How would you punctuate\u00a0Isaiah 40:3? How do the authors of the New Testament get\u00a0Isaiah 40:3\u00a0wrong?<\/p>\n\t
“The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the LORD; make straight in the desert a highway for our God’<\/i>” (Isaiah 40:3).<\/p>\n
“For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah, saying: “The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the LORD; make His paths straight'”<\/i>” (Matthew 3:3).<\/p>\n
“The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the LORD; make His paths straight.’<\/i>” (Mark 1:3).<\/p>\n
“As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet, saying: “The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the LORD; make His paths straight.’<\/i>” (Luke 3:4).<\/p>\n
“He said: “I am ‘The voice of one crying in the wilderness: “Make straight the way of the LORD,”‘ as the prophet Isaiah said<\/i>” (John 1:27).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
If you accept that the New Testament was inspired by the same Holy Spirit who had the Old Testament written, your question would have been worded quite differently. Peter said, “Knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit<\/i>” (I Peter 1:20-21). By saying that the New Testament writers got something wrong, you are either charging the Holy Spirit with making a mistake or charging the apostles with being uninspired.<\/p>\n
The charge is without foundation. The Old Testament is written in Hebrew and that language contains no punctuation. The New Testament is written in Koine Greek and that language contains no punctuation. The punctuation was added by the interpreters as they translated the Hebrew and the Greek into the English and other modern languages. The punctuation helps clarify the meaning for the readers of English.<\/p>\n
Now the quotes of the Old Testament found in the New Testament come to us through two steps. The Old Testament passage is in Hebrew. It is then translated into Greek under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Finally, the quote is translated into English.<\/p>\n
Why are the punctuation and wording sometimes different between the Old and New Testament? First, most translations are done by groups of people. The people working on the Old Testament are Hebrew scholars and the people working on the New Testament are Greek scholars. Different people will translate the same source language differently. The meaning will be basically the same, but there will be slight variations. This is because words in every language contain multiple shades of meaning; yet, it is rare to find a word or phrase in one language that precisely matches the word or phrase in another language in all its shades of meaning. Hence translation always involves compromises, and different translators will make different choices.<\/p>\n
Second, chapter and verse numbering did not come along until long after the Bible was written. A quote from the Old Testament is perfectly correct even though the entire verse is not quoted. Notice that Matthew, Mark, and Luke all make the same quote, but all only use the first part of\u00a0Isaiah 40:3.<\/p>\n
John’s account is a record of what John the Baptist said in reference to Isaiah. In this particular case, we need to understand that an allusion to a quote is still essentially a quote. The difference is that Matthew, Mark, and Luke are applying the quote to a third person (John the Baptist) just as\u00a0Isaiah 40:3\u00a0does. However, John tells us that John the Baptist referred to this verse in application to himself. That change from the third person to the first person requires a slight change in wording in order to remain grammatically correct in Greek. The meaning of the quote, however, remains the same.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Question: How would you punctuate\u00a0Isaiah 40:3? How do the authors of the New Testament get\u00a0Isaiah 40:3\u00a0wrong? Answer: “The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the LORD; make straight in the desert a highway for our God’” (Isaiah 40:3). “For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[568,190],"class_list":["post-2652","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-accuracy-of-the-bible","tag-translation"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":26650,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-only-yahweh-gods-name\/","url_meta":{"origin":2652,"position":0},"title":"Is only Yahweh God’s name?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 7, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: In \"The Divine Name,\" you did not explain the name YAHWEH\/YHWH and how it was taken out of the Scriptures.\u00a0 God, Lord, Father are all titles(mother, daughter, son, worker), but not His true name.\u00a0 Please explain verse Psalm 68:4 Sing to God, sing praises to His name;\u00a0 Extol Him\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":29030,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/when-did-baptism-for-the-remission-of-sins-start\/","url_meta":{"origin":2652,"position":1},"title":"When did baptism for the remission of sins start?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 19, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: In the \"Articles\" section, under Baptism, \"Answering Arguments Against Baptism\".\u00a0 You state that \"Baptism for the remission of sins did not begin until the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:37-38), so the thief (and Jesus) lived under the law of Moses.\" Please read Mark 1:4: \"John came baptizing in the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":89024,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/a-voice-in-the-wilderness\/","url_meta":{"origin":2652,"position":2},"title":"A Voice in the Wilderness","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 29, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton The Pharisees and Sadducees had the larger, more luxurious places to indoctrinate people with their corrupt doctrine. John the Baptist had to find secluded areas in the countryside where he could preach and baptize people. His was a voice in the wilderness, but word spread that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":42999,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-was-the-history-of-baptism-prior-to-john\/","url_meta":{"origin":2652,"position":3},"title":"What was the history of baptism prior to John?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 21, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello! I don't know where to look for the history of the baptism of John. I have the understanding that baptism was done since the Babylonian captivity for the conversion to the Jewish faith (a proselyte, but I don't know where to find any documentation to confirm or deny\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":24543,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-was-john-the-baptist-elijah\/","url_meta":{"origin":2652,"position":4},"title":"How was John the Baptist Elijah?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 14, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hi! I am wondering if you can please help me understand what the Bible is saying about John the Baptist when it refers to him coming in the spirit of Elijah? In Luke 1:17, it says John the Baptist will come in the \"spirit and power of Elijah.\" In\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":14284,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-was-johns-baptism-different-from-jesus-baptism\/","url_meta":{"origin":2652,"position":5},"title":"How was John’s baptism different from Jesus’ baptism?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 9, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have some questions about John's baptism. I've read about how it was a fulfillment of prophecy to prepare the way, but I'm really confused about what that really means and what the point of John's baptism was. 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