Verbal Inspiration

That inspiration is verbal would appear from the fact that our Savior and his apostles, when quoting from the Old Testament, sometimes make the argument turn upon a single word, as John x:35, nay on the very form of the word, Gal. iii:16, that it is not plural, but singular. There would be no force in the argument were not the use of that word in that very form divinely determined.

This same doctrine finds its confirmation in the language which prophets and apostles employ with reference to their own messages. Thus God, speaking to and through Jeremiah saith: “I have put my words into your mouth,” not merely my thoughts into your heart. “It is not you that speak,” saith Christ, “but the spirit of your Father which speaketh in you.” Of the apostles it is said, “they spake as the spirit gave them utterance,” not merely thoughts.

[In II Tim. iii:16] the language has manifestly reference to the form, as well as the substance of the record.

Thomas Lawrence (1832-1915) in “The Plenary Inspiration of the Scriptures; Or, The Divine and Human in the Written Word,” Asheville Citizen-Times (NC) Tuesday, August 28, 1900, p. 2.