Tag: Inspiration

Better Bible Study Tip #71: The Bible Had Editors, and That’s Okay

On By Tyler BoydIn Better Bible Study

There was a time when the idea of someone “editing” the Bible really bothered me. I was taught that it was wrong to add to or take away from the Bible (cf. Deut. 4:2; Rev. 22:18-19). After all, the Bible is God’s word, and God’s word is perfect (cf. Ps. 19:7). It doesn’t need editing, and it would be wrong to do so.

I still believe that. It is for that reason that I am convinced that it is important to take God’s word as it is, not as we wish it was (see Tip #66: Don’t Second Guess God’s Choice in Inspiration). With that in mind, consider what we read in the first four verses of Ezekiel.

In the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, on the fifth day of the month, as I was among the exiles by the Chebar canal, the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God. On the fifth day of the month (it was the fifth year of the exile of King Jehoiachin), the word of the LORD came to Ezekiel the priest, the son of Buzi, in the land of the Chaldeans by the Chebar canal, and the hand of the LORD was upon him there.

As I looked, behold, a stormy wind came out of the north, and a great cloud, with brightness around it, and fire flashing forth continually, and in the midst of the fire, as it were gleaming metal.

Ezekiel 1:1-4 (emphasis added)

The first verse uses the first person, “I was among” and “I saw.” This gives us the impression that Ezekiel is writing about himself. But then it switches to the third person. “The word of the Lord came to Ezekiel” and “the hand of the Lord was upon him there.” Then in verse four, it switches back to first person, “As I looked.”

I suppose it’s possible that Ezekiel just liked to talk about himself in the third person. But when the text switches to the third person, it certainly gives the impression that someone else other than Ezekiel is speaking, that is, an anonymous author who took Ezekiel’s first person account and wove it together into the book we now know as Ezekiel. That’s a not a theory that arises from doubting God’s inspiration, but from wresting with the impression given by the inspired words given in the Bible.

Even if the Bible had editors, that doesn’t make it any less inspired. God inspired many books with anonymous authorship (Tip # 69) and God could have easily inspired the words of the editors themselves. In fact, the book of Jeremiah gives us a glimpse of how editing was part of the process by which we ended up with the book as the final product we have today.

Then Jeremiah took another scroll and gave it to Baruch the scribe, the son of Neriah, who wrote on it at the dictation of Jeremiah all the words of the scroll that Jehoiakim king of Judah had burned in the fire. And many similar words were added to them.

Jeremiah 36:33 (emphasis added)

God had Jeremiah write out a second version of the prophetic words he had already written down once before. But when they were dictated the second time, similar words were added to them. This wasn’t the same thing as “adding to” God’s word. It was simply part of the process by which God used Jeremiah and Baruch to produce the book of Jeremiah just as He wanted it to be in it’s final completed version.

Recognizing the existence of inspired editors is important because it enables us to avoid unnecessary confusion, and even false teaching that arises from those who haven’t considered this point.

Imagine if John, upon completing his account of the gospel, sends out multiple copies to various churches. In the copy he sends to Peter, he asks for feedback. “Is it all accurate? Did I leave out anything important?” Now imagine Peter responds to John and says, “I really think your book looks great, but I think you should consider including an account of the woman caught in adultery.” John, after receiving Peter’s feedback decides, “Yes, that was an important event. I better add it in.” But in the meantime, multiple copies of an earlier draft, without the woman caught in adultery, were already in circulation. So what happens? We end up with manuscripts with different versions of the book of John (as can be seen in your Bible’s footnotes on John 7:53-8:11).

As skeptic might look at the fact that we have differences between manuscripts as an opportunity to attack the reliability of the Bible. But if we realize that inspired scripture likely went through multiple inspired revisions, resulting in the possibility of multiple inspired versions which could have circulated at the same time, the skeptic’s attack is exposed as powerless.

Likewise, just because the book of Deuteronomy records the death of Moses (Deut. 34 was clearly written by someone other than Moses), this is no reason dismiss the Mosaic authorship of the law. We can trust that Moses received God’s Law at Sanai (Ex. 19), and what he wrote down (Ex. 24:4) is the essentially the same law we can read today. The fact that in inspired editor collected Moses’s law into the final forms of Genesis-Deuteronomy is no reason to reject the books as inauthentic in their origin.

