The word Bible is from the Greek and Latin meaning “book” or “books”. The Christian Bible as we know it is made up of two Testaments or Covenants (Old and New) that together might also be referred to as the Holy Writ, Holy Scriptures or Word of God.
It is a collection of sixty-six different books, written by at least twenty-eight different men (some books don’t have a clear author). These writers lived over a period of 1,500 years. Getting twenty-eight different men to write a cohesive story when they never knew each other or even lived during the same period in history is pretty remarkable…some would even say impossible.
Wikipedia records, “The Bible has had a massive influence on literature and history, especially in the Western world, where the Gutenberg Bible was the first book printed using movable type. According to the March 2007 edition of Time, the Bible ‘has done more to shape literature, history, entertainment, and culture than any book ever written. Its influence on world history is unparalleled, and shows no signs of abating.’ With estimated total sales of over 5 billion copies, it is widely considered to be the best-selling book of all time. As of the 2000s, it sells approximately 100 million copies annually.”
With that backdrop, it’s worth considering what the Bible may say about its own source and authority. Does it even claim to be the word of God? Admittedly, there are extra-Biblical aspects to answering this question, but establishing what the Bible even claims to be is an important starting point.
How Scripture answers "Is the Bible the word of God?"
The Bible’s own claim is that it is from and of God1,2,3,4,5,6. It’s what the Bereans used (at least the Old Testament) to confirm the claims of God’s messenger3. It also claims that all Scripture (Old Testament and New Testament) is inspired and from God1. The gospel accounts (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) testify to Jesus, the Son of God, the very personification of God’s word — in effect, the “living word”2. He, in turn, gave that word to the apostles6 who wrote it down4,5,7.
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