The King James Bible has periods at the end of practically every verse. It also contains other punctuation marks, such as colons and commas, within verses. Does this English punctuation relate to anything in the Biblical text? The answer is “yes.”
The Old Testament accent marks, which there are strong reasons to believe are just as inspired as the Hebrew consonants and vowels, based on the statement of Christ in Matthew 5:18, among many other reasons, specify pauses or indicate disjunction in the text. In fact, God inspired a more detailed and specific system of punctuation in the original world language, Hebrew, the language in which He revealed 75% of His inspired Word, than the punctuation system of English. Every inspired word in the Old Testament has an accent revealing one of several levels of disjunction or an accent indicating conjunction, that words are to be read with a pause between them (disjunction) or connected (conjunction).
Consider, for example, Exodus 3:14-15. The bold “D” indicates a disjunctive accent in the Hebrew text, that is, a pause. There are levels of strength in the Hebrew accents–D1 is a stronger accent than D2, which is stronger than D3, and so on. (There are level 4, D4, very weak disjunctive Hebrew accents, and there are also conjunctive accents–every word has an accent–but I have not included the D4 very weak disjunctives, nor the conjunctive accents, below.)
וַיֹּ֤אמֶר אֱלֹהִים֙ אֶל־מֹשֶׁ֔ה אֶֽהְיֶ֖ה אֲשֶׁ֣ר אֶֽהְיֶ֑ה וַיֹּ֗אמֶר כֹּ֤ה תֹאמַר֙ לִבְנֵ֣י יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל אֶֽהְיֶ֖ה שְׁלָחַ֥נִי אֲלֵיכֶֽם׃
וַיֹּאמֶר֩ ע֨וֹד אֱלֹהִ֜ים אֶל־מֹשֶׁ֗ה כֹּֽה־תֹאמַר֮ אֶל־בְּנֵ֣י יִשְׂרָאֵל֒ יְהוָ֞ה אֱלֹהֵ֣י אֲבֹתֵיכֶ֗ם אֱלֹהֵ֨י אַבְרָהָ֜ם אֱלֹהֵ֥י יִצְחָ֛ק וֵאלֹהֵ֥י יַעֲקֹ֖ב שְׁלָחַ֣נִי אֲלֵיכֶ֑ם זֶה־שְּׁמִ֣י לְעֹלָ֔ם וְזֶ֥ה זִכְרִ֖י לְדֹ֥ר דֹּֽר׃
14 And God said unto Moses, D2 I AM D2 THAT I AM: D1 and he said, D3 Thus shalt thou say D3 unto the children of Israel, D2 I AM D2 hath sent me unto you. D1 15 And God said moreover unto Moses, D3 Thus shalt thou say D3 unto the children of Israel, D2 The LORD God of your fathers, D3 the God of Abraham, D3 the God of Isaac, D3 and the God of Jacob, D2 hath sent me unto you: D1 this is my name for ever, D2 and this is my memorial D2 unto all generations. D1
Note that the strongest disjunctive accents / pausal accents correspond to the periods in the English punctuation or to colons (and the accent on the colon is less strong than the one for the period). Note the correspondence of the weaker disjunctive D2 and D3 accents to commas in the English text and other places of natural pause. (There are reasons why some accents at levels D1-4 are stronger at times and weaker at times, but that is a discussion too complicated for this blog post.)
When the King James Bible was translated the inspiration of the Hebrew vowels and accent marks was generally accepted, unlike in modern times, when the Hebrew accents are generally viewed as an uninspired addition to the text, and one can take several years of Hebrew in evangelical or even fundamentalist seminaries and not even know how the Hebrew accent system works.
The fact that the Authorized, King James Version takes the Hebrew accents seriously is another way in which the KJV is superior to modern English versions. Furthermore, since the Hebrew text indicates pauses, when one is engaged in public reading of Scripture in the churches of Christ, one should take the punctuation seriously. Do not rush through the reading of Scripture. Pause where the KJV has a period. Pause where it has a colon. Pause for a slightly shorter time for a comma. Let the inspired words of God be read with reverence, solemnity, and care–read them for what they are, pausing over the punctuation just like Moses and the other Old Testament authors intended when the Holy Ghost dictated the Hebrew text– consonants, vowels, and accents–through the human penmen of Scripture.
May I also suggest that if you are going to learn Hebrew, you learn it from a source that takes the inspiration and preservation of the Hebrew vowels and accents seriously, and so makes sure that students learn the accent system, rather than being deprived of understanding this important aspect of the syntax God’s Word? What would you think of an English teacher that never taught his students what commas and periods are?
(Don’t you want to know whether someone is saying “Let’s eat Grandma” or “Let’s eat, Grandma!”) Shouldn’t students of Hebrew know the same sorts of things in the the Old Testament?
By the way, if you studied Hebrew but were never taught the Hebrew accents/punctuation, the resources below are a good place to start. I would read Futato first and then Fuller & Choi.
Basics of Hebrew Accents, Mark D. Futato
Learning the Hebrew accents will help you in your studying, preaching, and teaching of the jots and tittles of God’s infallible Word.
–TDR
The Amazon links are affiliate links, but I would recommend these works whether they were affiliate links or not.
Any examples where resorting to Hebrew or Syriac-Aramaic punctuation meant the difference between sound doctrine and false? Also, are we assuming you are relying on the primary edition used by our translators — the Daniel Bomberg [1525, Venice] edition, post editing by Jacob ben Chayyim?
