The originals of the scriptures (written over 1500 years) are error free. But we have no originals available to us.
Translations are only as good as the source material and the closeness of the walk of the translators with the Holy Spirit.
God allowed the personality and social times of the authors to come through. I absolutely believe 2 Pet 1:20-21. The key is indeed "moved by the Holy Spirit." Four basic views are:
The Holy Spirit dictated the Bible and the authors were mere scribes. (Dictation Theory)
Inspired to a higher level than is humanly possible. (Intuition Theory)
Inspiration by intensifying the religious perceptions of men. (Illumination Theory)
The Holy Spirit moved the authors to write and watched over what they said while they wrote using their own experiences and relationship with God. (Dynamic Theory).
["The thought inspiration school holds that God inspired the ideas but the writer expressed them in his own words. By whatever method used, the Holy Spirit guarded the authors from error as they wrote what God wanted them to say." (Fundamentals of Our Faith, Herschel H. Hobbs, Broadman Press, 1960, 0-8054-1702-8, 4217-02, page 2)]
I hold to basic position 4.
This is not the putting down of their own views, but putting the message from God into the language of their day. For example: Luke used a surgical needle while the rest used a sewing needle for the camel going through the eye of a needle. We cannot pick and chose what we believe. The authors wrote what the Holy Spirit wanted them to say. The original writings are error-free and the doctrine of the inerrancy of the scripture is a fact. But just because the Bible authors or persons did or believed something and wrote it doesn't mean God wanted them to believe or act that way. It means God had them write the truth, whatever it was. Another example is the ancients believed in a flat earth, with four corners on four pillars. That is not true but God let the authors write it because they understood the expression. Some have gone to the extreme over the centuries by saying the earth isn't round because the Bible says it has four corners. We know the Holy Spirit meant for us to understand that this phrase means "all over the earth", and not four literal corners.
Referring to 2 Pet 1:20-21, Edgemon wrote: "Peter says that God's Word did not come because human beings chose to give it; the Bible is not human speculation or human imagination. Would we humans be as honest as God was? We never would have revealed the clay feet of the great heroes of the Bible. We never would have shown David's failures, or Noah's drunkenness, or Lot's terrible plight. The Bible is realistic; it shows persons as they really are." "We believe that writers were inspired in word and detail, as well as in ideas and concepts." (The Doctrines Baptists Believe, Roy T. Edgemon, Convention Press, 1988, 5133-11, pages11,13) This still leaves room for the personality and mores of the times to come through.
"'The Baptist Faith and Message' says that the Bible has 'truth, without any mixture of error, for its matter.' This, of course, refers to the original manuscripts of its component parts. Serious students of the Scriptures know that, through the years, copyists' errors were made. The Holy Spirit does not guard copyists from such any more than he does typesetters. It should be noted, however, that none of these errors affect to any great degree the spiritual contents of the Scriptures. But with the discovery of thousands of manuscripts of the New Testament, most of these errors have been traced to their source and eliminated." (The Baptist Faith and Message, Herschel H. Hobbs, Convention Press, 1971, 5133-02, page 28)
The application of the Old Testament to the Christian is not the same as to an Old Testament saved person. This is because Christians have an "Abba Father" relationship and the Old Testament saved did not.
That makes an eternity of difference. To respond to the Father in less than an "Abba" manner is to not respect what he has made possible to the Christian an a joint-heir member of his family with Jesus. The Old Testament is written about a non-Abba relationship. So for Christians, there are many statements by Old Testament authors that are not proper, even though it may have been appropriate for them. But in either case, God never needed to be treated as a God who had to be asked to respond to a saved person. God doesn't know the numbers of hairs by being a God who lacks interest or attention to people who have faith in him. We never have to wake God up or ask for his attention. So why do we continue to do so in various ways?
Translations are all that are available to normal Christians.
Few of us can read the Greek and the Hebrew directly. Which translations are to be used? This becomes a major problem and concern. This issue is as broad as there are numbers of groups that call themselves Christians. It is not an area for a new Christian to jump into unguided.
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