Bible Questions and Answers

Does Hebrew or Greek have parentheses? If not, why add them and other punctuation symbols?

Matthew 1:6 NKJV  and Jesse begot David the king. David the king begot Solomon by her who had been the wife of Uriah.

In the NKJV ‘who had been the wife of’ is printed in italics indicating that the words are added to make sense in English. This was standard practice in the KJV. It would be odd for the English to read ‘David the king begot Solomon by her of Uriah’.

1 kings 8:39 NKJV  "then hear in heaven Your dwelling place, and forgive, and act, and give to everyone according to all his ways, whose heart You know (for You alone know the hearts of all the sons of men)

Whether the English translation has parentheses depends on the translator.

1 kings 8:39 NRSV then hear in heaven your dwelling place, forgive, act, and render to all whose hearts you know—according to all their ways, for only you know what is in every human heart—
1 kings 8:39  LXXE then shalt thou hearken from heaven, out of thine established dwelling-place, and shalt be merciful, and shalt do, and recompense to every man according to his ways, as thou shalt know his heart, for thou alone knowest the heart of all the children of men

One of the aims of the KJV translators was to make the English ‘readable’ and ‘memorable’ for reading out loud to those who could not afford their own Bible.

Today we can switch to different English translations at the touch of a button and look at the Hebrew and Greek behind the translation. In addition, we can see how the same words are translated in other places. The Bible Student is much better equipped than in the past.

Translators always have to make educated judgments, in order to make the English ‘readable’. A literal ‘word for word’ translation would be hard to understand. The other option (which some take) is to learn to read Hebrew and Greek for themselves.

I hope you find this helpful.

God bless,
Glenn