What Does All Scripture Is God Breathed Mean? Part One

What does Paul mean that all Scripture is God-breathed?

2 Timothy 3:16-17 says,

All Scripture is God-breathed and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the person of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.

Many versions of the Bible use the word inspired rather than God-breathed in 2 Timothy 3:16. However, translating the Greek word theopneustos as inspired is an interpretation rather than a translation.

The word theopneustos in the original Greek means God-breathed. Theo means God and pneustos means breathed out. Pneustos is where the word pneumonia originates, which has to do with a lung sickness, making breathing difficult.

The questions is, “What does the phrase ‘all scripture is God-breathed’ mean?”

Most Bible scholars take it to mean the scriptures are inspired by God.

Among these Bible scholars, I have discovered seven theories of inspiration relating to the Bible being inspired by God.

I’ve done my best to accurately present these seven theories below.

Theory #1: Intuition Inspiration Theory

This theory is the belief that God inspired people to record the information contained in the Bible, but the words they used were not inspired by God or specifically chosen by God, only the writers were inspired or moved by God to write.

Theory #2: The Dictation Inspiration Theory

This theory is the belief the Holy Spirit dictated to the writers the exact words they were to write without the freedom to write according to their own style or personality. The writers, much like secretaries, wrote each word down robotically.

Theory #3: Plenary Verbal Inspiration Theory

This theory is the belief that every word of the original written texts contained in the Bible was selected by the Holy Spirit, therefore every word in the Bible is the word of God. However, God allowed the writer to write the words using their own style and personality.

Theory #4: Conceptual Inspiration Theory

This theory states that it is only the main ideas or concepts, not the words, that have been inspired by God and recorded by the writers. Thus, God allowed for freedom in the wording and grammar of the writers.

Theory #5: Partial or Limited Inspiration Theory

This theory is the belief that God gave the writers freedom to write about the events they were recording, which could contain errors, but God steered the human authors to record theological truths in the process, which contain no errors.

Theory #6: Experiential Inspiration Theory

This theory is the belief that God did not inspire the writer but that the reader experiences the breath of God when reading the Bible as the Spirit of God moves within the reader while reading the Bible.

Theory #7: Natural Inspiration Theory

This theory states that the Bible is no more inspired by God than any other writing. Those who wrote the contents contained in the Bible were inspired to write naturally as any other writer is inspired to write.

Notice that all of these are just theories, which tells us that no one knows exactly what it means that God inspired the scriptures. And remember, the word inspired used in many versions of the Bible is an interpretation rather than a translation. The translated word for theopneustos is God-breathed, not inspired.

What I have noticed in the different theories of inspiration is that the context of 2 Timothy 3:16-17 is ignored. In seeking to correctly interpret God-breathed in 2 Timothy 3:16, we must first examine the historical context compelling Paul to write to Timothy the following words,

All Scripture is God-breathed and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the person of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.

By examining the context, I believe we can come to a reasonable conclusion to what Paul meant when he used the word theopneustos, meaning God-breathed, when writing to Timothy.

Click Below For Part Two.

Part Two