On the one side of biblical scholarship in the nineteenth century were these higher critics or rationalists who were committed to the presupposition that the Bible is a human book. On the other side were those committed to the presupposition that the Bible is the word of God. To put the matter directly, either the Bible is a supernatural book (the orthodox view) or it is a natural book (the higher or rationalist criticism view). The rationalist criticism view nearly dominated European biblical studies in the nineteenth century. By 1881 young Warfield saw it as a burgeoning problem in America. In attempts to stem it off, he proposed the article to one of the editors of The Presbyterian Review, A. A. Hodge, who decided to sign on as a cowriter.⁶

Probably neither Hodge nor Warfield had any idea what controversy this article would cause, both then and now. As for the controversies then, this article was the first in what would be a series of eight articles in The Presbyterian Review on the topics of inspiration and biblical criticism. The writer of two of those articles and also an editor of The Presbyterian Review, Charles A. Briggs, would face heresy trials for his views in his denomination, the Presbyterian Church USA, in the 1890s. Briggs will factor more significantly in the story of inerrancy in chapters 3 and 4, but for now it suffices to say that Briggs could not countenance the view of inspiration laid out by Hodge and Warfield in their article. More recently, Jack Rogers and Donald McKim have taken issue with the view as well, in their 1979 book The Authority and Interpretation of the Bible: An Historical Approach. The so-called Rogers/McKim proposal has Hodge and Warfield inventing the modern evangelical view of verbal, plenary inspiration and a concomitant view of inerrancy. This particular view ran perniciously through fundamentalism, from the ivy-strewn halls of Princeton Seminary to the pages of Harold Lindsell’s Battle for the Bible (1976). Rogers and McKim argued for another view, which they understood to be held by the biblical authors and by the leading lights of church history from Augustine on through the Reformers. The Princetonians had created the doctrine of verbal plenary inspiration and inerrancy ex nihilo. The Rogers/McKim proposal points to a less exacting view of inspiration and a more flexible view of inerrancy, which restricts inerrancy to matters of faith only.

Even more recently, Stanley Grenz contended that while the Princetonians were not as revisionist as Rogers and McKim made them out to be, their particular emphasis on inspiration was far too much. Grenz counters, “We can no longer construct our doctrine of Scripture in the classical manner,” with the Princetonians holding the honor of the classical manner. Even Islamic websites will cite the Hodge and Warfield article when speaking of the Christian view of plenary inspiration. Did Hodge and Warfield have any idea of the firestorm of controversy they were setting off with their article or how widely distributed it would be? They certainly couldn’t foresee being cited on Islamic websites. But they are. The sheer controversy surrounding this article is enough to warrant a close look at it. The article takes its place as one of the most significant texts in the formation of the orthodox view of the authority of Scripture.⁷

Figure 1.1: Inspiration Timeline
1857 Charles Hodge publishes “Inspiration.”
1881 A. A. Hodge and B. B. Warfield coauthor “Inspiration” in The Presbyterian Review.
1881 Charles A. Briggs publishes “Critical Theories of the Sacred Scriptures” in The Presbyterian Review in response to Hodge and Warfield.
1887 B. F. Westcott publishes Introduction to the Study of the Gospels.
1888 Basil Manly publishes The Bible Doctrine of Inspiration.
1889 Robert F. Horton publishes Inspiration and the Bible.
1891 Briggs gives inaugural address at Union Seminary, “The Authority of Holy Scripture.”
1891 Joseph Henry Thayer publishes The Change of Attitude Towards the Bible.
1892 PCUSA General Assembly issues Portland Deliverance.
1893 Briggs is suspended from the PCUSA.
1910 James Orr publishes Revelation and Inspiration.
1910 PCUSA General Assembly adopts the “Five Point Deliverance.”
1910–1915 The Fundamentals are published in twelve volumes, edited by R. A. Torrey, A. C. Dixon, and others.
1915 Warfield publishes articles on revelation and inspiration in Orr’s International Standard Bible Encyclopedia.
1922 Harry Emerson Fosdick preaches “Shall the Fundamentalists Win?”
1923 J. Gresham Machen publishes Christianity and Liberalism.
1925 PCUSA drops “Five Point Deliverance.”
1958 J. I. Packer publishes “Fundamentalism” and the Word of God.
1963 Dewey M. Beegle publishes The Inspiration of Scripture.
1966 G. C. Berkouwer publishes Holy Scripture (English translation in 1975).

Verbal, Plenary Inspirations (And Why It Matters)

The Hodge and Warfield article starts by expressing a particular definition and use of the term inspiration. They are not talking about a generic inspiration or about influence but about inspiration in a “fixed and narrow sense.” The closest synonym they offer is superintendence, adding, “This superintendence attended the entire process of the genesis of Scripture, and particularly the process of the final composition of the record.” This superintendence also includes “historic processes and the concurrence of natural and supernatural forces.” They conclude that this superintendence results in “the absolute infallibility of the record . . . in the original autograph.” By speaking of concurrence with the human authors, Hodge and Warfield acknowledge that the verbal, plenary view does not allow for the dictation theory or a mechanical view of inspiration. In the dictation view, the biblical authors might as well be in a trance as God takes over. Hodge and Warfield’s view allows for the personality and even the idiosyncrasies of the biblical authors to shine (or in some cases glare) through.⁸