Don't know why but was thinking of 2 Timothy 3:16 last night (you know 'all scripture is inspired of god etc')
I was thinking this scripture is used by the JWs as well as others to say that the bible is the word of god. However, as the bible is a construct several hundred years after the death of christ each writer was unaware of the bible as a whole. So to what is Paul referring? Is it:
The torah?
The gospels?
All jewish religious writings written before christ?
What is strange is that this text is used to refer to Paul's own writings - but did Paul say that his letters were scripture let alone what he was writing was inspired scripture? And what about the writings that came after Paul? When did it cease to be inspired? Paul puts no time frame on this.
Clearly Paul had some idea of the 'scripture' to which he was referring and his audience must have as well as he uses the term 'all' (or maybe the Greek actually has a more nuanced meaning that is lost in English?) rather than listing texts that he considered inspired. For example, he could have said 'The torah and the gospels are inspired by god and beneficial. The rest can be ignored'.
I suppose this is less of a question and more of an observation and perhaps a poorly defined thought. Has anyone else ever thought the same?