The Bible is inspired by God?

[RBerman]

Just because somebody misuses higher textual criticism, does not make higher textual criticism in itself a bad thing. If that were the case, the same argument could be made as to why Bible Study is not a valid discipline.

In my experience, higher criticism implies the analysis of the Bible apart from assumptions of verbal, plenary, divine inspiration. How are you using the term?

[Phat8594]

In my experience, higher criticism implies the analysis of the Bible apart from assumptions of verbal, plenary, divine inspiration. How are you using the term?

Perhaps that was my bad. I meant to address what I had read regarding understanding which human authors wrote the Bible, when and where it was written,etc.

So what I was trying to address is that you can study things about the Bible, such as who wrote each book, where and when it was written, ( and how each author uses a specific word) etc. without throwing away the idea of divine inspiration. In other words, I see it like science. You can use it, and you can misuse it....but the misuse of it does not negate the proper use of it. Everyone starts off with assumptions...but not all assumptions are equal.

A good example of Higher Textual Criticism gone wrong is the Biblical creation account. It is clear that there are glaring similarities between local creation mythology (such as the Babylonian account) and the Biblical account. Some people take this evidence and suggest that the Biblical account, therefore, is based on local mythology. Of course, these people are basing their conclusion on their assumptions more than the evidence (its circumstantial at best). What they fail to realize that although there are clear similarities, there are also great and stark differences. So what could this mean? Probably that the Biblical account was written with intentional juxtaposition to the local mythologies.


Anyways...that might have been long winded...but hopefully I am making sense....