Inspiration: Temporal or Eternal
I believe that inspiration is not a process but
an entity, an eternal entity, a fact or deed. If the KJV translators
had believed it was a process they would have translated II Timothy
3:16 “pasa graphe theopneustos” as “All scripture is God breathed.”
In that sentence God breathed is an adjective, or present participle
used as adjective, which describes the noun scripture. A verbal
adjective would imply a becoming, but the Word did not become. He
is. But the translators, and their English predecessors, were led to
avoid that rendering, and I believe they knew in their hearts that
inspiration was an eternal entity, a noun. Even though the phrase
“by inspiration of God” describes scripture it is at least equally
valid to look at it as a noun which is the object of the sentence.
Here Paul could not have been speaking to Timothy of any original
manuscripts. Those of the Old Testament were gone. And since II
Timothy was probably Paul’s last epistle much of the New Testament
already had been written. Graphe in this verse means scripture of
both testaments. The Holy Ghost said that Timothy had known the
scriptures, and so he had them before him from childhood.
The word theopneustos was given by the Holy
Ghost to Paul. It is unique. It appears only once in the New
Testament and is only infrequently seen in earlier pagan Greek
writing. Some defenders of the KJV believe that theopneustos is a
“verbal adjective,” essentially a past participle. That belief is
more compatible with the concept of inspiration as a process which
occurred in time, that is, a becoming. They say that “pasa graphe
theopneustos” means all scripture is God breathed. If theopneustos
is a verbal adjective the translation should be “God breathed” and
not “given by inspiration of God.”
The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
gives theopneustos as a noun. It says that Scripture is “the product
of the creative breath of God. In a word, what is declared by this
fundamental passage is simply that the Scriptures are a Divine
product”…When Paul declares, then, that "every scripture" or "all
scripture" is the product of the Divine breath, he asserts with as
much energy as he could employ that Scripture is the product of a
specifically Divine operation.” It is a product, an eternal entity,
and not a process or becoming.
Adding the suffix –tion to a verb in English
makes a noun. “All scripture is the breath of God” treats
theopneustos as a noun and would be a better rendering than “All
scripture is God breathed,” which would treat theopneustos as an
adjective. Neither is as sublime or correct as “All scripture is
given by inspiration of God,” which we have in the KJV.
Theopneustos is masculine and graphe is
feminine. By the rules of Greek grammar they should agree in gender.
In order for them to agree we would have to change the os ending to
an eta, and we would then have breath of a goddess, rather than
breath of God. But in Greek there is no feminine adjective which
ends with omicron sigma. Theopneustos is masculine.
Theopneustos occurs only once in the NT and
therefore is an extremely important word that must be properly
rendered. Of course it does not need to occur more than once. But it
is a noun, naming an eternally completed entity. When the KJV
translators put “given by inspiration” they were rendering
theopneustos as a noun. According to rules of Greek usage,
juxtaposing these two nominatives, graphe and theopneustos, implies
the equivalence of them. Also implied is the verb to be, “is,”
between them. The absence of the verb to be is called an ellipsis
that actually gives emphasis that it should be rendered in
translation. There is a second implied "is" in verse 16 followed by
an adjective. This context is consistent with inspiration as a noun,
because inspiration is qualified by being described with the
adjective, profitable. In addition the “given by” reminds us that
the scriptures are themselves an eternal gift from God, not to be
whimsically meddled with. The scriptures were inspired from
eternity, inspired while they were being put into the “original
autographs,” are still inspired today, and must always be so,
forever settled.
Inspiration is seen again, and only once, in
the Old Testament in Job 32:8: "But there is a spirit in man: and
the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding." There it
is also a noun, in Hebrew neshamah, and the passage is parallel to
II Timothy 3:16. It is also once more the breath of God which was
given to Adam and which gives us understanding. It is the Bible, the
breath of God, which gives man all the understanding which he can
possibly have. Psalm 33:6 states that the heavens were made by the
word of the LORD and “by the breath of his mouth,”
so that here the word of God and his breath are
seen to be the same. The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
comments here that the Hebrew word neshamah is particularly used
where those operations of God “are energetic,” and “that “God’s
breath is the irrestible outflow of His power.” Job 33:4 again
refers to "the breath of the Almighty" which gave Elihu life and to
the Holy Ghost, who gave Paul The Theopneustos.
