Scriptures

The Scriptures are the written, abiding deposit of what Yahweh has spoken. They are called many things across the Bible's own pages — book, law, testimony, oracles, sword of the Spirit, word of God, word of life, the speech of the Holy One — and these names are not interchangeable accidents but different angles on a single thing: words that have come from God's mouth and been put into a form people can read, keep, and pass on. The umbrella holds together the writing of those words, their public hearing, their lodging in the heart, and their endurance when everything else fails.

What the Scriptures Are Called

Yahweh himself directs the writing: "Thus speaks Yahweh, the God of Israel, saying, Write all the words that I have spoken to you in a book" (Jer 30:2). The collection that results carries a cluster of titles. It is the law and the testimony — "To the law and to the testimony! If they don't speak according to this word, surely there is no morning for them" (Isa 8:20). It is the Book of the Covenant (Ex 24:7), the Book of the Law (Jos 8:34), the Book of the Law of Moses (Jos 23:6), the Book of Yahweh (Isa 34:16). Paul calls it "the oracles of God" entrusted to Israel (Rom 3:2), and Hebrews holds catechumens to "the rudiments of the first principles of the oracles of God" (Heb 5:12); Peter charges Christian speakers to speak "as it were oracles of God" (1 Pet 4:11). Timothy has known "the sacred writings which are able to make you wise to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus" (2 Tim 3:15). Paul teaches that the gospel itself was promised "by the Scriptures of the prophets" (Rom 16:26), and James calls the love-of-neighbor command "the royal law, according to the Scripture" (Jas 2:8). When the nations attack the Jewish faith in the Maccabean period, the desecration takes a specific form: "they laid open the books of the law, in which the nations searched for the likenesses of their idols" (1 Macc 3:48).

Inspired and Trustworthy

The Scriptures are not human testimony lifted to a high pitch but God's own breath put into writing. "All Scripture [is] inspired of God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for instruction which is in righteousness: that the man of God may be complete, furnished completely to every good work" (2 Tim 3:16-17). Peter says the same of the prophetic word: "knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of private interpretation. For no prophecy ever came by the will of man: but men spoke from God, being moved by the Holy Spirit" (2 Pet 1:20-21). The mechanism in the Old Testament is the same: "the word of Yahweh came expressly to Ezekiel" (Eze 1:3); Yahweh tells Jeremiah, "Take a roll of a book, and write in it all the words that I have spoken to you" (Jer 36:2); "Yahweh testified to Israel, and to Judah, by every prophet, and every seer" (2 Kings 17:13). The Apocalypse opens the same way: "The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his slaves... and he sent and signified [it] by his angel to his slave John" (Rev 1:1).

What is inspired is also trustworthy. "The words of Yahweh are pure words; As silver tried in a furnace on the earth, Purified seven times" (Ps 12:6). "As for God, his way is perfect: The word of Yahweh is tried; He is a shield to all those who take refuge in him" (Ps 18:30; cf. 2 Sam 22:31). "Every word of God is tried: He is a shield to those who take refuge in him" (Pr 30:5). "The works of his hands are truth and justice; All his precepts are sure" (Ps 111:7). "Your testimonies are very sure" (Ps 93:5). When Yahweh announces an oracle through Ezekiel, the oracle goes through: "I will speak, and the word that I will speak will be performed; it will be deferred no more" (Eze 12:25). Solomon at the temple dedication makes the historical summary: "not one word has failed of all his good promise, which he promised by Moses his slave" (1 Kings 8:56). And what came true against Israel — "And he has confirmed his words, which he spoke against us, and against our judges that judged us, by bringing on us a great evil" (Dan 9:12) — proved as reliable as what came true for blessing.

