Authorship of the Bible


Human writers contributed much historical research, theological meditation, linguistic style, etc, but theologically, the Bible regards human writers as having contributed nothing and Scripture is entirely the creation of God. Moses and the prophets professed to speak the words of the Lord, setting before Israel what the Lord had shown them. Jesus professed to speak words given him by his Father. The apostles taught and issued commands in Christ's name, so claiming his authority and sanction, and they maintained that both their matter and their words had been taught them by God's Spirit.

(The Origin of the Bible: Newly Updated by F. F. Bruce, J. I. Packer, Philip W. Comfort, and Carl F. H. Henry, 2020. The Inspiration of the Bible by J. I. Packer. Pages 33.)

There was no mechanical dictation or automatic writing or any suspension of the human writer's mind. Such concepts are found in the Talmud, Philo, and the Fathers, but the Bible itself doesn't indicate this.

God maintained perfect control without the need to obliterate the personality, style, outlook, and cultural conditioning of His penmen.

The inspiredness does not apply to corruptions that intrude in the course of transmission of the text, only the text as originally produced by the inspired writers. Textual criticism eliminates such corruptions.

Inspiredness has nothing to do with the literary quality of the book but its character as divine revelation in writing.

(The Origin of the Bible: Newly Updated by F. F. Bruce, J. I. Packer, Philip W. Comfort, and Carl F. H. Henry, 2020. The Inspiration of the Bible by J. I. Packer. Pages 35-36.)