Mr. John Krinke, Bible College teacher of Greek
and author and publisher of What Happened to Bible Faith?
(Greenwood, IN, 2003) also contends that theopneustos is a noun, an
entity. He asks a very important question: “What are the languages
that may be referred to as being inspired?” He answers from Acts
2:5-7:
5And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews,
devout men, out of every nation under heaven.
6 Now when this was noised abroad, the
multitude came together, and were confounded, because that every man
heard them speak in his own language.
7 And they were all amazed and marvelled,
saying one to another, Behold, are not all these which speak
Galilaeans?
He further cites Acts 2:8-12:
8 And how hear we every man in our own tongue,
wherein we were born? 9 Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and the
dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Judaea, and Cappadocia, in Pontus,
and Asia,
10 Phrygia, and Pamphylia, in Egypt, and in the
parts of Libya about Cyrene, and strangers of Rome, Jews and
proselytes,
11 Cretes and Arabians, we do hear them speak in
our tongues the wonderful works of God.
12 And they were all amazed, and were in doubt,
saying one to another, What meaneth this?
And then he adds that, since every nation under
heaven is stated in Acts 2:5, the 16 named regions of verses 8-12
were only representative of the whole congregation assembled. There
were more languages and dialects represented than the 16 named
regions. When the Gospel of Christ was preached and written by the
apostles, those who heard or read had nothing less than God’s
inspiration, no matter what language they heard or read. He rightly
believes that, if inspiration is confined to autographs or faithful
apographs of the original languages, we cannot claim God’s promises
unless we know those original languages in which God delivered His
inspiration, the Bible, to mankind. We must forever be at sea.
Scripture is eternal and is given to all, out
of every nation. And in the same way the plan of redemption is
eternal and given to all, out of every nation. The Bible says Jesus
is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, from eternity.
The Word that became flesh was eternal. It follows that the word of
God which we have before us is also eternal. When God breathed the
breath of life into Adam he became a living soul; we see the same
statement made in Job by Elihu. The breath of God came upon
something already completed. Likewise when God breathed His word
from eternity inspiration was completed. In I Corinthians 2:7 Paul
says that the wisdom he preached and wrote “God ordained before the
world unto our glory.”
My Dad, The late Dr. Harold B. Sightler many
times said “Has it ever occurred to you that nothing has ever
occurred to God?” I do not believe the scriptures occurred to Him in
time but have existed from eternity and are a part of His being, the
great I Am. That is why the crucifixion and resurrection are
described as occurring according to the scriptures. Scripture is the
only means we have of knowing the attributes and nature and plan of
God for the world. That is why the Bible cannot be an idol. The
alternative to revealed religion of the Bible is natural theology
and apologetics, both products of man’s mind which have always led
man astray into philosophy and vain babblings.
The KJV translators did not claim inspiration
for their work because they did not need to. In their day it was
generally understood that the Bible was inspired, and to them it was
also clear that the Bible was now English and had been since at
least the day of Wycliffe; that the Greek and Hebrew already had
served their purpose and had long been properly put into English,
perhaps as early as Tyndale. The true church, even in the middle
ages, has always had inspired scripture before it. An omniscient,
omnipotent God would not have allowed anything else.
James H. Sightler, M.D.
Sightler Publications, July 2005
Mr Krinke’s book, What Happened to Bible Faith?, may be obtained
from:
John M. Krinke
1161 Rosengarten Drive
Greenwood, IN 46142
Fax 317-865-1710
Email: greekteacher@ameritech.net
Price is 15.00 for 1 book, 13.00 for 2-4, 10.00 for 5-9, and 9.00
for 10 or more.
