IX.
THE VOICE FROM THE ROCK.
Does the Church indorse the definition of Scriptural inspiration which has been given in the two preceding chapters? The Church has said very little on the subject of the inspiration of the Sacred Scriptures, but enough to serve us as a definition and as an expression of its limitations. The Councils of Florence and Trent simply state that "the Sacred Scriptures, having been written under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, have God for their author." How much may be deduced from this was made clear by the late Vatican Council (Constit., de Fide, cap. ii.), which holds that "the Church regards these books (enumerated in the Tridentine Canon), as sacred and canonical, not because, having been composed through the care and industry of men, they were afterwards approved by the authority of the Church, nor simply because they contain revealed truth without error, but because they were written under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost in such a way as to have God for their author...."[[1]]
By this definition two distinct theories of inspiration are censured as contrary to Catholic teaching. The first is that which has been called subsequent inspiration, according to which a book might be written wholly through human industry, but receiving afterwards the testimony of express divine approval, might become the written word of God. This teaching is not admissible inasmuch as it excludes the divine authorship of the Scriptures.
A second theory condemned by the above clause of the Vatican Council as untenable on Catholic principles is that which is called negative inspiration. Its defenders hold that the extent of the divine action in the composition of the Sacred Scriptures is limited to the exclusion of errors from the sacred volume. This would restrict the value of the truth revealed in the Bible to a mere exposition of human knowledge containing no actual misstatements of fact.
[[1]] See on this subject P. Brucker's recently published work "Questions Actuelles d'Ecriture Sainte," par le R. P. Jos. Brucker, S. J.: Paris, Victor Retaux, which treats admirably this part of our subject.