Comments on: Why Don’t We Just Re-Number the Bible?

By: Typesetting References in the Bible « Cogito, Credo, Petam

Typesetting References in the Bible « Cogito, Credo, Petam — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 00:21:24 +0000

[...] numbers, in addressing issues of external authority in relation to human verse numbers, as have others. The least we can do is to bump the numbers out and have normal paragraphs. This has been done [...]

By: Adriana

Adriana — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 18:31:06 +0000

E-Sword has the option of not showing verse numbers, and displaying text in paragraph style, though the chapter divisions remain.

By: Paul Sappington

Paul Sappington — Sun, 23 Sep 2007 18:32:26 +0000

I just ordered a new Bible from the International Bible Society. It is amazing what has happened! In August 2007 IBS releasted a volume titled “The Books of the Bible” which in reality is a Bible. This is the first time in history that a complete Bible has been published WITHOUT THE CHAPTER-VERSE DIVISIONS! The text used is the Today’s New International Version (TNIV). The books are in a different order, but some books that have been separated (like 1 and 2 Samuel) have been recombined into the single book that they were when written (so now 1 and 2 Samuel is a single book called Samuel). Check it out at http://www.thebooksofthebible.info and order your copy at http://www.ibsdirect.org. FINALLY!!! The Bible as it was meant to be read has arrived!!!

By: K.H. Jones

K.H. Jones — Mon, 05 Feb 2007 11:11:58 +0000

A personal project covering the past few years has resulted in the availability of a copy of the Holy Scriptures without chapter and verse divisions.
The chapter and verse designations are included in the left margin.
Please visit the website http://www.kathosgrapho.com for smaples and comments along with ordering information.

By: Miscellanies

Miscellanies — Fri, 17 Mar 2006 03:48:46 +0000

Re-numbering the Bible?

There’s an interesting series of posts going around about the “uninspired” parts of the Bible, including chapter and verse divisions, paragraphs and punctuation. For example, Doug McHone wonders Why Donâ€™t We Just Re-Number the Bible…

By: Terry

Terry — Sun, 12 Mar 2006 20:58:38 +0000

I like the hat…where can I find one like that?

By: Tori Smith

Tori Smith — Sat, 11 Mar 2006 20:32:19 +0000

I agree. Paul’s writings would be better without the verses numberes!

By: Doug McHone

Doug McHone — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 04:27:31 +0000

Kind of like that concept of putting the references in the margin? Yeah, that would be nice.

My pastor wasn’t so sure about someone moving around paragraphs without a working knowledge of the original languages, and made some great points to support what he said.

However, it is not required that you learn Greek to read the writings of Paul and to meditate on them. Ultimately, we are at the mercy of the translation teams and need to trust them to use words and sentences according to their knowledge.

We didn’t discuss verse numbering very much, but it seems that there must be cases where the translators make some of their choices based on the accepted structure of writings ad least to some degree.

I don’t want to disable the verse numbers online for the ESV Bible because I would constantly be re-emabling them for my own reference. Since Internet Explorer pulls cookies from a different source than Firefox, I believe I will disable verse numbers in IE.

By: Jacob Hantla

Jacob Hantla — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 04:00:26 +0000

When I begin to study a passage I print the whole thing out and use Logos (Libronix) to chop out the numbers all together. Then I use that version to get into Paul’s flow of thought. So many times then when I jump back into my versed Bible I end up saying, “Why the heck did they chop that there?” I guess that’s why I de-verse the text before I study.

Nevertheless, I don’t think it would be useful to try to re-number the Bible. My take on the verses is that they are primarily useful for referencing, so that everybody knows where to look. But they have become detrimental because they tend to make Christians think of the Bible as disconnected sentences or verses to be cited and not stories or propositions to be understood.

So if I would propose anything in response, I would say that the publishers should publish specialty Bibles without verses for use in personal reading, like how The Message does it. The verse ranges could be off to the left so you know where you are, but imagine the freedom of having the Bible without all the chopping. I would buy it in a second.

By: dcypl

dcypl — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 03:46:17 +0000

I have mostly given up on the paper version of the bible for a digital one on my Palm by Laridian. I like being able to highlight text in all different colours, and especially that I can hide the verse indicators, and chapters to if I want.

Seeing I have my palm with me everywhere, it gives me a bible for reading (without the verses) AND for looking up verses by number. I like that I can change the text size too.