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Results from: Answered Bible Questions, Answers, Unanswered Bible Questions, Notes Ordered by Verse | ||||||
Results | Verse | Author | ID# | |||
1 | More quotable paragraph breaks for NASB? | Bible general Archive 2 | Reighnskye | 131219 | ||
Greetings. Is there a way that I can create additional paragraph breaks throughout my NASB bible, for purposes of making it more quotable for sermons? Please bear with me here as I go through some facts, purely for the sake of isolating bible study methods. ---- Currently the bible has nearly 1200 chapters with roughly 30,000 verses after my last rough estimate, and I'm greatly rounding the figures out here, so I can do an easier math. Then, we may further tabulate that the average pastor and/or sermonizer in the pulpit will give roughly 100 unique sermons per year (50 on weekends and 50 on weekdays). If each sermon is one hour long (and most sermons are shorter), this then allocates that a pastor/sermonizer does 100 hours of teaching per year directly from the pulpit. Further, the now deceased J. Vernon MgGee did a full radio exposition of the entire bible over a five year period with weekday shows of 1/2 hour each, which equates to 2 1/2 per week for 250 total weeks. Hence, a full bible exposition would potentially require 650 combined hours of pulpit teaching time, according to this vastly approximated measure. Further, it takes approxiamtely 60 hours for the entire bible to be verbally read aloud, as evidenced when the bible is placed onto a cd or tape set, via a bible orater. Hence, one tenth of a sermonizer's pulpit time is spent directly quoting scripture, according to these very rough figures. Whereas, 9/10ths of the time is spent in exposition, etc. ---- Anyway, that's my math so far. So, what's that got to do with anything practical? Well, I went through the bible and isolated sets of the top 100/200/500/1000 scripture units and highlighted them through comparative analysis. This largely started so I could look up verses easier on most any primary topic. I yet need to arrange these scripture units topically into a systemized set of 100 to 400 sermons (or thereabouts) with 4 to 12 quotable scripture units apiece. So here's my problem. I lack an accurate way to practically slice the larger paragraphs in the NASB down into smaller paragraphs of about 3 to 4 verses each. When I teach, I seldom like to quote more than 3 or 4 verses at a shot verbally, because it'll lose people. ---- Is there an efficient way to slice NASB paragraphs into smaller, more quotable units, in a relatively accurate fashion? - Blessings, Reighnskye |
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2 | More quotable paragraph breaks for NASB? | Bible general Archive 2 | DocTrinsograce | 131239 | ||
The versification of scripture -- especially the New Testament -- was done rather poorly. Nevertheless, it is very convenient for the sake of reference. Punctuation is another imposition on scripture. Remember, at the time that the scriptures were written, punctuation -- even spaces! -- did not exist. A large portion of scripture is poetic. Now, I am not sure what I would think if someone came along and wanted to break down my poetry into paragraphs. It's an interesting effort, Reighnskye, but I suspect you won't find the scriptures terribly cooperative. If you aren't careful, you will be dividing up ideas that the originally inspired author never intended. However, you might at least marginally succeed with due care. For example, take Ecclesiastes. Read it through every single day for at least six weeks. Saturate your mind with it. Patterns of ideas will begin to surface, but be careful not to let versification impose itself on your thinking. You might, then, be able to begin a careful division of each thought into paragraphs. Of course, the folks who do this seriously for a living immerse themselves even more in the Word! That's my two farthings worth! :-) |
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3 | More quotable paragraph breaks for NASB? | Bible general Archive 2 | Reighnskye | 131320 | ||
Doc, Thanks much for your comments on the versification of scripture. I find that this was done rather poorly too. And it's probably been largely a culprit in the tendency for people to take just a single verse and build whole doctrines around it, in the absence of such a verse's greater biblical context. I did a further brief count of chapters, paragraphs and verses in the (NASB) New Testament. I find it rather interesting how the different translations of the bible each have different paragraph breaks, solely dependent on what the individual publishers of each version may allow. The average paragraph in the (NASB) New Testament runs about 5 verses long. And I've isolated a fairly decent system of breaking each bible paragraph down to a five verse maximum, without being too restricting on the texts. There are three primary reasons that I desire to do this. 1. In the public quotation of scripture, it's very easy to lose people when more than a few verses are read at a time. Many NASB paragraphs may run twenty verses long, which is a bit much for people to fully digest all at once. 2. I personally believe that quoting single verses of scripture, to a congregation that is not largely familiar with the bible, tends to lead to greater contextual errors in the listeners. Hence, I prefer to quote at least a few verses at a time, with whatever I read publicly, so as to retain at least some small degree of context. 3. Smaller paragraphs breaks can also serve as a simple management tool when tackling more in-depth bible study. Basically, you break heavy passages into digestible bits, so you don't choke on them. Again, I fully agree with you that there are vast limitations to this approach. I comically figure that if the creators of chapters and verses in the bible did such a bad job, that I might be able to make some meager improvements on it, if solely for my own continued growth and understanding. ---- In addition to being a wise man, the Preacher also taught the people knowledge; and he pondered, searched out and arranged many proverbs. The Preacher sought to find delightful words and to write words of truth correctly. The words of wise men are like goads, and masters of these collections are like well-driven nails; they are given by one Shepherd. But beyond this, my son, be warned: the writing of many books is endless, and excessive devotion to books is wearying to the body. (Ecclesiastes 12:9-12 NAS95) - Reighnskye |
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