Biblical inspiration
The_Evangelist_Matthew_Inspired_by_an_Angel.jpg
Biblical inspiration is the doctrine in Christian theology concerned with the divine origin of the Bible and what the Bible teaches about itself.
| Contents |
Eytmology
The word inspiration comes by way of the Latin and the King James translations of the Greek word θεοπνευστος (theopneustos, literally, "God-breathed") found in 2 Timothy 3.16-17:
- All scripture is given by inspiration of God [theopneustos], and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.
Theopneustos is rendered in the Vulgate with the Latin "divinitus inspirata" ("divinely breathed into"), but some modern English translations opt for "God-breathed" (NIV) or "breathed out by God" (ESV) and avoid inspiration altogether since its connotation, unlike its Latin root, leans toward breathing in instead of breathing out.
Views of the doctrine
Those Christians who receive the Bible as authoritative generally accept that the Bible is "breathed out by God" in some sense because the Bible explicitly says as much. However, different groups understand the meaning and details of inspiration in different ways.
The traditional doctrine
Most conservative Christians accept the Bible's statements about itself and argue that the inspiration of the Bible implies that it is inerrant in the original manuscripts (or "autographa"). The biblical writers and editors were, they argue, not simply taking dictation from God, but rather were superintended by the Holy Spirit, preserving their works from error without eliminating the concerns, situation, or style of the writers. This divine involvement allowed the biblical writers to communicate God's own message to the immediate recipients of the writings and to those who would come later.
The proof of the doctrine is ample throughout the Bible. Besides the direct accounts of written revelation such as Moses receiving the Ten Commandments, the Prophets of the Old Testament frequently claimed that their message was divine by the formula "Thus says the LORD" (for example, I Kings 12:22-24; I Chronicles 17:3-4; Jeremiah 35:13; Ezekiel 2:4; Zechariah 7:9; etc.). In the New Testament, Jesus treats the Old Testament as authoritative and says it "cannot be broken" (John 10:34-36), and the Second Epistle of Peter claims that "no prophecy of Scripture...was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit" (2 Peter 1:20-21).
The New Testament Scriptures quote, paraphrase, and refer to other works including other New Testament documents, the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Old Testament, including the Apocrypha), and the Greek writers Aratus, Epimenides, Menander, and perhaps Philo. The traditional doctrine does not teach, however, that these referenced works were also necessarily inspired, though it does teach that their use and application is.
Often, conservatives will also argue for the "verbal plenary inspiration" of the Bible in its original manuscripts, which means that each and every word is inspired by God, not just the over-arching ideas or concepts. They do allow for some textual variation, however, since the autographa are not extant.
The Modernist doctrine
The Modernist (or liberal) doctrine of inspiration typically rejects the Bible's own claims for itself and thus the traditional doctrine. Instead, in this view, other authorities must be established and utilized to determine the validity and truthfulness of the Bible. One such approach is that of Rudolf Bultmann who argued that Christians must seek to "demythologize" the Bible by removing the layers of myth to get to the seed of truth within.
The Neo-orthodox doctrine
The Neo-orthodox doctrine of inspiration is summarized by saying that the Bible is "the word of God" but not "the words of God." It is only when one reads the text that it becomes the word of God to him or her. This view is a reaction to the Modernist doctrine, which, Neo-orthodox proponents argue, eroded the value and significance of the Christian faith, and simultaneously a rejection of the traditional doctrine, which implies the inerrancy of the text. The Swiss theologian Karl Barth was a primary figure in the Neo-orthodox movement.
References
- Warfield, B. B. (1977 reprint). Inspiration and Authority of Bible, with a lengthy introductory essay by Cornelius Van Til. ISBN 0801095867.
- Sproul, R. C.. Hath God Said? (video series).
- Geisler, Norman, ed. (1980). Inerrancy. ISBN 0310392810.
External links
- "The Authority & Inspiration of the Scriptures" by B. B. Warfield
- "God-Inspired Scripture" by B. B. Warfield
- The Inspiration Of Scripture by Loraine Boettner
- The Divine Inspiration of the Bible by Arthur W. Pink
- "The Protestant Rule of Faith", chapter 6 of the introduction from Charles Hodge's Systematic Theology, which argues for the traditional doctrine over and against the Modernist doctrine.