'EVIDENCE OF INSPIRATION: SELF-EFFACEMENT AND HONESTY' BY PASTOR GREG ELKAN.
Two more evidences of the Bible’s inspiration is the observed self-effacement of its writers, and their brutally honest narration.
Reading through the Bible, it’s very easy to lose sight of the narrators. In books where the writers are part of the story, there’s a deliberate understatedness of their importance or place in the narrative. For example, the Book of Matthew hardly says anything remarkable about Matthew himself; which is strange considering that as a core companion of Jesus he had the liberty to weave the narrative of Jesus’ greatness around himself.
This style of writing can be seen in all the other Bible books. The authors never draw disproportionate attention to themselves; the story is _never_ about them. And when they do talk about themselves, their strengths are never accentuated, rather their weaknesses and shortcomings are emphasised.
This brutal honesty is not just true of what the Bible authors write about themselves but also about what they write about the supposed heroes of their stories. Considering that all the Bible writers were Jews, one would naturally expect them to accentuate the strengths of their ancestors and conceal their flaws; instead they write with a candour that’s unseen in other sacred texts.
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are recorded to be liars, timid and scheming. Judah, (the patriarch through whom the “Jews” got their name), had an incestuous relationship with his daughter-in-law. David, the greatest king of Israel was an adulterer, liar and murderer. This frankness is seen throughout scripture: Noah was a drunkard, Moses was hot-tempered, Peter denied Christ, and Paul had an open bitter quarrel with Barnabas.
And what about the Jews themselves? Well, they’re recorded as being murderous, faithless, idolatrous and stiff-necked. We get all this information from a text written by Jews, _for_ Jews. Meanwhile, the official records of other ancient cultures – Egyptians, Babylonians, Persians, etc. – are notorious for their exaggerations, emendations and padding.
These traits additionally show, as someone quipped, that _“Man cannot write the Bible even if he would; and man WILL NOT write the Bible even if he could.”_ Only people moved by something higher than their personal or nationalistic agenda would write the way the Bible writers did.
AMEN
GREG ELKAN.
More Blessings await you today; you’ll not miss them in Jesus’ Name.
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