By NYC Wanderer
(Kevin Eng) - originally posted to Flickr as Gutenberg Bible, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=9914015
The Bible “isn’t the Word of God…inerrant or infallible.”
When speaking of the veracity of some thing, what we are endeavouring
to show is that that thing conforms with, or is committed to, those things
which are considered to be true. Therefore,
the purpose of this article is to show that all of that which the scripture
declares to be true, is actually true in all it asserts regarding life, faith,
and practice. The International Council
on Biblical Inerrancy (ICBI) convened an assembly of more than 300 theologians
and ministers in the fall of 1978 who authored what became recognized as The Chicago
Statement on Biblical Inerrancy. Of the
19 articles penned, Article III states, in part, “we affirm the written word in
its entirety is revelation given by God.”[i] Added to
that, Article XII states, in part, “that Scripture in its entirety is
inerrant, being free from all falsehood, fraud, or deceit.”[ii] (Italics added)
On February 19th of
2021 “The Blaze” posted an article by Dave Urbanski regarding a statement by Pastor
Josh Scott of GracePointe Church in Nashville Tennessee who had made the statement that the Bible “isn’t the
Word of God…inerrant or infallible”. As a qualifier, he argued that only parts
of the Bible can be considered God’s Word. In essence he contends that only
parts of the Bible are inspired. As a result, pastor Scott ascribed to a view
referred to as, limited inspiration. Those associated with this
belief argue that the scriptures are only inspired, in areas of religious dogma
and anything outside of that, like historical accounts, matters of fact, et
cetera that fall outside the realm of doctrine or precept are subject to debate.
But the conclusion follows logically from the premises. 1. the Bible is
the Word of God, 2. God cannot err, 3. therefore, the Bible cannot err. Two
verses contradict this belief, 2 Timothy 3:16 states that, “All Scripture is
breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for
correction, and for training in righteousness…” and 2 Peter 1:21, “For no
prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as
they were carried along by the Holy Spirit”. (Italics added).[iii]
πᾶσα (all) γραφὴ (scripture)
θεόπνευστος (inspired by God).[iv]
For our purposes, I am
only going to focus on the first part of 2 Timothy 3:16. In the Greek, the adjective πᾶσα (pasa)
translates as “all” or “every.” Adjectives
typically serve as a modifiers of a noun to denote a quality of the thing
named, to indicate its quantity or extent, in this instance the noun γραφὴ
(graphē) which translates as “writing” or “scripture.” Here the adjective “all” has to do with quantity.
In contrast to the adjective “some” which is defined as that which is unknown,
undetermined, or unspecified number of some thing.
The Old Testament had
already been received as authenticated scripture, but Paul would have also been
referring to some New Testament writings which had also been received as
scripture. Paul wrote, “For the Scripture says, ‘You shall not muzzle an
ox when it treads out the grain,’ and, ‘the laborer deserves his wages.’” (1 Tim. 5:18, italics added). Paul understood
the first reference (Deut. 25:4) from the O.T. as scripture, along with his quote
of Luke’s gospel (Lk. 10:7), from the N.T. in the second reference, also as
scripture. Likewise, Peter had credited Paul’s writings as scripture. Speaking
of Paul, Peter writes, “There are some things in them that are hard to
understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as
they do the other Scriptures.” (2 Peter 3:16, italics added). So,
Peter had accepted Paul’s writings as scripture along with the “other
scriptures” which comprise the O.T.
Returning to our exegete of 2 Timothy 3:16,
the verb είναι (einai) translated “is” functions as a present infinitive
meaning to be, or to exist. The adjective θεόπνευστος (theopneustos)
translates literally as “God[‘s] Spirit.” The phrase, “breathed out by” does not appear
in the original Greek. Its insertion in the English transliteration has a
functional purpose, for reasons of clarity. Its intercalation in the English is
based on Paul’s word for God, which conjoins two Greek words, the noun θεός
(God) and the adjective πνευστος (pneustos) which is derived from the
Greek πνίγω (pneō) meaning, “to breathe hard.” This Greek word of Paul’s is used nowhere else
in scripture. Paul created the word to emphasize its divine origin, a corollary
of which would be the authority and inspiration of scripture. I wonder if Pastor Scott would argue that, where
Paul states that “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God” (NKJV), “this
verse itself is not the word of God and therefore it is not inspired”. Or that, “the verse is in error at that point”.
