It is often claimed today that the Christian Bible is the literal, infallible or inerrant word of God. This claim asserts that the Bible, or Christian scripture, is not a human creation but is simply a record of divine revelation. There is, however, nothing in the Bible that says scripture is only a recording of God's words. Moreover, reading the Bible suggests otherwise.

The argument that the Bible is the literal, infallible or inerrant word of God was formulated by English and American Protestants after the Reformation to resist Catholic claims of infallible teaching authority and also support within Reformed churches for historical and literary analysis of the Bible.  This approach to interpreting the Bible ignores historical facts: 1) the church created the New Testament in the fourth century, 2) no original biblical manuscripts are available and scholarly research of existing ancient manuscripts has resulted in new translations, 3) neither ancient creeds nor Reformed confessions claim that the Bible is literally the infallible or inerrant word of God, and 4) the history of this claim reveals that it is shaped by English and American cultural changes.  To consider these arguments in more detail see Inerrancy, Confessions, and Creeds.  

Anyone who reads the Bible can see that it is the creative work of human authors, and history reveals that it is the witness of the church to God in Christ. For Christians, the Bible is the word of God, but it is not the literal, infallible or inerrant word of God. The Christian Bible has no authority apart from Christians who have faith in its testimony. The Bible is the living word of God in the life of the church.

Inspired word of God

The belief that the Bible is the inspired word of God does not require believing that the Bible is the literal, infallible or inerrant word of God. We should be clear, however, about what we mean by "inspiration."  In the New Testament the second letter of Paul to Timothy asserts that: "All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness." (2 Tim. 3:16) We need to realize that Paul is writing in the 40s and 50s A.D. before the New Testament exists. For Paul the Hebrew Bible, which he read in its Greek version known as the Septuagint, is scripture. Paul may have felt that his writings were inspired, but he never referred to his letters as scripture. Moreover, he seemed to know nothing of the gospels, which is evidence that they had not yet been written.

Therefore, the passage from 2 Timothy cannot be used to prove that the Bible is inspired. Its reference to "scripture" is not to the Old and New Testaments that make up the Christian Bible. Clearly, however, this passage is evidence that Paul believed the Jewish scriptures ─ the Torah, the Prophets, and the (Wisdom) Writings ─ to be inspired by God. These, for Paul, were the "Bible."

But what might "inspired" mean? It might mean that God has dictated scripture to scribes, who simply wrote what they were told and thus that every word in scripture is from God. Or, it might mean that the authors of scripture understood, in the light of past revelation, their experience and the history of their people as God's will. It might also mean that in communicating this inspiration, in Hebrew, Aramaic or Greek, they created the narratives, images and arguments that later their descendants judged to have been inspired by God.

Reading the New Testament will quickly dispel the first notion that Christian scripture is nothing but the words of God. Parables and teachings in the New Testament may strike us as inspiring, but we will also find interpretations and inconsistencies that are best attributed to biblical writers rather than to God. The Christians who wrote the New Testament may have been inspired, but they were also very human. The communities of faith that created and cherished Christian scripture were inspired by these writings, but they, too, were very human and generally failed to live up to the teachings of the New Testament.

Because the New Testament was first written in Greek, knowledge of the Greek spoken at the time of its writing is obviously useful in studying Christian scripture. But most Christians throughout the history of the church have heard and read the Christian Bible in translations. For centuries the Latin Bible was used by priests in the Catholic Church, and after the Protestant Reformation in the 16^th century the Christian Bible was quickly translated into all the languages of northern Europe.

Protestant churches have made preaching from the Bible, rather than the celebration of the sacrament of Communion, the touchstone of their faith. The invention of the printing press made copies of the Bible affordable, and Christian families began to have Bibles in their homes. Protestant preachers encouraged Bible study, and Christians without much formal education were among those inspired by what they read in scripture. In the 19^th and 20^th centuries the Christian Bible was translated into every known language and carried by missionaries to every country.

Today, the Bible is not only the most widely published and circulated book in the history of human civilization, it is also for about a third of the world's peoples a primary source for understanding God's will. Clearly millions have been inspired by reading the Bible, and there is little evidence that this will soon cease. The church teaches that its scripture reveals the will of God and asserts, therefore, that scripture is not only inspiring but also inspired by God. That claim, however, is a matter of faith, which can be verified only within the life of the church. But the inspiring power of scripture is a fact of history that is confirmed by the continuing witness of the church in the world.

Reading Christian Scripture

Anyone who writes about the Christian Bible ought to clarify how he or she reads it. Of course, there are not simply two or three alternatives, but many more subtle choices to be made. I believe it is not necessary to read scholarly books about the Bible to understand its meaning. With the church I affirm that the Bible reveals the word of God to those with "ears to hear and eyes to see." (Mt. 11:15, Mk. 4:9, Lk. 8:8)

In addition, I ground my understanding of the Bible in the Confessions of the Reformed tradition and in the teachings of my Protestant denomination, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).  A line in the Scots Confession of 1560 states clearly my approach to reading scripture: "We dare not receive or admit any interpretation which is contrary to any principal point of our faith, or to any other plain text of Scripture, or to the rule of love."  We should begin with the plain text of scripture, then interpret a text within the context of the whole Bible and the teachings of the church, and finally test our understanding by the commandment to love God and our neighbor.

