Inspiration of Scripture

THE INSPIRATION OF SCRIPTURE

Christians believe that the Bible is the inspired Word of God, and it is this which gives it its unique place and authority in the life of the Christian church.

St Paul, writing to Timothy says, "All scripture is inspired by God".(2 Timothy 3.16). Since the New Testament had not yet been written, he was obviously referring to the Old Testament.

And in St John's Gospel, Jesus assures his disciples that "when the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth" (16.23). Upon this assurance, Christians also accept the New Testament as being inspired by God.

But what do we mean when we say "inspired by God". How are the scriptures inspired and in what sense can we say they are the "Word of God"?

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The word "inspire" means to influence.

At one time, Christians used to maintain that every individual word in the Bible was inspired or influenced by the Spirit of God.

Hence, a very learned Oxford Don was able to write in 1861 that "the Bible is none other than the voice of Him that sitteth upon the throne. Every book in it, every syllable in it, every letter in it, is the direct utterance of the Most High. The Bible is none other

than the Word of God, not some part of it more or less, but all alike the utterance of Him who sitteth upon the throne, faultless, unerring, supreme".

In other words, at a certain time in history, God sat down at his heavenly desk, with a dictaphone in his hand and spoke into it. He then handed the tape to secretaries, people like Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, to type up for him.

There are still some people who believe that this is how it all happened. They are often called 'Biblical Fundamentalists'. They believe every word, syllable, comma in the Bible is the result of the inspiration of God.

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However, such a view is largely dismissed nowadays by Biblical scholars. Today, greater emphasis is placed upon the active participation of the various human writers, and the role of the Christian church, under the influence of the Spirit of God, in the formation of what we have come to call the 'Bible'.

Firstly, it was the influence of the Spirit of God that prompted the various original authors to put pen to paper in the first place.

Secondly, it was the influence of the Spirit of God that guided the original authors in their overall selection of material for inclusion. There were obviously many more stories in circulation about Jesus which they could have included, but chose not to.

Thirdly, it was the influence of the Spirit of God which led the various authors to draw out their own particular interpretation of the events and arrange them in a particular order to reflect their particular interests.

For instance, St. Luke wrote primarily for a non-Jewish audience to show them that God's love includes them, as well as the Jews. He selected and arranged his material appropriately. In particular, he was concerned for those marginalised by society, including the poor, sinners and women. He also focuses upon the prayer life of Jesus.

The writer of the first Gospel known as Matthew wrote primarily for a Jewish audience, and was anxious to show that Jesus was the fulfilment of the Old Testament, and selected and arranged material accordingly.

Mark, on the other hand, wrote primarily to Christians beginning to suffer persecution, possibly in Rome, and was anxious to show that just as Jesus suffered, so those who follow him must also expect to suffer. He therefore selected and arranged his

material accordingly.

Fourthly, it was under the influence of the Spirit of God that the church came to receive into its life the Jewish scripture, which we know as the Old Testament. This was quite natural since the early Christians were also Jews, who would therefore have continued the practice of hearing the Jewish scriptures read in worship. But even when the Christian church had grown out of Judaism, they still continued the practice.

Fifthly, it was under the influence of the Spirit of God that the church came to make a selection of writings to form what we now know as the New Testament. Again, there were many writings which could have been included, such as the Gospel of Thomas, but they chose not to include them.

Finally, it was under the influence of the Spirit of God that the church eventually came to include both the Old Testament and the New Testament into what we know as the 'canon' of scripture, or more commonly the 'Bible'.

This was a very slow and gradual process which was concluded at the Synod of Carthage in 397 AD, bringing to an end over nine hundred years of selection. Since that date, no other writings have been included.

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So when Christians claim that the scriptures are the inspired Word of God, I would suggest they are not referring to a particular moment in time when God dictated "every book in it, every syllable in it (and) every letter in it", but rather to the overall influence of

the Spirit of God, known or unknown at the time, upon the individual writers and the mind of the church, which ultimately led to the formation of the Bible some sixteen hundred years ago.

It is this overall influence which makes the Bible unique in being the Word (not "words") of God and gives it its unique place and authority within the life of the Christian Church.