The Perfection of the Law

Psalm 19 gathers the perfections under one head: "The law of Yahweh is perfect, restoring the soul: The testimony of Yahweh is sure, making wise the simple. The precepts of Yahweh are right, rejoicing the heart: The commandment of Yahweh is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of Yahweh is clean, enduring forever: The ordinances of Yahweh are true, [and] righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, yes, than much fine gold; Sweeter also than honey and the drippings of the honeycomb. Moreover by them is your slave warned: In keeping them there is great reward" (Ps 19:7-11). Paul makes the corresponding NT judgment: "the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and righteous, and good" (Rom 7:12); "we know that the law is spiritual" (Rom 7:14); "we know that the law is good, if a man uses it lawfully" (1 Tim 1:8). The psalmist's verdict is plain — "Your righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, And your law is truth" (Ps 119:142) — and his cry is concrete: "[MEM] Oh how I love your law! It is my meditation all the day" (Ps 119:97); "The law of your mouth is better to me Than thousands of gold and silver" (Ps 119:72).

Words Sacred — Not to Be Added To or Diminished

Because the words are God's, the canon is closed at each stage of its delivery. "You⁺ will not add to the word which I command you⁺, neither will you⁺ diminish from it, that you⁺ may keep the commandments of Yahweh your⁺ God which I command you⁺" (Deut 4:2); "Whatever thing I command you⁺, that you⁺ will observe to do: you will not add thereto, nor diminish from it" (Deut 12:32). Proverbs warns the same: "Don't add to his words, Or else he will reprove you, and you will be found a liar" (Pr 30:6). At the close of the Apocalypse the rule is sealed for the new collection: "and if any man will take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his part from the tree of life, and out of the holy city, which are written in this book" (Rev 22:19).

Yahweh as Lawgiver and Teacher

The lawgiving is direct. "For Yahweh is our judge, Yahweh is our lawgiver, Yahweh is our king; he will save us" (Isa 33:22). "Accept [my Speech], O my people; and give ear to me, O my nation: for a law will go forth from me, and I will establish my justice for a light of the peoples" (Isa 51:4). James says it as flatly: "There is [only] one lawgiver and judge, the one who is able to save and to destroy" (Jas 4:12). Moses is the human channel — "And this is the law which Moses set before the sons of Israel" (Deut 4:44); "Moses commanded us a law, An inheritance for the assembly of Jacob" (Deut 33:4); "And afterward all the sons of Israel came near: and he gave them in commandment all that [the Speech of] Yahweh had spoken with him in mount Sinai" (Ex 34:32) — but the law itself is Yahweh's. John records the New Testament transition: "For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ" (Jn 1:17), and Jesus presses the issue back on the very people who name Moses: "Has not Moses given you⁺ the law? And [yet] none of you⁺ does the law" (Jn 7:19).

The lawgiver is also the teacher. "What man is he who fears Yahweh? He will instruct him in the way that he will choose" (Ps 25:12). "I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you will go: I will counsel you with my eye on you" (Ps 32:8). "Thus says Yahweh, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: I am Yahweh your God, who teaches you to profit, who leads you by the way that you should go" (Isa 48:17). The eschatological vision reaches the same end: "And many peoples will go and say, Come⁺, and let us go up to the mountain of Yahweh, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion will go forth the law, and the word of Yahweh from Jerusalem" (Isa 2:3; cf. Mic 4:2). "And all your sons will be taught of Yahweh" (Isa 54:13).

The Voice of the Prophets

Prophets carry Yahweh's words in their mouths — under compulsion. "But Yahweh said to me, Don't say, I am a child; for to whomever I will send you you will go, and whatever I will command you you will speak" (Jer 1:7); "speak to them all that I command you: don't be dismayed at them" (Jer 1:17). Yahweh promises to make the message itself burn: "Therefore thus says Yahweh, the God of hosts, Because you⁺ speak this word, look, I will make my words in your mouth fire, and this people wood, and it will devour them" (Jer 5:14). To Ezekiel: "Son of Man, I have made you a watchman to the house of Israel: therefore hear the word at my mouth, and give them warning from me" (Eze 3:17); "And you will speak my words to them, whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear; for they are in rebellion" (Eze 2:7). James points back to that same line as a model: "Take, brothers, for an example of suffering and of patience, the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord" (Jas 5:10). Peter makes the prophets and apostles a single chain: "that you⁺ should remember the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your⁺ apostles" (2 Pet 3:2). When the prophetic gift fell silent, Israel felt the loss: "And there came to pass a great tribulation in Israel, such as had not come to pass since the day that a prophet was last seen in Israel" (1 Macc 9:27); the people held off settling certain questions "until there should arise a faithful prophet" (1 Macc 14:41; cf. 4:46). Sirach's praise of Elijah keeps the picture: "Until there arose a prophet like fire, And his word was like a burning furnace" (Sir 48:1).

