What exactly does "inspired" mean?

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FuzzyBunny116

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Whenever I see it in reference to the Bible, I assume it means that it is “infallible” like the Pope-in matters of faith and morals. If not in fail and morals, say it said a bridge was 100 feet long, when in actuality it was 110, it is not infallible. Is this correct? I’ve never actually heard a dictionary definition for the word, and that has been my inference from what I hear when people say it.
 
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FuzzyBunny116:
Whenever I see it in reference to the Bible, I assume it means that it is “infallible” like the Pope-in matters of faith and morals. If not in fail and morals, say it said a bridge was 100 feet long, when in actuality it was 110, it is not infallible. Is this correct? I’ve never actually heard a dictionary definition for the word, and that has been my inference from what I hear when people say it.
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Inspired, in reference to scripture, means God-breathed. In other words God lead the writers of the various parts to convey His divine truth.

There is some conjecture when it comes to where the human element ends and the divine begins. Definitely we see language and culture reflected in scripture. As far as scientific truth, that is simply not the purpose. The example you gave above could easily be explained by rounding, which is an acceptable mode of communicating.
 
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FuzzyBunny116:
Whenever I see it in reference to the Bible, I assume it means that it is “infallible” like the Pope-in matters of faith and morals. If not in fail and morals, say it said a bridge was 100 feet long, when in actuality it was 110, it is not infallible. Is this correct? I’ve never actually heard a dictionary definition for the word, and that has been my inference from what I hear when people say it.
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This is from the Catholic Encyclopedia article on Inspiration

Ooops! You better go to the site yourself, I don’t want to run afoul of the moderators for posting copyrighted material.

“Inspired” basically means that God has “breathed upon” the writer, i.e., sent the Holy Spirit to use the writer (prophet, evangelist, psalmist) as a means of sending his Word into the worlds.

The Holy Spirit does NOT sit ont the write’sr shoulder, so to speak, dictating, but fills his heart with a Divine message and the writer is free to choose what literary form to use; parables, history, poetry, prophecy, or whatever.

I don’t think inspiration has anything to do with factual or scientific accuracy, just as it doesn’t confer any greater writing ability than the author started with before he was inspired.
 
…means, MY interpretation of the word… NOT yours.

Peace…👍
 
I think it would be best to focus on three words for your answer, they are (1) Revelation (2) Inspire (3) Infallible.

When we speak of the Bible and Tradition being the means of God’s Revelation, that is God revealing to us Himself , what is the Nature of the Devine. In Revealing Himself God always reveals to us our own Nature and the Nature of all created things. And very important, God reveals His Will for us as created persons with intellect and free will, His will for us in our relationship with God, our fellow Humans and all created things. An extremely important revelation God gives to us is that God is Creator and that God is the Redeemer (of a humanity/creation fallen because of sin) and God is the Sanctifier who constantly renews all creation through the power of God’s Love.

Inspiration teaches us how God through His Holy Spirit, inspires or guides humans in societies in general (the oral traditions of the Old and New Testaments) to pass down from generation to generation the truthes of God’s Revelation, using the human instruments of particular cultures’ oral and written traditions expressing the reality of Salvation History.

An Infallibility must be understood first that the revealed truthes found in the oral and written and may I add liturgical traditions of the Church are free from error. And when the Church (the Pope and Bishops in union with him) teaches the truthes revealed it does so with out error.

Remember, we are talking about Salvation History and our living Faith response to the truth revealed to us.
 
From: Approaching the Sacred Scriptures | Scott Hahn and Curtis Mitch
Inspiration and Inerrancy

The Catholic Church makes mighty claims for the Bible, and our acceptance of those claims is essential if we are to read the Scriptures and apply them to our lives as the Church intends. So it is not enough merely to nod at words like “inspired”, “unique”, or “inerrant”. We have to understand what the Church means by these terms, and we have to make that understanding our own. After all, what we believe about the Bible will inevitably influence the way we read the Bible. The way we read the Bible, in turn, will determine what we “get out” of its sacred pages.

These principles hold true no matter what we read: a news report, a search warrant, an advertisement, a paycheck, a doctor’s prescription, an eviction notice. How (or whether) we read these things depends largely upon our preconceived notions about the reliability and authority of their sources–and the potential they have for affecting our lives. In some cases, to misunderstand a document’s authority can lead to dire consequences. In others, it can keep us from enjoying rewards that are rightfully ours. In the case of the Bible, both the rewards and the consequences involved take on an ultimate value.

What does the Church mean, then, when she affirms the words of St. Paul: “All Scripture is inspired by God” (2 Tim 3:16)? Since the term “inspired” in this passage could be translated “God-breathed”, it follows that God breathed forth his word in the Scriptures as you and I breathe forth air when we speak. This means that God is the primary author of the Bible. He certainly employed human authors in this task as well, but he did not merely assist them while they wrote or subsequently approve what they had written. God the Holy Spirit is the principal author of Scripture, while the human writers are instrumental authors. These human authors freely wrote everything, and only those things, that God wanted: the word of God in the very words of God. This miracle of dual authorship extends to the whole of Scripture, and to every one of its parts, so that whatever the human authors affirm, God likewise affirms through their words….”

ignatiusinsight.com/features2005/hahn_mitch_ss_aug05.asp
 
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