Grace Institute: Systematic Theology: Bibliology: Inspiration

Bibliology Grace Institute for Biblical Leadership Winter 2006

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III.Inspiration

The Bible then 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.” But what are mechanics of this inspiration? How exactly did God breathe out his words into the Bible?

A. The Mechanics of Inspiration

There are numerous theories as to what inspiration really means. Here are five of the most common theories of inspiration [1]:

• 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:

(2 Peter 1:21 NIV) 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.

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:

(Matthew 5:18) I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.

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:

(Matthew 22:31-32 NASB) 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.

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.

B. 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 doesn't 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.

Footnotes

1. Paul Enns, The Moody Handbook of Theology , (Chicago: Moody Press, 1989), 160-162.

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