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A Question of Inerrancy
Many people, including a surprising number of Christians, find themselves questioning the inerrancy of the Bible. Unfortunately, when they question such a characteristic, they seem to do so inside of their experience and perspective alone. What I mean is, if it seems plausible to them that the Bible is errant, then the Bible is errant. If it cannot be accepted, with self-generated assumptions lacking external evidence, that the Bible, which claims inerrancy, is inerrant, then, to many people, it is errant. Sometimes the question of inerrancy focuses on one of two things: either the Bible cannot be the inerrant word of God because it has been changed and editted over time, or the Bible cannot be the inerrant word of God because it was written by men whose sinfulness caused them to corrupt the word handed down to them. The second assumption can be taken further–some say the scriptures are flawed because the authors were not just sinful, but ignorant of the things we know today as well.
Both of these assumptions have been addressed and successfully rejected by many Christian apologists; if anyone wants me to explain their writings or recommend some works, please ask. One that comes to mind is the (enormous) New Evidence That Demands a Verdict by Josh McDowell. Also, I Don’t Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist by Norm Geisler and Frank Turek.
Sometimes people are willing to accept the teachings of Jesus, but they hedge on accepting either the books of Moses or the writings of Paul and the other apostles. They prove their ignorance of Christ’s teachings when they admit this: Jesus thoroughly supports both groups of scripture. If you find yourself questioning the authority of the scriptures beyond the Gospels, realize that Christ taught that the Old Testament was the Word of God in seven ways (borrowing from Geisler and Turek). While he “confirmed” the Old Testament, he also “promised” the New Testament. See John 14:25-26 and John 16:12-13. In accordance with Christ’s promises, the New Testament authors overtly asserted that they received their messages from the Spirit of God directly.
- He taught that it is divinely authoritative
- Christ quotes the Old Testament when He battles Satan in the wilderness (see Matthew 4).
- He taught that it is imperishable
- Christ says He came to fulfill the Law, not to destroy it (see Matthew 5:17)
- He taught that it is infallible
- He taught that it is inerrant
- Matthew 22:29 - if the Sadduceess were in error because they did not know the scripture, then the scripture must be inerrant. Would it make sense if Jesus said, “You are in error because you do not know the scriptures, which are in error”?
- He taught that it is historically reliable
- He affirms the stories of Noah and Jonah. He also calls Daniel a prophet and specifically quotes many passages of Isaiah.
- He taught that it is scientifically accurate
- He taught that it has ultimate supremacy
- Matthew 15:3-9
- Why would Jesus correct religious leaders with the Old Testament if the Old Testament lacked supremacy over their own ideas?
Add to these examples John 5:39-40.
Of course, Jesus may have been rewritten to say these things, so the critic might assert. Jesus may have been wrong, he might add. (There’s a whole branch of apologetics which refutes this idea.) But these are assertions from critics of Jesus; as stated before, many Christians who believe in Christ’s teachings, so they say, somehow ignore the above references and deny the inerrancy of the very books Jesus said were the Word of God.
This is what it means believe in the errancy of the Bible and be a Christian: it is a person who believes in something the only evidence of which exists he claims is false. You may not believe that the Bible has been copied or kept well enough for us to have the Word of God in our possession today, but if you have no issues with its keeping and only with its teachings, then mark Christ’s words:
5:46 For if ye believed Moses, ye would believe me; for he wrote of me. 5:47 But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my words?
John 5:46-47 ASV
Without dealing with any references or apologetic works–dealing strictly with logic–here’s what disbelief (for a Christian) in the inerrancy of scripture boils down to: either you think God was wrong in what He spoke to the Biblical authors, which means you know “right” better than God. Or you think men were partially wrong. That these men who, according to every Christian’s admission, heard something from God, (who heard, I believe, more than any of us has ever heard) got it wrong and we got it right. Whatever the reason you think we have it right where they had it wrong, consider the implications of this belief. Are you willing to suggest that the men to whom God spoke mistook God’s message, but yet we who have not received the Word of Almighty God from His angels know what God really meant?
Either God was wrong, or the authors were wrong. And if the authors were wrong (the authors to whom God spoke), how small is the possibility that we are right?
-Nick
October 19th, 2007 at 12:43 am
There are a lot more possibilities for inaccuracies. When translating, a lot of things are lost for lack of literal meanings, and a lot of the times the original hebrew text was extremely vague, so in that sense I can see why people would be skeptical of the word of God as we know it today.
