What does the Bible say about artificial intelligence?

The Bible never mentions artificial intelligence; it was finished long before computers existed. But its principles speak to the questions AI raises: people bear God's image (Genesis 1:27), skill and tools are good gifts (Exodus 31:3-5), nothing human-made should take God's place (Psalm 115:4-8), and we must not deceive (Ephesians 4:25). A 2019 evangelical statement and a 2025 Vatican note both treat AI as a tool that can serve people well, but never a person and never a substitute for God.

Is AI mentioned in the Bible?

No. Two passages often come up, though, so it helps to read them in context. The first:

But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.

Daniel is told to close and seal his scroll, keeping it safe until the time of the end (see verse 9). Some readers hear the second half as a picture of a restless age of exploding knowledge and see our own era in it. Others read it differently. The 19th-century commentaries of Ellicott and Jamieson-Fausset-Brown take "run to and fro" to mean searching the prophecy (Ellicott compares Amos 8:12). Many will pore over Daniel's sealed book, and understanding will grow as the prophecy is fulfilled (see the commentaries on Bible Hub). Either way, the verse says nothing about machines.

The second is Revelation 13:15, where a second beast gives life to an image of the first beast so that it can speak. Christians read Revelation in several ways. Futurist readers, common in American evangelical churches, expect these events in the future, and some wonder whether technology like AI could play a part. Preterist readers connect the passage to emperor worship in the Roman world John wrote to, historicist readers trace its symbols through church history, and idealist readers see a pattern that repeats whenever a power demands worship (an overview of the main views). Scripture doesn't name AI here, so hold any identification loosely.

For everyday choices about AI, the Bible gives principles instead.

Is AI made in the image of God?

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

Being made in God's image is what sets people apart in the creation story, and it belongs to every person, not only the capable or productive. An AI model is made in a different image: it is built from human writing and speech, and it imitates them.

That's why church statements on AI start here. Artificial Intelligence: An Evangelical Statement of Principles, released in April 2019 by the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC), says technology should not "be assigned a level of human identity, worth, dignity, or moral agency" (Article 1). The Vatican's January 2025 note Antiqua et nova says generative AI must be understood as "a tool, not a person" (paragraph 59).

A chatbot can sound warm and attentive. It doesn't know you, love you, or answer to God for what it says. People do.

Can AI give you wisdom?

For the Lord giveth wisdom: out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding.

The verses before it (Proverbs 2:1-5) describe searching for wisdom like silver or buried treasure, and the search ends in the fear of the Lord, meaning reverent trust in God, not a pile of facts. That's the gap between what AI does well and what Proverbs calls wisdom.

A model can gather information in seconds. It can't make you wise, change your heart, or bring you to know God. Used well, it can help you find a passage or see how others have read it. Used as a shortcut around prayer, study and good counsel, it skips the searching that Proverbs says wisdom takes.

Deepfakes, fake quotes and false witness

Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.

Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour: for we are members one of another.

To bear false witness is to give false testimony about someone. Paul, echoing Zechariah 8:16, tells believers to put away lying altogether as part of their new life in Christ (Ephesians 4:22-24), because they belong to one another like parts of one body.

AI makes some old sins cheap: fake photos and voice clips of real people, invented quotes, reviews no customer wrote, work passed off as entirely your own where honesty is expected. The ERLC says AI "should not be employed in ways that distort truth through the use of generative applications" (Article 8). Antiqua et nova names deepfakes directly (paragraph 87) and says misrepresenting AI as a person should always be avoided, calling it a grave ethical violation when done to defraud (paragraph 62).

Truth runs the other way too. AI can state errors with confidence, including errors about the Bible, such as a misquoted verse or one pinned to the wrong book. That applies to AI Bible apps, BibleGPT included; its answers name the passage they draw on so you can check it (how BibleGPT answers). Our guide on whether AI made up that Bible verse shows how.

