Free Essay Sample on Interpreting Bible Scriptures

Introduction

Interpretation of the bible scriptures is an essential but confusing task among the Christian community. Notably, modern translations have replaced the scriptio continua that had no breaks between sentences or paragraphs, making the understanding of the Bible difficult. Subsequently, the modern translations implemented the Greek text, such as united bible societies that enhanced proper punctuation for a robust understanding of scriptures. These punctuations include accent marks, quotation marks, sentence break, and question mark. Therefore, this paper seeks to discuss how punctuation enhances the interpretation of letters of Apostle Paul.

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Accent Marks

The accent marks have a substantial impact on the understanding of the Bible. For instance, Romans 16: 7 describes differences in using the name Junias to describe a man or a woman among the apostles (Omanson, 1998). Consequently, the Latin accent developed a misunderstanding about the chapter whether to shorten a man's name Junias to feminine Junia or not. Notably, the New Testament accent indicated that Paul was referring to a woman contrary to an assumption of women apostles' non-existence in the early church.

Subsequently, Paul sometimes applied direct quotes to show that his letters replied to questions in the previous letters. For instance, the final words in Corinthians 7: 1 were referring to Corinthians' questions about sexual intercourse against women (Omanson, 1998). Notably, Paul's quotation in verse states that "now for matters you wrote about if a man should have intercourse with a woman, every man should have his or her wife" (Kilpatrick et al., 2016). Here, the quotation marks could enhance the identification of the question and answers, making it easy to interpret.

Sentences

Consequently, sentence breaks and question marks have enhances the significant interpretation of the Bible. Notably, paragraph breaks identify to the readers when the writer changes the topic, as shown in the first letter of Timothy 3: 1. The chapter discussed women's values to avoid dominating over men (Omanson, 1998). However, most translations apply the phrase in the mentioned chapter to start a new paragraph. Alongside this, Paul used question marks to address cases related to pagan gentiles (Elliot, 2013). For instance, first Corinthians 6: 4, "why do you lay cases before the church's least esteemed?" This question by Paul shows readers what they should expect in the next phrase-making understanding efficiently.

Conclusion

In conclusion, this paper sought to discuss how punctuations could enhance the interpretation of the Bible. Various marks such as quotation, accent, and question marks are among Paul's punctuations to enhance understanding of his letters to his audience. Besides, writers of new bible versions should consider the proper application of these marks. Fortunately, preachers and Christians would enjoy a better interpretation of the Bible.

References

Elliott, J. (2013). Gordon D. Fee, The first epistle to the Corinthians (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans) (= new international commentary on the New Testament), xxiv + 880 pp. Novum Testamentum, 31(2), 185. https://doi.org/10.1163/156853689x00081

Kilpatrick, G., Nestle, E., Nestle, E., Aland, K., Black, M., & Martini, C. et al. (2016). Novum Testamentum graece et Latine. Novum Testamentum, 27(2), 197.
https://doi.org/10.2307/1560862

Omanson, R. (1998). PUNCTUATION IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. Retrieved 27 August 2020, from https://www.baslibrary.org/bible-review/14/6/18.