[sword-devel] Print Bible Features

[Chris Little]

Many English Bibles are related, so it's not surprising that the KJV, ASV, 
RSV, NASB, NRSV, Webster, Revised Webster, NASB Update, NEB, REB, etc. 
would all have virtually identical versifications.  Other modern 
translations (e.g. the NIV) will also follow something very close to this 
versification because it has become expected.  But even within our set of 
English Bibles, I've produced some texts that required section headings to 
go in the middle of a verse, and others that never did this--so they are 
definitely marking them differently.

Some of the original language texts you mentioned, namely the LXX & 
Vulgate, have been re-versified to match the KJV versification in the 
editions we currently have posted.  (Replacements in OSIS format are ready 
for import & release as soon as Sword supports different versifications 
better.)

Additionally, you should not look at the NT, which only has 3 verses worth
of versification differences, plus the shorter/longer Mark, in any Bible.  
Typical Catholic & Protestant versifications vary greatly in the OT, and
they also differ from both the Hebrew & LXX texts.

So it's not reasonable to apply data based on any one translation across 
all translations, even within a single language.

But that's really not what's at issue....

In the Sword Project, we don't alter data.  Other groups do that, to the 
point that you really have no idea what is actually part of the work you 
thought you were reading and which portions are the invention of a 
software developer who thought he knew better than its authors.

Cross-references, book introductions, prefaces, section headings, etc. all 
represent interpretations of a work.  When the translator or publisher 
provides these items, we include them if possible.  If they are absent 
from the work, we don't add them from an independent source.

Take any two English study Bibles and compare the book introductions.  Are 
they the same?  So which one would we choose as being so obviously 
superior that we include it will every Bible, despite its probably taking 
a certain sectarian perspective that differs from many of our Bibles?

Or consider two translators who include cross-references.  One chooses to 
include some verse as a cross-reference, while another specifically 
decides to exlude it.  Whose opinion do we favor?  The answer, is 
hopefully, both, but only for their respective translations.


This isn't meant to discourage you, if you really want to produce a print 
text, it should not be too difficult.  Take a Bible of your choosing that 
uses the KJV versification; add introductions from something like Darby's 
introductions; add cross-refs from the Treasury of Scriptural Knowledge.  
You can probably add a set of section headings from a Bible outline and 
add a gospel harmony from a list of parallel NT passages.

--Chris