The Public Reading

Israel was not meant to read its Scriptures privately first. "And he took the Book of the Covenant, and read in the audience of the people: and they said, All that Yahweh has spoken we will do, and be obedient" (Ex 24:7). The king is to "read in it all the days of his life" (Deut 17:19). At the assembly Joshua reads "all the words of the law, the blessing and the curse, according to all that is written in the Book of the Law" (Jos 8:34); "There was not a word of all that Moses commanded, which Joshua did not read before all the assembly of Israel, and the women, and the little ones, and the sojourners who were among them" (Jos 8:35). Josiah does the same after the law is rediscovered: "he read in their ears all the words of the Book of the Covenant which was found in the house of Yahweh" (2 Kings 23:2). Jehoshaphat's reform sends teachers out: "they taught in Judah, having the Book of the Law of Yahweh with them" (2 Chr 17:9). After the exile, "And he read it before the broad place that was before the water gate from early morning until midday, in the presence of the men and the women, and of those who could understand; and the ears of all the people were [attentive] to the Book of the Law" (Neh 8:3); "Also day by day, from the first day to the last day, he read in the Book of the Law of God" (Neh 8:18; cf. Neh 13:1). Yahweh tells Jeremiah to make the reading deliberately public: "therefore you go, and read in the roll, which you have written from my mouth, the words of Yahweh in the ears of the people in Yahweh's house on the fast-day" (Jer 36:6); Baruch obeys (Jer 36:8). Jesus inherits the same custom: "And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and he entered, as his custom was, into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read" (Lk 4:16). Paul carries it into the churches: "And when this letter has been read among you⁺, cause that it be read also in the church of the Laodiceans; and that you⁺ also read the letter from Laodicea" (Col 4:16). The Apocalypse pronounces the blessing on the practice: "Blessed is he who reads, and those who hear the words of the prophecy, and keep the things that are written in it: for the time is at hand" (Rev 1:3).

On Heart, Hand, Door-Posts, Mouth

Israel was given a set of mnemonic disciplines for keeping the words present. The Shema and its frame: "Hear, O Israel: Yahweh our God, Yahweh is one: and you will love Yahweh your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. And these words, which I command you this day, will be on your heart; and you will teach them diligently to your sons, and will talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise up. And you will bind them for a sign on your hand, and they will be for frontlets between your eyes. And you will write them on the door-posts of your house, and on your gates" (Deut 6:4-9; cf. 11:18-19). Joshua receives the same charge: "This book of the law will not depart out of your mouth, but you will meditate on it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it: for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success" (Jos 1:8). The psalmist follows suit: "Your [Speech] I have laid up in my heart, That I might not sin against you" (Ps 119:11); "The law of his God is in his heart; None of his steps will slide" (Ps 37:31); "I delight to do your will, O my God; Yes, your law is inside me" (Ps 40:8). The new covenant takes the same image one step inward: "But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says Yahweh: I will put my law in their inward parts, and in their heart I will write it" (Jer 31:33; cf. Heb 8:10, 10:16). Paul reads this fulfillment in the Corinthian church: "you⁺ are a letter of Christ, served by us, not written with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in tables [that are] hearts of flesh" (2 Cor 3:3); and even Gentiles, having no Sinai code, "show the work of the law written in their hearts" (Rom 2:15).

