Re-Paragraph Your Bible
Doug at CoffeeSwirls takes our recent post about punctuation and runs with it:
Personally, I would love to have a Bible with only the books to separate the text as well. Especially for the writings of Paul! The translations really butcher his thoughts with the numbering, if you only read from one verse to another. The English translation shows Paul to be a man who wrote rather long sentences, and it is not uncommon for one string of thought to take up two verses and more.
I have had a thought concerning this: What if a respected translation such as the ESV were to put out a Bible with no change in words, but with the verses renumbered. Yes, it would take some getting used to. But I think it would pay off spiritually in the end….
A personal undertaking, or an open source project could be done, not unlike the NET Bible, but they want to be accepted by the community. The KJV doesn’t have the burden of copyright any longer, so that could be a place to start. But the time involved to produce a Bible that would likely not catch on beyond a small group of people who only use it for personal use may not pay off. It would, however, be a beneficial exercise for the individual and would enhance Bible memorization with a fuller sense of immediate context.
Doug, you’re right that no Bible publisher is likely to renumber the verses of the Bible; there’s too much extrabiblical material keyed off the current verse system. But there’s still room for innovation within the current verse framework.
The Dilemma in a Nutshell
Bible publishers face a dilemma when designing a Bible: verse numbers need enough prominence to help readers find a particular verse quickly, but the numbers need to fade into the background during extended reading.
Combining Verses
Some translations occasionally combine verses. Take the CEV: it doesn’t separate Jude 24 and 25 into separate verses. This passage in the CEV reads (we’ve indicated what is traditionally verse 25 in bold):
Offer praise to God our Savior because of our Lord Jesus Christ! Only God can keep you from falling and make you pure and joyful in his glorious presence. Before time began and now and forevermore, God is worthy of glory, honor, power, and authority. Amen.
In the ESV, this passage reads (again, verse 25 is in bold):
Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.
The CEV translators felt that rearranging parts of the verses made more sense for their audience, “grade schoolers, second language readers, and those who prefer the more contemporized form.” Read their explanation for more background.
Marginal Verse Numbers
Other publishers take this approach a step further. Some Bibles omit in-text verse numbers entirely in favor of marginal notes showing what verses each paragraph covers. With this approach, Philippians 4:4-9 (ESV) would look like:
4-7 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
8-9 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.
Color
On the less-extreme end, Bible publishers can also print verse and chapter numbers in a lighter color (gray, for example), to help the eye skip over them. Some non-ESV editions take this approach.
Do It Yourself: An Experiment
Electronic Bibles don’t face the same limitations as printed Bibles. Don’t want to see verse numbers, section headings, or the words of Christ in red? Turn them off.
Indeed, as Doug hints, you can produce something to help you with your personal study: take Philippians 1 without paragraphs, verse numbers, headings, or footnotes (Word document). Now add paragraphs where you think they should go. (Don’t look at the paragraphs in an existing Bible.) Where does Paul begin a new thought? Where does he build on previous thoughts? An exercise like this one can increase your appreciation for a book’s structure and argument. Paragraphing this chapter might take about fifteen minutes to half an hour.
Now share your re-paragraphing. Leave a comment on this post and paste your re-paragraphed text into the comment. If we get enough responses, we’ll see if any patterns develop. There are no wrong answers, so don’t be shy.
Once you’ve commented, feel free to compare your re-paragraphing to the paragraphing approaches taken by the ESV (and by other translations). See if you can figure out why the translators chose to break paragraphs where they did.
It would be interesting to learn whether the paragraph breaks vary by translation—do people who re-paragraph the ESV tend to have more or fewer (or different) paragraphs than people who re-paragraph the CEV? For this exercise, however, we’d like to stick to the ESV.
March 8th, 2006 at 1:25 pm
1 Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi, with the overseers and deacons: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
2 I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. 3 And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. 4 It is right for me to feel this way about you all, because I hold you in my heart, for you are all partakers with me of grace, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel. 5 For God is my witness, how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus. 6 And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.
7 I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel, so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ. 8 And most of the brothers, having become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, are much more bold to speak the word without fear. 9 Some indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from good will. The latter do it out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. The former proclaim Christ out of rivalry, not sincerely but thinking to afflict me in my imprisonment.
10 What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice. 11 Yes, and I will rejoice, for I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ this will turn out for my deliverance, as it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. 12 If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. 13 Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. I am hard pressed between the two. 14 My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account.
15 Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all, for your progress and joy in the faith, so that in me you may have ample cause to glory in Christ Jesus, because of my coming to you again. 16 Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel, and not frightened in anything by your opponents. 17 This is a clear sign to them of their destruction, but of your salvation, and that from God. 18 For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake, engaged in the same conflict that you saw I had and now hear that I still have.
