Who Wrote the Bible, Really?

To paraphrase Paul in 2 Timothy 3:16, “All Scripture is expired.” “What!” says someone. “Does Scripture have an expiration date? I thought Scripture was inspired by God.” That is traditionally the way the passage has been translated—in the King James Version, for example. Of course, people also say that Mozart was inspired, or that he was inspiring for those who hear him. They mean that there is a certain liveliness to his music, or perhaps that some creative force from outside of him empowered him as he wrote. That’s not what we mean when we’re talking about the Bible. What Paul says is that all Scripture is theopneustos, “God-breathed” (NIV) or “breathed out by God” (ESV)—expired by Him. It is not that God took a writer or a body of writing and empowered them. No, God Himself breathed the Bible out. It has its origin in Him, no less than our own words emerge from within us on our breath. But what does this mean, then, when we speak of Paul writing 2 Timothy or Moses writing the Law? Who can we say really wrote the Bible? Dual Authorship When we say God breathed out the Scriptures, we shouldn’t imagine that God made man into a mechanism, like a typewriter or a laptop—as if Jeremia...