Fernando Canale
We know about God only by way of His revelation, and Christians have generally recognized Scripture as the public and specific revelation of divine thought and will to us. Besides God’s special revelation in Scripture (2 Tim 3:16), theologians also speak about a general revelation through nature by which all people have some knowledge of a supreme Being. God has specifically presented us with such a thought in Scripture (e.g., Rom 1:18-20). This chapter will discuss the biblical evidence for the inspiration of Scripture and for the various models used to articulate it. It will suggest a new understanding of the evidence based on biblical presuppositions and a careful listening to the entire range of the biblical evidence.
With the arrival of the modern and postmodern ages, many Christians have concluded that the existence of a special cognitive revelation from God is impossible. Unfortunately, these theologians attempt to interpret Scripture from the assumption that it was written only by human beings. They are dogmatically persuaded that God cannot communicate knowledge to human beings. Scripture and theology, then, are the product of ever-changing human imaginations. Thus, these theologians deny Peter’s conviction that in Scripture we do not find myths but truths (2 Pet 1:16).
Author and Interpretation
Whenever we read a text, we correctly assume that someone has written it. We do not always need to know the author of a text to understand its meaning, but such knowledge may add depth to the meaning.
The same dynamic takes place when we read Scripture. Most of the time we understand the face-value meaning of texts. If we are convinced that God is the author of what we read in Scripture, our theological understanding of it will differ considerably from a reader who is persuaded that Scripture was written by well-intentioned religious persons describing their own experiences. Thus, the understanding of who the author or authors of Scripture are becomes a pivotal presupposition from which believers and theologians approach their interpretation of Scripture, formulate Christian teachings, and experience its transforming power in everyday life. In short, our understanding of Revelation-Inspiration (R-I)1 becomes a necessary assumption for our hermeneutics of Scripture and its theology.