CONCORDIA THEOLOGICAL MONTHLY

'1 he Hermeneutic.ll Dilemm.a Dualism in the Interpretation of HoI) Scrtpture MARTIN H. FRANZMANN

Genesis Three in the Light of Key Hermeneutical Considerations RALPH D. GEHRKE

Meaning and the Word in CURTIS E. HUBER

Christ's Use of the Old Testament with Special Reference to the Pentateuch VICTOR A. BARTLING

What Does "Inerrancy" Mean? ARTHUR CARL PIEPKORN

Book Review

Vol. XXXVI September 1965 No. ~

d What Does "Inerrancy" Mean? 1

ARTHUR CARL PIEPKORN

his paper is primarily a terminological I Tstudy rather than a theological one. It From the through inquires into the meaning of, rather than Leonard Hiitter (1563-1616) and John into the for, a term that has Gerhard (1582-1637), the older Lu­ become a staple of dogmatic discussion in theran orthodoxy does not greatly occupy our own and other denominations. itself with the idea which lies behind "in­ Lutheran clergymen and professors af­ errancy." With the ancient church 3 and firm everything that the Sacred Scriptures with the first generation of reformers, early say about themselves and everything that the Lutheran symbols say about the Sacred Lutheran orthodoxy affirms the correctness Scriptures. It is significant therefore that and adequacy of the Sacred Scriptures for the term "inerrancy" does not correspond the things that Gust be known and be­ to any vocable of the Sacred Scriptures. lieved for a Christian to be saved and to It does not correspond to any vocable live a godly life. The freedom of the in the Lutheran symbols. The Catholic Sacred Scriptures from error is largely an Church has never defined it dogmatically. unarticulated assumption of undefined None of the formulations of the ancient scope. When one gets to the middle and "rule of the faith" or "canon of the truth" late 17th century, however, one finds state- affirm it. It is not a tenet of the patristic positive term "trurhfulness." Thus for the sig­ consensus. It is an ecclesiastical term sub­ natories of the statement rhe inerrancy of the ject to definition by usage.2 Sacred Scriptures means that rhey are trurhful and rhat rhey express and accomplish what God 1 This paper was originally prepared for wants them to (CONCORDIA THEOLOGICAL presentation during rhe annual retreat of the MONTHLY, XXXI [1960J, 626). faculty of Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, Mo., 3 St. Augustine, for instance, who declared in at rhe request of the faculty's program com­ his 82d Letter to St. Jerome: "I believe very mittee. The paper was subsequently read to rhe firmly rhat no author [of the canonical books] Commission on Theology and Church Relations went astray in anything that he wrote (nullum of The Lurheran Church - Missouri Synod at (librorum canonicomm) auctofem scribendo er­ the Commission's request. Throughout rhe pa­ rasse aliquid /irmissime cred( oj"; "it is impious per "inerrancy" refers to rhe Sacred Scriptures, to doubt with reference to rhe writings [of rhe except where anorher reference is explicitly in- prophets and rhe apostles] rhat rhey are free dicated. from all error (de {prophetarum et apostolorum} 2 In "A Statement on rhe Form and Func- scriptis quod omni errore careant dubitare ne- tion of the Holy Scriptures" published in 1960 farium est)"; and "I do not doubt that rhe rhe faculty of Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, writers [of the canonical Scriptures] did not go Mo., declared rhat rhe Holy Scriptures are in- astray wirh reference to anything at all in rhem errant in rhe sense that they express what God and that they did not assert anything in them wants rhem to express and accomplish what deceitfully (conwriptores (scripturarum canoni- God wants them to accomplish. Orherwise the carum) nihil in eis omnino errasse, nihil fal- statement does not use "inerrant" or "inerrancy." laciter posuisse, n01Z dubit{ o})" (i,3; iii, 24). At those places where one might expect "in- (Corpus scriptorum ecclesiasticorum Latinorum, errancy" to occur, the statement employs the 34,354,7-8, 18-19; 376,28-29) 577 578 WHAT DOES "INERRANCY" MEAN?

ments like this one, taken from John­ the polemical lines that resulted tended Andrew Quenstedt (1617-1688): "The increasingly toward the opposition of an original canonical s[acred] scripture is of infallible Roman Catholic pope over infallible truthfulness and wholly free of against an infallible Lutheran Bible. This error, or, what is the same thing, in the opposition affected the thinking of both canonical s[acred} scripture there is no lie, sides profoundly. In the case of the Lu­ no falsehood, not even the smallest error therans this opposition contributed to the either in words or in matter, but every­ dogmatic elaboration of the commonplace thing, together and singly, that is handed on the Sacred Scriptures. on in them is most ttue, whether it be Another factor was the 17th-century a matter of dogma or of morals or of antisocinian polemic of the Lutherans, who history or of chronology or of topography felt themselves called upon to reject the or of nomenclature; no want of knowledge, thesis of Faustus Sozzini (1539-1604) no thoughtlessness or forgetfulness, no that the evangelists and apostles "erred to lapse of memory can or ought to be at­ a limited extent." 6 tributed to the secretaries of the H [oly ] A third factor was the working out by Spirit in their setting down of the s[acred} the orthodox Lutheran theologians of in­ writings." 4 ferences of their doctrine ( a ) of the The reasons for this increasing explicit­ monergism of the Holy Spirit in inspira­ ness are chiefly four: tion, and (b) of the truthfulness of Holy For one thing, the Colloquy of Regens­ Scripture. The atgument ran thus: burg in 1601 highlighted the subject of (a) The Sacred Scriptures are the com­ authority in religion.5 The hardening of municated word (dictctmen) of the Holy Spirit; 4 S{acra} Scriptura canonica originalis est (b) The Holy Spirit is all-knowing and infallibitis veritatis omnisque erroris expers, sive quod idem est, in S(acra} Scriptura canonica absolutely truthful; nullum est mendacium, nulla falsitas, nullus vel ( c) Any kind of inaccuracy or imper­ minimus error, sive in rebus sive in verbis," sed fection is unworthy of the Holy Spirit; omnia et singula sunt verissima, quaecunque in illa traduntur, sive do gmatica illa sunl, sive (d) No inaccuracy or imperfection can moralia, sive historica, chronologica, topogra­ exist in the Holy Scriptures. phica, onomastica; nullaque ignorantia, incogi­ tantia aut oblivio, nullus memoriae lapsus Spi­ A fourth factor was the revolution in ritus S{ancti} amanuemibus in consignandis mathematics that is associated with such s{acris} literis tribui potest aut debet (Johannes­ Andreas Quenstedt, Theologia didactico-pole­ names as those of Francis Viete (1540 to mica, pars prima, cap. IV, sect. ii, quaest. 5, 1603), Nicholas Tartaglia (1500-1557), thesis; [Wittenberg: Johannes Ludolphus Quen­ stedt et Elerdi Schumacheri Haeredes (Mat­ (1548-1618) and Philip Heilbrunner (1546

