Inerrancy

*** it-1 p. 1206 Inspiration ***

"Absolute inerrancy is therefore to be attributed to the written Word of God. This is true of the original writings, none of which are known to exist today. The copies of those original writings and the translations made in many languages cannot lay claim to absolute accuracy. There is solid evidence and sound reason for believing, however, that the available manuscripts of the Sacred Scriptures do provide copies of the written Word of God in nearly exact form, the points in question having little bearing on the sense of the message conveyed. God’s own purpose in preparing the Sacred Scriptures and the inspired declaration that “the saying of Jehovah endures forever” give assurance that Jehovah God has preserved the internal integrity of the Scriptures through the centuries."

While Christians should claim "absolute inerrancy" in regards the "Word of God," it is also true that for the copies that we have of the Bible, we "cannot lay claim to absolute accuracy."

The question is: How can we claim absolute inerrancy for documents we have never seen? At best, all we have ever seen is copies with many errors in them. True, these copies through the science of textual criticism, can be shown to be fairly reliable, even extremely close to the original, however they're still not "inerrant." So it seems to me that we only assume there is such a thing as "inerrancy." It is somewhat of a hypothesis.

On the other side, however, we can claim inerrancy to the Bible given it was inspired by God. But even here, what do we mean by "inspired" ? Does it mean it is flawless?

On the other hand, is it necessary to claim something is "inerrant" because it is inspired? That is, does inerrancy demand inspiration? I think it does not.

Humans can be inerrant. While it is true that humans often fail and are wrong in many things, they are also "inerrant," that is, without error in many things. For example, I received a bank statement in the mail yesterday. The address and name on the envelope were "inerrant," that is, without flaw or error.

This is obviously a controversial subject and something that Christians have been dealing with for many decades, centuries even. More on this later.

(For books on the study of inerrancy see The Erosion of Inerrancy in Evangelicalism: Responding to New Challenges to Biblical Authority,  Can I Trust the Bible? - Formally Explaining Inerrancy (Crucial Questions), Inerrancy and Hermeneutic, Inerrancy)