2 Tim 3:10-17 - 10 You, however, know all about my teaching, my way of life, my purpose, faith, patience, love, endurance, 11 persecutions, sufferings—what kinds of things happened to me in Antioch, Iconium and Lystra, the persecutions I endured. Yet the Lord rescued me from all of them. 12 In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, 13 while evildoers and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. 14 But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, 15 and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
What does the term "God-breathed" in this scripture mean? Another scripture in Genesis gives a hint:
Genesis 2:7 - Then the LORD God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.
Why doesn't the Bible speak of this "breath of life" when concerning animals? Because the animals don't have it, only humans do. This is an important distinction to make. Humans have reason, that's the main difference between the animal kingdom and mankind. So, when 2 Timothy speaks about the Bible's words being "God-breathed" it is not talking about God's breath, mainly because God doesn't breath when he speaks like humans do. When we write down something we have to use our logical brain to do it. The complexities of human writing in relation to our brains is what "God-breathed" is describing. God is with any human who writes in a way that he/she was designed to.
If you have trouble with Biblical errors or feel that the Bible should be or is perfect think of the Bible writers as children learning to ride bikes with God as their father. The father buys the bike, set's up the training wheels and even keeps his son from falling in the beginning. The training wheels are there to eventually be taken off when the father sees enough progress. It is the same with God and inspired human works. If the boy falls and breaks his arm you cannot logically blame the father for teaching his son to ride a bike.
Just as everyone who as has ever mastered bike riding still have nasty falls there will be errors in the Bible because it is God-breathed through the breath of life. God doesn't ride the bike for us, he just gives our brain the capabilities to ride it and he instructs us. The Jehovah's Witnesses, however, think that the Bible should be perfectly congruent in all ways or it isn't worth anything, just as a bad father who tells his son he cannot fall off his bike.
Now, there is another key word in the quoted scripture in Timothy above. That word is "Scripture" with a capital S. Not all writings can be considered God-breathed even though all writings use the left center of the brain. Scriptures are sacred writings and the only way writings can become sacred is when we deem them so. That's why the Bible says do not lean on your own understanding because a logical brain left to it's own devices will eventually go insane. We need others to verify our findings of reality so that we don't get caught up in our own falsehoods, because they don't go away.
-Sab