The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil

in the margin, but also in the body of the text, by the breathing of the Divine Spirit, he added some things, according to the doctrine of Bede in book 1, Ezra, chapter 7.

IV. The Holy Spirit dictated and inspired absolutely everything to the Sacred writers of the Divine books, namely the sense and meaning, individual words, and their sequence and order, down to the very last point, so that God is their author. This cannot be said regarding writings which, though written by men through human spirit, God has approved; of these God cannot be called the author, although Divine approval makes them to be of the most certain truth. The difference between the two is that Sacred Scripture must intrinsically and essentially be the Word of God to be such, and consequently proceed from God dictating and have a relationship of origin to Him, which is not verifiable in human writings even after divine approval.

V. We believe it must be entirely denied that God wrote anything by Himself without the customary ministry of angels or men, setting aside the Tables of the Law. Regarding the Tables, however, we distinguish and say that the first Tables of the Law were written by God through His own power immediately by Himself, as we feel with Augustine in question 166 on Exodus and question 15 on Deuteronomy. But we affirm that the second Tables, which reached the Hebrews, were written by Moses as a disciple with God as the master dictating, so that the first were inscribed by the finger of God, and the second by the hand of Moses.

VI. Although it could have happened that Christ wrote to someone out of courtesy or another motive, as it is said that He wrote to Abgarus, King of Edessa beyond the Euphrates—a letter, however, which Gelasius names apocryphal—we nevertheless think it more probable, with Saint Thomas and much more with the common master Saint Augustine, that it was not regularly appropriate for Christ the Lord to write anything immediately by Himself. We say "regularly" because we cannot deny the writing of Christ as He bent down and wrote on the ground with His finger, which John commemorates in the history of the adulteress in the Gospel, chapter 8, which was formed with true letters and possessed a true meaning, according to the common doctrine of the Holy Fathers. Our conclusion, however, proceeds regarding writings permanent outside of that instance.

VII. It is more probable that the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God, wrote something. We admit as hers the letters that Flavius Dexter and many other clear authors testify she wrote: one to Saint Ignatius the Martyr, and another that she wrote to the people of Messina. Nor do we entirely reject another which is said to have been written to the Florentines. But why, since the writings of Moses and the Prophets, and the Apostles and Evangelists are canonical, both in the first act and in the second, are the letters of Christ not canonical scripture? The first reason is that their sincere and uncorrupted legitimacy and integrity are not established; the second is that the Church does not propose them to us as canonical.