“But the Holy Spirit also witnesses to us; for after He had said before, ‘This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord…'” (Hebrews 10:15-16).
While Jeremiah the prophet served as the human author of the quotation in the passage above, we should not overlook this attribution to the Holy Spirit here in Hebrews 10:16. This is not the only portion of Scripture to feature this type of acknowledgement…
“Notice a number of places in the New Testament where portions of the Old Testament that were written by various men are assigned to the Holy Spirit as the author. The only way to account for this phenomenon is to recognize a dual authorship (see Mark 12:36, where the Spirit is said to be the author of what David wrote in Ps. 110; Acts 1:16 and 4:24–25, where Ps. 41 and Ps. 2 are ascribed to the Holy Spirit; and Heb. 3:7; 10:15–16).” (1)
The following passage from the Biblical epistle of 1 Peter helps us understand how this “dual authorship” took place…
“Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation. For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit” (2 Peter 1:20-21 NIV).
The Apostle Peter described this process with a nautical term that means “to move or be conveyed” in the original language of these verses. (2) We can illustrate the that means of conveyance with the image of a sailboat on a lake. Just as a sailboat is moved by the wind that fills its sails, the Holy Spirit carried these Old and New Testament authors along, so they went exactly where the Spirit wanted them to go in their Biblical works.
These human authors were active in writing the words of the Scriptures as God’s Spirit carried them along, just as sailors are active on a ship that is moved by the wind. Thus, an important observation made earlier in our study of the book of Hebrews is one that bears repeating…
“This is attributing the inspiration of the OT to the Holy Spirit (cf. Acts 28:25; Heb. 10:15). In context this is very significant because Scripture is attributed to the Father in Heb. 1:5,13; 2:6,11; 4:3,4; 10:9; 13:5. Therefore, this is a strong passage on the deity and personality of the Spirit (cf. Heb. 9:8; 10:15). (3)
(1) Charles Caldwell Ryrie, Ryrie Study Bible: New American Standard Bible, 1995 Update, Expanded ed. (Chicago: Moody Press, 1995), 2080.
(2) See G5342 phero Thayer’s Greek Lexicon https://www.blueletterbible.org/lexicon/g5342/kjv/tr/0-1/
(3) Dr. Bob Utley. Free Bible Commentary, [Hebrews 3:7] Copyright © 2014 Bible Lessons International http://www.freebiblecommentary.org/new_testament_studies/VOL10/VOL10_03.html