Grace Institute: Bible Study Methods: Inspiration

Inspiration Bible Study Methods Winter 2009

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Janauary 18, 2009: Inspiration

Homework due January 25

All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work. (2 Timothy 3:16-17 NASB)

The Bible is God's special revelation. It is God's Word. This concept is captured in the theological term, inspiration . The word inspiration is found in 2 Timothy 3:16, where the original Greek is theopneustos , which literally means “God-breathed.” However, what are mechanics of this inspiration? How exactly did God breathe out his words into the Bible?

The Mechanics of Inspiration

There are numerous theories as to what inspiration really means. Here are five of the most common theories of inspiration (Enns 160-162) :

• Natural inspiration - Human authors were inspired to write by God in the same way that a poet might be inspired to write poetry by natural events or conditions.
• Spiritual illumination – Human authors themselves are inspired by God in the same way God inspires any Christian today through the ministry of the Holy Spirit. It differs from natural inspiration in a matter of degree, but not in kind.
• Partial illumination – Parts of the Bible are inspired by God, especially in spiritual matters. But historical, scientific, or other non-spiritual matters are not inspired.
• Conceptual inspiration – God inspired human authors with the general concepts of the passage, but left the words and details to the author.
• Verbal inspiration – God inspired human authors with each word, superintending even the details.
• Divine dictation – Human authors just took dictation from God as he spoke.

The best description of the process of inspiration is found in 2 Peter 1:21, as he describes the process of prophecy being passed to human authors:

For no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God. (2 Peter 1:21 NASB)

Inspiration means, then, that the decision to write the scripture came from God, but human authors were used to speak as from God as the Holy Spirit carried them along. Therefore, inspiration does not mean that God spoke the words and men wrote those words like a stenographer (with the exception of those several passages preceded by the words “Thus says the Lord.”). Human authors were involved in the writing, and the authors' individual personalities and styles come through in the process.

Furthermore, inspiration is more than a “natural inspiration” similar to how a poet or musician might be “inspired” to write. Scripture has divine origin as the Holy Spirit supernaturally “carried” the authors. God motivated the human author to write, and he oversaw over the process to ensure the end result communicated His message.

The question, then, is how detailed was this oversight? Did the Holy Spirit oversee the general content, or did he oversee each word?

Jesus gives us a clear insight into the level of detail in Matthew 5:18:

"For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished. (Matthew 5:18 NASB)

It seems Jesus was concerned about each word and stroke of the pen, suggesting that the oversight of God was detailed down to the finest detail.

This is further affirmed by the way both Jesus and Paul used the scriptures. In Matthew 22, the Sadducees challenge Jesus regarding the truth resurrection. Jesus answers them by quoting scripture:

"But regarding the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was spoken to you by God: 'I AM the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob' ? He is not the God of the dead but of the living." (Matthew 22:31-32 NASB)

Jesus' argument is based on the tense of the verb “to be.” Because the scripture says “I am” rather than “I was” Jesus was able to prove the resurrection of the dead. If Jesus used even the very tense of a verb in scripture, He must have considered even the minor grammatical elements of scripture to be inspired by God.

Paul also uses minor grammatical elements in the development of his arguments. In Galatians 3:16, he demonstrates that the Abrahamic covenant was a Messianic promise because God promise was to Abraham and his “seed” as opposed to his “seeds.” If the Holy Spirit only inspired the concepts behind the words and not the words of scripture themselves, then Paul's argument would not be of any value.

Inspiration, therefore, means that the Holy Spirit used human writers and their personalities, background, and style to communicate His Word through even the very words and grammar of those authors.

Inerrancy

So if God superintended over the writing of each word, what does that mean about the veracity of the scriptures? If we believe God is a truthful God, his writings would also be truthful. This is the feeling of King David as he writes Psalm 19. David, in describing the Scriptures, uses adjectives such as perfect and sure (v. 7), right and pure (v. 8), clean and true (v. 9).

The theological term for this is “inerrancy.” Inerrancy means that the Bible, when correctly interpreted in light of the level to which culture and the means of communication had developed at the time it was written, and in view of the purposes for which it was given, is fully truthful in all that it affirms.