A Lamp, A Light, Sweet to the Taste, Food for the Soul

The same internalization is also nourishment and illumination. "[NUN] Your word is a lamp to my feet, And a light to my path" (Ps 119:105); "The opening of your words gives light; It gives understanding to the simple" (Ps 119:130). "For the commandment is a lamp; and the law is a light; And reproofs of instruction are the way of life" (Pr 6:23). And in darkness: "we have the word of prophecy [made] more sure; to which you⁺ do well that you⁺ take heed, as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns, and the day-star arises in your⁺ hearts" (2 Pet 1:19). The Scriptures are eaten as well as seen. "I have not gone back from the commandment of his lips; I have treasured up the words of his mouth more than my necessary food" (Job 23:12). "How sweet are your [Speech] to my taste! [Yes, sweeter] than honey to my mouth!" (Ps 119:103). Jeremiah: "Your words were found, and I ate them; and your [Speech] was to me a joy and the rejoicing of my heart" (Jer 15:16). Ezekiel is told the same: "Son of Man, hear what I say to you... open your mouth, and eat that which I give you" (Eze 2:8); "Son of Man, eat that which you find; eat this roll, and go, speak to the house of Israel" (Eze 3:1). Jesus draws the lesson Moses had already drawn: "And he humbled you, and allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna, which you did not know, neither did your fathers know; that he might make you know that man does not live by bread only, but by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of Yahweh does man live" (Deut 8:3); in the wilderness Jesus answers, "It is written, Man will not live by bread alone" (Lk 4:4). Peter applies the same image to converts: "as newborn babies, long for the spiritual milk which is without guile, that you⁺ may grow by it to salvation" (1 Pet 2:2).

Seed, Word of Life, Word of Truth

Word as seed runs through Jesus' parable and Paul's pastoral imagery. "The sower sows the word" (Mr 4:14); "And these are those by the wayside, where the word is sown; and when they have heard, right away Satan comes, and takes away the word which has been sown in them" (Mr 4:15); "Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God" (Lk 8:11). The image carries forward: "And he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food, will supply and multiply your⁺ seed for sowing, and increase the fruits of your⁺ righteousness" (2 Cor 9:10); "He who goes forth and weeps, bearing seed for sowing, Will doubtless come again with joy, bringing his sheaves [with him]" (Ps 126:6). Word as life: "the words that I have spoken to you⁺ are spirit, and are life" (Jn 6:63); "holding forth the word of life; that I may have something of which to glory in the day of Christ" (Php 2:16). Word as truth, generative of new life: "Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures" (Jas 1:18); "having been begotten again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, through the word of God, which lives and stays" (1 Pet 1:23).

The Speech of Christ

Jesus' words have the same standing as Yahweh's. "Heaven and earth will pass away: but my words will definitely not pass away" (Mr 13:31; cf. Lk 21:33). They are recognized by hearers who have no theology to draw on: "Never did man so speak" (Jn 7:46); "they were astonished at his teaching; for his word was with authority" (Lk 4:32); "all bore him witness, and wondered at the words of grace which proceeded out of his mouth" (Lk 4:22). Peter speaks for the Twelve: "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the word of eternal life" (Jn 6:68). Jesus claims that his speech is itself the medium of life and judgment: "Truly, truly, I say to you⁺, He who hears my speech, and believes him who sent me, has eternal life" (Jn 5:24); "If you⁺ stay in my speech, [then] you⁺ are truly my disciples" (Jn 8:31); "Truly, truly, I say to you⁺, If a man keeps my speech, he will never see death" (Jn 8:51); "Already you⁺ are clean because of the word which I have spoken to you⁺" (Jn 15:3); "Sanctify them in the truth: your speech is truth" (Jn 17:17); "He who rejects me, and does not receive my sayings, has one who judges him: the speech that I spoke, the same will judge him in the last day" (Jn 12:48). Keeping Christ's speech is the test of love: "If a man loves me, he will keep my speech" (Jn 14:23); "He who does not love me does not keep my words" (Jn 14:24); "they have kept your speech" (Jn 17:6); "you have a little power, and kept my speech, and did not deny my name" (Rev 3:8).

