Philippians 1: Re-Paragraphed and Numbered

Over at the ESV Bible Blog, the discussion of re-numbering Bible verses is continued. This is not to say that my wishes are being considered, and for good reason! What are the recently disclosed reasons? Check it out for yourself.

Man, that sounded downright rude!

So here’s the deal. A Word document containing Philippians 1 with the ESV punctuation has been made available. It does not have any verse numbers or paragraphs to it. It is one long string of text. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to place the text into paragraphs to see where you think they should be. I took it a step further, including my own verse numbers. Call it extra credit, due the studious nature of the task. It will be interesting to see how it compares with my ESV Bible, as well as the others who take on this exercise over at the ESV Bible Blog. I did not look at my Bible for any hints in this exercise.

Below is the text with my structural changes. After that, I will include a few notes regarding the changes I made compared with the original structure.

Beginning of the Biblical text

Philippians 1
1 Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi, with the overseers and deacons: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

2 I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. 3 And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. 4 It is right for me to feel this way about you all, because I hold you in my heart, for you are all partakers with me of grace, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel. 5 For God is my witness, how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus. 6 And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.

7 I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel, so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ. 8 And most of the brothers, having become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, are much more bold to speak the word without fear. 9 Some indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from good will. The latter do it out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. The former proclaim Christ out of rivalry, not sincerely but thinking to afflict me in my imprisonment.

10 What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice. 11 Yes, and I will rejoice, for I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ this will turn out for my deliverance, as it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. 12 If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. 13 Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. I am hard pressed between the two. 14 My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account.

15 Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all, for your progress and joy in the faith, so that in me you may have ample cause to glory in Christ Jesus, because of my coming to you again. 16 Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel, and not frightened in anything by your opponents. 17 This is a clear sign to them of their destruction, but of your salvation, and that from God. 18 For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake, engaged in the same conflict that you saw I had and now hear that I still have.

Ending of the Biblical text

And now for my observations. For the sake of simplicity, I will refer to the text on the ESV website as the Bible or as the accepted text and my own version will be noted in such a way as to be apparent.

1. I considered taking my verse 9 and breaking it into three verses, separated by the sentences, but the verses form one thought. I realize that the Bible does build upon itself precept by precept, but for personal preference, I chose to consider these three sentences as one precept. There are other examples of this as well.
2. My ending verse count is 18. Compare this to the accepted verse count of 30. This shows my opinion that primacy should be given to context. It also looks like Awana verses would be much more difficult if I were in charge. It’s a trade-off, but I would rather memorize a more complete kernel of truth than a verse that leaves out a key component that is found just before or after it.
3. I didn’t break the greeting into three lines, like it is in the Bible. Since the structure of a letter was so important when it was first written, I do believe the original text should dominate this matter. Which structure best translates this format? I have no idea.
4. After the greeting, I had four paragraphs while the Bible has five. Looking at the paragraph breaks, I believe that much discussion could be generated as to where one major theme begins and another ends. Again, the themes of this chapter all build upon one another, but to define where one major point is declared and where another is introduced can be quite revealing.
5. The Bible separates the greeting into two verses, and looking at the content I can see the wisdom of letting these two verses stand alone, giving additional prominence to the matter of where grace and peace ultimately originate.
6. The Bible’s verses 3-5 is a great example of how the Bible frustrates me in regard to the structure. This is obviously one thought as translated into English. OK, three thoughts that are not complete without each other.
7. Finally, I believe the best observation of my structure compared to the structure of the Bible would come from another. I have made some partial concessions, but someone who can take a more objective approach to the differences would be able to see them without the obvious bias that I have toward my own opinion. Those who know me will agree that I am humble enough to listen to your response.

I have never done this before, but I believe I ought to make a personal structural version for the sake of memorization and for study akin to this exercise. Yes, it will not help me look it up in a Bible beyond the chapter, but the text is what is important.

I encourage you all to try this out for yourself over at the ESV Bible Blog and leave your text with the paragraph changes in their comments. You can comment on my own version here, but it would be better if your own structure were revealed at the ESV Bible Blog for a more central location of revisions. Making your own structure requires several readings of the text and you must pay attention to the meaning of each word and the context of each sentence, comparing this to the meaning and context of the surrounding statements. An exercise such as this provides you with a solid beginning to your own Bible study. If you can’t think of any other reason to try this out, let that be the reason you do make the effort.

Finally, I was reminded that you can take verse numbers out of the online text through the ESV options page. If I may be so bold, I would like to suggest an option where you can remove the paragraph structure as well. It would be helpful for studies like this, and I am certain that there are other applications for such a feature.

John 17:17
Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.