Sufficient and Profitable (5)
By "All Scripture," it is certain that Paul is referring to at least the Old Testament, since as a Jew, that was his "Scripture." Also, he has just mentioned "the holy Scriptures" that were taught to Timothy by his Jewish mother and grandmother, which likewise would have been at least the Old Testament. The question is whether he has in mind the New Testament also, or from another perspective, whether what he is saying about "All Scripture" can be directly applied to the New Testament in particular.
Here we will again recall that the inspiration of Scripture, and now the New Testament in particular, does not depend on this verse alone. Jesus says that he would send the apostles the Spirit of truth, who would then guide them into all truth (John 16:13). And Peter writes that ignorant and unstable people distort the letters of Paul, "as they do the other Scriptures" (2 Peter 3:15-16). The necessary implication is that Paul's letters were already considered as part of the Scriptures. That is, he says that these people distort Paul's letters, which are Scriptures, as they do the other Scriptures.
As for Paul, he was aware that the very words he spoke were "taught by the Spirit" (1 Corinthians 2:13), and not just the general ideas. He introduces himself as an apostle, foreordained and called to be such by God and the Lord Jesus. And he repeatedly defends his identity and authority as an apostle in his writings. He tells the Corinthians to "acknowledge that what I am writing to you is the Lord's command" (1 Corinthians 14:37). Then, in 1 Timothy 5:18, he prefaces both Deuteronomy 25:4 and Luke 10:7 with the expression, "the Scripture says," effectively calling the Gospel of Luke "Scripture" and ascribing to it the same divine inspiration and authority of Deuteronomy.
It is therefore unreasonable to assume that Paul must refer to only the Old Testament when he says "All Scripture." As Robert Reymond writes, Paul would have been willing to include, and "almost certainly did include, within the technical category of 'all Scripture' the New Testament documents, including his own, as well."5 Since the New Testament documents are regarded as inspired and even called "Scripture," we may with complete certainty regard them as "God-breathed." Both the Old Testament and the New Testament are "Scripture," and they make up one book that is our Bible. Therefore, there is no problem in regarding the verse as asserting, "The whole Bible is God-breathed." In fact, there is no excuse in thinking otherwise.
Notes
5 Robert L. Reymond, A New Systematic Theology of the Christian Faith (Thomas Nelson, 1998), p. 34.
(to be continued)