Question 1: Whether God wanted His Word to be written.
Question 1: Whether God wanted His Word to be written.
§ 19. (I) Here the question arises: Why did God want His Word, first published orally, to be consigned to writing? Chronology shows that for 2,454 years heavenly instruction was preserved through oral tradition without the aid of writing. After that, God wanted to commit that teaching to writing through Moses and the prophets in the Old Testament and through the evangelists and apostles in the New. We cannot doubt that this was His plan because, as the wisest of the wise, He had serious causes. The following seem to have been the particular and primary causes.
(1) The brevity of human life. The patriarchs and almost all who lived before the flood were long-lived, whose age went up to eight hundred and nine hundred years (Gen. 5:5ff.). The integrity of their teaching in their times could be preserved through an oral tradition. The years of their descendants who lived after the flood, however, did not match the years of their elders (Gen. 47:9). Moses, the first writer of the Old Testament, says this about his times: “The days of our years in them are seventy years; if in excellency, eighty” (Ps. 90:10). At that time, therefore, the purity of the divine Word could not be preserved conveniently without writing.
(2) The [increasing] number of people. As time passed, the human race continued to multiply, and the borders of the Church spread farther and farther. Therefore they had to consult the Scriptures, because the pure and sound tradition did not reach everyone.
(3) The infidelity of preservation expected from tradition. How faithless tradition was as a guard of purity in heavenly instruction is shown from the many corruptions that crept into the Church at that time when the instruction ought to have been preserved through tradition: “Your fathers lived of old beyond the Euphrates, Terah, the father of Abraham, etc., and they served other gods” (Josh. 24:[2]). Idols are found in Jacob’s household (Gen. 35:2). The Israelites in Egypt worshiped “the detestable things of your eyes,” etc. (Ezek. 20:7). This is also shown by those frequent revelations that were then applied to forbid and remove those corruptions.
(4) The weakness of human memory. Since it is easy to forget those things that are beyond human understanding, therefore it seemed wise to divine providence to put into writing the primary points of the divine revelation. Justin calls the writings of the evangelists “memoirs,” that is, “the words and acts of Christ as committed to memory and recited” (Apol. 2. pro Christ., p. 58; Dial. cum Tryph.). Eusebius writes about Matthew: “When he had preached to the Hebrews and was preparing to go to the Gentiles, he considered it useful to leave for those whom he was deserting bodily a memorial of his teaching and preaching” (Hist. eccles., bk. 3, c. 24). Nicephorus declares the same thing about him: “As (Matthew) left them, he compensated for his absence with the presence of his writing” (Hist. eccles., bk. 2, c. 45). Concerning Mark, Nicephorus (loc. cit., c. 15) follows Clement of Alexandria (stromat., bk. 6), Jerome (Catalog.), and Eusebius (Hist., bk. 6, c. 13) and writes: “Peter left so great a light of devotion in the hearts of his hearers that they could not remain content with what they had heard and learned about the divine Word without having it in writing. For this reason they kept insistently beseeching Mark, who at that time was following the apostle, to leave them in writing a remembrance of the teaching he had given them without writing. They implored him not to leave before he had completed what they had asked. When he learned this, the apostle, at the instigation of the Holy Spirit, was exceedingly pleased with this great wish and desire of those people,” etc. Again Nicephorus writes about Paul: “While he was among them, Paul taught clearly with his preaching those people to whom the power and grace of the Holy Spirit had sent him and whom He had given wonderful new life through faith in the Gospel of Christ. When he went away from them, he called that instruction back into their minds by sending them letters that summarized the same [instruction]” (Hist., bk. 2, c. 34). The passage 2 Pet. 1:15 can be referred to this: “I shall see to it that after my departure you may at any time be able to recall those things about which I am writing now.” He did this by leaving them the memorial of his letters. Since these letters were often left behind, they would never forget his commandments and admonitions. In his commentary, the Papist writer Estius acknowledges that this is the real meaning of this passage.
