THE AUTHOR OF THE BIBLE
It is important for one to know who wrote the Bible – The Scripture is unique in that it has two levels of authorship.
I. THE HUMAN AUTHOR
Each book of the Bible has at least one human author, and on occasions more than one. These authors are sometimes identified at the beginning of the book, as in Ephesians, and Jeremiah; Sometimes at the end of the book, as in the Gospel of John; sometimes not at all as in Genesis and Hebrews. Yet through scholarly investigations the most likely writers have been identified.
It is a valuable exercise to acquaint oneself with the writer(s) of the particular book, if he is known, as well as the identity of those to whom the author was writing to.
Each human writer has his own writing style and emotional background, which reflects the contents of his book.
II. THE DIVINE AUTHOR
Though the Bible is a compilation of 66 books penned by 40 different human agents, the Bible is emphatic that behind each human author is the Holy Spirit Himself. If that is not taken into account the Bible then is nothing more than a window into the past and no more relevant than a high school history book or a farmer’s almanac is for us today.
What makes the Bible unlike any other book is the level of authorship – God Himself – inspiring the human writers. Emphasis is placed on the word inspired. The Holy Spirit is not only the source of the inspiration, He weaves the threads of the Bible into one resounding theme: The action of God to realign human lives to His purpose and will. God delights in the expressions of His perfections, making these expressions of His own perfections His end, He makes Himself His end. (Jonathan Edwards, The End For Which God Made The World)
2Timothy 3:16 says that: “All Scripture is God breathed useful for training, teaching… so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”
As in answering a true-false question in an exam, if any part of the answer is false, the whole answer is considered to be false. Equally then, with the Bible this is also true. If any one word or sentence is false, then everything written in the 66 books is false and the Bible becomes just another window to the past.
