Introduction
‘Of every word of
Scripture is it to be affirmed, in turn, that it is God’s word and that it
is man’s word. All the
qualities of divinity and of humanity are to be sought and may be
found in every portion
and element of the Scripture’. [1] Scripture is both human and divine. It is just as important to recognize and
embrace this fact as it to embrace the full humanity and divinity of Christ our
savior. He cannot be our savior if he is
less any side of this. His word must
also be fully both.
For
many people the Bible, unfortunately, is nothing more than a fanciful book
about times long since passed. There are
characters that we can see their lives and witness the birth of a Nation. They see the good times and the bad, but in
all of that they still only see fiction.
To them, the Bible is just another story book. But it is not. It is so much more than that. The Bible is the written Word of God, the
creator of the universe and all that is in it penned by the hand of the very
creation of God. The Bible was written
by man by the inspiration of God. The
key difference between the Bible and other works also written down by men is
that the Bible has this inspired nature.
It is the divine nature of scripture that separates it from other human
writings. Because of the divine nature,
belief in scripture requires saving faith in order to see it as truth.
Throughout
history man has made one attempt after another to discredit scripture. Every attempt is based on the humanity of the
Bible. It is important for Christians to
research scripture and understand how faith comes into play in helping us to
see how the humanity complements the spirituality. The Bible is both human and divine for a
reason. One reason that it is important
for us to embrace this is because detractors essentially do the same thing as
Christians with one main difference.
They also believe in documents and writings of humans and they place
their faith in them as truth as they believe them over the Bible. The difference is that Christians have saving
faith in Scripture and they do not.
In
this paper one can take a look at the human authorship of the Bible. There is biblical support for this authorship
throughout the Old and New Testaments.
In addition, the next section will discuss how this human authorship was
actually one inspired by God. The human
and divine authorship working together so that both sides are partnered rather
than one controlling the other. Or one
making up the word of the other. The
human authors did not just make up a collection of interesting stories, nor did
they just write down an account of things that they witnessed. Far more than this they wrote the word that
God inspired them to write.
Human
Authorship
What
Lanes points out, though, is that in the writings of of Warfield there does
seem to be an imbalance toward the divine authorship. This is explained because at the time Divine
authorship was being attacked, the writers themselves attested to the divine
nature, and finally that “Warfield maintained that the human authorship of
scripture was in his time all but universally acknowledged.”[2] The humanity was accepted and known in
Warfield’s day and because of this he saw little need to over emphasize
this. This is something that many today
neglect to emphasize. He also quotes
Warfield to say “Probably no one today so emphasizes the divine element in
Scripture as to exclude the human altogether.” [3] In his day this was common but for today we
seem to want to exclude this. The human
authorship of scripture is also something that is well documented in
scripture. In 2 Peter 3:15 we read how Paul wrote to us. “15 And
count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved
brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him.” Not only there but in 2 Corinthians 2:4 Paul
himself takes the credit for the writing.
This is not to say that his letters are not scripture, but it is
important for the Christian to fully acknowledge the human authorship and Paul
leaves little doubt. “For I wrote to you out of much affliction and
anguish of heart and with many tears, not to cause you pain but to let you know
the abundant love that I have for you.”
These men wrote about things that God shared with them. He shared wisdom, knowledge, and His love
with men and they wrote it down for us.
In joy and in pain, man wrote scripture to give us joy and to show us
how to deal with pain.
Not only can we look at the New Testament, though. The Old Testament has much documentation of
the human authorship. Numbers 33:2, “2 Moses
wrote down their starting places, stage by stage, by command of the Lord,
and these are their stages according to their starting places.” Moses wrote.
These two simple words gives us a large chunk of the Old Testament. Joshua 24:26, “And
Joshua wrote these words in
the Book of the Law of God. And he took a large stone and set it up there under
the terebinth that was by the sanctuary of the Lord.” Joshua too is credited as a human
author. 1 Samuel 10:25, “Then
Samuel told the people the rights and duties of the kingship, and he wrote them in a book
and laid it up before the Lord. Then
Samuel sent all the people away, each one to his home.” Samuel gave us the duties of the Kings. Jeremiah 45:1 “[ Message to Baruch ] The word that Jeremiah the prophet
spoke to Baruch the son of Neriah, when he wrote these words in
a book at the dictation of Jeremiah, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of
Josiah, king of Judah.” Jeremiah wrote
prophecy. Scripture is written from
start to finish by the hand of man. To
deny this is to deny that anything written in scripture is also false.
By
embracing this humanity Christians can better understand and even defend
scripture. The Bible is not some
detached extra-spiritual document. The
Bible is an entire collection of human writings that happens to also be
inspired by God. As a point can be made
as a way of transition about the passage in John 17:18, “18 As
you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.” Jowers, when speaking of the canonicity of
scripture, tells us “Jesus testified to his approval of the apostles’ teaching,
first by characterizing the apostles as divinely sent.”[4] Just as God sent Jesus into the world, so did
Christ send His apostles. This point
implies that the New Testament for sure is inspired because the human authors
we directly sent by God. While it was
written down by men, they were inspired to do so. In the next section this divine inspiration
will be discussed further. For now we
can also call on the fact that the human authorship is also affirmed. The apostles are credited with the written
word, and Christ backs the inspired nature.
