• Joseph, a rich man’s favourite son, becomes a slave, survives, then rises to Prime Minister by wit, work and principle. (Genesis 37, then 39-45)
  • Esther, an orphan slave-girl, becomes a queen and risks her life to save the Jews from a race killing over 2,000 years before Hitler. (The Book of Esther)
  • Jesus heals a cheeky blind man. (John 9)
  • Samson’s big muscles, wobbly faith, dumb choices, tragic love life and bloody war record. (Judges 13-16)
  • A story of the greatest life ever - Jesus of Nazareth. (Mark or John)


About 40 people - shepherds, kings, prophets, apostles - between 1500 BC and 96 AD.

BUT they claim to have been inspired by God. One said, ‘All the Bible was given by inspiration from God and is useful to teach us what is true and... how to live well’ (2 Tim 3:16) This is more than the ‘inspiration’ of a piece of music or art. It’s God speaking via dreams or visions, and prophets writing down the message in their own words. One said ‘Prophecy never comes because some human decides it will happen, but holy people speak from God as they are moved by the Holy Spirit.’ (2 Peter 1:21) So the Bible is God’s ideas in human words.

  1. Dictation. Writers sometimes copied as God dictated, e.g. ‘Moses wrote down everything the Lord had said.’ (Exodus 24:4) But usually they wrote in their own words.

  2. Eyewitnesses. Peter wrote, ‘When we told you about the power of Jesus and his soon return, we were not telling clever stories someone made up. We saw with our own eyes how great he really was.’ (2 Peter 1:16) John wrote about Jesus’ life,

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