the human writers to whom they are ascribed being merely the instruments of the Holy Ghost, Who enlightened their minds and moved their wills, and to a certain extent directed them as an author directs his secretary.
1. The Council of Trent had declared that the whole of the books of the Old and New Testaments with all their parts were to be held as sacred and canonical. To this the Vatican Council adds: “The Church doth hold these [books] for sacred and canonical, not because, after being composed by merely human industry, they were then approved by her authority; nor simply because they contain Revelation without any error: but because, being written under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, they have God for their author, and as such have been handed down to the Church.” And even before the Council of Trent the Council of Florence had said, “[The Holy Roman Church] professeth that one and the same God is the author of the Old and the New Testaments, because the holy men of both Testaments spoke under the inspiration of the same Holy Ghost” (Decret. pro Jacobitis). Again, the Council of Trent takes the Divine origin of Scriptures for granted when it says, “The Holy Synod receiveth and venerateth with like devotion and reverence all the books both of the Old and New Testament, since the one God is the author of both.”
2. The doctrine defined by the councils is likewise taught in Holy Scripture itself. Christ and His Apostles when quoting the Old Testament clearly imply that God is the author. “The Scripture must needs be fulfilled which the Holy Ghost spoke before by the mouth (διὰ στόματος) of David” (Acts 1:16). “David himself saith in the Holy Ghost” (Mark 12:36; Matt. 22:43). Sometimes instead of “the Scripture saith” we find “God saith,” where it is the sacred writer who is speaking (Heb., passim). St. Paul distinctly declares that all Scripture is “breathed by God,” πᾶσα γραφὴ θεόπνευστος (2 Tim. 3:16). St. Peter also speaks of the Prophets as instruments in the hands of the Holy Ghost: “No prophecy of Scripture is made by private interpretation; for prophecy came not by the will of man at any time, but the holy men of God spoke
