Jot or Tittle

Professor Sparrow and the Clear Creek History Mystery
Cover art by Forrest Walker

Jesus said, "Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I didn't to come to destroy but to fulfill. For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled." (Matthew 5:17-18)

Working my last run through the Professor Sparrow and the Clear Creek History Mystery manuscript, I hit a punctuation dilemma: comma or no comma in the sentence, "They rolled on the ground, laughing and gasping for air." What do you think?

Both my English-major son-in-law, Stephen, and retired-college-creative-writing-instructor friend, Bruce, agreed—put in the comma. Bruce said it reminded him of tales of Hemingway saying, when asked what he'd worked on all morning, that he was putting in a comma, then taking it out, in and then out, all morning long.

In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus proclaimed that He came to fulfill  biblical teaching and prophecy down to the last jot (the smallest letter in the Hebrew alphabet) or tittle (a seemingly insignificant mark, yet critical in Hebrew for distinguishing between one letter and another). 

"Christ was indicating that He is the fulfillment of the law in all its aspects. He fulfilled the moral law by keeping it perfectly. He fulfilled the ceremonial law by being the embodiment of every thing the law's types and symbols point to. And He fulfilled the judicial law by personifying God's perfect justice." ~ MacArthur Study Bible ~

Want to write your manuscript of life correctly, beloved? Look to Jesus Christ, our perfect all in all, down to the last jot or tittle!