sandals (Nonnus), i. e., sandals that have
been made by this divine contact something other than what
they were; in both these cases, the word approaching more or
less the broader meaning of "divine." Nowhere is
there a trace of such an active significance as
"God-breathing"; and though in the application of
the word to individual men and to our Lord's sandals there may
be an approach to the sense of "God-imbued," this
sense is attained by a pathway of development from the simple
idea of God-given, God-determined, and the like. It it
carefully to be observed, of course, that, although Dr. Cremer
wishes to reach an active signification for the word in II
Tim. iii. 16, he does not venture to assign an active sense to
it immediately and directly, but approaches this goal through
the medium of another signification. It is fully recognized by
him that the word is originally passive in its meaning; it is
merely contended that this original passive sense is not
"God-inspired," but rather "God-filled" --
a sense which, it is pleaded, will readily pass into the
active sense of "God-breathing," after the analogy
of such words as 'apneustos', 'eupneustos', which from
"ill- or well-breathed: came to mean "breathing ill
or well." What is filled with God will certainly be
redolent of God, and what is redolent of God will certainly
breathe out God. His reasons for preferring the sense of
"gifted or filled with God's Spirit, divinely
spirited," to "God-inspired" for the original
passive connotation of the word are drawn expecially from that
he thinks the unsuitableness of the latter idea to some of the
connections in which the word is found. It thought that, as an
epithet of an individual man, as an epithet of Scripture or a
fountain, and (in the later editions of the
"Lexicon" at least) especially, as an epithet of a
sandal, "God-inspired" is incongruous, and something
like "filled with God's Spirit and therefore radiating
it" is suggested. There is obviously some confusion here
arising from the very natural contemplation of the Vulgate
translation "a Deo inspiratus" as the alternative
rendering to what is proposed. There is, we may well admit,
nothing in the word 'theopneustos' to warrant the in- of the
Vulgate rendering: this word speaks not of an
"inspiration" by God, but of a "spiration"
by God. The alternatives brought before us by Dr. Cremer's
presentation are not to be confined, therefore, to the two,
"Divinely spirited" and "Divinely
inspired," but must be made to include the three,
"Divinely spirited," "Divinely inspired,"
and "Divinely spired." The failure of Dr. Cremer to
note this introduces, as we say, some confusion into his
statement. We need only thus incidentally refer to it at this
point, however. It is of more immediate importance to observe
that what we are naturally led to by Dr. Cremer's remarks, is
to an envestigation of the natural meaning of the word 'theopneustos'
under the laws of word-formation. In these remarks he is
leaning rather heavily on the discussion of Ewald to which he
refers us, and it will conduce to a better understanding of
the matter if we will follow his directions and turn to our
Ewald. Ewald, like Dr. Cremer, is dissatisfied with the
current explanation of 'theopneustos' and seeks to obtain for
it an active sense, but is as little inclined as Dr. Cremer to
assign an active sense directly to it. He rather criticises
Winer,[59] for using language when speaking of 'theopneustos'
which would seem to imply that such compounds could really be
active -- as if "it were to be taken as a passive,
although such words as 'eupneustos', 'apneustos', are used
actively." He cannot admit that any compound of a word
like '-pneustos' can be really active in primary meaning, and
explains that 'eupneustos' means not so much "breathing
good," i. e., propelling something good by the breath, as
"endowed with good breath," and expresses,
therefore, just like 'apneustos', "breathless," i.
e., "dead," a subjective condition, and is therefore
to be compared with a half-passive verb, as indeed the word-
form suggests. Just so, 'theopneustos', he says, is not so
much our "God-breathing" as our "full of God's
Spirit," "permeated and animated by God's
Spirit." Thus, he supposes 'theopneustos' to mean
"blown through by God" (Gottdurchwehet,
"God-pervaded"), rather than "Blown into by
God" (Gotteingewehet, "God-inspired") as the
Vulgate (inspiratus) and Luther (eingegeben) render it -- an
idea which, as he rightly says, would have required something
like 'theempneustos'[60] (or we may say 'theeispneustos')[61]
to express it. At first he seems to have thought that by this
explanation he had removed all implication as to the
origination of Schripture from the epithet: it expresses, he
said,[62] what Scripture is -- viz., pervaded by God, full of
His Spirit -- without the least hint as to how it got to be
so. He afterwards came to see this was going too far, and
contented himself with saying that though certainly
implicating a doctrine of the origin of the Scriptures, the
term throus the emphasis on its quality.[63] He now,
therefore, expressed himself thus: "It is certainly
undeniable that the new expression 'theopneustos', II Tim.
iii. 16, is intended to say very much what Philo meant, but
did not yet know how to express sharply by means of such a
compressed and strong term. For 'theopneustos' (like 'eupneustos',
accurately, 'well-breathed') must mean 'God-breathed' or
'God-animated' (Gottbeathmet, or Gottbegeistert), and, in
accordance with the genius of the compressed, clear Greek
compounds, this includes in itself the implication that the
words are spoken by the Sprit of God, or by those who are
inspired by God," -- a thing which, he adds, is
repeatedly asserted in Scripture to have been the case, as,
for example, in II Pet. i. 21. On another occasion,[64] he
substantially repeats this, objecting to the translations
inspiratus, eingegeben, as introducing an idea not lying in
the word and liable to mislead, affirming a general but not
perfect accord of the idea involved in it with Philo's
conception of Scripture and insisting on the incomplete
parallelism between the term and our dogmatic idea of
"inspiration." "This term," he says,
"no doubt expresses only what is everywhere presupposed
by Philo as to Scripture and repeatedly said by him in other
words; still his usage is not yet so far developed; and it is
accordant with this that in the New Testament, also, it is
only in one of the latest books that the word is thus used.
This author was passibly the first who so applied it."
Again, 'theopneustos' "means, purely passively, God-sprited
(Gottbegeistet), or full of God's Spirit, not at all, when
taken strictly what we call dicriminatingly God-inspired (Gottbegeistert)
or filled with God's inspiration (Begeisterung), but in itself
only, in a quite general sense, God-breathed, God-inspired (Gottbeathmet,
gottbegeistert), or filled with the divine spirit. In itself,
therefore, it permits the most divers applications and we must
appeal purely to the context in each instance in order to
obtain its exact meaning." Here we have in full what Dr.
Cremer says so much more briefly in his articles. In order to
orient ourselves with reference to it, we shall need to
consider in turn the two points that are emphasized. These
are, first, the passive form and sinse of the word; and,
secondly, the particular passive sense attributed to it, to
wit: Gottbegeistet rather than Gottbegeistert,"endowed
with God's Spirit," rather than "inspired by
God." On the former point there would seem to be little
room for difference of opinion. We still read in Schmiedel's
Winer: "Verbals in '-tos' correspond sometimes to Latin
Participlies in -tus, sometimes to adjectives in -bilis";
and then in a note (despite Ewald's long-ago protest), after
the adduction of authorities, "'theopneustos', inspiratus
(II Tim. iii. 16; passive like 'empneustos', while 'eupneustos',
are active)."[65] To these Thayer-Grimm adds also 'puripneustos'
and 'dusdiapneustos' as used actively and 'dusanapneustos' as
used apparently either actively or passively. Ewald, however,
has already taught us to look beneath the "active"
usage of 'eupneustos' and 'apneustos' for the
"half-passive: background, and it may equally be found in
the other cases; in each instance it is a state or condition
at least, that is described by the word, and it is often only
a matter of point of view whether we catch the passive
conception or not. For example, we shall look upon 'dusdiapneustos'
as active or passive according as we think of the object it
describes as a "slowly evaporating" or a
"slowly evaporated" object -- that is, as an object
that only slowly evaporates, or as an object that can be only
with difficulty evaporated. We may prefer the former
expression; the Greeks preferred the latter: that is all. We
fully accord with Prof. Schulze, therefore, when he says that
all words compounded with '-pneustos' have the passive sense
as their original implication, and the active sense, when it
occurs, is always a derived one. On this showing it cannot be
contended, or course, that 'theopneustos' may not have, like
some of its relatives, developed an active or quasi-active
meaning, but a passive sense is certainly implied as its
original one, and a certain presumption is thus raised for the
originality of the passive sense which is found to attach to
it in its most ordinary usage.[66] This conclusion finds
confirmation in a consideration which has its bearing on the
second point also -- the consideration that compounds of
verbals in '-tos' with 'theos' normally express an effect
produced by God's activity. This is briefly adverted to be
Prof. Schulze, who urges that "The closely related 'theodidaktos',
and many, or rather most, of the compounds of 'theo-' in the
Fathers, bear the passive sense," adducing in
illustration: 'theoblastos', 'theobouletos', theogenetos', 'theograptos',
'theodmetos', 'theodotos', 'theodoretos', 'theothreptos', 'theokinetos',
'theokletos', 'theopoietos', 'theophoretos', 'theochrestos', 'theochristos'.
