Books on the Inspiration of Scripture: 13 Classics on the Bible
If you want one short book on what it means that the Bible is inspired, read Inspiration by A. A. Hodge and B. B. Warfield. It's about an hour long, and it is still the classic statement: God and the human writers worked together, and every part of Scripture that God guarantees is true in its very words. If you're troubled by "contradictions," go next to Arthur T. Pierson's short Stumbling Stones Removed from the Word of God or R. A. Torrey's Difficulties and Alleged Errors.
The old writers believed what the church had always believed: that the Bible is God's Word written. Not that it contains God's word somewhere inside, or that only its ideas are inspired, but that God breathed out the words. They drew that belief first from Jesus, who treated the Old Testament as the voice of God, and from the apostles. Then they pointed to the evidence: fulfilled prophecy, the unity of sixty-six books written over many centuries, a moral law no one could invent, the way the text was preserved, and the change it makes in people who believe it. Difficulties, they said, are to be expected in a book from such a Source to such readers, and a difficulty is not a disproof.
All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.
2 Timothy 3:16
Here are thirteen of the best books in TheWay Library on the inspiration and authority of Scripture, starting short and clear.
Start here
1. Inspiration, by A. A. Hodge and B. B. Warfield
The 1881 essay by two Princeton professors. It sets out what inspiration is, how Scripture came to be through God and men together, the proof from the Bible's own claims, and answers to the alleged errors critics raised.
Every element of Scripture, whether doctrine or history, of which God has guaranteed the infallibility, must be infallible in its verbal expression.
Inspiration, Statement of the Doctrine
See A. A. Hodge's books and B. B. Warfield's books. Read Inspiration.
2. Down Through the Ages, by Frank E. Gaebelein
The story of how we got the English Bible: how the Hebrew scribes copied the text, the early translations, Wyclif, Tyndale and the making of the King James Bible. An hour's read, and a good one for young people.
The remarkable thing is not that the scribes made errors, but that they made so few.
Down Through the Ages, The Text
3. The Bible Not of Man, by Gardiner Spring
Spring's argument is simple. The Bible is an effect greater than any human cause. Human writers leave the mark of their pride and passions; the Bible breathes holiness. Its moral law, its doctrines, its unity across many writers and the experience of those who believe it all point to God.
Not until the heart of man corresponds to the heart of God, is God known.
The Bible Not of Man, chapter VIII
See Gardiner Spring's books. Read The Bible Not of Man.
4. God's Living Oracles, by Arthur T. Pierson
Lectures on the positive proofs: the Bible's literary unity, its statements that agree with science, prophecy and its fulfillment, and above all Christ as the heart of both Testaments.
If the Bible be a divine book, it has nothing to fear from rational inquiry.
God's Living Oracles, Introductory
When you meet a difficulty
5. Stumbling Stones Removed from the Word of God, by Arthur T. Pierson
A one-hour book. Pierson sorts the difficulties people find in the Bible into kinds, scientific, historical, moral and doctrinal, explains where they come from, gives rules for handling hard passages, and shows how God uses the difficulties to teach us.
Both the Church and Reason are authoritative only as they are conformed to, and are confirmed by, the Word of God.
Stumbling Stones Removed from the Word of God, Conclusion
See Arthur T. Pierson's books. Read Stumbling Stones Removed.
6. Difficulties and Alleged Errors and Contradictions in the Bible, by R. A. Torrey
Torrey gives rules for facing difficulties honestly, then takes the common ones one at a time: Genesis 1 and science, where Cain got his wife, the destruction of the Canaanites, contradictions in the Gospels, the three days and three nights. The scan misreads some opening letters, but the answers are clear.
It is not wise to attempt to conceal the fact that these difficulties exist.
Difficulties and Alleged Errors and Contradictions in the Bible, A General Statement of the Case
See R. A. Torrey's books. Read Difficulties and Alleged Errors.