" thaeus Henckelius), 1685J, I, 77; all the Quen­ to 1616), against a number of Roman Catholic stedt quotations in this paper are from the cited theologians, including Adam Tanner (1572 to chapter and section). 1632), James Gretser (1560-1625), and Al­ 5 On this colloquy see Wilhelm Herbst, Das bert Hunger (1545-1604). Regemburger Religiomgesprach von 1601 (Gii­ 6 In aliquibus leviter errarint (Faustus So­ tersloh: C. Bertelsmann, 1928). The colloquy cinus, Libellus de autoritate scriptura, p. 72, pitted a number of Lutheran theologians, among cited in Quenstedt, quaest. 5, antithesis III, them Giles Hunn (1550-1603) and James p. 79). WHAT DOES "INERRANCY" MEAN? 579

John Napier (1550-1617), and notably This observation is not intended to Rene Descartes (1595-1650), Girard downgrade the total concern of late Lu­ Desargues (1593-1662) and John Kep­ theran orthodoxy for the dependability of ler (1571-1630), coupled with the whole the Sacred Scriptures as a revelation of thrust of the period toward greater scien­ God's being and purposes. Neither does tific precision. the similarity of the arguments employed Thus the doctrine of what a later gen­ imply that these theses themselves are of erati(ln was to call "inerrancy" is in the identical validity; many perfectly correct late 17th century a secondary Schutzlehre. theses have been supported with arguments It is designed to protect and vindicate the of dubious cogency. It does, however, raise truthfulness of the Holy Spirit, who in­ the question if these arguments, which creasingly appears in the theological lit­ fail to establish the other theses in fact, erature of the period less as the principal are adequate to establish the thesis that Author than a.s the exclusive Author of the Sacred Scriptures are free from error the Holy Scriptures. in the sense in which Quenstedt seems to It is not without significance that for assert that they are. Again it is not un­ reasons quite similar to those alleged for reasonable to assume that God, the Author the thesis that the Sacred Scriptures are of a perfect redemption, would have given free from error John Gerhard repeats the a revelation that meets Quenstedt's cri­ arguments of John Buxtorf the elder teria, but the assumption must be tested (1564-1629) on behalf of the cooriginal­ against the facts. This the second part of icy of the Hebrew-Aramaic vowel points this paper proposes to do. with the consonants? A little later and "Inerrancy" itself is a relatively young along the same lines Bishop Jasper Ras­ word. On the surface it looks like a trans­ mussen Brochmand (1585-1652) de­ literation from an original Latin vocable fends the originality of the square Hebrew inerrll1ttia, derived from the participle, in­ alphabetic characters.s Finally August el'l'ans, of a verb, i1Ze1'fO. A canvass of the Pfeiffer (1640-1698), on a similar basis, standard lexicons of classical Latin, of du asserts the freedom from all corruption, Cange's Glossarium, of Blaise, of Nier­ either through malice or carelessness, of meyer, and of specialized vocabularies like the text of both testaments in their orig­ Souter's Glossary, Schutz' Thomas-Lexikon, inal languages through the operation of and Deferrari's A Lexic01~ to the Summa the divine Providence.9 discloses no use of inerramia. Cicero and Lactantius (240?-320?) use ilzerram of 7 Johannes Gerhardus, Loci theologici, locus I, cap. XV; ed. Eduardus Preuss, I (Berlin: Gust. the fixed stars. In his treatise on arithmetic Schlawitz, 1863), 144--151. Boethius (480?-524?) uses in erratum in 8 Caspar Erasmus Brochmand, Universae the sense of "absence of error." The verb theologiae systema, art. II, cap. ii, quaest. 8; 5th ed., I (Ulm: Johannes Giirlinus, 1658), inerro occurs in Pliny the Younger (61? to 17-19. 113?) and Apuleius (born 125?) in the 9 Augustus Pfeifferus, Critica sacra, cap. IV, literal sense of "wander about in" and in sect. ii, quaest. 4-6; 6th ed. (Dresden and the tropical sense of "swim before" or Leipzig: Gothofredus Leschius, 1721), pp. 86 to 99. "dance about in." Minucius Felix (late 580 WHAT DOES "INERRANCY" MEAN?