The statement may be much broadened and made to cover the
whole body of such compounds occurring in Greek literature.
Let any one run his eye down the list of compounds of 'theos'
with verbals in '-tos' as they occur on the pages of any Greek
Lexicon, and he will be quickly convinced that the notion
normally expressed is that of a result produced by God. The
sixth edition of Liddell and Scott happens to be the one lying
at hand as we write; and in it we find entered (if we have
counted aright), some eighty-six compounds of this type, or
shich, at least, seventy-five bear quite simply the sense of a
result produced by God. We adjoin the list: 'theelatos', 'theobastaktos',
'theoblustos', 'theobrabeutos', 'theogenetos', 'theognostos',
'theograptos', 'theodektos', 'theodidaktos', 'theodmetos','theodometos',
'theodotos', 'theodoretos', 'theothetos', 'theodataratos', 'theodataskeuastos',
'theokeleustos', 'theokinetos', 'theokletos', 'theokmetos', 'theokrantos',
'theokritos', 'thektetos', 'theoktistos', 'theoktitos', 'theokubernetos',
'theokurotos', 'theolektos', 'theoleptos', 'theomakaristos', 'theomisetos',
'theomustos', 'theopaistos', 'theoparadotos', 'theopemptos', 'theoperatos',
'theoplektos', 'theoploutos', 'theopoietos', 'theoponetos', 'theoprosdektos',
'theoptustos', 'theorgetos', 'theorretos', 'theortos', 'theosdotos',
'theostreptos', 'theosteriktos', 'theostugetos', 'theosullektos',
theosumphutos', 'theosunaktos', 'theosutos', 'theosphragistos',
'theosostos', 'theoteratos', 'theoteuktos', theoptimetos', 'thetreptos',
'theotupotos', 'theoupostatos', 'theouphantos', 'theophantos',
'theophthegktos', 'theophiletos', 'theophoitos', 'theophoretos',
'theophrouretos', theophulaktos', 'theocholotos', 'theochrestos',
'theochristos'. The eleven instances that remain, as in some
sort exceptions to the general rule, include cases of
different kinds. In some of them the verbal is derived from a
deponent verb and is therefore passive only in form, but
naturally bears an active sense: such are 'theodeletos'
(God-injuring), 'theomimetos' (God-imitating), 'theoseptos'
(feared as God). Others may passible be really passives,
although we prefer an active form in English to express the
idea involved: such are, perhaps, 'theoklutos' (God-
heard," where we should rather say, "calling on the
gods"), 'theokolletos' ("God-joined," where we
should rather say, "united with God"), 'theopreptos'
("God-distinguished," where we should rather say,
"meet for a god"). There remain only these five: 'theaitetos'
("obtained from God"), 'theothutos' ("offered
to the gods"), 'theorrastos' and the more usual 'theorrotos'
("flowing from the gods"), and 'theochoretos'
("containing God"). In these the relation of 'theos'
to the verbal idea is clearly not that of producing cause to
the expressed result, but some other: perhaps what we need to
recognize is that the verbal here involves a relation which we
ordinarily express by a preposition, and that the sense would
be suggested by some such phrases as "God-asked-of,"
"God- offered-to-," "God-flowed-from,"
"God-made-room-for." In any event, these few
exceptional cases cannot avail to set aside the normal sense
of this compound, as exhibited in the immense majority of the
cases of its occurrence. If analogy is to count for anything,
its whole weight is thrown thus in favor of the interpretation
which sees in 'theopneustos', quite simply, the sense of
"God-breathed," i. e., produced by God's creative
breath. If we ask, then, what account is to be given of
Ewald's and, after him, Prof. Cremer's wish, to take it in the
specific sense of "God- spirited," that is,
"imbued with the Spirit of God," we may easily feel
ourselves somewhat puzzled to return a satisfactory answer. We
should doubtless not go far wrong in saying, as already
suggested, that their action is proximately due to their not
having brought all the alternatives fairly before them. They
seem to have worked, as we have said, on the hypothesis that
the only choice lay between the Vulgate rendering,
"God-inspired," and their own
"God-imbued." Ewald, as we have seen, argues (and as
we think rightly) that "God-inspired" is scarcely
consonant with the word-form, but would have required
something like 'theempneustos'. Similarly we may observe Dr.
Cremer in the second edition of his "Lexicon" (when
he was arguing for the current conception) saying that
"the formation of the word cannot be traced to the use of
'pneo', but only of 'empneo'," and supporting this by the
remark that "the simple verb is never used of divine
action"; and throughout his latter article, operating on
the presumption that the rendering "inspired" solely
will come into comparison with his own newly proposed one. All
this seems to be due, not merely to the traditional rendering
of the word itself, but also to the conception of the nature
of the divine action commmonly expressed by the term,
"inspiration," and indeed to the doctrine of Holy
Scripture, dominant in the minds of these scholars.[67] If we
will shake ourselves loose from these obscuring prepossessions
and consider the term without preoccupation of mind, it would
seem that the simple rendering "God-breathed" would
commend itself powerfully to us: certainly not, with the
Vulgate and Luther, "God- inbreathed," since the
preposition "in" is wholly lacking in the term and
is not demanded for the sense in any of its applications; but
equally certainly not "God-imbued" or
"God-infused" in the sense of imbued in infused with
(rather than by) God, since, according to all analogy, as well
as according to the simplest construction of the compound, the
relation of "God" to the act expressed is that of
"agent." On any other supposition than that this
third and assuredly the most natural alternative,
"God-breathed," was not before their minds, the
whole treatment of Ewald and Dr. Cremer will remain somewhat
inexplicable. Why otherwise, for example, should the latter
have remarked, that the "word must be traced to the use
of 'empneo' and not to the simple verb 'pneo'?" Dr.
Cremer, it is true, adds, as we have said, that the simple
verb is never used of divine action. In any case, however,
this statement is over-drawn. Not only is 'pneo' applied in a
physical sense to God in such passages of the LXX. as Ps
cxlvii. 7 (18) ('pneusei to pneuma autou') and Isa. xl. 24,
and of Symmachus and Theodotion as Isa. xl. 7; and not only in
the earlies Fathers is itt used of the greatest gifts of
Christ the Divine Lord, in such passages as Ign.,
"Eph." 17: -- "For this cause the Lord received
ointment on His head, that He might breathe incorruption upon
His Church ('ina pnee te ekklesia aphtharsian') "; but in
what may be rightly called the nomative passage, Gen. ii. 7,
it is practically justified, in its application to God, by the
LXX. use of 'pnoe' in the objective clause, and actually
employed for the verb itself by both Symmachus and Theodotion.
