Questions to Consider on Who Was Inspired and Moved Along by the Holy Spirit

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What is inspiration? What is involved in being moved along by the Holy Spirit? What is inerrancy? Was Tertius, Paul’s scribe capable in his human imperfection to go without making one single scribal error for 7,000+ words? Did Tertius take Paul’s exact dictation, word for word? Were both Paul and Tertius inspired, or just Paul? Was Tertius more of a co-author with Paul, Silvanus with Peter, Baruch with Jeremiah? If Paul alone was inspired, how does the imperfection of Tertius affect inerrancy? What about Phoebe; what role did the carrier have in the process?

Introduction: A Multi-Person Effort in the Canonical Transmission of Inspired Scripture

The production, transmission, and reception of New Testament epistles—particularly one as doctrinally rich as Romans—involve more than just the inspired author. In the specific case of Romans, at least three individuals are involved in the immediate production and delivery of the letter: Paul the apostle (the inspired author), Tertius (the secretary or amanuensis who physically wrote the letter), and Phoebe (the likely carrier of the completed manuscript to Rome). This layered process raises crucial theological and textual questions: Who among them was inspired? Did the secretarial and delivery roles compromise the doctrine of verbal plenary inspiration? And what mechanisms ensured that the final manuscript was not only accurate but also wholly the Word of God?

This article will examine these questions in detail, grounding the answers in a high view of Scripture consistent with conservative textual criticism and an evangelical understanding of inspiration. Using Romans as the case study, this investigation will draw from explicit scriptural data, historical scribal practices, and theological implications of the Spirit’s work in the process.

The Reading Culture of Early Christianity

Defining Inspiration: The Operation of the Holy Spirit on the Mind of the Biblical Author

The foundation for any discussion of Scripture’s origin lies in the concept of inspiration. According to 2 Timothy 3:16, “All Scripture is inspired of God.” The term translated “inspired” (theopneustos) means “God-breathed.” Scripture, therefore, is not merely a product of religious reflection or human insight; it is the direct product of divine breath, mediated through human instruments.

Second Peter 1:21 further explains the mechanics: “For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men carried along by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.” The Greek phrase translated “carried along” (pheromenoi hypo pneumatos hagiou) evokes the image of a ship being borne by the wind. This metaphor confirms that the Holy Spirit was the divine force propelling the writers, not by overriding their faculties, but by ensuring the outcome—Scripture—was exactly what God intended.

The biblical record also affirms that inspiration is not mechanical dictation in most cases. The individuality of each author shines through their writings. Luke, for example, begins his Gospel by stating that he investigated everything carefully and set it down in an orderly fashion (Luke 1:1–4). Similarly, Solomon in Ecclesiastes describes the preacher’s process of weighing, pondering, and arranging words to find those that are “delightful” and true (Ecclesiastes 12:9–10). Despite this human agency, Scripture insists that the final product is both fully human and fully divine—God’s Word, written through the means of the human writer’s style, background, and vocabulary.

Paul’s Role in the Epistle to the Romans: The Inspired Apostle and Dictator of Scripture

Paul is the divinely appointed author of the letter to the Romans. Romans 1:1 identifies him explicitly: “Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God.” As one of the few men personally commissioned by the risen Christ (Acts 9; Galatians 1:1), Paul wrote with apostolic authority, producing Scripture under divine inspiration.

Throughout his epistles, Paul affirms that his teachings are not of human origin but are revealed by God. In Galatians 1:11–12, he says, “For I would have you know, brothers, that the gospel that was preached by me is not man’s gospel. For I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.” When he writes his letters, Paul is conscious that his words bear divine authority. This is why, in 1 Thessalonians 2:13, he commends the believers for receiving his word “not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God.”

Thus, when Paul composed the letter to the Romans—whether by direct dictation or inspired composition—his authorship was under the full superintendence of the Holy Spirit. His mental faculties, theological insight, and rhetorical style were all employed, yet the final result was the inerrant and authoritative Word of God.

Tertius as Amanuensis: A Non-Inspired Scribe Under Apostolic Oversight

Romans 16:22 records a unique statement: “I, Tertius, who wrote this letter, greet you in the Lord.” This brief insertion confirms that Paul employed a scribe to pen the letter physically. The use of amanuenses was common in antiquity, especially among rhetoricians, politicians, and authors. In the New Testament, several examples of this practice exist: Silvanus for Peter (1 Peter 5:12), Baruch for Jeremiah (Jeremiah 36:4), and presumably secretaries for most Pauline epistles.

Theologically, Tertius was not inspired. Scripture nowhere teaches that secretaries or scribes received direct revelation. The inspired content came from Paul; Tertius functioned only as the mechanical instrument to record the words. His inclusion in Romans 16:22 is not a claim to authorship but an acknowledgment of his physical contribution.