The disciples remembered. After the resurrection "his disciples remembered that he spoke this; and they believed the Scripture, and the word which Jesus had said" (Jn 2:22); after the glorification, "then they remembered that these things were written of him" (Jn 12:16); the Spirit was sent precisely to make this remembering possible: "But the Spirit, the Supporter, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you⁺ all things, and bring to your⁺ remembrance all that I said to you⁺" (Jn 14:26; cf. 16:4). Paul treats those remembered words as a fixed standard: "If any man teaches a different doctrine, and does not consent to sound words, [even] the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to godliness" (1 Tim 6:3). John presses the same line: "Whoever goes onward and doesn't stay in the teaching of Christ, doesn't have God: he who stays in the teaching, the same has both the Father and the Son" (2 Jn 1:9). Paul calls the Thessalonians' reception of the apostolic message exactly this: "you⁺ received from us the word of the message, [even the word] of God, you⁺ accepted [it] not [as] the word of men, but, as it is in truth, the word of God, which also works in you⁺ who believe" (1 Th 2:13). And Paul anchors it back into the canon: "Let the word of Christ dwell in you⁺ richly; in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms [and] hymns [and] spiritual songs" (Col 3:16).

Christ as Teacher and Expositor

Jesus stands in the line of Yahweh-as-teacher. Nicodemus tells him so — "Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do, except God be with him" (Jn 3:2) — and Jesus turns it back: "Are you the teacher of Israel, and do not understand these things?" (Jn 3:10). He locates the source openly: "My teaching is not mine, but his that sent me" (Jn 7:16). His public ministry is described as continuous teaching: "And he taught in their synagogues, being glorified by all" (Lk 4:15); "he sat down and taught the multitudes out of the boat" (Lk 5:3); "But when the feast was already halfway through, Jesus went up into the temple, and taught" (Jn 7:14); "he had compassion on them, because they were as sheep not having a shepherd: and he began to teach them many things" (Mr 6:34). His chosen mode for the crowds is parable: "And he taught them many things in parables, and said to them in his teaching" (Mr 4:2); "and without a parable he did not speak to them: but privately to his own disciples he expounded all things" (Mr 4:34). And the parable he interprets is itself an interpretation of the umbrella: "Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God" (Lk 8:11).

Word of God: Mighty, Living, Two-Edged

The Scriptures are not inert. "Isn't my word like fire? says Yahweh; and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?" (Jer 23:29). "He sends out [his Speech] on earth; His word runs very swiftly" (Ps 147:15). "For as the rain comes down and the snow from heaven, and does not return there, but waters the earth, and makes it bring forth and bud, and gives seed to the sower and bread to the eater; so will my word be that goes forth out of my mouth: it will not return to me void, but it will accomplish that which I please, and it will prosper in the thing whereto I sent it" (Isa 55:10-11). Paul makes the identification with the gospel: "I am not ashamed of the good news: for it is the power of God to salvation to everyone who believes" (Rom 1:16). Hebrews makes the most explicit single statement: "For the word of God is living, and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to discern the thoughts and intents of the heart" (Heb 4:12). Paul's armor passage names it as a weapon: "And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God" (Eph 6:17). The Apocalypse makes it the weapon of Christ: "out of his mouth proceeded a sharp two-edged sword" (Rev 1:16); "These things says he who has the sharp two-edged sword" (Rev 2:12); "I will make war against them with the sword of my mouth" (Rev 2:16). Paul says the same of the eschatological judgment: "the lawless one, whom the Lord Jesus will slay with the breath of his mouth" (2 Th 2:8); compare Isaiah on the messianic king: "he will strike the earth with [the Speech of] his mouth; and with the breath of his lips he will slay the wicked" (Isa 11:4).

