by Jeff Voegtlin

Created on: February 12, 2007   Last Updated: May 11, 2007

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

This verse of Scripture gives great comfort to believers. In it we find that God's Law will stand unchanged until all of it is fulfilled even until the end of heaven and earth as we know them. But there is another more academic point we can understand from Christ's words here. He promised that the law would be preserved; he also pointed out where they would be preserved.

Someone asked, "Is preservation found in translations, or in jots and tittles?" It seems to me by asking the question this way the answer becomes obvious. What do you think? If preservation is found in translations, which one is it found in? Arabic, Chinese, Dutch, English, French, German, Hindi, Japanese, Korean, Latin, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish?

The Scripture says, "jot and tittle." The "jot" is the smallest letter of the Hebrew alphabet. The "tittle" is a part of some Hebrew letters. The common denominator here is the Hebrew alphabet. The letters that make up the Hebrew language. It is likely that Jesus was not speaking in Hebrew when He said this. The common language of the world was Greek; another common language of the region was Aramaic; but he could also have been speaking Hebrew. My point is that he told the people the language that would be preserved. It was the language that the Law had been written in.

So here, we have scriptural support for believing that God will not allow anything to be lost from His Word until heaven and earth shall pass away and everything in His Word be fulfilled. No "jots;" no "tittles" will pass from the Law, and we can confidently carry the promise to the Word given to us in Greek to say not one "iota" will pass from His Word until all be fulfilled.

God's Word is preserved for us in its purest form, in just exactly the way it came at the first. Like fresh water from the fountainhead, we have the pure Word of God in just the form that He gave it.

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