[sword-devel] SWORD 1.6.x Localization (Ps 151)

Thu May 7 00:42:31 MST 2009

The following is just to keep in mind - it comes from my copy of the
Jerusalem Bible as printed by Doubleday (US Publishers).  I can't find
any indication of what printing this might have come from and the only
copyright date in the front reads 1966, which is the first copyright
date leading me to think this is a "first printing" edition.  I
believe the copyright was renewed in 67 and 68.

RE the Psalms -
Psalms 9-10 are published as one Psalm with the title that reflects
their combined content, but they are versified as 9:1-9:20 and
10:1-18.
Every Psalm after that until "Psalm 147 V146-147" is labeled, e.g., as
"Psalm 11 V10" which seems to be a reference to the Vulgate numbering.
Psalm 147 is versified straight through with verses 1 - 20, the same
as it is in my NRSV, as are 148-150.  There is no mention of 151, but
I have no idea if it's one of the ones sort of wedged into their
otherwise strange versification.

On Wed, May 6, 2009 at 8:55 PM, Chris Little <chrislit at crosswire.org> wrote:
> Daniel,
>
> It depends on the Bible. In the case of the NRSV, Psalm 151 is a separate
> book within the intertestamental group of books. In other traditions, it's
> simply the 151st "chapter" of Psalms. Traditions that include Psalms 152-155
> can likewise present 151-155 as a separate book or integrated into a longer
> book of Psalms.

If you thought the Psalms were fun, hold on to your hat.

RE Esther:
Esther starts with Chapter 1 verses 1a through 1r which are also
labeled as 11:2 through 12:6.  It then starts again with chapter 1
verse 1 and proceeds uninterrupted through to 3:13.  At that point
(the text of the first letter) we are greeted with 3:13a through 3:13g
which are also labeled as 13:1 through 13:7.  We then resume with 3:14
and proceed over through 4:8 when we are again interrupted by 4:8a and
4:8b which also contain the labels of 15:1, 2 and 3.  Normalcy returns
again at 4:9 through 17 when Mordecai's prayer appears dual-labeled
again as 4:17a-17i as well as 13:8 through 18 followed immediately by
Esther's prayer labeled as both 4:17k-4:17z and 14:1 through 19.

I won't even try to tell you what happens at the beginning of chapter
5 where everything just goes to pot intermixing
15:1{a,b,c,d,e,f}-15:2, 2a and 2b with 15:4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11,
12, 13, 14/15, 16, 17, 18/19.

Relative sanity resumes with 5:3 and continues through  to 8:12 where
the text of the next letter appears labeled as both 8:12a-12v and
16:1-24.  Resume at 8:13 to 19 and then interject the Greek text of
19a.  Resume at 8:20 and continue over to 10:3 where 3a-3k are also
labeled as 10:4-13 and 10:3l (that's an L) is labeled 11:1.

So much for Esther.

RE Daniel.
This book is more straightforward.  Daniel proceeds innocuously up
through 3:23.  At this point the book then proceeds on from 3:24 to
3:90 with the additions.  However, it then picks up with 3:91 - 3:100
also labeled as 3:24-3:33 simultaneously.  Things are confusing for
5:31/6:1 through 6:28/29 where every verse is given both an Aramaic
number (6:1-6:29) and also its verse number from another major system
(parallel with my NRSV: 5:31-6:28).  Everything proceeds normally
again until the end of chapter 10 where it has 20a, 21a, 20b, 21b.  It
then has the remaining Aramaic, Hebrew and Greek text all together in
chapters 11 through 14.

Hosea presents its own challenge to the codifier where my print
version has Chapter 1.  It then displaces chapter 2 verses 1-3 to rest
between chapters 3 and 4, but it dual-labels chapter 2's verses
starting with 4 and going to 25 with the numbers 2 through 23 and then
adds an extra 24 in the middle of verse 25.  It also has two
consecutive lines labeled as chapter 6 verse 1.  One is labeled as
"6:1" but is the last line of chapter 5 in the printing.  Then it
gives the chapter number for 6 and only gives the first line of 6 as
verse 1 ("Come let us return to Yahweh.") and picks up with verse 2 on
"He has torn us to pieces, but he will heal us..." and labels as both
2 AND 3 the lines reading "after a day or two he will...live in his
presence."  It then goes as follows (I won't try to harmonize with my
NRSV at this time for here) 3a, 5b, 3b, 4, 5a, 6-11.  Similar behavior
is taken with 11:1 being the verse label for the last line in chapter
10, followed by the beginning of chapter 11.  Chapter 12 starts  with
"All round me are the lies of Ephraim" but that verse is labeled as
both verse 1 and verse 12.  Subsequent verses in that chapter are
labeled as 1/2, 2/3, 3/4 etc up to 14/15.  Things then seem to return
to normal again.

>
> Esther from Greek is also present in the NRSV's intertestamental group, in
> its entirety and separate from Esther from Hebrew. Other translations, the
> KJV for example, separate out the additions to Esther present in the Greek
> and have a separate Additions to Esther book. The additions to Daniel can
> appear integrated with the Hebrew/Aramaic text, separated as 3 distinct
> books, or collected as a separate Additions to Daniel book (depending on the
> translation/tradition). And the Prayer of Manasseh can appear integrated
> into 2 Chronicles, as a separate book, or as one ode in the book of Odes.

There seems to be no mention of the "Book of Odes" or other similar
works in the Jerusalem Bible, nor the prayer of Manasseh.  Other
artifacts of the Vulgate and Septuagint influence appear, such as Ezra
and Nehemiah being titled as "The Book of Ezra and Nehemiah," although
both are given their own chapter set and a very minor typographical
break between them.

I'm sure there are more oddities between this and other Bibles, and as
I said, later versions and printings may have had some of that
altered, moved, removed or clarified.  I'd be happy to provide input
from this printed copy if it's ever needed or wanted, and I believe my
new scanner works (on good days) so I can even provide scanned copies
of pages if they're needed.

The short interpretation is - we've come a long way to be able to
support alternate versifications from just the KJV, but I think
there's miles and miles to go before we can properly support a canon
like the JB.  I'd like to see it supported (and, consequently, a
module of it be made available), but I don't even know where to begin
with something like this even if the whole project was dedicated to
supporting the JB directly!  It would need internal mappings of which
Daniel 3:27 was meant or which copy to return of Esther 1:1, etc.

--Greg

>
> --Chris
>
> Daniel Owens wrote:
>>
>> Chris,
>>
>> I hadn't thought about that, but I wouldn't think that would be a problem
>> in practice if Ps 151 is encoded as such. I need to find a printed Bible
>> with the 151st Psalm to verify this, but my suspicion is that it is not a
>> separate book but just an additional psalm. The reason I say that is that
>> the additions to Daniel need to be encoded that way (no matter what the OSIS
>> schema anticipates) because a major part of the addition is in chapter 2. I
>> guess the real question is whether the three or so "books" that are actually
>> additions to canonical material (in the Protestant sense) really need a
>> distinct book name at all. To answer that we need to canvas some printed
>> editions of Bibles containing such content to see where they put such
>> material. I just don't have access to more than one until July, and that one
>> drives my comments about Daniel.
>>
>> Daniel
>
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