The Inerrancy of Scripture

To say that the Bible is inerrant is to say that there are no errors or mistakes in the Bible. The doctrine of inerrancy is inseparable from the doctrine of inspiration. It’s quite simple actually. If God told Moses to write something down and God is the author, then there can be no mistake because God is perfect. We see evidence of this in scripture. 2 Samuel 22:31 says, “This God—his way is perfect; the word of the Lord proves true.” Isaiah 40:8 tells us that, “The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.” God’s words, as they were recorded, are true and eternal. They will never pass away. It would be impossible for there to be any mistake in them. We currently do not have any of the original documents themselves, but we have many copies from which we can verify the accuracy of the texts. However, due to human error there are some textual variants in some of the manuscripts which have to be reconciled. Of these variants, about 70% consists of a word or phrase that is only found on one manuscript. These are simply disregarded because all of the other manuscripts agree with each other. Some are variations on how word are spelled and are thus inconsequential. Less than 1% of all the variants have any implication on the meaning of a verse. One example of this would be 1 John 1:4. New Testament scholars debate over whether this text should say, “And we are writing these things so that Ijoy may be complete” or “And we are writing these things so that your joy may be complete.” In the original language, these two words differ by only one letter. The meaning of 1 John 1:4 is clearly altered depending on which rendering is used. The meaning of the verse however is not drastically different and either statement is still true within the larger context of scripture. No doctrines in scripture depend on any verses that contain variants. It should also be noted that there is no conspiracy to cover these variants up and there is no controversy around their existence. Most Bible translators pick one of the words to use and then add a footnote to either explain their choice or offer the alternate word. Given more time and research, translations become more and more refined. But nonetheless, the Bible is entirely trustworthy, infallible and inerrant in the original autograph. It is clear that our Bibles today contain every word written by the original authors. As Psalm 56:4 says, “In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I shall not be afraid.”