In summary then, this
verse states that the sum total of “all” scripture, or all that was received as
inspired “scripture”, including the Old Testament in addition to Peter and
Paul’s “writings” at a minimum, were breathed out, or spoken by God.
ἀλλὰ (but) ὑπὸ (by) πνεύματος (spirit) ἁγίου (holy) φερόμενοι (to
carry, bring) ἐλάλησαν (to speak) ἀπὸ (from) θεοῦ (God) ἄνθρωποι (man).[v]
Again, for our purposes
I am only going to focus on the second part of 2 Peter 1:21. The co-ordinating conjunction ἀλλὰ (alla)
translates as “but” and functions as a connective term meaning notwithstanding
or nevertheless, contrasting the declarative phrase of 21a with 21b. The
preposition ὑπὸ (hypo) translated as “by” functions as a qualifier of
the noun which follows. It answers to the question of how. What the how
is in reference to, will be determined as we continue our study. The noun πνεύματος
(pneumatos) translated as “spirit” is derived from the root word πνεῦμα
(pneuma) meaning a current of air, a variant of πνέω (pneō)
meaning, to breathe hard, as previously noted. The noun “spirit’ is never categorized as an
impersonal force. The adjective ἁγίου (hagiou) translated as “holy” functions
as a modifier of the noun which precedes it. This Greek word possesses a singular genitive
case ending which indicates possession denoting this spirit is holy and is an
attribute of His nature. The verb φερόμενοι
(pheromenoi) meaning, “to bring or carry” is a present tense,
passive verb. Active verbs indicate that
the subject is the one performing the act, passive verbs indicate the subject is
the one being acted upon. So, what is
the subject in this verse? The noun ἄνθρωποι
(anthropoi) translated “man” has the case ending, οι which is nominative
plural. Words that have the nominative
case endings indicate the subject, therefore, anthropoi “man” is the
subject of the verb pheromenoi “to bring” ὑπὸ “by” means of the ἁγίου
“holy” πνεύματος “spirit”. The
subject “Man” is also plural in the Greek.
In summary then,
contrary to the declarative phrase of 21a that no prophecy of scripture had man
for its origin but originated with God by the spirit who is holy by his very
nature and moved upon these men in such a fashion so as to bare them up or carry
them along as they penned the scriptures that God delivered to them.
Furthermore, many of
the church fathers espoused the inspiration and inerrancy of scripture. Clement
of Rome had stated that, “the Scriptures… are the true utterances of the
Holy Spirit.”[vi] Justin Martyr added that those, “who spoke
by the Divine Spirit…both saw and announced the truth to men, neither
reverencing nor fearing any man, not influenced by a desire for glory, by speaking
those things alone which they saw and which they heard, being filled with
the Holy Spirit.”[vii]
Also that, “the holy Spirit of prophecy taught us this, telling us by
Moses that God spoke thus”[viii]
and that, “Moses… wrote in the Hebrew
character by the divine inspiration.”[ix]
Origen also stated that, “the
Scriptures themselves are divine, i.e., were inspired by the Spirit of
God.”[x] In addition Irenaeus declared that, “the
Scriptures are indeed perfect, since they were spoken by the Word of God
and His Spirit”[xi] Thomas Aquinas, quoting Augustine, stated that,
“the authority of the canonical Scripture” is “an incontrovertible proof” and
that "only those books of Scripture which are called canonical have I
learned to hold in such honor as to believe their authors have not erred in
any way in writing them.”[xii]
Aquinas himself had stated, “A true prophet is always inspired by the Spirit
of truth, in Whom there is no falsehood.”[xiii]
(Italics added)
Finally, the scriptures
themselves attest to their own inspiration and inerrancy. The International Council on Biblical
