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Concordia Theological Monthly 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 Lutheran Orthodoxy 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 Formula of Concord through inquires into the meaning of, rather than Leonard Hiitter (1563-1616) and John into the justification 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.
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