It is important, though, to
understand that human authorship is quite important and must go hand in hand
with the inspiration from God. Scripture
is not simply true because the human writers witnessed what they wrote about. From Geoff Lienert we can read about how Vilmar
was against the verbal inspiration of Scripture, and still maintained the
inerrancy of the Bible. He believed this
to be true because “’those people (that is, the writers) viewed these things’.”[5] This certainly shows us a
dangerous position that one could be in to tout the inerrancy of Scripture, but
to deny the inspiration. It is not
possible to have one without the other as it relates to Scripture. Much like the preacher casts his sermons with
the divine help of God, the writers of the Bible did the same. This is two fully equal partners in writing
one book, and Lane warns that “it is a mistake to imagine that the divine and
human in the Bible are competing elements.”[6] There is no competition
here, only the Almighty God choosing to use fallen humanity to bring His word
into the world. Human authors, and
divine inspiration. A divine partnership
to bring the Bible to a lost and dying world.
Best explained again by Lane quoting Warfield, “The fundamental
principle of this conception is that the whole of Scripture is the product of divine
activities which enter it, however, not by superseding the activities of the
human authors, but confluently with them.”[7] This confluence is the key to the partnership
of divine and human in the Bible.
Divine
Authorship
The
method God chose to bring His Word to the world is without doubt the hand of
man. They drew from their lives and
experiences to pen His Word. Many people
call this process “inspiration”. A good
place to start out is with Lane who makes some very good points about the
authorship of scripture. Using B.B.
Warfield he gives a very good lesson on the authorship of scripture. An interesting first starting point is the
word most use to describe the divinity of scripture: inspiration.
The problem with this word is that it means something closer to God
breathing in. According to Lane this is
not a biblical concept. In fact, the
“biblical picture is more one of the scriptures being ‘breathed out’ by God, of
the Bible as ‘a Divine product produced through the instrumentality of man’.”[8] As God breathed out on the lives of biblical
authors the product was a book that is both fully human and fully Divine. Just as there is biblical support for the
humanity of scripture, there is also much support for the Divine. As already mentioned in John 17, there is
perhaps the most quoted passage in II Timothy
3:16-17 “16 All
Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for
correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the
man of God[a] may be
complete, equipped for every good work.” This passage accomplishes two things for the
reader of scripture. Here one can find
the authority in scripture and know that it is God’s Word. Not only this, but in this passage one can
find the purpose is equip the man of God in good work. It can also be seen in scripture just what
would have happened if the task had been left for man alone. In II Peter 1:20-21 Peter shares with the
reader that man cannot do this alone. It
says, “20 knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of
Scripture comes from someone's own interpretation. 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.”
Alone man does not have the will to do God’s work. Also notice, though, that verse 20 says that
it is also not the man’s interpretation either.
If left to man, there would be no scripture. This makes a very good argument in opposition
of the religion that claims scripture written by men alone. What we see in scripture, though, is an
important concept that carries to both the human and the Divine
authorship. Just as Jowers reminds us,
scripture is “self-authenticating”.[9] These truths written here are not something
that one must draw out of the air.
Scripture attests to its own origin and we need look no further.
Just
like the human authorship is clearly affirmed in both the New and Old
Testaments, Divine authorship is no different.
The old speaks to the same. In Deuteronomy
18:20-22 we can find that not only did God give these words, but his passage
can be used as a yardstick to measure all scripture. “20 But the prophet
who presumes to speak a word in my name that I have not commanded him to speak,
or who speaks in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall
die.’ 21 And if you say in your heart, ‘How may we
know the word that the Lord has not spoken?’— 22 when
a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the word does not come to
pass or come true, that is a word that the Lord has not
spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You need not be afraid
of him.” There are enough prophecies and
predictions in scripture to keep scholars busy for the last nearly two thousand
years, and there are still more remaining.
The reader is told quite plainly that if something written in the book that
did not actually happen then it is not a word from God. This is not something that is made up. God “breathed out” this word to the writers. Just as Paul reminds us in Galatians
1:11-12 "I want you to know, brothers that the gospel I preached is not
something that man made up. I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught
it; rather I RECEIVED IT BY REVELATION...” (emphasis added) He may have written these words but it is
something that he received and not made up.
