The Inerrancy of Scripture

By Ron Jones ©Titus Institute 2009


Introduction

Last time I was with you we looked at the Inspiration of Scripture and saw that the Bible clearly declares that it is inspired by God.

This morning we are going to look at the Inerrancy of Scripture. If the Bible is inspired, is it also inerrant?

Is the Bible inerrant, that is, true and without error in all that it affirms about any subject? Or is the Bible true and without error in most of what it affirms except for some minor historical and scientific errors? Or is the Bible true and without error only in the spiritual truths that it teaches, that is, only what it affirms in regard to faith and practice?

How do we as Christians know which view is right? We know by following what Jesus and his apostles taught about the truthfulness of the Bible.

As Christians we believe that Jesus is the Son of God and that his apostles were appointed by him to teach the truth by the power of the Holy Spirit and all that they taught is true and authoritative.

As Henry Virkler wrote,

“If Jesus Christ is, as we believe, the Son of God, then His attitude toward Scripture will provide the best answer to the question of inerrancy.” (Virkler, Henry A., Hermeneutics, Baker Books, Grands Michigan, 1981, 32)

This morning we want to answer this question. Is the Bible inerrant? Another way of asking it “How much of the Bible is true?”

What we want to discover is what Jesus and the Apostles believed as evidenced by what they taught. To me this is the only way we can be sure.

I am talking to you as believers. I am not talking to unbelievers. Don’t expect to convince an unbeliever about inerrancy. Writing 66 books by many different authors over two thousand years without error cannot be humanly done. It can only be done by a divine supernatural power, the power of the Holy Spirit himself. If unbelievers do not accept the supernatural in the Bible, they will not accept the inerrancy of Scripture.

We, on the other hand, are followers of Jesus Christ and his apostles and what matters to us is what they taught about the Scriptures and their truthfulness. We believe in the supernatural.

Biblical faith is believing that God did miracles in the history of the world as it is revealed in his Word.

Once you accept that God has divine supernatural power and can do anything. Inerrancy is easy to accept once we understand if Jesus and his apostles taught that.

And they did.

Jesus and his apostles taught that the Bible is true. All Scripture is true. All that the Bible affirms is true.


This morning we will look at three points as we give evidence for this in the New Testament.

1. Jesus and the apostles declared that all of the Bible is inspired by God and is true.

2. Jesus and the apostles referred to the OT narratives of the people, places and events as historically accurate and true in their teaching.

3. Jesus and the Apostles accepted the Bible’s supernatural statements of God working his divine power in the lives of his creatures, which according to secular science is impossible.


Let’s look at point 1

1. Jesus and the apostles declared that all of the Bible is inspired by God and is true.

Let’s begin with one of the most definitive passages in all the Scriptures, which came from the hand of Paul the Apostle himself.

1) Paul taught that all Scripture was inspired by God, that is, was the Word of God.

Turn to 2 Timothy 3:16

This is a key verse because it reveals that the apostles taught that all of the Bible is true. That’s inerrancy!

2 Tim.3:16-17
16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,
17 so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

v.16 “Scripture” means “the writing, what was written down.”

The word “Scripture” and its plural form “Scriptures” always refer to the Sacred Scriptures, the Bible when used by Jesus, the apostles, and the other writers of the NT.

The singular is used when the speaker or writer wants to emphasis the unity of the Bible as one large book of truth, as the Word of God.

The Greek word translated “inspiration” means literally “God-breathed” or “breathed out by God” (as the English Standard version translates it), that is it is “from the mouth of God.”

This is a figurative way of saying the Scripture is “the Word of God.”

The Scripture comes from God communicating and it is God’s Word. The Scripture is from God Himself. He uses men to convey it, but it is his communication and word.

Notice two things:

1) Paul uses the singular “Scripture” taking all the sacred writings as a whole.

2) Paul adds the word “all.” All Scripture is inspired by God. Not some of it. Not part of it. Not just the spiritual truths in it.

