What Does It Mean That God “Inspired” the Bible?

Second Timothy 3:16 says “All Scripture is inspired by God,” but what exactly does “inspired” mean? We hear of musicians being inspired to write a song or artist’s inspiration behind a painting. Is biblical inspiration the same thing? In a word, no. The Bible means something very specific when it claims to be inspired – it means we hold the actual words of God in our hands.

“Inspired” Means: The Source is God

The word translated “inspired” in the passage above only shows up once in all of Scripture. It literally means “God-breathed” — that every word is as authoritative as if it came directly from the mouth of God himself. Once Adam and Eve sinned, they and their descendants were blinded to God’s ways. God needed to tell us who he is and how to live lives that please him. Peter states that no passage of Scripture originated from an author’s personal opinion, but authors were moved by God’s Spirit to write what he wanted them to write (2Pt 1:21). So, biblical inspiration means the Bible, word for word, is God’s word speaking to us.

“Inspired” Means: Given Through Men

Although the inspired word is truly God’s word, God chose people to compose the Bible, and they did so using their own voices and perspectives. The Bible isn’t divine dictation. The writers weren’t in some kind of trance. God knew each person’s personality and thought process, and prepared each to write the things he wanted using their individual styles. Think of a master painter who knows exactly the picture he wants to paint. He has many different brushes that he uses for different purposes: a coarse brush for rough textures, a thin brush for fine lines, and a wide brush for bold strokes. In the master’s hand, the brushes do exactly what he wants. The final work is the picture he wanted to paint, but with the characteristic of each brush showing through. In a similar way, God uses different people with their distinct personalities, vocabularies, and experiences to produce the different books of the Bible. The end result is that we have the exact message God meant to give us.

“Inspired” Means: The Bible is True

Since people wrote the Bible and people can have wrong ideas, does this mean parts of the Bible could be wrong? No, it doesn’t. If the ultimate source of Scripture is God himself, then the Bible can’t be wrong in its assertions. That doesn’t mean people don’t sometimes misunderstand what is written. But since the Bible comes from God, we can be assured that it “is true and reliable in all the matters it addresses” (Article XI, The Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy © 1978 International Council of Biblical Inerrancy). The Bible, then, is all of what God wanted to reveal to us. It should teach us, guide us, correct our errors, and train us up to become men and women pleasing to God.