2d century) uses inerro in his Octavius English Dictionary actually lists the En­ (31, 4) apparently in the sense of "stumble glish adjective "inerrant" (corresponding upon." to the Ciceronian inerrans) in 1652 in This may suggest a reality that some­ technical astronomical reference to a fixed times escapes us in our discussion of the star. It was not until 1837, however, ac­ term, namely that "inerrant" in its ety­ cording to the same source, that "inerrant" mological sense is actually a poetic, evoca­ was used in the modern sense of "exempt tive, metaphorical term. It is appropriate from error, free from mistake, infallible." to a person or a hypostatization, to the In that year a writer in Fraser's Magazine author of a book, but not to a book as (XV, 368) declared: 'The same inerrant a book. We sense this in our ordinary pen winds up this . . . in the emphatic speech, which does not usually ascribe terms, 'which is idolatry:" The Oxford "inerrancy" even to a very accurate book. Dictionary records this acquired meaning "Accuracy," "truthfulness," "dependability," again in 1868, in E. S. Ffoulkes' Church's "credibility," "correctness," or "exactitude" Creed or CrOW1t'S Creed, p.20: "Whether are more likely to come to our lips when absolutely inerrant or not in matters of we speak of a book. faith." As long as we realize that "inerrancy" The same source lists the abstract noun, is used metaphorically of the Sacred Scrip­ "inerrancy," as oeeming in English for the tures to describe them as "not wandering first time in the formidable four-volume away" from the truth, well and good; we Introduction to the Critical Study and are not likely to become quarrelsome about Knowledge of the Holy Scriptures of it in that case. But when we begin to take Thomas Hartwell Horne (1780-1862). the term literally of the Sacred Scriptures Part ii of Volume II of the seventh edition as such, a student of comparative religion (1834) states on p.81: "Absolute iner­ might be impelled to observe that we are rancy is impracticable in any printed perilously close to the threshold of a ten­ book." 10 The first occurrence of the term dency which exists in other world reli­ in an explicitly religious context is re­ gions. This is the tendency toward the ported by the Oxford English Dictionary deification of the written revelation of as on page 326 of An Eirenicon (1865) by God. Certain schools of Jewish theology, Edward Bouverie Pusey (1800-1882): for instance, have affirmed the preexistence "The old ultramontane doctrine of the in­ and the divine nature of the Torah just as errancy of the Pope, i. e., that of his certain schools of Islamic theology have preservation from error." 11 similarly affirmed the preexistence and the From St. jerome's day on - and this is divine nature of the Qur'an. particularly true of the theologians of late Thus what we have in "inerrancy" is 10 Conceivably the statement may have oc, a kind of do-it-yourself term, formed from curred as early as the first edition, 1818. a nonexistent Latin original vocable on the 11 Similarly the German equivalent of "in· analogy of other combinations, with in­ errancy," the word "Irrtumslosigkeit," is also meaning "not" and errantia meaning "the a relatively recent term in the German language - so recent that the Grimm W orterbuch has act of wandering about." The Oxford no entry for it. WHAT DOES "INERRANCY" MEAN? 581

Lutheran orthodoxy - theologians have set St. Joseph as our Lord's father and of forth the doctrine of accommodation in comets as falling stars.14 Quenstedt puts it part at least in order to avoid the em­ this way: "[One must] distinguish between barrassment of a literal interpretation of the manner of speaking and the phrases, "inerrancy." This doctrine holds that in words, and vocables themselves. The the process of inspiration the Holy Spirit h[oly] writers owed their manner of accommodated the language of the Sacred speaking to daily usage and custom or Scriptures to the limited knowledge of even to their education, and it is from human beings - both authors and original this that the difference of style, chiefly of readers - and to the popular apprehension the prophets, arises. For just as they were of scientific reality. This realistic doctrine accustomed or educated to either a su­ reflects credit rather than discredit upon blimer or a lowlier manner of speaking those who devised it. Tbe chief difficulty and of writing, so the H[oly] Spirit in has been that it has rarely been applied 11sing a particular style was willing to consistently or extensively enough.12 adapt Himself and condescend to the abil­ The great Strasbourg theologian, John­ ities of men. Thus He expressed the same Conrad Dannhauer (1603-1666), de­ matters in a grander way through some scribes the process in these terms: "As far and in a slighter way through others, since as the accidental conformity of style is the fact that the holy writers employed concerned, the Holy Spirit by a singular the particular words that they did and not condescension adapted Himself to the tem­ other or equivalent words derives solely peraments, nationalities, and learned pur­ from the divine instigation and inspiration. suits of the God-inspired men. As a result The H[oly] Spirit accommodated Himself Isaiah (royal blood!) wrote in a more to the grasp and ability of the holy writers refined way, Amos in a humbler fashion, so that they would set down the mysteries St. Luke, steeped in Greek letters, more according to their usual manner of speak­ elegantly." 13 In his Hermeneutica sacra ing. The H[oly] Spirit went so far as to Dannhauer cites as examples of accommo­ communicate by inspiration those words dation to vulgar belief the designation of to His secretaries which they would other­ wise themselves have employed if they had 12 This is not designed on the one hand to been left to themselves." 15 minimize the problem of defining the "enough" or on the other to justify the misuse of the 14 Johannes Conradus Dannhawerus, Her­ doctrine of accommodation to represent God as enel,tica sacra sive methodus exponendarum s. accommodating Himself to the moral and spir­ litel'amm (Strasbourg: Josias Staedelius, 1654), itual defects or the willful ignorance of the p.409. writers. 15 Distinguendo inter genus loquendi et 18 Quoad aeeidentalem styli conformationem inter ipsas phrases, verba et voces: Genus lo­ singulari O"1JVX;():tCi~6.0"EL Spiritus sanetus se de­ quendi debebant scriptores s(acri} quotidiano misfit} ad ingenia, nationes, studia itEO:n:VEU­ 1tS1+i et consuetudini, vel etiam informationi, et cremv, quo factum ut Esaias (regius sanguis) hinc quoque diversitas styli praesertim prophe­ nitidius, Amos humilius, Lucas literis graecis tici orituf". Nam prout informat; aut assuefaeti imbutus elegantius seripserit (Johannes Con­ erant ad sublimius humiliusve loquendi et seri­ radus Dannhawerus, OLl.01:0il>IA christiana, bend;' genus, sic eodem usus Spiritus S(anctus} phaen. I-g; [Strasbourg: Fridericus Spoor, sese homi17um indoli attemperare et eondescen­ 1649}. pp. 34-35). dere volu;'t atque ita res easdem per alios mag- 582 WHAT DOES "INERRANCY" MEAN?

