All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work. 2 Timothy 3:16-17 NASB It’s nearly impossible to exist in Christian culture without hearing someone patronizingly remind you, “all scripture is God-breathed” when they disagree with your interpretation. The phrase has been used to defend the spectrum of Biblical (in)errancy. Some say this phrase is evidence that the words of the Protestant Canon Bible were divinely dictated by God, who guarded Their words through countless translations and councils. Others say this speaks only to its weight as something greater than other historical documents, prone to error but still set apart. Θεόπνευστος | theopneustos | God-breathedΘεόπνευστος (theopneustos) is a compound of two simple words: Θεό (theo) and πνευσ (breath). The Bible has a close relationship with breath. When They created humanity, God used Their breath to give life (Genesis 2:7). This same life-giving breath was used to revive dry bones in Ezekiel (Ezekiel 37:1-14). Elihu tells Job that the “The Spirit of God has made me; the breath of the Almighty gives me life” (Job 33:4). The Old Testament harkens constantly back to the life-giving breath of God, the breath that made us Theirs. This is not forgotten in the New Testament, but the metaphor finds a new life in, well, New Life. No longer is God’s breath bringing people to physical life. Instead, God breathes the Holy Spirit upon us (John 20:22; Acts 2:2). The breath of God symbolises a new spiritual life instead of a new physical one. This new spiritual life frees us from both physical and spiritual death, however. Spiritual death is considered what happens when we sin and are separated from God, but when we receive the Breath of Life, we are no longer separated and are promised life in the New Creation. We are promised spiritual and physical life in place of death. Jesus reminds of us the Breath of Life when Nicodemus asks him how someone could possibly be born a second time. “Do not be amazed that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”” John 3:7-8 NASB With this reminder of the Breath of Life also comes a reminder that we cannot predict where that breath will come from or what it will call someone to do. When we are born again with the spirit, the evidence of it is seen everywhere but that does not give us the right to predict it.
The idea that scripture is God-breathed speaks to the life of it. It is more than just words on a page, or evidence of history. Scripture lives because God breathed life into it. In the same way that we live because of the Breath of Life but still stumble and grow and disagree, the Bible is a product of God intersecting with humanity. We do not know where it comes from or where it is going, but we know that it is alive and growing and points to our God. We are all God-Breathed. This does not make us infallible or inerrant, nor does it make scripture human-proof. Scripture is evidence of that Breath working through the world, blowing through unexpected people. It blew through prostitutes and the sick and Pharisees and hermits and kings. People who had failed and continued to fail even after that Breath filled them. A part of what makes it useful “for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness” is that it is messy and surprising and fallible. Scripture grows and changes, blowing us toward something bigger. We see what happens when humans fail, what happens when we are given grace. We see who gets that grace. And we see that that breath continues to blow, pushing us toward Life.
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AuthorWren Bouwman is a student of linguistics and literature and a passionate Christo-feminist. Her works primarily focuses on advocated for equality in church leadership and marriage, although she has plenty of opinions on other things. ArchivesCategories |