The Baptist Confession of Faith
Of The Holy Scriptures
Chapter 1 Paragraph 8
26 July 2026
The Old Testament in Hebrew (which was a native language of the people of God of old), and the New Testament in Greek (which at the time of writing of it was most generally known to the nations), being immediately inspired by God, and by His singular care and providence kept pure in all ages, and therefore authentic; so as in all controversies of religion, the church is finally to appeal to them. But because these original tongues are not known to all the people of God, we have a right unto, and interest in the Scriptures, and are commanded in the fear of God to read, and search them, therefore they are to be translated into the vulgar language of every nation unto which they come, that the Word of God dwelling plentifully in all, they may worship him in an acceptable manner, and through patience and comfort of the Scriptures may have hope.
We're continuing in the subject Of the Holy Scriptures, in the confession that we hold to, and the preceding paragraphs. We've established that the scripture is sufficient and infallible. And what are the books we call scripture? The foundation of authority of scripture and the necessity of scripture. We now look at the immediate inspiration, divine preservation and the translation of Holy Scripture. The Jews were entrusted with the Oracles of God as we read in our proof text in Romans 3:2 in Hebrew, and the New Testament was written in Greek.
We believe that men of God were moved by the Spirit of God, to write the word of God both before and after the coming of our Messiah. This is what we mean by divine inspiration. When we see in the confession the use of the term immediate inspiration in this paragraph, what do we mean by immediate inspiration?
We have to think in categories here to understand this better. So, we give 2 categories, autographa and apographa. Autographa are that which are the original autographs as they came from the hands of the inspired authors. And apographa, which means copies of the originals, are describable copies of the original autographs.
We maintain that the autographa is immediately inspired by God and therefore are free from error. Due to the volume of apographa we have discovered over the centuries past, we can be certain of two things. One - we have the exact copy of the apographa or very close to it. And number two - God has providentially preserved the Word of God even though many rulers and authorities and cults have tried to eradicate, corrupt or undermine God's Word. And because these inspired Word of God was preserved through time, all matters of Christian life must be settled by this Word of God.
Now let's recap until now. God has communicated what he intended for Christians of all time through divine inspiration. And these were copied by scribes, preserved and passed down through generation by divine providence to people to this day. Now we are faced with another challenge that the language of the apographa are not known to everyone in all generations, i.e. Hebrew and Greek. And the scripture calls all men to read and know the Word of God so that the Christian may be equipped for every good work. It is therefore necessary to translate the apographa to every language.
Brothers and sisters, the confession is mission focused in this paragraph. It recognizes the Word of God to be the only source of knowledge for men to be saved and hence it brings forth the urgency and need for the Word of God to be translated to common language of every man. Now we know that translation of the Hebrew and Greek text is difficult simply because the translation from a Semitic language for example to our local language is often difficult. The meaning does not come across well. Centuries have passed, so we have the difficulty of understanding the context. So, we have to put in a lot of work. Even for our discussion later, let me give you a pointer or an example to even ponder over and discuss in our discussion time. If you imagine the word that is used in 1 Corinthians for tongues. We see that we do not mean ever the organ tongue when we talk of that word in the scripture. Yet because the translation says tongues, we have a phrase that says speaking in tongues. And it has caused all sorts of confusion around the world because of that translation. Have you pondered if the word tongue if that always meant languages and the translators took the liberty and translated it as speaking in languages or speaking in unknown languages, how different would that have been? Would we have a different situation in the evangelical church today? It's something to ponder on. But on the flip side, we also have the trouble of not translating it that way in that we lose the original word that is used there. So, it is always a very difficult time for the translators to take liberty in certain things and not in certain things. So, it is a hard thing to do. However, we cannot discard it saying it's hard and therefore not do it. We must therefore engage in this weighty work of translating the apographa, the ones that were, that was passed on through generation into common languages, so that men are equipped for every good work.
So, let's pay attention to what the apostle John sees in his vision in Revelation 7:9-10. After this, I looked and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”
How can there be a multitude of people from all tribes and languages shouting about God being their salvation if they do not have the Word of God that is sufficient to bring knowledge of their salvation in their own language? It is God's desire that the Word of God is translated to every language so that when it dwells plentifully in all, they may worship him in an acceptable manner and through patience and comfort of the scriptures may have hope.
In conclusion, God has intended to communicate that which is required for salvation, for the salvation of mankind in a sufficient way by divine inspiration. These are in 2 languages of the time of writing, namely Hebrew and Greek, and have been passed on through generation by divine preservation to the people of God. Since the Word of God is intended to be read and understood by all people groups, the Word of God in Hebrew and Greek must be translated to the languages of all people so that the Gospel is revealed. And their worship of God might be appropriate and scripture might be used for their intended purpose. Let us now read the confession, the paragraph, Chapter 1 Of The Holy Scriptures, Paragraph 8.
The Old Testament in Hebrew (which was a native language of the people of God of old), and the New Testament in Greek (which at the time of writing of it was most generally known to the nations), being immediately inspired by God, and by His singular care and providence kept pure in all ages, and therefore authentic; so as in all controversies of religion, the church is finally to appeal to them. But because these original tongues are not known to all the people of God, we have a right unto, and interest in the Scriptures, and are commanded in the fear of God to read, and search them, therefore they are to be translated into the vulgar language of every nation unto which they come, that the Word of God dwelling plentifully in all, they may worship him in an acceptable manner, and through patience and comfort of the Scriptures may have hope.
And we have the scriptural proof text there.
STUDY QUESTIONS
1. What is the significance of the “immediate inspiration” of the original languages?
2. How does divine providence relate to the preservation of the text?
3. Why are the Hebrew and Greek texts deemed the final standard in controversy?
4. What is the purpose of translating Scripture into common languages?
5. In what way does direct access to Scripture facilitate spiritual edification?