from:
https://biblicalstudies.org.uk/pdf/grace-journal/07-3_13.pdf
"WHAT IS THE GOD-BREATHED SCRIPTURE? 17
When we say that the Scripture is profitable,
what is meant is that the truth which the words of Scripture express,
is profitable.
It is for this reason, that the science of textual criticism is so important
and that the science of translation is equally if not more significant.
What we need is to know precisely what it is that God said to man.
To know this we must engage in translation.
Perhaps it is not out of place to stress the fact
that competent translation is one of the most important tasks
of the serious Bible student as it is also one of the great needs of the day.
And the reason why it is so important
is that translation attempts to place in our own language
the very thoughts of the original.
The competent translator seeks not to impose upon the original
his own thoughts nor merely to paraphrase the original
but rather to say in his own language precisely
what is found in the original.
Hence we see the importance of maintaining
the doctrine of the verbal inspiration of the Bible,
for it is only through the words of Scripture
that the truths of Scripture may be conveyed.
At first sight it might seem, and indeed there are those
who tell us that such is the case,
that the really important thing is not the words of the Bible after all,
but rather the truths which the Bible teaches.
"If we have these truths," so the argument seems to run,
"we have the message which God wanted us to have,
and that is the crucial thing."
And coupled with such assertions one often finds a warning
against the sin of Bibliolatry.
Truth, however, must be conveyed in words
if there is to be effective and lasting communication.
We cannot really have the truth of the Bible
or its teachings unless these things find expression in words.
The divorce between the message of the Scripture
and the words in which that message is couched is largely an illusory one.
If we destroy the words of the Bible we simply do not have its message.
It is important that we have the words of God
in order that we have the Word of God.
Indeed, without the one we do not have the other,
for the two are really one.
The words which God has spoken to us are His message, His Word.
Hence, in the nature of the case, it should appear
that only the words which God spoke are of profit to us today.
And the loving care which has been expended by so many
upon the text of the Bible is really evidence of the fact
that those who expend this care realize how all-important it is
that we have the very words of God.
With the copies of the Bible extant sufficient of the original
has been preserved so that we have the message of God.
That, however, which is profitable is Scripture,
and if we are to receive profit we must have the Scripture.