“All of it as a whole.” Paul doesn’t give any distinction between its books or statements. Paul makes no distinction in the kind of statements the Scriptures make. All of Scripture from Genesis 1:1 to Revelation 22:21 is inspired no matter what kind of topic it addresses whether geographical, historical, or scientific.

Here, Paul is definitely talking about the OT.

This can be seen in 2 Timothy 3:15 the verse before his inspiration statement.

2 Timothy 3:14-15
14 But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it,
15 and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.

Notice, Paul uses the plural – Scriptures because he is looking at the OT as a collection of inspired books. This is obviously the OT because the NT he would not have known from infancy.

So we know the OT is inspired, what about the NT?

Since all Scripture is inspired, then any writings that Jesus and the apostles refer to as “Scripture” or the “Word of God” would also be inspired.

This can be seen in his earlier epistle of 1 Timothy and in Peter’s second epistle.

Look at 2 Peter 3:14.

Peter’s second letter was written just prior to his death. It was most likely written around 63 or 64 AD. Peter was most likely martyred between 64 and 68 AD during Nero’s persecution of Christians.

2 Peter 3:14-16
14 So then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with him.
15 Bear in mind that our Lord's patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him.
16 He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.

By this time, Paul had already written 12 of his thirteen letters. The only letter of his that may not have been written by this time is 2 Timothy.

Most of his letters were circulating for several years because Paul wrote Ephesians, Colossians, Philippians, Philemon in the early 60’s AD while in prison.

All of his other letters except Timothy and Titus were written in the 50’s AD and had been circulating for years.

Three of the Gospels were written, Matthew, Mark, and Luke because they were written in the early 60’s. 13:58

That is a lot of the NT.

V.16 is a significant statement by another apostle, Peter, who calls Paul’s letters Scriptures.

Peter says “letters” – there was more than one.

What are the “other Scriptures” Peter is talking about? The OT. So he says, Paul’s letters are part of the Scriptures.

So when Paul says “All Scripture is inspired by God” he refers to the body of Sacred Scriptures God has already inspired and any ones he subsequently inspires which would be the NT. The apostles included their writings in the Scriptures.

Paul not only taught that all Scripture was inspired by God and was the Word of God, but Jesus also taught that the whole Word of God was true.

The main point is this. As the New Testament was being written it was included in the Scriptures in the mind of the apostles. Therefore, those books would be included under Paul’s teaching that “all Scripture is inspired by God.”

2) Jesus taught that the whole Word of God was true.

Turn to John 17. We’ll start with v.15 to get the context.

John is praying to he father for his disciples.

Jn. 17:17 (Read v.15)
Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.

Like Paul who used the singular “Scripture” Jesus uses the singular “Word.”

Jesus asks the Father to make his disciples holy according to the truth. Then he gives how that will happen. It is through the Word of God (“Thy Word”) because his Word is the truth.

“Word” is singular because it takes the whole Word of God as one unit, as a whole.

“Truth”

Jesus doesn’t say that the Word is true, but that the Word is truth. The noun truth describes the nature of the Word of God. It is a stronger statement. It is true because it is by its very nature truth. It defines truth.

When Jesus referred to God’s word he was referring to the Old Testament, the Revelation he himself taught, and the words of the apostles they would teach in the future.

Jesus declared that the OT is the Word of God.

In Matthew 15:6 Jesus challenges the Jewish leaders with their hypocrisy by comparing what the OT says about honoring one’s father and mother and calling the OT the Word of God.

Matthew 15:1-6 NIV (Read v.1)
6 he is not to 'honor his father' with it. Thus you nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition.

Jesus quotes Exodus 20:12 and 21:17 from the OT and then calls it the command of God in v. 3 and the Word of God in v.6

Jesus not only taught that the OT was the Word of God, but also his words.

20:01

Jesus taught that his word was the Word of God.

Jesus speaks the Word of God.
John 14:24 NIV
He who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.


Jesus gave the apostles authority to speak and teach the Word of God.
John 16:13-15
But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.

