Textual Fluidity as a Challenge to Inspiration? A Systematic Theologian’s Point of View

Fluidity is less a challenge to inspiration than the bearer of the traces of an affinity with the concern that emerges in the doctrine of inspiration. Inspiration is not a category to be applied from the outside to the present state of the biblical books; like the process of canonisation, inspiration, in its dual modality of provenance and destination - an inspired text from the life-giving God; an inspiring text intended to nourish life, "these things were written that you might believe (...) and that by believing you might have life in his name" (Jn 20:31) - is a concern to which the biblical text bears witness. The fluidity of the biblical text is often the result of the theological concern that corresponds to the category of inspiration, i.e., the linking of the text to the divine author and to the contemporary listener. Here are the three stages of the reflection. I clarify what is meant by the inspiration of Scripture and textual fluidity respectively, I note the verifiable affinity between textual fluidity and inspiration in the biblical text, and then I draw conclusions from the point of view of biblical theology as well as from the notion of the Word of God.