{"id":6426,"date":"2024-12-04T16:56:22","date_gmt":"2024-12-04T16:56:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wpmu3.northcentralus.cloudapp.azure.com\/nlt\/?p=6426"},"modified":"2024-12-04T16:57:45","modified_gmt":"2024-12-04T16:57:45","slug":"word-studies-in-the-new-living-translation-punctuation-in-english-translationsword-studies-in-the-new-living-translation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wpmu3.northcentralus.cloudapp.azure.com\/nlt\/2024\/12\/04\/word-studies-in-the-new-living-translation-punctuation-in-english-translationsword-studies-in-the-new-living-translation\/","title":{"rendered":"Word Studies in the New Living Translation: Punctuation in English Translations"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Mark D. Taylor, NLT Bible Translation Committee<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The words of a Bible text are vitally important, but there are other elements that play a role in how we understand the meaning of any text. Think, for instance, of punctuation.<\/p>\n\n\n

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The original Hebrew and Greek manuscripts of the Bible did not use punctuation. As a result, readers had to make their own interpretation regarding sentence structure. Of course, the syntax of the strings of words gave clues as to sentence structure and who was speaking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The King James Version added periods, commas, question marks, semicolons, and colons to the English translation, which were all very helpful. But it did not use quotation marks, as they weren\u2019t in common use in the 1600s. The New King James Version (NKJV) used all those same elements of punctuation but also added quotation marks, which made the flow of the text easier for contemporary readers to understand.<\/p>\n\n\n

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For the most part, the placement of quotation marks is very intuitive. But sometimes the translators have to decide where a quotation ends. Look, for example, at John 3:10-21. In Jesus\u2019 interaction with Nicodemus, we see that one of Jesus\u2019 speeches begins at verse 10. But is Jesus still talking in verses 16-21?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The translators of the Revised Standard Version (RSV) used a closing quotation mark at the end of verse 15, though they added a footnote that said, \u201cSome interpreters hold that the quotation continues through verse 21.\u201d But the translators of the New Revised Standard Version did not use an ending quotation mark after verse 15. As a result, they indicate that Jesus was still speaking in verses 16-21. Similarly, the English Standard Version (which is a revision of the RSV) includes verses 16-21 as words of Jesus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 1984 edition of the New International Version (NIV) included verses 16-21 as words of Jesus. But the 2011 edition of the NIV stops Jesus\u2019 speech at the end of verse 15. The NIV translators concluded that verses 16-21 were part of the apostle John\u2019s narrative, but not part of Jesus\u2019 speech.<\/p>\n\n\n

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The translation team for the New Living Translation wrestled with this same issue. Should verses 16-21 be included as part of Jesus\u2019 speech? Our conclusion was these verses should be treated as words of Jesus. This all becomes very obvious in a red-letter Bible. The text of verses 16-21 is presented either in black type or red type depending on the translators\u2019 decision as to whether Jesus is still speaking in these verses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the final analysis, the meaning of verses 16-21 does not change. Whether these are the words of Jesus or of the apostle John, the message is very clear. The NLT renders verses 16 and 17 in this way:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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16 <\/sup>\u201cFor this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. 17<\/sup> <\/sup><\/strong>God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

These familiar verses provide a wonderful promise of redemption for all who believe in Jesus as the Son of God.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Mark D. Taylor, NLT Bible Translation Committee The words of a Bible text are vitally important, but there are other elements that play a role in how we understand the meaning of any text. Think, for instance, of punctuation. The original Hebrew and Greek manuscripts of the Bible did not use punctuation. As a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[44,45,236,55],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpmu3.northcentralus.cloudapp.azure.com\/nlt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6426"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpmu3.northcentralus.cloudapp.azure.com\/nlt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpmu3.northcentralus.cloudapp.azure.com\/nlt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpmu3.northcentralus.cloudapp.azure.com\/nlt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpmu3.northcentralus.cloudapp.azure.com\/nlt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6426"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/wpmu3.northcentralus.cloudapp.azure.com\/nlt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6426\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6436,"href":"https:\/\/wpmu3.northcentralus.cloudapp.azure.com\/nlt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6426\/revisions\/6436"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpmu3.northcentralus.cloudapp.azure.com\/nlt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpmu3.northcentralus.cloudapp.azure.com\/nlt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6426"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpmu3.northcentralus.cloudapp.azure.com\/nlt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}