Christianity and Biblical Inspiration–Understanding the Bible Part 4–STAR 26

This will be part 4 of the series generally subtitled “Understanding the Bible.” Today’s title is “Christianity and Biblical Inspiration.” Certainly one of the most familiar phrases known by Bible readers and disciples of Y’shua Mashiyach throughout the world. This simple phrase, in a sense, provides a critical explanation as to why Scripture is unlike any other work of writing in history. Since posting part 3, I’ve written, recorded and posted a ton of content unrelated to this series. I am finally getting back to the topic “Understanding the Bible” that I believe is one of the most important topics that we as a Faith must come to a firm understanding of, as well as a community, must come to an agreement upon.

If you are joining me for the first time and listening or reading this posting, I would humbly ask that before you get into this 4th episode of the series that you first read/listen to parts 1 through 3. These 3 episodes sort of lay the ground work for this 4th episode. But if you’d prefer to just go on with listening/reading this episode, that’s fine. Knowledge of parts 1 through 3 are not required in order to follow what I’m going to talk about in this 4th episode.

There is no doubt in my mind that Rav Shaul (aka the Apostle Paul) had in his day the greatest insight of any as it relates to Scripture–that is, the value, purpose and substance of Scripture. Why not Shaul? This man was uniquely qualified to shed light on Scripture for the sake of the incoming swarm of Gentiles, of whom He was called to evangelize by none other than Y’shua Himself. (reference Gal. 1:15-19) All indications are that He lived under the tutelage of Y’shua for some 3 or so years, temporarily out of sight and out of mind of any who would discourage or dissuade or even assassinate him for that which he would do in the service of our Lord and Saviour and for the Kingdom of Yahovah.  And if being under the tutelage of the Son of Yah wasn’t the absolute best training anyone in his position could receive, Shaul’s pedigree was supported by a career of intense Torah training and service to the Sanhedrin. This fellow sat at the feet of Gamli’el, one of the greatest Torah scholars living in Shaul’s day. He was a self-described “zealot” for the Jewish faith and we all know that those dudes were crazy. The zealot community had no problem taking anyone out in the name and for the cause of the Jewish faith if they deemed it necessary. (reference Acts 22:3-5) As an aside, one of the most infamous zealots known to most Christians, Catholics and Messianics/Netzaris, is none other than Judas iscariot, whom we know deemed it religiously and philosophically practical to facilitate the execution of Y’shua our Redeemer.

Interestingly, with the exception of small pockets of verses scattered throughout the Bible, the Bible is grossly silent on what it is and where it came from. The terms “scripture” is recorded just 32 times in the KJV and NAS; 33-times in the NIV, 5-times in the CJB; and 34-times in the Etheridge Peshitta. Of the times that Scripture is mentioned in the Bible, we are told the following:

• the scripture is a book of truth (Dan. 10:21)
• the scriptures contain prophetic information about Y’shua haMashiyach (Mar. 12:10; 15:28; Luk. 4:21; Joh. 2:22; 7:38, 42; 13:18; 17:12; 19:24, 28, 36, 37; 20:9; Act 1:16; 8:32,35; Rom. 10:11; 1 Pet. 2:6 )
• the scriptures document the history of Israel (Rom. 4:3; 9:17; 11:2; Gal. 3:8; Ja. 2:23)
• the scriptures reveal Yah’s instructions for man (Gal. 3:22; 4:30; 1 Tim. 5:18; 2 Tim. 3:16; Jam. 2:8; 4:5; 2 Pet. 1:20)

Now before we go any further, let us establish one thing if we are going to remain on the same page as it relates to the subject of Bible and scripture–so to speak. The Bible as we have it today (that is the 66-books in the protestant and the 73-books in the catholic bibles) did not exist at the the time that Shaul wrote of all scripture being divinely inspired. Maybe better stated: the canon of scripture–that is a formal list of the set-apart books that the Church triumphant established as being “inspired of God”–did not exist at the time Shaul penned his letter to Timothy. There was no bible–no leather-bound; no hard-bound; no electronic-super-duper search-able bible on the market of Shaul’s day. Scripture was essentially a collection of individual scrolls kept in the Temple in Jerusalem and in the synagogues that were scattered throughout the Roman empire. These scrolls would be read each Sabbath or during one of the Feasts/Festivals of Yahovah. Only the wealthy and powerful of Palestine and the middle east owned these scrolls. We must remember, there was no such thing as a printer, or for that matter, the printing press would not be invented until some 1,400-years later. So if you were a person of means or the Jewish synagogue was in need of a new copy of a certain scroll, one would have to commission a professional scribe to copy by hand that scroll–every jot and tittle. And it should not come as a surprise that commissioning the copying of a new scroll–especially a Torah scroll–was beyond the financial means of the vast majority of people in the world of the first-century CE.

