The Importance of Punctuation

2015-07-30

The New Testament in the original Greek had no punctuation. When translated into English, sentence structure was inferred, so sometimes our version might turn out a little odd. Consider John 9:1-5:

As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth.2His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” 3“Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him.4As long as it is day, we must do the works of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work. 5While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”

Now with that sentence structure, we come up with the conclusion that God made this man blind from birth, just so Jesus could heal him many years later. Some people believe this, but is goes against the nature of Jesus (and God the Father). The thief comes to kill, steal, and destroy, but Jesus came to bring life abundantly. So lets change the comma in verse 3 to a period, and note that in the Greek, “this happened” is not there. We then get:

“Neither this man nor his parents sinned” said Jesus. “So that the works of God might be displayed in him, as long as it is day, we must do the works of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work.While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”

It changes the emphasis dramatically. Instead, the emphasis is on the work Jesus is doing and that he is calling the disciples to do. Jesus is the healer. We are also included in that: “we must do the works of him who sent me”. We are called to do His works.

    Comments: 0