Scripture (the "Sacred Writings" or "Holy Scriptures") refers to the 66 books of the Old and New Testaments, which together constitute the complete, inspired, authoritative, and sufficient Word of God. Scripture is "breathed out by God" (theopneustos, 2 Timothy 3:16) — meaning its ultimate Author is God Himself, though He spoke through human writers. Scripture is the supreme and final rule for faith and practice (the Protestant principle of Sola Scriptura), able to make the believer "complete, equipped for every good work" (2 Tim 3:17). Jesus treated Scripture as the unbreakable Word of God (John 10:35) and consistently appealed to it in temptation, debate, and teaching.
SCRIP'TURE, n. In general, a writing; any writing. In theology, THE SCRIPTURES, in the plural, the books of the Old and New Testament. The word of God contained in the Bible. The holy scriptures, called by way of eminence, the scriptures, is a revelation from God to man of his will, his works, and his ways; containing doctrines, precepts, prophecies, promises, and histories, for the instruction and salvation of men.
Contemporary scholarship treats Scripture as one spiritual text among many — valuable as ancient wisdom literature but not uniquely authoritative. Liberal theology subjects Scripture to the authority of human reason and cultural norms, accepting what seems reasonable and rejecting what does not. Progressive Christianity reads Scripture through a "trajectory hermeneutic," claiming the Bible's trajectory supersedes its plain statements. Even within evangelicalism, Scripture has been quietly demoted — replaced by experience, personality-driven teaching, and therapeutic self-help dressed in biblical language. The result: millions who claim to follow the Bible have never seriously read it.
2 Timothy 3:16–17 — "All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, reproof, correction, and training in righteousness."
Psalm 119:105 — "Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path."
Hebrews 4:12 — "The word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword."
John 10:35 — "Scripture cannot be broken." — Jesus's own statement on its authority.
2 Peter 1:21 — "Men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit."
G1124 — γραφή (graphē) — a writing; used specifically for the sacred Scriptures in the NT
G2315 — θεόπνευστος (theopneustos) — "God-breathed," inspired by God (2 Tim 3:16)
H3791 — כָּתַב (kathav) — to write; a writing, inscription
G1121 — γράμμα (gramma) — a letter, a document; the sacred letters (2 Tim 3:15)
"Jesus defeated Satan's every temptation with three words: 'It is written.' The Christian's most powerful weapon is a well-known, rightly-handled Scripture."
"Scripture does not merely contain the Word of God — it IS the Word of God, as authoritative in Leviticus as in the Sermon on the Mount."
"The man who reads the Bible daily and the man who never opens it live in two different universes — one shaped by God's reality, one by the world's."