March 8th, 2006 at 1:27 pm
[...] Over at the ESV Bible Blog, the discussion of re-numbering Bible verses is continued. This is not to say that my wishes are being considered, and for good reason! What are the recently disclosed reasons? Check it out for yourself. [...]
March 8th, 2006 at 1:45 pm
I’d love to see an “open source” project to completely rework the chapter and verses!
March 8th, 2006 at 2:09 pm
1 Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi, with the overseers and deacons: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
2 I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. 3 And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.
4 It is right for me to feel this way about you all, because I hold you in my heart, for you are all partakers with me of grace, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel. 5 For God is my witness, how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus. 6 And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.
7 I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel, so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ. 8 And most of the brothers, having become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, are much more bold to speak the word without fear. 9 Some indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from good will. The latter do it out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. 10 What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice.
11 Yes, and I will rejoice, for I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ this will turn out for my deliverance, as it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death. 12 For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. 13 Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account.
14 Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all, for your progress and joy in the faith, so that in me you may have ample cause to glory in Christ Jesus, because of my coming to you again.
15 Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel, and not frightened in anything by your opponents. 16 This is a clear sign to them of their destruction, but of your salvation, and that from God. 17 For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake, engaged in the same conflict that you saw I had and now hear that I still have.
March 8th, 2006 at 2:28 pm
Here’s my attempt, and I played by the rules. :)
My guiding principles can be found here (That will show up if HTML is allowed!)
[A. 1-2]
Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi, with the overseers and deacons: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
[B. 3-6]
I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.
[C. 7-11]
It is right for me to feel this way about you all, because I hold you in my heart, for you are all partakers with me of grace, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel. For God is my witness, how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus. And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.
[D. 12-18a]
I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel, so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ. And most of the brothers, having become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, are much more bold to speak the word without fear. Some indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from good will. The latter do it out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. The former proclaim Christ out of rivalry, not sincerely but thinking to afflict me in my imprisonment. What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice.
[E. 18b-26]
Yes, and I will rejoice, for I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ this will turn out for my deliverance, as it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account. Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all, for your progress and joy in the faith, so that in me you may have ample cause to glory in Christ Jesus, because of my coming to you again.
[F. 27-30]
Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel, and not frightened in anything by your opponents. This is a clear sign to them of their destruction, but of your salvation, and that from God. For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake, engaged in the same conflict that you saw I had and now hear that I still have.
COMMENTS: it is a helpful exercise!
- My paragraphs pretty much coincide with those in the ESV, save my B + C equal a single “paragraph” in the ESV.
- I’m not so bothered about verse divisions; it’s CHAPTER divisions I find irksome! Chapter 2, of course, should REALLY start at the present 1:27.
FWIW….
March 9th, 2006 at 9:40 am
I’ve been familiar with this concept for quite some time, and know several people who have done ‘manuscript Bible studies’, in various versions, where they’ve manually removed the verse and chapter numbers, leaving only the paragraph separations and punctuation. It’s a very different way to read the Bible, though, and I recommend it to anyone who can do it.
March 9th, 2006 at 5:39 pm
[...] There’s an interesting discussion happening over at the ESV Blog about punctuation and verse numbering in the Bible. If that sounds like a strange topic to be fussing about, consider for a moment: what would the Bible be like without verse numbers? Without paragraph breaks? All of those are “extra-biblical” features that Bible translators have added over the centuries for the sake of readability. Do those features add a subtle sort of editing twist to the Bible text? Would our Bibles be “better” without them? [...]
March 9th, 2006 at 10:59 pm
Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi, with the overseers and deacons: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. It is right for me to feel this way about you all, because I hold you in my heart, for you are all partakers with me of grace, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel. For God is my witness, how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus. And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.
I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel, so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ. And most of the brothers, having become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, are much more bold to speak the word without fear. Some indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from good will. The latter do it out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. The former proclaim Christ out of rivalry, not sincerely but thinking to afflict me in my imprisonment. What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice. Yes, and I will rejoice, for I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ this will turn out for my deliverance, as it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account. Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all, for your progress and joy in the faith, so that in me you may have ample cause to glory in Christ Jesus, because of my coming to you again.
Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel, and not frightened in anything by your opponents. This is a clear sign to them of their destruction, but of your salvation, and that from God. For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake, engaged in the same conflict that you saw I had and now hear that I still have.
I wanted to find some way of breaking up that rather long middle section . . . but even though the end is on a rather different subject than the beginning, I couldn’t figure out where to split it without splitting up the flow and distracting from the point . . .