And if we will penetrate beveath the mere matter of the usage
of a word to the conception itself, nothing could be more
misleading than such a remark as Dr. Cremer's. For surely
there was no conception more deeply rooted in the Hebrew mind,
at least, than that of the creative "breath of God";
and this conception was assuredly not wholly unknown even in
ethnic circles. To a Hebrew, at all events, the "breath
of God" would seem self-evidently creative; and no
locution would more readily suggest itself to him as
expressive of the Divine act of "making" than just
that by which it would be affirmed that He breathed things
into existence. The "breath of the Almighty" -- 'pnoe
pantokratoros' -- was traditionally in his mouth as the fit
designation of the creative act (Job xxxii. 8, xxxiii. 4); and
not only was he accustomed to think of man owing his existence
to the breathing of the breath of God into his nostrils (Gen.
ii. 7, especially Symm. Theod.) and of his life as therefore
the "breath of God" ('pneuma theion', LXX., Job
xxvii. 8), which God needs but to draw back to Himself that
all flesh should perish (Job xxxiv. 14): but he conceived also
that it was by the breath of God's mouth ('pneumati tou
stomatos', Ps. xxxiii. 6), that all the hosts of the heavens
were made, and by the sending forth of His breath, ('pneuma',
Ps. civ. 30) that the multiplicity of animal life was created.
By His breath even ('pnoe', Job xxxvii. 10), he had been told,
the ice is formed; and by His breath ('pneuma', Isa. xi. 5,
cf. Job iv. 9) all the wicked are consumed. It is indeed the
whole conception of the Spirit of God as the executive of the
Godhead that is involved here; the conception that it is the
Spirit of God that is the active agent in the production of
all that is. To the Hebrew consciousness, creation itself
should thus naturally appear as, not indeed an
"inspiration," and much less an "infusion of
the Divine essence," but certainly a "spiration";
and all that exists would appeal to it as, therefore, in the
proper sense theopneustic, i. e., simply, "breathed by
God," Produced by the creative breath of the Almighty,
the 'pnoe pantokratoros'. This would not, it needs to be
remembered, necessarily imply an "immediate
creation," as we call it. When Elihu declares that it is
the breath of the Almighty that has given him life or
understanding (Job xxxii. 8, xxxiii. 4), he need not be read
as excluding the second causes by which he was brought into
existence; nor need the Psalmist (civ. 30) be understood to
teach an "immediate creation" of the whole existing
animal mass. But each certainly means to say that it is God
who has made all these things, and that by His breath: He
breathed them into being -- they are all 'theopneustoi'. So
far from the word presenting a difficulty therefore from the
point of view of its conception, it is just, after the nature
of Greek compounds, the appropriate crystallization into one
concise term of a conception that was a ruling idea in every
Jewish mind. Particularly, then, if we are to suppose (with
both Ewald and Cremer) that the word is a coinage of Paul's,
or even of Hellenistic origin, nothing could be more natural
than that it should have enshrined in it the Hebraic
conviction that God produces all that He would bring into
being by a mere breath. From this point of view, therefore,
there seems no occasion to seek beyond the bare form of the
word itself for a sense to attribute to it. If we cannot
naturally give it the meaning of "God-inspired," we
certainly do not need to go so far afield as to attribute to
it the sense of "filled with God": the natural sense
which belongs to it by virtue of its formation, and which is
commended to us by the analogy of like compounds, is also most
consonant with the thought-forms of the circles in which it
perhaps arose and certainly was almost exclusively used. What
the word naturally means from this point of view also, is
"God-spirited," "God-breathed,"
"produced by the creative breath of the Almighty."
Thus it appears that such a conception as
"God-breathed" lies well within the general circle
of ideas of the Hellenistic writers, who certainly most
prevailingly use the word. An application of this conception
to Scripture, such as is made in II Tim. iii. 16, was no less
consonant with the ideas concerning the origin and nature of
Scripture which prevailed in the circles out of which that
epistle proceeded. This may indeed be fairly held to be
generally conceded. The main object of Ewald's earlier
treatment of this passage, to be sure, was to void the word 'theopneustos'
of all implication as to the origination of Scripture. By
assigning to it the sense of "God- pervaded,"
"full of God's Spirit," he supposed be had made it a
description of what Scripture is, without the least suggestion
of how it came to be such; and he did not hesitate
accordingly, to affirm that it had nothing whatever to say as
to the origin of Scripture.[68] But he afterwards, as we have
already pointed out, say the error of this position, and so
far corrected it as to explain that, of course, the term 'theopneustos'
includes in itself the implication that the words so
designated are spoken by the Spirit of God or by men inspired
by God -- in accordance with what is repeatedly said elsewhere
in Scripture, as, for example, in II Pet. i. 21 -- yet still
to insist that it throws its chief emphasis rather on the
nature than the origin of these words.[69] And he never
thought of devying that in the circles in which the word was
used in application to Scripture, the idea of the origination
of Scripture by the act of God was current and indeed
dominant. Philo's complete identification of Scripture with
the spoken word of God was indeed the subject under treatment
by him, when he penned the note from which we have last
quoted; and he ded not fail explicitly to allow that the
conceptions of the writer of the passage in II Timothy were
very closely related to those of Philo. "It is certainly
undeniable," he writes, "that the new term 'theopneustos',
II Tim. iii. 16, is intended to express very much what Philo
Meant, and did not yet know how to say sharply by means of so
compressed and direct a term"; and again, in another
place, "this term, no doubt, embobies only what is
everywhere presupposed by Philo as to the Scriptures, and is
repeatedly expressed by him in other words; yet his usage is
not yet so far developed; and it is in accordance with this
that in the New Testament, too, it is only one of the latest
writings which uses the term in this way."[70] It would
seem, to be sure, that it is precisely this affinity with
Philo's conception of Scripture which Dr. Cremer wishes to
exclude in his treatment of the term. "Let it be
added," he writes, near the close of the extract from his
Herzog article which we have given above, "that the
expression 'breathed by God, inspired by God,' though an
outgrowth of the Biblical idea, certainly, so far as it is
referred to the prophecy which does not arise out of the human
will II Pet. i. 20), yet can scarcely be applied to the whole
of the rest of Scripture -- unless we are to find in II Tim.
iii. 16 the expression of a conception of sacred Scriputre
similar to the Philonian." And a little later he urges
against the testimony of the exegetical tradition to the
meaning of the word, that it was affected by the conceptions
of Alexandrian Judaism -- that is, he suggests, practically of
heathenism. There obviously lies beveath this mode of
representation an attempt to represent the idea of the nature
and origin of Scripture exhibited in the New Testament, as
standing in some fundamental disaccord with that of the
Philonian tracts, and the assimilation of the conception
expressed in II Tim. iii. 16 to the latter as therefore its
separation from the former. Something like this is affirmed
also by Holtzmann when he writes:[71] "It is accordingly
clear that the author shares the Jewish conception of the
purely supernatural origin of the Scriptures in is straitest
acceptation, according to which, therefore, the theopneusty is
ascribed immediately to the Scriptures themselves, and not
merely, as in II Pet. i. 21, to their writers; and so far as
the thing itself is concerned there is nothing incorrect
implied in the translation, tota Scriptura." The notion
that the Biblical and Philonian ideas of Scripture somewhat
markedly differ is apparently common to the two writers: only
Holtzmann identifies the idea expressed in II Tim. iii. 16
with the Philonian, and therefore pronoundes it to be a mark
of late origin for that epistle; while Cremer wishes to detach
it from the Philonian, that he may not be forced to recognize
the Philonian conception as possessing New Testament
authorization. No such fundamental difference between the
Philonian and New Testament conceptions as is here erected,
however, can possible be made out; though whatever minor
differences may be traceable between the general New Testament
conception and treatment of Scripture and that of Philo, it
remains a plain matter of fact that no other general view of
Scripture than the so-called Philonian is discernible in the
New Testament, all of whose writer -- as is true of Jesus
Himself also, according to His reported words, -- consistently
look upon the written words of Scripture as the express
utterances of God, owing their origin to His direct spiration
and their character to this their divine origin. It is
peculiarly absurd to contrast II Pet. i. 21 with II Tim. iii.
