WHO WROTE THE BIBLE?

Who wrote the Bible? It is here, and at some time in the past was written. Those who deny its divine origin and who charge that it is a product of man, are obligated to explain when, and by whom, and under what conditions it was written. This should be an easy task, for after the field is surveyed it is clear the Bible was written either by (1) good men or good angels; (2) bad men or bad angels; or (3) it is a revelation from God. No other conclusion is possible; there is no other way in which it could have come into existence. Which of these three possible sources accounts for the origin of the Scriptures?

(1) Was it written by good men or good angels? We may at once eliminate good men or good angels as the authors of the Scriptures. Claiming to have been written by men guided by inspiration and speaking the oracles of God, good men or good angels could not, without losing their character as good men, have palmed off a document which is palpably a tissue of falsehoods, if, indeed, it is not of heavenly origin. Certainly, it is not the composition of “good men,” for they neither could, or would, have made a book telling lies, yet claiming a “thus saith the Lord,” when they knew their own invention. We may therefore reasonably conclude the Bible is not a product of good men. Nor may its origin be accounted for on the hypothesis that it was written by “good angels.” The same objections advanced against the possibility that it was written by good men are equally weighty against the theory that it was produced by good angels. The descriptive adjective “good” cannot be used to suggest the character of either men or angels who would palm off a forgery on unsuspecting people! The Bible, therefore, was not written either by “good men,” or “good angels.”

(2) Did “bad men,” or “bad angels” write it? This too, involves an impossibility. Assume that it was thus written; one is forced to the conclusion that wicked men wrote the most exalted and perfect code of morals known to mankind. It requires that one should pass by the compositions of the Wise, the Good and the Great of all past generations, and look to a collection of forgers for what is, admittedly, the earth’s finest piece of literature! Furthermore, it forces one to conclude that wicked men wrote out their own condemnation; it assumes that men in forbidding sin, knew they were the worst of sinners; condemned lying, and knew they were themselves liars; inculcated a mode of living, and to it attached sanctions which condemned themselves before all others. It requires a degree of credulity beyond that of reasonable men to assume that it could have thus been written. Wicked men or devils could not, and would not, have written a book which commands all duty, which forbids all sin and which would therefore condemn their own souls throughout eternity.

(3) It follows, therefore, that the Bible can be accounted for only on the ground that it was written by inspiration. This is, indeed, what it claims for itself: “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God” (2 Tim. 3:16). The word “inspiration” means, literally, “God-breathed”; the Scriptures therefore are simply the “breath of God.” Having emanated from him, they are as high above human compositions as the heavens are higher than the earth.

Guy N. Woods