Who Wrote the Bible? - by Robert Cara

Found here. Our comments in bold.

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This is a somewhat odd article. It's as if the author had an idea and liked it so much that he sought out Scripture to fill in the blanks. His idea is that God is the "primary" author of the Bible while the prophets and others were "secondary" authors. 

But God didn't write the Bible, He spoke it. We see this clearly in the author's own Scripture selections: 

Matt. 1:22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet...

2 Tim. 3:16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness...

Ge. 12:1, 3b The LORD had said to Abram... 3 ...all peoples on earth will be blessed through

you.”

God speaks. His Logos sustains the universe (Heb. 1:3). The words God speaks are not the Bible, but the Bible is wholly comprised of God's words. These words are what saves us:

Ro. 10:17 Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.

The word "word" is rhéma, a spoken word, made "by the living voice." This is not the Bible being preached, it is the living word of Christ, the Gospel. We therefore think that referring to the Bible as the "Word" is confusing and inaccurate.

Further, we must question what it means to be a "secondary" author. Is the "author" the one who heard the Word or the one who wrote it down? Was Paul the "author" when he heard the Word of the Lord, or was the person who on occasion transcribed it for him (Galatians 6:11) the author? Did what God spoke become the Word only after it was written down?

The authors of some books (Hebrews, Esther, and Job for example) are unknown. Others who spoke the Word of the Lord did not write down what they spoke (1 Sam. 10:11, Acts 19:6, and 21:9, for example). The Word was also recorded outside the Scriptural canon (Jude 14-15)!

Many women spoke the Word but did not write it down:

• 1 Sam. 2:1-10  Hannah 
• Judges 5:1-9 Deborah
• 2 Kings 22:15-20 Huldah 
• Exodus 15:20-21 Miriam 
• 2 Chron. 9:5-8 The queen of Sheba

• Luke 1:41-45 Elizabeth 
• Luke 1:46-55 Mary
• Luke 2:36-38 Anna
• Mark 16:7 Mary Magdalene

The prophetic inspired Word is the thing spoken, not who wrote it down. Thus the question, "who wrote the Bible" misses the point entirely.

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Who wrote the Bible? God did. To put a finer point on it, God is the divine author who used various human authors to write exactly what He wanted written. That is, God is the primary author and the humans are secondary authors. This type of dual authorship is assumed throughout the Bible. For example, “All this took place to fulfill what the Lord [primary author] had spoken by the prophet [Isaiah, secondary author]” (Matt. 1:22; see also Mark 12:36; Heb. 3:7 with 4:7; 2 Peter 1:21). Traditionally, God’s effecting the Scriptures to be written is termed inspiration, which means that God breathed out the Scriptures (2 Tim. 3:16).

Primary Authorship

In addition to straightforward passages that declare God as the author of Scripture (2 Tim. 3:16), there are other types of intriguing biblical passages confirming divine authorship. Let us look at three.

There are passages where the Scriptures are functionally equated to God. In Romans 9:17, Paul is quoting from Exodus 9:16, where Moses is told to declare God’s words to Pharaoh. But Paul does not write, “God says to Pharaoh,” but instead, “Scripture says to Pharaoh.” Obviously, Paul means that God spoke to Pharaoh, but God’s speaking and Scripture’s speaking are intimately related to each other in Paul’s mind. 

Similarly in Galatians 3:8, within an argument showing that the doctrine of justification by faith existed in the Old Testament, Paul notes the forward-looking aspect of Genesis 12:3 intended by God. But in referring to this, Paul does not write, “God foreseeing,” but “Scripture foreseeing.” Again, God and Scripture are intimately related. 

There are also Old Testament passages where God does not appear to be the speaker, but He is denoted as the speaker by a New Testament writer. Hebrews 1:5–13 includes seven Old Testament quotes. These quotes include passages in which God is the direct speaker but others in which He is not. However, all the quotes in Hebrews are prefaced by some form of “God says” or “he says.” Thus, whether the Old Testament context includes God’s explicitly speaking or not, the author of Hebrews considers all of Scripture to be God’s speaking on some level.

Consider 1 Corinthians 9:8–10. Paul, in a discussion concerning the propriety of financially supporting ministers, argues that he is not basing his conclusion on a “human authority,” but on “the Law of Moses.” He goes on to quote Deuteronomy 25:4, which concerns feeding oxen while they work. Following the quote, he rhetorically asks, “Is it for oxen that God is concerned? Does he [God] not certainly speak for our sake?”—meaning yes, God is concerned for oxen, but how much more is He concerned for men in similar situations. Paul equates “it is written in the Law of Moses” to God’s “concern” and God’s “speaking.” This is opposed to “human authority.” Although Moses was obviously human, Paul does not consider him a human authority. Why not? Paul clearly believes that Deuteronomy ultimately has a divine author.

Secondary Authorship

Without doubt, biblical writers believed that humans wrote the Scripture. Many times, one biblical writer refers to another by name. For example, Daniel affirms Jeremiah’s authorship (Dan. 9:2), Jesus affirms Mosaic authorship (Mark 7:10), and Peter affirms Paul’s authorship (2 Peter 3:15–16). In addition, often (but not always) the biblical writer explicitly mentions himself—for example, Ezekiel (Ezek. 1:1–3), Paul (Gal. 1:1), and Jude (Jude 1).

For the inspiration of the Scriptures, how did God interact with the human author? This is certainly a mystery, but we do get a few hints from the Bible. Only occasionally do biblical writers explicitly say that God dictated to them the words they wrote (Ex. 34:27; Jer. 36:4; Rev. 2–3). Often the biblical writer simply says that “the word of Lord came to” him (Hos. 1:1; Mic. 1:1; see also Gal. 1:12; Rev. 1:1). Sometimes a writer gives information regarding where he gathered information for his book (Num. 21:14; Josh. 10:13; 1 Kings 11:41; Luke 1:1–4). Except for the occasional dictated sections, God’s use of the human writer matched aspects of his personality, background, and writing style. Solomon had unusual wisdom (1 Kings 3), and his proverbs have been preserved (Prov. 1:1; 25:1). Ezekiel was a priest (Ezek. 1:3), and his book has many temple analogies (Ezekiel 40–47). John’s writing style and vocabulary are consistent in John, 1–3 John, and Revelation. Paul was educated in the Pharisaic tradition (Phil. 3:5), and he had much to say about the law (Rom. 3:21; Gal. 2:16; 1 Tim. 1:9–10). God’s use of writers in consistency with their own traits is often termed organic inspiration. God did not treat the human writers as inert objects (non-organic) but as living beings (organic) with their own unique traits. Yet at the same time, every single word was what God wanted written down.

Who wrote the Bible? Yes, God did. He is the divine, ultimate, and primary author. But in His providence He used humans, the secondary authors.1

Editor's Note: This article was originally published October 9, 2024. ↩


Dr. Robert J. Cara is provost, chief academic officer, and Hugh and Sallie Reaves Professor of New Testament at Reformed Theological Seminary in Charlotte, N.C. He is author or contributor to several books, including Cracking the Foundation of the New Perspective on Paul and Hebrews: A Mentor Commentary.