To understand the Bible you have to known the keys to study and research. One of these keys is
understanding the authority of the scriptures, when holy men of God were given the Word versus what
man has done to it in the centuries following.
Originally, the Bible, the God breathed Word was perfect, but, there were no chapter headings, there
were no capitalization, there was no punctuation, no paragraphs. You could say that each book of the
Bible looked like one very long word. That is why Luke chapter four verse nineteen is so astounding.
Luke 4:16-20 (KJV)
he found the place where it was written,
the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,
19 To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.
that were in the synagogue were fastened on him.
In verse nineteen Jesus read from the scripture and ended after the word “Lord.” He put a period there.
But, if you look at Isaiah chapter sixty-one, from which he quoted, it is punctuated totally different.
Isaiah 61:1-2 (KJV)
Where Jesus put a period, after “Lord” by closing the book the King James translators put a comma. You
may say “so what.” I will tell you why this is so important. If Jesus left a comma there the whole Bible
would fall apart. WHY? Because the day of vengeance of our God does happen until the book of
Revelation at the end of the world thousand of years after the record in chapter four.
Because the original God breathed Word didn’t have any punctuation, capitalization, paragraphs or
chapter headings translators added all of these to make it easier for us to read. But, being man added all
of these things do not have the authority that the original “God breathed” Word has. As we will see they
could be right and they could be wrong.
Let’s look at capitalization. Many, many good intentioned Christians have misunderstood the difference
between God and His gift due to incorrect capitalization.
God is THE Holy Spirit. Signified by the “H” and the ‘S” being capitalized. What God gave or poured out
on the Day of Pentecost and is still available today is “holy spirit” with a small “h” and a small “s.”Let’s look at a few verses to see how important this differentiation is.
John 7:37-39 (KJV)
come unto me, and drink.
So, in verse thirty-nine is the word “Spirit” talking about God or His gift. It is obvious that it is His gift and
should not be capitalized.
Acts 2:1-4 (KJV)
house where they were sitting.
Spirit gave them utterance.
In verse four, were the Apostles filled with God or His gift. His gift, of course! So, it should be
lower case “h” and lower case “s.”
Who gave them the utterance? God! So, the translators capitalized “Spirit” correctly.
1 Corinthians 12:3 (KJV)
“Spirit of God” and “Holy Ghost (spirit)” are both talking about God’s gift and should be lower case and
not capitalized.
In Ephesians 1:3, I Thessalonians 4:8 and Ephesians 4:30 the translators should have translated holy
spirit with a small “h” and a small “s.” Instead, they left the word “holy” lower case and the word “Spirit”
capitalized, which makes no sense at all! Each verse is talking about what God gave us, His gift of Holy
Spirit and therefore both the “h” and the “s” should be lowercase.
As an aside, look at I Thess. 4:8, the last three words “his holy Spirit.” Not only did the translators miss
by capitalizing “Spirit”, but, they used a small “h” to describe God. Whenever anyone writes the word
“God” OR the pronoun “His”, “He”, “Him” they should ALWAYS be capitalized.
Ephesians 1:13 (KJV)
1 Thessalonians 4:8 (KJV)
8 He therefore that despiseth, despiseth not man, but God, who hath also given unto us his holy Spirit.Ephesians 4:30 (KJV)
John 4:24 (KJV)
Here in John 4:24 the translators got it right.
By understanding that the original God breathed Word was perfect, but, the punctuation, capitalization,
chapter headings and paragraphs were added by men and may be right or may be wrong we are free to
allow the Bible to explain itself.