Let sentences connect!

For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted. – (Matthew 23:12)

While praying, the disciples who received the Holy Spirit now begin to actively spread the teachings of Jesus. This process resulted in the writing of the 27 books of the New Testament.

The above Bible passage describes the scene where Jesus teaches humility to his disciples. He also states that the proud will be humbled, and the humble will be exalted.

As indicated by the expression, “All Scripture[1] is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking[2], correcting and training in righteousness, – 2 Timothy 3:16,” the Bible offers many teachings that serve as nourishment for the soul.

Among these teachings, an important one is not to be proud. The Book of Proverbs, which is the 20th book of the Bible, emphasizes the importance of wisdom as much as it stresses humility. Jesus consistently taught his disciples to be humble. In the Book of James, it is written, “God opposes[3] the proud but gives grace to the humble. – James 4:6,” and in 1 Peter, it states, “Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due[4] time. – 1 Peter 5:6.”

Matthew, Mark, and Luke are called the Synoptic[5] Gospels because they record the ministry and words of Jesus from almost the same perspective (synoptic). Hence, their narratives align as if they copied from each other, but significant and minor differences are also found. For instance, Luke’s Gospel mentions the blessedness of those who are poor, while Matthew’s Gospel refers to the blessedness of the poor in spirit. This is not a difference in translation but in the original passages. Therefore, it might be that Jesus’ original intention was not to emphasize material poverty but a spirit of humility.

Wouldn’t those who are poor in spirit, meaning those who are humble, be the ones to listen to others’ stories?

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In the previous two chapters, we summarized methods of connecting sentences using noun clauses and adverbial clauses. A sentence is formed through various combinations of nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. If there are noun clauses and adverbial clauses, it implies that there can also be adjective clauses.

Adjective clauses, like the others, contain their own subjects and verbs, which inevitably makes them longer. According to the third rule of English, complex adjectives must follow the nouns they describe. English grammar books refer to this usage as relative pronouns. In other words, this is a usage that can be easily understood by our principle of simplicity, even without the grammatical interpretation of relative pronouns.

Let’s find an example in a Bible passage:

“The one who received the seed that fell on good soil is the man who hears the word and understands it. He produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.” (Matthew 13:23)

If we simplify the first clause, it becomes “The one is the man.” However, ‘the one’ is explained as ‘the person who received the seed.’ And ‘the man’ is ‘the person who hears the word and understands it.’ The person who received the seed is thus the person who understands the word. But it’s not just any seed; it’s ‘the seed that fell on good soil.’ Ultimately, the person who received the seed that fell on good soil is the man who understands the word.

This expression also starts with simple words and adds explanations afterward. That’s why the use of adjective clauses emphasizes the application of the third rule of English. A more grammatical analysis shows that relative pronouns play the dual role of conjunctions that connect two sentences and pronouns. However, it can simply be thought of as a long adjective. But according to the principle of simplicity, summarizing that long adjectives go after simplifies the matter. Let’s look at another example:

“We speak of God’s secret wisdom, a wisdom that has been hidden.”

Using relative pronouns, the original Bible passage can be condensed as follows:

“We speak of God’s secret wisdom that has been hidden.“

Using a relative pronoun in a sentence eliminates the repetition of a noun and replaces it with a pronoun. In any case, when the antecedent is a person, the relative pronoun ‘who’ is used; for things or animals, ‘which’ is used. However, ‘that’ used in the passages can be used with any antecedent, especially when the antecedent includes superlatives, ordinal numbers, the very, the only, the same, all, every, any, no, etc., ‘that’ is commonly used as a relative pronoun.

“Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.” (Matthew 4:4)

“Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. On him God the Father has placed his seal of approval.” (John 6:26-27)

On the other hand, ‘what’ used as a relative pronoun includes its antecedent within the word itself, which can be rewritten as ‘the thing which,’ ‘anything which,’ or ‘all that.’ ‘Whoever,’ ‘whomever,’ ‘whatever’ also include their antecedents within as relative pronouns. Our example from the Bible passage that uses ‘whoever’ can be rewritten with an appropriate antecedent as a relative pronoun, like ‘a man who.’

“For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.” —-> “For a man who exalts himself will be humbled, and a man who humbles himself will be exalted.”

Especially when the antecedent is a place (the place), reason (the reason), method (the way), time (the time, the day, the week, the month, the year), ‘where,’ ‘why,’ ‘how,’ ‘when’ can be used like relative pronouns. English grammar books refer to these as relative adverbs. In our sentence structure, where, why, how, when, which are located in the adverbial region, are understood as terms, but let’s just consider them the same.

Antecedent	Relative adverbs	Relative pronouns
the place	Where	at[on, in] which
the reason	Why	in[on, at] which
the way	How	the way in[on, at] which or the way that
the time, the day, the week, the month, the year	When	in[on, at] which

For example, let’s consider the following relative pronoun expressions:

“But he knows the way that I take; when he has tested me, I will come forth as gold.” (Job 23:10)

In the expression above, “He knows the way that I take” can be rewritten as “He knows how I take.” Additionally, there are expressions indicating place and time such as:

“As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him.” (Luke 10:38)

‘Where’ refers to the village, and the expression following ‘where’ is an adjective clause modifying ‘village.’

“I tell you the truth; I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it anew in the kingdom of God.” (Mark 14:25)

Such adverbial clauses, like relative pronouns, can also include expressions that contain their antecedents. For instance, ‘whenever’ meaning ‘at any time,’ ‘wherever’ meaning ‘in any place,’ and ‘however’ meaning ‘no matter how,’ can be used with expressions that include the antecedent.

“Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind.” (Genesis 9:14-15)

“I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.” (Genesis 28:15)

Grammar books discuss the use of non-defining relative clauses for relative pronouns. When written, a comma is placed before the relative pronoun, and the clause that follows is read as a continuation of the sentence before it. This means that the clause following the relative pronoun doesn’t modify the preceding noun (the antecedent) but is instead understood as a sentence that is equally linked to the one before it. For example:

“He is the stone you builders rejected, which has become the capstone.” (Acts 4:11)

‘The cornerstone’ refers to a large stone that binds together all the foundations of a building. Therefore, if this stone is removed, the building collapses. Paul’s statement here is a quote from Psalm 118 in the Bible:

“The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.” (Psalm 118:22)

However, all expressions of relative pronouns should be interpreted as continuous. Wouldn’t it be easier to understand as we read along?

“The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field.” (Matthew 13:31)

First, it simply says, “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed.” Then it adds, “The seed is what a man took and planted in his field.” We should understand it continuously in the same order as the English expression above.