Hello

 

One verse that is used by many Christians to defend the belief that the Bible is divinely inspired is the first half of 2 Timothy 3:16 which is often translated “All scripture is inspired by God…”.

 

Paul is writing a personal letter to Timothy who has been his companion and fellow worker for years.  To get the context let’s start reading at verse 15: “from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.”  What are these Holy Scriptures that our brother Paul is writing about?  We don’t know, Paul doesn’t say, but if Timothy has known them from his infancy, they are likely to be part of the Old Testament.  They cannot include the books of the New Testament because decisions as to which books would be included in the New Testament had not been made when Paul wrote this letter to Timothy.  These words cannot be used to support a teaching that our loving heavenly Father inspired any of the writings that make up the New Testament.

 

The word that is translated “scripture” in verse 16 means “writing”.  The decision to translate it as “scripture” is entirely a decision made by the translators and publishers of modern English Bibles.

 

This next point is very important.  A direct translation of the first words of verse 16 is:

“Every writing inspired by God…”

You see what’s missing?  The word “is” is not found in these words in any of the ancient manuscripts.  This is not a complete sentence.  These words are the opening words of a sentence that continues to the end of verse 17.  Paul is about to say something to Timothy about writings inspired by God.  (I’ll say more about what he had to say in a moment.)

If you have a good study Bible (and it’s worth getting one) you will see there is a footnote to the verse which shows that the first few words of this sentence can be translated as “Every writing inspired by God is also…”.   Paul’s words to Timothy which are traditionally translated:

“All scripture is inspired by God and is useful…”

can be translated:

“Every writing inspired by God is also useful…”

 

So, there is considerable doubt about how these words should be translated.  But there is no doubt about what Paul said these writings should be used for.  He told Timothy that the writings he is talking about are “useful”.  Useful for what?  “…useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16-17).  In this sentence, Paul was telling Timothy that these writings are useful for these purposes.

 

There is a very important question that must be answered.  If we are to use these words to support the teaching that every word in our Bible is inspired by God, how can we be certain that Paul was inspired by God when he wrote them?  When this question is asked, someone is likely to quote these verses from 2 Peter:

 

“Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him.  He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other scriptures, to their own destruction.” (2 Peter 3:15-16)

 

There are three important points to make about these verses:

 

• Firstly, the Greek word that is translated “scriptures” in this verse means “writings” as it does in 2 Timothy 3:16 and, again, the decision to translate it as “scripture” is entirely a decision made by the translators and publishers of modern English Bibles.  Peter is not stating that Paul’s writings are divinely inspired.
• Secondly, Peter wrote: “our dear brother Paul also wrote to you with the wisdom given to him.” (2 Peter 3:15).  Peter was not saying that God inspired Paul’s writings, but he was acknowledging that Paul was wise and that he wrote with the wisdom given to him.  It is likely that he meant that our loving heavenly Father had given Paul this wisdom, but that is not the same thing as saying Paul’s writings were divinely inspired.
• Thirdly, if we want to show that Peter was authenticating Paul’s letters as being inspired by God, we must be sure that Peter’s words were inspired by God. So, let’s talk about Peter.  Peter was a human being.  He said so (Acts 10:25-26).  All human beings make mistakes and get things wrong sometimes.  Peter is consistently portrayed in the New Testament as making mistakes and getting things wrong sometimes (Some examples: Matthew 16:22-23; Mark 14:37; Luke 9:33; 22:33-34; 22:54-62; John 13:8; 18:10-11; 18:17; 18:25-27). Yes, Peter was chosen by Jesus and experienced God directly (Matthew 16:17; 17:4-6; Acts 10:9-20; 2 Peter 1:17-18) but he was still, without question, and throughout his whole life, a human being who made mistakes and got things wrong sometimes (as we all do).  So, how can we be certain that Peter, while he was writing his letters, did not make any mistakes or get anything wrong?  What evidence is there that God guided every word that Peter wrote in his letters, when God certainly did not guide every word that Peter spoke?

 

These passages cannot be used to defend the teaching that our Bible is fully inspired by God.

 

Let’s pray that our loving heavenly Father will guide us into his truth about all these things.

 

Jesus is Lord!

 

Peter O