Inspiration: Who wrote the Bible?

In Part 2 of “What’s at the center of Christianity,” Joe mentioned that the Bible is often referred to as the “Word of God.” What does this mean?

Many Christians believe that God inspired the Bible. This type of inspiration is different from that of an artist who responds emotionally to some external factor (nature, people, etc.) by creating a work of art. The authors of the Bible were not merely responding to an experience with God, but God himself was active in the creation of the text.

But how was God involved? Are the words of the Bible a heavenly dictation or human musings? Neither option is very appealing. Either God directly manipulated the authors, or the text was written by humans… who are prone to mistakes and misunderstandings.

We do have Biblical text that was dictation from God. We call it prophecy, and you need only turn to Isaiah to find a very obvious phrase like, “The Lord has spoken this word.” The mark of a good prophet was speaking only the very words of God… often to people that did not want to hear the truth. In the Old Testament we have a collection of prophetic oracles, words directly from God, which were written down. But what about the Psalms, the narratives, and all those letters?

Perhaps God and the authors worked in some type of partnership. Each author brought his own personality, style, and cultural background into the writing. God brought insight and wisdom so that the authors could understand and explain things that only the mind of God could comprehend. Most books in the Bible were written to address particular situations, and through insight and wisdom from God, each author was able to respond to those situations with divine truth and understanding. The words themselves belong to the author, but the ideas they express belong to God.

If the authorship of the Bible was a partnership between God and men, then can we trust the written text? To address this question it may be helpful to discuss two terms: infallibility and inerrancy. I will discuss these concepts in my next post.