When Paul said that ‘all scripture is inspired’ (2 Timothy 3:16, NASV) what did he mean? Last week I looked at the issue of which biblical books he could be referring to and concluded that it was the books of the Old Testament alone he had in mind. In this post I want to look at the word ‘inspired’.

God-breathed

The Greek word here is ‘theopneustos’ – literally ‘God-breathed’. (Interestingly the NIV uses this translation rather than ‘inspired’.) Nowhere else in the NT does this word appear and according to some scholars it doesn’t appear in any Greek literature from the 1st century. Maybe Paul made it up or maybe it just wasn’t in common usage but it leaves us with a dilemma in that we cannot be certain of its meaning. We can make a good, educated guess, but to insist that it carries this or that meaning seems a little too black and white.

But let’s have a go anyway. The scriptures referred to have been ‘breathed into them by God’. And there seems to be a broad consensus on that definition. What isn’t answered by that definition, however, is when this happens/ed. Did God’s breath enter into the scriptures when they were being written? Did it enter into the person doing the writing at the time of writing? Did it happen when they were first read by the recipients? Or does it happen when we read them today? For that matter, does it happen every time we read them or only sometimes? These questions are not answered by this verse.

Inspiration and accuracy

And we can ask a whole host of other key questions: what does it mean for the scriptures to be God-breathed? Does it give them an accuracy in terms of scientific knowledge, or historic, or geographic? Does it provide them with one meaning that cannot be changed throughout the years? Or can the interpretation change according to the circumstances of the time they are read? Does the breathing overcome all of the prejudices, the inconsistencies, the sinfulness, the lack of knowledge of the writer at all, in part or in whole? Do we have the same God-breathed direction today as we read and interpret them? Or are we left to our own devices?

These are big questions. Of course I understand that some find answering them quite easy. The Bible is 100% accurate in every detail. That’s what God-breathed means to them. Black and white with no room to argue. I’m afraid that I can’t agree with that interpretation of the word. It throws up far too many inconsistencies and whilst I accept some are able to push those inconsistencies deep down themselves so that they never interfere with their faith, I find myself unable to do that any longer.

For me God-breathed means that the Holy Spirit at times brings life and vitality to the words as I read and hear them. It brings them alive and inspires me in my walk with God. In these times I am challenged, encouraged, stirred, and comforted. They are words infused with the life of God and whether they are 100% accurate or not matters very little for it is the encounter with God as I read that matters most.


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