Sunday, July 03, 2005
One of the terms often used to refer to the Bible's uniqueness is "inspiration," a word meaning "to breathe into" and used by many Bible translations in 2 Timothy 3:16. A more accurate translation, however, is found in the New International Version's rendering of 2 Tim. 3:16, where we read, "All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness...."
The term "God-breathed" comes from the Greek word theopneustos and refers not so much to a breathing into as it does to a breathing out by God. That is a difference very much worth noting! In other words, 2 Tim. 3:16 tells us that Scripture is the product of God's creative breath. The Bible scholar B.B. Warfield described it this way: "When Paul declares, then, that 'every scripture,' or 'all scripture' is the product of the Divine breath, 'is God breathed,' he asserts with as much energy as he could employ that Scripture is the product of a specifically Divine operation." To put it another way, the Author behind the Bible's human authors is God Himself.
On the other hand, God obviously used individual people to write the Bible. The biblical writers were not mechanical robots; rather, their distinct personalities clearly come through in their writings. That is why the prophetic writings of Isaiah and Ezekiel are very different from the letters of Peter the fisherman and Dr. Luke the physician. But of this we can be sure: God superintended the process of giving us Holy Scripture. He is the Author behind the human authors.
--Deutero Q
