Has anyone ever heard that there was a time when the bible had no punctuation?

Question

I was visiting Indiana and went to a local church where the pastor said there was a time when the bible was like "one big long run on sentence" and that is why it is open to interpretation and sometimes misunderstood. Further, he explained that Holy Holy Holy is for emphasis as a way to bring attention to God because of this problem with punctuation....he specifically said they had no exclamation points. I was offended by this and thinking of writing him to ask his sources and also suggest that Holy, Holy, Holy is a reference to the trinity and it means what it says...God is Holy, Holy Holy. He also said he thought that when the bible says good it means excellent.....and while that is a fun topic to discuss I thought it was not an appropriate surmon since when the bible says good it means good......he was referring to our need to do good, be good and I think his intent was good (lol). He wants us to be our best---but no one could attain excellence--- the message was lost. Thougts?

Answer 1

The Tanach (old testament) written in hebrew has no vowels or punctuation- even today. The Torah scroll used in synagogues is written in this manner still- but books are written with the vowels and punctuation to make studying and understanding it easier.

Answer 2

There was a time when the bible (used in the English speaking world) was not written in English, and therefore not accessible to the public. You had to be a religious leader to read it.

There is a very humorous history of Biblical versions that have printer or translating errors. Judas is typeset instead of Jesus, Christ "debased himself" and so on. See link below. Maybe there is a Bible version without punctuation.

People seem to think that someone just sat down and wrote the Bible. It's not like that. The book is a collection of texts, written by different people, from different places, at different times, and translated over and over again from a variety of ancient languages. What is in the book is there because a bunch of religious leaders from the ancient church got together and made a decision on what books would become the canon. The non-canonical texts were set aside into the Biblical Apocrypha.

Answer 3

Yes. In the original Hebrew/Aramaic there were no page breaks, headlines or puncuation as we now use it. There was actually just a program on this the other night but now I can't think of the ladies name! ACK! When we attended a Messianic congregation there were times when it took them a minute to find the right spot on the scroll to begin reading!

Anyhow the point is that you need to be careful when you read to remember that people like Paul wrote in Chapters not sentences and that thoughts in the Bible often overlap chapters - so if you are seriously studying it helps to read more than a verse to truly understand what is being said.

As far as reaching for excellence don't let that stop you.... people can attain excellence they do it all the time. Watch the Olympics lately? How bout a Mom who loves her kids? We will never be perfect this side of heaven but we are still to strive to be more like Christ on a daily basis.

Hope that helps! If I can remember that web site or pastors name I'll add it!

Answer 4

Not only 'no punctuation' but also no capital letters.

This sentence would have looked like this.

notonlynopunctuationbutalsono
capitalletters

3 in the bible is for emphasis or excellence.

Some ancient manuscripts, have 'holy' written 7 times.

Most modern bibles stop at 3.


.

Answer 5

The pastor is correct in what he said about the punctuation.

Verify yourself here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Codex_Vaticanus_B%2C_2Thess._3%2C11-18%2C_Hebr._1%2C1-2%2C2.jpg

If the link doesn't work, go to Wikipedia and check for codex, the Vaticanus B, 2 Thess.

Answer 6

Can you imagine how long bible quotes would be on here if you wanted them in context!

Answer 7

There was a time the Bible had no adjectives.