AUTHORITY. The word “authority” occurs twice only in the Eng. VSS of the OT (Prov 29:2, רָבָה֒, H8049, and Esth 9:29, תֹּ֫קֶף, H9549); but there are places where the Heb. כֹּחַ֒, H3946, usually tr. “power,” could be rendered “authority” (cf. Num 14:17; Job 26:12; Ps 147:5; Isa 50:2; Dan 8:22). In the NT the Gr. word ἐξουσία, G2026, is sometimes tr. “power” (KJV) or “right” (NEB), (e.g. Matt 9:6; John 1:12; 17:2; 19:10, etc.), and sometimes by “authority” (Matt 7:29; 8:9; 21:23; John 5:27; Acts 9:14, etc.). The cogency of either term for exousia is seen in such vv. (Matt 7:29; 9:6; 28:18; John 1:12; 1 Cor 9:5; 2 Thess 3:9). These references make clear that exousia signifies power rightfully held: the emphasis falling sometimes on the “authority” which the possession of the power rightfully gives, and sometimes on the reality of the “power” which conditions the right use of authority (cf. John 1:12). The pl. form is found (Eph 3:10; 6:12; Col 1:16; 2:15) to designate evil and good angels as evil or good powers and authorities.

Ultimate authority belongs to God as Creator and Redeemer. It is the basic conviction of all Scripture that “God is His own authority for the religious, and therefore the last for the race; and He is the only Authority man has in the end” (P. T. Forsyth, The Principle of Authority, p. 146). Throughout Scripture God remains forever the object of man’s authority, not the subject of man’s contemplation. The a priori in man is the capacity for owning God’s authority. To say that God is the ultimate authority in the realms of morals and faith is to be committed to the conclusion, which Augustine saw so clearly, that God’s authority and God’s self-disclosure are two sides of the same reality. It is in His revelation that God’s authority is to be found: revelation is, therefore, the key to ultimate authority (see Book of the Revelation). In revelation God is seen as moral and redemptive, disclosing His authority. God’s revelation is demanding, urgent, and authoritative. God’s universal dominion over the world is His authority (cf. Exod 15:18; Pss 39:10; 93:1f., etc.). As Lord and King of all nature and history, God has the unchangeable right to exercise authority over mankind. The Bible makes clear His sovereign right to demand obedience, and to Him all are held responsible and accountable.

Christ is the locus of God’s revelation and is, therefore, among men as the Incarnate Authority of God.

Since God’s will has been given personal embodiment in Christ, the Word made flesh, He becomes at once the final court of appeal and absolute norm to which the moral life of man must be referred, and the sure word and ultimate fact in which religious trust can be reposed. Divine authority finds its focus and finality in Him. This is the reason why the gospels declare that His teaching caused astonishment because He taught as One having authority (Matt 7:29; Mark 1:22; Luke 20:2). The absoluteness of Christ’s authority in the sphere of ultimate knowledge of God is asserted (Matt 11:27), as is a like unique authority in the realm of a complete knowledge of men implied (John 2:25). Christ’s more-than-human authority is everywhere clear in the gospel records: it derives from His own nature as one within the Godhead, from His divine commission, from His fulfillment of the Father’s will, from His work on behalf of man.

He showed that He possessed authority in His own Person by His attitude to the law (cf. Matt 5:32f.) and by exercising the divine right to forgive sins (9:6-8; Mark 2:10; Luke 5:24). He presented His teaching as authoritative (Matt 7:29) and claimed the right to judge men’s hearts (John 1:50; 2:24, 25, etc.) and give eternal life (John 17:2). Salvation is by faith in Him (Matt 10:32; 11:28-30, etc.). His authority continues by reason of His unbroken sonship with the Father (Matt 28:18; John 5:19-27; cf. Matt 21:23f.; Mark 11:28f.; 1 Cor 15:24; Eph 1:21; Col 2:10; 1 Pet 3:22; Rev 12:10). He is “both Lord and Christ” and is the final authority as the ultimate revelation of God, being Himself the divine sovereign of all and the Redeemer and King of all His people.

The authority of Christ is interpreted through chosen media. The Christ who is authoritative is the Biblical Christ, for He is the only Christ known. This presentation of Christ was secured by His chosen apostles. They had a unique position as “elect and providential personalities” (Forsyth) of the risen Lord. Their elaboration and interpretation of Christ was not an intrusion upon revelation, but part of its scheme. They were men inspired of the Holy Spirit to fill out to its fullness the revelation of Christ (see Inspiration). The apostles embodied the authority of Christ and from this point of view had no successors. They possessed a special apostolic authority (1 Cor 12:28; Eph 3:5; 4:11; 2 Pet 3:2; Jude 17; etc.). They were the founders and builders of the Church (Eph 2:20). They were Christ’s spokesmen with His own authority (cf. 2 Cor 10:8); they felt no necessity to quote the Lord’s specific words, but regarded their own as of Him (1 Cor 14:37; 2 Thess 3:10, 12, 14; etc.) (see Apostle). “I am not obliged to obey Paul because he is clever, or exceptionally clever, but I must submit to Paul because he has divine authority” (Kierkegaard).

The authority of God expressed in Christ and filled out by His chosen apostles is perpetuated in the written Scriptures. Although Christ wrote no book, the Scriptures are the product of His continued activity as ascended Lord through the Spirit, and as such they possess a like authority with Him. “The Holy Spirit and the Apostles became correlative conceptions, with the consequence that the Scriptures of the New Testament were indifferently regarded as composed by the Holy Spirit or the Apostles” (A. Harnack, “The Origin of the NT,” ETh [1925], p. 49 n.) (see Scripture; Inspiration). This brings the Spirit into relation with the Word, for the authority of Christ is mediated through the Word by the Spirit. This duality of Spirit and Word must be maintained, for herein lies the Christian principle of authority.

Authority exists independently of any appropriation of it. It must be recognized and received if it is to become decisive in experience. Faith is the mode by which authority is appropriated. In the context of the duality of Spirit and Scripture, faith is the illumination of divine authority by the Spirit and the recognition of divine authority in the Word. A real authority is effective within experience, yet it is not the authority of experience, but for experience. It is an authority experienced. A certain authority spills over to church and creed because of their relation to Christ in His Word. The church is the community of those who have appropriated the authority of Christ within experience, and the creeds are the church’s confession of its experience of Christ’s authority. The individual experience of the believer, the community experience of the church, and the formalized experience of the creeds are not authorities in their own right. They all possess a derived authority, an authority which is real only insofar as it derives from God’s revelation in Christ, and has its authentication in the Scriptures known and understood through the Spirit.

Bibliography B. B. Warfield, The Inspiration and Authority of the Bible (1893, reprint 1948); P. T. Forsyth, The Principle of Authority (1912, reissue 1952); H. Cunliffe-Jones, The Authority of Biblical Revelation (1948); J. W. C. Wand, The Authority of the Bible (1949); G. W. Bromiley, “The Authority of Scripture,” NBC (1953); N. Geldenhuys, Supreme Authority (1953); B. Ramm, The Pattern of Authority (1957); R. C. Johnson, Authority in Protestant Theology (1959); H. D. McDonald, Theories of Revelation (1963), esp. chas. 8, 9; H. D. McDonald, “The Concept of Authority,” Faith and Thought: Journal of the Victoria Institute, vol. 95, No. 2 (Summer 1966).