16 (as Holtzmann does explicitly and the others implicitly),
on the ground of a difference of conception as to
"inspiration," shown in the ascription of aspiration
in the former passage to the writers, in the latter
immediately to the words of Scripture. It is, on the face of
it, the "word of prophecy" to which Peter ascribes
divine surety; it is written prophecy which he declares to be
of no "private interpretation"; and if he proceeds
to exhibit how God produced this sure written word of prophecy
-- viz., through men of God carried onward, apart from their
own will, by the determining power of the Holy Ghost[72] --
surely this exposition of the mode of the divine action in
producing the Scriptures can only by the utmost confusion of
ideas be pleaded as a denial of the fact that the Scriptures
were produced by the Divine action. To Peter as truly as to
Paul, and to the Paul of the earlier epistles as truly as to
the Paul of II Timothy, or as to Philo himself, the Scriptures
are the product of the Divnie Spirit, and would be most
appropriately described by the epithet of
"God-breathed," i. e., produced by the breath, the
inspiration, of God. The entire distinction which it is sought
to erect between the New Testament and the Philonic
conceptions of Scripture, as if to the New Testament writers
the Scriptures were less the oracles of God than to Philo, and
owed their origin less directly to God's action, and might
therefore be treated as less divine in Character or operation,
hangs in the mere air. There may be fairly recongnized certain
differences between the New Testament and the Philonic
conceptions of Scripture; but they certainly do not move in
this fundamental region. The epithet "God-
breathed," "produced by the creative breath of the
Almighty," commends itself, therefore, as one which would
lie near at hand and would readily express the fundamental
view as to the origination of Scripture current among the
whole body of New Testament writers, as well as among the
whole mass of their Jewish contemporaries, amid whom they were
bred. The distinction between the inspiration of the writers
and that of the record, is a subtlety of later times of which
they were guiltless: as is also the distinction between the
origination of Scripture by the action of the Holy Ghost and
the infusing of the Holy Spirit into Scriptures originating by
human activity. To the writers of this age of simpler faith,
the Scriptures are penetrated by God because they were given
by God: and the question of their effects, or even of their
nature, as not consciously separated from the question of
their origin. The one sufficient and decisive fact concerning
them to these writers, inclusive of all else and determinative
of all else that was true of them as the Word of God, was that
they were "God-given," or, more precisely, the
product of God's creative "breath." In these
circumstances it can hardly be needful to pause to point out
in detail how completely this conception accords with the
whole New Testament doctrine of Scripture, and with the entire
body of phraseology currently used in it to express its divine
origination. We need only recall the declarations that the
Holy Spirit is the author of Scripture (Heb. iii. 7, x. 15),
"in whom" it is, therefore, that its human authors
speak (Matt. xxii. 43; Mark xii. 36), because it is He that
speaks what they speak "through them" (Acts i. 16,
iv. 25), they being but the media of the prophetic word (Matt.
i. 22, ii. 15, iii. 3, iv. 14, viii. 17, xii. 17, xiii. 35,
xxi. 4, xxiv. 15, xxvii. 9, Luke xviii. 31, Acts ii. 16, xxvii.
25, Rom. i. 2, Luke i. 76, Acts i. 16, iii. 18, 21). The whole
underlying conception of such modes of expression is in
principle set forth in the command of Jesus to His disciples,
that, in their times of need, they should depend wholly on the
Divine Spirit speaking in them (Matt. x. 20; Mark xiii. 11;
cf. Luke i. 41, 67, xii. 12; Acts iv. 8): and perhaps even
more decidely still in Peter's description of the prophets of
Scripture as "borne by the Holy Ghost," as 'pneumatophoroi',
whose words are, therefore, of no "private
interpretation," and of the highest surety (II Pet.
i.21). In all such expressions the main affirmation is that
Scripture, as the product of the activity of the Spirit, is
just the "breath of God"; and the highest possible
emphasis is laid on their origination by the divine agency of
the Spirit. The primary characteristic of Scripture in the
minds of the New Testament writers is thus revealed as, in a
word, its Divine origin. That this was the sole dominating
conception attached from the beginning to the term 'theopneustos'
as an epithet of Scripture, is futher witnessed by the
unbroken exegetical tradition of its meaning in the sole
passage of the New Testament in which it occurs. Dr. Cremer
admits that such is the exegetical tradition, though he seeks
to break the weight of this fact by pleading that the
unanimity of the patristic interpretation of the passage is
due rather to preconceived opinions on the part of the Fathers
as to the nature of Scripture, derived from Alexandrian
Judaism, than to the natural effect on their minds of the
passage itself. Here we are pointed to the universal consent
of Jewish and Christian students of the Word as to the divine
origin of the Scriptures they held in common -- a fact
impressive enough of itself -- as a reason for discrediting
the testimony of the latter as to the meaning of a fundamental
passage bearing on the doctrine of Holy Scripture. One is
tempted to ask whether it can be really proved that the
theology of Alexandrian Judaism exercised so universal and
absolute a dominion over the thinking of the Church, that it
is likely to be due to its influence alone that the Christian
doctrine of inspiration took shape, in despite (as we are
told) of the natural implications of the Christian documents
themselves. And one is very likely to insist that, whatever
may be its origin, this conception of the divine origination
of Scripture was certainly shared by the New Testament writers
themselves, and may very well therefore have found expression
in II Tim. iii. 16 -- which would therefore need no adjustment
to current ideas to make it teach it. At all events, it is
admitted that this view of the teaching of II Tim. iii. 16 is
supported by the unbroken exegetical tradition; and this fact
certainly requires to be taken into consideration in
determining the meaning of the word. It is quite true that Dr.
Cremer in one sentence does not seem to keep in mind the
unbrokenness of the exegetical tradition. We read: "Origen
also, in 'Hom. 21 in Jerem.', seems so [i. e., as Dr. Cremer
does] to understand it [that is, 'theopneustos']: -- sacra
volumina spiritus plenitudinem spirant." The unwary
reader may infer from this that these words of Origen are
explanatory of II Tim. iii. 16, and that they therefore break
the exegetical tradition and show that Origen assigned to that
passage the meaning that "the Holy Scriptures breathe out
the plenitude of the Spirit." Such is, however, not the
case. Origen is not here commenting on II Tim. iii. 16, but
only freely expressing his own notion as to the nature of
Scripture. His words here do not, therefore, break the
constancy of the exegetical tradition, but at the worst only
the universality of that Philonian conception of Scripture, to
the universality of which among the Fathers, Dr. Cremer
attributes the unbrokenness of the exegetical tradition. What
results from their adduction is, then, not a weakening of the
patristic testimony to the meaning of 'theopneustos' in II
Tim. iii. 16, but (at the worst) a possible hint that Dr.
Cremer's explanation of the unanimity of that testimony may
not, after all, be applicable. When commenting on II Tim. iii.
16, Origen uniformly takes the word 'theopneustos' as
indicatory of the origin of Scripture; though when himself
speaking of what Scripture is, he may sometimes speak as Dr.
Cremer would have him speak. It looks as if his interpretation
of II Tim. iii. 16 were expository of its meaning to him
rather thatn impository of his views on it. Let us, by way of
illustration, place a fuller citation of Origen's words, in
the passage adduced by Dr. Cremer, side by side with a passage
directly dealing with II Tim. iii. 16, and note the result.
"Secundum
istiusmodi expositiones decet sacras litteras credere nec unum
quidem apicem habere vacuum sapientia Dei. Qui enim mihi
homini praecipit dicens: Non apparebis ante conspectum meum
vacuus, multo plus hoc ipse agit, ne aliquid vacuum loquatur.
Ex plenitudine ejus accipientes prophetae, ea, quae erant de
plenitudine sumpta, cecinerunt: et idcirco sacra volumina
spiritus plenitudinem spirant, nihilque est sive in prophetia,
sive in lege, sive in evangelio, sive in apostolo, quod non a
plenitudine divinae majestatis descendat. Quamobrem spirant in
scripturis sanctis hodieque plenitudinis verba. Spirant autem
his, que habent et oculos ad videnda coelestia et aures ad
audienda divina, et nares ad ea, quae sunt plenitudinis,
sentienda (Origen, "in Jeremiam Homilia," xxi, 2.