Most scholars agree that the Jewish (Hebrew) canon (that is, the absolute final listing of books that make up the tanakh or old testament) did not exist until about 90-C.E. (Reference A. C. Sandberg–The Bible Canon…) All the books that now comprise the “Old Testament” portion of our bibles were in circulation in virtually every synagogue throughout the Roman empire of the first century CE. This collection of books, or more accurately referred to as scrolls, likely included the writings that are commonly referred to today as the “Apocryphal” books–Maccabees, Esdras, Tobias, Judith, Wisdom, Sirach, Baruch, Epistle of Jeremiah, Susanna, Prayer of Azariah, Prayer of Manasseh, Bel and the Dragon, Laodiceans. Other books known to have been read by our Jewish cousins include the Books of Jubilees, Jasher and Enoch. Thus, when all was said and done, the Jew of Shaul’s day, revered to some greater or lesser extent, some 40 or more writings. And bear in mind, we’ve not even broached the issue of the New Testament writings, which by the time of Shaul’s second letter to Timothy, were either limited to a very minimal circulation among assemblies in and around Palestine proper, or had not even been written yet. Remember, the Apostle John lived into the 90’s CE. So to say that Shaul was referencing the New Testament writings as being divinely inspired of Yah would be speaking out of total ignorance.

Despite Shaul’s second letter to his beloved apprentice in the ministry, Timothy, being penned while on death-row somewhere in Rome sometime around 68 CE., his understanding of scripture was completely different from what we in the 21st century consider to be scripture. Shaul’s concept of scripture was plain and simply the body of scrolls that composed the Torah, the prophets and the writings. Did Shaul consider the Apocryphal books scripture? I would say it’s conceivable, but generally unlikely since the Jewish canon would be finalized a little over 20-years after Shaul’s death. So if we are to follow the tried and true method of bible study that employs contextual analysis of the passages of interest, the scriptures that Shaul reminded Timothy were profitable for doctrine, reproof, correction in righteous, were those writings of the Tanakh. Christians have long viewed the New Testament writings to be of the same class of writings that Shaul classified as scripture (referencing 2 Tim. 3:15,16) and if that is what you as a believer in Y’shua choose to consider as scripture, certainly have at it. But for the sake of this discussion and working within the confines of the text as it was written around 68 CE, then the body of writings that Shaul considers to be scripture are the scrolls/books of the Tanakh. We’ll certainly get into the Brit haDashah writings later on in this post.

The most notable passage of bible that speaks directly to the what, where and how of scripture is found in 2 Timothy 3. The KJV reads as follows: ¹⁰ ¶ But thou hast fully known my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, longsuffering, charity, patience,¹

¹¹ Persecutions, afflictions, which came unto me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra; what persecutions I endured: but out of them all the Lord delivered me.

¹² Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.

¹³ But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived.

¹⁴ But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them;

¹⁵ And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.

¹⁶ All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:

¹⁷ That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works. ¹ (2Ti 3:10-4:1 KJV)

In part 3 of this series on Understanding the Bible, I began a discussion on this rather convoluted concept, or as the Church loves to refer to it as, the Doctrine of Biblical Inspiration. In that post, I examined the simple concept of inspiration and what it means to be inspired. I used the example of Francis Scott Key penning the poem “The Star Spangled Banner” as a result of being inspired by the flag still flying over Fort McHenry after a night of brutal bombardment by the British Royal Navy. That poem was ultimately adopted as our national anthem. I went on to describe other actions that we as a race take when something that we witness; something that we feel; something that comes to our mind that so profoundly affects us that we are moved to take some form of concrete action. The end product that comes to us as a result of the most talented of our race who respond to the call of inspiration, becomes of greatest use to the rest of society. When I think of the millions upon millions of books that have been written over the course of human history; the works of art that have been created; the songs that have been written and sung; the technology that has been invented and so on, I am convinced that inspiration is the igniter of it all. Thus the concept of inspiration is something that we can not understate or fail to fully apply to this topic of understanding the bible.

Now please don’t get me wrong on this dear brother and sister: I don’t mean to say that the inspiration that leads an individual to write a song or climb Mount Everest is the same as the inspiration that led certain men to pen the books that are now contained in our bibles. I’m simply saying that we are an emotional and spiritual race of beings that respond to certain stimuli in various and sundry ways. The key element of this discussion as it relates to inspiration then, is the source of the inspiration. Is the inspiration that prompted men to write from Yahovah/Yahweh or as a result of a personal agenda that they hope to achieve once they’ve concluded their work?

