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Jesus and the Inerrancy of Scripture

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When we examine the way Jesus viewed Scripture we can see that He trusted it totally, believing it to be inerrant—without error.

1. All Scripture Was Divinely Inspired

Jesus believed that Scripture, in its entirety, is God-breathed. When confronted with the temptation of the devil He said:

“It is written: ‘One does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God'” (Matthew 4:4).

Jesus believed in the full authority of Scripture. Humans are to live by every word that comes from of the mouth of God. All parts, and every word, were considered important to Jesus. He said:

Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one letter, not one stroke of a letter, will pass from the law until all is accomplished (Matthew 5:17,18).

2. The Old Testament Is Historically Accurate

Jesus spoke of the Old Testament in terms of actual history. He believed that the people mentioned actually existed and the events recorded truly occurred. These include: Adam and Eve (Matthew 19), Jonah and the great sea monster (Matthew 12), and Noah and the Flood (Matthew 24).

3. The Bible Is A Unity

Jesus also testified the Scripture were a unity — one unfolding and complete story.

Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you — that everything written about me in the law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms must be fulfilled” (Luke 24:44).

Jesus also said.

If those to whom the word of God came were called ‘gods’ — and the Scripture cannot be annulled — (John 10:35)

Jesus said that the entire Old Testament witnesses to His person and work.

And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, he expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself (Luke 24:27).

4. The Scripture Must Be Fulfilled

Because the Bible is God’s divinely inspired Word, everything that it says must be fulfilled. Jesus said to those who arrested Him:

But how then would the Scriptures be fulfilled, which say it must happen in this way? (Matthew 26:54).

5. God’s Word Is True

Jesus said the Bible is also without error.

Sanctify them by your truth. Your word is truth (John 17:17).

6. Scriptures Are Sufficient For Salvation

The truth of the Scripture is sufficient for the salvation of the people. Jesus said:

If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead (Luke 16:31).

According to Jesus, Scripture was enough.

7. Jesus Appealed To Scripture To Defend His Actions

Jesus also said that His arrest was a fulfillment of Scripture:

Jesus said to the crowds, “Have you come out with swords and clubs to arrest me as you would against a robber? Every day I used to sit in the temple teaching and you did not seize me. But all this has taken place to fulfill the Scriptures of the prophets.” Then all the disciples left him and fled (Matthew 26:55-56).

Also, when Jesus cleansed the temple He appealed to Scripture to explain His actions. In Mark’s gospel we read.

Then they came to Jerusalem. And he [Jesus] entered the temple and began to drive out those who were buying and selling in the temple, and overturned the tables of the moneychangers and the seats of those who were selling doves; and he would not permit anyone to carry merchandise through the temple. And he began to teach and say to them, “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations?’ But you have made it a robbers’ den” (Mark 11:15-17).

Jesus Gave His Full Approval Of The Old Testament

From the passages above, we can see that Jesus gave the Old Testament His full approval. It is clear from Jesus’ statements that He believed the Bible to be without error.

Therefore, it is clear that Jesus accepted the view that the Old Testament was without error.

The Importance Of Jesus’ Testimony

The testimony of Jesus is vital because God the Father authenticated and proved Jesus to be His own divine Son by the resurrection from the dead. Paul said.

Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent, because he has fixed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness through a man whom he has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising him from the dead (Acts 17:30-31).

Paul wrote:

Who was declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead, according to the Spirit of holiness, Jesus Christ our Lord (Romans 1:4).

Jesus And Truth

Jesus Christ declared that He is the truth:

I am the way, the truth, and the life (John 14:6).

This claim meant far more than the fact that He was a truthful person. He declares Himself to be the Truth in the sense that He is standard of truth. John called Him the faithful witness.

From Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth (Revelation 1:5)

He also wrote:

To the angel of the church in Laodicea write: These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God’s creation (Revelation 3:14).

Jesus said concerning Himself:

To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth (John 18:37).

Jesus did not merely come to testify of the meaning of truth – He is truth. Therefore whatever He says about any subject is the final word on that matter.

We Have Three Choices With Respect To Jesus’ Testimony

Since Jesus demonstrated total trust in the Scriptures, we have three different ways in which we can look at the matter: He was either deceived, ignorant, or He as telling the truth.

