Summary of the main ideas of each view.
Plenary Verbal View of inspiration
This view means that the original manuscripts of the scripture were directly inspired by God, though He did not alter their intelligence and knowledge while doing so. The evangelical view of inerrancy comes from this view whereby they believe that God being a supreme being chose and inspired authors and equipped them to write the exact words of the scripture.
The evangelicals believe that the holy scriptures were fully written by people inspired by God through the power of the Holy spirit that guided them not make any mistake. The help of the Holy spirit allowed passage of the message of God from one generation to another without corruption. This view therefore sees the authors of the scripture as the agents of God expected to just deliver the message to his people. One dispute the scripture is deemed to be against the will of God because they dispute the word of God.
Historical Critical Theological View of inspiration
The historical critical view or the higher criticism tries to investigate the ancient text in order to understand the world behind the text. The primary goal of this view is to try and establish the original meaning of the original text by conducting the literal analysis. The secondary objective of this view is to establish the historical situation of both the author and recipients of the scripture. The original text may be a record or source that can be used to reconstruct the history of the past. The original text or historical background is used to interpret the literature and history of Israel.
The view is ideally rooted in the protestant information even though their biblical studies had no link to the traditional interpretations. This criticism has gone through revolution over time and therefore has been refined through various methodologies. Those who believe in this view argue that history can be used to predict the future and so the original texts are used to give a comprehensive meaning of the current situations.
Argument for and against each view
Verbal plenary inspiration is the original manuscripts, they are the words that are directly inspired and presented by God, though he did not change any of their author’s intelligence and their understanding. This depicts that god inspired and guided the authors to write the bible God ion holds own power gave spiritual well being to the authors In the foundation of the evangelical view in the matters concerning the inerrancy of the scripture.
This applies as well on the bops of canonical which on the tradition that are the doctrine that is accepted. Protestants believe in the existence of the canonical books however then catholics do not agree with the doctrine. Evangelicals see the bible as the work of human whose i9ncubatio0n is superintended and guided by the holy spirit which preserved the work of the authors to be devoid of any kind of errors or confusion. The biblical inspiration is basically a
Christian doctrine in Christian theology which the editors and authors of the bible were influenced and inspirited by the works of God which led them to write about the word of God.Based on the theories when they evangelical; view is taken since it is discussed for example, dictation theory which state that the bible was written as a way of dictation as though the writer were dictating machines. Verbal plenary inspiration attested and credited human beings as their writer but though theory maintains the integrity with God concerning the words. Another theory is the dynamic inspirations which state the people themselves wrote the bible.
The criticism of the plenary concerning the evangelist is on the issue of the dictation theory which does not hold as it claims that they wrote word by word in the dictation in this way it was subject to errors., it is criticized as well for being circular by non Christians and other Christian for example the Catholics. The modernist Christianity rejects the idea as well that the Bible is uniquely inspired. Rather the bible as a human invention. The neo-orthodox summaries that the bible is the word of God but not the words of God.
The higher critic on the other hand is the branch that investigates the origin of the ancient writings to understand their world that is behinds the text. It is a client concept that is primitive it was for the reconstruction of the authors and the recipients of the texts. It was used mainly in the mainstream scholarship , the was rooted in the Protestants , it was free from any perspective of philosophy and any theological; interpretation .
Strengths and weaknesses of each view
Strengths
Plenary Verbal View of inspiration
The fact that authors are inspired by God and are helped by the Holy spirit makes the script accurate and reliable. The evangelicals believe that the Holy spirit the anointed and chosen authors are helped by the holy spirit not to make mistakes. Another strength of the plenary verbal view is that the bible was written by people inspires by God whereas its weakness is that the writers were dictated to write word by word.
Historical Critical Theological View of inspiration
The ancient texts are original and reliable and so they are can be used to make accurate interpretations. This view also has both primary and secondary goals which go a long way in ensuring that there is a good analysis and proper interpretation of the text because in considers the literal view as well as the analytical historical background. Another strength of higher critic view is that it uses the texts to tell about the happenings.
Weaknesses
Plenary Verbal View of inspiration
There is textual variation in the actual account of events and speeches. Different texts have different accounts on the messages of God and therefore there is no consistency. The protestants are against it and hold that the bible has no errors when in its original form.
Historical Critical Theological View of inspiration
If there was inaccuracy in writing of the ancient texts then there will be a problem in the interpretation given that this view depends on the ancient texts and historical background to make an interpretation.
Works Cited
Allert, Craig D. A High View of Scripture?: The Authority of the Bible and the Formation of the New Testament Canon. Grand Rapids, Mich: Baker Academic, 2007. Print.
Boettner, Loraine. Studies in Theology. Nutley, NJ: Presbyterian and Reformed Pub. Co, 1973. Print.
Bovell, Carlos R. Interdisciplinary Perspectives on the Authority of Scripture: Historical, Biblical, and Theoretical Perspectives. Eugene, Or: Pickwick Publications, 2011. Print.
