It is an article of faith amongst Christians that the Bible is the inspired Word of God, given through the Holy Spirit to somewhere between 35 and 40 separate authors, over a period of roughly 1,600 years, in two or three different languages, depending who you ask. It is not the work of a man or even a group of men, as that would be impossible. For such a work to be coordinated over 16 centuries would be impossible. If any group of people tried to do so, the scope and definition of the project would end up changing over time, with the later parts showing considerable difference in thought, meaning and philosophy.
The Bible itself tells us that the 66 books or scrolls included in it were all inspired by the same Holy Spirit, working through a variety of men. Paul made this point to his son in the faith, Timothy, and through that made that point to us here today.
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 complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. – 2 Timothy 3:16-17
This verse is the scriptural foundation of the doctrinal point that the Bible is the inspired Word of God. Even so, it’s not the only verse in the Bible, which alludes to the inerrancy of Scripture. The very end of the Bible, within the last few verses of Revelations, makes it clear that the Bible, as we have it, is a complete work. Even though these verses were originally intended to refer to the work of Revelations and not to the Bible as a whole, their location at the end of the Bible provides that additional understanding. As the Apostle John wrote:
For I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds to these things, God will add to him the plagues that are written in this book; 19 and if anyone take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part from the Book of Life, from the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book. – Revelation 22:18-18
Another verse from John, this time ending his Gospel, shows that he believed that the words that he was writing were true and from God.
This is the disciple who testifies to these things and who wrote them down. We know that his testimony is true. – John 21:25
It might seem a bit strange for someone who wrote part of the Bible to give testimony to their own work, saying “we know that his testimony is true.” But we must remember that, other than John himself, everyone who took part in writing the New Testament was martyred for their faith. That is probably the greatest testimony we could find, proving that the Gospel message, at least, is true. People don’t die for a lie, yet the writers of the Gospels were willing to die for what they wrote. They did not recant, even when being killed.
Something similar can be said of the prophets, as we are told very clearly in Deuteronomy, chapter 13, that false prophets were to be put to death. For that matter, further on in the same chapter it says to put to death family members who tried to entice the people of Israel to serve other gods. Based on that alone, it would seem likely that anyone who wrote falsehood and tried to pass it off as Scripture, would come to a quick and unpleasant end.
All this tells us though, is that the Bible is true, we need to go back to what Paul wrote to Timothy to talk about it being inspired by God and just what that actually means.
What is Inspiration?
There are many who think that what Paul wrote to Timothy, as quoted above, means that God, or His Holy Spirit, literally dictated the words of the Bible to the various authors of the books, for them to transcribe. While it is easy to make this mistake, we shouldn’t allow ourselves to camp out there. Creating a special definition for a word in the Bible, which is not the common understanding of that word, goes against the laws of hermeneutics.
If we look up the word inspiration in a dictionary, we’ll get a definition something like: “the process of being mentally stimulated to do or feel something,” or “a sudden brilliant, creative, or timely idea.” We might even find “the quality of being inspired.” In all of these definitions, there is a creative overtone, where the inspiration drives the individual to create something, often artistic. In no case, is the inspiration dictating details to the person receiving inspiration; rather, it is motivating them to pull from within themselves for whatever it is that they are creating.
These articles are written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. That doesn’t mean that the Holy Spirit tells me exactly what to write; but rather that as I mull over the topic to be written about, the Holy Spirit brings biblical knowledge and various scripture verses to my mind, giving direction to what I am to write in response to the question posed. That inspires me to write articles which fully answer the question posed. Many times, that even motivates or inspires me to add additional material to back up what I am writing and provide a more complete explanation.
We must realize that the men whom God chose to write the Bible were all godly men who had extensive knowledge of Him and his precepts. The Apostles, for example, had literally walked with Jesus, hearing His teachings. The inspiration of the Holy Spirit brought to memory what they had heard, showing them what to include in the book they were writing. In a similar way, Moses’ writing was inspired, reminding him to draw from the many conversations he had with Jehovah God.
While the inspiration came from God, the actual wording came from the specific author. That explains how two different Apostles, describing the same event, parable, or teaching from Jesus’ ministry, can have different details. They simply remembered the event or words of Jesus differently. Since the differences didn’t change the core meaning, the Holy Spirit allowed them to remain.
Inspiration from Beginning to End
The very act of writing something biblical, whether that is what the various authors of the Bible have written, these articles, or a Christian book you pick up at the bookstore, should be inspired. Granted, I cannot vouch that all “Christian” books which are written today are inspired by the Holy Spirit, because I don’t know the authors and their motivation. It is possible that there are books being written simply because the author is hoping to gain fame or to be able to sell the books. Nevertheless, that’s not what we are talking about here. We’re talking about the Bible.
We know that the various books of the Bible are inspired by the Holy Spirit or by God, because Paul tells us they are. Paul is an especially good witness to testify to this, as he was one of the most knowledgeable Bible teachers of his day, both for the Jews, before his conversion and for Christians, after he had his Damascus Road experience. Not only did Paul count on the inspiration of the Holy Spirit for his own writing, which makes up some two-thirds of the New Testament; but his studies of the Old Testament, the Jewish Tanakh, led him to gain understanding of the inspiration that those authors operated under.
On one hand, we need to realize that Paul’s writing to Timothy, as stated above, is actually in reference to the books of the Old Testament. There was no New Testament at the time that he wrote that and Paul wasn’t egotistical enough to say or even think that he was writing the New Testament. He preached from the Old Testament, showing it in the light of the life and ministry of Jesus and that’s what he was referring to.
However, there’s another side to that coin. That is, we see in the book of Acts, that Paul was inspired and led by the Holy Spirit. One of the more obvious examples of this, was the vision he had of the man from Macedonia and his reaction to that vision.