No, we should not add to, take away from, or otherwise edit God’s word today. What we have now is the completed product. But since we take the Bible as it is, and the Bible presents itself as an edited book, we can believe that God used inspired editors as part of the process of inspiration.

Better Bible Study Tip #70: The Setting of a Biblical Story Isn’t Necessarily When It Was Written

On By Tyler BoydIn Better Bible Study

When we read the Bible, it’s easy to assume that what we’re reading was written relatively close to the time of the events described in the book. Sometimes that may in fact be the case, but not always. For example, most scholars believe the gospels were written sometime between 40 to 80 AD. This delay makes sense, since the earliest Christians would have had more first-hand relationships with the apostles, but as the church grew, so did the need to record the events of Jesus’s life writing for posterity. This may seems like an insignificant detail, but understanding when the they were written can help us understand the author’s setting, his purpose for writing, and why he has chosen to arrange his book the way he did.

Of course, writing within a few decades of Jesus’s life is still a relatively short amount of time, but when it comes to the Old Testament, things are different. For instance, when Moses recorded events about the garden of Eden, the flood, and the lives of the patriarchs, he was writing about events that happened hundreds, if not thousands of years before he wrote. The fact that Moses wrote Genesis at a later date and to an Israelite audience as they left Egypt, helps us understand why he structured the book the way he did, and why he emphasized various points along the way.

The gap between an event and it’s recording is no reason to doubt the accuracy of Scripture. For instance, since Moses received the law first hand from God at Sinai (Ex. 19:9), he would have had direct revelation of those events. We know that Luke was able to consult multiple sources to make sure what he wrote was accurate (Lk. 1:1). Ultimately we can trust Scripture is true because it is God’s word, and God cannot lie (Titus 1:2). Moreover, external sources and archeological finds have countless times verified that what we read in the Bible fits with what we know about ancient world it describes.

If you want to do better Bible study, don’t only pay attention to the timeline of the events that are described. Also think about who wrote about the events, when they wrote, and who they were writing to. The more we can understand the author’s original purpose for writing, and what he was trying to communicate, the more we can understand God’s purpose and what He was trying to communicate through that author.

Better Bible Study Tip #68: Try To Determine the Setting of the Book

On By Tyler BoydIn Better Bible Study

When I say “try to determine the setting of the book”, I mean try to determine it’s author, the approximate time when it was written, the situation, and the author’s purpose.

It is important to remember that the Bible was written by humans. Don’t misunderstand me. The Bible is absolutely 100% God’s divinely inspired word. It is 100% true. It is 100% authoritative. It is not simply a human book. But at the same time, God used humans to write the Bible (see Bible study Tip #30: The Bible is 100% Divine and 100% Human).

It would be a mistake to imagine the process of inspiration as if a person simply falls into a mindless trance while the Spirit of God overtakes the muscles in their hand to fill a scroll with God’s words. I have no problem believing that God could have given us scripture that way if that’s what he had wanted to do, but that’s just not how the Bible describes itself. Yes, the inspired writers were carried along by the Holy Spirit as they wrote (2 Peter 1:20-21), but this does not mean that the writers were separated from their own purpose and agenda for writing. There are several places in the Bible that make this really clear.

These are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

John 20:31

I do not write these things to make you ashamed, but to admonish you as my beloved children.

1 Corinthians 4:14

For this reason I write these things while I am away from you, that when I come I may not have to be severe in my use of the authority that the Lord has given me for building up and not for tearing down.

2 Corinthians 13:10

Even when God directly commanded something to be written down, the Bible doesn’t describe the person as losing control of their mind as they wrote (Ex. 17:14; Num. 5:23; Deut. 31:19, 30). This doesn’t mean the Bible is any less reliable. If we take the Bible as the Bible describes itself, we must conclude that God is powerful enough that he doesn’t have to separate a person from their own natural purpose and agenda in order to supernaturally produce the precise words that he wants them to write. He’s powerful enough to do this, even without using mind-control! (I don’t know about you, but I think that’s every bit as impressive, if not more impressive than the “mindless trance” idea).

