(Cypr., De Zelo, n. 8). “Not without reason have so many and such great peoples believed that when [the sacred writers] were writing these books, God spoke to them or through them” (Aug., De Civit. Dei, xviii. 41).
(b) The Fathers also determine the relation between the Divine author of Scripture and the human writer. The latter is, as it were, the secretary, or the hand, or the pen employed by God—analogies which are set forth in the following well-known passages. “[Christ] by the human nature which He took upon Himself is the Head of all His disciples, who are, as it were, the members of His body. Hence when they wrote what He manifested and spoke, we must by no means say that it was not He Who wrote, for His members have done what they learnt from the orders of their Head. Whatever He wished us to read concerning His words and works He ordered them, His hands, to write down. Any one who rightly understands this union and this ministry of members performing in harmony their various functions under one head, will receive the Gospel narrative as though he saw the hand of the Lord writing, the very hand which belonged to His own body” (Aug., De Cons. Evang., l. i., c. 35). “It is quite useless to inquire who wrote this, since the Holy Ghost is rightly believed to be the author of the book. He therefore Who dictated it is the writer: He is the writer Who was the Inspirer of the work and Who made use of the voice of the [human] writer to transmit to us His deeds for our imitation. When we receive a letter from some great man, and know from whom it comes and what it means, it is folly for us to ask what pen he wrote it with. When therefore we learn something, and know that the Holy Ghost is its author, any inquiry about the writer is like asking about the pen” (Greg. M., In Job, præf.). And St. Justin compares the human writer to a lyre played upon by God through the action of the Holy Ghost (Cohort. ad Græcos, n. 8).
(c) From this dependence of the human writer on the Holy Ghost, the Fathers infer the absolute truth and wisdom of every, even the minutest, detail of Scripture. “We who extend the perfect truthfulness of the Holy Ghost to the smallest lines and letters (ἡμεῖς δὲ οἵ καί μέχρι τῆς τυχούσης
