Did Jesus Believe the Bible was Infallible? (A Response to Brandan Robertson)
“Well, let’s see. Matthew 19:7-8 says, ‘They said to Him, “Why then did Moses command
to GIVE HER A CERTIFICATE OF DISMISSAL AND DIVORCE TO HER?” Jesus said to them,
“It was because you were so hard hearted that Moses allowed you to divorce your wives;
but from the beginning it was not so.’ So, yes…Jesus shows us that He did not understand
the Bible to be inerrant, infallible. He understood the Bible to be a collection of books
of people wrestling with how to understand God and how to live in God’s ways.
He says Moses gave a commandment, but that commandment wasn’t actually what God
wanted in the end. Moses gave a commandment because the people were hard hearted, He said.
But God actually desired that divorce wasn’t a thing. See, Jesus understood the scripture
to be the product of humans doing our best to understand God. But it’s not the infallible,
inerrant word of God. Maybe we should start to believe and read the Bible like Jesus did.”
First, I want to respond to Reverend Robertson’s understanding
of Matthew 19. Verses 7-8 are preceded by verses 4-5, wherein Jesus says..
“Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning MADE THEM MALE AND FEMALE, and said,
‘FOR THIS REASON A MAN SHALL LEAVE HIS FATHER AND MOTHER AND BE JOINED TO HIS WIFE, AND THE
TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH’?” (Matthew 19:4-5)
Notice how Jesus opens His response – “Have you not read…” He then proceeds to quote Genesis 1:27
and Genesis 2:24 as substance for His rebuke of divorce in verse 6. It’s from
here that the Pharisees inquire as to why then the Torah allows for divorce
and Jesus further responds with, “Because of your hardness of heart…” However, look
at how Jesus finishes verse 8 – “…but from the beginning it has not been this way.” In saying,
“from the beginning,” Jesus is making reference to the two verses from Genesis He has already quoted.
So, is Brandan correct in saying that this exchange is proof that Jesus didn’t believe
the Bible was infallible? Frankly, no. If anything, this passage is substance to the
authority of scripture and that Jesus believed as much. How can we say this? Because He backs
up His position by making reference to the Bible; not by saying the Bible was wrong.
The passage about divorce being referenced in Matthew 19 is from Deuteronomy 24:1-4.
The section the Pharisees quote is from verse 1, but this verse is not where Moses gives a command.
The Hebrew here is וְכָ֨תַב – “and he writes…” This word is designated by what’s called a
conjunction waw. A conjunction waw is typically translated as, “and,” but could be rendered as,
“also”, “but”, “even”, etc, depending on the context. Here specifically in Deuteronomy 24:1,
this conjunction waw is part of a series of statements, each preceded by the conjunction waw.
This phenomenon is called the consecutive waw; the idea being that each statement leads into the next
one. The translational value in instances like this is equivalent to, “and then…” or, “and when…”
This means that what Moses is doing is laying out a hypothetical situation where a man has divorced
his wife, she gets married to another man, then the second marriage ends also (either in another
divorce or in the death of the second husband). The command in this passage is in verse 4
– “her former husband who sent her away is not allowed to take her again to be his wife.”
In quoting Genesis, Jesus makes reference to the greater context of Moses; the Torah (aka
the 5 books of Moses: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy). By quoting Genesis 1&2,
Jesus is providing the context that Moses would have had in mind
when he authored Deuteronomy 24, because Jesus & the Pharisees
recognized Moses as the author of each of the verses quoted in this exchange.
Therefore, Jesus is not saying that Moses was wrong in Deuteronomy 24,
but that the Pharisees had misunderstood him. And the substance that Jesus offers is scripture
itself, not a private opinion that was contrary to scripture.
“Jesus understood the scripture to be the product of humans doing our
best to understand God. But it’s not the infallible, inerrant word of God.
Maybe we should start to believe and read the Bible like Jesus did.”
Ok, well, how did Jesus read & believe the Bible? Matthew gives us insight into this in chapter 22.
In verses 23-33, Jesus has an exchange with some Sadducees regarding who a hypothetical
woman would be married to in heaven if she had multiple husbands on earth. One of the doctrinal
distinctives of the Sadducees was that they did not believe in a resurrection. In asking their
question about this woman, they are attempting to prove the resurrection to be a false doctrine.
Jesus responds to them in verses 29-32.
Notice what Jesus says in verse 31 – “…have you not read…” (the same thing He said to the
Pharisees in Matthew 19:4). This means that Jesus is going to base his position on the authority
of scripture. However, this time, he further adds, “…have you not read what was spoken to you
by God,” before quoting Exodus 3:6. In Exodus 3:6, God spoke to Moses.
But here, Jesus says that God has spoken, “to you,” meaning to the Sadducees.
How has God done this? Through the written words of scripture. Thus, when Jesus says, “have you
not read,” He is invoking the testimony of God and all of the authority that comes with it.
Reverend Robertson, Jesus did not believe the Bible contained errors or that it was the
sole product of imperfect human beings, “doing their best to understand God.”
Jesus regarded the Bible as the written word of God, divinely sourced, inspired and authoritative.
If you are sincerely mistaken or confused about what the Bible teaches, there are plenty of good
people and resources that can help you. But, if you are deliberately distorting the words and/or
meaning of scripture, you are playing with fire – testing the Lord’s patience & kindness.
Again, I beg you to please repent for these errors of teaching.
For further reading on this subject, I recommend, “Scripture Alone,”
by James White. You will find a link to this book in the description.