Inerrancy article XV states, “We affirm that the doctrine of inerrancy is grounded
in the teaching of the Bible about inspiration.”[xiv]
A further statement issued by the ICBI declared that, “Holy Scripture, being
God’s own word, written by men prepared and superintended by his spirit, is
of infallible divine authority in all matters upon which it touches: it is
to believed, as God’s instruction, in all that it affirms; obeyed, as God’s
command, in all that it requires; embraced, as God’s pledge, in all that it
promises.”[xv] (Italics
added)
Regarding inspiration/inerrancy
of the Old Testament Moses recorded, “I will raise up for them a prophet like
you from among their brothers. And I will put my words in his mouth, and
he shall speak to them all that I command him.” (Deut. 18:18) The scribe
Baruch, recorded the prophecy of Jeremiah stating, “Then the Lord put out his
hand and touched my mouth. And the Lord said to me, ’Behold, I have put my
words in your mouth.’” (Jer. 1:9) David testified that, “The Spirit of the
Lord speaks by me; his word is on my tongue.” (2 Sam. 23:2) and that, “The
words of the Lord are pure…” (Ps. 12:6), “The law of the Lord is perfect”, (Ps.
19:7), to the words of Agur, “Every word of God proves true” (Prov. 30:5). The
Lord, referring to the prophet Isaiah said, “my words… I have put in your
mouth” (Isa. 59:21, 51:16; Deut. 4:10) and the writer of the book of
Zechariah records that, “the words that the Lord of hosts had sent by his
Spirit through the former prophets.” (Zech. 7:12; Neh. 9:30), (Italics
added).
With respect to the New
Testament, and apart from the two passages previously cited (2 Timothy 3:16, 2
Peter 1:21), Jesus queried, “How is it then that David, in the Spirit,
calls him Lord” (Matthew 22:43), “through the mouth of our father David, your
servant, said by the Holy Spirit” (Acts 4:25). Paul declared, “And we impart this in words
not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit” (1 Cor. 2:13), and
again “If anyone thinks that he is a prophet, or spiritual, he should
acknowledge that the things I am writing to you are a command of the Lord”
(14:37). Regarding the gospel that Paul
was preaching he declared that “I did not receive it from any man, nor was I
taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ” (Galatians
1:12). The writer of Hebrews stated that
it is “impossible for God to lie” (6:18). Jesus also declared that “Scripture cannot be broken”
(John 10:35).
What about textual
variants? Perhaps this is what Pastor
Scott is thinking about when he claims that the scriptures are not infallible
or inerrant. For this part, I am only
going to address the largest area of variants.
Simply because we find variants in MSS (manuscripts), does not indicate
the scriptures are in error. The Greek
New Testament contains an estimated 138,000 words, all total, there are between
300,000 to 400,000 variants. A textual variant is any place among the
manuscripts of the New Testament where there is not uniformity of wording.[xvi] That number sounds rather significant, but there
is no cause for concern if you understand what those variants consist of.
Quality of Variants
Among New Testament Manuscripts
1=spelling errors
2=variants that do not
affect translation
3=meaningful, but not
viable variants
4=meaningful and viable variants[1]
As you can see in the
chart, the vast number of variants are nothing more than spelling errors, so, if
the quantity of variants number 400,000, then nearly 275,000 - 300,000 of them are
spelling errors. As an example, the name for John is spelled in Greek two
different ways, either Iōannēs or Iōanēs. The same person is in
view either way; the only difference is whether the name has two n’s or
one. One of the most common textual variants involves what is called a movable nu.
