"Every God-breathed scripture is useful..."

The question arose with regard to whether or not the NT texts claim to be inspired and, if so, what does that mean anyway? The standard passage that is used to defend inspiration is 2 Timothy 3:16–17, which reads (NRSV) as follows:

"All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient, equipped for every good work."

The Greek reads: "πᾶσα γραφὴ θεόπνευστος καὶ ὠφέλιμος πρὸς διδασκαλίαν, πρὸς ἐλεγμόν, πρὸς ἐπανόρθωσιν, πρὸς παιδείαν τὴν ἐν δικαιοσύνῃ, ἵνα ἄρτιος ᾖ ὁ τοῦ θεοῦ ἄνθρωπος, πρὸς πᾶν ἔργον ἀγαθὸν ἐξηρτισμένος."

The key phrase in terms of so-called "inspiration" is "All scripture is inspired by God," that is, "πᾶσα γραφὴ θεόπνευστος." The Greek, literally translated is "all (every) writing (scripture) God-breathed (inspired).

Here is how various versions translate this phrase:

All Scripture is breathed out by God (ESV)

All Scripture is inspired by God (HCSB)

Every scripture is inspired by God (NET)

Every scripture inspired of God (ASV)

All scripture is given by inspiration of God (KJV)

Every writing [is] God-breathed (YLT)

The YLT (Young's Literal Translation) lives up to its name here. Note that "is" is written as [is] which means that form of the verb "to be" is not actually in the Greek. It is supplied by the translators, necessarily, but not necessarily does it need to be supplied there. Quite legitimately, the translation could read: "Every God-breathed scripture is useful..."

Thus the focus of this passage is not on all scripture being God-breathed but rather every God-breathed scripture is useful. The latter translation better fits the context, as the rest of the passage makes clear – i.e., that God-breathed writings are useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, etc.

Regardless of how one chooses to translate this phrase one must wrestle with how best to translate he most important word in this phrase "θεόπνευστος." In the entire Bible, this word is found only ONCE; right here in 2 Tim 3:16. And it is not found anywhere in the Greek version of the OT (i.e., the Septuagint). Also, I have been unable to find it used in any Greek writing outside the Bible, prior to its use here in 2 Tim 3:16. It is used by a few of the early Church Fathers.

That is why I choose the more "literal" translation of "God-breathed" as it is a compound word from θεος (God) + πνευστος ("a presumed derivative of πνέω, meaning "to breathe or blow").

The following quotation is from the United Bible Society's Handbook on the New Testament, a support for translators and is quite informative.

"Inspired by God translates a term that occurs nowhere else in the New Testament. Its literal translation is "God-breathed," which means that Scripture is produced by God's breath (or spirit, which is also his power) and is therefore of divine origin. Another possibility is to understand the Scriptures as written by people but as breathed into by God (as in the case of the first man Adam), so that these writings are "alive" and can confront people in a way that accomplishes specific functions for which these writings were produced. This single term has perhaps produced more varieties of interpretation and generated more controversy among Christians than any other term...Suffice it to say that the mention of this term is not primarily to define the nature of Scripture but to give a reason why Scripture is useful and effective for the functions that are mentioned."

This fully supports the idea that the use of this word here is to emphasize the usefulness of scripture not its origin, whether it be "human" or "divine."