John William Baier (1647-1695), fol­ to 1757), another Wolffian, rejected an lowing his father-in-law John Musaeus infusion of the inspired matter and dicta­ (1613-1681 ), declares: "Since the pri­ tion by the Holy Spirit. He held that in mary Author of Scripture is one, and all the selection and organization of material Scripture is God-breathed, it will have to and in the style and presentation God re­ be said that the H[oly) Spirit accommo­ tained as much of each Biblical author's dated Himself to the ability and situation way of thinking as was consistent with the of His secretaries in providing them with purpose of the revelation, and that the the verbal concepts." 16 authors had to use their full mental powers The Wolffians went farther. James Car­ and exert all diligence to obtain so much pov (1699-1768) held that the Sacred historical information and to comprehend Scriptures speak of physical and mathe­ general verities.1S matical matters "according to the appear­ II ance (sectfndttm appare12tiam)" or "accord­ It is unquestionably true that we can ing to an optical truthfulness (secundum infer some of the implications of the truth veritatem opticam) ," but not "according to of the Sacred Scriptures from the fact that physical truthfulness (secundum veritatem the Holy Spirit of truth is the principal physicam)." Since the "physical truthful­ Author of the prophetic and apostolic ness" does not belong to the purpose of writings. We may properly ask here, how­ revelation, it cannot be proved out of Holy ever, if such an inference is rational or Scripture,17 Siegmund Baumgarten (1706 strictly theological. It is equally true that we can infer other ni/icentius, per alios tenuius exprimere; quod vera has et non alias voces ve/ aequipollentes implications of truth of the Sacred Scrip­ adhibuerunt scriptores sacri, hoc unice ab in­ tures from the Old and New Testaments. stinctu et inspiratione divina est. Spiritus S{anctus) enim ad scriptorum sacrorum capttlm But side by side with these reflections ac indolem sese attemperavit ut mysteria secun­ we must take into account the actual Sa­ dum C01ZJUetztm dicelldi modztm consignarentttr. cred Scriptures in the concrete forms in Adeoque ea verba Spiritus S{anctus} amanuen­ sibus inspiravit, qui bus alias usi luissent, si sibi which we have them by God's providence luissent f'elieti (Quenstedt, quaest. 4, fontes, through the church's faithful transmission. dist. 1; pp. 75-76). To begin with, we can well remind our­ 16 Cumque auctor Scripturae primarius unus selves that God does not use the original sit, ac tota Scriptlira {}EOJtVEUO"W<;, latendum est, Spiritum S{anctum} ipsum in sliggerendis Biblical documents to communicate His verborum conceptibus accommodasse se ad in­ truthful Word to men, nor does He even do/em et condition em amanuensium (Johan­ make exclusive use of the Sacred Scriptures nes Guilielmus Baierus, Compendium theologiae positivae, prolegomena, cap. II, sect. 7 g; ed. in their original languages for this pur­ Carolus Ferdinandus Guilielmus Walther, I pose. Our own experience certifies that He [St. Louis: Officina Synodi Missouriensis Lu­ communicates His truth to men in the theranae, 1879}, 111). King James Version, the Rheims-Douai 17 Jacobus Carpovius, Oeconomia salutis novi testamenti cell theologia revelata dogmatica version, the Revised Standard Version, the methodo scienti/ica adornata, I, 166-168, cited in Karl Gottlieb Bretschneider, Systematische 18 Siegmund Jacob Baumgarten, Evangeli­ Entwickelung aller in der Dogmatik vorkom­ sche Glattbenslehre, ed. Johann Salomon Semler, menden Beg-rifle (Leipzig: Johann Ambrosius III (Halle: Johann Justinus Gebauer, 1760), Barth, 1819), p.307. 35-37. WHAT DOES "INERRANCY" MEAN? 583

New English Bible, the Confraternity 1:46). When the New Testament quotes translation, and the paraphrases of J. B. the Old it often refers merely to the human Phillips and the late Ronald Knox, as author(s) by title or name Matt. 2:1, 17, He has done through the Lztther-Bibel, the 23; 3:3; 4:14; 12:17; 15:7; 21:4; Acts Vulgate, the Itala, the Peshitta, and the 2:16,31,34; 7:48; Rom. 9:29; 10:19,20). Septuagint. This is not without importance The author of the Third Gospel undertakes for our inquiry. to write an orderly account of the events But setting aside this consideration, the that underlie the Christian faith (Luke form of the Scriptures, as we have them 1: 3 ). St. Paul affirms that he gives no in the original Hebrew and Aramaic and command of the Lord. (1 Cor. 7: 25) Greek, possesses elements of decisive sig­ It is data like these which determined nificance for the nature of the truth of the ancient formula that God, or, by more Sacred Scriptures. specific appropriation, the Holy Spirit (de­ 'X e shall refrain from entering upon scribed in the Nicaenoconstantinopoli­ the whole question of the inspiration of tanum as LO AuM]onv ~La LOlV Jt(?O