1. Jesus Was A Deceiver

If Jesus knew the Scriptures contained errors but taught the people that they were error-free, then He was a deceiver. This would make Jesus guilty of lying. Whatever His motive may have been, it would prove that we could neither trust Him nor the Scriptures.

2. Jesus Was Ignorant

If the Bible contains factual errors of which Jesus did not know, then it affects the way we view Him. If He were ignorant of this fact, then it is possible that He was ignorant of other facts. Logically if the Bible is not inerrant and Jesus thought it was, then He cannot be the One whom He claimed to be – God the Son. If we cannot trust Him on this subject then we cannot trust Him on any subject.

3. The Bible Is Inerrant

The only alternative that fits the facts is that Jesus taught the inerrancy of the Bible because He knew it was true. Since He has demonstrated that He has the authority to make such statements His Word on the subject is final. Thus, if we are to be consistent we will approach the Bible in the same manner as our Lord—believing it to be error-free.

Summary

The position of Jesus with respect to errors in the Bible is clear: He believed the Scripture was error-free. In other words, He believed the Word  of God to be inerrant. This can be found in the fact that He considered every Word to be trustworthy, believed the entire Old Testament was historically accurate, taught that the Scriptures were a unity, argued that everything written must be fulfilled, and believed that it contained enough information sufficient for salvation. He also quoted the Scriptures to defend His actions. Jesus Christ totally and utterly trusted the Scripture and so should we.

We cannot reject the attitude of Jesus without undermining His entire authority. Either He knew what He was talking about or He did not. If He did not, then He was either a willful deceiver or He was ignorant.

The only other choice is that the Bible truly is inerrant, just like Jesus believed. This is the biblical position and this is where all the evidence leads us.

Comments

  1. Praise The Lord Jesus who by His Holy Spirit has given us(those who believe) the light to see that in Him are all things pertaining to Life and Godliness through Him who is God’s word.

  2. I really apprciate this.I was just going over this with someone the other day. Being able to show the inerrancy of Scripture is very important. Jesus answered Satan three times from Deuteronomy while in the wilderness. The thing I learned from studying that encounter is the fact that Satan quoted from Scripture during that time.He did quote out of context but apparently he has no problem with the inerrancy of Scripture either.

  3. This is great and I would like to have it for future reference. The following part of this article was a bit clumsey by listing the entire chapters instead of the verses.

    2. The Old Testament Is Historically Accurate

    Jesus spoke of the Old Testament in terms of actual history. He believed that the people mentioned actually existed and the events recorded truly occurred. These include: Adam and Eve (Matthew 19), Jonah and the great sea monster (Matthew 12), and Noah and the Flood (Matthew 24).

  4. Thanks; great article.

    Will you have a follow-up one on why New Testament quotations of the Old appear to be from the Septuagint?

    Daniel.

    • Well, one great example is how the Hebrew in several places mentions a plant called “kaneh,” meaning a reed, specifically one that is about 10 feet tall, straight and narrow. The LXX referred to it as “calamus” a floppy, 3-foot-high marsh grass, and in another location as “cinnamon.” The LXX makes numerous errors when it comes to plants, animals, minerals and geographic locations. While this may seem trivial, it absolutely is not.

    • I misread your question before I sent my first answer. WHY the NT quotes are from the Septuagint is because Greek had become the dominant language in the Mediterranean after Alexander the Great. Prior to that it was Aramaic. Many Jews in NT times actually consulted an Aramaic Bible called the Targum. It’s also said by church fathers that Matthew wrote and duplicated his gospel in Aramaic, but it vanished and was survived by Greek. When the Romans oblitterated Judea in 70 AD, killing and crucifying most of its inhabitants, the majority of surviving Christians were Greek-speakers, and it was the Greek-speaking Romans, fearing association with Judaism, who organized the bulk of Christianity. The Septuagint was preferred by Greek speakers over Aramaic or Hebrew scriptures.

  5. The New Testament is written in Greek, and the Jews of the times mainly knew the Greek version (the LXX). Not all quotations of the OT are from the LXX, though many are. Matthew, for example, quotes from both the Greek and Hebrew texts.

  7. It might be good to note that while the Word of God is accurate, inside and out, the English translation of it isn’t always. When reading and studying it, it is profitable to check the Greek and so forth to make sure that the English is lining up, otherwise there can seem to be contradiction/error in certain scriptures.

