The Word of God - Authorial Intent (Part 1 of 2 in our "Word of God" series)

Today we're beginning a two-parter on the phrase "The Word of God." I hope it's a help to you. As promised in the episode, here's a list of how the phrase "Word of God" is used in the Old Testament as follows: It’s found 49 times across 48 verses in the while Protestant Bible, but only four of those times are in the Old Testament. Three out of the four times it’s found in the English Old Testament, it’s a translation of the Hebrew word “דָּבָר (daw-bar)” which it self simply means “matter of thing,” or “act, advice, affair, answer, counsel, decree,” and so on. All three of these times refer not to a written word, but a shown word (in the case of I Samuel 9:7) or a spoken word to a prophet (in the case of I Kings 12:22 and I Chronicles 17:3). The other time we see in the Hebrew Scriptures, it’s found in the thirtieth chapter of the book of Proverbs, which is Agur’s proverb. It’s the Hebrew word “אִמְרָה (eem-raw)” and means “something said, answer, saying, speech,” and “word.” So it’s pretty clear we’re talking about edicts and declarations, just like in the other three cases — Agur has just chosen to use another word for it. Now, that's not to mentioned the "Word of the LORD," but it has the exact same meaning, which is simply "A declaration of the mind of God." I cover the New Testament uses a bit more thoroughly in the episode, so no need for notes on that, methinks.