Go deeper
7. Revelation and Inspiration, by B. B. Warfield
The fullest scholarly case in the library. Warfield's essays show that the church's doctrine of inspiration is the Bible's own doctrine, taught by Christ and the apostles, and study what the New Testament means by "God-inspired Scripture." For serious readers.
What is filled with God will certainly be redolent of God, and what is redolent of God will certainly breathe out God.
Revelation and Inspiration, "God-Inspired Scripture"
Read Revelation and Inspiration.
8. The Books of the Old and New Testaments Proved to Be Canonical, by Robert Haldane
How do we know which books belong in the Bible? Haldane shows how the Old and New Testament books were received and preserved, why the Apocrypha doesn't belong, and what inspiration claims.
The claim of inspiration which they advance, is a claim of infallibility and of perfection.
The Books of the Old and New Testaments Proved to Be Canonical, The Inspiration of the Holy Scriptures
9. Evidences of the Authenticity, Inspiration, and Canonical Authority of the Holy Scriptures, by Archibald Alexander
The first professor at Princeton Seminary builds the case step by step: reason rightly used, the need for revelation, miracles and testimony, the spread of the gospel, prophecy, internal evidence and the canon.
It is therefore a great mistake to suppose that religion forbids or discourages the right use of reason
Evidences of the Authenticity, Inspiration, and Canonical Authority of the Holy Scriptures, chapter I
See Archibald Alexander's books. Read Alexander's Evidences.
10. The Evidence and Authority of the Christian Revelation, by Thomas Chalmers
Chalmers treats the gospel like a message from someone far away. You judge it first by the evidence that it really came from him, not by whether you like what it says. He weighs the historical evidence for the New Testament, then argues that once the message is proven, it has supreme authority.
We have experience of man, but we have no experience of God.
The Evidence and Authority of the Christian Revelation, chapter VIII
Read The Evidence and Authority of the Christian Revelation.
11. The Bible and Modern Criticism, by Sir Robert Anderson
Anderson, head of criminal investigation at Scotland Yard, called himself a skeptic by temperament. He tells how the Higher Criticism shook his faith in the Bible, traces where that criticism came from, and explains why he came back to a settled trust in Scripture.
But as God has no language of His own, He speaks to men in theirs.
The Bible and Modern Criticism, chapter VII
See Who Was Sir Robert Anderson? Read The Bible and Modern Criticism.
For preachers
12. None Like It, by Joseph Parker
The London preacher's "plea for the old sword." A sermon without an authoritative text, Parker says, starts with "an invalid certificate." He answers those who saw the Bible as full of error and describes the core of Scripture the church has always received.
It takes us back to our ignorance, our weakness, and our shame, that it may take us forward to God's wisdom, Christ's almightiness, and the Spirit's miracle of holiness.
None Like It, The Permanent Quantity
See Joseph Parker's books. Read None Like It.
13. The Greatest Fight in the World, by C. H. Spurgeon
Spurgeon's last address to his pastors' college conference, given when he believed the inspiration of Scripture was being widely given up. Our armory is the Bible, our army is the church, and our strength is the Holy Spirit. The first words of the address are missing from the scan.
As for us, we cast anchor in the haven of the Word of God.
The Greatest Fight in the World
Read The Greatest Fight in the World.
More to explore
Arthur W. Pink's The Divine Inspiration of the Bible, James H. Brookes' Is the Bible Inspired? and Torrey's Is the Bible the Inerrant Word of God? are all good short books, but their scans have errors. Pierson's Many Infallible Proofs covers the wider evidences of Christianity. The 1910s series The Fundamentals gave a whole volume of essays to the Bible; see our guide to The Fundamentals on higher criticism. And once you trust the Book, read our guide to Christian books on Bible study.
Where to start
- One hour: Hodge and Warfield's Inspiration.
- Troubled by contradictions: Pierson's Stumbling Stones, then Torrey.
- How we got the Bible: Gaebelein.
- Scholarly: Warfield's Revelation and Inspiration.
- In ministry: Spurgeon, then Parker.
More books are on the inspiration of Scripture topic page.