An Authority Surpassing All Human Qualities⤒🔗

For the Christian Church, the Bible has, across the centuries, been the point of departure for all faith and thought. It has always been realized that the books of the Bible ‘are not the compositions of men, but as a result of the inspiration of the Holy Spirit by the will of the Father of the universe through Jesus Christ, these were written and have come down to us’ (Origen, c.185-254). ¹  It was understood, already at an early stage, that this realization is completely consistent with the conviction that the Bible is also the product of human authors. For the Reformation, this dual conviction was a matter of faith. Hence, the Belgic Confession affirms that ‘men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit’ (Article 3). Theological reflection concerning the character of Holy Scripture has always rested especially on the foundation of the faith. Wherever theology takes a critical position regarding the authority of the Bible, a switch is thrown: “Scripture does not judge human beings, but they judge Scripture; (...) the authority of Scripture is then dependent on human discretion” (H. Bavinck). ²This question of priority has its consequences: is Holy Scripture the revelation of God, before which people must submit? Or do human thought and action come first in our use of Scripture?

When the authors of Biblical writings themselves assert that it is not they who speak, but that the Spirit of God comes to us through them, then this ‘claim’ must be taken seriously.

A Great Variety←⤒🔗

Within the broad variety of writings in Scripture, we do not find any stereotyped indications that their authors were somehow aware that they were divinely inspired. We do not even know, in some cases, who the authors of the books of the Bible were. Sometimes we will find some of the authors’ (who may be unknown) motives or activities described in what they wrote (see, for ex­ample, Numbers 33:2; Deuteronomy 31:9; I Kings 11:41; Luke 1:3; Acts 1:1; Revelation 1:1). In a number of the New Testament epistles, written to Christian churches, the person of the author is usually explicitly present. However, it is evidently more important that in their writing the God of Israel, the Father of Jesus Christ, is present. This becomes clear in a variety of ways, in the New Testament as well as the Old. The fact that the words of the Bible books have another origin than just a human author has been acknowledged throughout the centuries by the communion of Chris­tian believers.

In what follows, I would like to give some examples of this variety. I do not aim to be complete; rather, I would like the readers of the Bible to recognize this common characteristic in the variety of ways that the Bible expresses itself.

God Himself Speaks←⤒🔗

In the revelation about creation in Genesis 1 and 2, God’s work is described in language that does not rest on human observation. The same is true of those Bible passages that – in poetic or prophetic language – speak about the greatness of God’s work of creation (Job 38:4ff; Psalms 8, 104 and 148; Isaiah 45; Colossians 1:15ff; Hebrews 11:2). It is self-evident that the authors of these passages were aware that they were not of themselves able to speak or write as they did. They were not even there when it happened! (see Job 38:4ff) Here, then, we are given to understand that the Bible is what God himself is telling us. He was there! Similarly, we read about what the Lord thought at a certain mo­ment, or what grieved Him (Genesis 6:5-7; 18:17-19). In many places in Scripture, God makes himself directly and personally known as the God of compassion, faith­fulness, and forgiveness, the One who does not acquit the guilty, and who punishes unrighteousness (Exodus 34:6; Psalm 103:8-9 and 145:8-9; Joel 2:13; Jonah 4:2; Nehemiah 9:17). Where Scripture emphasizes that God is not like man, it implies that God reveals himself as such. “I am God, and not a man, the Holy One in your midst”, says the Lord (Hosea 11:9). These are no human thoughts. In them, God makes himself known to us.

People Called to Speak←⤒🔗

As for the prophets, evangelists, apostles, and other authors, the Bible tells us that they were called to be messengers of God. At the burning bush, Moses received an important revelation about his Sender and his calling: “I am has sent me to you” (Exodus 3:14). We see the same with Isaiah (ch 6) and Jeremiah (ch 1:4-19). Holy God gave them words to speak, words of judgment and of salvation.

