Beginning in 2003 business owners and shop-keepers in the city of Bristol have been waking up to find apostrophes either inserted or removed from their signage. It now turns out that this has been the work of a self-styled ‘Grammar Vigilante’ who goes out by night to correct the poor punctuation that grieves him so much. Asked whether what he was doing was a crime, he replied, “It’s more of a crime to have apostrophes wrong in the first place.”
He’s not alone in his passion for punctuation as Jesus displayed a similar zeal when it came to the finer details of the written word. Jesus’ concern, however, went a bit deeper than our friend in Bristol as he was particularly bothered by the way people were playing fast and loose with the commandments of God. In one of His more famous sayings He confronted those who were hoping He might rein back on some of God’s more challenging commands by saying, “Truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law.”
So whether it’s punctuation or God’s prohibitions, it’s the details that really do matter!