This is a promise only for the apostles.

Summary of point:

So Jesus taught that the Word of God includes the OT, and the NT, which would be written by the apostles or under their authority.

Tape 22.11
There is specific evidence as well which brings us to point #2

2. Jesus and the apostles referred to the OT narratives of the people, places and events as historically accurate and true in their teaching.

1) Paul referred to past events narrated in the Scriptures as those, which happened for our spiritual benefit.

1 Cor.10:1-12
Paul’s exhortation to the Corinthians is based upon real historical events accurately recorded of the Israelites and their rebellion in the wilderness recorded in the book of Numbers. Paul says not to be like them.

1 Corinthians 10:11
These things occurred to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come.

“occurred” = “happened” = real event

The entire story of the exodus happened. It was real. It is to be an example to us of what to emulate and what to reject.

Jesus teaches the same way.

2) Jesus referred to many OT people and events as he taught as real and the records of them as accurate.

The Persecution of the Prophets

Luke 11:46-51 NIV
46Jesus replied, "And you experts in the law, woe to you, because you load people down with burdens they can hardly carry, and you yourselves will not lift one finger to help them…

Jesus in his teaching accused the Jewish leaders of acting like their forefathers who killed the prophets. He says that they were guilty of the death of all those righteous prophets from the very beginning of creation of man starting with the blood of Abel in the Book of Genesis and continuing to the blood of Zechariah whose blood was shed and recorded in in the last book of the Hebrew Bible. Jesus goes from the first book to the last book of the Hebrew Bible.

Chronicles was the last book of the Hebrew Bible not Malachi like in the English Bibles. That was intentional.

2 Chron.24:20-21

Jesus accepted all the narratives of the prophets. That is the basis of the OT!

Notice, Jesus and the apostles teachings are not just based upon the words of God recorded in the OT, but also the narratives sections.

They are all true!

Jesus mentions

The wilderness serpent Jn. 3:14 NIV

Elijah and Elisha Luke 4:25-30
Mark 12:26 God speaking through a burning bush.
Noah: Mt. 24:37-39
Abraham: Jn. 8:56
Circumcision: Jn. 7:22; cf. Gn. 17:10-12; Lv. 12:3 NIV
Sodom and Gomorrah: Mt. 10:15 NIV
Lot: Lk. 17:28-32 NIV
Isaac and Jacob: Mt. 8:11 NIV
The Manna: Jn. 6:31, 49, 58 NIV
David as the author of Psalm 110: Mt. 22:43 NIV
Solomon: Matthew 6:29 NIV
Jonah: Matthew 12:39-41; Luke 11:29-32
Zechariah: Luke 11:51

3) Stephen gives a brief account of the history of Israel recorded in the OT.
Acts 7 NIV

He mentions God and Abraham, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Joseph and his family, Moses, Joshua, David, Solomon, the Prophets

4) Heb.11
NIV records a variety of OT believers who trusted God through difficult circumstances
Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Sarah Isaac, Jacob, Esau, Joseph, Moses, Rahab, Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel and the prophets

5) The genealogies are evidence of the truthfulness of the OT records

Matthew 1

Luke 3

Genealogies by their very nature – involve real people.

In ancient times, the Jews took genealogies very seriously. Their ancestry traced back to Abraham was the whole basis of their special status as the nation of God. Jewish genealogies did not include people that did not exist.

Tape 29:00

3. Jesus and the Apostles accepted the Bible’s supernatural statements of God working his divine power in the lives of his creatures, which according to secular science is impossible.

People who do not accept the Bible say, “There is error in the Bible because what it says happened is scientifically impossible.”

When they say that they are talking about miracles.

This is the view of secular science. It believes that there is no such thing as a supernatural event. There are no miracles. Everything has to be explained by natural causes.

Secular Science has a powerful influence on society and in our lives and can make us feel intimidated.

This presupposition is the direct opposite of the Bible. The Bible is full of the miraculous, God working his divine power in the lives of people.

