For most of my life I was led to believe the Bible was the inerrant Word of God. I heard that phrase repeatedly and never questioned it too much. But now I see that is not the case at all.
What I Used To Believe
When I was young, I was exposed to a Christian “catechism” that stated, when asked the question, “Who wrote the Bible?”, “Holy men of God wrote the Bible” was the answer. So, I acknowledged the idea that the Bible was written by men (as opposed to God Himself).
When I tried to understand how this book could be considered “the Word of God”, I could see throughout the Old Testament stories of God speaking directly to man, so naturally, if “holy men” wrote down what God said, then that could justify those written words to be “the Word of God”.
And at some point, I heard the phrase “divinely inspired” applied to the Bible, and that justified in my mind how the remaining texts comprised in the Bible could also be considered “the Word of God” indirectly.
But when I stopped to think about it, I had a hard time believing the Bible was “inerrant”, especially considering the fact that it was written & handled by human beings, who are obviously fallible, for hundreds (if not thousands) of years.
Inerrant, Really?
When I began to study the Bible more intently on my own, it didn’t surprise me to find such diversity across a broad spectrum of translations. I was a little surprised, though, to discover how many words are in our English translations despite there not being a source equivalent.
And then I found there were quite a few “textual variants” that involved greater chunks of text that were missing from source texts, such as is found in the cases of 1 John 5:7-8, Mark 16:9-20, and John 7:53-8:11.
And I found, what is unbeknownst to many, that there are quite a few discrepancies between the Hebrew Masoretic Text and the Greek Septuagint (which was translated from an earlier Hebrew text), and between the Masoretic Text of the Torah and the Israelite Samaritan version.
Regardless of how significant any of these variants are, the fact that they exist at all debunks the idea that the Bible is “inerrant”.
The Word of God, Truly?
Again, as I continued to immerse myself in the Bible, not just poring over particular texts, but also reading whole texts over and over, I kept thinking so much of what is recorded in the Bible is really the words of man.
Sure, there may be an overarching divine message that gets conveyed across the board, with smaller divine messages smattered throughout, but that doesn’t mean every word on every page is divinely inspired.
Holy men may have written the Bible, but I couldn’t see them outputting word-for-word whatever they felt divinely inspired to write, as if they were stenographers in a courtroom or robots of some kind. It is way more likely that these men utilized their own human faculties in the process, which involved putting their messages in their own words.
Besides, there are certain texts that simply conveyed messages its authors sought to convey — not what God wanted to convey, such as in the case with Paul & his various letters. So, that right there debunks the idea that the Bible as a whole is “the Word of God“.
What I Believe Now
Given all that I have experienced & witnessed in my life, it seems to me that the identification of “the inerrant Word of God” is a device used to ascribe the highest authority to a Book written by men, essentially bringing God down into man’s realm and empowering those who use the Book.
Unfortunately, the Bible has been used by many within religious communities as a weapon to bring harmful condemnation upon themselves & others and as an intimidation stick to bully & rule over other human beings, rather than simply as a teaching tool & life-affirming guide to help rule oneself by.
Not the Inerrant Word of God, But Rather the Good Book
In my view for those who read the Bible with the understanding that it simply is a volume of texts written by men largely centered around a particular segment of mankind and their relationship with the Creator, who they understood to be God, there is still much to gain from it.
I believe wisdom can be found within the covers of the Bible, that I would even consider to be divine. And the stories within are filled with characters & life experiences all of us can relate to on some level.
The Bible doesn’t need to be ascribed “the inerrant Word of God” to serve a “holy” purpose — it can simply be considered “the Good Book”.
People from all walks of life can gain benefit from the Bible and experience a set-apart existence when they handle the book properly and apply the nuggets of wisdom found therein to their own lives.
