Thursday, May 30, 2024

MIchael R. Licona on θεοπνευστος

  

The term may have been in use prior to the composition of 2 Timothy. Theopneustos appears twice in the Sibylline Oracles, “a complex and unsystematic compilation of reconstructed or fabricated prophecies ascribed to Sibyls but largely representing the ingenuity of Jewish and Christian compilers.” There are two collections of the oracles, one dating to the end of the fifth century AD and the other to the end of the seventh century. However, some of the oracles are earlier than the collections in which they appear, though how much earlier is difficult to determine. Some could have been composed as early as 150 CE, thereby predating 2 Timothy. In one of the oracles, the foolish city of Cyme is said to have “theopneustic streams” (Sibyl. 5:308). In the other, we read of the “great God better of all things theopneustic” (Sibyl. 5:406). Theopneustos also appears in the Testament of Abraham, a pseudepigraphical writing, perhaps composed sometime between AD 75-125. In the Testament of Abraham20:11, the archangel Michael and a multitude of angels place “theopneustic ointments and perfumes” on Abraham’s corpse until the third day after his death.

 

Sometime between the first century BC and the second century AD, someone composed a poem in the name of the poet Phoclides, who had lived in the sixth century BC. The poem is known as Sentences by Pseudo-Phoclides. Theopneustos appears in verse 129 and reads, “But the speech of theopneustic wisdom is best.” (Poirier, trans. The Invention of the Inspired Text, 60) However, most scholars think verse 129 was added to the text later, perhaps even later than Origen. (Poirier, The Invention of the Inspired Text, 58)

 

Theopneustos also appears in the Anthologies, a nine-book treatise on astrology written by Vettius Valens and composed sometime between AD 152-162. (Anthony Spawforth, “Vettius Valens,” in Oxford Cultural Dictionary, 1547) Vettius writes that the aether (believed then to be an all-encompassing substance, which includes the air) exists in us and is a “theopneustic product.” (Vettius Valens, Astrol. 9.1.37 [frag. 1764.006]) In the late second century, Clement of Alexandria uses the term on three occasions in Stromateis (Miscellanies) and once in Protrepticus (Exhortation to the Greeks), each to describe Scripture. (Stromata 1.21.124; 7.16.101, 103; Protr. 9.86.2-87.2) The Lives of Carpus, Papylus, and Agathonice, 12.33-36 (circa AD 2-3 century) provides two occurrences of theopneustos. The first refers to the Scriptures as theopneustos. In the second, Carpus, who is a Christian, says to the Roman governor who will execute him, “What do you want, Proconsul? To resist the truth and suppose that you will prevail in spite of it? But if you want to give close attention to the theopneustic lessons of the church, you will become an heir of eternal truth.” (Vitae Carpi, Papyli et Agathonicae, Martyrium sanctorum Carpi, Papyli et Agathonicae [BJG 294]) In other words, the teachings of the Church are theopneustos.

 

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What have we learned in the process? The Scriptures are regarded as being theopneustos, as are the teachings of the which, which are based on the Scriptures. Other objects, such as certain streams, ointments, and aether can be theopneustos. The ability to interpret dreams as theopneustos. Perhaps the closest way of describing the meaning of theopneustos is to say te thing it describes derives from God or that God is its ultimate and special origin. (Michael R. Licona, Jesus, Contradicted: Why the Gospels Tell the Same Story Differently [Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan Academic, 2024], 181-82), 183