Understanding this has important implications for good Bible study. Since God used humans to write Scripture, the more we understand what those humans were trying to communicate, the more we will understand what God was trying to communicate through them. That’s why understanding the historical setting of a book is important.

Of course many books of the Bible were written anonymously, and that’s okay. And some books are easier to situate in a particular moment in history than others (it helps to be familiar with biblical chronology, see Tip #67). That’s okay too. We can also recognize that God had the ability to communicate divine truths that go beyond what even the prophets themselves could comprehend (1 Peter 1:10-12). But the more we understand about who the author was, the historical situation in which they were writing, and their purpose for writing, the better grasp we will have of why the author writes the things he does, what he is trying to communicate, and why those things are important.

The Holy Spirit (Part 4): The Holy Spirit Gave Us the Old Testament

On By Tyler BoydIn Holy Spirit2 Comments

In Hebrew, the word for “Spirit” (Ruakh) was the same word for “breath”. That’s why, for Hebrews, there would have been a very natural connection between “Spirit” and spoken “words.” You can’t have spoken words without spirit/breath. (See Part 1 for more on the meaning of “Spirit”).

In the Old Testament men were sometimes said to speak by God’s Spirit. That means that their words were not simply their own, but were God’s own spoken words.

The Spirit of the LORD speaks by me:
his word is on my tongue.

2 Samuel 23:2

But as for me, I am filled with power,
with the Spirit of the LORD,
and with justice and might,
to declare to Jacob his transgression
and to Israel his sin.

Micah 3:8

But the Spirit entered into me and set me on my feet, and he spoke with me and said to me… I will open your mouth, and you shall say to them, “Thus says the Lord GOD.”

Ezekiel 3:24-26

When the prophets were filled with the Spirit, they spoke words from God. That’s why when the New Testament quotes from the Old Testament, the words of scripture are frequently attributed to the Holy Spirit rather than to the human author.

Jesus Attributed the Old Testament to the Holy Spirit

Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them a question, saying, “What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?” They said to him, “The son of David.” He said to them, “How is it then that David, in the Spirit, calls him Lord, saying,
‘The Lord said to my Lord,
Sit at my right hand,
until I put your enemies under your feet’?
If then David calls him Lord, how is he his son?”

Matthew 22:41-45

When Jesus quoted from Psalm 110, he recognized that he was reading the words of David. He also recognized that David spoke those words “in the Spirit.”

Mark records the same conversation with the following words:

And as Jesus taught in the temple, he said, “How can the scribes say that Christ is the son of David? David himself, in the Holy Spirit, declared,
‘The Lord said to my Lord,
Sit at my right hand,
until I put your enemies under your feet.’
David himself calls him Lord. So how is he his son?”

Mark 12:35-37

Jesus recognized that Psalm 110 contained the words of “David himself”. He also recognized that David wrote those words while “In the Holy Spirit.” This means that God’s words were on David’s tongue (2 Sam. 23:2). At the same time, these were still the words of David. It was still written in David’s vocabulary, David’s style, and for David’s purpose. They were both David’s words and God’s words at the same time.

Peter Attributed the Old Testament to the Holy Spirit

Peter uses similar language when referring to Psalm 109.

In those days Peter stood up among the brothers (the company of persons was in all about 120) and said, “Brothers, the Scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit spoke beforehand by the mouth of David concerning Judas, who became a guide to those who arrested Jesus. For he was numbered among us and was allotted his share in this ministry.

Acts 1:15-17

Later on, Peter attributes the predictions of the prophets to the Holy Spirit.

Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories. It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you, in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preached the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look.

1 Peter 1:10-12

Notice that Peter says the prophets did not always understand the meaning of what they wrote. This indicates that there was another mind or spirit behind these words other than their own. The Holy Spirit expressed his words through them so that the final product was what God intended to say.

