Ramifications of the Inspiration of Scripture – Part 4
We have been looking at some ramifications of the doctrine of inspiration. So far we have looked at four ramifications:
- Inspiration includes both the authors and what they wrote.
- God is the Ultimate Author, but He speaks through men.
- The Bible is written in real human language, following human standards of communication, literary conventions, and genres (law, history, poetry, proverb, etc).
- Human authors of Scripture exhibit variation in style, vocabulary, genre, and literary competence.
- God did not “dictate” Scripture – He spoke through real people He had prepared for the task.
6. Human authors of Scripture often did research and used other sources.
Today I will give two final ramifications.
5. God sometimes even used later editors to complete the writing, but their additions are still fully God’s Word.
It is clear that later editors sometimes inserted comments or explanations or added extra information to help later generations understand. This is evident from several texts.
(Now Moses was a very humble man, more humble than anyone else on the face of the earth.) Numbers 12:3
(It would be hard for the most humble man on earth to tell others he was the most humble man on earth! This is why the NIV inserts parentheses to indicate that it is an insertion by a later editor.)
He buried him in Moab, in the valley opposite Beth Peor, but to this day no one knows where his grave is. 7 Moses was a hundred and twenty years old when he died, yet his eyes were not weak nor his strength gone. 8 The Israelites grieved for Moses in the plains of Moab thirty days, until the time of weeping and mourning was over. 9 Now Joshua son of Nun was filled with the spirit of wisdom because Moses had laid his hands on him. So the Israelites listened to him and did what the Lord had commanded Moses. 10 Since then, no prophet has risen in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face, Deuteronomy 34:6–10
(Moses wrote the bulk of Deuteronomy, but it is clear he could not record his own death! And it is apparent that the editor adding the final details to the book is writing years later since he uses the phrases “to this day” and “since then”.)
This does not undermine the understanding of inspiration, for God also inspired the later editor as he had the original author. The result is that the book as given to God’s people through the ages is fully inspired.
6. God so prepared and influenced the human authors and editors that even the words they chose were the exact words God wanted to be written.
The previous several points do not mean that what was written was “approximately” the Word of God. On the contrary, God so superintended the entire process that the final text had exactly the words that God wanted to be written down. This is not the idea of some recent Christians – it is the clear teaching of Jesus and Paul.
I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. Matthew 5:18
(It is not the Law in some general sense that is God’s Word, but every stroke of the pen. Even the smallest letter that was included was done so by the oversight of God’s Spirit. Jesus clearly believed in the inspiration of God’s Word!)
The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. The Scripture does not say “and to seeds,” meaning many people, but “and to your seed,” meaning one person, who is Christ. Galatians 3:16
(Paul sees meaning in the singular form of a noun rather than the plural form. This means that Moses, the human author of Genesis, was so inspired by the Spirit that the specific form of the word he used was exactly what God wanted to be written. This is inspiration!)
All of these points mean that we can trust God’s Word. God used fallible humans, whom He had so prepared and guided, to write the very Word of God. Thus, the Scripture is perfect in every way, exactly what God wanted to reveal to humans. Thank God for His written Word!
In Christ,
Bret