(5) The stability of heavenly instruction [doctrina]. The apostles and evangelists themselves express this reason. Luke 1:3-4: “It seemed good to me, too, having followed all things closely from the beginning, to write an orderly account for you … that you may know the certainty of the things of which you have been informed.” Here we must note the correct emphasis of three words. With the word 
[“compile,” v. 1], he hints that because of the corrupting influences of certain people who were teaching orally matters alien to evangelical truth, there was need for an accurate written report explaining the situation from beginning to end, just the way it happened. Also, because he says he will first bring out the 
[“things surely believed” or “things accomplished,” v. 1], he cuts off for the reader every opportunity to either suspect or doubt his Gospel. Finally, to fortify it against fictions, errors, and heresies, he promises to give the 
[“protection, safety,” v. 4], because, with the protection of his narrative, whoever will truly agree with its statements will be safe against the deceits of Satan and the notions of men, nor will they give their ears to lies. Phil. 3:1: “To write the same things to you is not irksome for me, and it makes you 
, firm and safe.” Irenaeus, Adv. haeres., bk. 3, c. 1: “The apostles by the will of God later handed down to us in their writings what they first proclaimed, that which would be the foundation and pillar of our faith.” Regarding Luke, Eusebius mentions that “because he had seen many others rashly presume to commit to writing what they did not know completely, he wrote to draw us away from the uncertain narratives of others” (Hist., bk. 3, c. 24).
** (6) The wickedness of men. In his preface on Matthew, p. 1, Theophylact writes:
Indeed, those were great and godly men who lived before the Law was given to Moses. They did not learn from writings and books; rather, endowed with a clean mind, they were illumined by the Spirit’s brightness and learned what pleased God in this way, as God spoke with them mouth to mouth. But after men became too weak and unworthy for the Holy Spirit to illumine and teach, our merciful God finally granted the Scriptures, namely, to be reminders of His divine will.
Chrysostom, homily 1 on Matthew: “The patriarchs and apostles were more pure of mind; consequently, God spoke to them and taught them without Scripture. But we are coarser and weaker, and hence God wanted to instruct us through the Scriptures.” **
(7) To these causes we add the perversity of heretics in the New Testament, a perversity that had to be rebuffed. It was customary for them to connect the name “traditions” to their erroneous fictions. Irenaeus mentions this with regard to the Simonians (bk. 1, c. 1, p. 14); Epiphanius, about the Archontici; and Irenaeus, with reference to all heretics (bk. 3, c. 2). In the case of the evangelist John, the devout ancients mention that the chief cause for writing his Gospel account began when the heresies of Ebion and Cerinthus spread in Asia. Irenaeus, bk. 3, c. 11, p. 184: “John, the disciple of the Lord, wanted to take away by a declaration of the Gospel the error that Cerinthus had sown for men and that those who are called Nicolaitans sowed much earlier … in order to confound them … and establish the rule of truth [regulam veritatis] in the Church. Thus he began his Gospel.” Jerome, in the preface to his commentary on Matthew:
When John, the apostle and evangelist, was in Asia, the seeds of the heretics were sprouting already then—of Cerinthus, Ebion, and the rest who denied that Christ came in the flesh …. Almost all the bishops of Asia at that time, as well as the representatives of many churches, compelled him to write in greater depth about the Savior’s divinity. The Word of God burst forth, so to speak, upon him with not so much bold as blessed rashness. From this he tells his ecclesiastical account. When his brothers compelled him to write, he said that he would do so, if they would declare a fast and would all implore God together. After this was done, he was filled with a revelation and burst forth with that heaven-sent preface: “In the beginning was the Word …”
These last three reasons for writing were expressed by Thomas Aquinas in his Cat. aurea on the Gospels. He says: “The apostles and evangelists wrote: (1) To teach the Gospel through writing to those whom they were unable to teach face-to-face. (2) To preserve in lasting memory what we need to know about Christ’s words and deeds. (3) Lest the heretics sow false doctrine under the name of ‘Gospel.’”