The Inspiration of Scripture in the English Reformers Illuminated by John Calvin -- By: Philip Edgcumbe Hughes

Journal: Westminster Theological Journal
Volume: WTJ 23:2 (May 1961)
Article: The Inspiration of Scripture in the English Reformers Illuminated by John Calvin
Author: Philip Edgcumbe Hughes


The Inspiration of Scripture in the English Reformers Illuminated by John Calvin

Philip Edgcumbe Hughes

{*Substantially the content of this article was delivered as a lecture at Westminster Theological Seminary on December 5, 1960.}

The question of the divine inspiration of holy Scripture was scarcely a live issue four hundred years ago, for it was not in dispute. However fierce the debate concerning the precise meaning of certain passages of Scripture, or concerning the scriptural validity of the claims made for the authority of the Church or of ecclesiastical tradition, that the Bible was the inspired Word of God was universally acknowledged. Accordingly, those who turn to the writings of the English Reformers expecting to find works in which the doctrine of the inspiration of holy Scripture is systematically developed or defended will be disappointed. This does not mean, however, that, on the one hand, the principle of the inspiration of holy Scripture was consistently and scrupulously applied by all who acknowledged it (had that been the case, there would have been no need for the Reformation), or, on the other hand, that the Reformers did not have much to say about the Bible and its origin, for of course they did, particularly with a view to the exposure and confutation of error and within the framework of the controversy with the papists over the locus of authority. The purpose of this paper will be to examine the teaching of the English Reformers, allowing them to speak for themselves on this important subject, and then to turn to John Calvin in order to illustrate the Reformed approach to certain problems, if they are such, which present themselves in the course of a detailed study of the biblical text.

Let us hear, then, what the English Reformers have to say.

In the first place, they unhesitatingly believed that God was the primary author of the Bible. Thus in his “Exposition

upon Nehemiah” James Pilkington affirms: “Scripture cometh not first from man, but from God; and therefore God is to be taken for the author of it, and not man….God then is the chiefest author of this book [Nehemiah], as he is of the rest of the scripture, and Nehemiah the pen or writer of all these mysteries”.1 Bishop Hugh Latimer, in his sermon preached before King Edward VI on 8 March 1549, proclaims: “The excellency of this word is so great, and of so high dignity, that there is no earthly thing to be compared unto it. The author thereof is so great, that is, God himself, eternal, almighty, everlasting. The Scripture, because of him, is also great, eternal, most mighty and holy”.

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