[sword-devel] Versifications, Canons and move to Genbook

[Chris Little]

Each Bible has its own versification system. We will keep that 
versification system within the Sword module when we transition to 
GenBooks. So the KJV will have the KJV versification. The NASB will have 
a similar but slightly different system. The WLC, Aleppo Codex, & JPS 
modules will have a system in which the books are in a significantly 
different order, etc.

So a Bible will be organized and queried according to its own inherent 
versification system.

An independent problem is translation between versification systems, 
which would allow you to enter a verse in one system (e.g. the KJV 
system) and retrieve the equivalent verse from a Bible in another system 
(e.g. Hebrew, Vulgate, or LXX). This permits things like providing 
search results in the user's expected versification system, parallel 
verse display, and correct linking from commentaries/cross-references 
into alien versification systems.

This is all very uncontroversial. Everyone who attempts to handle 
multiple versification systems does it this way. You store your data in 
its native system and do translation between systems as necessary.

A sample module wouldn't be very helpful. The WLC OSIS file should 
already be in Hebrew versification order, and if it isn't it's a minor 
bug that could be easily corrected before re-importation as a GenBook.

--Chris


Peter von Kaehne wrote:
> The last few days I had an exchange of emails with someone on
> sword-support who complained about wrong order of books in the Hebrew Bible.
> 
> It became clear that he was looking for a Jewish style ordered Bible and
>  ours follows the KJV as everything else in Crosswire too.
> 
> I explained this to him and also explained that a move to a different
> form of encoding is (somewhat) imminent which will allow for a
> different, more flexible way of encoding - including opening the door to
> a Jewish canon + versification scheme.
> 
> I suggested he should in the meantime work to contribute to this by
> creating a Hebrew Bible in Jewish order, but he rightly questioned
> whether it is sensible to have for every single versification preference
> a new module, whether it would not make more sense to have modules with
> several versifications  as choice, i.e. one text with several sets of
> meta data (catholic, KJV, Jewish, whatever)
> 
> Thinking this through, it became clear to me that there are probably
> some bits which I have not understood myself with the eventual move, but
> irrespective of that I think I should bring this up here and get your
> take on it.
> 
> Peter
> 
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