Paul Attributed the Old Testament to the Holy Spirit

Paul used similar language when he attributed the writings of Isaiah to the Holy Spirit:

And some were convinced by what he said, but others disbelieved. And disagreeing among themselves, they departed after Paul had made one statement: “The Holy Spirit was right in saying to your fathers through Isaiah the prophet:

“Go to this people, and say,
‘You will indeed hear but never understand,
and you will indeed see but never perceive.’
For this people’s heart has grown dull,
and with their ears they can barely hear,
and their eyes they have closed;
lest they should see with their eyes
and hear with their ears
and understand with their heart
and turn, and I would heal them.’”

Acts 28:24-27

The Book of Hebrews Attributed the Old Testament to the Holy Spirit

The book of Hebrews also attributes the Old Testament to the Holy Spirit. Notice the way it refers to the books of Exodus and Leviticus (the law), the book of Jeremiah (the prophets), and the book of Psalms (the writings), thus attributing the three major sections of the Old Testament all to the Holy Spirit.

The law (referring to Exodus 25-26; 36; and Leviticus 16):

Now even the first covenant had regulations for worship and an earthly place of holiness. For a tent was prepared, the first section, in which were the lampstand, and the table and the bread of the Presence. It is called the Holy Place. Behind the second curtain was a second section called the Most Holy Place, having the golden altar of incense and the ark of the covenant covering on all sides with gold, in which was a golden urn holding the manna, and Aaron’s staff that budded, and the tablets of the covenant. Above it were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat. Of these things we cannot now speak in detail.

These preparations having thus been made, the priests go regularly into the first section, performing their ritual duties, but into the second only the high priest goes, and he but once a year, and not without taking blood, which he offers for himself and for the unintentional sins of the people. By this the Holy Spirit indicates that the way into the holy places is not yet opened as long as the first section is still standing.

Hebrews 9:1-8

The prophets (quoting Jeremiah 31:33-34):

And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us; for after saying,

This is the covenant that I will make with them
after those days, declares the Lord:
I will put my laws on their hearts,
and write them on their minds,”

then he adds,

“I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.”

Hebrews 10:15-17

The Psalms (quoting Psalm 95:7-11):

Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says,

“Today, if you will hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion,
on the day of testing in the wilderness,
where your fathers put me to the test
and saw my works for forty years.
Therefore I was provoked with that generation,
and said, ‘They always go astray in their heart;
they have not known my ways.’
As I swore in my wrath,
‘They shall not enter my rest.’”

Hebrews 3:7-11

Stephen Speaks of Resisting the Holy Spirit

Stephen accused his persecutors of resisting the Holy Spirit.

You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you. Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who announced beforehand the coming of the Righteous One, whom you have not betrayed and murdered.

Acts 7:51-52

How did their ancestors resist the Holy Spirit? By persecuting the prophets and resisting the words the Holy Spirit had spoken concerning the Righteous One.

The Holy Spirit Gave Us the Old Testament

Peter says that the writers of the Old Testament were “driven” or “carried along” by the Holy Spirit.

Knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. 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.

2 Peter 1:20-21

The Greek word translated “carried along” was the word used of a ship being driven or carried along by the wind in its sail.

And when the ship was caught and could not face the wind (pnuma), we gave way to it and were driven along.

Acts 27:15

This indicates that the Holy Spirit/Pnuma “carried along” the human authors when they wrote scripture. It was the Spirit that “drove them” or “moved them” as they wrote their messages. Ultimately, they were writing what the Holy Spirit wanted them to write.

This does not mean that we should imagine the biblical authors as going into some sort of mindless trance, as their hand magically wrote words without their realizing what was being written. It is possible that David stayed up long hours of the night crafting the poems we now call the psalms. It is possible that the biblical authors wrote rough drafts, and revised those drafts multiple times. It is possible that they researched and compiled from other sources. It is possible that God inspired prophetic editors to craft the books into their final forms. The Old Testament was written by human authors, and contains the fully human words of those authors themselves. We just don’t know all the details.

All we have is the final product, and we know that the end result was God’s authoritative word, as spoken through the Holy Spirit. It was God’s words on their tongues (cf. 2 Sam. 23:2). They wrote exactly what God wanted them to say. Exactly how this occurred, the Bible doesn’t say. But we do know that the Holy Spirit/Breath/Mind of God gave us the Old Testament.