If their claim to being sent by God had rested on human imagination, they would have shown themselves to be liars. By the same token, the sometimes unbearable burden of their message excludes the possibility that they had taken this calling upon themselves. Jeremiah even reaches the point where he curses the day of his birth (ch 20:7-18). Even in places where the prophets’ words alternate with the words of God – usually preceded, in almost every case, by “this is what the Lord God says” or similar – both form a divine revelation in which the Spirit of God used a human being.

At the beginning of most Old Testament proph­ecies – those of Micah, Jonah, Zephaniah and others – we read that the Lord directed the words that followed to the prophet.

A separate form of revelation is that of the poetic books. In the Psalms, and in for example Lam­entations, there is room for the most profound complaints, in which a believing poet calls out to God. At the same time, we hear God’s answer of deliverance (see for example Psalm 73 and 42) and we see a marvellous turn to trust in him, which in itself is already a sign of God’s saving intervention (such as Psalm 73; 116; Lamentations 3:22ff). Such profound ‘conversations’ – in which other themes also occur – form a wonderful expression of the intimate communion between God and man, a communion that the Spirit of God wants all of God’s people to share. If there was no revela­tion ‘behind’ that, then all of this speaking by and to God would lose its meaning. This awareness that people speak, praise, complain, give thanks, and instruct because they are driven to do so from above, permeates the whole book of Psalms. In the New Testament, the apostles, in the introductions to their letters, consistently assert that God has called them to preach. This call is the deepest ground of their efforts in the service of the gospel of God (Romans 1:1). The fact that Paul himself attests to his whole-hearted service to God (ch 1:9), and his refusal to be ashamed of the gospel (v.16), shows clearly that the apostles knew themselves as human beings not to be bystanders to, but participants in, the process of making God’s revelation known. When the apos­tles introduce themselves as apostles (that is: those who are sent), it shows they know they are serving the One who sent them (see 1 Corinthians 1:1; 2 Timothy 1:1; James 1:1; 2 Peter 1:1). They are not imaginers of, but witnesses to the gospel.

A True Witness←⤒🔗

The concept of testimony or witness has an important role in the New Testament. It was – just as it is with us – a judicial term. A mat­ter is established when there are two or three witnesses who confirm that certain facts are true (see Deuteronomy 19:15; Hebrews 10:28). The apostles are called witnesses of the resurrection (Acts 1:8). They themselves have seen the risen Lord; they have heard him speak. Whenever they witness of him, and when this witness bears the ‘quality’ of Holy Scripture, then the whole of their apostolic testimony is charged with divine truth. In this context, it is also important to note that the New Testament continues to affirm the last­ing significance of the Old Testament. Jesus says that the Scriptures testify about him (John 5:39), and Peter points out that the Spirit of Christ, who was at work in the Old Testament prophets, already bore witness that Christ would suffer and afterwards share in the glory of God (I Peter 1:11). This shows how the Old Testament relates to the New, and vice versa. This is so because it is one and the same Spirit who speaks throughout the Scriptures. And Scripture explicitly tells us that the Spirit is the Spirit of the Father (John 5:36-42). The testimony of the Bible, as recorded by the apostle John, is not just a human account of the mystery of revelation. It is a revelation that has its source in God himself, the Father who sent his Son, and of whom the Spirit bears witness.

Conclusion←⤒🔗

The observations made above do not diminish the many human features that we can recognize in what is written in the Bible. Nevertheless, it is inherent in the character of Holy Scripture that its testimony is to be taken seriously as having an origin that transcends the persons of the proph­ets and apostles. It always remains, as the con­fessions quoted above affirm, a matter of faith or unbelief. Yet such unbelief flies in the face of the clear witness of Scripture itself. Enlightened by faith, we recognize what Paul writes to Timothy: “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profit­able for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness” (2 Timothy 3:16). In that same light, we understand that Scripture is the supreme rule of faith and life. Nothing may be added to it, and nothing may be taken from it (Proverbs 30:5-6; Revelation 22:18-19).

Our awareness of the character of Scripture as divine revelation will lead us, together with its au­thors, to the humble confession that we must hold fast to that. Otherwise, the danger of becoming ‘puffed up’ lies in wait (1 Corinthians 4:6).