Men Wrote the Scriptures - 14, 15 & 16
God inspired them, but they used their intellect, grammar, pencil and paper.
Of course, some writers are clearer than others. They are easier to understand. These are the ones who make reading more enjoyable. Nevertheless, the reader is never given permission to misinterpret the meaning of the author. This is especially important when we consider the 35 to 40-plus writers of the Holy Scriptures. It is not our prerogative to read and teach something from the book of Isaiah that Isaiah never intended.1
That last sentence is loaded with implication. First, it means that when the inspired writers of the New Testament quote from Isaiah, that they are respecting Isaiah’s intention. They are not saying something he did not say. And they are not taking Isaiah out of context. So then, when Matthew quotes from Isaiah in Mt. 1:23, he believes he is quoting Isaiah’s intention as a writer. He is not adding meaning.
So as Matthew wrote these sentences of the angel’s visit: “‘She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.’ All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: ‘Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel’ (which means, God with us),” Matthew felt he was fully respecting Isaiah’s meaning. Somehow Isaiah was referring to the Messiah. More on this later.2
Second, it means that God first inspired the man to write what he wrote. The man was aware of the things God wanted to communicate. And these are the things he wrote into what became Scripture. The writer was not a human Ouija board by which God spelled out secret messages apart from the man’s intellect, grammar, pencil and paper. Rather, God communicated His intention to the man and had the man put it into words.
This does not mean that the author had exhaustive knowledge. There was certainly much that was not told him, but was communicated to others. However, he wrote what he knew and that is his contribution to Scripture. That is God’s Word.
1 Every Interpreter of Scripture must agree with the biblical writer, for the writer is the one whom God inspired. It is improper, and denies the objectivity of the Word of God, to add our thoughts into the text or ignore Isaiah’s original intent. I do not agree with the concept that “beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” This implies that beauty is subjective and not objective. On the contrary, God created things and called them good. I think this means there is objective beauty. People therefore must agree with God in order to call something good, even if they hate Him.
2 Walter C. Kaiser’s, The Uses of the Old Testament in the New, and Willis J. Beecher’s, The Prophets and the Promise, are helpful books that explain the concept of Messianic Doctrine. Both of these are must have books for your library. From the Garden of Eden a body of doctrine began to form. It was understood by men of God. The prophets respected it and utilized its language in their own writing. It was the doctrine that pointed to the Times of Messiah. It was the doctrine of Promise. Kaiser calls it: Epangelicalism.