I have listened to countless debates of Christian scholars with non-Christian scholars and it always gets down to a conflict about the supernatural.

An unbeliever who does not believe in miracles will never accept any kind of record of miracles. Period.

However, we are Christians we accept miracles by God. That is the basis of our faith. Never apologize for believeing in miracles in the Bible. That is what faith is. The Son of God becoming a man is the ultimate miracle. That is what we center our faith in.

Jesus and the Apostles taught that miracles really happened and that God did the impossible both in OT times and NT times.

Let’s look at the primary event that secular science disputes which forms a basis for understanding all subsequent miracles.

The Bible teaches that God created the universe and humans

This event is challenged by modern day scientists and cause many to charge the Bible with errors.

Secular science does not recognize the existence of God and therefore cannot accept a creation of the universe and man by God. But that is what the Bible teaches.

Genesis 1:1
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

A simple and clear statement of the origin of the universe.

God created something out of nothing. Secular scientists always end up saying that they do not know where the raw material for the big bang came from.

If God created the heavens and the earth, there is no miracle God cannot do in this heavens and earth.

Principles to understand the Bible in regard to creation and the miraculous:

1) As believers we are committed to the Biblical account as taught by Jesus and the Apostles.

As we have seen Jesus and the Apostles taught that God created the world and that he created Adam and Eve directly and that they were the mother and father of the human race just as Genesis says.

Whatever scientific evidence we may observe about the world must fit into those truths no matter how difficult that may seem.

2) The events of creation were not witnessed by any human being.

3) The Biblical account of God creating the world is the only account that explains the origin of the universe.

However, science cannot explain where the original material that exploded in the Big Bang came from. It is illogical to believe that something came from nothing.

The Bible says God always was. Before the universe, there was not nothing. There was God.

4) The Biblical account of Adam and Eve and their fall into sin and its consequences for man is the only adequate explanation for the problem of evil in the world.

5) Once a person accepts Genesis 1:1 (that God is an infinite being that created the universe and the world with his infinite power and is therefore able to control it) there is no miracle mentioned in the Bible that cannot do. Period.

God has the infinite power to suspend all natural processes for a moment in time and then start them again without any negative consequences if he so chooses.


Let’s look at these three examples of these principles from the Scriptures which are described in the Old Testament and referred in the New Testament.

These three examples are

The creation of Adam and Eve
The swallowing of Jonah by the great sea creature
The world-wide flood of Noah

Each of these events are disputed by secular historians and scientists and yet each of these events are taught as true by Jesus and his apostles.

1. The Bible teaches that God created Adam and Eve
2. The Bible teaches that God sent a world-wide flood and saved Noah in an ark
3. The Bible teaches God chastised Jonah by being swallowed by a large sea creature

These three events are challenged by modern day scientists and cause many to charge the Bible with errors.

Yet Jesus and the Apostles accepted all three as true exactly as taught in the OT.

Let’s start with the origin of the universe and man, specifically Adam and Eve.

1. The Bible teaches that God created Adam and Eve

Gen.1:27
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

Genesis 1 gives a general statement of God’s creation of Adam and Eve. Then Genesis 2 goes back and gives details on exactly how it happened.

Where did Adam and Eve come from? God created them.

This was a regular Hebrew practice in writing – to give a general statement, then go back and fill in the details.

Gen.2:7
the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.

Gen.2:21-22
v.21 So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs] and then closed up the place with flesh.
v.22 Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.
v.23 The man said, “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman,’ for she was taken out of man.”
v.24 For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh.

Notice, in 2:24, God establishes marriage right at the beginning when he first creates Adam and Eve.

Stopped 39:16

Here’s the question, is this passage symbolic or did it literally happen as stated. What did Jesus and the apostles say about this?

Jesus accepted this account of creation.

Jesus makes a clear statement that God created the world. Jesus was a creationist.

Jesus also believed in the direct creation of man and woman by God and there relationship as the first couple as it is stated in Genesis 1 and 2.

