Pat Arensberg: God is the true author of Scripture

“The divinely revealed realities, which are contained and presented in the text of Sacred Scripture, have been written down under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.”  -Dei Verbum 11

We say that God is the true author of Sacred Scripture, but what does this mean?  Does it mean that God put pen to paper (or papyrus)?  Certainly not!  He used human authors.  But, how does that teamwork function?  In the middle-ages they thought of it as dictation.  In fact, there are several famous works of art depicting an angel dictating the Gospel to a human author.  This is not the accepted view.  The Church teaches that the human authors of Scripture, “made use of their powers and abilities, so that with Him acting in them and through them, they, as true authors, consigned to writing everything and only those things which He wanted.”  Dei Verbum #11  In other words they received the inspiration from God and then wrote as true authors, using their own way of speaking, their own judgment as to how to tell the story.

So it is very useful to study the history and language of the time.  It is vital to understand any idioms that the human authors might use.  However, it is also important to remember that the Holy Spirit guided the entire process.  The human authors did not inject anything the Holy Spirit did not want included.  They included everything the Holy Spirit wanted included and nothing more.  
In a few days we will cover ways to interpret or understand Scripture, but for now let us at least say that not all the Bible is written as a historical book, or as a scientific book.  We must understand the genre of the particular book in order to understand the truth that the Holy Spirit is wishing to communicate.

About Pat Arensberg Patrick Arensberg is the Director of Religious Education for the Archdiocese of Mobile. Previously, he taught for 17 years at McGill-Toolen Catholic High School, where he served as Chairman of the Theology Department. He attended the Gregorian University in Rome and holds an M.A. in Theology from Notre Dame Seminary in New Orleans. He is married to Connie and they live in Mobile with their 5 children.