Work, tools and skill are good gifts

And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.

"Dress" means tend or cultivate. God gave Adam work before anything went wrong in the garden, so work is part of the good design, not a punishment. Scripture goes further and praises skill:

³And I have filled him with the spirit of God, in wisdom, and in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship, ⁴To devise cunning works, to work in gold, and in silver, and in brass, ⁵And in cutting of stones, to set them, and in carving of timber, to work in all manner of workmanship.

Bezaleel was the craftsman God chose to build the tabernacle. "Cunning works" means skillful, artistic designs, not sly ones (more old words like this in KJV words that changed meaning). Designing and making things is presented here as a gift of God's Spirit. So the Bible gives no reason to treat technology itself as evil. The question is what it's used for and whom it serves.

Both church documents apply this to AI and jobs. The ERLC says AI "can be used in ways that aid our work" and calls churches to care for people who lose their jobs (Article 7). Antiqua et nova says AI "should assist, not replace, human judgment" (paragraph 70).

Can AI become an idol?

⁴Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men’s hands. ⁵They have mouths, but they speak not: eyes have they, but they see not: ⁶They have ears, but they hear not: noses have they, but they smell not: ⁷They have hands, but they handle not: feet have they, but they walk not: neither speak they through their throat. ⁸They that make them are like unto them; so is every one that trusteth in them.

The psalmist mocks idols that have mouths, eyes and ears but can't use them, then makes a sharper point in verse 8: people become like what they trust. Isaiah 44:9-20 tells the same story with dark humor. A craftsman cuts down a tree, burns part of it to bake bread and warm himself, then bows to the rest and asks it to save him (Isaiah 44:14-17).

AI changes one detail: it talks back. Antiqua et nova takes this up in paragraph 105:

…the presumption of substituting God for an artifact of human making is idolatry…

The note adds that AI can speak, "or at least gives the illusion of doing so," and that when people treat it as something greater than themselves, what they really worship is humanity itself, enslaved to its own work. The ERLC puts it more briefly: AI "is not worthy of man's hope, worship, or love" (Article 2).

Few people bow to a chatbot. The quieter versions look like taking its word over Scripture, telling it what you won't tell God or anyone who loves you, or handing it moral decisions that are yours to make. On that last point the ERLC is firm: humans "alone bear the responsibility for moral decision making" (Article 3).

Is AI a modern tower of Babel?

And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.

The builders fired bricks hard and used them in place of stone (verse 3), to make a name for themselves and avoid being scattered, even though God had told Noah's family to fill the earth (Genesis 9:1, where the KJV's "replenish" means fill). In verse 6 God says nothing they set out to do will be held back from them.

Christians draw two main lessons for technology. Some read Babel as a warning about technological ambition itself: when new tools make people feel limitless, they tend to reach for God's place. Others note that the text faults the builders' motive, pride and defiance, and that the same Bible honors Bezaleel's craft, so the bricks weren't the problem. Either way, Babel asks a fair question of any AI project: whose name is it meant to make?

Common ground, and where Christians differ

These two statements, from very different traditions, share a lot of ground: people bear God's image and AI isn't a person, humans stay morally responsible for what AI does, AI can serve people well, and it must never take God's place. Neither treats AI as a neutral tool. The ERLC denies "that the use of AI is morally neutral" (Article 2), and the Vatican note says scientific and technical work is "not neutral in character" (paragraph 36).

Christians differ on how hopeful to be, how to read the prophecy passages, and how much AI belongs in personal devotion and church life. On that last question, see Is it a sin to use AI for Bible study? and our guide to using ChatGPT for Bible study.

A few questions to ask before you lean on AI:

• Am I being honest about how I used it?
• Have I checked what it told me, especially about Scripture?
• Am I asking it for something only God or other people can give?
• Does this use serve people, or quietly replace caring for them?

For bigger decisions about work, ministry or family, talk it through with your pastor or with people in your church who know you.