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rv; please make your case on the talk page before inserting or deleting links...thanks
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*[http://www.cresourcei.org/inerrant.html The Modern Inerrancy Debate] by Dennis Bratcher (Wesleyan perspective)
*[http://www.cresourcei.org/inerrant.html The Modern Inerrancy Debate] by Dennis Bratcher (Wesleyan perspective)
*[http://wesley.nnu.edu/wesleyan_theology/theojrnl/16-20/19-15.htm Wesleyanism & the Inerrancy Issue] by [[J. Kenneth Grider]] (Wesleyan perspective)
*[http://wesley.nnu.edu/wesleyan_theology/theojrnl/16-20/19-15.htm Wesleyanism & the Inerrancy Issue] by [[J. Kenneth Grider]] (Wesleyan perspective)
*[http://www.skepticsannotatedbible.com/ Skeptics Annotated Bible]
* [http://www.bigissueground.com/atheistground/ash-biblecontradictions.shtml A Few Bible Contradictions]
* [http://www.errancywiki.com ErrancyWiki]




Revision as of 20:13, 10 February 2006

Biblical inerrancy is the belief that the Bible, as the inspired Word of God, is without error. The belief takes several forms, ranging from Biblical literalism (the belief that the Bible is true in every word) to the belief that Biblical texts require interpretation in order to be understood correctly.

Basis of belief

The theological basis of the belief, in its simplest form, is that as God Himself is infallible, then the Bible, as His divine Word, must also be free from error. A more nuanced interpretation of the same idea is that God guided the authors of the Bible without marginalizing their personal concerns or personalities, and so preserved the texts from error. (See Biblical inspiration). Since it is the Bible itself which asserts the infallibility of God, the principle of biblical inerrancy runs the risk of resting on circular reasoning.

Catholic teaching seeks to avoid this problem by holding that the resurrection of Christ affirms his divinity, and Christ in turn appointed the Pope by himself, or the body of Bishops led by the Pope, guided by the Holy Spirit, to offer infallible guidance on questions of faith and morals whose answers are found within the Word of God, comprised of both Sacred Tradition and Sacred Scripture.

The Orthodox Church also believes in unwritten Tradition and the written Scriptures. However, they do not believe in the infallibility or authority of the Magisterium, holding instead that the Church a whole, throughout both time and space, is infallible.

Protestant churches, like the Orthodox church, do not accept Papal authority, but they also reject an authoritative oral tradition parallel to, or productive of, the Bible. Those believing in inerrancy hold that the Bible confirms its own infallibility, pointing out that Jesus frequently quotes Scripture, and citing 2 Timothy 3:16: "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God" (literally "God-breathed").

Biblical literalism

In its most stringent form, Biblical inerrancy holds that the Bible is literally true in every word, at least in the original autograph (the first texts written in the original Hebrew, Greek or Aramaic). Authenticity, and inerrancy, therefore resides in the earliest and most accurate texts.

While believing that every word is given by God through the authors of Scripture, many inerrantists, however, would say that literal interpretation is not always appropriate, so it is necessary to recognize figurative language in Scripture. Indeed, they would claim that statements such as "And all the trees of the field shall clap their hands" (Isaiah 55:12) do not make literal sense and are impossible to understand correctly without recognizing figurative language (in the example given, a poetic metaphor expressing joy). Entire books have been devoted to understanding figures of speech in Scripture. An early example that is still used is E. W. Bullinger, _Figures of Speech Used in the Bible_ (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Book House, 1970; reprinted from the 1898 original).

A variation on this belief holds that the translators of the King James Version were guided by God and that the KJV thus is to be taken as authoritative. However, those who hold this opinion do not extend it to the KJV translations of the Deuterocanonical books, which were produced along with the rest of the Authorized Version. Modern translations differ from the KJV at numerous points, sometimes on the basis of access to better early texts. Upholders of the KJV would nevertheless hold that the Protestant canon of KJV is itself an inspired text and therefore remains authoritative. The King James Only movement goes one step further, asserting that the KJV is the sole English translation free from error.

The Conservative Protestant position

In 1978 a large gathering of conservative Evangelical churches, including representatives of the Conservative, Reformed and Presbyterian, Lutheran, and Baptist denominations, adopted the Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy. The Chicago Statement does not necessarily imply that any particular traditional interpretation of the Bible is without error. Instead, it gives primacy to seeking the intention of the author of each text, and commits itself to receiving the statement as fact depending on whether it can be determined or assumed that the author meant to communicate a statement of fact. While acknowledging that there are many kinds of literature in the Bible besides statements of fact, the Statement nevertheless reasserts the authenticity of the Bible in toto as the Word of God. "The authority of Scripture is inescapably impaired if this total divine inerrancy is in any way limited or disregarded, or made relative to a view of truth contrary to the Bible's own; and such lapses bring serious loss to both the individual and the Church."

The Catholic position

The position of the Roman Catholic Church on the infallibility of the Bible is contained in Dei Verbum, one of the principal documents of the Second Vatican Council, promulgated by Pope Paul VI on November 18, 1965. It states that "everything asserted by the inspired authors or sacred writers must be held to be asserted by the Holy Spirit" and that "they, as true authors, consigned to writing everything and only those things which He [God] wanted." (Second Vatican Council, Dei Verbum, n. 11).

Dei Verbum reaffirms a well-known and often-quoted statement by Pope Leo XIII, Providentissimus Deus (November 18, 1893), that "...all the books which the Church receives as sacred and canonical, are written wholly and entirely ... at the dictation of the Holy Spirit; and so far is it from being possible that any error can co-exist with inspiration, that inspiration not only is essentially incompatible with error, but excludes and rejects it as absolutely and necessarily as it is impossible that God Himself, the supreme Truth, can utter that which is not true. This is the ancient and unchanging faith of the Church, solemnly defined in the Councils of Florence and of Trent, and finally confirmed and more expressly formulated by the Council of the Vatican." (Providentissimus Deus, n. 20).

Nevertheless, the Church does not adopt a literalist approach to inerrancy, but holds that, although every Biblical passage is true and inerrant when correctly interpreted, the authority to decide correct interpretation rests with the Church through its magisterium.

See also

References

Pro

Con

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