In preparation for my debate on Sola Scriptura (which will result in my sharing almost 300 spare slides on various topics, and much more, after the debate), I have been looking up those who try to teach Sola Scriptura based on the use of θεοπνευστος. Here is one example from 1928:
INSPIRATION.
Let us begin our inquiry with the difficult,
highly contentious, but all important question of Inspiration. How did the
Reformers regard this subject?
ITS MEANING AND NATURE
A word or two is necessary by way of
introduction on the meaning of the term itself. The word inspiration in its
adjectival form θεοπνευστος (God breathed), is only found once
in the Scriptures (2 Tim. iii.16), and it is a word which is employed now in at
least two different senses. We use it for instance of any one possessing
special genius in any particular branch of knowledge, by declaring that he is
inspired. But the inspiration of Scripture goes further than this and implies
an extraordinary supernatural revelation from God. So that the inspiration of
the Bible means more than the mere impartation of knowledge to the ordinary
individual, and more also than the ordinary working of God’s Holy Spirit on the
heart in response to prayer. It stands rather for the communication of divine
Truth to the authors of the books of Holy Scripture in such a way that they
were able to write under the special guidance and influence of the Holy Spirit.
It was a unique inspiration different both in degree and kind from the normal
influence of the Holy Spirit. This unique inspiration of the Scriptures has
been universally held in the Christian Church from the earliest times. Though
at first, the oral gospel was treasured more than the written, as those “who
had companied with” Christ died off, the written was seen to be more reliable
and these γραμματα were soon regarded as equal in authority to
the Old Testament Scriptures. (C. Sydney Carter, The Reformers and Holy
Scripture [London: Chas. J. Thynne & Jarvis, Ltd., 1928], 13)
