Inspiration

Inspiration in biblical theology refers to the supernatural divine influence by which the human authors of Scripture wrote under God's guidance so that their writings carry the authority of God himself. The foundational text is 2 Timothy 3:16: "All Scripture is God-breathed (theopneustos) and profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness." The Greek theopneustos — "breathed out by God" — indicates that Scripture is the product of divine breath or speech, analogous to God's creative word that brought the world into existence.

Peter's description of the prophetic process in 2 Peter 1:21 — "holy men of God spoke as they were moved (pheromenoi, carried along) by the Holy Spirit" — presents inspiration as the Spirit's sovereign oversight of human writers while preserving their individual personalities, vocabularies, and literary styles. The doctrine does not flatten Scripture into mechanical dictation but claims divine superintendence over the whole. Jesus's own treatment of Old Testament texts affirms their binding authority down to the letter (Matthew 5:18; John 10:35: "Scripture cannot be broken"), grounding the New Testament's use of the Old in a high view of the inspiration of the Hebrew canon.