How The Bible Came To Be - 2 Peter 1:20-21 Series

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What is our answer to critics who say the Old Testament only copied other literature? Or that the New Testament was written hundreds of years after the fact so the teachings of the original Apostles is lost?

What Does 2 Peter 1:20-21 Mean?

2 Peter 1:20 Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation. 21 For no prophecy was ever driven by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were driven by the Holy Spirit.

No prophecy of Scripture ever came about by the prophet’s interpretation of his own visions. The visions came from God and so did the interpretation. The Holy Spirit drove the prophets in such a way that, even though they wrote from their own heart, communicating what they wanted to say to their intended audience, the Spirit saw to it that everything they wrote was God’s Word, down to the letter.

Introduction

I asked ChatGPT, “What book is most comparable to the Bible?” Here’s the answer it gave: It depends on what you mean by “comparable.” In different senses, different books come closest—but no single book really compares to the Bible in every category. It went on to discuss each category one at a time. In the category of religious authority, it named the Quaran. In the category of literary scope and diversity it said there is no comparable work. In the category of historical impact on civilization, it said, “the Bible stands alone.” In the category of manuscript attestation and textual history it said, “Nothing compares. The Bible—especially the New Testament—has far more manuscript evidence than any other ancient text. No other religious or classical work comes close.”

In the category of internal unity across centuries: again, no comparable work. “The Bible tells a single redemptive storyline—from creation to new creation—across dozens of authors, cultures, and centuries. This feature is unique among ancient texts.”

That’s really one of the most amazing features of the Bible, because it addresses all the most difficult and controversial topics there are—the meaning of life, morality, ethics, spirituality, the nature of God, human nature, the trajectory of history, etc. And there’s such incredible consistency and unity—it’s astonishing. You pick out just ten people in our country—just one culture in one place at one time in history, ask them about just a handful of those topics, and you won’t find near that kind of unity.

But the Bible, with all the diversity of authors and contexts, is so integrated, it’s like a living organism. Take a look at this graphic by Chris Harrison. All he did was draw lines connecting the cross references listed in the King James Bible margins.

Jordan Peterson shows this graphic in his lecture series discussing how the Bible could be considered “the first hyperlinked book”. Over 63,000 connections, and that’s not anywhere close to all of them. I saw another graphic with 340,000.

The integration of the material in the Bible is breathtaking.

So I got those answers from ChatGPT, and it made me wonder if ChatGPT was just telling me what I want to hear. So I asked this: “Answer the question from a skeptical academic perspective.” Here’s what it said: “From a skeptical academic perspective, the short answer is: There is no single book truly comparable to the Bible—but several texts are comparable in specific, limited ways.”

There’s just no question that the Bible is unique. It’s unique, but can we know for sure that it’s God’s Word?

Peter’s Goal: Your Confidence

Peter’s goal in the end of chapter 1 is for v.19 to become real for you.

2 Peter 1:19 And we have the word of the prophets made more certain

He wants you to pay attention to Scripture as to a light shining in a dark place, and in order for that to happen, you need to have rock solid certainty that it really is God’s Word. So how certain are you? However certain you are, God wants you to be more certain. And for that to happen, Peter decides we need to understand the process of how the Bible came into existence.

2 Peter 1:19-21 is one of those passages where the Bible teaches about itself. And it’s one of the most important passages for understanding the nature of Scripture and how it came to be. Peter makes two statements about how it didn’t happen, then a statement on how it did happen. God wants us to know how the Bible came into being, what role God had and what role the human authors had—we need to understand all that in order for us to really pay attention to it as to a light shining in a dark place. So I want to take this opportunity to first, take a close look at exactly what Peter teaches here, but also to give you an overview of the whole big picture of how the Bible came together. There is so much disinformation, I’d like to clear up the myths and make sure you understand from both a spiritual point of view and an historical point of view, how it all happened.