The question, however, is to what extent does the bible affirm truth? Is the bible true in all matters, or just matters of spirituality? Amongst theologians who hold to inerrancy, there are three primary views:

• Absolute Inerrancy . All matters, spiritual, historical, and scientific, are true.
• Full Inerrancy . The Bible is completely true, but is the bible's primary aim is not to make scientific or historical assertions, but theological and spiritual facts.
• Limited Inerrancy . The Bible is only true in theological or spiritual matters, not scientific or historical matters.

The Scriptures are the Word of God. God does not lie (Titus 1:2, Hebrews 6:18 ), and God is true (John 17:3). Therefore God's words are true (John 17:17 ), and the Scriptures are true (Psalm 19:7-9). Therefore, it would seem that limited inerrancy has problems.

Nonetheless, while the all of the bible is true, the bible does not contain all of the truth. There are many subjects on which the bible is silent. The bible's primary purpose is to present spiritual truth. God gave the bible so that we might know Him, that we might be saved (John 21:31 ), and that we might be convicted of our sins and live righteously (2 Timothy 3:16-17, Hebrews 4:12, Psalm 119:9-11).

The bible presents these spiritual truths using certain human languages, within certain human cultures, and within certain historical events. As such, these truths must accommodate the limitations of those languages and cultures. The bible had to be written in a way that could be understood by the culture to which it was originally written. Because the ancient Jewish culture did not have our modern understanding of science, scientific facts are presented from the perspective of the original audience rather than from a technical perspective. For example, the sun is referred to as rising, even though our modern scientific knowledge tells us the sun does not rise, but rather, the earth rotates on its axis. If the bible had used modern scientific language to explain the technical relationship between the sun and the earth instead of using the term “sunrise” and “sunset,” the original readers of the bible would have been confused and the deeper spiritual truth would have been lost in the process.

Furthermore, the bible must often explain the historical and geographic context into which spiritual truth is revealed. The bible provides historical and geographic truths primarily to develop the underlying spiritual truth. As such, the bible can not be expected to give the details which a modern historian might desire. In fact, the bible often uses broad generalities, numerical approximations, and paraphrasing of other texts as it outlines historical events. The facts may not necessarily be exact and are always presented from an ancient cultural perspective. However, these facts must still be essentially correct or it makes God a liar.

With this perspective, the bible is without error and trustworthy for the contemporary reader. The bible is the very breath of God (2 Timothy 3:16 ), and the Holy Spirit oversaw all that it was written within it (2 Peter 1:21 ). God not only superintended its writing, but is actively involved in its on-going preservation (Matthew 5:18 ). We can therefore trust in the authority, inspiration and inerrancy of the Scriptures.

Canonicity

According to 2 Timothy 3:16, all scripture is inspired by God. This begs the question, however, as to what books constitute all scripture. How do we know which authors and which books were truly inspired and which were not? Canonicity is the doctrine that establishes the extent of inspired scripture. The word canon means literally a measuring rod. The canon then becomes the measuring rod against which we measure an ancient document to see if it measures up to the level of scripture.

Canonicity of the Old Testament

Jesus Christ's affirmation of the Old Testament canon is the basis for accepting these books as inspired. The 39 books found in our modern bibles were entirely contained in the Hebrew bible that Jesus would have used. However, they were split among 22 books which were grouped into either a three-fold (i.e. the Law, the Prophets, and the Writings or Psalms) or two-fold division (i.e. Law and the Prophets). Jesus referenced both the three-fold division (Luke 24:44) and the two-fold divisions of the Hebrew bible (Matthew 5:17 , 7:12 , 11:13 , 22:40 , Luke 16:16 , 29, 31, 24:27). He defended his teaching by using scripture from all three divisions including the Law (John 5:46 ), the Prophets (Matthew 11:10 ), and the Writings (Luke 20:42 ). In contrast, Jesus never quoted or referred to any of the apocryphal books. Jesus' use of the Old Testament demonstrated His belief in its authority, even down to the smallest grammatical parts (Matthew 5:18, 22:31 -33). Clearly, the Son of God considered these books to be the inspired Word of God.

If as Christians we believe in the divinity of Jesus Christ, his testimony should be all the evidence we need of the inspiration of the Old Testament. Chafer states this well:

It is logically impossible to question the inspiration of the Old Testament without questioning the character and veracity of Jesus Christ. It is for this reason that denial of the inspired Word of God leads to the denial of the incarnate Word of God (Chafer 21) .

