The Inerrancy Of Scripture

“All the words in the Bible are God’s words. Since God cannot lie or speak falsely, then all the words in Scripture are completely true.”

The inerrancy of Scripture is quite a huge concern in the evangelical world today, as Scripture is being challenged for its inerrancy. Even Christians have started to believe that although the main teachings of the Bible are infallible, the Bible cannot be completely true in every single thing it says.

The inerrancy of Scripture means that Scripture in the original manuscripts does not affirm anything that is contrary to fact. In other words, the Bible always tells the truth in everything it talks about.

Is the Bible absolutely truthful in everything it says? It must be recognized that absolute truthfulness in speech is consistent with some other types of statements, such as:

1. The Bible can be inerrant and still speak in the ordinary language of everyday speech.

This Bible is flawless even when it comes to scientific, historical, or numerical descriptions of facts and events.

For example, the Bible talks about the “sun rising” and the “rain falling”. Scientifically speaking, the sun does not “rise” because the Earth rotates in its orbit around the sun. Also, scientifically speaking, the rain does not “fall” downwards. The rain falls downwards, sideways, or upwards, depending on the direction of the Earth’s gravitational pull. But the Bible’s descriptions of the “sun rising” and the “rain falling” are still true, because this is what exactly happens from the perspective of the speaker.

Another example concerning numbers and measurements. A reporter can say that 8,000 people were killed in a battle without implying that exactly 8000 people have died; not 7,999 people, not 8001 people. If roughly 8000 people died, it would be false to say that 16,000 people died. But it would not be false in most contexts for a reporter to say that 8000 people died when in actual fact, 7,823 or 8,242 people have died. The limits of truthfulness depend on the degree of precision implied by the speaker and expected by the hearers.

As far as the Bible writers are concerned, in some cases, they never implied that they were reporting the exact number when they record a quantitative figure. The original hearers were not expecting a totally accurate number either. Getting rounded numbers is not really a problem, because firstly, rounded numbers are not necessary false numbers. And secondly, the original hearers were not expecting a statistical report anyway. Rounded numbers are equally true for them as the accurate figure, in which they were not really interested in. So, there is no falsehood in the Bible as far as numerical measurements are concerned.

2. The Bible can be inerrant and still include loose or free quotations.

The method of quoting what someone says varies from culture to culture. In contemporary American or British culture, we use quotation marks when we quote a person word for word (direct quotation). And if we are not quoting a person for his exact words, we only expect an accurate report of the substance in that statement (indirect quotation).

Ancient Greek writing had no quotation marks or equivalent kinds of punctuation. Therefore, only indirect quotations could be done by the Bible’s writers. They did not ordinarily imply that they were quoting the exact words of the speaker, not did the original hearers expect verbatim quotations. So, loose or free quotations of the Old Testament or of the words of Jesus are consistent with the inerrancy of the Bible, as long as the content reported is not false.

For example, consider these 3 statements:

a) “I will come to the house to eat in 2 minutes,” said Ah Chong.
b) Ah Chong said that he will return home for dinner immediately.
c) Ah Chong went back to Gelugor for a meal as soon as he could.

All 3 statements are correct. None of Ah Chong’s exact, original words were repeated. But every statement is still an acceptable and truthful report of Ah Chong’s dinner plans.

3. The Bible can be inerrant and still have unusual or uncommon grammatical constructions.

Even though the Holy Spirit moved human hands to write the Words of God, the Bible was still written by ordinary people. Therefore, some Scriptural writings contain the rough language of ordinary people. This includes the usage of bad grammar in the some of the original manuscripts.

In some cases, the cases of “bad grammar” actually have a special, divine intention in what it is trying to say. For example, when Jesus said “Before Abraham was, I am,” (John 8:58) it is grammatically wrong, but it is completely true. When Jesus said “I am” instead of “I was,” Jesus was making a clear declaration of His deity.

But in some other cases, bad grammar is the result of stylistic irregularity. However, a statement can be grammatically wrong, but still be entirely true. For example, a rubber tapper may not be educated enough to form grammatically impeccable sentences. But he is the most trusted man in the community, because he has earned a reputation for never telling a lie. He can come up with a statements like, “I was cutting the tree skin that time la. I was late because the tree milk come out slow mah. I where can stealing your chicken and cutting tree skin at the same time?” And he can still be totally truthful.