“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock.”

Matthew 7:24

Christians recognize the Bible as a different sort of book from all other books. While God may inspire an artist, or the Holy Spirit draw a reader toward a divine revelation through art, the Bible is more than a mere literary experience.

Recognizing the Bible as literature opens us up to a fuller appreciation of the holy book than if we treat it like an instruction manual or to-do list. It is a bibliography of genres, including poetry, song, lament, prophecy, history, narrative, parables, letters, dreams, and so forth. We should practice reading to enjoy the fullness of that literary experience.

However, as a book divinely authored by God, the Bible also stands apart from all literature penned by human authors. God inspired human writers to pen the words, but God also authorized those pages. No matter what other beauty, truth, and goodness may be found elsewhere, other works of literature lack the authority that Scripture has over Christians.

In Paul’s second letter to Timothy, he assures the young disciple, “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2 Tim. 3:16–17). Our Judeo-Christian Scriptures provide an assurance of their authority—literally, their author is God—as well as their usefulness for forming readers into righteous servants. This authority relieves readers of the burden of sifting through what is fallible and what is divine.

Over years of reading, we may begin to trust certain authors and regard them as teachers, but there remains a difference between their genius and the authority of the apostles. I trust Fyodor Dostoevsky, Eugene Peterson, and Fleming Rutledge. By God’s grace, any person, any book or artwork, or any element of God’s creation may speak to someone’s heart. But no matter how much truth or beauty these writers engender, they do not possess the apostolic authority granted to the writers of Scripture. (Credit: Jessica Hooten Wilson – “The Bible Is Literature. It’s Also Your Boss.”)

“Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.”
Matthew 24:35