    It is also beneficial to note that the colloquialisms and culture of those who penned it as God moved or instructed them, differ from western ones. Their customs and mannerisms which are easily understood by the eastern person may not make sense to those of us in our culture. On top of that, there are grammatical figures of speech used to emphasize certain points in scripture that must be taken into consideration.

    When all things are taken into account, we see that scripture is not in error, but at times how it communicates to us. Meaning, any apparent error lies with us (in our understanding of it or in translation) rather than with the God breathed Word.

  8. Thanks Ian, Kernal and Dana.

    What I was wondering was, is it the case that NT writers who quote the LXX are affirming the inerrancy of the LXX? I understand some scholars hold it one way, some another?

    Daniel.

    • That is quite a tricky question. In general, how the NT writers use the OT texts is at times quite baffling to modern scholars, esp evangelical ones. The issue is further complicated by the fact that writers like Matthew (he is prominent in such discussions because he heavily quotes or alludes to the OT in his gospel) used a text form of the LXX which we do not have today. Sometimes NT authors even slightly altered the text (Greek or Hebrew) which they were quoting in order to make it fit better.

      Another problem is that there is no single, complete original of any portion of the Bible in Hebrew, Aramaic or Greek. Our Bible is an ‘eclectic’ text, composed of the very best and oldest texts, witnesses and versions. The Bible, in this regard, has no close competitor in terms of its attestation and how sure we can be that we have as close as possible what the various original writers set down. Therefore, if we construct doctrines that insist on the perfection of ‘every word’ of Scripture, we have to face the problematic question – “Which words?” We do not have the originals. We do not know that every word is the original word – we know most of them are, but not 100%. The follow-up problem to this is then, ‘are only the best eclectic texts (which are improved every now and then by scholars) the Word of God, or are translations also the Word of God?’ The NASB differs in wording to other translations – is that a problem? Which words are the God-breathed ones?

      So we must be cautious in our doctrines when we try to honour the Bible and teach it correctly. I prefer to think of the Bible, in whichever translation, as the book where God speaks, where He reveals Himself in His Son.

      But these are very complicated matters, with no clear answers.

  9. Thanks again, Kernal.

    I think you have clarified a quite difficult area.

    DM

  10. Hello everyone! I think Kernal’s response somewhat hits on my question – If we have God’s Words without error, how come we have different versions of the English Bible? If they say different things then that would mean one is incorrect. Thank you 🙂

    • This is the problem with the way we evangelicals have formulated some of our doctrines about the Bible. Paul says all scripture is God-breathed, but our doctrines (some of them) go quite a way beyond that. We need to be careful.

      What we have in the Bible is a collection of ancient writings from appointed witnesses to God’s revelations in history, whether through messages to prophets or mighty acts like the Exodus, the 10 Commandments, or, ultimately, Jesus Himself. The people who wrote these did not simply act as secretaries, writing down whatever God dictated to them (as the Muslims would view revelation). They were somehow inspired to write their material, whether gospel or psalm, and the communities that received them recognised that there was something special about them. Over the years, these texts were collected and fixed into a canon, excluding the lesser texts that did not seem to be ‘God-breathed’.

      One problem is that we do not know how the writing process happened exactly. Somehow, God is the ultimate author of the Bible, yet we can see that it was very much written by humans. We can see how Matthew and Luke adapted Mark’s material and edited it, sometimes polishing up the Greek here and there, or substituting their own preferred words. And in the Old Testament, we can see that later editors inserted clarifications, like updating names of places so later readers would understand where was being originally referred to.

      So we mustn’t think of the Bible like the way the Muslims think of the Qu’ran – some perfect book that was given by God that you can only read in Arabic. The real word of God, the Bible, is perfect in the sense that it is what God wants it to be and accomplishes what God wants it to do. We don’t have literally every single word that was originally written, and nor do we have to read it in Hebrew, Aramaic or Greek to meet Christ and grow as Christians. We can read it in any language and expect God to speak to us through it, but not because one translation is better than another, or one Greek text is older than another, but because our God is a living God with a living Word, which He speaks through this God-breathed text.

      We are deeply blessed to have so many very fine translations like NASB, NRSV, ESV, NKJV, NIV and now the NET. In the end, we are not listening to some dead text, but to a living God.

  11. Thanks for this article. I, since a child, have never once questioned the truth of the Bible and have many times wondered why Christians did so. As far as the differences in translations…I do not read every translation but only a few, but have never observed the actual substance of the Word being changed, only words.