The Bible is Not the "Word" of God
A scholarly friend from highschool wrote this essay on her personal blog. I've not entirely formulated a concise set of thoughts about it, but I was hoping to incquire as to others opinions and reactions on the topic.
Read it and let me know what you think. I find it, at first glance, contrary to my foundational belief. I cannot, however, say from a logical perspective that she is incorrect. I will have to have a second (and maybe third) read to better evaluate the arguments.
Here is the article.
~RG
posted by Regular Guy at 4:07 PM
5 Comments:
not sure what to think to tell you the truth - I need to think on it more, for sure.
7:58 PM
Though her polemic approach is difficult to palate, there is one truth in what she says, but that is not enough for me to endorse her post overall. What is true is that without the Spirit of God it is impossible for humanity to comprehend the word of God.
When I read the Bible I find one term (in English) with two meanings which she blends in her post to make her point; the phrase “word of God” which we understand to describe the authoritative scriptures and the alternate name of Jesus as the “Word of God” given by John the Apostle.
The main point of the post seems to be summed up in the title: The Bible is not the Word of God. This is true if she means that the book I keep in my truck is not the God Man Jesus Christ, never the less the Bible does contain and is accurately rendered as the “word of God”.
Here I will make a very brief list (not exhaustive by far) of the evidence pointing to the fact that the Bible is the “word of God”:
Spoken: God spoke the creation into existence. “God said,” and then it was created nine times in Genesis 1.
Written: God wrote his own word in Exodus 31:18.
Written: Required by the King of Israel to copy and read the Law regularly (words of God from Exodus). Deuteronomy 17:18-20
Written: Required to be read to all the people of God. Deuteronomy 31:9-13
Written and Read: Is a catalyst for repentance and obedience. 2 Kings 22 -23
Spoken then Recorded: The Lord “says” something that a prophet writes down over 400 times in the Major and Minor Prophets. This is good evidence that points to it being the words of God. Many of these refer to fulfilled prophecies including several about Jesus.
Spoken: Jesus is under the impression that the Hebrew Scriptures were the word of God and have the full weight of Yahweh’s authority. Mark 7:9-13
9And he said to them: "You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions! 10For Moses said, 'Honor your father and your mother,’ and, 'Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death.' 11But you say that if a man says to his father or mother: 'Whatever help you might otherwise have received from me is Corban' (that is, a gift devoted to God), 12then you no longer let him do anything for his father or mother. 13Thus you nullify the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And you do many things like that."
Spoken, Written and Read: The gospel, no matter how it is conveyed is the power of God for salvation. Romans 1:16-17
Written: In the book of Revelation John makes a direct statement that his written account is the “word of God”. Revelation 1:1-3
Is the Bible the word of God? Yes. Is Jesus the Word of God? Yes. It is the book that bears His name, it has His spoken words recorded in its pages, it carries His authority, and it holds the power of salvation (the gospel). The book however does not have the capacity to contain the fullness of God’s glory and presence, nor does it make such a boast. The book is not part of the Trinity. In the end, the one who is fully God will be with us, He is “The Word of God” (Rev. 19:13), and then we will no longer need the “word of God” for He will dwell with us. As we wait in eager anticipation, in the midst of the already and the not yet, let us live by the Spirit of God and embrace His revelation through scripture.
3:12 PM
I went home last night and opened a few of my books on the topic. Here is a nice condensed version to refererance:
Word. In the OT ‘the word (dahar) of God’ is used 394 times of a divine communication which comes from God to men in the form of commandment, prophecy, warning or encouragement. The usual formula is ‘the word of Yahweh came (lit. was) to …’ but sometimes the word is ‘seen’ as a vision (Is. 2:1; Je2:31; 38:21). Yahweh’s word is an extension of the divine personality, invested with divine authority, and is to be heeded by angels and men (Ps. 103:20: Dt. 12:32); it stands for ever (Is. 40:8), and once uttered it cannot return unfulfilled (Is. 55:11). It is used as a synonym for the law (tora) of God in Ps 119, where alone its reference is to a written rather than a spoken message.
In the NT it translates two terms, *logos and rhema, the former being supremely used of the message of the Christian gospel (Mk. 2:2; Acts 6:2; Gal. 6:6), through the latter also bears the same meaning (Rom. 10:8; Eph. 6:17; Heb. 6:5, ect.). Our Lord spoke of the word of God (in the parable of the sower, Lk.11:28), but the Synoptic Gospels he always used the plural of his own message (‘my words’, Mt. 24:35 and parallels; Mk. 8:38; Lk. 24:44). In the Fourth Gospel, however, the singular is often found. To the early church the word was a message revealed from God in Christ, which was to be preached, ministered and obeyed. It was the word of life (Phil. 2:16), of truth (Eph. 1:13), of salvation (Acts 13:26), of reconciliation (2 Cor. 5:19), of the cross (1 Cor. 1:18).
