What is meant by the inerrancy of the Scriptures and are there limitations in the application of the term?

Answer 1

There is no one definition of inerrancy that all would agree upon. Some fundamentalists would say that at least the original Hebrew and Greek scripture were so divinely inspired that there is no possible error to be found; a few would even say that, for example, the King James Bible is wholly without error.

Because biblical inerrancy and infallibility are not accepted by the Episcopal Church, its position could be seen as being at the other end of the spectrum.

The Catholic Church holds a position between the two extremes. Pope Leo XIII preferred The Bible to be read literally at all times, but accepted that this would not always be possible. He made specific exceptions for cases where:

• reason makes a literal reading untenable or necessity requires;
  
• the early Church Fathers have understood in an allegorical or figurative sense;
  
• Other Catholic interpreters, although with less authority than the Church Fathers, advance the study of scripture.
  

In his Encyclical On The Study Of Holy Scripture, Providentissimus Deus, Leo says:

15. But he must not on that account consider that it is forbidden, when just cause exists, to push inquiry and exposition beyond what the Fathers have done; provided he carefully observes the rule so wisely laid down by St. Augustine-not to depart from the literal and obvious sense, except only where reason makes it untenable or necessity requires; a rule to which it is the more necessary to adhere strictly in these times, when the thirst for novelty and unrestrained freedom of thought make the danger of error most real and proximate. Neither should those passages be neglected which the Fathers have understood in an allegorical or figurative sense, more especially when such interpretation is justified by the literal, and when it rests on the authority of many. For this method of interpretation has been received by the Church from the Apostles, and has been approved by her own practice, as the holy Liturgy attests; although it is true that the holy Fathers did not thereby pretend directly to demonstrate dogmas of faith, but used it as a means of promoting virtue and piety, such as, by their own experience, they knew to be most valuable. The authority of other Catholic interpreters is not so great; but the study of Scripture has always continued to advance in the Church, and, therefore, these commentaries also have their own honourable place, and are serviceable in many ways for the refutation of assailants and the explanation of difficulties.

The Second Vatican Council of the Catholic Church stated in the Dogmatic Constitution On Divine Revelation,Dei Verbum, that the Bible should be understood as inerrant only after we understand the literary intentions of the writers. This means that what we understand the intentions of the writers, whether literal, allegorical or figurative, must in all cases take precedence over the apparent meaning of a passage.

Answer 2

The word "inerrancy" literally means "no errors". The Word of God is inerrant, but Bibles, because they are written and translated by humans, are not without errors.