Westminster Confession of Faith 1.8
"The Old Testament in Hebrew (which was the native language of the people
of God of old), and the New Testament in Greek (which, at the time of
the writing of it, was most generally known to the nations), being
immediately inspired by God, and, by His singular care and providence,
kept pure in all ages, are therefore authentical; so as, in all controversies of religion, the Church is finally to appeal unto them. But, because these original tongues are not known to all the people of
God, who have right unto, and interest in the Scriptures, and are
commanded, in the fear of God, to read and search them, therefore they are to be translated in to the vulgar language of every nation unto which they come, that, the Word of God dwelling plentifully in all, they may worship Him in an acceptable manner; and, through patience and comfort of the Scriptures, may have hope."
Summary
The Scriptures were originally inspired by God in
Hebrew in the OT and Greek in the NT. These original writings, (the
"autographs"), were immediately inspired by God, differentiating them
from anything else we consider inspired. We often speak of people being "inspired"
and there is a sense in which we understand that. Even today, we can speak of
people being inspired by God to do things, write things, produce art, etc. But
only the Hebrew and Greek Scriptures are immediately inspired by God, as Peter
says, "for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God
spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit." (2 Peter 1:21).
These
autographs were not only immediately inspired by God, God has also kept their
words "pure in all ages". Even though we do not possess any of the
autographs, all of them probably being destroyed or lost by now, God has still
kept their original message and words pure in every age, free from corruption.
Since the autographs are lost, we have to conclude that God has done this
through the method of copying. Scribes throughout the centuries produced
thousands, tens of thousands of copies of the Hebrew OT and Greek NT. While
these scribes were not immediately inspired by God, as the apostles and
prophets were, their work was guided by God's care and providence to the extent
that He maintained the purity and trustworthiness of His originally inspired
Scriptures throughout all ages. This seems to present an issue for the critical
text position, which assumes that only recently, in the last 200 years, has the
Church recovered the original Scriptures, through the recovery of a small
number of older manuscripts and codices. The only way a critical text proponent
could say that God kept His word pure in all ages is to say that He did so in
secret, which would seem to contradict the second half of section 8, which
deals with God's desire to have His word dwell richly in His people.
The word
of God, properly translated, is rightly called the Word of God. The confession
treats the translation of God's word into common tongues as the way God intends
to spread His word to the nations, meaning that, while they were originally
written in Hebrew and Greek, the translations of Scripture into other tongues are
rightly treated as God's word. While knowledge of the Greek and Hebrew is an
excellent thing, it is not necessary to have God's word available to you.
+ Blessings in Christ +
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