Last week we began to look at the “inspiration” of Scripture (see 2 Tim. 3:16). I mentioned the biggest problem we face when trying to understand God’s inspiration of Scripture is we try to remove the human element from Scripture. We forget that the people writing these texts had a hand in their creation as well. They were not strictly taking dictation.
Bobby Valentine puts it this way:
“The Bible is inspired of God’s Holy Spirit through the words of human beings in specific historical circumstances. Thus it is literally the word of God and the word of humans. Thus the text was written in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek and not Spanish, English or Southern. God’s word addressed them in that situation and may not be God’s directive for all time and all places.”
I left you with three examples of differences between Scriptures that refer to the same events. All of these are narrative events (meaning a story is being told). Did you look them up? If not do so now:
Did you notice the differences? They are all human elements that have been changed. Let’s look at the first. The writings of Samuel and Kings cover the exact same time frame as Chronicles, but their intent is different. The writing of Samuel is more of a prophetic warning, or explanation of why the people wound up in exile. Chronicles attempts to reestablish the image of Israel after the exile. Two different purposes, and the writers included two different sets of details. All true, but different purposes.
Both Luke and John tell us about Peter going to the empty tomb. John includes this “other disciple” beating Peter to the tomb. That’s the way John refers to himself throughout his Gospel. Why did John include this and Luke didn’t? Because it was John himself who beat Peter in a footrace to the tomb!
Mark and Luke tell us of the bleeding condition of the woman healed by touching Jesus’ robe. Mark tells us that she had suffered greatly at the hands of physicians. Luke, who was himself a physician, apparently didn’t feel we needed that bit of the story.
Can you see the human element of these texts? Can you see how God gave latitude to the authors? This makes the Bible more special in my eyes, that God was willing to partner with humans in getting his word to the world, just as he partners with us today in doing the same thing (See Matthew 28:19).
In the meantime, look at how Paul did not write his letters alone, but in partnering with others: Rom. 16:22, 1 Cor. 1:1, 2 Cor. 1:1, Gal. 1:1-2, Phil. 1:1, Col. 1:1, 1 Thess. 1:1, 2 Thess. 1:1, etc.
Next week we’ll unpack the last part of Bobby’s quote, specifically how God’s word may apply to specific times and places, verses all times and all places.
Living in the Word 