PROCESS OF INSPIRATION

17. What Greek word is translated “inspired of God,” and how does its meaning help us to understand the process of inspiration?

¹⁷ The expression “inspired of God” is translated from the Greek the·oʹpneu·stos, meaning “God-breathed.” (See 2 Timothy 3:16, first footnote.) It is God’s own spirit, his active force, that he has ‘breathed’ on faithful men, causing them to compile and write the Sacred Scriptures. This process is known as inspiration. The prophets and other faithful servants of Jehovah who became subject to inspiration had their minds borne along by means of this active force. This means that they received messages, including pictures of purpose, from God and that these became firmly fixed in the circuits of their minds. “For prophecy was at no time brought by man’s will, but men spoke from God as they were borne along by holy spirit.”​—2 Pet. 1:21; John 20:21, 22.

18. How deeply were the inspired messages impressed on their human receivers?

¹⁸ While these men of God were awake and fully conscious or while they were asleep in a dream, his spirit firmly implanted the message emanating from the divine origin of the line of communication. Upon receiving the message, the prophet had the responsibility of relaying it in word form to others. When Moses and other faithful prophets return in the resurrection, they will no doubt be able to confirm the accuracy of the preserved records of their writings, for their appreciative re-created minds will likely still hold the original communications clearly in memory. In like manner, the apostle Peter was so deeply impressed by the vision of the transfiguration that he could write vividly concerning its magnificence more than 30 years later.​—Matt. 17:1-9; 2 Pet. 1:16-21.

THE AUTHOR AND HIS FINGER

19. What is God’s “finger,” as proved by what scriptures?

¹⁹ Human authors have used fingers to write, in ancient times by means of a pen or stylus and in modern times by means of a pen, typewriter, or computer. What has been produced through these fingers is said to have been authored by the mind of their owner. Did you know that God has a finger? This is so, for Jesus spoke of God’s spirit as His “finger.” When Jesus cured a demon-possessed man so that he regained his power of speech and his sight, religious foes blasphemed the means by which Jesus had cured the man. According to Matthew, Jesus said to them: “If it is by means of God’s spirit that I expel the demons, the kingdom of God has really overtaken you.” (Matt. 12:22, 28) Luke adds to our understanding by quoting Jesus as saying on a like occasion: “If it is by means of God’s finger I expel the demons, the kingdom of God has really overtaken you.” (Luke 11:20) On an earlier occasion, the magic-practicing priests of Egypt were forced to admit that the plagues on Egypt were an exhibition of Jehovah’s superior power, acknowledging: “It is the finger of God!”​—Ex. 8:18, 19.

20. How has God’s “finger” operated, and with what result?

²⁰ In harmony with these uses of the word “finger,” it can be appreciated that “God’s finger” has great power and that this designation well applies to his spirit as he used it in the writing of the Bible. So the Scriptures inform us that by means of “God’s finger,” he wrote the Ten Commandments on the two tablets of stone. (Ex. 31:18; Deut. 9:10) When God used men to write the various books of the Holy Bible, his symbolic finger, or spirit, was likewise the directive force behind the pen of those men. God’s holy spirit is unseen, but it has been active in a marvelous way, with the visible, tangible result that mankind has received the treasured gift of God’s Word of truth, His Bible. There is no question that the Bible’s Author is Jehovah God, the heavenly Communicator.

Although called from many walks of life, these earthly Bible writers, from Moses to the apostle John, all shared in upholding the sovereignty of Jehovah God and proclaiming his purposes in the earth. They wrote in Jehovah’s name and by the power of his spirit.​—Jer. 2:2, 4; Ezek. 6:3; 2 Sam. 23:2; Acts 1:16; Rev. 1:10.

23. What earlier records did some Bible writers use, and how did these become inspired Scripture?

²³ Several of these writers include in their records compilations from eyewitness documents made by earlier writers, not all of whom were inspired. Moses, for example, may have compiled parts of Genesis from such eyewitness accounts, as Samuel may have done in writing the book of Judges. Jeremiah compiled First and Second Kings, and Ezra wrote First and Second Chronicles, largely in this way. The holy spirit guided these compilers in determining which portions of older human documents should be incorporated, thus authenticating these compilations as being reliable. From the time of their compilation forward, these extracts from older documents became part of the inspired Scriptures.​—Gen. 2:4; 5:1; 2 Ki. 1:18; 2 Chron. 16:11.