Bible Interpretation, Student Workbook, SW05

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B I B L E I N T E R P R E T A T I O N

Biblical Inspiration: The Origins and Authority of the Bible

Segment 2: Biblical Inspiration and Modern Biblical Criticism

Rev. Dr. Don L. Davis

According to the Bible’s own claim, it is inspired of God, recognizing both the divine and human dimensions ingredient in its origin and authority as the very Word of the living God. Christians have confessed that because God’s Word is inspired by God, it contained no errors in its original autographs, and thus represents the absolute authority in the Church of God for what we are to believe and to do. Modern biblical criticism attempts to trace the origins of the Scriptures from the original events spoken of in the Bible to the actual reports of those happenings recorded in the canonical books of Scripture. These major subsections include form, source, linguistic, textual, literary, canonical, redaction, and historical criticism, as well as translation studies. Regardless of the claims made by many scholars today, we may be confident that the Scriptures are in truth the Word of God which lives and abides forever. Our objective for this segment, Biblical Inspiration and Modern Biblical Criticism , is to enable you to see that: • The Scriptures clearly and boldly state that the Word of God is inspired of God, “God-breathed,” through the power and working of the Holy Spirit. The Bible is a book of human authorship and divine inspiration, yet no Scripture is of any private interpretation, but the authors were “carried along” by the Holy Spirit. • Five major theories of inspiration have surrounded the explanation of how precisely the Holy Spirit carried along the human authors of the Scriptures. These include the Mechanical or Dictation Theory, the Intuition or Natural Theory, the Illumination Theory, the Degrees of Inspiration Theory, and the Verbal/Plenary Theory. The Verbal/Plenary Theory argues that the entire text of the Scriptures, including the selection of words the author chose, are the product of God’s leading and choice. • Modern biblical criticism seeks to trace the origins of the Scriptures from the original events spoken of in the Bible to the actual reports of those happenings recorded in the canonical books of Scripture. Beginning with the regulatory event, it seeks to track God’s message from the event to the translation of Scripture we have today.

Summary of Segment 2

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