Citing Isaiah 7.14, which details the virgin birth and deity of Christ, Matthew insists that this prophecy was “spoken by the Lord through the prophet” (Mt. 1.22; cf. 2.15).
This statement is significant, for it affirms:
(1) that God himself is the author of the text, not man;
(2) that Isaiah and his writing utensil were merely the means by which the Lord spoke (through the prophet); and
(3) that a seven-hundred year old prediction has, with precision, finally come to pass, thereby proving the divine authorship of the passage.
Yet, many assume the reverse — that Isaiah spoke through the Lord — that the Bible claims human authorship, with God (or the idea of God) serving merely as a generic influence. This is erroneous.
The Bible frequently insists that God is the author of all its content (cf. 2 Tim. 3.16; “inspiration,” here, literally denotes, “God-breathed” or “God spoken”). The expression, “thus says the Lord,” is employed more than 400 times in scripture (cf. Isa. 44.6; Zech. 1.3-4; etc.)—“God said,” some 50 times (cf. 2 Cor. 6.16)—“God spoke,” more than 10 times (cf. Mt. 22.31; Mk. 12.26)—plus scores of variations involving divine announcements (cf. 2 Sam. 23.2; 1 Kngs. 22.24; Acts 1.16; 3.18; 4.24-25; etc.). Jesus himself referred to the scriptures as “the word of God” (Mt. 15.6; Mk. 7.13; Jn. 10.35).
Thus, we must either accept the divine authorship of the Bible in totality, or reject it all as a fraud of the most infamous kind (condemning Jesus and the prophets as liars or fools). There can be no part-human, part-divine formula assigned to the origin of the Bible. A definite choice, one way or the other, must be made (cf. 1 Thess. 2.13-14; 2 Cor. 5.20; 2 Pt. 1.19-21).