Matthew Henry gives a great note from his commentary. Paul was one to recognize that He needed the
Lord’s wisdom more than his own. Henry
tells us, “In preaching the gospel, the apostle sought to bring persons to the
obedience, not of men, but of God. But Paul would not attempt to alter the
doctrine of Christ, either to gain their favour, or to avoid their fury. In so
important a matter we must not fear the frowns of men, nor seek their favour,
by using words of men's wisdom. Concerning the manner wherein he received the
gospel, he had it by revelation from Heaven. He was not led to Christianity, as
many are, merely by education.”[10]
(http://biblehub.com/commentaries/galatians/1-11.htm) The last sentence is perhaps the most telling
of the problem that one will have with any other writing. In the end the purpose of scripture is to
bring mankind to Christ and this is not something that can be done through
education alone. Knowledge must come
from God in order for one to come to the right understanding. Steven Nadler tells us in this way, “When
prophecy or divine revelation is correctly understood in this broad sense, as
whatever knowledge causally and epistemically depends on God, then it includes
natural knowledge. More specifically, it includes philosophy and science, as
well as other products of the intellect, and is therefore ‘common to all men.’”[11] For scripture to be work in bringing people
to Christ and equipping the man of God, it must come from God. The detractors that mention philosophy and
science as if they are separate, they have missed the truth that this is also
comes from God. Also the detractors will
use this “inspiration” to say that the human mechanically wrote the word that
the Lord gave them. This is something
that Warfield denied. While he
acknowledged that there were people that held this view, Lane quotes Warfield
and tells us that “the ‘obvious marks of human authorship’ in the biblical
books prevented this view from becoming dominant.”[12] How, then does this inspiration work in order
that God’s word could be written by men?
Lane continues by sharing the work of Warfield. This is something that Warfield worked
closely with A.A. Hodge to define verbal inspiration. Lane shares with us that, “Inspiration is
called verbal to make it clear that it extends not just to the thoughts of the
writers but to the very words that they used. It must not be supposed that God
merely put ideas into the minds of the biblical authors and then left them to
put them into words as best they could. But in claiming that words themselves
are inspired it is not implied that the human writers are not also their
authors. ‘The thoughts and words are both alike human, and, therefore, subject
to human limitations, but the divine superintendance and guarantee extends to
the one as much as the other.’”[13] The thoughts and the words of the human
authors were inspired in such a way that their human influence remains but with
a Divine guarantee. The reader can know
that what they are reading God’s word and at the same time that He can use man
for great and mighty things.
Conclusion
When
the Christian goes to their Bible to read what God has to say to them, it is a
trip to a book unlike any other in the world.
This book shares one important trait with every other book: that it was
written by men. What makes it different
is that even though it is penned by the hand of men, it also carries the hand
of God in its inspiration. This single
fact is one that is denied by most, but to those who have saving faith it is
held closely to their hearts to bring them hope, and comfort, and knowledge of
the Savior of the world. And as it has
already been mentioned, it takes more than just human faith. It must be faith that comes from God in order
to believe. Ephesians 2:8, “8 For by
grace you have been saved through
faith. And this is not your own
doing; it is the gift of God,”
and it is only in this faith that one has any hope to truly understand the
nature of God’s word.
Bibliography
Henry,
Matthew. Matthew Henry's
Concise Commentary On the Whole Bible (Super Value Series). Nashville, TN:
Thomas Nelson, 2003.
Jowers, Dennis W.
"THE SUFFICIENCY OF SCRIPTURE AND THE BIBLICAL CANON." Trinity
Journal 30, no. 1 (Spring, 2009): 49-65, http://search.proquest.com/docview/346985617?accountid=12085.
Lane, A.N.S. “B.B.
Warfield and the Humanity of Scripture,” Vox Evangelica 16 (1986):
77-94.
Lienert, Geoff. "Scripture, the Divine and the Human in the
Negotiations Leading to the Theses on Principles Governing Church Fellowship
and Theses on Scripture and Inspiration." Lutheran Theological Journal 47, no. 2 (08, 2013): 110-21, http://search.proquest.com/docview/1429383673?accountid=12085.
Nadler, Steven.
"Scripture and truth: a problem in Spinoza's Tractatus
Theologico-Politicus." Journal of the History of Ideas 74.4
(2013): 623-642. Academic OneFile. Web. 27 Nov. 2014.
[1] A.N.S. Lane,
“B.B. Warfield and the Humanity of Scripture,” Vox Evangelica 16 (1986):
78
[2] Ibid. 78-79
[3] Ibid. 79
[4] Dennis Jowers,
“The Sufficiency of Scripture and the Biblical Canon.” Trinity Journal 30, no. 1 (Spring 2009): 53
[5] Geoff Lienert, “Scripture, the Divine and the Human in
the Negotiations Leading to the Theses on Principles governing church
Fellowship and Theses on Scripture and Inspiration.” Lutheran Theological Journal 47, no. 2 (August 2013): 111
[6] A.N.S. Lane, “B.B.
Warfield and the Humanity of Scripture,” Vox Evangelica 16 (1986): 81.
[7] Ibid. 82
[8] Ibid. 79
[9] Dennis Jowers,
“The Sufficiency of Scripture and the Biblical Canon.” Trinity Journal 30, no. 1 (Spring 2009): 49
[10] Matthew Henry, Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary
On the Whole Bible (Super Value Series) (Nashville,
TN: Thomas Nelson, 2003), 25731.
[11] Steven Nadler,
“Scripture and truth: a problem in
Spinoza’s Tractatus Theologico-Politicus.” Journal
of the History of Ideas 74.4 (2013): 628.
[12] A.N.S. Lane,
“B.B. Warfield and the Humanity of Scripture,” Vox Evangelica 16 (1986):
79-80
[13] Ibid. 80
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