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     Theists who believe in the God of the Bible, claim the Bible is from God; atheists assert that it is just another book by man.  Who is right?  In the Old Testament of the Bible alone there are 2700 claims that what is stated is from God (e.g. “The Lord said...”, “these are the words of the Lord...”, etc.).  The Bible itself claims in the New Testament that its entirety came from God– “All scripture is given by inspiration of God...” (2 Timothy 3:16); “...for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.” (2 Peter 1:21).  If it were not for a few Bible verses, we would be left to wonder “how” God revealed His will to man.  However to know how He did this, we need to understand the meaning of inspiration.
     All of us have used or heard the word “inspiration,” e.g., “His art is so inspiring” or “The tragedy of Poe’s life inspired his poetry.”  When a person is inspired, he is prompted to do something, but to do it by his own accord, with his own talents and intellect.  “To inspire,” in popular vernacular, refers to an outside influence that spurs one to personal action.  Indeed this is the common meaning of inspiration, but this usage causes confusion when we refer to the inspiration of the Bible.
     Inspiration by God was not a mere nudging or prompting of Biblical penmen to write or the prophets to speak by their own will.  The phrase “given by inspiration of God,” (2 Timothy 3:16) is translated from one word – theopneustos (original New Testament Greek).  It means “God breathed,” thus the Bible’s claim is that God is the source of scripture and did not prompt the Biblical writers to say or write their own thoughts.  God is the author who revealed His will through human writers.  Even though God’s word is written in the vocabulary and style of each writer, the thoughts and each individual word are what God wanted in the Bible to express His will to mankind.
     That the Bible did not come from the will of men is exemplified by the Apostle Peter who wrote “Of this salvation the prophets have inquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that would come to you, searching what, or what manner of time,.... To them it was revealed that, not to themselves, but to us...” (1 Peter 1:10-12).  In other words the prophets often did not understand what they wrote, because “it was revealed... not to themselves...” thus indicating that the thoughts and words were not by their own motivation or decisions but another source – God!  Of course claiming to be from God does not make it so.  Is there evidence proving the divine inspiration of the Bible?

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