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{"id":19901,"date":"2013-12-15T08:25:44","date_gmt":"2013-12-15T13:25:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/?p=19901"},"modified":"2013-12-15T08:25:44","modified_gmt":"2013-12-15T13:25:44","slug":"poorly-worded-words-of-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2013\/12\/poorly-worded-words-of-god.html","title":{"rendered":"The Poorly-Worded Words of God?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

I had a commenter on this blog<\/a> suggest that 2 Timothy 3:16\u00a0says \u201cAll scripture comes from the mouth of God\u201d.<\/p>\n

The actual statement there refers to all writings being \u201cGod-breathed\u201d \u2013 or perhaps the usefulness of \u201cevery God-breathed writing.\u201d There has been a lot of debate about how that phrase should best be translated, and what it means.<\/p>\n

It struck me that people insist that that statement as they understand it declares \u201cthe Bible\u201d inerrant or something like that. And yet there was no \u201cBible\u201d in this period \u2013 certainly not one that included a New Testament. And so are we to understand that God\u2019s inerrant Word fails to provide us with an authoritative list of contents, and that it affirms its own inerrancy in rather ambiguous and at times downright clumsy expressions?<\/p>\n

The truth is that the people who claim that the Bible is inerrant are looking for texts that will allow them to claim that the Bible is what they think it ought to be. And they would be better off studying it more and taking seriously what it actually is.<\/p>\n

$\"\"$ <\/a><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"