Inspiration

We have said that Revelation is God's divine communication to people that leads them to truth and knowledge of Him. When we talk of the inspiration of the Scriptures, we are referring to the process by which God worked through human authors to produce divinely authoritative and inerrant writings (see Geisler/Nix 39). Revelation is a vertical relationship: from God to people. Inspiration is more of a vertical relationship: from people writing the Word originally to conveying to the next readers.

"The biblical documents suggest that the Spirit used a wide range of means in influencing the writers of Scripture. Certain texts imply that humans were passive recipients of material given through divine dictation (Ex. 19:3-6; Lev. 1:1; Num. 7:89; 12:8; 1 Sam. 9:15; Isa. 6:8-9; Rev. 14:13). Other passages indicate that godly people were active agents in the process (Mark 12:36; Acts 1:16; 28:25; 1 Cor. 14:37). Hence, we find in the Bible differing writing styles, varying accounts of the same events, and even outbursts of human emotion (2 Cor. 11:1). Certain sections of the Bible purport to be based in eye witness accounts or to report the encounters certain persons had with God (Ex. 24:1-11; 1 Kings 22:19; Isa. 6:1-5; 2 Cor. 12:1-4)." (Grenz 498-499)

Some have thought that Scripture was simply dictated. In other words, God spoke audibly and the human author’s simply wrote out the words. There is evidence in Scripture that this happened:

• The prophets – "Thus saith the Lord…"
• 10 commandments

The Roman Catholic view of inspiration is similar to a dictation theory. They view God as the primary author of Scripture and people as the secondary authors of Scripture.
(see Donald Bloesch, Holy Scripture. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1994, p. 87)

However, all of Scripture is not simply a glorified secretary writing down God’s words verbatim. Rather, God is sovereignly overseeing or superintending the process.

Illustrations of "superintending" (realizing these have some limitations)

• Apartment complex super(intendent). Does he tell you how to paint the walls? what color? the exact place to put your kitchen table, your bed, your TV? No. A "super" gives you the four walls of your apartment and allows you the human freedom to arrange the furniture in a style/format that you enjoy.
• School Superintendent – does he give each teacher their notes for every class? Does he tell them every word to say? No. A School Superintendent makes sure you only teach them what is true and accurate? They don’t let you do or teach things that are contrary to the school, district or legal rules. They give you some freedom that allows you to teach to your best abilities, but they oversee a variety of different styles to make sure the message gets across in the right way with the right content.

In God’s divine providence, He also allows the personalities and interests of the human author come through. For example:

• Deuteronomy 18:18-20
• 2 Samuel 23:2
• Matthew 23:43; Acts 4:24-25; 7:38 – all point to NT understanding of inspiration as dual authorship
• Proverbs – is just that: a collection of proverbs. It is not one long book of writing that Solomon sat down and wrote out. It’s a royal collection of all the best proverbs that would make a person wise for human living.
• Gospels – four different accounts of the same material, each with a different theological focus. Also, each has a different style: Luke checks everything out and is very detailed. Mark is a book of action in which the grammar and language is not nearly as precise. John provides a unique perspective as the beloved disciple.
• Pauline Epistles – Paul writes in very long, drawn out, run-on sentences at times. He also includes some personal details in his epistles (see especially 2 Thessalonians 3:17; 2 Timothy 4:12)

Two key Scripture references for the doctrine of inspiration

• 2 Timothy 3:16-17 (See Geisler & Nix, A General Introduction to the Bible, pp. 34-38)
  • All - some of it may be more directly applicable, but all of God's word is inspired, including the geneaologies!
  • theopneustos = God-breathed out
• 2 Peter 1:20-21

The writers of Scripture understood (in some sense) that they were communicating God's Word (God's Revelation) as indicated by the following passages:

• "Word of God"
In reference to the OT - Matthew 15:6 & John 10:35
In reference to the NT - Revelation 1:2

Most of the individual books of the Old Testament have claims within them that they are God's Word to people. Phrases such as "God spoke all these words" and "The Lord said to [Moses, Samuel, etc]" The Book of the Law (Torah/Pentateuch) claims inspiration in Exodus 32:16, Leviticus 1:1, Numbers 1:1, and Deuteronomy 31:26. In the prophetic books, the most common phrase is "Thus says the Lord...", a clear sign of God's direct and divine inspiration of His Word through the writers.

• The NT writers equate their writing to be as authoritative as the OT.
  *Hebrews 1:1-2:4 (esp. 1:1-2; 2:1-4)
  *Ephesians 2:20 - equates "apostles" with "prophets"
  *2 Peter 3:2 - equates "apostles" with "prophets"
• Peter refers to Paul's writing as Scripture - 2 Peter 3:15-16
• Matthew 1:1 and Mark 1:1
  Matthew is a continuation of the Old Testament. Sometimes we think Old and New are two different books. In fact, they are one story in two parts. Matthew 1:1 says, "The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ..." In other words, this is a continuation of the Old Testament prophets message. It is the story of the fulfillment of their prophecy (see Matthew 5:17-18; 21).
  Mark also indicates a continuation or fulfillment of the Old Testament prophet's message in his beginning: "The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. As it is written in Isaiah the prophet..."
• Romans 9:1 - "I am telling the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit."
• Galatians 1:12 - "For I received it...through a revelation of Jesus Christ."
• 1 Thessalonians 4:15 - "For we say to you by the word of the Lord."
• 2 Peter 1:19 - "to have the prophetic word made sure."

