Circular Reasoning? We Know the Bible Is Inspired Because It Says It Is?

I think as Christians we do believe that the text is inspired because it says so. As a systematic theologian, I want to look at the doctrine of God, the doctrine of creation, the doctrine of man. What does Scripture teach about God, creation, man, and so forth? And, similarly, I think there is a doctrine of Scripture. Scripture has a certain teaching about itself, and I think it's quite legitimate to ask, “What does the Scripture teach about itself?”, and that would be that it is inspired by God and therefore truthful and profitable for the teaching of doctrine and the correction of error. Now, if you were to say, “But why should we believe what Scripture teaches?” Well, then I would appeal to the historical Jesus. Jesus regarded the Old Testament – the Hebrew Bible – as the inspired word of God and therefore authoritative in all that it teaches. Moreover, he equated his own teaching authority with the authority of the Hebrew Bible. That authority, in turn, was given to the twelve apostles. He gave them the authority to go into all the world and to preach the Gospel to every creature. So in their oral and written transmission of this message, the apostles spoke with divine authority – the authority of God. So I think that gives grounds for believing that the writings that come out of the apostolic circle are indeed inspired by God just as they thought it was and therefore are trustworthy in what they teach.