That edition can be viewed here: https://archive.org/details/RabbinicbibleotMikraotGedolotBombergshebrewtanach.jacobBenChaim.1525
I know of one example in the Greek New Testament where the punctuation may make a difference to some. People who interpret a hard break between Romans 1:28 and 29 do so because of the semicolon dividing the verses there. However, in the 1598 TR of Beza there is no punctuation in his greek TR column there. It is simply a result of the verse divisions (set by Stephanus in 1551) all having a punctuation mark of some kind. (There are only seven exceptions to my knowledge. One of them is Romans 11:7 and the other six are in other books.) Usually this state of affairs works out well for grammatical reasons. But it seems like it can lead to issues occasionally if people were to bank specific ideas on it.
Of course, 1 Peter 3:21 would be another example, this time with parentheses – The 1568 Bishop’s Bible was known to contain a variant in this place.
Here’s one example Futato [who is very far from KJVO] talks about in his introductory book on the accents. Compare Psalm 29:5-6 in the KJV and the ESV:
KJV:
Psa. 29:5 The voice of the LORD breaketh the cedars; yea, the LORD breaketh the cedars of Lebanon.
Psa. 29:6 He maketh them also to skip like a calf; Lebanon and Sirion like a young unicorn.
ESV:
Psa. 29:5 The voice of the LORD breaks the cedars;
the LORD breaks hthe cedars of Lebanon.
Psa. 29:6 He makes Lebanon to skip like a calf,
and Sirion like a young wild ox.
Why the difference in v. 6?
The suffix on וַיַּרְקִידֵם [“skip”] is frequently interpreted as an enclitic mem, a particle of uncertain function. Modern translations (ESV, NIV, NLT, and RSV) follow this interpretation of the mem, ignore the accents, and divide the verse after לְבָנ֥וֹן [Lebanon]. … The suffix could just as easily be the third-person masculine plural object suffix, used to anticipate the plural direct object, “Sirion and Lebanon.” The KJV captures this sense that accords with the masoretic accents, “He maketh them also to skip like a calf; Lebanon and Sirion like a young unicorn.
Mark D. Futato Sr., Basics of Hebrew Accents (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Academic, 2020), 98.
Is this the Deity of Christ? No, but “doctrine” just means “teaching,” and here how you teach the Psalm is changed by whether you follow the Hebrew punctuation, as does the KJV, or reject it, as do many modern versions here.
Joshua Jacobson’s definitive Chanting the Hebrew Bible: the Art of Cantillation, in the front, mentions that the book cites Bible references from the King James Bible, the Jewish version, or his own personal translation (pg. XXV). The Jewish version is understandable, and so is him putting in his own translation, but why mention–and mention first–the use of the KJV? Why cite the KJV, not the NRSV, ESV, etc.? This non-Christian Jewish scholar recognizes, I believe, that the KJV actually pays attention to the Hebrew accents about which he writes his book.
“Let the inspired words of God be read with reverence, solemnity, and care…” This is an important point that we supporters of the KJV need to take to heart and emphasize more — particularly reading the Scriptures out loud to and in the congregation. We tout the KJV, point out problems in modern versions, and then can read the KJV so sloppily as to practically change it into a different translation! I am not just talking about others. I am fairly intelligent and have a decent education, yet can make a mess reading out loud. I also am not talking about someone who is doing the best he can. I am talking more about being careless. If we believe the KJV is God’s Word, it behooves us to treat it so, honour it, and to read it out loud to the best of out abilities.
Thanks for the article.
Thank you for the comments
Thanks, Robert, that was something that I also thought of when studying the Hebrew accents.
I recently came across a Bible with KJV text without verse numbers,
but with the text broken up into paragraphs.
Is there any basis in the Hebrew or Greek text for paragraphs?
Dear David M.,
Thanks for the question. There is some basis in the text for what we consider paragraph divisions in English in terms of Greek and Hebrew discourse analysis. For example, in the OT many verses begin with “And …” so that one reads, “and x, and y, and z,” etc. in consecutive verses. When a verse does not begin with that “and” and a verb attached to it in the Hebrew text, that often is a basis for saying that there is a break in the narrative. So there are larger textual features (macrosyntactical discourse markers) that indicate larger narrative breaks. However, I have not done any kind of investigation into whether the ones in a KJV that is broken up into paragraphs reflect those in the underlying language text.
I have believed, for decades of my salvation, that the King James Version was the word of God. First, blindly, as an infant. Then, as I grew older and matured, I discovered more and more evidence that my trust was not misplaced. What you have done here in this article is strengthen my faith in “The Old Black Book” when I thought it could not be stronger. Thank you for your learned study on this subject. May God bless you.
I’ve been trying to discern why the translators use a colon in some places and a semi-colon in others. Based on your article, I would assume that each is consistently placed where there is a corresponding accent in the Hebrew. Is the colon or the semi-colon a longer pause?
Thank you, Mr. Breedlove, glad it was a blessing!
Hi there Justin! That’s a great question.
I have not personally looked into that and cannot give you the kind of answer you would like. Now that you brought it up, if I have time in the future, I may pay greater attention to that question than I have before, so perhaps if the Lord tarries in ten years I may have a better answer. It would be a good question for someone at Dr. Thomas Strouse’s seminary who is looking at a master’s or doctoral dissertation to look into, or perhaps someone at the KJVO Presbyterian Far Eastern Bible College and seminary.
What I can say is that it is not as simple as a one-to-one correspondence between a Hebrew accent and an English colon or semicolon. The Hebrew accents break the verse into half, then those halves into half, then those fourths into half, all the way down through the whole verse, using four levels of disjunctive accents to divide words (three levels in the poetic books) and conjunctive accents to join them. So depending on the length of the verse different accents may have different functions.
Thanks.
Thanks for the info on the colon punctuation that I requested. I usually do not request such information as it is a sign of not trusting God for everything.
You are welcome!
I don’t think asking about it is in any way a sign of not trusting God.
Thanks.