“All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works” (2 Timothy 3:16-17). Inspiration literally means “God breathed.” All scripture, or written revelation from God, is thus “God breathed.” Peter described the inspiration of the writers of scripture, saying, “Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost” (2 Peter 1:20-21). The words, “moved by the Holy Ghost,” literally means “borne along,” as a ship is borne along by the winds.

Because God used human beings as the instruments to reveal His will to man, there is necessarily a human element involved in scripture. We see this in things such as the number of medical words found in the writings of Luke, a physician (Colossians 4:14), and in the simple Greek of John, a fisherman, as compared to the more complex Greek of Paul, a highly educated man. Even with differences in style, language, and vocabulary, they all were “moved by the Holy Ghost” to write God’s revelation. Jesus promised the apostles, “the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you” (John 14:26). God was the source of Paul’s writing: “Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual” (1 Corinthians 2:13).

The writers could make mistakes in their personal lives. Paul did not remember all that he had baptized (1 Corinthians 9:27). He rebuked Peter for his sin (Galatians 2:11-16), and said of himself, “I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway” (1 Corinthians 9:27). They still wrote without error, however, because of inspiration.  

God chose those who would reveal His will, even before He formed them, in the case of Jeremiah and others. “Then the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations. … Then the LORD put forth his hand, and touched my mouth. And the LORD said unto me, Behold, I have put my words in thy mouth” (Jeremiah 1:4-5, 9).

Scripture is not “God and man,” but “God through man.” It came from human beings borne along by the Holy Ghost, so we cannot separate the human from the divine. God inspired their very words, so that scripture is without error in faith, science, or history. “God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds” (Hebrews 1:1-2).