Question Corner

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Oct 6, 1909

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 36, No. 39.

[To Our Inquirers.— (1) The name and address of all who ask questions must accompany questions, not necessarily for publication, in token of good faith, and that we may reply by letter if thought best. All communications will be considered confidential if so desired, and no name will be published unless requested. But we have no time to give to anonymous or unsigned epistles or articles. (2) Let the questions be to the point. Do not say, “Explain Josh. 7:1-8,” but state the thing upon which help is desired. (3) Questions can not be answered immediately in this department. Sometimes it will mean a month or more of waiting. We can not reply to the same question frequently. Read answers to other questions; you may find reply to yours. (4) Members of the Bible Band will kindly enclose stamp if answer is desired by letter. Others will please enclose ten cents. This does not begin to meet expenses oftentimes. (5) “Foolish . . . questions avoid.”]

2949.—Punctuation in the Scriptures

What can you say of the punctuation of the Scriptures? Is it inspired? If not, please give examples; some texts, for instance, where it is wrong. A. L. M.

The original Scriptures were written without any points or separation in any way, as for instance: “INTHEBEGINNINGWASTHEWORD”. First came the separation into words, then into sentences, then into parts of sentences. Different points came in at different times. The earliest mark indicated on the papyri of Alexandria, Egypt, is used to indicate a new paragraph. A slight space is left in the line; also a large initial was sometimes used.

The oldest manuscripts show no punctuation at all, and the later uncials, that is, the manuscripts in capital letters, show great variety and no recognized system. Not until the seventh century do we find the equivalent to a comma, the semicolon with its modern value, and a full stop. Punctuation as a system dates from about the time of Aldus Manutius, a learned printer of Venice, about the year 1500.

No one claims any inspiration for the punctuation of the Scriptures. Take, for instance, Rev. 22:1, 2. How much better it would be if we had a comma after “Lamb,” the closing word of the first verse, and a period or semicolon after “it,” in the second verse; so that the passage would read instead of as it does now: “And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb, in the midst of the street of it. On either side of the river, was there the Tree of Life.” The present punctuation makes a contradiction in the text.

We have another instance of this in Luke 23:43, which makes Jesus say that the thief would be with Him in Paradise on the day that He spoke the words, when the real thought of the text is that Jesus said it that day; in other words, the adverbial phrase “to-day” modifies “say” rather than “shall be,” so that Jesus said to him: “Verily I say unto thee to-day, shalt thou be with Me in Paradise.” This gives force to the text. Upon that day when to all human vision, or in all human probability, Jesus could do nothing, could help no one, could save no one, the thief had faith to believe on Him; and Jesus, with fullest confidence in His Father and in His divine mission, could assert, “I say unto thee to-day,” your prayer will be answered. Letting the punctuation stand as it is, it makes the passage in Luke 23:43 a direct contradiction to John 20:17, where Jesus tells Mary, after His crucifixion: “Touch Me not; for I am not yet ascended to My Father.” Now, the dwelling-place of the Father is in Paradise, the third heaven. See 2 Cor. 12:2, 4. Read in the same connection also Rev. 2:7 and 22:1, 2. If Jesus did not ascend to Paradise that day, as John 20:17 clearly indicates, He certainly could not have meant that the thief would be that day in Paradise. It is all perfect harmony, however, in the transposition of the comma, making the adverbial phrase modify the assertion of our Saviour.

2950.—The Unpardonable Sin

What is the unpardonable sin? D. A.

The sin referred to by our inquirer is recorded in Matthew 12 and Mark 3. All sins will be forgiven, but the sin against the Holy Ghost will never be forgiven. As applied to that time and circumstance, it was attributing to satanic working, the power of the Holy Spirit. Jesus cast out demons by the Spirit of God. His enemies said He cast out demons by Beelzebub, the prince of demons. They attributed the working of the Spirit of God to the working of satanic agency. Therefore, the words of the Master concerning the unpardonable sin. Note Mark 3:30: “Because they said, He hath an unclean spirit.” The reason why it is unpardonable is because the soul that commits it rejects the only power by which the sin can be taken from him. It is not because God is not merciful. It is because the soul rejects God’s remedy. See answer to Question 2929 in the Signs of September 8.

2951.—“This Life”

What is meant by “this life” in Acts 5:20? INQUIRER.

The passage in question reads as follows: “Go ye, and stand and speak in the temple to the people all the words of this Life.” We quote from the American Revised Version. The words are those of the angel who released the apostles from prison and reminded them of their commission. The natural man, the sinful man, has natural, or soulical life—the life that is received from parents and is fed by what one eats and drinks, by the air he breathes, and by the sunshine. It is the life common to all animate creatures upon this earth. It is given to each family or kind according to the law of his being, and perpetuates the kind according to that law. But that life is distinct from the spiritual life which Christ came to give. Our Lord assures us, in that wonderful Gospel of John which deals so largely with the new life, that “God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish, but have eternal life,” a life which, unbelieving, they do not possess. He tells us further, “He that believeth on the Son hath eternal life; but he that obeyeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him.”

In the sixth chapter the same great lesson is taught, that spiritual life comes by believing; in other words, comes by placing one’s life in perfect harmony with God’s great law of life. That opens the channel between the soul and God. The same thing is taught in the tenth chapter: “I came that they may have life, and may have it abundantly.”

More emphatically than elsewhere, perhaps, the same wonderful truth is taught in 1 John 5:11-13: “And the witness is this, that God gave unto us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He that hath the Son hath the life; he that hath not the Son of God hath not the life. These things have I written unto you, that ye may know that ye have eternal life, even unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God.”

This was the life which the angel bade the disciples proclaim to a dying world. It is the life which the great world is needing now. Man of himself has not that life; he is doomed to die. “The soul that sinneth, it shall die;” but God offers to every one who will yield to Him, the great boon of eternal life, an absolute necessity now for overcoming sin and forming character. It is a life which will tunnel the grave and bestow unmeasured existence upon its possessor in the eternal beyond.

2952.—Big Trees

Where are the big trees 470 and 480 feet high, mentioned in the SIGNS OF THE TIMES of September 8? L. C. B.

They are in Australia, which you will rightly recall is the home of the eucalypts, of which there are many species.