Understanding Biblical Inspiration

Introduction:  Before really diving into the subject of the Bible’s preservation, we need to do some preliminary study on important Biblical doctrines concerning the Bible itself. The battles raging between the King James Only advocates and those in favor of multiple version and everyone in between would be settled if there were a right understanding of the doctrine of inspiration and preservation. We as Bible believers already affirm that the Bible is the Word of God and that it is inerrant, sufficient, and authoritative for all matters of life and doctrine. I don’t need to go into detail with you about those presuppositions that we already hold to. The disagreements among conservative Christians about Bible translations and how God preserved the Scriptures has caused unnecessary divisions, broken friendships, split churches and slanders against one another. This kind of strife is not the fruit of the Spirit and is not of God when it is occurring between God’s people who all believe the gospel, the Bible and the doctrines of the Bible. For the most part, those on the KJVO side have stirred up no small dissention among the people of God by claiming that every one else’s English Bible translations are corrupt and Satanic. Consequent reactions from those who disagree have not always been helpful when as a response, they claim that the only inspired Bible is the original autographs that the Biblical writers originally wrote and are now lost. A lot of ink has been spilled on this subject and most of it has been reactionary in nature. My goal in teaching this series is not to wave a banner for one side or another, but to establish a Biblical view of inspiration, preservation, and establish a right philosophy of translations. So, here is how we are going to proceed: We will begin with the Bible and understand what it says about itself. We as Bible believers, must get all our doctrine from Scripture itself – even our doctrine of Scripture. The Bible is self-authenticating. It makes claims about itself that it can substantiate on its own merits. We know that the Bible is true because it is true to life experience, it is true to historical record, it is true in its’ prophecies and fulfillments of them. Most of all it’s true because it’s authority is grounded in the nature of God Himself. We all believe this and since we believe it, then we will start with what the Bible says about itself as our foundation.

1. The Method of Inspiration

2 Peter 1:19-21 We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts: 20 Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. 21 For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.

A. The Assurance of Truthfulness

The first question we need to answer, is how did God give us His Word in the very beginning? What method did He use? In this passage, Peter tells us exactly how God transferred His Word to His people. Peter tells us in verse 19 that we have a more sure word of prophecy than the experience that He had on the Mount when Jesus was transfigured before him and heard the voice of God from heaven. First of all, understand that his experience was incredible and if you heard God speak audibly to you and you saw Jesus in unveiled glory; you would be very sure about what you saw and heard! So, what else could possibly be more convincing of what God had said than that? Peter says that the Scriptures are a more sure Word of prophecy. God’s written Word is even more trustworthy than a personal experience of any kind no matter how realistic it would seem. When we experience something, we can interpret it wrong, but when God wrote scripture, His words are not subject to error. We can interpret them wrong also, but the Word of God has its own means of interpretation in itself, and it is totally possible for a believer to understand it and interpret it correctly, thereby understanding the mind of God. On top of that, the Word of God can be copied, distributed and passed down to everybody, but an ecstatic experience cannot be. So, since the Word of God is so reliable, you would do well to obey it, it will shine into your heart so that Christ is formed in you and He, the Daystar will arise in your heart. This is also the power of the Word of God.

B. The Denial of Human Authorship

Verse 21 asserts that the Word of God did not have its origins in man. These are God’s thoughts, not men’s thoughts, exclusively. Let me address the idea of mechanical dictation: Some believe, especially among fundamentalists, that God dictated and man wrote in a mechanical fashion. Or, God like a writer, used a pen (the human author) and wrote His Word. This isn’t exactly the way we should look at it. A pen has no consciousness that it is being used to write something. When God’s men wrote scriptures, they were conscious of what they were doing and the thoughts that they put on paper were their own thoughts. However, the difference between the Apostle Paul’s writings and Confucius’ writings was that Paul’s thoughts were exactly God’s thoughts when he wrote them down. Paul sometimes even wrote this knowing that what he was writing was directly from the Lord: 1 Corinthians 7:10 And unto the married I command, yet not I, but the Lord, Let not the wife depart from her husband: We also see that God spoke through the prophets in: Hebrews 1:1-2 God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, 2 Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, Regardless of the mystery surrounding how God was able to make His wod certain without destroying the freedom and personality of the authors, several things are clear. The human authors of Scripture were not secretaries taking dictation. Their freedom was not suspended or negated, and they were not acting as robots. What they wrote is what they desired to write in the style that they were accustomed to using. God in his providence engaged in a divine concurrence between their words and His so that what they said, He said. Therefore, all of the scripture has its origins in the person and nature of God, therefore we can rightly conclude that they are inerrant, infallible, pure and incorruptible. EG: Numbers 22:35-38 – Numbers 23:3-12