March 9th, 2006 at 11:01 pm
1 Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi, with the overseers and deacons: 2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
3 I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, 4 always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, 5 because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. 6 And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. 7 It is right for me to feel this way about you all, because I hold you in my heart, for you are all partakers with me of grace, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel. 8 For God is my witness, how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus. 9 And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, 10 so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, 11 filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.
12 I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel, 13 so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ. 14 And most of the brothers, having become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, are much more bold to speak the word without fear. 15 Some indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from good will. 16 The latter do it out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. 17 The former proclaim Christ out of rivalry, not sincerely but thinking to afflict me in my imprisonment. 18 What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice.
Yes, and I will rejoice, 19 for I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ this will turn out for my deliverance, 20 as it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death. 21 For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. 22 If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. 23 I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. 24 But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account.
25 Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all, for your progress and joy in the faith, 26 so that in me you may have ample cause to glory in Christ Jesus, because of my coming to you again. 27 Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel, 28 and not frightened in anything by your opponents. This is a clear sign to them of their destruction, but of your salvation, and that from God. 29 For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake, 30 engaged in the same conflict that you saw I had and now hear that I still have.
March 9th, 2006 at 11:33 pm
Amazing! I sent an email to the ESV team about this very topic, and only AFTER I got the response did I find this debate … well, not exactly raging.
In a used-book store, I found an old “KJV as Literature” bible. It was the King James without verse numbers or footnotes, in single-column format. It was immersive.
I would like to see a “Reader’s ESV”, specifically published in an easy-to-read paperback format, without verse numbers or footnotes, in single-column format. (Keep the chapter numbers, some semblance of indexing is still a good idea, and easier on the eyes than only paragraph breaks.)
There’s obviously some sort of market, even if it’s only a few of us. It could even be a “website special”: buy a verse-number-less, get a free pew-bible to give to your pastor! Their publishing software is obviously as robust as the commercial Bible software that allows turning off of distracting features, so a truly verse-number-less edition is possible.
March 9th, 2006 at 11:59 pm
One other comment is that The Message is MARKETED specifically as having no verse numbers. Someone in MARKETING thought it was a SELLING POINT. The Message translation/paraphrase/interpretation is published by a company called NavPress. Ever heard of it?
Here are some results from google.com for a search for the phrase “without verse numbers”:
NavPress.com :: Bibles
It is amazingly readable and formatted without verse numbers. You just open it up and read! Wow! I love this version. It isn’t my only Bible, …
http://www.navpress.com/BibleProducts/ - 34k - Cached - Similar pages
NavPress.com :: Bibles :: History & FAQs
It is amazingly readable and formatted without verse numbers. You just open it up and read! Wow! It really jumps out at you. I love this version. …
http://www.navpress.com/BibleProducts/History_andFAQs.asp - 53k - Cached - Similar pages
Interesting.
March 10th, 2006 at 11:03 am
There is yet a greater danger that needs to discussed as well as chapter and verse numbers are removed, and that is word choices. The meanings of words are determined by the context of the whole Bible, and when a word is changed, its meaning can be lost. Common usage of stumbling means to trip over something, or lose your balance momentarily. Many will not consider this word in the context of no matter what you do, you can’t do what is sinfull for God will keep you from doing so. It is part of Saving grace. The word falling is a keyword, like may others that will cause the analytical mind to purse its meaning to fuller understanding. You can do a study on falling. There are a lot of word changes in the NIV that do not have the complete meaning of words in the KJV. The KJV also has words in italics for clarity sake. But after years of study, you can skip over them and find a deeper understanding as you learn the Bible.
CEV-Only God can keep you from falling ESV-to him who is able to keep you from stumbling
KJV-who is able to keep you from falling
March 10th, 2006 at 1:01 pm
Paragraphing Ephesians 5
Earlier this week there was an interesting post at CoffeeSwirls on problems with verse numbering in our Bibles. The ESV Bible blog picked up on the CoffeeSwirls post and advanced the discussion to include paragraphing of our Bibles, as well. I think yo…
March 10th, 2006 at 5:35 pm
Re-Paragraphing Your Bible
March 11th, 2006 at 2:39 pm
I have to agree with the idea of re-paragraphing the Bible or modifying the chapter-verse system. Although the chapter-verse system has served us well in making passages easier to find, I have seen so many cases when the verses in the Bible were treated as isolated thoughts instead of a continuous flow of logic. This is the main source of “proof-texting” that is used to support erroneous doctrines.
