Review of Literalistic Theories on Divine Inspiration of the Bible

Many religions hold that their holy scriptures are somewhat words of God which means that He communicated His words to human beings. The divine inspiration (or as in Islamic tradition revelation) theories explain this sort of relation between God and human mediator. When a theory claims that a holy scripture (like Quran or Bible) is divinely inspired, it emphasizes on two points: mechanism of inspiration (revelation), and the extent of inspiration (revelation). The former explain how the divine content is conveyed to human mediator, while the latter describes how much the existing materials in scripture are inspired (revealed). Christians believe their Scripture to be divinely inspired and thus present theories to establish their claim. These theories are generally divided into two categories: theories that hold the words and passages of the Bible to be divinely inspired, and theories that search for divine inspiration beyond the words and phrases. The present article deals with only the former type of theories. In view of the crucial importance of treatment of inspiration and revelation in the intellectual milieu of Iran, examination of current theories in other religious milieus can be of great use.