The Modern Conception of Inspiration

In evangelical and fundamentalist Christian camps today there is near-universal agreement on the doctrine of the inspiration of the scriptures. Doctrinal statements typically refer to the “original manuscripts” as being inspired, inerrant, and infallible. It is therefore asserted that inspiration, the fact that gives Holy Scripture its unique authority, was an event in the past. Thus, the copies of scripture we have today are authoritative only inasmuch as they accord with these inspired original manuscripts. This view may accurately be called “original manuscript only-ism”.

That we neither possess the inspired originals nor could identify them if they were extant seems not to have entered the minds of those who profess such a doctrine. Holy Scripture (the Bible) is supposedly the bedrock upon which all doctrine taught in these Christian circles is based and judged. The Bible has this unique authority because of its inspired nature.

An inadequate view of the nature of inspiration then necessarily has far-reaching implications. The Bible is our foundation, and foundational faults threaten the entire house. Below we will discuss the inadequacy of original manuscript only-ism and set forth a correct alternative.

All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.

2 Timothy 3:16-17 KJV

The above passage is rightly used to declare both the inspiration and sufficiency of scripture. The authority claims of Roman Catholicism and all other ecclesiastical systems are irreparably nullified when one realizes the implications of scripture’s unique authority. Such authority is undermined by original manuscript only-ism. Paul does not say that scripture was inspired once, at its writing, and then left to fend for itself. He says what scripture is: “by inspiration of God”. Paul places no limit of time upon it, and he gives no hint that the breath of God departs when a page is copied. Furthermore, never once in the Bible is the word “scripture” a reference to an “original manuscript”. It is always a reference to a present extant text.

And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.

2 Timothy 3:15 KJV

The scripture in question then was an extant text available to Timothy as a child. Who would dare suggest Timothy possessed the “original manuscripts”?

The Lord Jesus Christ handled scripture the same way. Standing in the synagogue at Nazareth with a copy of Isaiah in His hands, He read and declared, “This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears” (Lk 4:21 (And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.)). The eunuch read “the place of the scripture” from his own copy (Ac 8:32 (The place of the scripture which he read was this, He was led as a sheep to the slaughter; and like a lamb dumb before his shearer, so opened he not his mouth:)), and the Bereans “searched the scriptures daily” in theirs (Ac 17:11 (These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.)). In every case the scripture in view is the copy at hand, and in every case it carries the full authority of God.

We then see that original manuscript only-ism is unscriptural. Faithful extant texts of scripture are inspired by God. Paul shows no deference to the “original manuscripts”. He operated under the assumption (as did the Lord Jesus Christ) that the extant text of his day was inspired and completely authoritative.

The professors of original manuscript only-ism scoff at those who today hold such a belief as Paul did. We are told instead that new discoveries have exposed whole verses of our treasured scripture as spurious additions, “not in the original” and thus uninspired. Therefore, by the arm of fleshly and unbelieving scholarship, the text of the Bible has been reconstructed for us in a doctrinally inferior text copyrighted for profit by private companies. It is needful to point out at this time that altering and undermining God’s word has long been the standard operating procedure of the “god of this world” (2 Co 4:4 (In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.); see Ge 3:1-5 (1 Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? 2 And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: 3 But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. 4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: 5 For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.)).

The KJV: The Only Rational Choice

We can then safely conclude that original manuscript only-ism and the plethora of modern versions created using its assumptions undermine the authority of God’s word. We ought instead to follow the scriptural precedent by accepting the divinely exalted text “as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe” (1 Th 2:13 (For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe.)). For English-speaking people, this text is undoubtedly the King James Authorized Version of 1611 (KJV). God has clearly marked the KJV as His choice for us, as evidenced by the immense historical and current spiritual fruit produced thereby.

With over 400 years of such fruit bearing witness to its exalted position among all others, it is the obvious choice. Translated under the authority of a Christian king before the rise of modernistic unbelieving scholarship, the God-honored English text of the Reformation is in every way preferable to, and exalted above, its modern competitors. Many such competitors wear the garb of scholarship and accessibility while diluting or excising precious divine truths delivered to us in the New Testament. For these reasons, and others, they ought not to be preferred to the KJV.

This does not forbid the use of other helps. Literal versions such as Young’s Literal Translation and the Concordant Literal New Testament may be consulted to see the sense of a word in the original, much as a lexicon is consulted. The standard by which they are weighed, however, is the KJV, which is itself the inspired word of God in English.

Because the KJV is scripture, it is inspired of God. The living words of God are available in their full power to all who hold a copy of it. We do not have as anemic a foundation as is supposed by those who hold to original manuscript only-ism. We are not “ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth” (2 Ti 3:7 (Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.)). God’s precious word is not locked away in the annals of history awaiting the scholar’s permission to speak. Rather, God has delivered to His people a pure, perfect, inspired Bible. This is the inspired scripture from which pure doctrine flows and whereby we may be perfect (2 Ti 3:17 (That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.)).