We have Sacred Scriptures which have substitute for a carefully administered in­ taken over from the secular world of men telligence test or a realistic appraisal of not only vocables, morphologies, grammars, his high school grades. The Revised Stan­ syntactical systems, idioms and conceptual dard Version paraphrases and interprets complexes, but also the remnants of a var­ the bare vocables of the Hebrew: "A wise ied melange of philosophies, natural his­ man's heart inclines him toward the right, tories, cosmologies, and eschatologies 20 but a fool's heart toward the left." On the that had passed into the public domain. basis of this verse so interpreted we could These also, and not merely the words that not, however, correlate the frequency of are catalogued in Gesenius, Bauer-Arndt­ right turns with automobile drivers' in­ Gingrich, and Kittel-Friedrich, are the telligence. The point is that in this pas­ vehicles of the divine revelation. sage the necessity of providing a meta­ In determining what is vehicle and phorical rather than a literal interpreta­ what is cargo we can often appeal to the tion derives not from anything in the general hermeneutical principle of the pre­ Sacred Scriptures but from human expe­ sumed internal self-consistency of the doc­ rience. ument being inquired into. In the special Again, when Mal. 1: 11 (in the Sp1!lt case of the Sacred Scriptures theology has of Joshua 10:13; Ps.19:4-6; Matt.5:45) formulated this principal as "Scripture in" speaks of the sun's rising and of its setting, terprets Scripture (Scriptura Scripturam it is our contemporary knowledge of the interpretatur)" or some equivalent thesis. heavens and not something in the Sacred We still have always to decide, of course, Scriptures that make us read this as a pre­ which "Scriptura" is in the nominative Copernican phenomenal accommodation. and which is in the accusative, but the We can say the same thing about refer­ principle is a useful as well as a valid one. ences to the four corners of the earth in Sometimes, however, this principle does Is. 11:12 and Rev.7:1 and to the constel­ not give us the decisive help that the sit­ lations in Job 38:31. When our contem­ uation calls for, and we are thrust back porary knowledge of the natural order upon our human experience. By way of seems to conflict with a literal acceptance example, Eccl.10:2 reads lev chiikhiim of other Biblical assertions, may we not consider the possibility that here, too, we limino welev kesil lishmo'lo. The King James Version translated this: "A wise are dealing with prescientific descriptions which are not integral to the divine reve­ man's heart is at his right hand, but a fool's lation? heart at his left." Superficially this is a scientific statement about human anat­ Turning to other details, we have such omy. It would be inappropriate, however, phenomena as a passage which seems to be to deduce from it that we could have a col­ taken from the Book of Zechariah ascribed lege applicant step for a chest X-ray in in Matt. 27 :9,10 to Jeremiah; St. Jerome front of a fluorescent screen calibrated in claims to have seen an Apocryphon of intelligence quotient points and let this Jeremiah which contained the citation word for word. In quoting from the Old 20 'tIlQ'tC1.QWO"Il<; in 2 Peter 2 :4, for example. Testament, the New Testament is likely WHAT DOES "INERRANCY" MEAN? 585 to expand the Old Testament source, ab­ the Biblical account (Ex. 7:11,22; 8:7,18, breviate it, alter it, paraphrase it, and even 19) but apparently from Jewish tradition. quote it according to the Septuagint (Acts St. Stephen's speech in Acts 7 raises in 15:16-18 quoting Amos 9:11, 12 and Heb. verse 4 the issue of the chronological rela­ 10:5-9 quoting Ps.40:6·8 are instructive tion of the departure of Abraham from examples) . This procedure has implica­ Haran to the death of Terah in the light tions for the importance of the precise of Gen. 11:26, 32 and 12:4 and the pos­ words and a number of other issues.21 At sible dependence of the Protomartyr on an times we find in the New Testament a the­ oral tradition that was likewise familiar to ologically conditioned use of the Old Testa­ Philo the Jew (for another example see ment that possibly can best be described as v. 23). Verses 15 and 16 raise the question allusive.22 The New Testament can allego­ of the burial place of Jacob (Shechem or rize an Old Testament pericope and appear Hebron-Mamre) when compared with to assume that the allegorical meaning will Gen. 50: 13 (see also 23: 16-18 and Josh. be self-evident to the reader (Gal. 4; 21 to 24:32).23 31) . St. Paul can quote Eliphaz the Admittedly an argument from literary Temanite (Job 5:13) as authoritative in parallels is not intrinsically decisive. Nev­ 1 Cor. 3: 19. The supernatural rock that ertheless, the striking similarities of Matt. followed Israel according to 1 Cor. 10:4 11:28-30 and Ecclus. 51:23,26·27 raise does not occur in the Old Testament but questions. The situation is similar when in the Jewish tradition that the Targum of we compare Luke 12: 19, 20 with Ecclus. Pseudo-Jonathan represents. In Gal. 3: 16 11: 19; Rom. 1:20-23,26,29-31 with Wis­ St. Paul can make a point of the difference dom 12:24; 13:5,8; 14:24-27; Rom. 9:20 between O'1tEQ[W and

12: 11; 26 29:9,10; and Rev. 21: 18-21 with saron.28 This is not to deprecate the value Tobit 13: 16, 17. of the vast and reverent harmonistic effort Jude 6 seems to have affinities with Gen. that Christian exegetes have expended 6: 1-4 (compare the aYY£AOL of the Codex upon the gospels. Yet the fact persists that Alexandrinus rescriptor in verse 2) as am­ no harmony is wholly satisfying. We plified by 1 Enoch 10:4-6. In verse 9 Saint achieve the illusion of continuity only at Jude apparently derives his information the cost of suppressing data which the about the account of St. Michael's contest sacred writers provide by divine inspira­ with Satan from a form of the pseudepi­ tion. The Synoptic problem and the prob­ graphic Assumption of Moses known to lem of the Fourth Gospel remain real the early church fathers. Verses 14,15 problems. From the genealogies and the chronology in the infancy narratives to the explicitly ascribe a passage from 1 Enoch events of the resurrection and the 40 days 1:9 to the "seventh-from-Adam Enoch"­ following, we are confronted with episodes an ascription that has long given Christian that appear in different sequences (for exegetes concern. Tertullian felt that it example, Matt. 8: 1-4 and Luke 5: 12-16; conferred ranonical authority on the whole 6: 20); with logia that appear in different of 1 Enoch. Some contemporaries of Saint forms which seem to reflect editorial ad­ Jerome rejected the whole Letter of Saint justment in view of a different Sitz im Jude because it quoted a pseudepigraphon. Leben (for example, Mark 10: 17,18; Luke · St. Augustine, whose view prevailed gen­ 18: 18,19; Matt. 19: 16,17); with subsidi­ erally, was willing to allow St. Jude to ary details that it is impossible to reconcile quote a single passage from 1 Enoch with­ with certainty; and with parables that out impairing his own apostolic authority change their audience from evangelist to or conferring canonical status on the entire evangelist (for instance, Matt. 18: 1,10-14; pseudepigraphon.27 Luke 15: 2-7). Objectively, the question Again, God has given us the account of whether the rooster crowed once or twice His reconciling action in Jesus Christ not before St. Peter's third denial of our Lord in one account, but in four gospels. As on Good Friday morning (Mark 14:30,72; the Gospel came from the breath and Matt.26:34, 74, 75; Luke 22:34, 60, 61; breathing of God, it was a "four-shaped John 13:38; 18:27) is minor. More im­ Gospel" (euangelion tetramorphon), to use portant are such problems as the time of the happy term of St. Irenaeus. It was the the end in the "Little Apocalypse" of Mark anti-egghead Gnostic heretic Tatian who 13 and its parallels (or recensions) in · created for the church the first diates- Matt. 24:1-42 and Luke 21:5-35, and the text of the words with which our Lord in­ 26 In Biblical Greek %