Wirceburg ed., 1785, ix, 733)."
Here Origen is
writing quite freely: and his theme is the divine fullness of
Scripture. There is nothing in Scripture which is vain or
empty and all its fullness is derived from Him from whom it is
dipped by the prophets. Contrast his manner, now, when he is
expounding II Tim. iii. 16.
"Let us not
be stupefied by hearing Scriptures which we do not understand;
but let it be to us according to our faith, by which also we
believe that every Scripture because it is theopneustic ('pasa
graphe theopneustos ousa') is profitable. For you must needs
admit one of two things regarding these Scriptures: either
that they are not theopneustic since they are not profitable,
as the unbeliever takes it; or, as a believer, you must admit
that since they are theopneustic, they are profitable. It is
to be admitted, of course, that the profit is often received
by us unconsciously, just as often we are assigned certain
food for the benefit of the eyes, and only after two or three
days does the digestion of the food that was to benefit the
eyes give us assurance by trial that the eyes are
benefited.... So, then, believe also concerning the divine
Scriptures, that thy sous is profited, even it thy
understanding does not perceive the fruit of the profit that
comes from the letters, from the mere bare reading" [Origen,
"Hom. XX in Josuam" 2, in J.A. Robinson's Origen's
"Philocalia," p. 63).
It is obvious
that here Origen does not understand II Tim. iii. 16, to teach
that Scripture is inspired only because it is profitable, and
that we are to determine its profitableness first and its
inspiration therefrom; what he draws from the passage is that
Scripture is profitable because it is inspired, and that
though we may not see in any particular case how, or even
that, it is profitable, we must still believe it to be
profitable because it is inspired, i. e., obniously because it
is given of God for that end. It seemed to be necesary to
adduce at some length these passages from Origen, inasmuch as
the partial adduction of one of them, alsone, by Dr. Cremer
might prove misleading to the unwary reader. But there appears
to be no need of multiplying passages from the other early
expositors of II Tim. iii. 16, seeing that it is freely
confessed that the exegetical tradition runs all in one
groove. We may differ as to the wieght we allow to this fact;
but surely as a piece of testimony corroborative of the
meaning of the word derived from other considerations, it is
worth noting that it has from the beginning been understood
only in one was -- even by those, such as Origen and we may
add Clement, who may not themselves be absolutely consistent
in Preserving the point of view taught them in this
passage.[73] The final test of the sense assigned to any word
is, of course, derived from its fitness to the context in
which it is found. And Dr. Cremer does not fail to urge with
reference to 'theopneustos' in II Tim. iii. 16, that the
meaning he assigns to it corresponds well with the context,
expecially with the succeeding clauses; as well as, he adds,
with the language elsewhere in the New Testament, as, for
example, in the Epistle to the Hebrews, where what Scripture
says is spoken of as the utterance, the saying of the Holy
Ghost, with which he would further compare even Acts xxviii.
25. That the words of Scripture are conceived, not only in
Hebrews but throughout the New Testament, as the utterances of
the Holy Ghost is obvious enough and not to be denied. But it
is equally obvious that the ground of this conception is
everywhere the ascription of these words to the Holy Ghost as
their reponsible author: littera scripta manet and remains
what it was when written, viz., the words of the writer. The
fact that all Scripture is conceived as a body of Oracles and
approached with awe as the utterances of God certainly does
not in the east suggest that these utterances may not be
described as God-given words or throw a preference for a
interpretation of 'theopneustos' which would transmute it into
an assertion that they are rather God-giving words. And the
same may be said of the contextual argument. Naturally, if 'theopneustos'
means "God-giving," it would as an epithet or
predicate of Scripture serve very well to lay a foundation for
declaring this "God- giving Scripture" also
profitable, etc. But an equal foundation for this declaration
is laid by the description ot it as "God-given." The
passage just quoted from Origen will alone teach us this. All
that can be said on this score for the new interpretation,
therefore, is that it also could be made accordant with the
context; and as much, and much more, can be said for the old.
We leave the matter in this form, since obviously a detailed
interpretation of the whole passage cannot be entered into
here, but must be reserved for a later occasion. It may well
suffice to say not that obviously no advantage can be claimed
for the new interpretation from this point of view. The
question is, after all, not what can the word be made to mean,
but what does it mean; and the witness of its usage elsewhere,
its form and mode of composition, and the sense given it by
its readers from the first, supply here the primary evidence.
Only if the sense thus commended to us were unsuitable to the
context would we be justified in seeking further for a new
interpretation -- thus demanded by the context. This can by no
means be claimed in the present instance, and nothing can be
demanded of us beyond showing that the more natural current
sense of the word is accordant with the context. The result of
our investigation would seem thus, certainly, to discredit the
new interpretation of 'theopneustos' offered by Ewald and
Cremer. From all points of approach alike we appear to be
conducted to the conclusion that it is primarily expressive of
the origination of Scripture, not of its nature and much less
of its effects. What is 'theopneustos' is
"God-breathed," produced by the creative breath of
the Almighty. And Scripture is called 'theopneustos' in order
to designate it as "God-breathed," the product of
Divine spiration, the creation of that Spirit who is in all
spheres of the Divine activity the executive of the Godhead.
The traditional translation of the word by the Latin
inspiratus a Deo is no doubt also discredited, it we are to
take it at the foot of the letter. It does not express a
breathing into the Scriptures by God. But the ordinary
conception attached to it, whether among the Fathers or the
Dognaticians, is in general vindicated. What it affirms is
that the Scriptures owe their origin to an activity of God the
Holy Ghost and are in the highest and truest sense His
creation. It is on this foundation of Divine origin that all
the high attributes of Scripture are built.
Endnotes
1. From "The
Presbyterian and Reformed Review," v.XI, pp. 89-130.
2. The novelty of
the view in question must not be pressed beyond measure. It
was new view in the sense of the text, but, as we shall
subsequently see, it was no invention of Prof. Cremer's, but
was derived by him from Ewald.
3. That is at
least to the eighth edition (1895), which is the last we have
seen. The chief differences between the Herzog and
"Lexicon" Articles are found at the beginning and
end -- the latter being fuller at the beginning and the former
at the end. The "Lexicon" article opens thus: "Theopneustos,
-on, gifted with God's Spirit, breathing the Divine Spirit
(but not, as Weiss still maintains = inspired by God). The
term belongs only to Hellenistic and Ecclesiastical Greek, and
as peculiar thereto is connected with expressions belonging to
the sphere of heathen prophecy and mysteries, 'theophoros', 'theophoretos',
'theophoroumenos', 'theelatos', 'theokinetos', 'theodegmon', 'theodektor',
'theopropos', 'theomantis', 'theophron', 'theophradmon', 'theophrades',
'hentheos', 'enthousiastes', et al., to which Hellenistic
Greek adds two new words, 'theopneustos' and 'theodidaktos',
without, however, denoting what the others do -- an ecstatic
state." The central core of the article then runs
parallel in both forms. Nothing is added in the
"Lexicon," except (in the later editions)
immediately after the quotations from Nonnus this single
sentence: "This usage in Nonnus shows just that it is not
to be taken as = inspiratus, inspired by God but as = filled
with God's Spirit and therefore radiating it." Then
follows immediately the next sentence, precisely as in Herzog,
with which the "Lexicon" article then runs parallel
to the quotation from Origen, immediately after which it
breaks off.
4. The contrast
is between "gottlich begeistet" and "gottlich
begeistert." The reference to Ewald is given in the
"Lexicon": Jahrb.f. bibl. Wissenschaft, vii. 68.
seq.; ix. 91 seq.
5. Of which the
facts given by Cremer may for the present be taken as a fair
conspectus, only adding that the word occurs not only in the
editions of Plutarch, "De plac. phil.," v. 2, 3, but
also in the printed text of the dependent document printed
among Galen's works under the title of "Dehist. phil.,"
106.