If Tertius had been inspired, Paul would not have needed to review the letter or add a closing signature. Yet Paul does exactly that. In 2 Thessalonians 3:17, he notes, “The greeting is by my hand—Paul’s—which is a sign in every letter; this is the way I write.” This implies a two-step process: the inspired content is dictated, and then the document is reviewed and affirmed by the apostle before finalization.

Furthermore, the necessity of Paul’s oversight confirms that human error could be introduced by the scribe. Given the length of Romans—about 7,000 words in Greek—it is almost certain that Tertius would have made minor slips (whether in spelling, formatting, or line division) that Paul corrected. This editing process is not a weakness of inspiration; rather, it is the human mechanism through which the God-breathed text was safeguarded.

Historical Precedent: Prophetic Dictation and Scribal Involvement

The prophet Jeremiah offers the clearest Old Testament parallel. Jeremiah 36:4 states: “Then Jeremiah called Baruch the son of Neriah, and Baruch wrote on a scroll at the dictation of Jeremiah all the words of Jehovah that He had spoken to him.” The phrase “dictation of Jeremiah” is key. Jeremiah, being inspired, received the words from Jehovah, while Baruch, not being inspired, transcribed them.

The same procedure can be inferred in many prophetic books, and even more explicitly when Jehovah commands the prophet to “write these words” (Exodus 34:27). Such commands imply that while the prophet was inspired, the mechanical act of writing could be delegated, provided that the original was reviewed and authenticated. This is precisely what happened with Paul and Tertius.

Phoebe as Carrier: The Trusted Bearer of the Inspired Word

Romans 16:1–2 introduces Phoebe as “our sister Phoebe, a servant of the church at Cenchreae,” who was to be received in a manner “worthy of the holy ones.” Scholars widely agree that she was the bearer of the epistle to the Romans. The importance of the carrier in antiquity should not be underestimated. This person was not merely a courier but often functioned as the interpreter and explainer of the document’s contents.

Given this, it is almost certain that Paul spoke with Phoebe at length regarding the content of Romans, especially if she was to answer any clarifying questions the Roman congregation might have had. Yet despite her vital role in the communication process, she was not inspired. Her responsibility was logistical and interpretive, not revelatory. The preservation of inerrancy did not depend on the carrier being sinless or inspired but on the integrity of the transmission process and the prior verification of the document by the apostolic author.

Theological Implications: Verbal Plenary Inspiration and Human Involvement

The doctrine of verbal plenary inspiration holds that every word of Scripture is inspired by God, not just the ideas or the general message. Yet this doctrine does not require that every person involved in the production process be inspired. Rather, inspiration applies uniquely and exclusively to the biblical authors—to those men who were moved along by the Holy Spirit to communicate God’s message (2 Peter 1:20–21).

The involvement of amanuenses and carriers does not compromise inerrancy. The role of the Holy Spirit was not to possess or dictate through every hand that touched the text but to superintend the process so that the final written product matched precisely what God intended. This divine oversight extends to:

The selection of the inspired author.
The internal movement of the Spirit on the author’s mind and heart.
The use of scribes or secretaries under the apostle’s supervision.
The apostle’s review and authentication of the document.
The secure transmission by trusted carriers.

Each of these steps, while human in appearance, was under divine orchestration to achieve the goal of inerrant Scripture.

Addressing Scribal Errors and Preservation/Restoration of the Text

A common objection raised is: What if the scribe introduced mistakes before the inspired author had a chance to correct them? Or what if the autograph (original document) was lost? These are valid questions within textual criticism, but they do not undermine the doctrine of inspiration or inerrancy.

Inspiration applies only to the autographs. The scribal copies that followed, while preserved with astonishing accuracy, are not themselves inspired. However, the vast manuscript tradition, especially in the New Testament (5,898 manuscripts), enables scholars to reconstruct the original with an extremely high degree of certainty (99.99% mirror-like reflection). As shown in the textual tradition of Romans, the variants that exist do not affect doctrine and almost always involve minor matters of word order, spelling, or synonymous phrasing. None of these variants challenges the theological substance of the epistle.

Thus, the presence of variants does not reflect imperfection in the original inspiration but the expected effects of human copying over time. The task of textual criticism is to recover the original words of th original texts, and with the wealth of documentary evidence—especially from the Alexandrian tradition—the New Testament text is stable and trustworthy.

No Miraculous Preservation but Rather Preservation and Restoration

1 Peter 1:25 and Isaiah 40:8 are often taken by the charismatics, the King James Version Onlyists, and those in the unknowing to mean that God’s Word has gone unchanged since the original were written. They believe in miraculous preservation, which is biblically untrue and not the case in reality because there are hundreds of thousands of textual variants in tens of thousands of Hebrew and Greek manuscripts. What we have is the copyists preserving the texts as best as they could.

