Bible Punctuation Not Inspired

Many Christians do not know that nearly all punctuation in the bible (the exception being the "." - period, which is occasionally in the original text) is added by "translators." Many of the periods which end sentences in the several translations are not in the original however. Likewise, every colon, semicolon, comma, apostrophe, quotation mark, and parenthesis is not in the original text. They are added by translators and is one of the ways wherein translators become interpreters. 

This is why I am not a KJV only advocate, because I assure you that the KJV translators did not always get the punctuation correct, nor do any others. Therefore, it is the responsibility of each bible student to judge for himself or herself which is an enhancement of the text, or correct interpretation, and which leads to a false interpretation of it. There are tremendous debates over where a comma should be! 

(As in the words "I say unto you today you will be with me in paradise", some saying a comma should go after today, and others say a comma should go before "today" and immediately after 'say unto you') 

And, of course, it makes some good bit of difference where the comma is placed, at least for understanding what Jesus meant. I do not argue erroneously by some, who in their zeal to combat the views of the Jehovah's Witnesses and their translation say what is incorrect. These will say that the word "today" cannot be joined to the words "I say unto you" for they say that such language is unnecessary, i.e. for no one who is speaking needs to say to their audience "I am speaking to you today"; But, that is simply not true. We speak that way all the time and it is not always superfluous.

Said one scholarly source who agrees with the idea that "today" is an adverb of the verb "say" and not of the verb "to be" (his whole treatise is worth reading, though I disagree with his belief that the comma should go after "today" but not because it is not possible, but highly unlikely for other reasons - See here)

"A recurrent argument suggests that such a reading cannot be correct for it would make Jesus’s statement pleonas­tic or even “grammatically senseless.”14 This might be true as far as English and other modern languages are concerned, but the NT was written in Greek—not plain Greek, but sometimes a Greek stuffed with Semitic idioms. Luke’s Greek fit into this category, especially in the Gospel, despite the fact that he himself was not a Jew (see Col. 4:10–14). And it has long been demonstrated that the use of “today” with a preceding verb to introduce or close a statement is nothing but a Semitic idiom intended to intensify the significance and solemnity of the statement that either will follow or has just been made.15 

 

In fact, this idiom is rather common in Scripture, especially in Deuteronomy, where there are more than 40 examples of expressions such as, “I teach you today” (4:1), “I set before you today” (11:26), “I give you today” (28:13), “I command you today” (6:6; 7:11; 12:32), “I testify against you today” (8:19), and “I declare you today” (30:18; cf., 4:26; 30:19; 32:46; Acts 20:26; 26:2).16" 

I do believe that Christ is saying that the thief would be in paradise with Christ that very day. But, I do not say it is because of where the comma was placed, but because of other contextual and syntactical reasons. 

Not only is there no punctuation in scripture, there are not both capital letters and small letters, for all was in capitals. There were also what we call "run on sentences" because there was no spaces between words. 

In the original writings of the bible, whether Hebrew or Greek, there was also generally no headings to the books or epistles as today. There were also no numbered verses, or chapters (although the Psalms were numbered) in the original books of the Bible. These were added later. 

As an example of how mistakes were made by Robert Stephens (1551) in his numbering system (which all now use) let me cite these verses from the Gospel of John:

7: 53 - "And every man went unto his own house." (last verse of chapter seven)

8: 1 - "Jesus went unto the mount of Olives." (first verse of chapter eight)

"And every man went unto his own house. Jesus went unto the mount of Olives."

See the difference it makes? Did not anyone invite Jesus home with him?

So, let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter. When I read and study the bible I pay attention to these things and I sometimes disagree with a translation over punctuation, and this is especially true with putting things in parentheses. In some texts I think it perhaps should not have been inserted into the text and at other times I would have added a parenthesis. So, be careful in your bible studies in regard to these things.