6. Cf. Mahaffy,
"History of Greek Literature" (American ed.), i 188,
note 1.
7. "The
Jewish People in the Time of Jesus Christ," E. T., II,
iii. 286, whence the account given in the text is derived.
8. See his "Gesammelte
Abhandlungen, " edited by Usener in 1885. Usener's
Preface should be also consulted.
9. So Harnack,
"Theologische Literaturzeitung," 1885, No. 7, p.
160: also, J. R. Harris, "The Teaching of the Apostles
and the Sibylline Books" (Cambridge, 1888): both give
internal evidences of the Christian origin of the book. Cf.
what we have said in "The Andover Review" for
August, 1886, p. 219.
10. Oxford 8vo
edition, 1795-1830, Vol. iv, ii. 650.
11. As by Diels
in his "Doxographi Graci," p. 15: fuit scilicet 'theopemptous',
quod sero intellectum est a Wyttenbachio in indice Plutarcheo.
si Galenum inspexissit, ipsum illud 'theopemptous' enventurus
erat." But Diels' presentation of Galen was scarcely open
to Wyttenbach's inspection: and the editions then extant read
'theopneustous' as Corsini rightly tells us.
12. "Plutarchi
de Physicis Philosophorum Decretis," ed. Chr. Dan.
Beckius, Leipzig, 1787.
13. Tubingen,
1791-1804, Vol. XII (1800), p. 467.
14. "Plutarchi
de Placitis Philosophorum Libb. v." (Florentiae, 1750).
15. A very clear
account of Diels' main conclusions is given by Franz Susemigl
in his "Geschichte der Griechischen Literatur in der
Alexandrinerzeit" (Leipzig, 1891-1892), ii. pp. 250, 251,
as well as in Bursian's "Jahresbericht" for 1881
(VII, i. 289 seq.). A somewhat less flattering notice by Max
Heinze appears in Bursian for 1880, p. 3 seq.
16. Cf. the
remarks of Max Heinze as above.
17. It would be
possible to hold, of course, that Athenagoras used not the
[Pseudo?-] Plutarch, but the hypothetical Aetios, of which
Diels considers the former an excerpt: but Diels does not
himself so judge: "anceps est quaestio utrum excerpserit
Athenagoras Plutarchi Placita an maius illud opus, cuius illa
est epitome. illus mihi probatur, hoc R. Volkmanno "Leben
Plut.,' i .169...." (p. 51).
18. The relation
of the Psuedo-Galen to the [Pseudo?-] Plutarch Diels expresses
thus: "Alter liber quo duce ex generali physicorum
tanquam promulside ad largiorem dapam Galenus traducit est 'Plutarchus
de Placidis philosophorum physicis.' Unde cum in prioribus
pauca suspensa manu ut condimentum adspersa sint (c. 5, 20,
21), jam a c. 25 ad finem Plutarchus ita regnat, nihil aliud
ut praeterea adscitum esse appareat ... ergo foedioribus
Byzantiorum soloecismis amputatis hanc partem ad codicum fidem
descripsimus, non nullis Plutarcheae emendationis auxilium,
pluribus fortasse humanae perversitatis insigne testimonium"
(pp. 252, 253).
19. Plutarch's,
pp. 267 seq.; Galen's, pp. 595 seq.
20. Plutarch's
"Ep.," v. 2, 3 (p. 416); Galen's "Hist.
Phil.," 106 (p. 640).
21. For
Bernardakis reads 'theopneustous' in his text (Teubner series,
Plutarch's "Moralia," v. 351), recognizing at the
same time in a note that the reading of Galen is 'theopemptous'.
22. In Pauly's
"Real-Encyclopaedie," new ed., s. v.
23. It is not
meant, of course, that Diels was the first to deny the tract
to Plutarch. It has always been under suspicion. Wyttenbach,
for example, rejects its Plutarchian claim with decision, and
speaks of the tract in a tone of studied contempt, which is,
indeed, reflected in the note already quoted from him, in the
remark that we would not be justified in obtruding elegancies
on a mere compiler. Cf. i. p. xli: "Porro, si quid hoc
est, spurius liber utriusque nomine perperam fertur idem,
Plutarchi qui dicitur De Philosophorum Placitis, Galeni
Historia Philosophioe."
24. Diels does
not think highly of this portion of Kuhn's edition: "Kuehnius,
que prioribus sui corporis voluminibus manum subinde admovit
quamvis parum felicem, postremo urgenti typothetae ne
inspectas quidem Charterianae plagulas typis discribendas
tradidisse fertur. neque aliter explicari potest, quod editio
ambitiose suscepta tam misere absoluta est" (p. 241, 2).
25. Though Diels
informs us that the editors have made very little effort to
ascertain the readings of the MSS.
26. "Ex
archetypo haud vetusto eodemque mendosissimo quattuor exempla
transcripta esse, ac fidelius quidem Laur. A, peritius sed
interpolate Laur. B." (p. 241).
27. Diels'
language is: "dolendum sane est libri condicionem tam
esse desperatam ut etiam Plutarcheo archetypo comparato haud
semel plane incertus haereas, quid sibi velit compilator"
(p. 12).
28. "Verum
quamvis sit summa opus cautione ne ventosi nebulonis commenta
pro sincera memoria amplexemur, inest tamen in Galeno
optimarum lectionum paene intactus thesaurus" (p. 13).
29. "Codices
manu scripti quotquot noti sunt ex archetypo circa millesimum
annum scripto deducti sunt" (p. 33). "duo autem sunt
recensendi Plutarchi instrumenta ... unum recentius ex codicis
petendum, inter quos A B C archetypo proximos ex ceterorum
turba segregavi ... alterum genus est excerptorum ..."
(p. 42).
30. The readings
of A are drawn from a collation of it with the Frankfort
edition of 1620 published by C. F. Matthaei in his "Lectiones
Mosquenses." In a number of important readings, the MS.
has been reinspected for Diels by Voelkel with the result of
throwing some doubt on the completeness of Matthaei's
collation. Accordingly the MS. is cited in parenthesis
whenever it is cited e silentio (see Diels, p. 33).
31. The general
use of 'theopemptos' is illustrated in the Lexicons, by the
citation of Arist., "Ethic. Nic.," i. 9, 3, where
happiness is spoken of as 'theopemptos' in contrast to the
attainment of virtue in effort; Longinus, c. 34, where we read
of 'theopempta tina doremata' in contrast with 'anthropina';
Themist, "Or." 13, p. 178 D, where 'ho Th. neanios'
is found; Dion. Hal., T. 14. Liddell and Scott quote for the
secondary sense of "Extraordinary," Longus, 3, 18;
Artem., i. 7.
32. Arist., de
divinat, 2 p. 463b 13: 'holos d'epei kai ton allon zoon
oneirottei tina, theopempta men ouk an eie ta enupnia, oude
gegone toutou charin, daimonia mentoi. He gar phusis daimonia,
all' ou theia'.
33. Cf. Philo's
tract 'peri tou theopemptous einai tous oneirous' (Mangey., i.
620). Its opening words run (Yonge's translation, ii. 292):
"The treatise before this one has contained our opinions
as to those of 'ton oneiron theopempton' classed in the first
species ... which are defined as dreams in which the Deity
sends the appearances beheld in dreams according to his own
suggestion ('to theion kata ten idian upoboles tas en tois
hupnois epipempein phantasias'), "whereas this later
treatise is to discuss the second species of dreams, in which,
"our mind being moved along with that of the universe,
has seemed to be hurried away from itself and to be God-borne
('theophoreisthai') so as to be capable of preapprehension and
foreknowledge of the future." Cf. also section 22, 'tes
thepemptou phantasias': section 33, 'theopemptous oneirous':
ii. section 1, 'ton theopempton oneiron'. The superficial
parallelism of Philo with what is cited from Herophilus is
close enough fully to account for a scribe harking back to
Philo's language -- or even for the compiler of the
Pseudo-Galen doing so.