C. The Transmission of the Originals

Finally, we see how God chose to give His words to men. He used holy men of God to speak, and when they were speaking (or writing) they were being moved by the Holy Ghost. In some mysterious way, God the Holy Spirit, was superintending what they were doing perfectly so that what came out of their mouths or on paper was the perfect Words of God. The word “moved” in Greek is “pheromenoi” and it literally means to be carried along like a person on a ship. A person can move around freely on a ship, but whatever he does, he will arrive where the ship takes him. This is how we can understand the inspiration of the original manuscripts written by the men God chose to bear His message. In all of the Bible; this is the only place where we are told about this method of God transferring His words to the writings and words of men. This kind of “carrying along” or being “moved” by the Holy Spirit happened this way with the original manuscripts only. This is the pheromenoi sense of inspiration that we must limit to the original manuscripts alone since this is the only place that the Bible accounts for this moving of God. The original manuscripts are often called the autographa or the original autographs.

2. The Nature of Inspiration

 2 Timothy 3:15-17 And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. 16 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: 17 That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.

This verse is usually the one that most people will turn to when the topic of inspiration is brought up. I delayed to bring this verse in to the discussion on purpose until now. This verse does not say anything about the method of inspiration as 2 Peter 1 does, this verse tells us about the nature of inspiration. It’s important that we do not confuse the two, because if we do, we will logically deduce from inspiration what we believe about the doctrine of preservation in error. I will demonstrate two of those errors later. For now, let’s just look at what these verses actually are saying and teaching. Paul is telling Timothy that since he was a child he has known the holy Scriptures. What do you suppose Timothy was reading since he was a child? Acts 16:3 Him would Paul have to go forth with him; and took and circumcised him because of the Jews which were in those quarters: for they knew all that his father was a Greek. Timothy’s mother was a Jewess, but His father was Greek. He probably grew up reading the Greek Septuagint which was a Greek translation of the Old Testament translated in stages between the first and third centuries BC. Could it be that Paul is telling Timothy that he was familiar with the original manuscripts? Of course not, those had been long lost, but over the years, the Jews made copies of the originals, and eventually when Greek became the most common language, they translated it so it could be read in public worship.

A. Verbal and Plenary Inspiration

So, now Paul is going to say something about those scriptures that Timothy grew up reading and learning: All scripture (the totality of the writings) are “given by inspiration of God”. The first thing we need to understand is the “plenary” inspiration of scripture. This means that all of the “gramma” letters of documents of scripture are inspired. There are not parts of it that are men’s opinions and parts that are God’s authority. All of it is God’s authoritative Word because He is the ultimate source of it. Everything that it says about science, history, geography is infallible and inerrant because it is inspired of God down to the very words – and Jesus said even the jots and tittles. This is called verbal inspiration. Then Paul tells Timothy what these scriptures are useful for: which are able to make thee wise unto salvation. The word “able” is dunamena which is a strong action word for power. They have the power to make you wise to salvation. This is the power of God contained in these writings. This reminds us of another passage that affirms this power: Hebrews 4:12 For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. The “gramma” that Timothy grew up reading had this powerful effect. Then he changes the word for scripture and uses the word “graphe” in verse 16. This could refer to the whole of the Bible or to the contents that are contained. The five words written in English: “given by inspiration of God” is one Greek word: theopneustos which literally means “God-breathed.Theos is God and the part of the word for breathe comes from the word pneuma which means wind, breath or spirit. The way God carried along the writers was by breathing His Words from Him into the writers, so that what they wrote was exactly, the perfect word of God.

EG: Acts 1:16 Men and brethren, this scripture must needs have been fulfilled, which the Holy Ghost by the mouth of David spake before concerning Judas, which was guide to them that took Jesus.

So when we are talking about the original manuscripts we conclude that they were brought into existence through the instrument of the writer and what they wrote was the very Word of God.

