Inspiration of the Bible

Inspiration of the Bible

Proverbs 30:5-6

Theologians use three key terms to describe the Bible: it is inspired, inerrant, and authoritative. These terms are dependent on one another. The Bible cannot be authoritative if it is not inerrant (without errors), and it cannot be inerrant if it is not divinely inspired.

The Bible was written by 40 authors over a period of 1,500 years, yet without any inconsistencies or contradictions. Proverbs 30:5 describes it this way: “Every word of God proves true.” Likewise, all its predictions about the future ( to date) have come true, with many more to come (Matt 5:17-19).

The probability that such a book, written apart from divine inspiration, would prove to be inerrant is unfathomable. Therefore, inspiration is the bedrock doctrine concerning the Bible.

Two verses in the NT provide strong images of what biblical inspiration means. Second Timothy 3:16 says, “All Scriptures is breathed out by God and profitable.” The word inspirationin the original Greek was a compound adjective: theopneustos. It comes from theos (God) and the verb pneo (to blow or breath). Therefore, breathed out by God means “inspiration.”

Inspiration suggests that the Spirit of God moved the writers of Scripture as they wrote. As a result, the words they recorded were nothing less than the very words of God. This is consistent with the Ministry of the Holy Spirit in the OT: He “came upon” people for specific purposes (Num. 24:2; Judg. 3:10; 6:34; 11:29; 14:6, 19). One of those purposes was speaking forth and recording the words and works of God. Yet at the same time, the authors’ own styles and personalities are evident. The fact that the scriptures are inspire by God does not take away the distinctiveness of each author.

Paul, of course wrote 2 Timothy 3:16 at a time when only the OT books were acknowledged as scripture, yet there is evidence that the apostolic writings in the NT were beginning to be recognized as divinely authored. For example, the apostle Pere spoke about people distorting the letters of Paul “as they do the other scriptures” (2 Pet. 3:16). Peter saw Paul’s writings as equal to the OT scriptures.

The second major passage in the NT concerning inspiration is Peter’s: “For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit” (2 Pet. 1:21). The key word here is carried by the Holy Spirit. Just as wind fills the sail of a boat and moves it along the water by its power, so the Holy Spirit “carried along” the writers of scripture so that what they wrote were the very words of God.

Both Peter and Paul, wring at different time to different groups of people, described the process of inspiration the same way; the Holy Spirit was the divine agent who enabled the authors of scripture to write what God wanted written. For that reason, we conclude that the Bible is divinely inspired.

Yet Paul and Peter were not the only ones who understood the divine enabling of those who spoke and wrote for God. Jesus viewed the words of the OT as being from God – words that could not be altered in even the tiniest of ways (Matt. 5:17-19). He also attributed the words of Genesis to God (Matt. 19:4, 5) and equated the words of the psalmist to the words of scripture, saying they “cannot be broken” (John 10:34, 35). The sage in Provers 30:6 warned: “Do not add to (God’s) words, lest he rebuke you and you be found a liar.” The NT is also rife with attestations that the OT prophets spoke the words of God (e.g. Mark 12:36; Luke 1:70; Acts 3:18; Rom 9:15).

Believers today need have no doubt whether the Bible’s authors were unified concerning its origin. They all understood it is a book inspired by God Himself.

For Further Readings: Luke 16:17; John 1:1; Ats 1:16; 1 Cor 2:13; Heb 1:1, 3:7; 2 Peter 1:20; Rev. 1:1-3