Power In His Presence

TITLE OF THE BOOK- RECORD OF REVELATION (THE BIBLE)

ABOUT THE AUTHOR-

Wilfrid Harrington, O.P. is an Irish Dominican. He was born on March 18, 1927 in the parish of Eyeries (near Castletownbere), county cork, Ireland. After completing his secondary education at Dominican College, Newbridge, County Kildare, he entered the Dominican Order at St. Mary’s, Cork, in 1947. His philosophical studies were taken in Ireland and his theological studies at the Angelicum University, Rome (1951-1954), where after his ordination he received the S.T.L ET Lic. Continuing his study of scripture, Father Harrington earned the Baccalaureate in this field in 1955. Then he entered the Ecole Biblique, Jerusalem, obtaining the degree Licentiate in scripture in 1957. His theological studies were taken at the University of St. Thomas, Rome, and his biblical studies at the Ecole Biblique, Jerusalem. Since returning to Ireland, he has been professor of Scripture at the Dominican House of Studies, Tallaght. He holds S.T.M. and L.S.S. degrees. He is currently professor of Scripture at the Dominican House of Studies, Dublin, Ireland; senior lecturer at the Milltown Institute of Theology, Dublin, and visiting lecturer at the Church of Ireland Theological College. He has taught summer school courses in the United States regularly since 1965. He is the author of several books, including: Explaining the Gospels; A Key to the Parables; Commentaries on Luke and Apocalypse; The Path of Biblical Theology. His keen scholarship, clarity of expression and sure grasp of basic theological issues place him among the leading contemporary Scripture scholars.

TABLE CONTENTS:

Forward v

Preface ix

Abbreviations of Sacred Scripture xiv

ONE: The written Word 3

1. THE BOOKS OF THE BIBLE 4

2. THE FORMATION OF THE BIBLE 6

1. The Old Testament 6

2. The New Testament 15

3. THE BIBLICAL WRITING IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER 16

TWO: The Word of God to Men 20

1. THE TWO INCARNATIONS 20

2. THE PEOPLE OF THE WORD 21

THREE: The Inspired Word 25

1. THE FACT OF INSPIRATION 25

1. The Testimony of Scripture 25

2. The Testimony of the Fathers 25

2. ERRONEOUS VIEWS ON INSPIRATION 27

3. REVELATION AND INSPIRATION 29

1. Revelation in the Bible 30

2. Inspiration in the Bible 32

4. SUMMARY 34

FOUR: The Psychology of Inspiration 35

1. DEFINITION OF INSPIRATION 35

2. PRACTICAL JUDGMENT AND SPECULATIVE JUDGMENT 36

3 REVELATION, INSPIRATION, AND JUDGMENT 38

4. HOW THE INSPIRED WRITER IS MOVED 39

5. THE EXTENT OF INSPIRATION 43

FIVE: The Inerrant Word 46

1. THE EXTENT OF INERRANCY 46

2. THE INTENTION OF THE SACRED WRITER 48

3. INERRANCY AND HISTORY 49

4. LITERARY FORMS 51

SIX: The Senses of Scripture 54

1. SECONDARY SENSES 55

2. FULLER SENSE AND TYPICAL SENSE 56

3. CONDITIONS AND CRITERIA OF THE SECONDARY SENSES 59

4. THE SECONDARY SENSES AND INSPIRATION 61

5. A NOTE ON THEOLOGICAL CONCLUSIONS AND ACCOMMODATION 62

SEVEN: The Canon of Scripture 63

1. CANON AND CANONICITY 63

2. DEUTEROCANONICAL AND APOCRYPHAL BOOKS 64

3. THE FORMATION OF THE CANON 65

1. History of the Canon of the Old Testament 65

2. History of the Canon of the New Testament 68

4. THE CRITERION OF CANONICITY 72

5. APPENDIX: THE QUMRAN SCROLLS 73

1. Discovery of the scrolls 73

2. The Qumran Library 74

3. The Essenes of Qumran 78

EIGHT: The Text of the Bible

1. THE LANGUAGE OF THE BIBLE 80

1. Hebrew 80

2. Aramaic 81

3. Greek 81

2. THE MANUSCRIPTS 82

1. Hebrew 82

2. Greek: New Testament 84

3. THE GREEK AND LATIN VERSIONS 93

1. The Septuagint (LXX) 93

2. The Versions of Aquila, Theodotion, and Symmachus 95

3. The Old Latin Versions (it) 96

4. The Vulgate (vg) 97

NINE: Biblical Criticisms 102

1. TEXTUAL CRITICISM 103

1. Verbal Criticism 103

2. External Criticism 104

3. Internal Criticism 105

2. LITERAL CRITICISM 106

1. The Language 106

2. The Composition 106

3. The Origin of Writing 108

3. HISTORICAL CRITICISM 109

4. THE BIBLE IN THE CHURCH 112

1. The Church and the Bible 112

2. The Authentic Interpretation of the Scripture 113

3. The Biblical Encyclicals 114

4. The Biblical Commission 114

5. CONCLUSION 116

APPENDIX: Karl Rahner and J. L. McKenzie on the Inspiration of Scripture 119

Bibliography 133

General Index 137

WHAT THE BOOK IS ALL ABOUT

Harrington describes the Bible in his book as the collection of writings which the Church has recognized as inspired. The New Testament differs from the Old Testament in being closely linked to the life and development of a people, the new people of God: the early Church. He goes ahead to explicate about the very fact that the Bible must be understood in two principles, which is the two incarnations: The human language and the human flesh. Scripture is not only like human language, it is human language in the fullest sense, and all the while it is the word of God.

He explains that the term Inspiration does not appear in the Bible apart from the theopneutos of 2 Tim. 3:16, although there is frequent reference to the action of the spirit on men. We may still speak of “scriptural” inspiration, but in view of the evidence, we must be careful not to make of it the absolute and exclusive manifestation of inspiration in the Bible. Revelation of the Bible is not the communication of abstract truths, but the concrete and living manifestation of a personal God as Creator and Savior.

Father Harrington Wilfrid explains here that just because scripture is everywhere inspired does not follow that it is always and everywhere inerrant-in a positive sense. Inspiration and inerrancy are coextensive, but under either of two aspects: positively when truth is at stake; negatively, in the forestalling of any teaching of error. Error involves a deliberate judgment at variance with existing reality. Error is possible when there is a definite intention to express a particular aspect of truth and when something is positively stated.

According to Harrington, the primary sense of the Bible is that which follows immediately from the letter of the text as the human author understood it. It is found in every part of scripture; otherwise we would have nonsense. The Holy Spirit, who has condescended to make use of a man in order to communicate with men, has not thereby confined Himself irrevocably within human limitations. The fundamental fact of inspiration and the matter of secondary senses presuppose the divine authorship of scripture; indeed these are realities only for one who acknowledges a divine author.

Finally O.P. Harrington accentuates on Textual Criticism and he states that it investigates the alterations which may have occurred in the text of a document with a view to restoring it to its original form. The directive principles of textual criticism are the same for all sorts of writing, although their application varies with the documents under consideration.