(end of September 15, 2000 class)

• "Scripture"
Matthew 22:29; 26:54-56;
Luke 24:27, 32, 44;
John 5:39; 7:38, 42; 19:36-37; 20:9
Acts 17:1-3a, 11; 18:24-28
Romans 1:2; 15:4; 16:26;
1 Corinthians 15:3-4
Galatians 3:22; 4:30
• Direct use of OT by NT (revised from Geisler & Nix, p. 51)
  Exodus 20 à Matthew 5-7 (Sermon on the Mount)
  Psalm 118:22-23 à Matthew 21:42
  Genesis 12:3à Galatians 3:8
  Exodus 9:16 à Romans 9:17
  Genesis 2:24 à Matthew 19:4-5
  Psalm 2:1 à Acts 4:24-25
  Psalm 2:7 à Hebrews 1:5
  Psalm 16:10 à Acts 13:35
  Psalm 95:7 à Hebrews 3:7
  Psalm 97:7 à Hebrews 1:6
  Psalm 104:4 à Hebrews 1:7
  Isaiah 55:3 à Acts 13:34

Note the variety of New Testament writers (Gospels, Epistles) that make reference to various sections of the Old Testament (Law, Prophets, Writings).

• 92 times the phrase "It is written" (gegraptai) is used in NT to refer to specific OT passages.
• 33 times the phrase "that it might be fulfilled" is used in NT to refer to OT.

The early church fathers (esp. Clement), the Nicene and Anti-Nicene fathers (esp. Justyn Martyr, Tertullian, Hippolytus, and Origen) held to the inspiration of both the Old and New Testament.

On the other side of the spectrum, "liberal scholars" have attempted to deny the inspiration and therefore, the authority of the Scriptures. If, as they say, the books of the Bible are just written by regular men (and women), they are indeed, not too significant for our life. Typical of the liberal view of Scripture is this quote from Harold DeWolfe:

"the writing of the Bible as a whole was accomplished by an extraordinary simulation and elevation of the powers of men who devoutly yielded themselves to God’s will and sought, often with success unparalleled elsewhere, to convey truth useful to the salvation of men and nations."

There is good evidence to reject the view that the Bible is simply a human production. First, there are more than 50 individuals who authored the Bible – perhaps even more if you accept some of the liberal scholarship! In the 66 books written by these authors, there is not one contradiction. While some of the authors had access to the other author’s writings, not all of them did. Of course, these works spanned at least 1500 years between the writing of the first and last. Finally, there are literally hundreds of prophecies in the Bible, many of them extremely detailed which have come true. Quite frankly, it takes more faith to believe that each of the prophecies fulfilled were coincidence than it does to believe that God the Holy Spirit was superintending the writing process of each author.

One could take a strong fundamentalist view that God dictated everything verbally to the author. This is not necessary from the term "God-breathed," and it seems to me quite unlikely that God would dictate to Paul to tell people that he was writing in his own hand or that God would verbally tell Paul to have Timothy bring his cloak.

Our discussion of the dual authorship of Scripture leads us naturally to two more key areas of the doctrine of inspiration: the concepts of verbal and plenary inspiration.

• Plenary inspiration is the broader statement that means that all of Scripture, every part of it – the Gospels, the Epistles, the prophets, the Torah, etc., all the concepts and ideas, the whole of the message is inspired. Some of the passages we looked at last class are quite clear on this doctrine – All Scripture is God-breathed… 2 Timothy 3:16
• Verbal inspiration means that each word of Scripture is inspired. Again, some liberal scholarship has pointed out that the Scripture contains the Word of God, but it is not fully the Word of God. In other words, parts of Scripture are what God wanted to say to humanity and they convey the gospel message, but all of Scripture is not really all God’s Word. At this point, it is important that the we believe in the verbal inspiration of the Scriptures. That is, every single word, not just ideas or the basic message, but every single letter in the Bible is God’s inspired Word. (Matthew 5:18)

We say that All Scripture is inspired. What exactly do we mean by all Scriptures? Do we mean the King James? The NIV? or just the original autographs?

The most (only) biblical position to take is that only the original manuscripts were inspired by God. Although we do not have the original manuscripts, the original autograph of each book can quite easily and scientifically be re-created from the many copies we have. This is the discipline of textual criticism which will be discussed in a couple weeks.

However, don’t panic and think that all your English translations are therefore garbage. As much as I’d like to tell you all that you should all go study Greek & Hebrew right away, I know that’s not going to happen. Later in the course, we’re going to talk about the subject of translation. For now, consider that your English Bible is a very accurate representation of the inspired Word of God. Therefore, it has full authority for your life!

Gaussen in Theopneustia (163-164) quotes the findings of Horne as follows:
"That learned author reckons eighty-eight verbal quotations that agree with the Alexandrine translations; sixty-four more that are borrowed from them, but with variations; thirty-seven that adopt the same meaning with them without employing their words; sixteen that differ from them in order to agree more nearly with the Hebrew; and, finally, twenty that differ from both the Hebrew and the Septuagint, but in which the sacred authors have paraphrased the Old Testament, in order that the sense in which they quote it may be better understood."

"The witness to inspiration is all the more conclusive because the Scriptures never attempt to prove inspiration; they merely state it and assume it, in the same manner as the Scriptures assume the existence of God."
from John F. Walvoord, The Holy Spirit (Findlay, OH: Dunham, 1958): 57-58. 

"The writers of Scripture did not necessarily understand all the meanings of Scriptures which they wrote, but they were undoubtedly conscious at all times that their writings were a product of inspiration."
from John F. Walvoord, The Holy Spirit (Findlay, OH: Dunham, 1958): 58.

Bibliography
Donald Bloesch, Holy Scripture. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1994.
Stanley J. Grenz. Theology for the Community of God. Nashville: Broadman & Holman, 1994.
John F. Walvoord, The Holy Spirit. Findlay, OH: Dunham, 1958.

This page was last updated September 21, 2000.
© Copyright 1999-2000 Prairie Bible Institute & Steven C. Ibbotson
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