Dual Authorship in Matthew 1:22 and 2:15

"Although God is ultimately the source of Scripture (2 Tim 3:16), He chose to use human authors as the instruments through which He set forth His written revelation. In using these men to record His Word, God did not suppress the individual personalities or writing styles of the human writers, but rather He used them to communicate precisely what He was pleased to reveal through them. The Bible, then, has a divine author and a human author.

Commonly known as the dual authorship of Scripture, this doctrine is most clearly taught in Peter’s second epistle, where the apostle describes the writing of Scripture as the process in which “men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God” (2 Peter 1:21b). According to Peter, human prophets spoke or wrote the Scriptures, but as they did so, they were superintended by the Holy Spirit in such a way that their very words were from God Himself.

This same understanding of dual authorship is also seen in the Gospel of Matthew, specifically where the apostle introduces quotations from the OT in Matthew 1:22 and 2:15, describing them as “what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet.” In this description, Matthew uses two prepositional phrases to modify the verb “was spoken.” According to Matthew 1:22 and 2:15, these OT prophecies were spoken “by [hupo] the Lord,” and they were spoken “through [dia] the prophet.” Both prepositions in these verses (hupo and dia) are used to indicate the personal means by which the action of the verb is accomplished, often referred to as agency. There is, however, a subtle but significant distinction between the use of these two prepositions, and this distinction makes a helpful contribution to our understanding of the dual authorship of Scripture.

Sola Scriptura: The Heart of the Reformation (and the True Christian Faith)

"Within a year of posting his Ninety-Five Theses, Martin Luther was summoned to appear before Cardinal Cajetan to be examined for his accusations against the Roman Catholic Church’s theology and practice. When the Cardinal pressed him on the issue of the church’s authority, Luther responded, “The truth of Scripture comes first. After that is accepted one may determine whether the words of men can be accepted as true.”[i] Now, Luther was not discrediting the words of men completely, rather, he was claiming that, far and above anything or anyone else, Holy Scripture was first and foremost. This led to the development of Sola Scriptura—“Scripture alone.” But in order to examine this principle within the context of the Reformation, we first need to explore the doctrine of Scripture itself. For the rest of this article, we will examine four foundational claims regarding the Word of God: its inspiration, inerrancy, authority, and sufficiency.

The Issue of Inspiration- The most dynamic and explicit passage in all of Scripture about the nature of the Bible’s own divine inspiration comes in 2 Timothy 3:16-17. The Apostle Paul writes:  “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.”

In the Greek, the word theopneustos is used to describe how Scripture came to be; it was literally “God-breathed”. It was as if the Lord took a deep breath in, and then exhaled Holy Scripture. Further, the means by which God brought Scripture about was through the pens of human writers—“men [who] spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit” (2 Peter 1:21). Both the Roman Catholic Church and the Protestant Reformers did not disagree about divine inspiration. What was and is still contested, however, is the content of the revelation.

Paul’s use of the word “all” in 2 Timothy 3:16 leads us to examine: What books of the Bible are contained in the “all” of Scripture? This is the question of the canon. The word “canon” comes from the Greek word kanōn, meaning “measuring rod”, which came to be used in speaking of a “rule” or “standard”. And in the most general sense, the canon is “the authoritative books that God gave his corporate church.”[ii] Historically, the accepted canon consists of 66 books—39 Old Testament books (Genesis to Malachi) and 27 New Testament books (Matthew to Revelation).

During the Reformation, the Roman Catholic Church asserted that there were additional books inspired by God, which belonged in the canon. What came to be known as the Apocrypha consisted of the books of Tobit, Judith, the Additions to Esther, the Additions to Daniel, the Wisdom of Solomon, Ecclesiasticus (also called Sirach), Baruch (Hebrew for Blessed), the Letter of Jeremiah, and 1st and 2nd Maccabees. In response to the Reformers’ claims that many of the Catholic Church’s practices were unbiblical, the Council of Trent (1545-1563) canonized the Apocrypha, thus deeming it to be the inspired and authoritative Word of God. But after 1,500 years of being absent from the canon, did the Apocrypha suddenly deserve to be included? Certainly not.

Why You Might Be a Better Biblical Counselor Than You Think

"Right after I finished college, I was asked to meet with two middle school aged boys whose father had recently taken his life. I was a young single man and I was nervous that I would say the wrong thing. These boys had already been in so much pain, and I didn’t want to make it worse. I had taken some training in Biblical Counseling, had a reputation for connecting with young people, but I had never walked anyone through an issue like this before. I didn’t know if they would sit quietly, cry, or be angry. I knew one thing though: God loved them and desired for me to demonstrate that to them.

I hatched a plan: “Scripture and Stickball”.

Each week we would look at one truth about God, talk about it, and go to the parking lot to play stickball. Our counseling sessions rarely lasted more than 20 minutes but that is all that junior high boys in that situation could probably handle. We talked about God’s love, sovereignty and assured them that we were there for them. I listened and answered questions they had and found another older women to work with their mom through her grief.

You might wonder if you or your church should consider developing Biblical Counselors. While counseling situations can be complicated at times, “Scripture and Stickball” works. Stickball is really an example of building a bridge into the life of a hurting soul for the purpose of sharing God’s love and truth with them. Stickball with a young mom might be help folding laundry and holding a grown-up conversation. Stickball with a college student might be an invitation to Sunday dinner and a conversation about their future plans. Stickball with someone stricken with cancer might be a ride home when the nausea is unbearable. Stickball with a grieving widower might an early morning breakfast at the local pancake house. Your stickball might be conversations and coffee, working on cars for single moms, hospitality, or inviting disconnected men onto a work team.

Do you know what your stickball is? God calls all of us to find our stickball and use our unique interests to make a difference.