The Confession of 1967 of the Presbyterian Church asserts that: "The one sufficient revelation of God is Jesus Christ, the Word of God incarnate, to whom the Holy Spirit bears unique and authoritative witness through the Holy Scriptures, which are received and obeyed as the word of God written."  This Confession does not assert that the Bible is infallible or inerrant but holds that: "The Scriptures are not a witness among others, but the witness without parallel."  The scriptures are the "unique and authoritative witness" of faith: "The church has received the books of the Old and New Testaments as prophetic and apostolic testimony in which it hears the word of God and by which its faith and obedience are nourished and regulated."

In the Confession of 1967 also teaches that: "The Bible is to be interpreted in light of its witness to God's work of reconciliation in Christ." But the Confession explicitly recognizes that the Bible is a human composition: "The Scriptures, given under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, are nevertheless the words of men, conditioned by the language, thought forms, and literary fashions of the places and times at which they were written.  They reflect views of life, history and the cosmos which were then current." Given this fact, interpretation is unavoidable. "The church, therefore, has an obligation to approach the scriptures with literary and historical understanding.  As God has spoken his word in diverse cultural situations, the church is confident that he will continue to speak through scripture in a changing world and in every form of human culture."

I read the Bible within this tradition of faithful study and preaching. From this perspective I suggest all those who read Christian scripture keep in mind the following rules as guidelines.  Visitors are invited to click on each rule in order to find a more detailed explanation.

Rules for Reading the Bible

1. The New Testament is the final chapter in the biblical story of God.

The New Testament is the final chapter in the story of God known to the Hebrews and the Jews through their scriptures. The Christian Bible is an interpretation of the Greek version of the Hebrew Bible, and "God in Christ" is a new understanding of the God of the Torah, the Writings, and the Prophets.

2. Paul's Letters are the earliest writings of the church in the New Testament.

Paul's letters were written before the New Testament gospels and argue against efforts by the Jerusalem church to require observance of Jewish law in the church. Paul proclaims salvation through faith in Christ crucified, says little about the teaching and ministry of Jesus, and claims authority for his gospel from the risen Lord.

3. The gospel of Mark is the first New Testament gospel.

The gospel attributed to Mark (all the New Testament gospels are anonymous) is the earliest New Testament gospel and supports Paul's view that faith, not Jewish law, is saving. The gospel presents Jesus Christ as the Son of God, tells the story of his itinerant ministry in Galilee, is critical of his disciples, and ends without a resurrection appearance.

4. The gospels of Matthew and Luke are edited versions of the gospel of Mark.

The gospels attributed to Matthew and Luke are edited versions of the gospel of Mark with a "common sayings tradition" and other materials. The gospel of Matthew was written for a mostly Jewish Christian church. The gospel of Luke, and Acts of the Apostles by the same author, were written for a largely Gentile Christian church.

5. The gospel of John is an even freer edition of earlier gospels.

The gospel attributed to John was written for a Jewish Christian church that understood Jesus as the Word of God made flesh, and as the Passover "Lamb of God" sent by the Father but rejected by "the Jews." The author freely revised the gospel narrative in order to defend the worship of his church.

6. The letters of Peter and James reveal their declining authority in the church.

The letters attributed to Peter and to James reveal the declining authority of these two apostles in the church after 70 A.D. All four gospels and Acts of the Apostles verify Peter's leading role in the birth of the church, and Galatians and Acts confirm that James, the brother of Jesus, became the leader of the church in Jerusalem.

7. The letters and Revelation of John warn of false teaching and pagan persecution.

The letters and Revelation attributed to John concern the threats of false teaching in the churches and pagan persecution in the Roman Empire. The letters are anonymous but share in the teaching tradition of the gospel of John. Revelation includes letters warning churches in Asia and an extraordinary vision of Christ's victory over Satan.

8. The Christian Bible is a tapestry of meanings.

The New Testament has more than one meaning.  Its materials have at least three historical and literary threads woven together — the understanding of the author(s), earlier Christian interpretations, and church traditions concerning Jesus.

9. The New Testament is an interpretation of the Old Testament.

The authors of the letters and gospels of the New Testament drew on the scriptures of the Greek version of the Hebrew Bible to construct and interpret the story of Jesus and the church's witness to life in the kingdom of God through faith in Christ.

10. The God of the Bible calls us to resist idolatry and oppression.

We read meaning into the Christian Bible and do not merely find meaning in it. Moreover, our assumptions about history and biography make it hard to see that the New Testament renews the Old Testament revelation of God's justice and mercy as a way of resisting imperial idolatry and oppression.