What Historical Support is there for Inspiration?

Question: What Historical Support is there for Belief in Inspiration?
Who in history has supported the idea of inspiration of the Scriptures?

Answer:

What is interesting is that the early creeds were concerned to specify certain beliefs about God and about Jesus – but never refer to the inspiration of Scripture – they all assume that these beliefs are inspired and revealed by God.

When we come to the page about the validity of the Old Testament, we will see that Jesus himself quoted from it again and again, giving no sense that it is anything less than completely true.

A few quotes from the many that are possible must suffice to illustrate historical support.

Flavius Josephus, Jewish historian, first century AD in Against Apion:

“How firmly we have given credit to these books of our own nation is evident by what we do; for during so many ages as have already passed no one has been so bold as either to add anything to them, to take anything from them, or to make any change; but it is become natural to all Jews, immediately and from their very birth, to esteem these books to contain divine doctrines, and to persist in them, and if occasion be, willingly to die for them.”

He also gave a list of those books which exactly corresponds with the books we have in our Old Testament today.

Irenaeus, church father of the late second century in Against Heresies:

“when.. they are confronted from the Scriptures, they turn round and accuse these same Scriptures as if they were not correct.”

and

“being most properly assured that the Scriptures are indeed perfect, since they were spoken by the Word of God and His Spirit.”

The 1664 Westminster Confession of Faith, the Church of England’s reformed confession of faith listed the books of our Bible referring to them as:

“All which are given by inspiration of God , to be the rule of faith and life.”

“The books commonly called Apocrypha, not being of divine inspiration, are no part of the Canon of Scripture; and therefore are of no authority in the Church of God, nor to be any otherwise approved, or made use of, than other human writings.

“The authority of the holy Scripture, for which it ought to be believed and obeyed, depends not upon the testimony of any man or Church, but wholly upon God (who is truth itself), the Author thereof; and therefore it is to be received, because it is the Word of God.

Richard Baxter, one of the great Puritans:

“No error or contradiction is in it, but what is in some copies, by the failing of preserver, transcribers, printers, or translators.”