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Verse or Paragraph Format?

Baptist4life

Well-Known Member
Site Supporter
Which do you prefer? I've used the verse format my whole life and don't care for the paragraph format. I had several Nelson NKJV Study Bibles that I really wanted to use, but just didn't care for the paragraph style. The font was too small and made finding particular verses difficult. I much prefer verse by verse. You?
 

MartyF

Well-Known Member
1 I like a single column format in a complete translation form.

2 What do I mean by that?

3 What I mean is that modern language doesn’t.form

4 a new paragraph every so often just because

5 It may be easier to translate or reference something

6 someone says.

7 It can actually be quite annoying to read

8 especially if one is reading more than a single verse.

9 I understand that many people get upset

10 because they are adding things to the original manuscript

11 which weren't there in the original.

12 After all, anyone who has looked at original manuscripts

13 would know that they did not use paragraphs as we do.

14 In fact, they didn't even put spaces between words.

15 Soonecouldarguethatthespacesshouldn'tbethereeither.

16 Afterall,peoplecanstillundrstandwhatisbeingwritten

17 Eventhoughitispainfulandreallyreallyannoying

18 Toread.Asweallknowitismoreimportanttobe

19 Asclosetotheoriginalasonecanpossiblybe

20 Andtokeepthetraditionalformofthesentencestructure

21 thanitistobeappealingtopossiblynewbelievers

22 Andthosewhoactuallyworkforaliving.

23 Jesussavedpeoplethroughacosmiclottery

24 Completedbeforethebeginningoftime

25 Andthereisnoneedtoappealtonewbelievers

26 BecauseGodhasalreadychosenthem

27 Andneitherthemnorushaveanyability

26 Toinfluencetheirchoosing.Insteadweneed

27 Tofocusingettingasclosetotheoriginalinterpretation

28 Aspossible.SeparatingtheBibleintoparagraphsorverseform

29 Makesacommentonwhichpassagesarediscussingasimilar

30 Contentandhenceiseditorializing.

Seriously though, I don't care what you prefer. Just don't force it onto me.
 

KenH

Well-Known Member
I prefer paragraph style. I had Bible back in the early 80s and really liked it. Unfortunately, I accidentally left it on top of my car after coming home from worship service as I got some food out of my car and it rained in the afternoon and ruined it.
 

rlvaughn

Well-Known Member
Site Supporter
I purchased a single column paragraph style "Reader's Bible." I liked it as something different for reading through the Bible, but I wouldn't want it as my usual Bible or my study Bible. I suppose I am just too used to the chapters and verses.
 

Salty

20,000 Posts Club
Administrator
Of Course FWIW - chapters and verses were not in the original
Chapter divisions, with titles, are also found in the 9th century Tours manuscript,
The first person to divide New Testament chapters into verses was Italian Dominican biblical scholar Santes Pagnino (1470–1541), but his system was never widely adopted.[16] His verse divisions in the New Testament were far longer than those known today.[17] Robert Estienne created another numbering in his 1551 edition of the Greek New Testament[18]

The first English New Testament to use the verse divisions was a 1557 translation by William Whittingham (c. 1524–1579). The first Bible in English to use both chapters and verses was the Geneva Bible published shortly afterwards in 1560. These verse divisions soon gained acceptance as a standard way to notate verses, and have since been used in nearly all English Bibles and the vast majority of those in other languages.


From Wiki
 

Ziggy

Well-Known Member
Site Supporter
I have always liked the NKJV "Transformer" edition, which is in normal readability paragraph form plus chapter/verse numbers; this far more than the "each verse a paragraph" form in the other NKJV editions
 

Yeshua1

Well-Known Member
Site Supporter
Which do you prefer? I've used the verse format my whole life and don't care for the paragraph format. I had several Nelson NKJV Study Bibles that I really wanted to use, but just didn't care for the paragraph style. The font was too small and made finding particular verses difficult. I much prefer verse by verse. You?
I like single Column types!
 

Yeshua1

Well-Known Member
Site Supporter
I have always liked the NKJV "Transformer" edition, which is in normal readability paragraph form plus chapter/verse numbers; this far more than the "each verse a paragraph" form in the other NKJV editions
What do you think of the "Comfort Print" editions?
 

Ziggy

Well-Known Member
Site Supporter
I don't know what comfort print is, but if it is larger and easier on aging eyes, so much the better.
 

Ziggy

Well-Known Member
Site Supporter
I already have a NKJV large print edition, and the typeface there looks larger and clearer than the Comfort Print KJV sample.
 

Squire Robertsson

Administrator
Administrator
Cheap guy that I am, I haven't bought a paragraph format Bible. However, I would remind folks of a bit of Bible history. The Greek and Hebrew originals (and for many years after) were written in what to a modern eye looks like a run-on manner. There were no spaces between the words. The versification and chapterizing came a few hundred years later to help with the reading of Scripture in the lectionaries.
 
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