The Greek letter nu (n) can occur at the end of certain words when they
precede a word that starts with a vowel. This is similar to the two forms of
the indefinite article in English: a or an. But whether the nu
appears in these words or not, there is absolutely no difference in meaning. It
is so insignificant that most textual critics simply ignore the variants
involving a movable nu when transcribing the words of a manuscript. It
affects nothing.[xvii] Furthermore, if a word is spelled incorrectly, and the same
word occurs some 5,000 times, it is counted as 5,000 variants, not one. The
most significant type of variant include variants which are both meaningful and
viable, “meaningful” in the sense that the variant changes the meaning of the
text to some degree. “Viable” in the
sense that the variants are plausible as differing from the original. However, only about one percent of the total
exist as this type of variant and none of the variants adversely affect any
accepted doctrine.
In conclusion, if the
Bible is not inspired, then it cannot be from God and contradicts 2 Timothy
3:16 that “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God” (NKJV). If the scriptures are inspired of God, then
they cannot be in error, if they are in error, then God is in error, and that
is simply not possible.
[1] J.
Ed Komoszewski, M. James Sawyer, and Daniel B. Wallace, Reinventing Jesus:
How Contemporary Skeptics Miss the Real Jesus and Mislead Popular Culture
(Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications, 2006), 63.
[i] Norman L. Geisler and William
C. Roach, Defending Inerrancy: Affirming the Accuracy of Scripture for a New
Generation (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Publishing Group, 2011), 27.
[ii] Ibid., 29.
[iii] Unless otherwise noted, all Biblical
references are in the English Standard Version, with Strong’s Numbers (Wheaton
IL: Crossway, 2008).
[iv] Michael W. Holmes, The
Greek New Testament: SBL Edition (Lexham Press; Society of Biblical
Literature, 2011–2013), 2 Ti 3:16.
[v] Ibid., 2 Pe 1:21.
[vi] Clement of Rome, “The First
Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians,” in The Apostolic Fathers with Justin
Martyr and Irenaeus, ed. Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson, and A. Cleveland
Coxe, vol. 1, The Ante-Nicene Fathers (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature
Company, 1885), 17.
[vii] Justin Martyr, “Dialogue of
Justin with Trypho, a Jew,” in The Apostolic Fathers with Justin Martyr and
Irenaeus, ed. Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson, and A. Cleveland Coxe, vol.
1, The Ante-Nicene Fathers (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Company, 1885), 198.
[viii] Justin Martyr, “The First
Apology of Justin,” in The Apostolic Fathers with Justin Martyr and Irenaeus,
ed. Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson, and A. Cleveland Coxe, vol. 1, The
Ante-Nicene Fathers (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Company, 1885), 177.
[ix] Justin Martyr, “Justin’s
Hortatory Address to the Greeks,” in The Apostolic Fathers with Justin Martyr
and Irenaeus, ed. Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson, and A. Cleveland Coxe,
trans. M. Dods, vol. 1, The Ante-Nicene Fathers (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature
Company, 1885), 278–288.
[x] Origen, “De Principiis,” in
Fathers of the Third Century: Tertullian, Part Fourth; Minucius Felix;
Commodian; Origen, Parts First and Second, ed. Alexander Roberts, James
Donaldson, and A. Cleveland Coxe, trans. Frederick Crombie, vol. 4, The
Ante-Nicene Fathers (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Company, 1885), 349.
[xi] Irenaeus of Lyons, “Irenæus
against Heresies,” in The Apostolic Fathers with Justin Martyr and Irenaeus,
ed. Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson, and A. Cleveland Coxe, vol. 1, The
Ante-Nicene Fathers (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Company, 1885), 399.
[xii] Aquinas,
Thomas. Summa Theologica (Complete & Unabridged) (p. 5). Coyote Canyon
Press. Kindle Edition.
[xiv] Norman L. Geisler and William
C. Roach, Defending Inerrancy: Affirming the Accuracy of Scripture for a New
Generation (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Publishing Group, 2011), 283.
[xv] Ibid.
[xvi] J. Ed Komoszewski, M. James
Sawyer, and Daniel B. Wallace, Reinventing Jesus: How Contemporary Skeptics
Miss the Real Jesus and Mislead Popular Culture (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel
Publications, 2006), 54.
[xvii] Ibid., 56.
