What does the "or else" mean? Read on.

For some previous content on self reference, see Self-referential paradoxes.

Have you ever read a book that says something like the following?

Natural language such as English, German, Greek, etc., is inherently self-referential in that one can use the language being used to discuss the language itself.

• English class uses English to study English.
• German class uses German to and learn German. This is sometimes called an immersion method.

The field of programming languages in computer science is, in general, about programs that read and write other programs, including, when appropriate, itself.

• A program can read another program as data. A compiler does this as input.
• A program can write another program as data A compiler does this as output.
• A program can read or write itself (or part of itself) as data which can then be treated as code. This is called "reflection" as a way to do "meta-programming".

Text on a sign:

What about this on the sign?

One sometimes sees billboards along the highway that say something like this.

How about this sign?

Or this (assume it is in very small print)?

Text in a book.

A book that self-promotes itself and claims to offer a benefit to the reader might make this statement. What about this in a book?

Let us look at the former.

The GNT (Greek New Testament) verses displayed on this site use this algorithm so that words appearing on one version are in one color (e.g., light red) and words appearing in the other version are in another color (e.g., light blue). Words in both versions have the default background color (e.g., white, light green, etc.).

Let us look at a Bible example that refers to changes made up of "deletes" and "inserts".

In both cases, the references are self-referential in that the book refers to "deletes" and "inserts" to itself.

The light blue text is in the Nestle-Aland Greek manuscripts, the traditional "blue book".

The light red text is in the Textus-Receptus Greek manuscripts, the traditional "red book".

Additions to this book have a penalty. Who might add to this book? Does the "hearing" part provide an escape clause?

The modern Greek word "πληγή" (plee-GEE) ≈ "plague" which is related to the English word "flag" as both derive from the The PIE (Proto Indo-European) root "*pleh" ≈ "flat, broad" as in a "plain" (which comes from this root) as do "palm" (of a hand), plan, plane (as is smoothing a surface), plain, etc.

Deletions to this book have a penalty. Who might delete from this book? Does the "hearing" part provide an escape clause?

Hopefully one "take away" from this verse is that one should not "take away" from any verse.

Consider what Jerome did when he translated the Greek into Latin in this book.

What exactly does it mean to "add to" or "subtract from" in the context of the statements of this book? We see some additions here by Jerome in the Latin Vulgate that are later translated by Wycliffe and the Geneva Bible.

• Jerome adds both "and in the Latin tongue is" and "which means ...".
• Wycliffe translates both parts.
• The Geneva Bible just adds the second part.

Does Jerome risk a penalty by clearly adding to the original text? What about other versions and translations which, over the centuries, have done the same thing - to Revelation and all the other books?

Before entering the promised land, the Israelites were given a similar command.

This was over a thousand years before Jesus.

How well did the Israelites accomplish this goal in that time?