Just spotted an interesting/annoying post at a new blog called Bible Projects. The post goes like this:

Divine Revelation is entirely without error.

Written Divine Revelation, the Bible, is entirely without error, without flaw, omission, or imperfection. The Bible contains all those things and only those things that God wills it to contain. The Bible contains no false or erroneous assertions, omits nothing necessary to truth and salvation, and conforms entirely to the perfect will of God in its design.

However, individual editions, manuscripts, copies, translations, and printings of the Bible can contain errors particular to that edition. A translator can make a translation error; a copiest can make a copying error; a printer can make a printing error; and editor can make an editing error. But Divine Revelation in the Bible retains its infallibility because it is not confined to one particular edition. The truths expressed in the Bible are found in each edition, but these truths are also stretched across many editions in many languages. Some truths are clear in one edition and obscured in another. But the all the truths of the Bible can be reached by the use of more than one edition.

This cuts to the heart of a lot of interesting arguments, I think. And I offered the following comments on his post, in the hopes of furthering discussion on the subject.

im a little confused about what you said here. first, you say that divine revelation is without error. then you admit that any errors in it are through human error.

but doesnt the fact that its “revelation” require that it use humans as a vehicle? otherwise, the bible would be a spontaneous manifestation, wholly without human intervention, like a tree or a dog or a rock.

by your logic, the inherent error of humanity taints the divine revelations which pass through us. simply by looking to other editions of the bible produced by other humans would not alleviate this inherent error, but would rather multiply it even further.

shouldn’t we either embrace what you’re calling “error” or else go straight to the source, God, and bypass the tainted work of humans?

Hopefully he’ll offer a response of some sort. But if he doesn’t, I’m curious about what other people would have to add to this.