I'm working on the following sections as a basis for a different approach to the article on Inerrancy. I don't know that it's better; but it does seem to me to be closer to the historic issues that are debated. — Mark (Mkmcconn) **
Basis of belief
editThe doctrine underlying inerrancy is biblical inspiration, which teaches that God superintended the writers and editors of the Bible without marginalizing their respective concerns or personalities. This divine involvement is said to have preserved the biblical authors from error. Thus, it is very much a supernaturalist doctrine. It is an assumption that is found throughout the Bible, that the Hebrew Bible is God's own truth; and the books of the New Testament also claim for themselves that they are the word of God.
Jesus said of the Hebrew Bible that the "scripture cannot be broken" John 10:35. He rebuked his hearers for following traditions which nullify "the word of God" (Matthew 15:6, Mark 7:13), and yet he held his own words as having authority equal to the word of God
There is a judge for the one who rejects me and does not accept my words; that very word which I spoke will condemn him at the last day. John 12:48
But even if the writers of Scripture believed as they evidently did, that what they wrote is the word of God, it is an additional question to ask whether the inspiration of Scripture means that the writers of the Bible thought their writings needed to be factually accurate in order to have authority. Those who reject "inerrancy" as a proper expression of the Bible's authority, often distinguish matters of mundane factuality, from issues of transcendent truth.
Proponents of inerrancy argue that their opponents misunderstand the nature of Biblical revelation, in a fundamental way. The Bible is primarily a record of events, or a record occasioned by events; and although it has supernatural elements, it records these events as though it were a literal history. The Bible's stories are written as though they are a remembrance of matters of fact concerning ancestors in the Jewish family, "our forefathers" (1 Corinthians 10:1), and God's dealings with them and the nations around them, who were charged to "watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them slip from your heart" (Deuteronomy 4:9).
The genealogies of Jesus, for example, rest the Christian claim that Jesus is the Messiah, in part on their accuracy as a matter of historical record. Jesus also does not appear to make a division between "history" and "truth" when he establishes the authority of some of his teachings by appeal to scripture — the creation of man and woman "from the beginning of creation" (Mark 10:5–9, citing Genesis 1:27 and 2:24); Noah's flood as a literal event, Noah as a real person and the ark as a real vessel (Luke 17:26–27); Moses as author of the Pentateuch (Luke 16:31; John 5:46–47); and Jonah spent three days in the belly of a sea creature (Matthew 12:39–41).
Inerrantists consequently argue that the Bible's view of its own authority is tied to historical factuality to such an extent that, its authority consists in telling the truth about things that happened. The word of the Lord is the cause of what has happened, and the history Scripture records is the lesson God's word teaches. To charge Scripture with being wrong about history, is to deny the word of God, and the lesson it teaches; according to the inerrantists.