When it comes to rightly dividing the Bible knowing and being able to handle basic English grammar is a necessary topic of study for the student of the Bible. Several false teachings and doctrines are based solely on bad grammar.
As an example, look at Colossians 1:21-29, nine verses that constitute one sentence having over two-hundred words. (222 words)
Colossians 1:21-29
21And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled
22In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight:
23If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a minister;
24Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body’s sake, which is the church:
25Whereof I am made a minister, according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you, to fulfil the word of God;
26Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints:
27To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:
28Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus:
29Whereunto I also labour, striving according to his working, which worketh in me mightily.
Without using basic grammar to rightly divide this sentence verse 23 will be taken and the rest thrown out and it will be taught that you can lose your salvation.
Look at Ephesians 2:8-9.
For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9Not of works, lest any man should boast.
It is hard to imagine that the meaning of this verse is debated, fervently by some. The contention is over the antecedent of the pronoun ‘it’. It is proffered that the noun ‘faith’ is the antecedent on the grounds that ‘faith’ is the closest noun to ‘it’. Unfortunately, there is no such grammatical rule. An antecedent can be three sentences back or more. I want to examine the grammar of this passage in tedious detail.
First, this sentence is a compound sentence made up of three independent clauses. A clause has a subject and a verb and if it has a complete thought also can stand alone independently as a sentence of its own. Unlike a phrase which does not have both a subject and verb.
The three independent clauses are:
- For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves.
- It is the gift of God.
- Not of works, lest any man should boast.
To continue you need to know what a prepositional phrase is. It is a preposition and its noun object. There are five prepositional phrases in these three sentences. I will highlight the prepositions and italicize the noun object.
- By grace
- Through faith
- Not of yourselves
- Of God
- Not of works
There are several things to know about prepositional phrases. They are modifiers; hence they can be taken out of the sentence without changing the meaning. If they are adverbial, used as an adverb, they can be moved about in the sentence. If used as an adjective they cannot be moved without changing the meaning or making the sentence sound ridiculous. We have four adverbial prepositional phrases and one adjectival.
To determine the proper subject of the first sentence we will rearrange the sentence to put it in normal English order.
Ye are saved, by grace through faith; and that not of yourselves.
We can rearrange the prepositional phrases.
Ye are saved through faith by grace; and not of yourselves.
By grace through faith ye are saved not of yourselves
And we can take the preposition phrases out.
Ye are saved.
As written the subject is ‘ye’ (the plural you) and the verb is ‘are’. Both ‘ye’ and ‘saved’ are nouns. ‘Saved’ is an appositive or subject compliment, a word that renames the subject; that is, ‘ye’ and ‘saved’ refer to the save object, in this case person.
Ye are saved – Saved are ye.
So, to determine the antecedent of ‘it’ as in “It is the gift of God” we must consider the following.
One hard and fast rule of grammar is that the noun object of a preposition is never, repeat, never the subject of a sentence. It is in the objective case and subjects must be in the subjective case. ‘Faith’ is the noun object of the preposition ‘through’; ‘it’ is a subject.
The prepositional phrase “through faith” can be taken out of the sentence as it is only a modifier modifying the verb ‘are’. As stated, an adverb can also be moved around in the sentence.
Ye are by grace through faith saved. It is the gift of God.
Now what is the closest noun to ‘it’? After removing the modifiers it is saved. Without the modifiers it reads:
Ye are saved; it is the gift.
Saved, or salvation, is the gift not faith.
You may ask, why is the Bible written this way when it would be so easy to have written it so that saved was plainly the antecedent of ‘it’? God wants to see who cares enough to study.
It should be clear that knowing and using basic grammar is a necessity in understanding and rightly dividing the Scriptures. You do not have to be an English major; you do not have to worry about the present past perfect indicatives; we are reading not translating.
Grammar is the bane of every schoolboy, but the basic grammar we need is not that difficult and once you learn it all this will be automatic; it is only tedious to try and explain it. The method that is used to teach makes all the difference.
I believe that I have made my point just by dividing the first of the independent clauses. I feel, however, that I need to quickly divide the second and third clause to complete the passage. They are much simpler.
It is the gift of God
The subject is ‘it’ which we have found to be ‘saved’ or salvation. This sentence contains one prepositional phrase being used as an adjective modifying the noun ‘gift’; therefore it cannot be moved about without making the sentence awkward.
Of God, it is the gift.
It is, of God, the gift.
The last clause has the troubling word ‘lest’ and one prepositional phrase used as an adverb which is why it can be move to the rear of the sentence.
Not of works, lest any man should boast.
In normal order it reads:
Lest any man should boast not of works.
“Lest’ = for fear that, in order to prevent. Our sentence means:
To prevent any man from boasting, it is not of works.
That no man should boast, it is not of works
This should take care of the passage.
I know that this has been rather tiresome, but it is necessary to understand and interpret the Bible correctly. Grammar is something you need to study to rightly divide the Scriptures.
Obtaining a working knowledge of basic grammar is not difficult. I recommend the following as a place to start.
https://www.english-grammar-revolution.com/daily-diagrams-get-smart.html
https://www.youtube.com/user/GrammarREVOLUTION
English 3200 A Programed Course in Grammer and Usage
English 2600 A Programed Course in Grammer and Usage
The 2600 uses a lower grade level of English than the 3200. The new Programmed Grammar books can be expensive, but I have been able to find them used for a lot less.