[sword-devel] Help wanted on non-canonical text

[Chris Little]

johnduffy at cgcf.net wrote:
> 1	Is there a KJVA Bible that I can download or obtain for Sword
> (v1.5.11) or Bibledit (or other program to view a Sword module)?  I'd like
> to check the v11n etc.

I just realized that I haven't yet posted any demo v11n modules for 
anything other than the Leningrad v11n, so I will put that at the head 
of my todo list for the weekend.

We should then have Leningrad, KJVA, NRSV, NRSVA, MT, and Synodal (which 
was added to SVN last weekend) demo modules, which simply list the verse 
name within each verse.

I'll try to find an OSIS KJVA too, if I have one, and post that as well.

> 2	Some verses in Esther have both canonical and deutero-canonical
> text.  Since OSIS uses sections which are tagged as canonical or
> non-canonical (correct me if I am wrong), this method cannot be used to mark
> both in a single verse.  Is there another method to use to denote canonical
> from non-canonical?  My thoughts are to make the non-canonical in italics,
> partly because this is what the original print edition has done as well
> (while non-canonical books are not in italics).

The meaning of the canonical attribute is a little confusing. It 
shouldn't be thought of as indicating canonicity according to any 
particular group's definition of what is canonical Bible text. It is an 
indicator of Bible text vs. non-Bible text.

Every verse of every book is canonical="true". Every Psalm title is 
canonical="true". Notes are canonical="false". Modern book/chapter 
introductions are canonical="false". Etc.

If the original Bible text renders deuterocanonical material in italics, 
that seems like a good practice to maintain. I know that no thought (at 
least no significant thought) has gone into marking protocanonical vs. 
deuterocanonical material at the OSIS meetings. You could add a subType 
to your <hi type="italic"> elements, such as 
subType="x-deuterocanonical", just to make it clear that all of these 
instances of italics are intended to mark deuterocanonicity.

--Chris