Inspiration

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.- 2 Timothy 3:16

What does this phrase "breathed out by God" mean? How is the Bible a divinely inspired text? What is the minimum criteria in order to bestow sanctity upon an ancient written document? How do we define "inspired"? Since Paul wrote this verse during an era when the New Testament books were non-existent and the Old Testament the only corpus of sacred text (of which Paul was referencing), does this render Paul's writings "uninspired texts"? Does this, heaven forbid, present all of the New Testament as "uninspired" texts? The present volume of New Testament writings were not canonized until the 300's A.D. With this logic, certain texts can be annexed into sacred literature over the course of time. With that being said, why haven't more books been added to the Christian canon? Did the divine inspiration committee tap out all of it's reserves making creative insight an extinct idea from the Council of Nicaea up to 2014?    

These are some of the questions that have surfaced over the course of the last semester here at JUC. Growing up, I was indoctrinated into a systematic method of approaching scripture by automatically assuming every word in the Bible was written by God. If the Bible is "God-breathed", then He must have verbally dictated every word, down to the smallest iota, to the authors of the Biblical text, right?
Often times I hear congregants from Western Christian sects blindly hide behind the cliche phrase "God's word" or "The Word" to project a theological presupposition they deem as Biblical truth. But what is Biblical truth and how does this truth trickle down to our present age?

The Bible was not written in a vacuum. Real people who experienced real events expressed their world view through words. Inciting retribution against Babylon, the writer of Psalm 137 recalls the events surrounding the exile and implores the avenger of Israel to take violent action against innocent children.

"O daughter of Babylon, doomed to be destroyed
blessed shall he be who repays you
with what you have done to us!
Blessed shall he be who takes your little ones
and dashes them against the rock!"

That is a tough pill to swallow if we accept God inspired this writer to encourage recompense by throwing babies against rocks.

Here is another. How is it that Moses says God will drive out various nations before Israel upon entering the land, yet we still see Canaanites still living in the land when Israel arrives? According to Joshua 16:10 and 17:12, Ephraim and Manasseh were commissioned to expel them but didn't. But if God was to drive them out, why was it the tribe's responsibility to do so? Joshua 17:13 indicates that Israel grew strong but they still could not kick them out. The Jebusites mentioned in Deuteronomy 7 weren't conquered until David's era. Depending upon your Exodus dating, David's conquest of Jebus was ~200 or ~400 years after the conquest.

Then we have extra-Biblical literary works with language that sounds awfully similar to Biblical platitudes. The Mesha Stele remarks the god Kemosh prompted Mesha King of Moab to "Go! Seize Naboh against Israel...but Kemosh drove him out before me." YHWH also gives consent to David to take out the Philistines.

Granted, these are only two examples. However, we must never lose sight of the humanistic emotions, thought patterns, attitudes, and personalities unique to each author despite the ugliness.

Stories must stand on their own despite the cognitive dissonance they may elicit.  

If we fall into the commonly employed interpretative method of hyper-spiritual analytics for every verse of the Bible (i.e., what does this mean for my spiritual life?) we run the risk of dehumanizing the writer and thereby obscure his/her original intent. We effectively strip the author of the concreteness of the reality they were immersed in and in so many words say, "I don't care about your world, my spirituality surpasses your reality." I'd be willing to bet the farm American yearnings for spiritual meaning did not influence Biblical author's content. If anything, this egocentric interpretive method only promulgates a self-serving bias by reducing a time and culturally conditioned text to a consumerist pathway for self-improvement. In other words, what I can get from the Bible to enhance my spiritual walk with Jesus? Through an understanding of the author's background we pay homage and give honor to his/her unique experience with God.

Heschel once remarked the Bible is God's word to man but also man's word back to God. Discerning the difference impacts how we interpret our sacred text, for better or for worse.