Despised, Wrested, Misused

The Scriptures can be despised. "Therefore as the tongue of fire devours the stubble... they have rejected the law of Yahweh of hosts, and despised the [Speech] of the Holy One of Israel" (Isa 5:24); "For it is a rebellious people, lying sons, sons who will not hear the law of Yahweh" (Isa 30:9); "they have forsaken my law which I set before them, and haven't obeyed my [Speech], neither walked in it" (Jer 9:13); "They did not keep the covenant of God, And refused to walk in his law" (Ps 78:10); "they mocked the messengers of God, and despised his words, and scoffed at his prophets, until the wrath of Yahweh arose against his people, until there was no remedy" (2 Chr 36:16). Hosea names the cost: "My people are destroyed for lack of the knowledge [of God]: because you have rejected the knowledge [of God], I will also reject you... seeing you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your sons" (Hos 4:6); Amos: "they have rejected the law of Yahweh, and have not kept his statutes" (Am 2:4). Jesus turns the same charge against his own contemporaries: "Full well do you⁺ reject the commandment of God, that you⁺ might keep your⁺ tradition" (Mr 7:9); "Is it not for this cause that you⁺ err, that you⁺ don't know the Scriptures, nor the power of God?" (Mr 12:24). Paul says some are veiled even in reading them: "to this day, whenever Moses is read, a veil lies on their heart" (2 Cor 3:15). The Pharisees' dismissal of Jesus' Galilean origin makes the same kind of error in expert form: "Are you also of Galilee? Search, and see that out of Galilee rises no prophet" (Jn 7:52).

The Scriptures can also be wrested. "For we are not as the many, corrupting the word of God: but as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God, we speak in Christ" (2 Cor 2:17); "we have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully" (2 Cor 4:2). Peter says the same of Paul's letters: "in which are some things hard to be understood, which the ignorant and unstedfast will wrest, as also the other Scriptures, to their own destruction" (2 Pet 3:16). Paul's anathema covers the same ground: "though we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you⁺ good news other than that which we preached to you⁺, let him be accursed" (Gal 1:8).

A Standard for Faith and Conduct, Written for Our Learning

The Scriptures judge. "He who rejects me, and does not receive my sayings, has one who judges him: the speech that I spoke, the same will judge him in the last day" (Jn 12:48). They are also explicitly purposed for the present generation. "For whatever things were written previously were written for our learning, that through patience and through comfort of the Scriptures we might have hope" (Rom 15:4); "Now these things happened to them by way of example; and they were written for our admonition, on whom the ends of the [past] ages have come" (1 Cor 10:11); "These things I have written to you⁺, that you⁺ may know that you⁺ have eternal life" (1 Jn 5:13). Reverencing them carries its own promise: "But he said, On the contrary, blessed are those who hear the word of God, and keep it" (Lk 11:28). Studying them is enjoined: "You⁺ search the Scriptures, because you⁺ think that in them you⁺ have eternal life; and those are the ones which bear witness of me" (Jn 5:39); "Seek⁺ out of the Book of Yahweh, and read: no one of these will be missing, none will want her mate" (Isa 34:16).

Forever Settled

The Scriptures are temporary in nothing they promise and permanent in everything they say. "[LAMED] Forever, O Yahweh, Your word is settled in heaven" (Ps 119:89); "Of old I have known from your testimonies, That you have founded them forever" (Ps 119:152). "The grass withers, the flower fades; but the word of our God will stand forever" (Isa 40:8). Peter reads the same line into the new covenant: "For, All flesh is as grass, And all its glory as the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls: But the word of the Lord stays forever. And this is the word of good news which was preached to you⁺" (1 Pet 1:24-25). Jesus puts it directly: "Heaven and earth will pass away: but my words will not pass away" (Lk 21:33); "Heaven and earth will pass away: but my words will definitely not pass away" (Mr 13:31). The Scriptures of the prophets are now manifested in the gospel and are pressed out among the nations: "but now is manifested, and by the Scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the eternal God, is made known to all the nations to obedience of faith" (Rom 16:26).