A Faith Of Commas?

[jackketch]

Do you realise how little biblical 'evidence' or support there is for most of what christians typically believe?

Let me give you some examples of some verses that christians tend to consider 'proof' texts for the biblical'ness of their doctrines.

Luke 23:43 (King James Version)

43And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, Today shalt thou be with me in paradise.

Ask any christian for 'proof' that we have an eternal soul which goes to heaven or hell upon our death and you can be sure that that verse will get quoted. And of course as original Jesus Tone it MUST be true!

But what if we just move that comma?

And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee today, shalt thou be with me in paradise.

See the difference ?

Understand what that means theologically?

Suddenly we have a verse that doesn't confirm the existence of some supposed eternal soul but rather a statement confirming the doctrine of a bodily resurrection at the end of time.

Ain't no punctuation in the original.

Or have a look at

Luke 3:23 (King James Version)
King James Version (KJV)

23And Jesus himself began to be about thirty years of age, being (as was supposed) the son of Joseph, which was the son of Heli,

Take out the commas and the parenthesis and think about it .

Even with the punctuation this verse could be understood in two completely different ways (ie that the people were right to suppose that Jesus was the son of Joseph).


And even when lack of punctuation isn't an issue, then we still have the problem of grammar.

"And the Word was God" can be translated (so I am informed by koine scholars) in 5 ways, three of which are considered 'correct'. Even the JW's "the word was a god" is permissible under the rules of what grammar the text has.

Now any christian reading this will be able to go on google and find reams and reams about why it MUST be 'the word was God' all written by people who know far more koine greek than I would ever want to know.

But if they are honest with themselves they'll realise that just the fact that so much is written trying to justify their preferred translation option that...