Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Inerrancy is brought to the Bible

"One is faced, in the end, with the question about the theological usefulness, as well as the validity, of the conservative doctrine of the inerrancy of Scripture in its original autogrpahs. It is clear enough that such inerrancy is not a central, or even peripheral, concern of Scripture itself. No definition of the inerrancy of autographs is offered in the Bible, nor does any author deal with it in terms of his own work, or even hint at it. It is easier to find hints of fallibility on the part of biblical authors (e.g., 1 Cor. 1:14-16) than any indication that what they wrote is without the slightest error in the kind of detail that worries adherents of the theory of inerrancy. The idea of the inerrancy of scriptural autographs is therefore brought to Scripture, it is not derived from it, in itself a telling comment on the way this conservative doctrine has developed." (Paul J. Achtemeier, Inspiration and Authority, 61)