Theological Term of the Week

infallibility of scripture
The quality whereby the inspired word of God cannot mislead, guaranteeing that it is a sure, safe, and reliable rule and guide in all matters.1

• From scripture:

  And we have something more sure, the prophetic word, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts…. (2 Peter 1:19 ESV)

• From The Belgic Confession, 1561, Article 7:

  The Sufficiency of the Holy Scriptures to be the Only Rule of Faith
  …[W]e must not consider human writings—no matter how holy their authors may have been—equal to the divine writings; nor may we put custom, nor the majority, nor age, nor the passage of time or persons, nor councils, decrees, or official decisions above the truth of God, for the truth is above everything else. …
  
  Therefore we reject with all our hearts everything that does not agree with this infallible rule, as we are taught to do by the apostles when they say, “Test the spirits to see if they are of God,”and also, “If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house.”

• From The Inspiration and Authority of Scripture by Herman Ridderbos: 

  Although, as far as I am aware, the equivalent of our word “infallibility” as attribute of the Scripture is not found in biblical terminology, yet in agreement with Scripture’s divine origin and content, great emphasis is repeatedly placed on its trustworthiness. The prophetic word is sure (bebaios) (2 Pet. 1:19). In the Pastoral Epistles Paul does not tire of assuring his readers that the word he has handed down is trustworthy (pistos) and worthy of full acceptance (1 Tim. 1:15; 3:1; 4:9; 2 Tim. 2:11; Titus 3:8). In Hebrews 2:3 the author writes that salvation was declared at first by the Lord and it was attested (made bebaios) to us by those who heard him. While it must be said of man that “all flesh is grass,” it is true, of the word of God that “it abides forever.” And “that word is the good news, which was preached to you” (1 Pet. 1:24,25).

  The abiding and trustworthy word of God has thus entered into the spoken and written word of the apostles. As Luke tells Theophilus, the tradition of what was heard and seen by those who were from the beginning eyewitnesses and ministers of the word has been written down so that he might recognize the trustworthiness (asphaleia) of that of which he has been informed (Luke 1:1-4). The whole of Scripture is full of declarations that the one who builds on the word and promise of God will not be ashamed (Isa. 28:16; Rom. 9:33; 1 Pet. 2:6); this applies to the spoken as well as to the written word of the apostles (John 19:35; 20:31; 1 John 1:1-3). The Scripture is infallible, so we may summarize, because it does not fail, because it has the significance of a foundation on which the ekklesia has been established and on which it must increasingly establish itself (Col. 2:6,7). … The authority and infallibility of the Scriptures are thus two sides of the same coin: namely, that the Scripture is of God.

Learn more:

1. Don Stewart: The Difference Between the Infallibility and Inerrancy of Scripture
2. Herman Ridderbos: The Inspiration and Authority of Scripture
3. S. Lewis Johnson: Inspiration, or Truth Transmitted (audio)
4. Brian Borgman: The Inerrancy and Infallibility of the Scriptures (audio)

Related terms:

• authority of scripture
• inerrancy of scripture
• inspiration of scripture

1 Paraphrased from the Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy.

Do you have a a theological term you’d like to see featured here as a Theological Term of the Week? If you email it to me, I’ll seriously consider using it.

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Clicking on the Theological Term graphic at the top of this post will take you to a list of all the previous theological terms organized in alphabetical order or by topic.

Theological Term of the Week

manuscripts
Handwritten copies of portions of the text of the Bible; ancient copies of Bible passages in the original languages.

• From scripture:

  And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he stood up to read. 17 And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written,

  18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
  because he has anointed me
  to proclaim good news to the poor.
  He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives
  and recovering of sight to the blind,
  to set at liberty those who are oppressed,
  19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

  20 And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. 21 And he began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” (Luke 4:16-20 ESV)

• From The Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy, Exposition: Transmission and Translation:

  Since God has nowhere promised an inerrant transmission of Scripture, it is necessary to affirm that only the autographic text of the original documents was inspired and to maintain the need of textual criticism as a means of detecting any slips that may have crept into the text in the course of its transmission. The verdict of this science, however, is that the Hebrew and Greek text appear to be amazingly well preserved, so that we are amply justified in affirming, with the Westminster Confession, a singular providence of God in this matter and in declaring that the authority of Scripture is in no way jeopardized by the fact that the copies we possess are not entirely error-free.

• From The Reliability of the New Testament Manuscripts, ESV Study Bible: 

  Today, any group of Christians gathered together can all read exactly the same words in their Bibles, that luxury is made possible by the invention of the movable-type printing press over five centuries ago. But such a luxury can also breed a false sense of confidence that the precise original wording of the Bible can be known. When it comes to the NT, the original 27 books disappeared long ago, probably within decades of their composition. Handwritten copies, or manuscripts, must be relied on to determine the wording of the original text. Yet no two manuscripts are exactly alike, and even the closest two early manuscripts have at least half a dozen differences per chapter (most of them inconsequent variations…). The discipline known as NT textual criticism is thus needed because of these two facts: disappearance of the originals and disagreements among the manuscripts.