And a vision appeared to Paul in the night. A man of Macedonia stood and pleaded with him, saying, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” 10 Now after he had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go to Macedonia, concluding that the Lord had called us to preach the gospel to them. – Acts 16:9-10
Why would Paul be led by the Holy Spirit to make such journeys and yet not be led by the Holy Spirit in his writing? He wouldn’t. This example, and others, show us that we can apply Paul’s writing to Timothy to his own ministry as well.
Let me take that one step further. We know, from the book of Acts, as well as from the Paulene Epistles, that Paul was not one to mince words. He was very direct, even to the point of rebuking Peter, the leader of the Church (Galatians 2:11-14), when he thought it was necessary. If he was willing to rebuke Peter over such a simple thing as not fellowshipping with gentile believers, we can be sure that he would have rebuked them if they were writing things that went against God’s will, as shown to them in the Old Testament. He also had the knowledge of the Scriptures necessary to make such rebukes.
Based on this biblical evidence about Paul, we can be confident that he was motivated and inspired by the Holy Spirit. Every epistle that he wrote, including those which might have been lost through the years, was written because the Holy Spirit directed him to write them.
But inspiration goes further than that. The Holy Spirit didn’t stop inspiring those authors once He succeeded in getting them to write. Rather, He continued inspiring them, directing them to cover the various topics which are included in their writings. Again, this was not the Holy Spirit quoting what to write, but gently directing and guiding them, so that they would write about what God wanted them to write about. He had already taught them what they needed to know; the writing process was just guiding them to pull out the appropriate knowledge and write it down.
Is Inspiration the Same for All?
While the basic process of inspiration may be the same for all, there are also differences that occur with different types of ministries. The closest we might say that the Holy Spirit gets to actually dictating to the writer of a book of the Bible, is found in the books of prophecy. We understand prophecy as God speaking to us through the prophet. That sounds like dictation and it is possible that some passages are actual word for word dictations from God. But not all.
Books of Prophecy
Much of prophecy comes through God showing the prophet a vision. That’s why the old name for prophets was “seers.” They saw things and much of what they wrote was a description of what they saw. The book of Revelations, the only book of prophecy in the New Testament, is mostly the Apostle John writing down descriptions of the events he saw in a series of visions that he had. Likewise, there are many parts of Old Testament prophecy, which are descriptions of visions that the various prophets had.
Books of History
That’s considerably different from what we find in other books of the Bible. The Old Testament history books of Judges, Kings and Chronicles were probably compiled by Jeremiah and Ezra respectively. They could not have each been written by one author, who personally experienced what is contained within those books, as the events spanned hundreds of years. Rather, the authors used court records to find what had happened during those years and write about it.
In that case, the inspiration of the Holy Spirit was first to motivate them to do the research and writing and then to select the specific events from their research to include in the books that they produced. That would definitely require the wisdom of God, as it was God who had the message that He wanted conveyed through those books, not the men who wrote them.
This same pattern is the most likely scenario for other Old Testament history books like Nehemiah, Joshua and Judges. Other books, like the books of Ezra and Samuel, may have at least been written in part by the character whose name the book bears. But in both of those cases, parts of the books happened outside of their lifetimes, indicating that they either pulled from information that others had left behind or others added to the books that they had begun. In either case, we can see the hand of God in inspiring those writers to undertake that work.
The Gospels
There is much parallel between the writing and inspiration of these Old Testament books and the New Testament historical books of the Gospels and Act. While we clearly know the authors of these New Testament books, we must realize that in the cases of Mark and Luke, they were not direct witnesses to the events of Jesus’ life. Mark likely heard about them from Peter, as he was a disciple of Peter and Luke likely heard about them from Paul, as he was a traveling companion of Paul. But Paul himself wasn’t there for many of those conversations and events, indicating that the Holy Spirit must have instructed Paul and Luke about them.
The Epistles
When it comes to the epistles, we see a very different type of inspiration, than that which God employed in the writing of the Gospels. While Paul and the other writers of the Epistles were dealing with certain issues that had arisen in the Early Church, they were still following the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, both in choosing what to write about and how they would respond to those problems.
Ultimately it was All God
Each type of Scripture we find in the Bible requires its own form of inspiration from God. Fortunately, He is not limited like we are, so He knew just the kind of inspiration to use, so as to get across the message that He wanted to. We can take great confidence in that, knowing that God was ultimately the one in control of what was written in the Bible and how it was written.
As we look at our Bibles today, we see the result of hundreds of years of work, with a common thread passing through it all. There were also many other books which were written during the same time that the books of the Bible were, which did not become part of our Bible. Why is that? Because what is contained as part of the canon of Scripture, has passed the test of time, being scrutinized and judged by godly men.
In the case of the Old Testament, the books which we have were those which the Jews accepted as scripture. The Scribe Ezra, led a group of scribes who searched through the existing writings, determining the canon of the Old Testament. That was adopted by Christians, early in church history, quite possibly because it is what Jesus, Paul and the other Apostles preached from.
We can say that the canon of the New Testament passed through an even more stringent vetting process. The common understanding is that the canon of the New Testament was established at the Council of Nicea in 325 AD. But in fact, all that the council did was to formally accept what was already widely accepted as the canon of the New Testament. That canon had been formed by the believers of the day. Those books which are contained within our New Testament are those which the believers felt were important enough that they were willing to die for them. With all the persecution that the Early Church suffered at the hands of the Romans, possession of just one of those books was a death sentence.
Here we see a different aspect of the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, as the Spirit motivated the believers in knowing what books were worth paying that price. There are at least 100 other Christian writings from this era, some of which are quite good, yet didn’t get included in the canon of the New Testament. The Holy Spirit only inspired people to take that risk, with those writings which He had inspired in the first place.