Who authored the Scriptures?

41 Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them a question, 42 saying, “What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?” They said to him, “The son of David.” 43 He said to them, “How is it then that David, in the Spirit, calls him Lord, saying,

44 “‘The Lord said to my Lord,
“Sit at my right hand,
    until I put your enemies under your feet”’?

45 If then David calls him Lord, how is he his son?” 46 And no one was able to answer him a word, nor from that day did anyone dare to ask him any more questions.  Matthew 22:41-46

In this passage Jesus is reasoning with the Pharisees about their expectations of who the Christ would be.  Jesus references Psalm 110:1 which was written by King David.  The Pharisees believed the Christ would be a man--and only a man--from David's lineage (that's why Christ is called "son of David") but Jesus questioned their understanding by showing that David, who lived multiple generations earlier than them, called Christ his Lord.  "The Lord (the Father) said to my Lord (the Son), 'Sit at my right hand, until I put your enemies under your feet.' "  David would not have called Christ his Lord if Christ was merely a man because the title "Lord" infers subjugation and you are not subject to people who live multiple generations after you die.  By calling Christ his Lord David showed he knew the Christ would be a God-man.

How did David have this insight?  Jesus says because David was "in the Spirit" when he wrote those words.  In other words, his words were not his own but they were given to him by the Holy Spirit. Peter provides more insight into this phenomenon as he explains why the apostles' testimony is dependable:

16 For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. 17 For when he received honor and glory from God the Father, and the voice was borne to him by the Majestic Glory, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased,” 18 we ourselves heard this very voice borne from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain. 19 And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts, 20 knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone's own interpretation. 21 For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.  2 Peter 1:16-21

What this means is people put pen to paper to write the words we can now read as Scripture, but it was the Spirit who instructed them what to write.

A tale of two errors

23 The same day Sadducees came to him, who say that there is no resurrection, and they asked him a question, 24 saying, “Teacher, Moses said, ‘If a man dies having no children, his brother must marry the widow and raise up offspring for his brother.’ 25 Now there were seven brothers among us. The first married and died, and having no offspring left his wife to his brother. 26 So too the second and third, down to the seventh. 27 After them all, the woman died. 28 In the resurrection, therefore, of the seven, whose wife will she be? For they all had her.”

29 But Jesus answered them, “You are wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God.” Matthew 22:23-29

The Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection even though they knew what the Scriptures said.  Because of their unbelief Jesus faulted the Sadducees for 2 things:

a) not knowing, or rather, acknowledging (they knew what Moses said) the truth of the Scriptures

b) not believing the power of God

As a Christian I must ask myself, "Can Jesus fault me for these?"  Of course the answer is yes.  So I must always be asking God to help me know what is in the Scriptures, acknowledge that it is truth, and believe in His power as it is described.

"Through" or "for"?

39 And all these, having gained approval through their faith, did not receive what was promised, Hebrews 11:39 NASB

39 These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised, Hebrews 11:39 NIV

In the first translation mentioned above, the heroes listed in Hebrews 11 gained approval (were commended) through their faith.  In the second translation, they were commended for their faith.

The Greek word translated as "for" and "through" is διά (pronounced dia).  It actually forms the root of the English word "diameter", which is the line that stretches from one side of a circle through to the opposite side, hence why it's translated as "through" in the NASB.  Its meaning is "A primary preposition denoting the channel of an act" (for more information, go here).  So you could say the word "dia" specifies the means by which something is accomplished.

The wording is important because using the word "for" gives the impression that faith is something we do that deserves merit.  But our faith does not deserve merit because whatever faith we exercise is given by God.  That is why the disciples pleaded with Jesus, saying "Increase our faith!" (Luke 17:5) and Paul wrote to fellow Christians,

29 For to you it has been granted for Christ’s sake, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake,  Philippians 1:29 (emphasis mine)

And again he wrote in Romans,

3 For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith.  Romans 12:3 (emphasis mine)

Faith is like a muscle.  I can go to the gym to workout and gradually my muscles will increase in strength.  But I had to be given some amount of muscle to start!  Thank God for the faith that you have and if you find yourself in a time of little faith, ask God to increase it.

Thanks for the comment, Jose

I saw an article today on the New York Times website about a piece of papyrus that says Jesus had a wife.  You can read it here.  The piece of papyrus is 4 by 8 centimeters in size and says things like "Jesus said to them, 'My wife ...' ".  Needless to say many books will probably be written about this little piece of papyrus.  As usual I spent most of my time in the comment section beneath the article reading what other people were saying about the article.  Most of the comments dismissed the find as insignificant because the Bible is very clear that the Church is Christ's bride.  But the comment that struck me as funny, true, and touching all at the same time was this one:

I wish I could tell Jose how much his comment meant to me.  Maybe we'll meet up in the Kingdom.

Of Huckleberry Finn and Football

"You don't know about me without you have read a book by the name of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer; but that ain't no matter. That book was made by Mr. Mark Twain, and he told the truth, mainly. There was things which he stretched, but mainly he told the truth. ..."

And thus begins Chapter One of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain.  Mark Twain was unique among American authors in his ability to make his characters sound like real people.  And each character had a unique voice.  The grammatical errors in the above excerpt are pretty clear.  Let me make an attempt at editing this text to take out those grammatical errors and let's see how it goes:

"You wouldn't know about me unless you read a book by the name of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer; but that doesn't matter.  That book was created by Mr. Mark Twain, and he mostly told the truth.  There were things which he stretched, but he mostly told the truth."

I think we'd all agree that Mark Twain's version is better by far, mainly due to the grammar he used which I called "errors" previously.  In fact, the grammar used gives it many things it wouldn't have otherwise...authenticity, interest, and uniqueness being among them.  The reality is Mark Twain had certain intentions when he wrote Huckleberry Finn.  He wanted to write it a certain way because writing it any other way wouldn't have the same effect.  Because it was written with purpose I cannot call his grammatical use an error.

American football is played on a field and the field is 100 yards long from end to end.  The field is surrounded by a line and that line designates what is "in bounds" and "out of bounds".  When a team is down by a few points and the game clock has just a few seconds left often the strategy employed by the team is to take the ball out of bounds intentionally because that stops the clock and allows the team to regroup.  Sometimes we would call going out of bounds an error but in these circumstances going out of bounds is what the team should do.  It's not an error because it was done with purpose.

My point is we cannot say something is "in error" unless we understand what was its original intended purpose.  If the intended purpose was not accomplished then it is "in error" but if it was accomplished then it was not "in error."

Let's consider the Bible for a moment.  History is loaded with debate about the inerrancy of the Bible.  For clarity, "inerrancy" means "without error".  Now, "inerrancy" is a loaded word because it means different things to different people, and I caution against using words that have become loaded with meaning because while it means one thing to you it can imply something completely different to someone else.  But as with Huckleberry Finn and the game of football the ultimate question we must ask about the Bible to determine whether it has errors is this:  Will the Bible accomplish God's intended purpose?  Isaiah answers this question and confirms why I can believe the Bible is without error:

10 “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven
    and do not return there but water the earth,
making it bring forth and sprout,
    giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,
11 so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;
    it shall not return to me empty,
but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,
    and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.  Isaiah 55:10-11

If there is any debate the Prophet Isaiah is referring to the Scriptures found in the Bible, 2 Timothy 3:16-17 says,

16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

We like to make Biblical inerrancy an issue about historicity, authorship, harmony, and any other number of things but those are irrelevant to the question.  Will it accomplish its intended purpose?  The answer is an emphatic "Yes!"