Scripture, Preservation, Jots, and Tittles

Matthew 5:18 For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.

John Lightfoot (d. 1675), in “Hebrew and Talmudic Exercitations,” The Whole Works of John Lightfoot, Vol. XI, (ca. 1658/1823, pp. 99-100), commented:

But that our Saviour, by ἰῶτα καὶ κεραία “jot and tittle,” did not only understand the bare letters, or the little marks that distinguished them, appears sufficiently from verse 19, where he renders it, one of “these least commands:” in which sense is that also in the Jerusalem Gemara of Solomon’s rooting out Jod, that is, evacuating that precept נָשִׁים ְלֹא יָרבּה “He shall not multiply wives.” And yet it appears enough hence, that our Saviour also so far asserts the uncorrupt immortality and purity of the holy text, that no particle of the sacred sense should perish, from the beginning of the law to the end of it.

In A Chronological Treatise Upon the Seventy Weeks of Daniel (1725, p. 204), Benjamin Marshall (d. 1749), Rector of Naunton in Gloucestershire, wrote:

What our Saviour saith of the Law is also true of the Prophets. And as not one jot or tittle of the former was to pass without being fulfilled, so neither could any one jot, or tittle of the latter ever pass away without being accomplished. Consequently not one jot or tittle much less could one word, So significant a word especially as the word After in this part of the Prophecy pass away without its actual Completion, and full Accomplishment in the express letter of it.

Thomas Ridgley (circa 1667–1734), an English Dissenting minister, wrote in his Body of Divinity (1731, p. 66, 1814 printing):

Till heaven and earth pass away, one jot, or one tittle shall not pass from the law, Mat. v. 18. and it is easier for heaven and earth to pass, than for one tittle of the law to fail, Luke xvi. 17. If God will take care of every jot and tittle of scripture, will he not take care that no whole book, designed to be a part of the rule of faith, should be entirely lost? It is objected, indeed, to this, that our Saviour hereby intends principally the doctrines or precepts contained in the law; but if the subject matter thereof shall not be lost, surely the scripture that contains it shall be preserved entire.

In Theopneustia: the Plenary Inspiration of the Holy Scriptures (English translation, 1850, p. 102), Swiss Protestant Louis Gaussen (1790-1863) wrote:

Alas! in a few short years both the doctors and the disciples will be laid in the tomb, they shall wither like the grass; but not one jot or tittle of that divine book will have passed away…

“It is easier,” says he, “ for heaven and earth to pass, than for one tittle (χεραία) of the law to fall and by the law Jesus Christ understood the whole of the Scriptures, and even, more particularly, the Book of Psalms. What terms could possibly be imagined capable of expressing, with greater force and precision, the principle which we defend; that is to say, the authority, the entire divine inspiration, and the perpetuity of all the parts, and of the very letter of the Scriptures? Ye who study God’s Word, here behold the theology of your Master! Be ye then divines after his manner; be your Bible the same as that of the Son of God! Of that not a single tittle can fall.”

Dutch Theologian Herman Bavinck (1854-1921), in The Sacrifice of Praise (1922, translated from the Dutch, p. 38), wrote:

The cause of this power lies therein, that it is God’s Word. All scripture was not only once given by inspiration of God but it is also as such continually preserved by God by His Almighty and everywhere present power. The Gospel, which comes forth out of that Word unto man in manifold forms and along various ways, is always borne and animated by God. It is and always remains His Word. It is constantly accompanied by the Holy Spirit, who lives and dwells in the church and from out of her goes into the world and convinces her of sin, righteousness and judgment. It is a Word, that continually proceeds out of the mouth of God, that comes unto us in Christ, and that through the Spirit of Christ is declared unto our heart or conscience.

In a book, Fundamentalism Versus Modernism (1925, p. 175), Eldred C. Vanderlaan (1890-1974) quotes James M. Gray:

...Christ teaches that the Scriptures are inspired as to their words. In the Sermon on the Mount He said, “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.”...”One jot or tittle shall in no wise pass from the law.” The “jot” means the yod, the smallest letter in the Hebrew alphabet, while the “tittle” means the horn, a short projection in certain letters extending the base line beyond the upright one which rests upon it. A reader unaccustomed to the Hebrew needs a strong eye to see the tittle, but Christ guarantees that as a part of the sacred text neither the tittle nor the yod shall perish.

In an undated paper “Jot” and “Tittle”, professor of Old Testament Willis E. Bishop (1914-2013) wrote:

In Matthew 5:18, Christ said the law is so perfect down to every jot and tittle. Every letter and every part of a letter is inspired by God. When the men who wrote the Scripture finished writing, it was not only letter perfect but part-letter perfect – perfect absolutely to a part of a letter in the original writings. [Note: Bishop refers to the original writings and probably would not apply this to copies and translations. However, he plainly applies the Lord’s statement about “jots and tittles” to written Scripture – something that has become anathema to many modern evangelicals. This was probably written between 1947 and 1982, the years he served as professor and chair of Old Testament Studies at Washington Bible College.]