to 39, and the time and place of Aaron's nologies, a modern historiographic sense, J~ath when compared with Num. 20: 1, 22 harmonistically consistent adjustment of to 29; 33:38; and Deut.32:50. sources to one another, and meticulously The preceding is not intended to pro­ exact descriptions of attendant historical, vide an exhaustive, but merely a repre­ physical, and other scientific details. These sentative, list of problems.29 Every serious were not generally the qualities of the men student of the Sacred Scriptures is aware or of the cultures which the Holy Spirit of these and many other difficulties. Ad­ employed, and where these qualities are mittedly, it is possible to explain some or absent in the Sacred Scriptures, this, too, all of the cited difficulties to one's own is a mark of the Holy Spirit's condescen­ satisfaction. But that they are genuine sion and accommodation not to error but difficulties remains a fact attested by the to humanity. Admittedly the picture of the volume of effort that Christian exegetes Sacred Scriptures that emerges when all and systematicians have expended in en­ these factors are taken into account is likely deavoring to account for them from the to be less tidy than a purely theoretical days of the primitive church on. It may construct, but it is also likely to be more be an index to the gravity of the problem realistic, more correct, and more genuinely that we in our time have difficulty in find­ truthful. ing a categorical label for these Scriptural TIl phenomena. We quite properly shy away It does not seem to this writer that we from "contradictions," "errors," and "mis­ are serving the best interests of the church takes." Yet such euphemisms as "para­ when either we continue formally to re­ doxes," "discrepancies," "disagreements," reaffirm the inerrancy of the Sacred Scrip­ and "variations" are hardly better. tures or even continue to employ the term. The fact is that the truth of the Sacred Outside our circles, with the possible ex­ Scriptures is something to be evaluated in ception of the Roman Catholic Church, the terms of their own criteria and of the term "inerrancy" has in general become qualities which they themselves exhibit. the shibboleth of seCtarians, often of ob­ These qualities do not - speaking gen­ scurantist sectarians. For them the term erally - include great precision in formu­ usually implies commitment to certain lation, stenographic fidelity in reporting traditional interpretations which they place exact words, prosaic literalism in interpre­ on certain Bible passages and which they tation, bibliographically accurate citations apparently deem essential to their spiritual of author and title, comprehensive docu­ security. The motivation of the highly mentation, carefully synchronized chro- vocal publishers of certain periodicals in Lutheran circles is obviously complex, but 29 This writer does not intend to imply that this same kind of compulsive necessity some other more modern issues - for example, the Dominical institution of Holy Baptism and seems to animate the insistence of some of the Sacrament of the Altar, or the dispens­ of them on the term "inerrancy." In this ability of the virgin conception (and birth) situation the continual reaffirmation of our of our Lord as an article of the creed because only the infancy accounts of Matthew and Luke formal adherence to the inerrancy of the affirm it expliciciy - are in the same category. Sacred Scriptures is perilous. Our motives WHAT DOES "INERRANCY" MEAN? 589 may be most laudable and our understand­ pertes)" is for the dogmaticians basically ing of the implications of the term for a negative way of affirming inspiration; ourselves may be most correct. Yet we run (2) this thesis implies a situation which the risk of confirming our contemporary Quenstedt sketches in these words: "Not sectarians in their confnsion and of pro­ only the canonical books of the sacred jecting a false image of our own theolog­ volume themselves, but even the letters, ical position. points, and words of the original text sur­ At the same time we should carefully vive without any corruption, that is, the check our own motivation for not using Hebrew text of the O[1d] T[estament] the word "inerrancy." Certainly a mere ... and also the Greek text of the N[ew] desire to avoid being classified as obscu­ T[estament] ... have been preserved by rantists would not suffice, in view of our the divine providence complete and un­ Lord's words, "Whoever is ashamed of Me corrupted." 31 This is a position which and of My words in this adulterous and modern textual criticism renders untenable. sinful generation, of him will the Son of As this has become more and more ap­ Man be ashamed when He comes in the parent, the claim of inerrancy has increas­ glory of the Father with the holy angels" ingly been posited only of the originals.32 (Matt. 8:38). Again, we cannot refuse to The original documents are inaccessible employ the word "inerrancy" on the ground and irrecoverable, however. The ascription that the Biblical doctrine of inspiration is of inerrancy to these documents is there­ docetic, just as we cannot entertain the fore an irrelevant and ultimately super­ charge that the Biblical doctrines of the fluous predication which says nothing more virgin conception (and birth) or of the than that inspiration is the act of the sinlessness of our Lord, for instance, are Holy Spirit and that God is truthful. For docetic. copies - which is all that we have to A second reason for ceasing formally to appeal to today - we can at most claim reaffirm our formal commitment to the in­ 31 Non tantum lib.,; ipsi canonic; sac,.; co­ errancy of the Sacred Scriptures is its dicis, sed etiam literae, puncta et ve,.ba textus ultimate theological irrelevance. A little originalis sine omni corruptione supersunt, hoc noticed footnote in the doctoral disserta­ est, Hebraeus textus V{eteris} T{estamenti} ... itemque textus Graecus N{ovi} T(estamenti} tion of Robert Preus points out that "the . . . per divinam providentiam integer et in­ dogmaticians use the same arguments and corruptus conservatus est (Quenstedt, quaest. 18, proof texts for the inerrancy of Scripture thesis; p. 194. See also quaest. 19, ekthesis, obs. 2; p. 206). as for its inspiration." 30 This statement, quite correct for the later dogmaticians like 32 For the sake of precise distinction alone, without drawing any conclusions from his stipu­ Abraham Calovius (1612-1686), whom lation, Quenstedt had distinguished between the Preus instances as an example, illustrates original manuscripts and the no-longer-existing two points: (1) the thesis that the Sacred autographic copies which Moses, the prophets, and the aposdes "wrote with their own hands Scriptures are "free of error (errore ex- or which in the case of copies written by others they had attested with their signatures" (sua 30 Robert Preus, The Inspiration of Scripture manu scripserunt, vel per alios scripta sua sub­ (Mankato, Minn.: Lutheran Synod Book Com­ scriptiane canfirmarunt). Ibid., quaest. 