Jul
30
2012
Ellipsis
Posted in Bible 5 Comments
I love to use the ellipsis.
It is a punctuation mark, made up of three evenly spaced dots used to indicate an omission of a word, sentence, or whole section of text being quoted.
It also can be used to indicate an unfinished thought…a trailing off into silence.
Anyone who has read anything I ever wrote, knows that I use the ellipsis often.
Usually for the latter reason.
I use it so the reader can complete the thought…taking you where God would have you go.
In our sitcom generation, we have everything neatly packaged for us.
In the time span of thirty minutes, problems are solved.
Not so in real life.
In fact, our lives are more like fading genre of the mini series.
More like the old radio shows, where each week you could listen to your favorite characters…often with a cliff hangar to bring you back next week.
But neatly packaged lives are not the lives we lead.
Spoon feeding answers and information “dumbs us down”.
We are becoming lazy when it comes to thinking.
So…the ellipsis.
Encouraging you to finish the thought.
Encouraging you to discern the connection being made.
Encouraging you to make a connection of your own.
For all the English majors, which includes my oldest daughter, be kind in your critique of my non-grammatical use of this bit of punctuation.
My use of the ellipsis is more a visual of the way my mind works.
My heart…poured out in words.
God’s truth demands the use of a period.
God’s truth is not negotiable.
God’s Word is complete.
We do not add to it.
We do not take away from it.
An ellipsis can also be used to indicate a pause.
A pause which opens up a place to think…to ponder.
I like that!
When he opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half and hour.
(Revelation 8:1)
An ellipsis in heaven…
The Lord is in His holy temple; let all the earth be silent before Him. (Habakkuk 2:20)
An ellipsis on earth…
I was thinking of the beginning of the book of Genesis and the ending of Revelation.
What if we thought of those verses as bookends, with an ellipsis in between?
In the beginning, God… (Genesis 1:1)
Amen. Come Lord Jesus. (Revelation 22:20)
In the beginning, God…Amen. Come Lord Jesus.
Think of all that goes between.
Think of the space that is opened up by the ellipsis.
The entire story of redemption.
…from creation to the fall of man.
…from animal sacrifices day after day, to the perfect sacrifice, one time, on a cross.
…from the Tabernacle to the Incarnation.
…from the law to grace.
Space that is opened up for us to ponder our right relationship with God.
In the beginning, God.
In the middle, God.
Come Lord Jesus.
Waiting. Hoping. Never Ending…
Gina!
I use … a LOT– but had forgotten…if I ever knew,,, thatt it is called ellipsis!!! I also use lots of exclamation points as well as dashes!….. (And parentheses,,,) What do they call it if you use more than three dots…….. as I also often do?-?…?? 🙂
Janna,
I like the fact that the thought is incomplete…that you have to think in order to finish it.
I guess you and I are in good company…the poet Emily Dickinson used dashes frequently.
That probably drove some of her readers crazy.
I always appreciate when you can hear the writer’s voice as you read their words.
Gina
Ah, the ellipsis… In the Psalms, we see the ellipsis presented to us in a slightly different form. Every time we see the term ‘Selah’ we can imagine a musical interlude given us by the choirmaster when the congregants may ponder and meditate on what gems of God’s Word was just presented to them. Praise God!
Thank you, Al.
I never thought about the ellipsis in reference to the term Selah.
I appreciate your insight…since you taught the men so thoroughly on the book of Psalms.
Don’t you love all the layers that we find in God’s Word?
Gina
Absolutely! Every time we go to God’s word we find something new to us. Usually something we need at the moment!