Sunday, March 14, 2021

John C. Poirier on the Bible as the "Word of God"

  

Those who refer to the Bible as the “word of God” are usually quite sure they do so advisedly, but the passages to which they appeal refer only to the prophetic aspect of the scriptural words they quote, rather than to their scriptural aspect per se. James W. Scott ("The Inspiration and Interpretation of God’s Word, with Special Reference to Peter Enns," pt. 1: "Inspiration and Its Implications," WTJ vol. 71 no. 1 [2009]:129-83140), for example, claims that the identification of Scripture itself as “the written word of God” is

 

repeatedly taught by Scripture itself, most commonly whenever the NT introduces an OT quotation with such words as “God said” (e.g., 2 Cor 6:16) or “the Holy Spirit says” (e.g., Heb 3:7), especially when God is not the speaker in the OT passage (e.g., Acts 13:37, quoting Ps 16:10). “The word of God,” to which Heb 4:12 refers, includes the Scriptures (along with God’s spoken words), as is clear from the repeated statements in the previous verses that God has spoken the words of Scripture.

 

The difficulty with Scott’s argument is that every one of these NT references to the Old Testament appeals to a prophet passage (2 Cor. 6:16 refers to Lev. 26:12; Heb 3:7 refers to Ps. 95:7-11). Scott thinks that Ps. 16:10 (quoted in Acts 13:37) stands out as a passage in which “God is not the speaker,” but the NT writers clearly did not regard it so: David was widely viewed as prophetically inspired in his (supposed) authorship of the Psalms, and Ps. 16:10 was especially dear to the early Christians as a prophecy of the Christ event (See Poirier 2014, "Psalm 16:10 and the Resurrection of Jesus 'on the Third Day' (1 Corinthians 15:4)," Journal for the Study of Paul and His Letters 4 [2]:149-68) The string of OT passages are quoted in the verses leading up to Heb. 4:12 are similarly prophetic in form. (John C. Poirier, The Invention of the Inspired Text: Philological Windows on the Theopneustia of Scripture [Library of New Testament Studies 640; London: T&T Clark, 2021], 7)