A Critical Commentary

All Scripture is inspired by God and beneficial for teaching, for rebuke, for correction, for training in righteousness;  2 Timothy 3:16  NASB Inspired – Thanks to centuries of Christian theological exposition, “inspired” today has the overtones of “certain,” “truthful,” and “definite.”  This verse from Paul’s letter to Timothy convinces most Christian conservatives that God oversees…

Savings Account

All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness;  2 Timothy 3:16  NASB Profitable – When Paul writes that the Tanakh is profitable, what does he mean?  Before we take a run at this question, we should probably remind ourselves of a few obvious things: (1) in this…

The Objective

All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; 2 Timothy 3:16  NASB Training – The verse is quite familiar.  In evangelical circles it is often the sine qua non of the doctrine of inspiration. Arguments about the proper exegesis of the verse typically center on the meaning…

Reflections

All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness;  2 Timothy 3:16 NASB Inspired– Why do we bother to investigate the historical and cultural settings of the biblical authors and audiences?  If God is able to speak to each of us through the Spirit, does any of this…

Regarding the Bible (2)

All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness;  2 Timothy 3:16  NASB Scripture– Let’s follow up on yesterday’s lengthy (I apologize) description of the Bible as a book about human encounters with God. Peter Enns adds some important insight: Seeing God as a character in the story…

Regarding the Bible (1)

All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness;  2 Timothy 3:16  NASB Scripture– “I wrote that when I was stupid.”  So said David Flusser when questioned by one of his students about an article he published years before.  That’s how I feel today.   If you ask…

Erasing the Bible

All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness 2 Timothy 3:16 NASB Scripture – Sometimes the truth overpowers paradigm assumptions. Sometimes men who stand theologically apart nevertheless see the same revelation. Jacques Ellul and Abraham Heschel both come to the same conclusion when they consider…

Closed Loop Exegesis

All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; 2 Timothy 3:16 NASB Scripture – By now you realize that even the choice of words in a translation carry paradigm imported meanings. For example, it seems abundantly obvious that Paul was not referring to his own…

And God Said

The word of the Lord which came to Hosea the son of Beeri, during the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and during the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel. Hosea 1:1 NASB Word of the Lord – If I asked you, “What is God’s word?” how…

Once Is Enough

All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness  2 Timothy 3:16 Correction –  The Greek word epanorthosis occurs only once in the New Testament, right here in this verse about the effectiveness of the Word of God.  Did you notice that it is closely associated…