19, ek­ pany, 1955),p. 78,n.2. thesis, obs. 2. 590 WHAT DOES "INERRANCY" MEAN? a relative, a derived, a virtual inerrancy. the Word of God" is a maximum state­ But "inerrant" -like other adjectives com­ ment; we cannot say more than this by pounded with a negative prefix - implies affirming that the irrecoverable original a perfect logical dichotomy that has no documents of the Sacred Scriptures were middle term. It confronts us with the same inerrant. For these reasons, it would seem kind of absolute antithesis as complete­ that we ought to cease affirming the in­ incomplete, perfect-imperfect, commensur­ errancy of something that practically does able-incommensurable, demonstrable-inde­ not exist. It is to be doubted if the dis­ monstrable, exact-inexact, accurate-inaccu­ tinction between the inerrancy of the Sa­ rate, organic-inorganic. Thus by inference cred Scriptures as we have them and the it compels us to say less about the Sacred inerrancy of the irrecoverable original doc­ Scriptures as we actually have them than uments is one which a layman appreciates. we as Lutherans want to be able to say What is significant is that the lone about them. statement which calls the Old Testament Again, since the original documents are {}E6JtvEUaLo~ (2 Tim. 3 : 16) is made with inaccessible and apparently irrecoverable, reference not to autographs nor apparently the ascription of inerrancy to these docu­ even to apographs, but in the context ments is in the last analysis practically (since Lois and Eunice are Greek names irrelevant.aa "The Sacred Scriptures are of Jewish women and Timothy had not been circumcised prior to Acts 16: 3) pre­ a3 A senior member of the St. Louis faculty sumably with reference to the Septuagint has shared with this writer the following quo­ tation illustrating the argument from textual Version.34 criticism as he was compelled to confront it in To repeat: Our better information in his early graduate studies over four decades ago. It is footnote 1 on page 3 of Marvin R. Vincent, the field of textual criticism and textual A History of the Textual Criticism of the New history makes many of the now naive­ Testament (New York: The Macmillan Com­ pany, 1899): seeming oversimplifications of the 16th "Nothing can be more puerile or more des­ and 17th centuries untenable. We may perate than the effort to vindicate the divine still marvel reverently and gratefully - as inspiration of Scripture by the assertion of the verbal inerrancy of the autographs, and to erect that assertion into a test of orthodoxy. For- essary for mankind, and if such a revelation, in "1. There is no possible means of verifying order to be inspired, must be verbally inerrant, the assertion, since the autographs have utterly the necessity has not been met. There is no disappeared. verbally inerrant, and therefore no inspired, "2. It assumes a mechanical dictation of the revelation in writing. The autographs have van· ;,psissima verba to the writers, which is contra· ished, and no divine guidance or interposition dieted by the whole character and structure of has prevented mistakes in transcription or in the Bible. printing. The text of Scripture, in the best "3. It is of no practical value, since it fur­ form in which critical scholarship can exhibit nishes no means of deciding between various it, presents numerous errors and discrepancies." readings and discrepant statements. 34 This is of course not intended to preclude "4. It is founded upon a pure assumption or to brand as futile the theological exploration as to the character of inspiration - namely, that of the possible implications of the mysterious inspiration involves verbal inerrancy, which is process of inspiration; it is intended to affirm the very thing to be proved, and which could be that in the present situation of The Lutheran proved only by producing inerrant autographs. Church - Missouri Synod the affirmation of in· "5. If a written, inspired revelation is nec- errancy is practically irrelevant. WHAT DOES "INERRANCY" MEAN? 591 we should - at the providence of God The posture of faith is always a posture that has preserved so many witnesses to symbolized by the word "nevertheless." the New Testament text which enable us The question is: What words shall we to recreate the presumptive original with say before and after "nevertheless"? such a high degree of probability, and that Are we not finally most reverent if we has disclosed so many new and unexpected say that many of the matters that detractors witnesses to the Old Testament text in our of the Sacred Scriptures have decried as own time. But we can no longer affirm error are accidental to the divine revelation the doctrine of the incorruptibility of the and do not affect its substance 36 and if we transmitted text with the enthusiasm or then affirm, "Nevertheless, the Sacred the scope with which the 17th century felt Scriptures are without any qualification the itself free to do so. Word of God and, by God's own declara­ Furthermore, it seems to be a widely tion, true"? 37 held conviction that the doctrine of the Whether we retain the term "inerrancy," inerrancy of the Sacred Scriptures guar­ however, or content ourselves with affirm­ antees the orthodoxy of the church or the ing that the Sacred Scriptures are God's person who affirms it. No such necessary Word and true, it is essential that we correlation exists. This ought to be clear approach this thesis from the a priori of from the fact that in our time Orthodox our baptism and with a clear appreciation Jews (in the case of the Old Testament), of the self-declared purposes of the Sacred the Roman Catholic integralists, the neo­ Scriptures and with a serious effort to ap­ calvinist and postfundamentalist groups in preciate the purpose of the individual the National Association of Evangelicals, author. the bulk of the organized membership of God has given us a revelation of His the Holiness and Pentecostal movements, the Seventh-day Adventists and Jehovah's 36 At many points we may feel impelled to witnesses all affirm the inerrancy of the repeat the distych tag-line that the already cited Sacred Scriptures. In past history the first August Pfeiffer quotes as the reason why some psalms are acrostics and other are not: Sic placuit church father explicitly to affirm the Sacred Domino; dicere plura nolas (That's the way it Scriptures' absolute freedom from error, pleased the Lord; to say anything more would St. Jerome, held (with Origen, who taught be impious). (Pfeifferus, p. 95.) We must learn to take the Scriptures as they are and not a rigid verbal inspiration) that the Sacred make them out to be something else in order Scriptures contained ludicrous and blas­ to fit our theological theories about them. phemous elements which demanded an 37 This in no way minimizes the task of the allegorical interpretation if the Holy exegete or depreciates the contribution of the archaeologist and the textual critic; it merely 35 Spirit's integrity were to be vindicated. suggests that their primary mission is to be concerned with the authentically religious as­ 35 Obviously, in view of the line that runs pects of the Sacred Scriptures rather than with from Jean Astruc to the post-Bultmannians, a the secular aspects, just as the fact that our formal denial of the inerrancy of the Sacred heavenly Father has counted the hairs on the Scriptures does not guarantee orthodoxy. But head of every human being shows His infinite an unqualified affirmation of the inerrancy of concern for each of us without being of specific the Sacred Scriptures is no prophylaxis against significance for the working barber or beau­ doctrinal error or even heresy either. tician. 