Canonicity of the New Testament

Apostolic Authority

The authority of the Son of God also serves as a launching point to affirm the canonicity of the New Testament as well. In John 14:26 Jesus tells his disciples that the Holy Spirit will remind them of his words and will teach them all things. In John 16:13, Jesus again affirms the teaching ministry of the Holy Spirit, and assures his disciples that the Holy Spirit will guide them into truth, revealing to them the meaning of Christ's death and resurrection.

From this we can deduct that the Holy Spirit oversaw the teachings of the apostles, and that their teachings are authentic. The apostles often invoke this Spirit guided remembrance as they share their credentials in their writings (2 Peter 1:16 , 1 John 1:1-4, Hebrews 2:3-4). The apostles considered themselves as authoritative because they had seen, heard, and learned from Jesus and had been reminded of these things by the Holy Spirit. We can therefore consider the writings of the apostles to be canonical.

The Pauline Writings

This argument, however, does not hold for the most prolific of the New Testament writers: the apostle Paul. Paul was not one of Jesus original disciples. He was not an eyewitness to Jesus deeds and words. This has caused many to doubt the inspiration of Paul's writings. Furthermore, Paul's writings reveal a more developed theology than the gospels and the general epistles. When this is combined with passages in the Pauline epistles that are contrary to early 21 st century political correctness, it is easy to dismiss these 13 books of the New Testament.

However, Peter affirms the authority of Paul's writings, even going so far as to equate them with scripture:

Our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you, as also in all his letters, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort, just as they do also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction. (2 Peter 3:15-16 NASB)

There were other non-apostolic authors as well, such as Mark, Luke, Jude, and perhaps the author of Hebrews. However each of writers was a close associate of an apostle and had tacit apostolic sponsorship. Namely, Luke was associated with Paul, Mark with Peter, and Jude with James. Therefore, these writers were considered authoritative due to their close association with the sponsoring apostle.

The Canon Affirmed

The authority and inspiration of these 66 books was established at the time they were written. However, it became important for the church to codify which books were Scripture when non-canonical books began circulating and heresies grew.

Some scholars believe the Old Testament canon was probably first formalized at the Council of Jamnia in AD 90, a council of leading Jews. There is some controversy in Jewish scholarship as to whether or not the council actually set the canon. Nonetheless, the Old Testament seems to be established by the Jews in the late first century. In any case, it should be noted that the Jewish canon only confirmed what Jesus had already established regarding the Old Testament.

The development of the New Testament canon was a long process. Most of the New Testament books were immediately recognized as inspired and became an integral part of church life. The church did not see a need to formalize the canon, however, until certain heretics in the church began compiling their own lists of “inspired” books supporting their viewpoints. Furthermore, by the third and fourth centuries, a number of false gospels (known today as the “Gnostic” gospels) were proliferating.

Therefore, it became necessary to determine which of the many books circulating among the churches were authentic in their apostolic authority. There was never a debate amongst the early churches as to the inspiration of the books written by the apostles. The debate came chiefly as to whether or not specific books were written either by the apostles or by someone sponsored by an apostle (e.g. Luke had Paul's sponsorship while Mark was sponsored by Peter).

The New Testament Canon was recognized at the Council of Hippo in AD 393. The church used a four-fold test given to determine whether a book should be included in “the canon,” or the group of books accepted as Scripture (McRay) :

• Was it written by an apostle or with an apostle's backing?
• Does the book claim to be inspired?
• Do the churches accept the content?
• Does the book have the feel of genuineness?

The church did not question the canon until the Protestant reformation. Some Lutheran churches began to question the books of Hebrews, 2 Peter, 2 John, 3 John and Jude. Luther himself had issues with the inspiration of the book of James as well. In reaction to this, the Roman Catholic Church came together in the Council of Trent (1543-63) and reaffirmed these books as part of the canon, but also adding the deuterocanonical books as part of the canon as well. These books, also known as the apocrypha, are primarily books written between the Old and New Testament. They have nev er been included in the Jewish canon, and were not considered by the church to be on par with scripture until the Council of Trent.

The process of canonization did not make the books “inspired,” but were used to help determine which books were already inspired.