Tool Beta
Hebrew and Greek Without Learning Either
A walk through Genesis, the Psalms, and John, plus the key Hebrew and Greek words worth knowing. Each card is a place the English Bibles part company, and what in the Hebrew or Greek made them.
John 7:37-38
Out of his belly shall flow rivers. Whose belly depends on where the sentence is punctuated.
John 7:37-38, in every translation this tool compares.
Let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me, as the scripture said, out of his heart will flow rivers. Move the stop one clause earlier and the rivers change owner.
Because moving one stop changes whether the water flows from the believer or from Christ, and the Greek gives no punctuation at all.
Most versions punctuate so the believer is the source. A minority, and many commentators, punctuate so that Christ is.
Punctuation, not a word
The passage has no punctuation in the manuscripts. Read one way, he who believes is the subject of the flowing. Read the other, the believer is the one who comes and drinks and the rivers flow from Christ. Verse 39 explains the saying as about the Spirit, which bears on the choice without settling it.
English requires a stop somewhere. Wherever it goes, the reader inherits a decision made by an editor.
Where a version's footnote offers an alternative punctuation, the sentence has two grammatically possible subjects and the printed one is a judgment.
The believer as source is the majority printed reading; the Christological punctuation appears in footnotes and in a substantial commentary tradition.
- No punctuation in the manuscripts
- The scripture said has no exact Old Testament source; candidates include Isaiah 58:11 and Zechariah 14:8
- John 7:39 interprets the saying
