Week 6, The Bible; Introduction and Inspiration

Bibliology
Introduction

The study of the Bible in and of itself is called Bibliology. This is distinct from the study of the contents of the Bible, which is usually referred to as Hermeneutics. Bibliology is the study of the origin, nature, history, extent, transmission, and translation of the Bible. This is in distinction to Bibliolatry, which is the worship of the Bible. Bibliology is important, because everything that we know about God is derived from the Bible and must be in accord with what is recorded in the Word of God. Natural Revelation (Creation) certainly serves a part in God’s Self Revelation to mankind, but Natural Revelation will never supersede Special Revelation (the Bible) and must always be understood in light of the Clear Special Revelation in the Written Word of God.

There are four main sections to Bibliology:
1. Inspiration
2. Canonization
3. Transmission
4. Translation

Briefly, Inspiration is the process through which Spirit-moved writers record the words of God. Canonization is the process through which the believers (of either dispensation) recognizes and collects in one place those writings that were in fact inspired by God. Transmission is the repeated copying of these recognized and received texts, within the original languages in which they were written. Lastly, Translation is the process through which the sacred writings are rendered in another language (for example, Latin or English).

Tonight we will be looking at the nature and extent of Inspiration. Next week, we will examine the principles and extent of Canonization. The following week, we will be looking at the transmission of the Old Testament, followed by the transmission of the New Testament Text. Lastly, we will look at some of the important translations into various other languages, then the major English translations.

First, however, as a portion of the Introduction, we will look at the structure of the Bible in general.

Divided into two sections; Old Testament and New Testament
4 sections in each:

The Old Testament
Pentateuch:
Downward (God came down and chose His people) [Genesis – Deuteronomy]

History:
Outward (God’s people expanded into the Promised Land) [Joshua – Job]

Poetry:
Upward (God’s people looking Up towards Him) [Psalms – Song of Songs]

Prophetic:
Forward (God’s people looking forward to the coming of the Messiah) [Isaiah – Malachi]

The New Testament
Gospels:
Downward (God came down in the form of man) [Matthew – John]

History:
Outward (God expanding His people in all the world, “Jerusalem, Judea, and the uttermost parts of the world”) [Acts]

Epistles:
Upward (The exposition of Christ, looking up towards the high calling of life in Christ) [Romans – Jude]

Prophetic:
Forward (Looking to the eventual return of Christ) [Revelation]

As it can be seen, the divisions of the Bible, as we have it in its current English form are complimentary and logically arranged. This of course does not necessarily reflect it’s chronological record of history, it’s order of appearance, or it’s form through all of history. Though some of the various forms that the Bible has existed in are interesting, that lies beyond the scope of what we are looking at tonight and will not be addressed.


INSPIRATION

INSIPRATION: The mysterious process by which the Divine causality worked through the human prophets without destroying their individual personalities and styles to produce Divinely authoritative and inerrant writings. Inspiration is the process by which God enabled the writers of Scripture to record His words and thoughts.

First, what does the Bible have to say about Inspiration in general?

1) II Timothy 3:16-17 “All Scripture is inspired of God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be equipped for every good work.”
a. These verses disclose the “fact” of inspiration; namely that God has inspired certain writings and they are therefore profitable.
i. It is important to point out at this point that the writings of Scripture are profitable because they are inspired; they are not “inspired” because they are profitable.
b. It is the “Writings” that are inspired, not the “writers”.
i. It must be maintained that though the authors of Scripture are certainly used by God in a special sense, it is nonetheless their product that we study, not their person.
ii. For example, the book of Revelation is “divine,” John is not.
c. It is also important to distinguish that the Writings in particular are being discussed.
i. The Greek word in 2nd Timothy is “Graphe”, which is where we get our English word “Graffiti.”
ii. The written Word of God is inspired, not the spoken word (of the prophets), and certainly not the traditions of the church.
iii. Church traditions can be “correct”, if they are in accord with the Word of God as it is written, but they cannot be “inspired” (and are therefore not infallible).
iv. Jesus warned against this when He rebuked the Pharisees for replacing the commands of God with the traditions of man in Mark 7:8.

