Scripture's Language

The ‘Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy’ (International Council on Biblical Inerrancy, 1978) which is available with bibliographical information at: http://www.bible-researcher.com/chicago1.html remains helpful in clarifying the doctrine of inerrancy and its limits. E.g. it does not commit one to literalistic interpretation nor to assuming that the Bible always speaks with technical precision or strict accuracy (e.g. it may contain round numbers or phenomenological descriptions).

Interestingly, Calvin noted that God sometimes speaks to us in the language of everyday appearance not of scientific exactness. In his sermon on Job 9:7f, he says: "God speaketh unto us of these things, [the planets and stars] according to our perceying of them, and not according as they be."

Sermons on Job, 157 quoted in Helm, Calvin's Ideas, 187.