Recall from episode 3 of this series that I addressed the Catholic perspective of inspiration. Rome’s position on inspiration is quite interesting and what I’d consider to be mystical to a certain extent. As it pertained to the writing of scripture, the Catholic contends that the writers’ intellect was commandeered by the Holy Spirit; the writers’ cognitive functions came under direct control of the Holy Spirit; the writers’ personal efforts, however, remained their own. There was no guarantee that the writers’ work would be perfect in the sense of literary excellence. The Holy Spirit assisted the writers’ intellect and the writings that came out of this process was “destined of God for the Church (that is the Holy Roman Catholic Church) and is readily recognized as God’s written word. Can the church say amen.

Before we look at the truth about Biblical Inspiration, I felt it important to at least get an understanding of the Protestant perspectives on Biblical Inspiration. And let me just say right now, that I also firmly believe that it is absolutely essential for us to gain a full understanding about Biblical Inspiration if we are to truly understand the Bible. One of the many reasons I believe the Bible is so misunderstood and so terribly under-read by believers in Christ and even by Hebrew Roots folk is that the world at large doesn’t have a true understanding of why the Bible exists and how we ultimately got it. Not having these two critical pieces of the puzzle answered only makes the content of the Bible that much more difficult to read and understand. Which in turn leaves open the door for churchianity to tell us what the Bible says and means. That’s why Christians and Catholics have bought off on Easter and Christmas; that’s why they’ve rejected Sabbath as the day the Creator explicitly commanded us to remember and keep as holy. That’s why Christians and Catholics have no problem feasting on pork products and shell fish and anything else they can shove down their throats. That’s why the Jew feels so free to reject Y’shua as their Mashiyach, completely ignoring the dozens upon dozens of prophetic renderings throughout the Tanakh that give credence to His title and person. That’s why the Christian and Jew feel so at ease to reject the call for obedience to Torah. That’s why the Catholic is so easily willing to place his or her eternal life into the hands of a man who pretends to be the “vicar of Messiah.” That’s why we have some 30,000-plus Christian denominations on the books. As Charleton Heston so aptly screamed out to his ape captors–“It’s a Mad House! It’s a Mad House!” (reference The Planet of the Apes) The great prophet Isaiah so aptly stated the situation we have facing the masses of biblically illiterate believers: “We all, like sheep, went astray, we turned, each one, to his own way, yet ADONAI laid on him the guilt of all of us.” (Isa. 53:6) The great prophet Jeremiah also echoed the same sentiment: “My people have been lost sheep. My shepherds made them go astray, turning them loose in the mountains. As they wandered from mountain to hill, they lost track of where their home is.” (Jer. 50:6) Simply put, unless we as true disciples of Y’shua are also true students of the Bible, we have only two choices facing us: go it alone in the Faith without benefit of sound biblical understanding; or become slaves to those who would place themselves over us as our Bible instructors. Most folks have punked out on the first option and have just decided that the Bible is too hard to understand and to simply rely upon others to tell them what the Bible says and means. Then there are the rest who have simply kept the Bible on the shelf and relied upon someone else to tell them what the Bible says and means. Obviously, not being armed with Biblical understanding and truths, we are susceptible to whatever wind and doctrine that comes our way. Shaul wrote to the Ephesian assembly: “We will then no longer be infants tossed about by the waves and blown along by every wind of teaching, at the mercy of people clever in devising ways to deceive.” (Eph. 4:14)

Well, it is what it is. I’ve come to the conclusion that widespread biblical literacy is but a pipe-drive. People are just not interested in Bible. There is way too much other stuff to capture one’s attention. And then, at the end of the day, our cousins in the Christian, Catholic and Jewish faiths have every right to ask: who cares; what difference does it really make; so what? To the Christian, the ole battle cry of the evangelical is “God knows my heart;” we’re saved by grace; all I need is Jesus and him crucified. Indeed a mad house.

But it’s not all doom and gloom. There are a precious few of us who have sold the farm–we’ve sold out to the truth. We will stop at nothing to arrive at the truth. We can be seen pouring through the tattered pages of our worn Bibles in search for the seemingly most inane nuggets of truth. We revere those legendary Bereans of Shaul and Sila fame, for we know that this is what its all about–searching the “…Scriptures each day…” to see if the things that come to our attention as we walk with Mashiyach were true. (Act. 17:11) We love the Bible, despite the countless self-avowed scholars who contend that our Bibles have over the centuries become so corrupted as to make it essentially worthless. We are not phased by the biblical naysayers, for we precious few know that the Bible defines and supports itself; archeology attests to its validity; the Spirit of Yahovah that is in us attests of it’s truth and validity. Science attests of it’s truth and validity; we are not forced to just blindly believe, although Faith is an undeniable requirement in understanding the Bible.

