Sunday, July 28, 2013

Why Do the Paragraph Marks Stop?

Have you ever wondered  why (or noticed that) the paragraph marks in a King James Bible suddenly cease at Acts 20:36?  Some erroneously (lest I say irreverently) believe that this is an "error" in the KJB. 

I would like to acknowledge Bro. Dave Reese (http://www.right-division.com) for his help with this through correspondence with my pastor, Bro. David O'Steen, per below, with some careful editing (to preserve his view): 

"Some suggest the printer ran out of the pilcrow type at this point--if he did, it was an ordained lack. Considering the extensive use of the mark throughout the OT and the Gospels, as well as the meticulous care in typesetting, etc. under the King's orders and the scrutiny of the translators, it seems to me that idea of running out of type is silly. Unfortunately (?) we have very little of the translators' notes to see their reaction...

     First thing: As used in English, the pilcrow was not at first a mere paragraph marker but a MARK OF ORDER OF EVENTS in, for example, a service in which certain people were to perform an action or a particular change was made in events. Later, it was used to mark off discourse changes...
     [M]ost miss the final paragraph, [which] begins in v 36 and has not yet ended!...I believe the pilcrow at v 36 is connected with the prison epistle truth: Ephesians-Philemon. "See his face no more" is a key. The "ship" in Acts 21 thus removes Paul from the Acts ministry unto his prison ministry (the final order of things)."

Bro. Peter Ruckman, in his Acts commentary (notes on Ch. 20), mentions "present truth" being "fixed" at this point.  Synthesizing both his and Bro. Reese's comments together, with reference to Col. 1:25, the following can be suggested:

1.  Paul's epistles fulfil or complete the canon.  The traditional teaching is that Revelation and perhaps other general epistles or gospels are written after Paul's.  What is the scriptural (not literary) support for this?  Because they're placed after Paul's epistles? 

2. Since everything outside of the Pauline epistles essentially deals with the prophetic, kingdom program re: Israel, and Paul's writings describe the mystery program re: the body of Christ, which was not revealed until Paul, it makes sense for Paul's writings to come last chronologically, in which case his prison epistles are the most present truth that we have.  (I believe that the Pauline epistles are right where they should be canonically, since the church age is a parenthesis between God's dealings with Israel preceding the church age--Matthew through early chapters of Acts--and his dealings with Israel after the rapture of the body of Christ, as touched on in the general epistles following Paul's.  The general epistles aren't the only scriptures that cover the events after the rapture, but they complete the prophetic, kingdom revelation re: Israel, just as Paul's writings complete the scriptures as a whole).

3.  The paragraph mark at Acts 20:36 supports the idea that the prison epistles are the most present truth that we have, since at this juncture Paul's prison ministry begins: he's imprisoned in Jerusalem, then Caesarea, and ultimately in Rome, where he pens Eph.-Col. and Philemon.  After a brief release, in which he apparently writes 1 Tim. and Titus, he is imprisoned again for the last time and concludes his writings with 2 Timothy.  So no more paragraph marks are needed after Acts 20:36, since it's all "prison ministry" thereafter, essentially. 

Remember this principle, which I learned from Bro. Ruckman:  apparent errors or contradictions in the KJB are often doors to advanced revelation!