Inspiration of Scripture
The inspiration of Scripture is God’s work by which he moved human authors to write the biblical books as his truthful Word. Scripture is therefore fully from God and truly written through human authors.
At a Glance
The inspiration of Scripture is God’s work by which he moved human authors to write the biblical books as his truthful Word. Scripture is therefore fully from God and truly written through human authors.
Description
The inspiration of Scripture is the biblical doctrine that God, by the Holy Spirit, so worked through human authors that the writings they produced are his own truthful and authoritative Word. This does not mean the writers were mere machines or that their personalities disappeared; rather, God used real people, real circumstances, and recognizable literary forms to communicate exactly what he intended. Conservative evangelical theology commonly appeals especially to texts such as 2 Timothy 3:16 and 2 Peter 1:20–21 to express this truth. While Christians may discuss how inspiration relates to questions of inerrancy, manuscript transmission, or translation, the safest central claim is that the canonical Scriptures were given by God through human authors and therefore speak with divine authority.