Dictating the Divine: Revisiting Authorship, Intention, and Authority from Sacred Texts to Generative AI

Abstract: This article interrogates the historical practice of mediated authorship in religious texts to draw critical parallels with contemporary debates surrounding generative artificial intelligence (AI), specifically large language models (LLMs). By juxtaposing the mediated authorship of sacred texts, such as the Hebrew Bible and New Testament—where figures like the Apostle Paul dictated theological concepts to scribes who infused these directives with their interpretive insights—with the generative processes of LLMs, this research underscores the shared dynamics of co-constructed authorship across historical and technological contexts. Employing interdisciplinary methodologies from art history, textual studies, and reception theory, as well as theological and biblical studies, the study highlights that the primary contribution lies not in novel historical insights but rather in recognizing significant parallels in knowledge creation and dissemination across eras. Both scribal and AI-driven authorship challenge traditional conceptions of originality, intention, and authority, illustrating that mediated authorship has long been intrinsic to the production of significant cultural texts. By situating LLMs within this lineage, we recognize authorship as inherently mediated—whether through divine-human collaboration or human-algorithm interplay. These analogies provoke a reassessment of authorship as a collaborative and iterative construct, enriching contemporary discussions surrounding intellectual property, creative ownership, and ethical accountability in the digital age. This analysis contributes to broader discourses on the evolving intersections between human creativity, algorithmic agency, and cultural meaning-making in sacred and secular domains.