B. Two Senses of Inspiration

“The next question I want to raise is this: can the scriptures that were God-breathed “theopneustos” extend beyond the original autographs and encompass the copies, and translations?

“What then is meant by “graphe”? A survey of Biblical usage will confirm that when it is used in the New Testament, graphe exclusively means “Scripture,” and usually, if not always, it refers to a text that is extant. Furthermore, in this passage, there is nothing lexically or contextually that would lead to the conclusion that Paul used the word to refer to anything other than extant and accessible copies and possibly even translations. Of course this would also demand that graphe is also inclusive of the autographa as well.” – Tom Pryde

I believe so, because the word for scriptures “graphe” is used in other parts of the New Testament to speak of the available scriptures that the Pharisees had, the synagogues used and the ones the early churches had. Consider these verses: John 5:39 Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me. Acts 17:2 And Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them, and three sabbath days reasoned with them out of the scriptures, Acts 17:11 These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so. These people didn’t have the original autographs, they had the extant copies and translations of it. What’s also interesting is to note that the verse doesn’t say that all Scripture was God-breathed; it says that it is God breathed in the present tense. In fact, the original language doesn’t have a verb at all. Well, in the present tense at that time and in the present tense today, neither of us had the original autographs of scripture (except for Timothy receiving that letter from Paul). So, it must be referring to all copies and translations also. So, the “graphe” which is considered “God-breathed / theopneustos” refers to more than the originals. The question is why would these copies be considered as inspired as the originals which the prophets and apostles wrote? The “graphe” is modified by the following words in verse 16-17… and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: 17 That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works. These scriptures are profitable for a particular use: reproof – exposing error; correction – teaching what’s right to correct error; and instruction in righteousness – teaching how to do what is right by God. The result will be a man of God who is perfectly mature to do good works for which God had foreordained that he should walk in them. Can these extant copies and translations be considered inspired? Yes, they are God breathed, their origin is in God Himself. Can the copyists and translators be considered “pheromenoi” moved by the Holy Spirit? No, the Bible only refers to the originals being created in this way.

3. Errors Concerning Inspiration

A. Originals Only – Here is an example of a typical evangelical statement on Scripture:

 Inspiration is the work of the Holy Spirit by which, through the instrumentality of the whole personality and literary talents of its human authors, He constitutes the words of the Bible in its entirety as His written word to men, and therefore of divine authority and without error in the original manuscripts.

I would agree with these statement as long as it is not limiting inspiration to the originals only. I Tim 3:16 doesn’t limit inspiration (speaking of God as the source) to only the originals, but 2Peter 1 limits the transmission from the mind of God to the mind of man to the Originals alone.

B. KJV is only inspired – The other error is the idea that only the KJV is inspired. Some like Peter Ruckman, Al Lacy, Bill Grady, Gail Riplinger and others have tried to say that when the King James Translators actually wrote down the text in English, God moved upon them the same way He did the originals so that God has inspired the KJV as more authoritative than the Greek, Hebrew and Aramaic manuscripts. They say you can correct the Greek text with the English. The other idea is that all other versions and manuscripts that do not underline the KVJ are not inspired and are of demonic origin. Before we get into this argument, we’ll have to take a closer look at what the Bible has to say about its own preservation in the next post.

Conclusion: I want you to have confidence that you have the Word of God in your hands and that you only believe what the Bible actually says about itself and not what others say you should believe. What we understand from these passages are as follows:

a. They originated from God

b. Inspiration was verbal – words were inspired, not the writers

c. Inspiration was plenary – all that they say are rooted and grounded in God

d. Inspiration is purposeful – scripture is for the profit of the believer

e. Inspiration extends to the copies and translations insofar as they match the originals.

Most of that won’t be a problem for KJVO advocates until you get to the last phrase of letter “e.” The common question is asked of them:  “If we don’t have the originals, then how are we supposed to know that the copies and translations accurately represent what the originals say?”

 That is a good question and it will be answered as we continue to look at what the Bible says about it’s own preservation and then we’ll look at the manuscript evidence along side what the Bible actually says about preservation. I believe we can know what the originals said based on the extent of the great numbers of manuscripts that are carefully compared with each other so that we find that all of God’s words are there and not one has been lost.