592 WHAT DOES "INERRANCY" MEAN? being and of His purpose in the Sacred knowledge of the literary types available Scriptures to enlighten us in our native to the Holy Spirit and to the Biblical darkness (Ps. 119: 105); to create and writers was more meager than it is now. establish in us faith in Christ as God's Son The discoveries of archaeology have dis­ (John 20:21); to provide us with instruc­ closed to us many parallel patterns of ex­ tion (aLauaxuALu), to reprove us, to cor­ pression which are contemporary with and rect us, to train us in righteousness, that which in some cases even antedate the as men of God we may be complete, Biblical documents.38 equipped for every good work (2 Tim. It has become abundandy dear that we 3:16); to give us the right mind-set need not and indeed cannot force all the (VO'l){tCOLU, 1 Cor. 10: 11); to provide our Biblical documents into the relatively few hope with encouragement (:n:u!,.>uXJ,YjaL<;, literary categories that derive largely from Rom.15:4) and for other religious ends. a post-Biblical classical literary tradition. He did not give us His revelation to satisfy Far less can we impose upon the sacred our curiosity (even about spiritual things) authors the canons of historiography that or to give us information about the subject underly the Cambridge or the PropyHien matter of secular disciplines like geog­ histories. Before we cry either "error" or raphy, mathematics, history, astronomy, "literal truth," we need to be sure that we physics, and genealogy. understand as fully as the present state of We need equally to be as sure as we knowledge permits the objectives of the can be about the purpose of a particular literary type that the Bible is using. Here, author in a particular passage. Where the since these types do not come neatly la­ stress is on a religious purpose, his con­ beled in Holy Scripture, we must in charity cern with the precise and literal accuracy allow for differences of isagogical and her­ of concomitant historical or scientific de­ meneutical opinion. tail may recede into the background. The In applying the criterion of human ex­ presentation may be cast in a form that perience to which we have previously ad­ to the boundless wisdom of the primary verted, there will likewise be inevitable Author of the Sacred Scriptures seems best differences of opinion - for example, as calculated to impart the religious truth at to the extent that midrashic influence can issue to all kinds of hearers and readers be allowed in the Old Testament or in the through the centuries of human history. New. Obviously, we who believe in the Here, too, the possibility must not be over­ almighty power of a Pantocrator to whom looked that the human author is using a nothing will be impossible will not ex­ literary form natural to him but not part clude the possibility of miracle at every of our literary conventions - such as a point on principle, but the other principle Semitic form of epic in the first chapters of the economy of miracles may induce of Genesis and apocalyptic in the last book 38 This does not imply that the Sacred of the canon. Many of the judgments that Scriptures are dependent for their revelatory even some Lutheran theologians make content on these non-Israelite documents or to suggest, for example, that the Genesis narratives about the inerrancy of the Sacred Scrip­ are merely Shumero-Akkadian mythology de­ tures still derive from a time when scholars' mythologized. WHAT DOES "INERRANCY" MEAN? 593 one or the other of us to accept an alter­ of God, and that they are true and de" native solution in certain cases. pendable. But what if we are explicitly In all this, of course, we need to :find challenged? Then we should :first refuse a defensible mean. We cannot capitulate to reply to loaded questions with "yes" to the uncritical Athenian enthusiasm that or "no." Next we should point out the greets every novel isagogical theory or inadequacy of "inerrancy" as a term from exegetical interpretation as an assured re­ the standpoint of communication. Then sult. Nor can we cherish the traditionalist we should patiently affirm our acceptance skepticism that refuses to concede any pos­ of everything that the Sacred Scriptures say sible merit to a view which calls into about themselves and that the Lutheran question a personally long-held, and on symbols say about them. Finally we should occasion very vocally asserted, position. assert our conviction that the Sacred Scrip­ At the same time, we must take care tures have the Holy Spirit as their princi­ not to deny the inerrancy of the Sacred pal Author, that they are the Word of Scriptures, both for pastoral reasons and God in the language of historical human because the initial affirmation of the free­ beings, and that they are true and depend­ dom of the Sacred Scriptures from error able. In the meantime, we need to con­ was designed to reinforce and to affirm tinue to explore reverently and prayerfully in other words the doctrine that the Sacred together the isagogical and hermeneutical Scriptures have the Holy Spirit as their problems and possibilities that these con­ principal Author and that they are the victions about the Sacred Scriptures implyo truthful word of the God of Truth to men. We shall approach this exploration from An explicit denial of inerrancy would al­ various angles and upon the basis of back­ most certainly be interpreted as a rejection grounds that differ considerably in detail of the main thesis of which inerrancy is (despite our unanimous commitment to a Schutzlehre. our Lord, to His written revelation, and to The most defensible strategy, it would the Lutheran symbols). For that reason seem, would be to refrain from using the we must not expect complete agreement in term "inerrancy" in our presentations. In method or in results, nor dare we despair contexts where we should normally make of ourselves, of other theologians and a statement on this point, we should in­ clergymen, of our church body or of the stead affirm positively that the Sacred church because such agreement fails to Scriptures have the Holy Spirit as their materializeo principal Author, that they are the Word St. Louis, Moo