1) II Peter 1:20-21 “But know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation, for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.”
a. These verses discuss the “act” of inspiration.
b. At this point, it is worth making a distinction between “Inspiration” and “Revelation”.
i. Revelation is the “fact” of divine communication, inspiration is the “act.”
ii. In revelation, God is active while man is passive. In other words, Man “receives” God’s revelation.
iii. In inspiration, God guides the process like a wind guides a sailboat.
1. In Acts 27:15, it says, “and when the ship was caught in it and could not face the wind, we gave way to it and let ourselves be driven along.”
2. The same Greek word is used in II Peter and is translated “moved” by the Holy Spirit”.
b. God is the driving agent, but the men involved in the process are still in “control” of the words and phrases they choose.

In other words, inspiration is the process in which Spirit-moved writers record God-breathed writings.

Who wrote the Bible?
1) The short answer is God.
a. The long answer is a little more involved and “complicated”, but only in the sense that there are more “people” involved.
2) The Bible was written by Prophets of God.
a. Hebrews 1:1 and 2 states, “God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world.”
i. God spoke to the fathers through the prophets.
b. What does the Bible say about prophets?
i. Amos 3:8
ii. Numbers 22:18
iii. Deut 4:2
iv. 1 Kings 22:14
v. Jeremiah 26:2
c. Hosea 1:2 says, “When the Lord first spoke through Hosea, the LORD said to Hosea…”
i. God cannot speak though someone before He first speaks to someone.

What does the Bible say about Inspiration regarding the specific sections (testaments)?

Inspiration of the Old Testament
1) The Old Testament is literally full of claims for inspiration, both explicit and implicit. In interest of time, and by nature of importance, we will only look at a small selection of the explicit claims for inspiration.
2) Explicit claims:
a. There are literally hundreds of examples of the phrase, “Thus says the LORD” in the pages of the Old Testament, from nearly all of it’s various human authors.
b. The overwhelming predictive nature of the Bible is a clear evidence of Divine Inspiration.
i. The Old Testament predicts with absolute accuracy the time (Daniel 9), location (Micah 5:2), and specific unique circumstances of Christ’s Birth (Isaiah 7:14).
ii. The Old Testament predicts the destruction of nations (Ezekiel 26), the history of human government hundreds of years in advance (Daniel 2), the declaration of a king’s rule roughly 150 years prior to his birth (Isaiah 44:28 – 45:3), and numerous other “impossible” predictions.
c. New Testament claims that the Old Testament is the Word of God. Though there are several examples, we will only look at the Words of Christ in this study. If it is maintained that Jesus is God in human form, then His word on the topic will be authoritative and absolute.
i. Jesus confirmed events and People in the Old Testament, such as
1. Creation, Adam and Eve (Mark 10:5-9)
2. Jonah and the great Fish (Matthew 12:40)
ii. Jesus also confirmed all the major sections of the Old Testament (The Law and the Prophets [and the Writings]).
1. Luke 24:27
2. Luke 16:16
iii. Jesus and the other New Testament writers refer to or quote from nearly every Old Testament book:
1. Matthew 19:4-5, cf. Gen. 1:27; 2:24
2. John 6:13, cf. Exodus 16:4, 15
3. Matthew 8:4, cf. Lev. 14:2
4. Matthew 4:1-10, cf. Deuteronomy 8:3; 6:16; 6:13
5. Matthew 12:3-4, cf. 1 Samuel 21:1-6
6. Psalms is quoted frequently in the New testament, from the Gospels all the way through Revelation (often with dramatic import)
7. Matthew 24:15, cf. Daniel 9:27

Inspiration of the New Testament
1) The New Testament was promised before hand by Jesus (John 14:26; 16:12-15) and then verified by miracles (Hebrews 2:1-4).
2) Paul confirmed by Peter in 2nd Peter 3:14-16 and called Scripture.
3) Luke confirmed by Paul and called Scripture (1st Timothy 5:18, cf. Deuteronomy 25:4 and Luke 10:7)
4) 1st Timothy 4:11, Paul understood his teaching to be authoritative.
5) Titus 2:15, Paul instructed Titus to speak according to what he had instructed him, “with all authority”.
6) What about the claims in 1st Corinthians that seem to be the apostle Paul denying inspiration?
a. 1st Corinthians 7:10
i. This verse is to be understood in context with verse 12 (below). Paul has clear teaching from the Lord (in the Old Testament) about divorce. Divorce is not permitted except for the case of adultery, and even then, it is not preferred, but rather allowed.
b. 1st Corinthians 7:12
i. Paul is here admitting that there has not been previous teaching from the Lord on this topic, though he is speaking about it now. His, “I say, not the Lord” is rather an admission that there is no Scripture on this yet, but God is speaking through Paul on the issue now.
c. 1st Corinthians 7:25
i. Again, Paul is saying much the same thing as above, just in slightly clearer language; “God hasn’t spoken about this yet, though I’m speaking about it now. By the way, did I mention that I’m an apostle who is divinely commissioned to speak the message of God?”
d. 1st Corinthians 7:40
i. When Paul says, “and I think that I also have the Spirit of God”, I don’t think that he’s doubting his commission. Rather, I believe this is to be taken as a rhetorical phrase, as in, “And I’m certain that God is supporting my ‘opinion’ on this issue.”
ii. For confirmation of Paul’s certainty of his apostolic authority, please see 2nd Corinthians 11 and 12 (especially 12:12).