Matthew 19:3-6
3 Some Pharisees came to him to test him. They asked, "Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any and every reason?"
4 "Haven't you read," he replied, "that at the beginning the Creator 'made them male and female,'
5 and said, 'For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh'?

“Read means “read in the OT” = in Genesis 1 and 2

Jesus takes the two general statements in Gen.1 and 2 and puts them together to support his point. Jesus believed that God created male and female exactly as Genesis states.

Jesus directly quotes Gen.1:27. He refers to the first marriage of a literal couple, Adam and Eve, by referring to the statement of their marriage in Gen.2:24 which only makes sense if they existed.

Jesus is supporting a principle that affects real life marriages and he uses a real life example of the first creation and marriage exactly as Genesis states.

Later Jesus refers to the first-born son of Adam and Eve, Abel.

Matthew 23:35
And so upon you will come all the righteous blood that has been shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Berekiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar.

Jesus mentions here, the son of Adam and Eve, Abel who was martyred at the hands of Cain, their other son. There is no way in the context that Jesus could be speaking of a mythical or symbolic person.

Abel’s blood was shed by the hand of his brother Cain. Jesus is saying Abel is the first martyr. How can he be talking about a symbol or legend when he is talking about spilt blood?

He is rebuking the Pharisees and judging them as representatives of the nation of Israel who killed the prophets God sent beginning with Abel. The prophets were real men and so was Abel.

If Abel was real, then his father and mother, Adam and Eve were real.

The Apostles show further what Jesus taught.

Paul refers to Adam and Eve as real human beings whom God created as Genesis says.

1 Corinthians 15:45 quotes Gen.2:7
So also it is written, "The first man, Adam, became a living soul." The last Adam became a life-giving spirit.

In supporting the truth of the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ and our subsequent bodily resurrection as believers, he compares the physical body with the resurrected glorified body and appeals to Gen.2:7 and compares God giving physical life to Adam and Christ as the last Adam giving spiritual life to his followers.

If Adam had not really existed and been directly created by God, he could not be used in a comparison with a very real Jesus Christ about a very serious subject as giving eternal life and resurrection to people.

But what about Eve? Did Paul believe that she existed? Yes.

1 Timothy 2:13
For it was Adam who was first created, and then Eve.

Paul refers to the specific order of creation in Gen.2.

1 Timothy 2:14 NASB
14And Adam was not the one deceived; it was the woman who was deceived and became a sinner.

This is in absolute agreement with Genesis 3.

2. The Bible teaches God chastised Jonah by being swallowed by a large sea creature

The story of Jonah - Matt. 12:39-41; Luke 11:29-32

Matthew 12:38-41
38 Then some of the Pharisees and teachers of the law said to him, "Teacher, we want to see a miraculous sign from you."
39 He answered, "A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a miraculous sign! But none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.
40 For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
41The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and now one greater than Jonah is here.

V. 40 – “a huge fish”.

In Mat. 12:40, the Greek word is “kntos,” used of this creature means “a huge sea creature” or “great fish.” It does not specifically mean whale.

The word is used very generically and could refer to mammals. It is not just used in the strict biological use of the term “fish.”

The Heb. word used for “fish” in the book of Jonah is also a general word that can mean a great sea creature.

God does not give any indication what kind of sea creature it was except it was big enough to swallow a man whole and keep him in its stomach for three days and three nights.

I have read that there have been reports in the past of men swallowed by sperm whales or great, huge sharks and survived.

Whatever kind of sea creature it was, this was a miraculous supernatural act of God. Not only moving the fish to swallow Jonah, but also keeping Jonah alive three days and three nights without being eaten up by the acid of the fish’s stomach or drowning or suffocating or whatever.

This is a miracle. It does not have to be explained by natural means.

Why did God do such a miracle?