Scribal Skills

The quality and precision of these copies often depended on the scribe’s skill. Manuscripts can exhibit different handwriting styles, indicating the diversity of scribes involved in their copying:

The Common Hand: Sometimes, it can be tough to differentiate a badly made “documentary” handwriting from a regular one. However, typically, common handwriting shows the effort of someone with limited Greek-writing skills.

The Documentary Hand: These scribes were often accustomed to writing documents, such as business records or minor official documents. Their work is characterized by non-uniform lettering, with the initial letter on each line often larger than the rest. The lines of letters may not be even.

The Reformed Documentary Hand: This term refers to scribes who were aware they were copying a literary work rather than a mere document. Their work often exhibits more care and a slightly higher degree of uniformity than the basic documentary hand.

Professional Bookhand: Some manuscripts were clearly copied by professional scribes skilled in producing literary texts. An example is the Gospel codex known as P4+64+67, which showcases well-crafted calligraphy, paragraph markings, double columns, and punctuation.

How We Got the Greek Text of the New Testament

Transmission

Inspiration and Original Writing:
- The New Testament writings are considered by Christians to be inspired by the Holy Spirit. This means that the original authors, like Paul, John, or Peter, were guided by divine influence in their composition. This process is described in 2 Peter 1:21 where it states that “men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.”
Manuscript Copying:
- After the originals were written, they were copied by hand. This copying was not under the same divine inspiration. Therefore, while the original texts were considered inerrant by believers, the copies made by scribes could contain errors due to human limitations.

Corruption

Unintentional Errors:
- Orthographic Variants: Simple spelling mistakes or misunderstandings of the text due to similar sounding words in Greek.
- Omissions or Additions: Sometimes, scribes would inadvertently omit words or lines, or add them based on what they thought should be there or what they remembered from memory.
- Transpositions: Words or letters might be written in a different order.
Intentional Changes:
- Harmonizations: Scribes might adjust texts to make them consistent with parallel accounts in other Gospels or with Old Testament passages.
- Theological Emendations: Changes made to clarify or emphasize theological points, or sometimes to protect the text against heretical interpretations.

Types of Scribal Hands

The Common Hand:
- Reflects the work of less skilled or less literate scribes. The handwriting might be sloppy, letters might be uneven, and there could be frequent mistakes due to the scribe’s limited proficiency in Greek.
The Documentary Hand:
- Used by scribes familiar with writing documents like contracts or letters. The writing might not be aesthetically pleasing but functional. Letters might vary in size, especially with the first letter of a line being larger, and lines might not be straight.
The Reformed Documentary Hand:
- Indicates a scribe who recognized the text’s literary value, aiming for better legibility and uniformity than a purely documentary hand but not reaching the skill level of a professional.
Professional Bookhand:
- Employed by those trained in calligraphy for literary works. These manuscripts would exhibit careful lettering, use of spacing, punctuation, and other features for clarity and beauty. An example is the early codex P4+64+67, which shows advanced scribal practices.

Restoration

Textual Criticism:
- From the 18th century onwards, scholars like Johann Jakob Griesbach, Karl Lachmann, Constantin von Tischendorf, Brooke Foss Westcott and Fenton John Anthony Hort, Eberhard Nestle, Kurt and Barbara Aland, and Bruce M. Metzger have worked on reconstructing the original text of the New Testament.
- They compare thousands of manuscripts, versions, and quotations by early Church Fathers to discern the most likely original readings. Their work involves:
  - Collation: Comparing manuscripts to note variants.
  - Textual Analysis: Evaluating these variants based on external (manuscript age, geographical distribution) and internal (scribal habits, theological tendencies) evidence.
  - Eclectic Editions: Producing texts that blend readings from various manuscripts believed to best represent the original text.

This scholarly endeavor continues today with the use of digital tools and broader manuscript access, striving to get closer to the original wording of the New Testament texts while acknowledging the human elements in their transmission.

Conclusion: The Work of the Holy Spirit and the Divine-Human Dynamic in Scripture

When asking who was “moved along by the Holy Spirit” in the production of Romans—or any other biblical book—the answer is clear: only the inspired author. In this case, the apostle Paul. Tertius, the secretary, played a vital role in recording the letter but was not the recipient of divine revelation. Phoebe, the carrier, ensured that the Roman church received the letter but had no part in its composition.

This divine-human cooperation reflects the nature of Scripture itself: the Word of God through the words of men. The Holy Spirit did not bypass the human elements—vocabulary, style, personal reflection—but utilized them, ensuring that what was written was precisely what God intended. The result is an inerrant, inspired, and authoritative body of Scripture, trustworthy in every detail, and sufficient for faith and life.

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About the Author

EDWARD D. ANDREWS (AS in Criminal Justice, BS in Religion, MA in Biblical Studies, and MDiv in Theology) is CEO and President of Christian Publishing House. He has authored over 220+ books. In addition, Andrews is the Chief Translator of the Updated American Standard Version (UASV).