It would be difficult to invent methods of showing profound reverence for the text of Scripture as the very Word of God, which will not be found to be characteristic of the writers of the New Testament in dealing with the Old. Among the rich variety of the indications of their estimate of the written words of the Old Testament as direct utterances of Jehovah, there are in particular two classes of passages, each of which, when taken separately, throws into the clearest light their habitual appeal to the Old Testament text as to God Himself speaking, while, together, they make an irresistible impression of the absolute identification by their writers of the Scriptures in their hands with the living voice of God. In one of these classes of passages the Scriptures are spoken of as if they were God; in the other, God is spoken of as if He were the Scriptures: in the two together, God and the Scriptures are brought into such conjunction as to show that in point of directness of authority no distinction was made between them.
Examples of the first class of passages are such as these: Gal. 3:8, “The Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all the nations be blessed” (Gen. 12:1–3); Rom. 9:17, “The Scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up” (Ex. 9:16). It was not, however, the Scripture (which did not exist at the time) that, foreseeing God’s purposes of grace in the future, spoke these precious words to Abraham, but God Himself in His own person: it was not the not yet existent Scripture that made this announcement to Pharaoh, but God Himself through the mouth of His prophet Moses. These acts could be attributed to “Scripture” only as the result of such a habitual identification, in the mind of the writer, of the text of Scripture with God as speaking, that it became natural to use the term “Scripture says,” when what was really intended was “God, as recorded in Scripture, said.”
Examples of the other class of passages are such as these: Matt. 19:4, 5, “And he answered and said, Have ye not read that he which made them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife, and the twain shall become one flesh?” (Gen. 2:24); Heb. 3:7, “Wherefore, even as the Holy Ghost saith, To-day if ye shall hear his voice,” etc. (Ps. 95:7); Acts 4:24, 25, “Thou art God, who by the mouth of thy servant David hast said, Why do the heathen rage and the people imagine vain things” (Ps. 2:1); Acts 13:34, 35, “He that raised him up from the dead, now no more to return to corruption, … hath spoken in this wise, I will give you the holy and sure blessings of David” (Isa. 55:3); “because he saith also in another [Psalm], Thou wilt not give thy holy one to see corruption” (Ps. 16:10); Heb. 1:6, “And when he again bringeth in the first born into the world, he saith, And let all the angels of God worship him” (Deut. 32:43); “and of the angels he saith, Who maketh his angels wings, and his ministers a flame of fire” (Ps. 104:4); “but of the Son, He saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever,” etc., (Ps. 45:7) and, “Thou, Lord, in the beginning,” etc. (Ps. 102:26). It is not God, however, in whose mouth these sayings are placed in the text of the Old Testament: they are the words of others, recorded in the text of Scripture as spoken to or of God. They could be attributed to God only through such habitual identification, in the minds of the writers, of the text of Scripture with the utterances of God that it had become natural to use the term “God says” when what was really intended was “Scripture, the Word of God, says.”
The two sets of passages, together, thus show an absolute identification, in the minds of these writers, of “Scripture” with the speaking God.
In the same line with these passages are commonly ranged certain others, in which Scripture seems to be adduced with a subjectless λέγει or φησί, the authoritative subject—whether the divinely given Word or God Himself—being taken for granted. Among these have been counted such passages, for example, as the following: Rom. 9:15, “For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion” (Ex. 33:19); Rom. 15:10, “And again he saith, Rejoice, ye Gentiles, with his people” (Deut. 32:43); and again, “Praise the Lord, all ye Gentiles; and let all the people praise him” (Ps. 107:1); Gal. 3:16, “He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed (Gen. 13:15), which is Christ”; Eph. 4:8, “Wherefore he saith, When he ascended on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men” (Ps. 68:18); Eph. 5:14, “Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest and arise from the dead and Christ shall shine upon thee” (Isa. 60:1); 1 Cor. 6:16, “For the twain, saith he, shall become one flesh” (Gen. 2:24); 1 Cor. 15:27, “But when he saith, All things are put in subjection” (Ps. 8:7); 2 Cor. 6:2, “For he saith, At an acceptable time, I hearkened unto thee, and in a day of salvation did I succor thee” (Isa. 49:8); Heb. 8:5, “For see, saith he, that thou make all things according to the pattern that was showed thee in the mount” (Ex. 25:40); James 4:6, “Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud but giveth grace to the humble” (Prov. 3:34).