Some writers will refer to those that wrote a "book" of the Bible (like Genesis, or the Gospel of John) as it's author. This can be misleading. They might even give that person credit for the way the book is written, like saying "John decided to use the number seven several times in his writings of the gospel and Revelation." To have a proper appreciation of these books which make up the group of books we call "The Bible" one should understand what the Bible says on this subject. These books are not the product of man, the ideas and inspirations of men. No they are God's Word, not man's. The foundational verse for this is 2 Timothy 3:16. We know John 3:16. We should hold 2 Ti 3:16 in our minds as well. "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness."
That word "inspiration" is "theopnustos" in the original Greek. It means "God-breathed". It is different from the inspiration that a beautiful sunrise, or landscape may give a painter. It is different than the history of a person living in such a way, or doing something great that "inspires" others. When God "inspired" (breathed) the scriptures, He came upon a man in such a way as to communicate to that man exactly what He wanted written down. He used that man's language, vocabulary, background, personality, etc., to write in that man's own style, but with the exact words and in the exact way God wanted them put down. In this way there would be no typos, no errors, no contradictions, not only in the book that this man wrote, but with any of the other books that the other men God would inspire in this way would come to write.
One of the greatest evidences of the existence of God to me, is that there were no real contradictions or inaccuracies in the original writings of the scriptures. (The confidence that we know exactly what was written in the originals, that no longer exist, is a subject for a future post.) If imperfect man were the actual authors of our 66 books of the Bible it would be full of real contradictions, errors, and "typos", (misspellings, for they didn't use keyboards to write it.) God used some 40 different men, over a period of some 1,600 years, that lived in different countries, spoke different languages, and were from different backgrounds and social standings, of various educational levels, to write an many different subjects in the books of the Bible, yet it has no real contradictions in it. You couldn't get 10 people together, all from the same family, sitting at a table at the same time, to write down what was on the table in front of them, and not find contradictions in what they wrote.
So let's keep in mind that it is God that is the Author of the Bible. Men were used as His writers. It is God's word, not theirs, and therefore we can trust it. But which version of it, seeing versions vary and even contradict one another? Again that is a post for another time.
That word "inspiration" is "theopnustos" in the original Greek. It means "God-breathed". It is different from the inspiration that a beautiful sunrise, or landscape may give a painter. It is different than the history of a person living in such a way, or doing something great that "inspires" others. When God "inspired" (breathed) the scriptures, He came upon a man in such a way as to communicate to that man exactly what He wanted written down. He used that man's language, vocabulary, background, personality, etc., to write in that man's own style, but with the exact words and in the exact way God wanted them put down. In this way there would be no typos, no errors, no contradictions, not only in the book that this man wrote, but with any of the other books that the other men God would inspire in this way would come to write.
One of the greatest evidences of the existence of God to me, is that there were no real contradictions or inaccuracies in the original writings of the scriptures. (The confidence that we know exactly what was written in the originals, that no longer exist, is a subject for a future post.) If imperfect man were the actual authors of our 66 books of the Bible it would be full of real contradictions, errors, and "typos", (misspellings, for they didn't use keyboards to write it.) God used some 40 different men, over a period of some 1,600 years, that lived in different countries, spoke different languages, and were from different backgrounds and social standings, of various educational levels, to write an many different subjects in the books of the Bible, yet it has no real contradictions in it. You couldn't get 10 people together, all from the same family, sitting at a table at the same time, to write down what was on the table in front of them, and not find contradictions in what they wrote.
So let's keep in mind that it is God that is the Author of the Bible. Men were used as His writers. It is God's word, not theirs, and therefore we can trust it. But which version of it, seeing versions vary and even contradict one another? Again that is a post for another time.
