How do we know the Bible is God's word?

Scripture & How We Got ItIn theological review

The short answer

Because the Bible claims it, Jesus treated it that way, and the evidence we can test supports taking the claim seriously. Paul calls all Scripture God-breathed. Jesus said the Scripture cannot be broken, and argued his whole mission out of the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms. Christians receive the Bible as God's word on the testimony of the God-man who rose from the dead.

The fuller answer

Begin with the Bible's own description of itself, because Christians do not start from a theory. All Scripture is God-breathed, Paul tells Timothy, and it is useful for teaching, reproof, correction, and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be complete. If the Bible is merely a human book about God, Paul's sentence is false. The claim stands or falls with the book itself.

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for instruction, for conviction, for correction, and for training in righteousness,

2 Timothy 3:16 (BSB)

so that the man of God may be complete, fully equipped for every good work.

2 Timothy 3:17 (BSB)

Jesus treated the Scriptures exactly that way. He argued from single words, he told opponents they were wrong because they did not know the Scriptures, and he said the Scripture cannot be broken. After the resurrection he opened the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms to show they were all about him. A Jesus who doubted his Bible is not the Jesus of the Gospels.

If he called them gods to whom the word of God came—and the Scripture cannot be broken—

John 10:35 (BSB)

Then there is the evidence that can be checked without faith: prophecies fulfilled in the life of Jesus, a text preserved across millennia that can be examined in museums, and the resurrection itself, which is the Bible's own load-bearing claim. The psalmist's picture remains the simple one: your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. That verse is quoted on this site in the King James wording, as the psalm was long read.

Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.

Psalm 119:105 (KJV)

Sources

Berean Standard Bible (BSB)
The Westminster Shorter Catechism (1647)

Review status: in-theological-review. Every Contend page passes a human theological review against the Statement of Faith before it is published as approved teaching. This section is in that queue.

Dig deeper

No answer here is a dead end. Follow the question on, test it in practice, or work the method yourself on the Dig deeper page.

Who wrote the Bible?People did, and God did, and the Bible insists on both. On the human side it has many authors across many centuries, from Moses to John. On the divine side, Peter says men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit, and Paul calls all Scripture God-breathed. Real writers, real styles, one intention behind them.Has the Bible been changed over the centuries?The text has been copied by hand for centuries, and copyists' slips exist and are openly catalogued. But the message has not been rewritten. We hold manuscripts far older than the printed texts, including the Dead Sea Scrolls, and they show a text transmitted with remarkable care. Isaiah's promise stands: the word of our God stands forever.Did a council choose the books of the Bible?No. No council sat down and picked the winners. The books were recognised, not selected: the churches received writings that carried the authority of the prophets and apostles, used them for generations, and the later lists and councils named what was already received. The section of this site called How We Got the Bible works through the documents one by one.Does God exist?Yes. Christians do not believe in God as a guess to fill a gap. We believe because the world he made shows his power and nature, and because he has spoken, first through the prophets and then in his Son. The question is not really whether there is evidence, but whether we will treat the evidence as what it is.Lesson: Context changes everythingTwo of the most quoted verses in the Bible are usually quoted wrong. Read them in context and watch what changes.How We Got the Bible: Can we trust the text?No originals, many copies, and a thousand-year test: how the text was carried, and what the differences between copies actually are.Answer the question20 flashcards on the questions these answers raise.Can you answer?15 questions, each with its reason and its source.