Inspiration of the Holy Spirit

The connected message of the Bible is because of the “Inspiration” of Scripture by the Holy Spirit. “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God” (2 Timothy 3:16). In this sense, Inspiration is the “supernatural action of the Holy Spirit on the mind of the sacred writers whereby the Scriptures were not merely their own but the Word of God”¹ As a result, “the inspired writings are at once perfectly Divine and perfectly human.”² “Inspiration is inexplicable… In spite of all what we have said about the nature of inspiration, we do not know exactly how that power of the Spirit operates.”³ “Yet the Orthodox Church does not believe that every word in the Bible was dictated by God verbatim and written down word for word by the person who wrote each book. Such an approach would accuse God of using people as tape recorders.”⁴

“All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.” (2 Timothy 3:16-17)

Inspiration is specifically limited to the writers of the books of the Bible, as opposed to other guidance provided by the Holy Spirit to all of us, like Illumination. Illumination is the act of the Holy Spirit that guides all of us when we read the Bible. “It is the Holy Spirit abiding in the Church Who has guided and continues to guide the Church through the centuries to the proper interpretation of the Scriptures”⁵.