“Given by Inspiration of God”
(II Timothy 3:16)
How is it that we call the Bible the “Word of God”? Wasn’t it written by men? How is it “God’s Word” if it’s written by men?
The answer to this question is also found in II Timothy 3:16 in the phrase, “given by inspiration of God”. So let’s take a look at this phrase and understand what it means.
The phrase “given by inspiration of God” is actually only one word in the original Greek of the New Testament – the word, theopneustos. This word is a compound word made up of two words: theos, God, and pneustos, breathe. It literally means “God-breathed”.
We often think of inspiration in terms of a person who is “inspired” to write a book, or has some inspiration to make something or paint something.
But here it means something totally different. It means that the “breath” of God was the means by which His Word was written.
But what does that mean – “God-breathed”?
Essentially it means that as men wrote down the words that we have in our Bible, God guided them to write exactly and perfectly everything that He wanted them to write. Even though these men (and there were about 40 altogether) were thinking about what they were writing as they wrote, they were actually writing what God wanted them to write.
The Apostle Peter wrote of this same principle in II Peter 1:21 in this way, “Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost”. That phrase, “were moved” is, literally, “were carried along”. The Holy Spirit “carried the writers along” as they wrote the Bible. Here we can see the picture of a sailing boat being “carried along” by the wind. The wind is moving the boat, but the sailors are steering the boat. God moves; men write.
This inspiration of the words of the Bible applies to all Scripture, not just part. And it applies actually to the original words written and virtually to the copies and translations.
What do I mean by “actually” and “virtually”? The original writing of the writers of the Bible was “actually” perfect – there were no errors. But as the original writing was copied, small changes crept in so that, of all the handwritten copies (and there are thousands), they were not exactly the same. However, the changes are so small and insignificant that essentially the very Word of God was preserved.
Furthermore, in order for us to read the Bible in our own language it had to be translated into our language. This, of course, requires diligent care to see that not only the words, but also the ideas, are carried over from the original languages (of Hebrew and Greek) into the translated language (English, French, German, Fijian). And although translation work is somewhat imperfect, yet the message can be clearly presented in another language. In this way we have the “virtual” Word of God in our Bibles and in our language.
You can trust the Bible to be the very Word of God – “inspired by God” Himself.
To God be the glory!