34. "Clementine
Homilies," xvii. 15: "And Simon said: 'If you
maintain that apparitions do not always reveal the truth, yet
for all that visions and dreams, being God-sent ('ta horamata
kai ta enupnia theopempta onta ou pseudetai') do not speak
falsely in regard to those matters which they wish to
tell." And Peter said: 'You were right in saying that,
being God-sent, they do not speak falsely ('theopempta onta ou
pseudetai). But it is uncertain if he who sees has seen a
God-sent dream ('ei ho idon theopempton eoraken oneiron')."
What has come to the "Clementine Homilies" is surely
already a Christian commonplace.
35. The
immediately preceding paragraph in the Pseudo-Galen (Section
105), corresponding with [Pseudo?-]Plutarch, v. i. 1, 2.3 is
edited by Diels thus: 'Platon kai oi Stoikoi ten mantiken
eisagousi. kai gar theopempton einai, hoper estin entheastikon
kai kata to theiotaton tes psuces, hoper estin enthousiastikon,
kai to oneiropulikon kai to astronomikon kai to orneoskopikon.
*enophanes kai epikouros anairousi ten mantiken. Puthagoras de
monon to thutikon ouk egkrinei. Aristoteles kai dikaiarchos
tous tous oneirous eisagousin, athanaton men ten psuchen ou
nomizontes, theiou de tinos metechein.' Surely the scribe or
compiler who could transmute the section 'peri mantikes' in
the [Pseudo?-] Plutarch into this, with its intruded 'theopempton'
before him and its allusion to Aristotle on dreams, might be
credited without much rashness with the intrusion of 'theopemptous'
into the next section.
36. Cf. in
general E. Thramer. Hastings ERE, VI, p. 542.
37. It is duly
recorded in Boeckh, "Corpus Inscript. Graec," 4700
b. (Add. iii). It is also printed by Kaibel, "Epigrammata
Graeca" (Berlin, 1878), p. 428, but not as a Christian
inscription, but under the head of "Epigrammata
dedicatoria: V. proscynemata."
38. Porphyry:
"Ant. Nymph.," 116: 'hegounto gar prosizanein to
hudati tas phuchas theopnoo onti, hos phesin ho Noumenios. dia
touto legon kai ton propheten eirekenai, empheresthai epano
tou hudatos theou pneuma'--a passage remarkable for containing
and appeal to Moses (Gen. i. 5) by a heathen sage.
"God-breathed water" is rendered by Holstenius:
"aquae quae divino spiritu foveretur"; by Gesnerus:
"aquae divinitus afflatae"; by Thomas Taylor:
"water which is inspired by divinity." Pisid. "Hexaem.,"
1489: 'e theopnous akrotes' (quoted unverifed from Hase-
Dindorf's Stephens). The Christian usage is illustrated by the
following citations, taken from Sophocles: Hermes Tris.,
"Poem," 17.14: 'tes aletheias'; Anastasius of Sinai,
Migne, 89. 1169 A: Those who do not have the love of God,
"these, having a diabolical will and doing the desires of
their flesh, 'paraitountai hos poneron to theomoion, dai
theoktiston, kai theomoion tes noeras kai theocharaktou hemon
phuches homologein en Christo, kai ten zoopoion autes kai
sustatiken theopnoun energeian."
39. 'pneumatophoros'
and 'pneumatophoreisthai' are pre-Christian Jewish words,
already used in the LXX. (Hos. ix. 7, Zeph. iii. 4, Jer. ii.
24). Compounds of 'theos' found in the LXX. are 'theoktistos',
II Macc. vi. 23; 'theopmachein', II Macc. vii. 19 ['theomachos
Sm., Job xxvi. 5, et al.]; 'theosebeia', Gen. xx. 11 et al.; 'theosebes
Ex. xviii. 21 et al.
40. No derivative
of 'christos' except 'christianos' is found in the New
Testament. The compounds are purely Patristic. See Lighfoot's
note on Ignatious, Eph. ix; Phil. viii and the note in Migne's
"Pat. Graec.," xi. 1861, at Adamantii "Dialogus
de recta fide," Section 5.
41. In the
Hase-Dindorf Stephens, sub-voc. 'Theopneustos', the passage,
from the [Psuedo?-] Plutarch is given within square brackets
in this form: ["Plut. Mor. p. 904F: 'tous oneirous thous
theoploutous']." What is to be made of this new reading,
we do not know. One wonders whether it is a new conjecture or
a misprint. No earlier reference is given for 'theoploutos' in
the "Thesaurus" than chrysostom: "Ita Jobum
appellat Jo. Chrystom, Vol. iv, p. 297, Suicer."
Sophocles cites also Anast. Sinai. for the word: Hexaemeron
XII ad fin. (Migne, 1076 D., Vol. 89): 'hopos touto katabalon
en tais psuchais trapezison son arron se di' auton ten
theoplouton kataplouteso'.
42. So it may be
confidently infered from the summary of what we know of
Herophilus given in Susemigl's "Geschichte der Greichisch.
Literatur in d. Alexandrinerzeit," Vol. i, p. 792, or
from Marx's "De Herophili ... vita scriptis atque in
medicina mentis" (Gottingen, 1840), p. 38. In both cases
Herophilus' doctrine of dreams is gathered solely from our
excerpts -- in the case of Susemihl from "Aetius"
and in the case of Marx primarily from Galen with the support
of Plutarch.
43. Loc. cit.
44. In the common
text the passage goes on to tell us of the dreams of mixed
nature, i. e., presumable partly divine and partly human in
origin. But the idea itself seems incongruous and the
description does not very well fit the category. Diels,
therefore, conjectures 'pneumatikous' in its place in which
case there are three categories in the enumeration:
Theopneustic, physical (i. e., the product of the 'psuche' or
lower nature), and pheumatic, or the product of the higher
nature. The whole passage in Diels' recension runs as follows:
Aet. 'Plac.,' p. 416 (Pseudo-Plut., v. 2, 3): 'Hrophilos ton
oneiron tous men theopemptous kat' anagken ginesthai, tous de
phusikous aneidolopoioumenes psuches to sumpheron aute kai to
pantos esomenon, tous de sugkramatikous [pneumatikous ? Diels,
but this is scarcely the right correction, cf. Susemigl,
"Gesch. d. Gr. Lit.," etc. i. 792] ['ek tou
automatou'] kat' eidolon prosptosin, hotan a boulometha
blepomen, hos epi ton tas eromenas horonton en hupno genetai'."
45. V. 308 seq.
The full text, in Rzach's edition, runs:
'Kume d' he mope
sun namasin ois theopneustois En palamais atheon andron adikon
kai athesmon Piphtheis ouk eti tisson es aithera rema prodosei.
Alla menei nekre eni namasi kumaioisin.'
46. Strabo,
"Rerum Geographicarum," liber XIII, III. 6, pp. 622,
623 (Amsterdam ed., 1707, p. 924). A good summary may be read
in Smith's "Dictionary of Greek and Roman
Geography," i. 724, 725.
47. Alexandre
translates "plenis numine lymphis"; Dr. Terry,
"inspired streams."
48. So Herodotus
observes (i, 157).
49. V. 408 seq.
In Rzach's text the lines run:
'Ou gar akedestos
ainei theon aphanous ges oude petren poiese sophos tekton para
toutois, ou chrison kosmou apaten psuchon t' esebasthe en
thusiais egerair' hagiais kalais th' hekatoubais.'
50. In this
second edition, Dr. Terry has altered this to "The Mighty
Father, God of all things God-inspired": but this
scarcely seems an improvement.
51. 'oude
phobetheis athanaton genetera theon panton anthropon ouk
etheles timan'. Rzach compares also Xenophon. "Fragn.,"
i. 1, M., 'e 'is theos en te theoisi kai anthropoisi megistos'.
52. Terry, Ed. 2:
"the immortal Father, God of all mankind."