Although I have not yet participated in the activity I am about to describe, I offer it as a way of making it easier to see how much we miss because of the chapter-verse system. I am a member of the Baptist Student Union and Intervarsity Christian Fellowship at Southeast Missouri State University. In Intervarsity, I learned of a Bible study technique called “manuscript study” which basically takes the raw text of the Bible and formats it into–well–a “manuscript.” All footnotes, headings, chapter numbers and verse numbers are removed, and the paragraphing is kept to a minimum–including the poetic sections. The participants are given a set of colored pencils and a “manuscript” copy of a biblical text, and the participant can read through it, note the themes discussed in the margines, draw connections from one part of the passage to another, map out the logical flow of the text, etc. Since no Bible is currently available in manuscript form, Intervarsity is forced to prepare its own manuscripts, often obtaining permission of the copyright owner for the translation being used (usually the NASB).
March 11th, 2006 at 3:12 pm
Here’s my attempt at paragraphing this chapter:
Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi, with the overseers and deacons: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. It is right for me to feel this way about you all, because I hold you in my heart, for you are all partakers with me of grace, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel. For God is my witness, how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus.
And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.
I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel, so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ. And most of the brothers, having become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, are much more bold to speak the word without fear. Some indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from good will. The latter do it out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. The former proclaim Christ out of rivalry, not sincerely but thinking to afflict me in my imprisonment.
What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice. Yes, and I will rejoice, for I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ this will turn out for my deliverance, as it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account.
Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all, for your progress and joy in the faith, so that in me you may have ample cause to glory in Christ Jesus, because of my coming to you again. Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel, and not frightened in anything by your opponents. This is a clear sign to them of their destruction, but of your salvation, and that from God. For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake, engaged in the same conflict that you saw I had and now hear that I still have.
March 11th, 2006 at 3:15 pm
OK, I’ll try this again. HTML didn’t work for the formatting I used in the previous post:
Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi, with the overseers and deacons: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. It is right for me to feel this way about you all, because I hold you in my heart, for you are all partakers with me of grace, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel. For God is my witness, how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus.
And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.
I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel, so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ. And most of the brothers, having become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, are much more bold to speak the word without fear. Some indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from good will. The latter do it out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. The former proclaim Christ out of rivalry, not sincerely but thinking to afflict me in my imprisonment.
What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice. Yes, and I will rejoice, for I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ this will turn out for my deliverance, as it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account.
Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all, for your progress and joy in the faith, so that in me you may have ample cause to glory in Christ Jesus, because of my coming to you again. Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel, and not frightened in anything by your opponents. This is a clear sign to them of their destruction, but of your salvation, and that from God. For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake, engaged in the same conflict that you saw I had and now hear that I still have.
March 22nd, 2006 at 1:23 pm
I’ve been dying for years to have an ESV like the beautiful NEB I inherited at some point, single-column, paragraphed, with verse numbers in the margin. The only thing I’d like to add would be wide margins for note-taking.
I frequently flow the ESV text from BibleWorks into Word with no verse numbers and then make my own paragraphs. I find it to be a very helpful way of thinking through the text.
Mark
March 26th, 2006 at 8:41 am
Hi All
A translation of the NT by the late Richmond Lattimore the well known Classicist, has just the sort of format we are talking about here.
No verse numbering in the text, these are placed at the top of the page;it is well paragraphed and easy to read for flow of thought.
It is still available new and secondhand and certainly makes a change from reading the standard translations, though does take some getting used to.
Paragraphed and verse numberless translations can make a great difference to your reading;try it and see.
I have written frequently to Crossway trying to persuade them to produce a single column paragraphed Bible in the ESV but they just say they will get around to it in time.
I personally prefer the NASB, but the awful verse format really destroys the reading process.
Gerry
March 27th, 2006 at 7:54 pm
Paragraph structure is required for any literature to be read in an intelligent form; that is modern English. As far as headings, I agree- get rid of them. They are all distracting and interpretive and divide up the Word artificially.
Verse markings are essential for cross referencing, but can be done in a better format. Do what the publishers of the original Jerusalem Bible did: Put the verses on the side of the page, out of the way and not distracting. Use lighter font for the verse numbers. If the verse starts in the middle of a line, use a bullet marker before the starting of the verse to show that it is the starting of a new verse. This type of formatting looks very nice, and the page layout should also be a single column, like real literature in the modern world.
October 13th, 2006 at 11:23 am
[...] Shouldn’t that be all of us? Here’s a nice discussion on the value (or lack thereof) of the current paragraph/verse structure in the Bible and how to keep it from limiting your understanding of scripture. [...]
January 18th, 2007 at 4:22 pm
If you have some time, take the challenge over at the ESV Bible Blog. Download the RTF document of the Philippians 1 text, and put in your own paragraphs. Then compare it to what they have. This isn’t just an exercise for fun–you can