Who Wrote the Bible?
Who wrote the Bible? God did. To put a finer point on it, God is the divine author who used various human authors to write exactly what He wanted written. That is, God is the primary author and the humans are secondary authors. This type of dual authorship is assumed throughout the Bible. For example, “All this took place to fulfill what the Lord [primary author] had spoken by the prophet [Isaiah, secondary author]” (Matt. 1:22; see also Mark 12:36; Heb. 3:7 with 4:7; 2 Peter 1:21). Traditionally, God’s effecting the Scriptures to be written is termed inspiration, which means that God breathed out the Scriptures (2 Tim. 3:16).
Primary Authorship
In addition to straightforward passages that declare God as the author of Scripture (2 Tim. 3:16), there are other types of intriguing biblical passages confirming divine authorship. Let us look at three.
There are passages where the Scriptures are functionally equated to God. In Romans 9:17, Paul is quoting from Exodus 9:16, where Moses is told to declare God’s words to Pharaoh. But Paul does not write, “God says to Pharaoh,” but instead, “Scripture says to Pharaoh.” Obviously, Paul means that God spoke to Pharaoh, but God’s speaking and Scripture’s speaking are intimately related to each other in Paul’s mind. Similarly in Galatians 3:8, within an argument showing that the doctrine of justification by faith existed in the Old Testament, Paul notes the forward-looking aspect of Genesis 12:3 intended by God. But in referring to this, Paul does not write, “God foreseeing,” but “Scripture foreseeing.” Again, God and Scripture are intimately related.
There are also Old Testament passages where God does not appear to be the speaker, but He is denoted as the speaker by a New Testament writer. Hebrews 1:5–13 includes seven Old Testament quotes. These quotes include passages in which God is the direct speaker but others in which He is not. However, all the quotes in Hebrews are prefaced by some form of “God says” or “he says.” Thus, whether the Old Testament context includes God’s explicitly speaking or not, the author of Hebrews considers all of Scripture to be God’s speaking on some level.
Consider 1 Corinthians 9:8–10. Paul, in a discussion concerning the propriety of financially supporting ministers, argues that he is not basing his conclusion on a “human authority,” but on “the Law of Moses.” He goes on to quote Deuteronomy 25:4, which concerns feeding oxen while they work. Following the quote, he rhetorically asks, “Is it for oxen that God is concerned? Does he [God] not certainly speak for our sake?”—meaning yes, God is concerned for oxen, but how much more is He concerned for men in similar situations. Paul equates “it is written in the Law of Moses” to God’s “concern” and God’s “speaking.” This is opposed to “human authority.” Although Moses was obviously human, Paul does not consider him a human authority. Why not? Paul clearly believes that Deuteronomy ultimately has a divine author.
Secondary Authorship
Without doubt, biblical writers believed that humans wrote the Scripture. Many times, one biblical writer refers to another by name. For example, Daniel affirms Jeremiah’s authorship (Dan. 9:2), Jesus affirms Mosaic authorship (Mark 7:10), and Peter affirms Paul’s authorship (2 Peter 3:15–16). In addition, often (but not always) the biblical writer explicitly mentions himself—for example, Ezekiel (Ezek. 1:1–3), Paul (Gal. 1:1), and Jude (Jude 1).
For the inspiration of the Scriptures, how did God interact with the human author? This is certainly a mystery, but we do get a few hints from the Bible. Only occasionally do biblical writers explicitly say that God dictated to them the words they wrote (Ex. 34:27; Jer. 36:4; Rev. 2–3). Often the biblical writer simply says that “the word of Lord came to” him (Hos. 1:1; Mic. 1:1; see also Gal. 1:12; Rev. 1:1). Sometimes a writer gives information regarding where he gathered information for his book (Num. 21:14; Josh. 10:13; 1 Kings 11:41; Luke 1:1–4). Except for the occasional dictated sections, God’s use of the human writer matched aspects of his personality, background, and writing style. Solomon had unusual wisdom (1 Kings 3), and his proverbs have been preserved (Prov. 1:1; 25:1). Ezekiel was a priest (Ezek. 1:3), and his book has many temple analogies (Ezekiel 40–47). John’s writing style and vocabulary are consistent in John, 1–3 John, and Revelation. Paul was educated in the Pharisaic tradition (Phil. 3:5), and he had much to say about the law (Rom. 3:21; Gal. 2:16; 1 Tim. 1:9–10). God’s use of writers in consistency with their own traits is often termed organic inspiration. God did not treat the human writers as inert objects (non-organic) but as living beings (organic) with their own unique traits. Yet at the same time, every single word was what God wanted written down.
Who wrote the Bible? Yes, God did. He is the divine, ultimate, and primary author. But in His providence He used humans, the secondary authors.