Because Jonah was on a ship in the middle of the ocean fleeing from God’s mission to preach to the Ninevites. God brought a great storm which caused Jonah to realize that God was after him. Instead of repenting and praying that God would still the storm Jonah told the sailors to throw him overboard so he could die. He would rather have died than preach to the Ninevites because the Jews hated them. So God disciplines Jonah. If you read the text carefully, you find out that God allowed Jonah to sink as far as he could and just before he lost consciousness, this huge sea creature scoops him up. He sits there three days and three nights (which was purposely done by God to parallel the resurrection) in those awful circumstances until the creature vomits him on the shore.

Do you think that this got Jonah’s attention? It did.

Just as in Genesis it is all given in a narrative form and there is no indication that it is myth or legend or allegory.

When the Lord disciplines he does it in the context of the sin. The whole thing make absolute sense.

Jesus rebukes the Jews for asking for a sign to prove his messiahship out of unbelief.

He tells them that they are a wicked generation.

The only sign that will be given is the one that parallels the three days and three nights of Jonah in the belly of the great fish when he will be buried three days and three nights in the earth and come out of the earth as Jonah came out of the great fish.

He then warns them that at the last judgment the men of Nineveh will be there and will condemn them for not believing in Jesus when he was among them because they believed Jonah, a prophet, when he was among them.

Using legends and myths or allegories to warn the Jews about two important realities as the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus and the last judgment is not reasonable to assume.

Real past examples teach real present truths.

3. The Bible teaches that God sent a world-wide flood and saved Noah in an ark

Secular historians and scientists do not believe a world-wide flood is possible. Period.

Yet Jesus taught that.

The Noahic flood

Matthew 24:36-38
36 “But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.
37As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.
38For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark;
39 and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.

Jesus compares the complacency of the generation during the time of Noah’s flood and the generation at the time of the Second Coming. He also compares all the complacent people at that time being taken away at the flood and at the second coming.

There is no way that could make sense unless both generations were referring to real people and events that actually happened.

In these statements, Jesus shows that he accepted that there was a Noah, who experienced a flood that killed a generation of people.

1 Peter 3:20
who disobeyed long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built. In it only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water,

Peter said, “only eight were saved” = worldwide

2 Peter 2:5
if he did not spare the ancient world when he brought the flood on its ungodly people, but protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and seven others;

“ancient world” = worldwide

2 Peter 3:6-7
v.6 By these waters also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed.
v.7 By the same word the present heavens and the earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.

In all three passages Peter is comparing the coming destruction of God’s judgment at the second coming with the past destruction of God’s judgment at the flood. They both involve real people and a real world-wide flood of the comparison would make no sense and have no impact.

Secular scientists do not accept any of this. Jesus and the apostles accepted it all.

This is also true for Jonah and his discipline by God.

Summary:

These are just three of the miraculous events in the Scriptures.

Josh McDowell, sums up this whole issue with these words,
“The Scriptures, however, from one end to the other, contain stories of the miraculous. There are accounts of blind people who immediately received their sight, dead people being raised and extraordinary occurrences within nature, such as a universal flood and the parting of the Red Sea. The basis for believing in the miraculous goes back to the biblical conception of God. The very first verse of the Bible decides the issue. "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth". If this verse can be accepted at face value, that in the beginning an infinite-personal God created the universe, then the rest should not be a problem. If He has the ability to do this, then a virgin birth, walking on water, feeding 5,000 people with a few loaves and fish, and the other biblical miracles, become not only possible but expected. Of course, if one does not believe in God, he will not accept the miraculous, but for those who have granted the possibility it is not at all ridiculous. As the apostle Paul once said to an unbelieving king, "Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you, that God should raise the dead?".
McDowell, Josh and Stewart, Don, Answers to Tough Questions, Here’s Life Publishers, San Bernardino, 1980, 80

Conclusion:

Did Jesus and the Apostles teach that all Scripture, the whole Word of God is true? Yes.

Did Jesus or the Apostles make any distinction between spiritual, historical, geographic, or scientific statements of the Bible? No.

Did they support in their teaching the truthfulness of all these statements? Yes.

The only conclusion that can be inferred from this is that they believed that the Bible was inerrant and true in all it affirms!