Did Jesus Believe the Bible was Infallible? (A Response to Brandan Robertson)

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Did Jesus Believe the Bible was Infallible? (A Response to Brandan Robertson)

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First, I want to respond to Reverend Robertson’s understanding of Matthew 19. Verses 7-8 are preceded by verses 4-5, wherein Jesus says..

“Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning MADE THEM MALE AND FEMALE, and said, ‘FOR THIS REASON A MAN SHALL LEAVE HIS FATHER AND MOTHER AND BE JOINED TO HIS WIFE, AND THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH’?” (Matthew 19:4-5)

Notice how Jesus opens His response – “Have you not read…” He then proceeds to quote Genesis 1:27 and Genesis 2:24 as substance for His rebuke of divorce in verse 6. It’s from here that the Pharisees inquire as to why then the Torah allows for divorce and Jesus further responds with, “Because of your hardness of heart…” However, look at how Jesus finishes verse 8 – “…but from the beginning it has not been this way.” In saying, “from the beginning,” Jesus is making reference to the two verses from Genesis He has already quoted.

So, is Brandan Robertson correct in saying that this exchange is proof that Jesus didn’t believe the Bible was infallible? Frankly, no. If anything, this passage is substance to the authority of scripture and that Jesus believed as much. How can we say this? Because He backs up His position by making reference to the Bible; not by saying the Bible was wrong.

The passage about divorce being referenced in Matthew 19 is from Deuteronomy 24:1-4.

“When a man takes a wife and marries her, and it happens that she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some indecency in her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out from his house, and she leaves his house and goes and becomes another man’s wife, and if the latter husband turns against her and writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house, or if the latter husband dies who took her to be his wife, then her former husband who sent her away is not allowed to take her again to be his wife, since she has been defiled; for that is an abomination before the LORD, and you shall not bring sin on the land which the LORD your God gives you as an inheritance.” (Deuteronomy 24:1-4)

What Moses is doing is laying out a hypothetical situation where a man has divorced his wife, she gets married to another man, then the second marriage ends also (either in another divorce or in the death of the second husband). The command in this passage is in verse 4 – “her former husband who sent her away is not allowed to take her again to be his wife.” In quoting Genesis, Jesus makes reference to the greater context of Moses; the Torah (aka the 5 books of Moses: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy). By quoting Genesis 1&2, Jesus is providing the context that Moses would have had in mind when he authored Deuteronomy 24. Therefore, Jesus is not saying that Moses was wrong in Deuteronomy 24, but that the Pharisees had misunderstood him. And the substance that Jesus offers is scripture itself, not a private opinion that was contrary to scripture.

“Jesus understood the scripture to be the product of humans doing our best to understand God. But it’s not the infallible, inerrant word of God. Maybe we should start to believe and read the Bible like Jesus did.”

Matthew gives us insight into how Jesus understood the Bible in chapter 22.

In verses 23-33, Jesus has an exchange with some Sadducees regarding who a hypothetical woman would be married to in heaven if she had multiple husbands on earth. One of the doctrinal distinctives of the Sadducees was that they did not believe in a resurrection. In asking their question about this woman, they are attempting to prove the resurrection to be a false doctrine. Jesus responds to them in verses 29-32:

Jesus answered and said to them, “You are mistaken, not understanding the Scriptures nor the power of God. For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. But regarding the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was spoken to you by God: ‘I AM THE GOD OF ABRAHAM, AND THE GOD OF ISAAC, AND THE GOD OF JACOB’? He is not the God of the dead but of the living.” (Matthew 22:29-32)

Notice what Jesus says in verse 31 – “…have you not read…” (the same thing He said to the Pharisees in Matthew 19:4). This means that Jesus is going to base his position on the authority of scripture. However, this time, he further adds, “…have you not read what was spoken to you by God,” before quoting Exodus 3:6. In Exodus 3:6, God spoke to Moses. But here, Jesus says that God has spoken, “to you,” meaning to the Sadducees. How has God done this? Through the written words of scripture. Thus, when Jesus says, “have you not read,” He is invoking the testimony of God and all of the authority that comes with it.