All Scripture is God-Breathed?
2 Timothy 3:16
Is all scripture inspired by God? Did God write the Bible?
2 Timothy 3:16 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness
In all modern translations, you will read something very similar to the notion that every word of the Bible is God-breathed and that everything in it is good doctrine. But is that entirely accurate? Clearly translators have not always been accurate, but is all scripture directly from God and part of good Christian doctrine? We go to the Greek scripture to find what Paul meant.
2 Timothy 3:16 Pasa graphe theopneustos kai ophelimos pros didaskalian pros elegchen pros epanorthosin pros paideian ten en dikaiosune,
Using a direct Greek to English translation of this would read:
2 Timothy 3:16 Every writing God-breathed and profitable for teaching, for convincing evidence, for correction, for instruction in the righteousness,
The ending of this is translated very accurately, but the beginning seems a bit different. In most translations we have:
- Modern Translation: "All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable"
- Greek Translation: "Every writing God-breathed and profitable for teaching"
The major difference is saying "All scripture is God-breathed" making God-breathed the verb when the Greek word theopneustos is actually an adjective. Thus the message Paul was actually saying is this;
2 Timothy 3:16 All writings that are God-breathed AND profitable for teaching AND convincing evidence AND for instructing in righteousness...
The first "and" in the sentence was translated to an "is" in modern translations. Which according to the Critical Edition of the Nestle-Aland Greek New Testament; the word 'and' (kai) is omitted in the Old-Latin Clementine Vulgate and the Syriac Peshitta. No Greek manuscripts are listed as supporting the 'modern' translation.
But this entire verse does not contain a Greek verb, it only contains nouns, adjectives, prepositions, and conjunctions/articles which means the thought follows into the next verse. Thus, this verse should not end at righteousness but continue into the next verse. This was apparent at some point as it was included in the first mainstream English translation of the Bible, which Wycliffe wrote and was persecuted for.
2 Timothy 3:17 so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped [our verb] for every good work.
Thus a more direct translation using the oldest greek texts prior to the Latin mistranslation:
2 Timothy 3:17 All scripture which meets the following criteria thoroughly equips the servant of God for good works; God-breathed (inspired), profitable for teaching, convincing evidence, and used to instruct in righteousness.
However, Jesus said what God wanted him to say and thus what Jesus said can be considered God-inspired. The spirit influenced much of the writings of the canonical New Testament, but this does not mean that all scripture is inspired by God - many times it is just documenting history or capturing a dialogue between people. Is it possible that all scripture is inspired by God? Yes, but this verse isn't proof of that. We know that all translations are not God-inspired because those who translate are not the prophets or God's messengers. But the people who wrote the verses are attributed as being messengers of God and God's chosen prophets, and thus we can safely assume (along with external evidence) that it is all true despite being inspired by God directly or if they were just recording events and dialogue happening. Even between scriptures there are minor differences in what is being said in the same conversation, yet what is being said is not different. If God wrote the Bible, it would be exact - if man recorded it (prophet or not) we would see minor changes in recalling the events and recording it:
Mark 7:5 Why do Your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with unwashed hands?
Greek: dia ti ou parabainousin hoi mathetai sou kata ten paradosin ton presbyteron
Matthew 15:2 Why do Your disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat bread.
Greek: dia ti hoi mathetai sou parabainousin ten paradosin ton presbyteron
As a final note, this was said while the New Testament didn't yet exist. So any reference to 'scripture' would have meant the Torah (or Old Testament) as we know it today.