Comma Mistakes

Commas one of the most ubiquitous yet misused things in our society. English teachers from middle school to grad school burn through gallons of red ink marking off comma errors. I have certainly given them headaches for this myself. Yet the comma can be infinitely important. There's the infamous panda who eats, shoots, and leaves.

When it comes to scripture their role can be even more crucial. But there is a problem with this, ancient Greek didn't have commas. Certainly there are times where the comma placement can be easily determined but how often did we get this wrong. And more importantly what does it mean if we did.

Let's take Romans 8:28 for example. The way it is written in English Bibles is "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose."

Pretty straight forward. Things work out for Gods people. But what if there was supposed to another comma a bit later? What if it was supposed to read as "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called, according to His purpose."

Suddenly the meaning of that verse changes. It's all about "according to His purpose". That phrase no longer describes those who were called, now it describes how things will work together for good. It could be written this way as well: "And we know that all things work together for good according to His purpose to them that love God, to them who are called."

What a difference that little dot with a tail can make.