What is the extent of Inspiration?

The Original copies (autographs) are inspired, not the copies.
We will cover this a little more in detail in weeks 8 and 9, but suffice to say that God Inspired the authors of the original hand written documents of the Bible; the various copies made of these original documents are not inspired by God. We can be sure that we have accurate copies (again this will be covered in more detail later) but the copies are not inspired.

The original copies are inspired; the various translations are not.
Though the translations that we have today can be trusted, they are not inspired. Some are “better” than others and some are more accurate than others. Different translations were developed based on different translational principles, some more reasonable than others. This will be covered in greater detail in week 10.

The original copies are inspired; our interpretations are not.
Though we often like to think that our understanding of the Bible is complete, this simply cannot be pressed too far. The Jews certainly were wrong about their understanding of the Messiah, it is clearly evident that there have been aberrant interpretations of various Biblical passages over time. This should not leave us in Agnosticism over the meaning of the Biblical text; rather we should be always seeking for further understanding while holding to what truth and certainty that we have. Some things can be known “for sure”. We should be cautious of our hermeneutical principles that we use (the literal, historical, grammatical interpretations of Scripture).

How much of the Bible is inspired?
1) All that is written (2nd Timothy 3:16)
a. The inspiration of Scripture extends to everything that is written.
b. Ipssissima verba vs. ipssissima vox (the very words vs. the very voice)
i. The very “words” are inspired but the meaning is found in the “voice”.
ii. This distinction is important because it gives us a few liberties
1. We can translate the Bible into other languages (like English)
2. We can present the Gospel message in a form that is relevant to the people we speak with, without changing the content of the message
iii. The Bible itself is recorded in Ipssissima Vox (the very voice).
iv. The divergent accounts in the Gospels and in Samuel, Kings and Chronicles demonstrate this.
v. It is the meaning of the message that is central, not necessarily the words used to convey the meaning.
vi. This does not render the actual words of Scripture meaningless, it simply places the greater importance on the meaning conveyed by the words chosen by the Divine Author and human agents.

What are the implications of Inspiration?

Infallible: will not fail (if God predicts it, it will come to pass).
1) This is actually one of the methods sometimes given to test that authenticity of Scripture. For example, see Isaiah 41:21-24,
“Present your case,” the LORD says. “Bring forward your strong arguments,” the King of Jacob says. Let them bring forth and declare to us what is going to take place; as for the former events, declare what they were, that we may consider them and know their outcome. Or announce to us what is coming; declare the things that are going to come afterward, that we may know that you are gods; indeed, do good or evil, that we may anxiously look about us and fear together. Behold, you are of no account, and your work amounts to nothing; he who chooses you is an abomination.
2) Since God is omniscient, He knows all things, including the future. Therefore, it is no problem for Him to predict with perfect accuracy events that have not transpired yet.
3) As the Word of God, the Bible will come to pass exactly as it is written.
4) Isaiah 40:8 states, “The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever.”

Inerrant: does not error (God cannot error; therefore the Bible cannot error)
1) If it is accepted that the Bible is the inspired Word of God, and it is accepted that God is perfect in knowledge, then it must be accepted that the Bible cannot contain any errors.
2) It is sometimes claimed that since the Bible has human authors (even though it is Divinely inspired), then it will have errors, as “to err is human”
a. Just because humans do err, it cannot be assumed that they always err.
b. Man can write a mathematics textbook and have it contain no errors about the facts of math.
c. If God is guiding the process and is personally involved, He could easily ensure that there are no errors in the content or intent of the text of Scripture, even through there are human authors.

Suggestion for Devotion:

Read Psalm 119. This is an entire Psalm written about the Word of God (and just the Old Testament at that!) written in acrostic from. If the saints of old had that much to say about the Old Testament, how much do you appreciate the Word? Or is it just another book to you?