8:41 AM
It also occurs to me that her conclusions based on Eph. 6:17 are incomplete. She reinterprets the “the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God,” from the NIV to “the sword is the Spirit of God.” In contrast to her rewording I believe the Spirit acts by means of the “word of God” which can be either freshly spoken like a prophecy or word of knowledge or as previously recorded in scripture. This is because the word of God lasts forever (Isa. 40:8) and its authority and power does not decrease (as demonstrated by Jesus during his tempting). This appears to be supported by the author of Hebrews who describes the working of the “word of God” (logos tou Theo) as follows:
For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account. (Hebrew 4)
The Spirit of God is not mentioned in the context of this verse. Rather it is demonstrating how the scriptures have made it plain that we are to observe the Sabbath by resting in Christ. Here the word, spoken, written and active is used by God in the believer’s life to dissect them and search them out. This seems to fit well with the original NIV rendering of which describes the “word of God” as being “the sword of the Spirit”.
9:22 AM
I don't know if I've met you, but your sister-in-law, Jui, passed this on to me since she figured I'd be interested (I go to the same church, Arcadia Bible Church).
In any case, Paul's points were good, so I won't reiterate those. A couple points on the logic of her argument. 1. Notice how on one line she equates the Holy Spirit with the Word of God and by that reasoning says it can't be the Bible. Then, she calls Jesus the Word. By her reasoning (if I track her point correctly), only the Spirit can be the Word of God which would eliminate Jesus as being the Word of God, if she follows her reasoning. 2. She quotes II Timothy 3:16 about Scripture being inspired (God-breathed) and rightly so. Consider this, if Scripture is God-breathed, then that would indicate God spoke it, gave it life, hence the words in the Bible are rightly called the Word of God, because the source of those words is God. In other words, calling the Bible, "The Word of God" is another way of identifying God as the source of the Bible and the author.
Now, I want to get on to the Greek grammar. I appreciate her desire to get into the original language. That is a good thing, however, there is a quote that is important to remember that my professor in college told us first year students when we finished our beginning year of Greek. "Now you know enough Greek to be dangerous." There are a few points that need to be address regarding the grammar in that passage. 1. Generally speaking, the relative pronoun in Greek will match the gender of the antecedent, but the key word is generally. Much like our English language, we have grammar rules that are generally true, but there are often exceptions as we know all too well. Saying that the relative pronoun in Greek will always match the gender of its antecedent is like saying all plural words in English are designated by the letter 's' at the end of the word. Obviously there are exceptions to the rule. Ephesians 6:17 illustrates an exception. I'm quoting Daniel Wallace in his book, Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics, "Not infrequently relative pronouns do not follow the basic rules of agreement. Sometimes the gender of the RP (relative pronoun) does not match that of the antecedent, usually because of sense agreement superseding syntactical agreement (construction ad sensum)." (p. 337). In other words, sometimes the relative pronoun may not match the antecedent's gender because it made more sense in the context for the gender of the pronoun to be neuter. In this passage, it makes perfect sense for the neuter relative pronoun to be used since its antecedent would be the phrase, "sword of the Spirit." Yes, in Greek, sword is a feminine accusative noun, and Spirit is a genitive neuter noun, but the combination of those 2 nouns produces one concept which could mean, "the Spirit's Sword" or "Sword that comes from the Spirit". In Greek it makes no sense to split up sword from Spirit which she has done. Sword of the Spirit is one concept, so Paul uses the neuter relative pronoun since it's referring back to that concept of the sword of the Spirit. 2. The antecedent without question is "sword of the Spirit" not just Spirit and not just sword. There is one other reason why the relative pronoun could be neuter. It could be neuter because it's taking on the gender of the predicate nominative in the clause "which is the Word of God." Interesting note, rema (Word) is also a neuter noun. There are times in the New Testament where this can happen, the relative pronoun takes on the gender of the word in the relative clause and not the antecedent.
I know that's a lot Greek grammar, and it can be tedious at times. Bottom line, the proper understanding is this: The Sword of the Spirit = the Word of God. From this passage, to call the Spirit the Word of God wreaks havoc with the way the passage is setup grammatically. Once again, I appreciate her desire to see what the original language says, but she needs to do further research, consult Greek grammars, commentaries, etc. I'd be shocked if her interpretation of Ephesians 6:17 was propounded at all throughout 20 centuries of work by students of the Bible who certainly knew much more than I do. So is the Bible God's Word, is it the Sword of the Spirit, yes. Is Jesus the Word of God? Yes. Jesus is God revealed in the flesh. The Bible is the Word of God in written form, and it is our authoritative, sufficient source to know Him and to know His will.
11:35 PM
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