Divine Dictation and Writing Styles

On divine dictation and writing styles, from the Lutheran theologian Johannes Andreas Quenstedt (1617-1688), in Theologia didactico-polemica (Didactic Polemical Theology):

“The Holy Spirit accommodated himself to the spirit and character of the sacred writers, so that the mysteries were recorded according to the usual manner of speaking. For the Holy Spirit went so far as to communicate by inspiration those words to his secretaries which they would otherwise themselves have employed if they had been left to themselves.” Quenstedt, quaest. 4, fontes, dist. 1: pp. 75-76.

Spiritus Sanctus enim ad scriptorum sacrorum captum ac indolem sese attemperavit ut mysteria secundum consuetum dicendi modum consignarentur. Adeoque ea verba Spiritus Sanctus amanuensibus inspiravit, quibus alias usi fuissent, si sibi fuissent relicti.

“For just as those who are informed or accustomed to err in a higher or lower manner of speaking and writing, so by the same use the Holy Spirit conformed and condescended to the nature of men, to thus magnify the same things through others.”

Nam prout informati aut assuefacti errant ad sublimius humiliusve loquendi et scribendi genus, sic eodem usus Spiritus Sanctus sese hominum indoli attemperare et condescendere voluit atque ita res easdem per alios mag.

Quenstedt also believed the originals had been preserved without corruption in the apographs:

“Not only the canonical books of the sacred volume themselves, but even the letters, points, and words of the original text survive without any corruption, that is, the Hebrew text of the Old Testament … and also the Greek text of the New Testament … have been preserved by the divine providence complete and uncorrupted.” Queast. 18 thesis; p. 194