God’s Word, Grammar, and Critical Reading

 GK Werner

Basic grammar knowledge is indispensable to critical readers when observing what text says and interpreting what it means—the first two steps in the critical reading process.

            The heart of any sentence is its subject and predicate—its main noun and verb. Identifying a sentence’s subject and predicate is not always easy. Other parts of the sentence are often confused with it. The problem is if we think that the subject is something other than what it is, we can miss a sentence’s meaning entirely.

            Take for example Ephesians 2:8-9 – “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.” There are readers who identify faith as the subject and conclude that God is saying that faith is what is not of ourselves but is the gift of God. Whether or not that is true is a study for another time, but God is not saying that here in these verses.

            How do we know? Let’s break it down.

The subject is the main noun or pronoun—the person, place, or thing the sentence is about. The predicate is the main verb—the action of the person, place, or thing. Other words get attached to these in various, often confusing ways: adjectives, adverbs, helping verbs, prepositional phrases, and more.

(Don’t worry. Even though I teach high school and college English, I won’t get too carried away here.)

Ephesians 2:8-9 is actually two sentences combined into one, because it has two independent clauses connected together with a semicolon:

·         “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves…”

·         “…it is the gift of God, not of works, lest (for fear that) anyone should boast.”

Let’s start with the first independent clause and look for the subject.

            An easy way to find a subject is to start eliminating other nouns by setting aside prepositional phrases—groups of words that start with a preposition and end with a noun or pronoun. Why? Because the subject is never found in a prepositional phrase. “By” and “through” are prepositions, so neither “grace” nor “faith” are the subject of this sentence. We’ll set them aside.

            That leaves two groups of words:

·         “you have been saved”

·         “and that not of yourselves”

     “Of yourselves” is another prepositional phrase. Let’s set it aside also.

Since “and that not” is meaningless by itself, it’s pretty easy to see that “you” (a pronoun) is the subject of this first independent clause and “have been saved,” is the predicate. So the heart of this first independent clause is “you have been saved”.

To be specific, “by grace” and “through faith” are adverb prepositional phrases modifying the predicate “have been saved”.

(Okay. Got a little carried away there.)

But what does “and that not of yourselves” refer to?

            The word that is a demonstrative pronoun—a pronoun referring back to a noun or pronoun called its antecedent. Our choices are grace, you, and faith. Here again some readers identify faith as the noun, especially because of its proximity to “that”.

But using a demonstrative pronoun to refer back to one of two objects of a prepositional phrase without specifying which one (or both) is not grammatically proper because it lacks clarity. It creates ambiguity. And God is as perfect a writer as He is, well, perfect. His Word is never ambiguous. Not in the original writing.

            Hold that thought!

We still have the sentence’s heart to consider: “you have been saved”. Could “that” refer back to the subject “you” or the predicate “have been saved”? You not of yourselves makes no sense. Have been saved not of yourselves? Sounds right and is Biblically sound. But demonstrative pronouns refer to nouns, not verbs so it can’t be referring to the predicate. Can it? (Stay tuned!)

The same problems present themselves regarding “it”, the subject of the second independent clause. “It” cannot refer to “you” and make sense, or to the verb “have been saved.” Plus, using the pronoun it to refer to the nouns “grace” and/or “faith” would be equally confusing as using that in the same way. If God meant “it” or “that” to refer to faith, a clearer sentence construction would be something like: For by grace you have been saved through faith, and faith is not of yourselves but is a gift from God. However, God didn’t write it that way.

But wait a minute. “Have been saved” has to do with salvation. Salvation is a noun. Salvation not of yourselves? Hmmm. Throughout the immediate context of Ephesians 2, Paul’s topic is salvation. And in the context of God’s Word salvation clearly does not result from your efforts.[*]

            Now, if you’re smarter than the average bear, you’re probably asking yourself: This is all well and good regarding the Bible’s English translations, but what about the original Greek language of Ephesians 2:8-9? English grammar rules can get a little sketchy, but Greek? Not so much.

I don’t pretend to be an authority on the ancient Greek language, but what I do know is that Greek is one of those languages that (for reasons I cannot fathom) assigns masculine, feminine, or neuter genders to words. Furthermore, in the Greek language, pronouns are required to have the same gender as the gender of the noun they are referring to. This rule is never violated anywhere in the Bible. Touto (that) is neuter in Greek. Charis (grace) and pistis (faith) are feminine.

Therefore, according to Greek grammar rules, “that not of yourselves” cannot possibly refer to grace or faith. For the same reason it, also a neuter pronoun in the original Greek, cannot possibly refer to “grace” or “faith”.

What could be more precise? So much for the possibility that God is in any way ambiguous!

Both “that not of yourselves” and “it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast” must refer to the only thing left—the first sentence’s heart.

Again we might ask: Could that and it refer to salvation, a noun and a form of the word “saved” used in the text? Probably a safe inference! But, during critical reading’s second step, we should always treat inferences cautiously, and be reluctant to force anything while interpreting God’s Word. After all, the cults and various false teachers do that, past and present.

But here’s something I’ve saved for last. (Don’t you love surprise endings?) At times, demonstrative pronouns refer to concepts or word-groups.

Therefore, it is safe to say that both pronouns refer to the entire heart of Ephesians 2:8-9—“You have been saved.”

How are you saved? By grace through faith:

·         “…if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” (Romans 10:9)

·         “…God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together in Christ. By grace you have been saved…” Ephesians 2:4-5)

Salvation is not your doing; it is the gift of God!

            Praise the Lord!

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[*]

Romans 3:20—“…by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight…”

Romans 11:6—“…if by grace, then it is no longer of works; otherwise grace is no longer grace…”

Titus 3:4-5—“…when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit…”