“The Bible was written by men.” Maybe someone said that to you while dismissing the Bible’s teachings, acting like they were exposing a vast conspiracy. But it’s no secret: the Bible was written by men, and not just according to me: according to God.
“And the LORD said to Moses, ‘Write these words,’” as He personally taught the commands Israel was to keep in their covenant with Him (Ex. 34:27-28). That’s why those first five books of the Bible are called the “Law of Moses”, including by Jesus: “Has not Moses given you the law?” He asked (Jn. 7:19, 23). That didn’t mean Jesus thought those stories and commands were products of Moses’ own imagination. Yet it also didn’t mean that Moses was just a meat pen God wrote with, as though he blacked out and when he came to, there laid Scripture.
The Bible was produced as a partnership between God and the people He spoke to. The prophet Jeremiah had long been delivering words of warning from God to wayward Judah. “Then Jeremiah called Baruch the son of Neriah, and Baruch wrote on a scroll at the dictation of Jeremiah all the words of the LORD that He had spoken to him” (Jer. 36:4). Men indisputably “wrote the Bible” here, but it was God’s message they were presenting. That gave it authority – even when powerful people didn’t want to hear it (cf. Jer. 36:20-26).
“For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit” (2 Pet. 1:21). Like Jesus with Moses, the Apostle Peter had no problem acknowledging both divine and human involvement in Scripture. He referenced how “our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, as he does in all his letters” while simultaneously declaring those writings to be “Scriptures” (2 Pet. 3:15-16). That’s actually why Paul started every letter identifying himself and ended with a greeting in his own handwriting as a “sign of genuineness” (2 Thes. 3:17). He wasn’t just some guy writing: he was “Paul, an apostle – not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised Him from the dead” (Gal. 1:1).
God’s partnership with humans to speak His word to us in no way detracts from the Bible’s power and authority. We don’t respect Jesus less because “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (Jn. 1:14). Instead, that gives us confidence that He “in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin” (Heb. 4:15-16). When we read the Bible knowing God used people to write it, the power, reliability, and timeless truth it reveals to us shines that much brighter. Clearly, it is God’s word.
Discover God's Word for your life in our series Confirmed!