Tuesday, May 28, 2024

Michael R. Licona on the use of θεοφόρητος and ἐνθουσιῶν in Philo, The Special Laws, 1:65

  

Philo, a prominent Hellenistic Jew who wrote in the second quarter of the first century AD, had something like this in mind for the inspiration of Scripture.

 

A prophet possessed by God [theophorētos] will suddenly appear and give prophetic oracles. Nothing of what he says will be his own, for he that is truly under the control of divine inspiration [enthusiōn] has no power of apprehension when he speaks but serves as the channel for the insistent words of Another’s prompting. For prophets are the interpreters of God, Who makes full use of their organs of speech to set forth what He wills. (Philo, The Special Laws, 1:65)

 

However, the matter is not so simple. The term theophorētos means to bear or carry a god, to be possessed by a god, and enthusiōn similarly refers to being possessed by a god or to being in a state of ecstasy. These terms are closer to what comes to the mind for many of us living in the twenty-first century when we think of Scripture being “God-breathed.” So it is worth observing that Philo did not use the term theopneustos here or elsewhere, which would suggest complete divine control is not being implied in theopneustos in 2 Timothy 3:16. Moreover, since even the teaching of the church were thought by some to be theopneustic, understanding theopneustos as proceeding from God, word-for-word, precisely as we have it may be to go further than Paul intended for it to be understood. (Michael R. Licona, Jesus, Contradicted: Why the Gospels Tell the Same Story Differently [Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan Academic, 2024], 184)