THE GOD-BREATHED SCRIPTURE, by Edward J. Young

A Brief Book Summary from Books At a Glance

by Steve West

 

It is natural for Christians to turn to 2 Timothy 3:16 for their doctrine of the Divine authorship of Scripture, but this practice is often met with the objection that such an appeal is circular and fails to take into account the actual facts and phenomena of Scripture itself. It is said that the phenomena of Scripture should shape our doctrine of Scripture, rather than simply relying on the Scripture’s own testimony about its nature. The difficulty here, however, is that we are not in an epistemological position where we can know enough to pass interpretive judgment on the phenomena of Scripture, nor can we autonomously draw the right conclusions from it. If we believe we must reject the Bible’s teaching about itself on the basis of the phenomena we find in it, then the Bible is in error at a key point, and we do not know what else it may be wrong about. If we believe the Bible is not God-breathed, then the Bible is deceiving us about its own nature. The right way to study the phenomena of Scripture is in light of the doctrine that Scripture teaches about itself. We must build our investigations on the right foundation.

Grammatically, 2 Timothy 3:16 is coherent when theopneustos is taken as a predicative adjective rather than as an attributive adjective. In this verse, Paul first declares that Scripture is theopneustos, and second that it is profitable. Whether Paul is referring to each piece of Scripture, or to Scripture as a whole, his meaning that all of Scripture is God-breathed and profitable is unavoidable. Although some continue to translate theopneustos as inspired, the more accurate translation is God-breathed. To say that the Bible is inspired could mean that it is inspiring, or that something has been breathed into the Bible as a book. Neither one of these meanings is sufficient. Ever since the work of B.B. Warfield there is no doubt that theopneustos means God-breathed, and the meanings of the English word inspiration are inadequate for communicating the meaning of the Greek term. Scripture itself is the Word that God breathes out of his mouth.

This idea that the Word of God is breathed out of his mouth is found all throughout the canon. Contemporary scholars often emphasize the human side of Scripture, but the apostles emphasized its divine origin. The witness of Paul is that “all Scripture is God-breathed, the product of the Divine breath, issuing from the mouth of God Himself.” In establishing this vital truth, we must not neglect the second part of what Paul says: all Scripture is ophelimos (i.e., profitable, useful, or advantageous). It is not just some Scripture that is profitable; this is predicated of all Scripture. . . .

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