53. Recension A,
Chap. xx. p. 103, ed. James.
54. Nonni
Panopolitani "Paraphrasis in Joannem" (i. 27), in
Migne, xliii. 753:
'Kai opisteros
hostis hikanei Semeron humeion mesos histatai, ou podos akrou,
Andromeen palamen ouk axios eimi pelassas, Dus*i mounon
himanta theopneustoio pedilou'.
55. Op. cit., p.
756.
56. It is given
in Kaibel's "Epigrammata Graeca," p. 477. Waddington
supposes the person meant to be a certain Archbishop of Bostra,
of date 457-474, an opponent of Origenism, who is commemorated
in the Greek Church on June 13. The inscription runs as
follows:
'Doxes]
orthoto[n]ou tamies kai hupermachos esthlos, archierius
theopneustos edeimato kallos ametron Antipatr]o[s] klutometis
aethlophorous met' agonas, ku[d]ainon megalos theometora
parthenon hagnen Marian poluumnon, akeraton aglaodoron'.
57. Wetstein
cites the expression as applied (where, he does not say) to
"Marcus AEgyptus," by which he means, we suppose,
Marcus of Scetis, mentioned by Sozomen, H. E., vi. 29, and
Nicephoeus Callistus, H. E., xi. 35. Dr. Cremer transmutes the
designation into Marcus Eremita, who is mentioned by
Nicephorus Callistus, H. E., xiv. 30, 54, and whose writings
are collected in Migne, lxv. 905 seq. The two are often
identified, but are separately entered in Smith and Wace.
58. That is
doubtless the Jewish teacher to whom he elsewhere refers, as,
e. g., "De Principiis," iv. 20 (Ante-Nicene Library.
N.Y. ed., iv. 375), where the same general subject is
discussed.
59. "Jahrb.
f. bibl. Wissenschaft," vii. 114.
60. In a note on
p. 89, Ewald adds as to 'theempneustos' that it is certainly
true that such compounds are not common, and that this
particular one does not occur: but that they are possible is
shown by the occurrence of such examples as 'theosunaktos,
theokataskeuastos', in which the preposition occurs: and dem
Laute nach, the formation is like 'theelatos'. There seems to
be no reason, we may add, why, if it were needed, we should
not have had a 'theempneustos' by the side of 'theopneustos',
just as by the side of 'pneumatophoros' we have 'pneumatemphoros'
("Etymologicum Magnum," 677, 28; John of Damascus,
in Migne, 96, 837c. 'Ese propheton pneumatemphoron stoma').
61. For not even
'theempneo' would properly signify "breathe into"
but rather "breathe in," "inhale." It is
by a somewhat illogical extension of meaning that the verb and
its derivatives ('empneusis', 'empnoia') are used in the
theological sense of "inspiration," in which sense
they do not occur, however, either in the LXX. or the New
Testament. In the LXX. 'empneusis' means a "blast,"
a "blowing" (Ps. xvii. (xviii.) 15; cf. the
participle 'empneon', Acts ix. 1); 'empneous',
"living," "breathing" (II Macc. vii. 5,
xiv. 45); and the participle 'pan empneon', "every
living, breathing thing" (Deut. xx. 16; Josh. x. 28, 30,
35, 37, 39, 40; xi. 14; Wisd. xv. 11). 'Eispneo' is properly
used by the classics in the sense of "breathing
into," "inspiring": it is not found in itself
or derivatives in LXX. or the New Testament -- though it
occurs in Aq. at Ex. i. 5. How easily and in what a full
sense, however, 'empneo' is used by ecclesiastical writers for
"inspire" may be notted from such examples as ign.
"ad Mag.," 8: "For the divine ('theiotatoi')
prophets lived after Christ; for this cause also they were
persecuted, being inspired by His grace ('emneomenoi hupo tes
charitos autou') for the full persuasion of those that are
disobedient." Theoph. of Antioch, "ad. Autol.,"
ii. 9: "Butt he men of God, 'pneumatophoroi' of the Holy
Ghost, and becoming prophets 'hup' autou tou theou
empneusthentes kai sophisthentes', became 'theodidaktoi' and
holy and righteous." The most natural term for
"inspired" in classic Greek one would be apt to
think, would be 'entheos' ('enthous'), with 'to entheon' for
"inspiration"; and after it, participial or other
derivatives of 'enthousiazo': but both 'eispneo' and 'empneo'
were used for the "inspiration" that consisted of
"breathing into" even in profane Greek.
62. P. 88.
63.
"Geschichte des Volkes Israel," vi. 245, note.
64. "Jahrb.
f. bibl. Wissenschaft," ix. 91.
65. Sec. 16, 2,
p. 135. Cf. Thayer's Viner, p. 96; Moulton's, p. 120. Also
Thayer's Buttmann, p. 190. The best literature of the subject
will be found adduced by Winer.
66. Compounds of
'-pneustos' do not appear to be very common. Liddell and Scott
(ed. 6) do not record either 'ana-' or 'dia-' or 'epi-' or
even 'eu-'; though the cognates are recorded, and further
compounds presupposing them. The rare word 'eupneustos' might
equally well express "breathing-well"
quasi-actively, or "well-aired" passively; just as 'apneustos'
is actually used in the two senses of "breathless' and
"unventilated": and a similar double sense belongs
to 'dusanapneustos'. 'Empneustos' does not seem to occur in a
higher sense; its only recorded usage is illustrated by
Athenaeus, iv. 174, where it is connected with 'organa' in the
sense of wind-instruments: its cognates are used of
"inspiration." Only 'puripneustos' = 'puripnoos' =
"fire-breathing" is distinctively active in usage:
cf. 'anapneustos', poetic for 'apneustos' =
"breathless."
67. Two
fundamental ideas, lying at the root of all their thinking of
Scripture, seem to have colored somewhat their dealing with
this term: the old Lutheran doctrine of the Word of God, and
the modern rationalizing doctrine of the nature of the Divine
influence exerted in the procuction of Scripture. On account
of the latter point of view they seem setermined not to find
in Scripture itself any declaration that will shut them up to
"a Philonian conseption of Scripture" as the Oracles
of God -- the very utterances of the Most High. By the former
they seem predisposed to discover in it declaraions of the
wonder-working power of the Word. The reader cannot avoid
becoming aware of the influence of both these dogmatic
conceptions in both Ewald's and Cremer's dealing with 'theopneustos'.
But it is not necessary to lay stress on this.
68. "Jahrb.
f. bibl. Wissenschaft," vii. 88, 114.
69.
"Geschichte des Volkes Israel," i. 245, note.
70. "Jahrb.,"
etc., ix. 92.
71. "Die
Pastoralbriefe" u. s. w., p. 163.
72. For the
implications of the term 'pheromenoi' here (as distinguished
from 'agomenoi') consult the fruitful discussion of the words
in Schmidt's "Synonymik."
73. Cf. Prof.
Schulze, loc. cit.: "Further, it should not be lost sight
of (and Dr. Cremer does not do so) how the Church in its
defenders has understood this word. There can be no doubt that
in the conflict with Montanism, the traditional doctrine of
theopneusty was grounded in the conception of 'thepneustos',
but never that of the Scriptures breathing out the Spirit of
God. The passage with Cremer adduces from Origen gives no
interpretation of this word, but only points to a quality of
Scripture consequent on their divine origination by the Holy
Spirit: and elsewhere when he adduces the rule of faith, the
words run, quod per spiritum dei sacrae scripturae conscriptae
sunt, or a verbo dei et spirita dei dictae sunt: just as Clem.
Alex. also, when, in Coh. 71, he is commenting on the Pauline
passage, takes the word in the usual way, and yet, like Origen,
makes an inference from the God-likeness (as 'theopoiein') in
Plato's manner, from the whole passage--though not deriving it
from the word itself. For the use of the word in Origen, we
need to note: Sel. in Ps., ii. 527; Hom. in Joh., vi. 134, Ed.
de la R."