Christianity teaches and believes that the Bible is a divinely inspired compilation/collection of writings. But my research on the issue of Biblical inspiration has not shown a clear nor unified understanding as to what is meant by the phrase Biblical inspiration. As I alluded to above, it is this lack of clear understanding on the issue of the nature and origin of the writings that make up our Bible, that the Faith is forced to contend with a lot of confusion, refutations, denigrations, malignings and the like from those who would challenge the relevancy of the Bible as the Word of God. I know, who cares. Well, we all should. If we are unable to give the secular world a united and clear understanding of just what the Bible is and how we got it, then we become the poorest of witnesses. We have been called to be His witnesses, have we not?

As it relates to Christianity, Biblical scholars have fallen into either one of two camps: Biblical Criticism versus Textual Criticism. Biblical Criticism takes into account, when discussing the validity, relevancy and origin of the Bible, the cultural, governmental, timing and human frailties that would be associated with the writings. Biblical Criticism views the Bible as solely a human literary product that is devoid of any divine involvement. Textual Criticism views the Bible from the perspective of the texts contained within the existing manuscript. The focus is on determining the accuracy of the texts. As with Biblical Criticism, Textual Criticism sees the writings of the Bible as purely a human literary product that is devoid of divine influence–that is, the writers were not inspired by a Supreme Being. There is heavy emphasis on dates of composition, authorship and cultural influences. The analysis is highly speculative and subjective and there is little reliance upon any scientific investigation.

Now I must be open and transparent with you: I fell into the Biblical and Textual Criticism realm when I first transitioned to this Faith. I had been so damaged and hurt upon learning of the many scribal errors and manipulations done to our beloved Bible over the centuries that I felt I couldn’t trust my Bible any longer. I came across a number of books where the authors critically examined the lives of Y’shua and His apostles. These authors presented, what appeared to me at the time, very compelling information that led me in the direction of doubting the genuiness of the Apostle Shaul and his writings, as well as the true leanings of Y’shua’s family and His hand-picked apostles. To me, the Bible became nothing more than a history book; and an inaccurate history book at that. I got so caught up trying to decipher the accuracy and viability of the Bible that I no longer looked to the Bible as being or containing the Word of God. It was a crazy time indeed. Supernatural events recorded in the Bible were explained away as being embellishments of the writers or as explainable natural occurrences. Praise be to Yahovah for his patience and long-suffering towards me and my stupid dallying. Looking back, I could have very easily fallen permanently into a Biblical and Textual mindset which could have resulted in me completely divorcing myself from the bible entirely, like so many of our cousins who have left churchianity in recent years.

The Protestant view of Biblical inspiration seems to have derived from Martin Luther, of the Reformation Fame. Luther’s view of scripture was that it was not dictated by the Holy Spirit as the Catholic perspective would suggest. Instead, there was some sort of “illumination from the Holy Spirit that produced in the minds of the respective writers knowledge of divine truth–be it knowledge of the Saviour or of salvation. This divine truth was expressed in human form and it became a possession of men. The resultant writings were human as opposed to a supernatural act.” (Wikipedia) Clear as mud huh?

The Evangelical perspective is somewhat similar, but this area of Christianity is a little more detailed than its fundamental counterpart. The Evangelical–defined as a transdenominational movement within Protestant Christianity that stands on a doctrine of salvation obtained by grace and simply through one’s Faith in Jesus Christi’s atoning sacrifice–attributes the sacred writings of the Bible as being of the Holy Spirit’s direct influence. It was that influence that “allowed the writers to communicate without corrupting God’s own message to both recipient and those who’d come after.” Thus, the authors’ works were “preserved from error without eliminating their specific concerns, situation or style.” (Wikipedia)

Throughout the entirety of Christianity, there appears to be three distinct perspectives on the issue of Biblical Inspiration:

 (1) Dictation–whereby God dictated the books of the Bible word-for-word.

(2) Verbal Plenary–whereby the writings of the Bible are deemed human writings, but writings produced as a result of the writers being moved to write according to that which God intended

(3) Dynamic–whereby the thoughts contained in the Bible are inspired but the actual words used by the writers were left to the writer’s’ discretion.

I think I’ve talked your ears off on this for one day. Basically, the Christian or Protestant view of Biblical Inspiration is nebulous at best. It is this nebulous thinking that lends itself to the epidemic that is Biblical illiteracy. Denominationalism has taken upon itself the job of explaining how we got the Bibles that line our bookshelves. In our next installment in the series, we’ll look at the Jewish perspective on Biblical Inspiration and then lay the ground work for gaining an understanding of the Bible’s perspective on Biblical Inspiration–that is, if such a perspective actually exists. Until next time, may Yahovah bless you and keep you; may Yahovah life up HIs countenance upon you; may His beautiful face shine upon you and grant you Shalom. In the name of our soon coming King, our redeemer, our Master, our older brother, Y’shua haMashiyach–Amein and Amein. Blessings to you and yours.