Unless I am misunderstanding you, to be fair, plenty of Christians do claim that. They claim Jesus is god (and the holy spirit is god for that matter), and that the bible is the divinely inspired work of god. Therefore, the bible is the divinely inspired work of Jesus. Also, I am pretty sure there is a large subset of Christians who would take exception to your "Jesus isn't even in the bible until the new testament" argument and would state that the entirety of the bible is about Jesus. In fact, i believe I saw a pretty well known npub on her state that just the other day. If you are saying that only the words of Jesus matter in the bible, then why revere the bible at all...if you don't take the entirety of the bible as a whole being the divinely inspired work of god, then what is your justification for following Jesus?
Discussion
I have never once heard anyone say the words 'the Bible is the inspired Word of Jesus' regardless of Jesus being God in the flash. And besides, no version of the statement exists anywhere in the Bible.
And when did I say I thought the Bible was anything other than divinely inspired?
That is where the "misunderstanding you" prefix in my note came from...I sensed some less than devout enthusiasm for the bible other than the words of Jesus in the thread. I was obviously incorrect. Sorry about that.
I'm curious if you view the bible as the divinely inspired Word of God which reveals Jesus Christ, who is himself the ultimate Word of God (John 1:1) but that Jesus (the Word of God) does not inspire the bible (the Word of God)?
I had the same sense regarding the Bible
Nowhere in the Bible do either of those statements exist though. Obviously its inspired. But the statement itself is just made up.
And yes, I do have less enthusiasm about parts that dont directly pertain to Jesus. Not that the whole thing does not have value or great messaging, but the whole point is Jesus. Without Him, there would be no Bible.