October 19th, 2007 at 10:12 pm
First, when you say “a lot more†– where’s the than part? I never listed possibilities, so I’m not sure where you’re coming from with “more.†There are many possibilities for inaccuracy in translation. However, the Bible we have today is approximately 98% (or better) accurate, and the two percent we’re not sure of does not, in any way, alter the doctrine of Christianity. Besides, this is a question of inerrancy in the original Hebrew and Greek – not inaccuracy in their translations.
What you mean is could be lost. They are not necessarily lost, or we would not know what we are losing. To know something is lost, you must know you are losing it. And if they know what they’re losing, they are on the way to fixing it. Translators must try their best to give us an accurate (hopefully literal as well) translation. If we (and I include you in this) don’t know what we’re losing, we’re not going to be held accountable (see James 4:17). Besides, we may not be able to translate word by word, but that doesn’t preclude the accuracy of the translation of meanings.
Please back up your statements with evidence. Give us details of this vague Hebrew. These men received instruction from the angels of Almighty God when they wrote these books. I’m reminded of Hebrews 4:12 here. Just tells us what’s vague.
“The word of God as we know it today†has a fallacious implication: that how we know it today defines the word of God. God’s word, as the Bible points out, never changes and lasts forever (see Isaiah 40:8, Matthew 5:18). How we consider the English Bible today should not be confused with our view of the Word of God: Bibles in our language, in any language different than Hebrew and Greek, are translations, not necessarily 100% accurate to the original Word, but, hopefully, as close as possible. As I said in this post, “You may not believe that the Bible has been copied or kept well enough for us to have the Word of God in our possession todayâ€â€”but that does not make the original scripture errant.
October 19th, 2007 at 10:39 pm
Even at first glance there are several things that should be corrected. You say that there exists many more possibilities, and yet only state one. Also, please try not to be so ambiguous. Have you studied Hebrew or even dabbled in the translation of any ancient text? You affirm that the Hebrew language is “not literal†and “extremely vagueâ€, could you cite some examples? You shouldn’t doubt the venerable scholars of the world, of all time, who have spent their lives understanding the Hebrew texts in order that a greater comprehension of Scripture may be had.
Today nearly 5,700 manuscripts of the New Testament exist written in the Greek language alone. There are more than 9,000 New Testament manuscripts written in other languages. In cross referencing almost 15,000 manuscripts, how can anyone believe that the true meaning was lost? The next closest work in terms of number of manuscripts is Homer’s The Iliad which has 643 copies and fragments. That’s 14,357 less than the New Testament. And I’m sure no Greek scholar reads such a work thinking “This is all lies, Homer never really wrote this.†Of Caesar himself, only 10 manuscripts exist, while of Plato: 7. Which philosophy pundit doubts the mind of Plato because the manuscripts were “corrupted†as if passing through a game of ‘telephone’?
As if such is not enough, the time gap between the original books of the New Testament and the copies that exist today is only around 25 years. The earliest undisputed fragment ( John 18:31-33, 37-38) is dated between 117-138 A.D. although some say it is even less. The Dead Sea Scrolls contain 9 fragments that are thought to be from the New Testament (Mark, Acts, Romans, 1 Timothy, 2 Peter, and James). Such texts date back to 50-70 A.D. At most only a 25 year time gap exists, whereas Caesar’s is 1,000 years and Plato’s 1,200.
But what of the Old Testament you might ask? For surely we have almost no material on such. Indeed we do, however, I would rather use the already established authority of Scripture instead of pouring more statistics into this. If the New Testament in entirety is verifiably correct, then such things stated within must be:
Jesus makes it clear that the Law, the first five books of the Old Testament, written by Moses, will last longer than the earth. The only way to escape this is to dispute Jesus’ words and his own honesty. But that is for another time. Despite Jesus’ faith in the authority of the Old Testament, people still discount what is said, mostly due to the allure of biblical relevancy. What is said of such individuals?
To serve God, His Word must be followed. To follow His Word is to trust the truth of the Bible. How are we to be sure that the Bible is God’s Truth though?
For God backs up new Scripture with His miracles, performed through prophets (Moses, Peter, Paul, et cetera) and through His Son. If His Word was incorrect, do you truly think He would not correct it as He always has? I always wonder if people who question the Bible’s inerrancy have actually read the book. God constantly comes into the world when a correction is necessary. In light of this, it is obvious that the truth has been upheld:
The Bible has contained every bit of power as it once had. And Christians are constantly attacked by those who doubt the truth given by God. Yet we are called to stay strong and defend our faith:
October 22nd, 2007 at 8:25 pm
I’m sorry I cannot come up with more evidence on the issue, I’m just basing all of it on what my teacher has spoken with me. She has a masters in religious studies, so I’ll try to ask her for some more detail