Every scripture [is] God-breathed and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for improvement, for instruction in justice, in order that the person of God be capable, equipped for every good work. (2 Tim 3:16-17)
This is one of the primary verses supporting the unique status of the Christian Bible. There is an aspect to this verse, however, that I think is worth exploring.
Among New Testament scholars there is almost universal consensus across the spectrum from ‘liberals’ to ‘evangelical/conservatives’ that 2 Timothy (and the other letters ascribed to Paul) were written 60 CE or earlier. (See, for example, this Wikipedia article and the sources it cites). The same almost universal consensus is that the Gospels were written over a period of time from 60 CE to 100 CE more or less (See, for example, this Wikipedia article and the sources it cites).
In other words, when the author of 2 Timothy wrote this verse, at least half of the New Testament wasn’t written yet. So it’s hard to see how when the author of 2 Timothy refers to ‘Scripture’ that he’s referring to the Christian Bible/New Testament as we know it (because it largely hadn’t even been penned yet). If you’ll notice, invariably when New Testament authors quote ‘the Scripture’, they’re quoting the Hebrew Bible/Christian Old Testament.
Some might argue that the author of 2 Timothy was prophetically referring to what would become the New Testament. But that was no simple process. In the centuries immediately after Christ there was an enormous range of opinion of how to understand the teachings and life/death/resurrection of Jesus. The ‘Gnostics’ are one well known ‘denomination’, but there were many others. Each ‘denomination’ had its own list of what Writings they considered ‘Scripture’. In the end, one ‘denomination’ was victorious. If some other ‘denomination’ had ‘won’, our New Testament would look very different. I have no idea how to sort all of this out. But it is clear that assuming that the statement “All scripture [is] God-breathed” refers to the Official Bible we have today isn’t nearly as simple as one might think at first glance.
Meanwhile, I have a thought-experiment for you, gentle reader. What if ‘All Scripture’ really means “ALL SCRIPTURE”: anything anyone has ever regarded as Scripture? That could include the Koran, and the Bhagavad-Gita, and the Teachings of the Buddha! Are those non-Christian ‘Scriptures’ “useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in justice, so that the person of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work”? Arguably yes! But I doubt the author of 2 Timothy had THIS in mind!
Setting that thought experiment aside, I close with this thought: it’s tempting to view ‘God-breathed’ (inspired) as a simple Yes/No: a text is either Inspired or it isn’t. But I don’t see that in my own experience. To me it’s more like a spectrum, with completely uninspired books at one end (the IRS Instruction Book for filling out a 1040?) and profoundly inspired books on the other end (Scriptures?), with other books falling at various places on the spectrum in between. All sorts of books that aren’t strictly speaking ‘Scripture’ have inspired me, some deeply. So I wonder if any book that is “useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in justice” isn’t ‘God-breathed’ to some extent.