[sword-devel] Re: [sword-support] [ sword-Bugs-412377 ] Non KJV canons broken

[Barry Drake]

Hi .......

On 29 Mar 2001, at 19:39, noreply@sourceforge.net wrote:
> The Latin Vulgate and Catholic translations have more
> books and additional passages.

Personally, I would have avoided calling a Bible by a denominational 
name!  Some Bibles may be used more by one denomination than others 
- but all Bibles have a bias - that is why I love being able to use such a 
broad spectrum of different translations with Sword. (Currently 27) and 
the ease which which I can look at the same verse in several is very 
useful indeed.  As to the "extra" books - I have appended below the 
readme from a corrected version of the NJB that I have just submitted to 
the Sword project.  Read on only if you want to know a bit more about 
why some Bibles have more books than others.

With love,
	Barry.

*******  readme begins *********
The New Jerusalem Bible

This module was prepared by Barry Drake from the 
The New Jerusalem Bible with Deutero-Canon, Copyright 1985, 
Doubleday

In order to make the text operate as a valid module, it has been 
necessary to
extract the deutero canonical sections.  These are packed with this 
module
as plain (verse-per-line) text files.  You should find the following:

baruch.txt	the complete book of Baruch
danl_dc.txt	the deutero-canonical verses from the book of Daniel
judith.txt	the complete book of Judith
macc.txt	one and two Maccabees together
sirach.txt	the book of Sirach - also known as Ecclesiasticus
tobit.txt		the book of Tobit
wisdom.txt	the Wisdom of Solomon

These books are part of the New Jerusalem Bible, and must be kept 
entire
with the module.  It is hoped that a way may be provided at some time in 
the
future to utilise these texts and display them using the Sword library.

Also, additional verses within the book of Esther are contained in 
chapters
1, 8, 9 and 10.  They can be recognised by a prefixed letter (a), (b), (c) 
etc.  In the 
printed version they are italicised. These 'extra' verses are part of the 
deutero-canon.  It
seemed sensible to leave these in situ.

I have re-numbered surrounding verses in Daniel to allow for the removed 
verses as this was the
only solution I could see to make that text 'fit' the KJV verse 
arrangement.  In other
books, however, there are a number of differences in the way in which 
verses are 
referenced.  Most of these are referenced in the file 'diff.txt' which was 
generated during
the creation of the module.  On balance, I felt it more appropriate to 
retain the differences
in the module rather than attempt to make verse numbering comply 
rigidly to KJV format.

** About the inclusion of the deutero-canonical books. **

Bible versions containing the additional books and verses listed above 
are historically
based on the Greek Septuagint. (LXX).  This was the Bible used by Jews 
of the
Diaspora at the time of Jesus.  The legend goes that seventy scribes 
were set
to the task of translating the Hebrew Bible into Greek.  It was said that 
every one
of the seventy produced an identical translation.  This led to the name 
Septuagint - 
from the Latin septuaginta - seventy.

There are books and extra verses contained in the Septuagint which have 
either been lost from the Hebrew Bible, or had their origin in original 
Greek texts.  We do not know which is the case.

The Septuagint was the Bible of the early church and was the version 
familiar to Jesus, the 
apostles and the evangelists.
  
All new testament quotations from scripture are taken from the LXX 
version, and for this 
reason alone, the Septuagint, complete with the verses that do not form 
part of the canon, is 
a valuable study text.

The deutero-canonical books and additional verses that are included in 
the NJB form part 
of the Apocrypha.  There are, however some books in the Apocrypha - 
Esdras (1 & 2) and 
Mannaseh - which are not part of the Deutero-Canon.

I hope that you will find this version useful, and will take the time to look 
at the extra
books.  No one would suppose that they have the same standing as the 
Canonical books - 
but you will find them worthwhile, remembering always that Jesus and 
his disciples, the 
four evangelists and the Apostle Paul had access to them.

As a final consideration: in the oft quoted text from Paul (2 Tim 3:16) 
about the inspiration of 
scripture, one should remember that Paul had no awareness of present 
day Canonicity.  And 
'all scripture', for Paul would be the Hebrew texts, and also the 
Septuagint including the Deutero-
Canonical verses.

The Revd Barry Drake.  March 2001 e-mail to: arnold-urc@supanet.com
********* readme ends ***************

Barry

>From Barry Drake (The Revd - minister of Arnold United Reformed Church,
Nottingham - see http://www.arnold-urc.supanet.com for our church homepages).

Replies - b.drake@ntlworld.com
Fax: 0705 069 8746