I want you to notice the term, "God-breathed", which is often translated "inspired". We know that the Scriptures are divinely inspired. But there are different theories about the inspiration of the Bible and what that means for us. Some say that the Bible is partially inspired, in other words, some parts came from God and some are just "harmless" human errors. Others affirm that the whole Bible, every word of the Bible, is true.
In recent years, there has been a new view the inspiration of the Scriptures. It is said that God did not speak or write through the human authors, but He inspired true ideas and let them write it out in their own words and with their own limited understanding and their supposedly erroneous history. For example, when we study Genesis 1-11, it is said that this is not history (though it is written as historical narrative like the rest of Genesis) but that God used their faulty understanding of history in such a way so as to convey the correct ideas. So, it is ideas which are the important part of this and not the history.
This causes us not a few problems. What about Christ's resurrection? Is that a historical event or does it just convey to us a correct idea? Some false teachers have put forth the notion that what is actually true is the idea behind the resurrection though the resurrection never actually occurred in time and space. This is the kind of conclusion that one can draw from separating historical truth from thematic truth.
God has revealed Himself in history through the nation of Israel and in Jesus Christ. We see God's action and not just His ideas. God's revelation of Himself is both historical and revelatory and those two exist in a tension that is shown to us in the Bible.
I am not getting into a full-blown discussion of this here, but I want to focus on the expressions "God-breathed" and "inspired" which are translations of a Greek compound word, "Theo-pneustos". Theo = God; pneustos = breath, or breathe out. In other words, God breathed out the Scriptures through the human authors who wrote it down. Examining the term, Theo-pneustos, we can uncover the true nature of divine inspiration. "Pneustos" is a Greek word with a broad semantic range. (The semantic range is the meanings of a particular word in various contexts.) "Pneustos" can mean 'spirit', 'air', 'anger', and 'breath'. It obviously means 'breath' in the context of 2 Timothy 3:16.
A heard a Greek word-study expert teach on the use of 'pneustos' occurring in ancient Greek literature. He noted that one way it was used was to denote the playing of a wind instrument. When someone plays the flute, for example, she breathes through the flute to produce a song. She moves her fingers to play certain notes ultimately making a melody.
This really captured my imagination. (Inspired me?) First, it is clear that divine inspiration does mean that God breathes his Word through "holy men of God who were carried along by the Holy Spirit (2 Peter 1:20)." But I also got the image that if you have two instruments, say, a flute and clarinet, and they each play the same tune, it will sound different. That's what we have in the Bible. Two human authors, each bringing forth the same truth, but sounding much different.
We find the truth expressed often in very different ways and in different words. The incarnation is a good example of this.
Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Philippians 2:5-8
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God … And the Word became flesh. John 1
I had a discussion one time with someone who thought that the whole idea of incarnation was nothing but a conspiracy dreamed up by early Christians to convince everyone that they had had the truth. But if people conspired and came up with an idea like the incarnation of Jesus Christ, then why would they use such different language to express it. No, they would have agreed on the language and would say things the same way.
The fact that they had the same revelation and expressed it individually means that God truly inspired them with the same message. The very words themselves are inspired and true. As Paul wrote:
Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God, which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words.
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