I have been presenting some ideas about Divine Inspiration and Scripture. I’ve shared the thoughts about God’s personal involvement in the creation of the writings of the Old Testament (OT). The Church was born into a world that believed in the divine origin of the sacred books of the OT. This, of course, had a great influence on how the early Church, since it was composed mainly of Jewish followers of Jesus, came to look at the writings that eventually became the substance of the New Testament (NT).

Biblical scholars believe, however, that there are a few indications in the NT that a similar divine origin should be attributed to specifically Christian books. John’s book, Revelation, seems to explicitly refer to its origin as being from God. In second Peter, the author equates the epistles of Paul that are known to him with “the other Scriptures”, that is, the Jewish sacred books. Finally, in first Timothy there occurs the following remark: “For the Scripture says, ‘You shall not muzzle the ox that treads out the grain,’ and “the laborer is worthy of his wages.” The first citation is taken directly from Deuteronomy, while the second is identical to words in Luke’s Gospel. This may indicate that the author of first Timothy considers Luke, or a version of the Gospel of Luke, to be Scripture in as true a sense as the books of the OT. On the other hand, it may be that after citing Deuteronomy with the formula “the Scripture says,” the author of first Timothy then adds loosely, and without including it in Scripture, a well-known proverb that has the same meaning as the scriptural citation. This appears all the more probable when you find that in Luke (10:7) Jesus seems to think of the saying as a familiar proverb.

Conscious of the divine origin of the books of Scripture was a constant element in all Christian tradition after the completion of the NT. It should be noted, however, that the Church took some time before she recognized which books should be included in the NT. This consciousness manifested itself in the attempt by early church writers to develop a terminology that would adequately express the role of God in producing the sacred books. Frequently, the words of Scripture were referred to as the words of God or of the Holy Spirit. Consequently, God’s action with regard to the production of the inspired books was referred to as God’s speaking or saying the words of Scripture.