2023-10-10 The Human Authorship & Divine Authority of Scripture

2 Timothy 3 vv 14-17

• The Whole Truth of Scripture - human authorship and divine authority. We should not overemphasize the human or divine aspects of this relationship.
• Christianity contains some apparent contradictions / paradoxes:
  • Jesus is fully human and fully divine
  • God is three-in-one
  • etc
• Scripture is the wod of God. But the human authors and contexts matter for our own interpretation of Scripture.

How Does Scripture Refer to Itself?

• Mark 12 vv 35-36 - Jesus' phrasing "David himself, in the Holy Spirit"
• 2 Peter 2 vv 20-21 - Peter's explanation of this dichotomy
• 2 Peter 3 vv 15-16 - Peter attests to God's inspiration of Paul's letters
  • Paul attests to Luke as well 1 Timothy 5 v18 (quoting Luke 10 v7)
• Sometimes scripture is dictated to people directly by God, most often in the Prophets. Mostly other methods. For example, Luke 1 vv 1-3 describe Luke's process of investigation

Pitfalls of Overemphasizing the Divine Authority of Scripture

• Verse-picking - we may ignore context of longer passages to misinterpret a particular verse
• Biblicism - says all we can know is what Scripture says (though Scripture itself does not claim this Romans 1 vv 18-23)
• Reading our context into scripture - the historical and human context matters and even a knowledge of Greek and Hebrew are helpful

Pitfalls of Overemphasizing the Human Authorship of Scripture

• Reduces Bible study to academics. We can focus too much on the study, and miss the message that God is giving us.
• Can lead to rejection of divine authority
• We should consider the human context when reading. But we should also pray for divine guidance while reading scripture.