KEYS FOR UNDERSTANDING

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)
16 And he (Jesus) came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into
the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read.
17 And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book,
he found the place where it was written,
18 The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he
hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to
the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,
19 To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.
20 And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them
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)
1 The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good
tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the
captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound;
2 To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God;
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)
37 In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him
come unto me, and drink.
38 He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.
39 (But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was
not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.)
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)
1 And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.
2 And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the
house where they were sitting.
3 And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them.
4 And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the
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)
3 Wherefore I give you to understand, that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed:
and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost.
“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)
13 In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom
also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,
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)
30 And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.
John 4:24 (KJV)
24 God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.
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.