• The Transmission of Scriptures by John H. Skilton:

  That God has preserved the Scriptures in such a condition of essential purity as we would expect is manifestly the case. The Hebrew text of the Old Testament has survived the millenniums in a substantially and remarkably pure form. Among the extant manuscripts of the Hebrew Bible from the Christian era there is an extraordinary agreement. …

  The text of the New Testament has also been preserved in a reliable form. There are vastly more manuscripts of the Greek New Testament than there are of the Hebrew Old Testament or of any other ancient work, and some of them were written not a great while after the time of the originals. We have about 5,000 manuscripts containing portions or the whole of the New Testament in Greek, whether of the continuous text or of selections for reading in church. …

  The New Testament is preeminent among ancient transmitted works in the number and variety of the witnesses to its text and in the proximity in date of the earliest extant manuscripts to the time when its books were written. … Surely if scholars justly feel that they have essentially the original text of classical works, which have comparatively few manuscript witnesses, may we not feel certain that in the vast and varied company of extant witnesses to the New Testament text (among which different early textual traditions are represented), the original text in practically every detail has been transmitted to us? 

Learn more:

1. Don Stewart: Aren’t There Mistakes in the Various Copies of the Bible?
2. John Stevenson: Has the Bible Been Changed?
3. John Stevenson: In Search of Ancient Manuscripts
4. Frederic G. Kenyon: The Story of the Bible, From Manuscript to Print
5. Michael Patton: Transmission of Scripture (mp3)

Related terms:

• autographs
• inerrancy of scripture
• inspiration of scripture
• textual criticism

Filed under Scripture

Do you have a a theological term you’d like to see featured here as a Theological Term of the Week? If you email it to me, I’ll seriously consider using it.

I’m also interested in any suggestions you have for tweaking my definitions or for additional (or better) articles or sermons/lectures for linking. I’ll give you credit and a link back to your blog if I use your suggestion.

Clicking on the Theological Term graphic at the top of this post will take you to a list of all the previous theological terms organized in alphabetical order or by topic.

Theological Term of the Week

autographs
The original writings of the Biblical authors; the documents of scripture that came from the pens of the sacred writers; also called autographa.

• From scripture:

  I Tertius, who wrote this letter, greet you in the Lord. (Romans 16:22 ESV)

  I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand. This is the sign of genuineness in every letter of mine; it is the way I write. (2 Thessalonians 3:17 ESV)

  Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things that have been accomplished among us, 2 just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word have delivered them to us, 3 it seemed good to me also, having followed all things closely for some time past, to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, 4 that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught. (Luke 1:1-4 ESV)

• From The Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy, Article X:

  We affirm that inspiration, strictly speaking, applies only to the autographic text of Scripture, which in the providence of God can be ascertained from available manuscripts with great accuracy. We further affirm that copies and translations of Scripture are the Word of God to the extent that they faithfully represent the original.

  We deny that any essential element of the Christian faith is affected by the absence of the autographs. We further deny that this absence renders the assertion of Biblical inerrancy invalid or irrelevant.

• From Salvation Belongs to the Lord by John Frame: 

  We use the term autographa, or autographs, to refer to the original, authoritative manuscripts of Bible books. Now, there is no promise in Scripture that when people make copies of these books, they will be perfect copies. Try it yourself: write out a copy of, say, Leviticus. Chances are, you’ll make some mistakes. This is why we say that only the autographs are perfectly authoritative.

  Some critics of our position say that this destroys our whole view of biblical authority; for if only the autographs are fully authoritative, and we don’t have the autographs, then for all practical purposes we don’t have a infallible, authoritative Bible. But take the following points into account:

  • Though we don’t have the actual autographs, we have access to the original text through the science of textual criticism, which compares various manuscript readings to determine the original. The important thing is to have the text, not to have the manuscript. 
  • Some textual problems remain unsolved; but these are very minor, for the most part, and they never affect any doctrine.

Learn more:

1. Paul Mizzi: The Autographs of Scripture
2. Frederic G. Kenyon: How the Books of the New Testament Were Written
3. Michael Kruger: The Difference Between Original Autographs and Original Texts

Related terms:

• inerrancy of scripture
• inspiration of scripture
• manuscripts
• textual criticism

Do you have a a theological term you’d like to see featured here as a Theological Term of the Week? If you email it to me, I’ll seriously consider using it.

I’m also interested in any suggestions you have for tweaking my definitions or for additional (or better) articles or sermons/lectures for linking. I’ll give you credit and a link back to your blog if I use your suggestion.

Clicking on the Theological Term graphic at the top of this post will take you to a list of all the previous theological terms organized in alphabetical order or by topic.