Did the NT writers know they were writing sacred scripture?

[RollTide1987]

When Paul was writing his letters to the various churches that ended up being sacred scripture, did he have some inclination that what he was writing was special and would one day be read by Christians the world over? Was Luke aware that his writings were divinely inspired or how about James and John? And did the authors of the New Testament regard earlier New Testament writings (like when Paul quotes from Luke in one of his letters) as divine scripture?

 

[DavidFilmer]

Paul describes the utterance of knowledge and of prophecy as gifts of the Spirit (1Cor 12:8).

He claims a divine origin for his teaching:

I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that the gospel I preached is not of human origin. I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ. [Gal 1:11]

At one point, Paul is careful to differentiate between his own teaching and divine teaching:

To the rest I say (I, not the Lord) that if any brother has a wife who is an unbeliever, and she consents to live with him, he should not divorce her. [1Cor 7:12 ]

So it seems Paul is aware that he is operating under divine guidance. But I think it is unlikely that Paul or any other NT writer ever envisioned something like the New Testament. Remember, they thought they were living in the end times, so their words would not be expected to have such a wide and long-lasting impact. I doubt, for example, that Paul ever thought that anyone other than the Galatians of his day would ever read his epistle to them.

 

[mdgspencer]

This is a question I have found fascinating. What did the sacred writers of Scripture go through when they wrote?
I find the preceding post quite helpful, by the way.
According to the Catholic view, Scripture is the word of God, and it was inspired by God. (The writers though are also true authors as well.) It is hard for me to think that they failed to be aware that God was leading them in what they wrote–how could they not be, because they must have been guided by an understanding beyond themselves? and it is difficult not to think that they well saw this themselves.
But whether they knew that they were writing books of Scripture is another matter. For men to be led by God is common, as the theology behind the seven gifts of the Spirit, which all the faithful receive, shows. Something could well involve divine inspiration and not be Scripture, which I expect the writers of Scripture generally well realized.

 

[Pax]

I would add this quote from Peter.

2 Peter 3:15-16
So also our beloved brother Paul wrote to you according to the wisdom given him,
speaking of this as he does in all his letters. There are some things in them hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other scriptures.

I would say that the authors were aware that their writings contained divine inspiration.