In Theory: Would removing chapter numbers harm the Bible’s message?
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A graphic artist/book designer from Santa Cruz has successfully raised $1.4 million, far exceeding the $37,000 he was seeking on the crowd-funding website Kickstarter to create a Bible without chapters. Adam Lewis Greene says his “Bibliotheca” project would create four volumes that would present the stories of the Bible more as literature. According to his Kickstarter description, “the text is reverently treated in classic typographic style, free of all added conventions such as chapter numbers, verse numbers, section headers, cross references and notes.” Greene says he hopes the “Bibliotheca” will encourage readers to better focus on the meaning of the Bible.
Q: What do you think of Greene’s proposed project, or of any similar projects for other religious texts? Would anything valuable be lost?
I think it’s a great idea. The original texts didn’t have chapter divisions or verse numbers. These are very helpful, to be sure, but looking at the text the way the original readers received it can give us a better idea of the flow of each book’s meaning.
The actual translation used is the most critical element of every version of the Bible that’s published. Greene is using an amalgamation of the American Standard Version and Young’s Literal Translation. I’m not really familiar with these, so I can’t comment on his choice of them. I am content with the publishing of any faithfully translated version of God’s word, as long as it’s actual translation and not interpretation.
2 Peter 1:21 says “no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.” “All Scripture,” says Paul in 2 Timothy 3:16, “is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness.” Each word of the original texts was inspired by God, chosen by God and arranged in the exact order He desired. These texts have been faithfully and accurately transmitted through the ages. When they are translated by faithful scholars and personally appropriated by any reader they are still the power of God to change our lives for the better.
Pastor Jon Barta
Valley Baptist Church
Burbank
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Oh, any new gimmick to get people to read the Bible can’t be all bad. It’s also not all good, but it certainly isn’t all bad. In my own collection I have many different translations, including the King James Version and “The Message,” which is the modern English translation of the New Testament by Eugene Peterson, who lives in Canada now.
The one drawback I see to Mr. Greene’s idea is the lack of reference points, whether they be names of Biblical books or chapters or verses. Not having those reference points seems like a disadvantage to me, because what if a reader wants to see what another translation says about the portion he or she happens to be reading? Wouldn’t it be better if the reader could compare quite easily with reference points, rather than say, “Somewhere in the Bible it says...”?
Still, I’ll close with my original statement: Anything that might induce more people to check out the Bible can’t be all bad!
The Rev. Skip Lindeman
La Cañada Congregational Church
La Cañada Flintridge
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When I first read the question and saw the credentials of the author, I figured this would be a goofy, personal-take reinterpretation of the biblical text without regard to legitimate translation. I’m still reeling after watching the recent Noah movie with its rather bizarre reinterpretation of the book of Genesis and the addition of angelic rock-monsters to the Ark narrative, but having investigated further, I can see how this Bibliotheca project might be of use. There have been others who have eliminated chapter and verse numbers from their bible versions, as I saw one by a Jewish publication group that did the Torah, and there was a Christian Bible called “The Message,” which did away with verse numbers but kept the chapters. That was a translation with a lot of creative license however. But it seems that with the current project, the creator is not fudging with the text; he is using a legitimate translation (the American Standard Bible). He is changing the “Thees and Thous” to modern speech, but then I wondered why he didn’t just use the “New” American Standard Bible, which already does just that. Maybe it’s a royalties issue.
The reason our Bibles are the way they are today is because we not only read them, we study them. At least some of us do, and without chapter and verse numbers you can’t find anything very quickly. As well, footnotes often provide cultural information necessary for understanding certain idioms and such, and all 66 books are under one cover to make everything readily available. Nevertheless, a nicely bound set of straight-text Bible quarters could facilitate an initiation to God’s Word for those who would otherwise avoid what appears to them an insurmountable encyclopedic tome. I have no objections to this project, and hope it does well.
The Rev. Bryan Griem
Montrose Community Church
Montrose
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There is much to praise in Greene’s effort to encourage people to read and contemplate the Bible. As we read God’s word with a sincere desire to learn, we open ourselves to the influence of his spirit.
I am impressed with the care he is putting into his project, based on the American Standard Version, and with the outpouring of donations to support the effort. The response suggests there are many people who want to read the scriptures or, having been touched by the Bible, want to share its message.
The LDS church officially recommends the King James Version for English speakers and publishes a volume with extensive notes and references. I personally prefer the KJV because of the power and beauty of its language. There is nothing sacred about its 17th-century wording, but its distinctiveness immediately reminds me that I am reading sacred text.
I also like the structure of chapters and verses and find the additional resources valuable. However, I can see that Greene’s approach might encourage many to make a fresh, or initial, effort at reading the Bible.
Some labor under the misunderstanding that the LDS church doesn’t use the Bible or values it less than other works. This is incorrect. The Bible is a regular part of the church’s formal instruction program, which includes separate yearlong Old Testament and New Testament classes taught in congregational Sunday school classes and courses designed for LDS universities, off-campus institutes for students at secular colleges and in early morning seminary classes for high school students.
As LDS Apostle M. Russell Ballard said, the Bible “is one of the pillars of our faith, a powerful witness of the Savior and Christ’s ongoing influence in the lives of those who worship and follow him.”
Michael White
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
La Crescenta
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Great literature is great literature, and in the case of the Bible, all the better for having been written by human beings who were inspired by their beliefs.
Readers who want to own this new formatting of the Bible could fork over $5,000 for the Super Patron edition, with a solid walnut slipcase, personalized bookplates and their name listed as a “principal patron” on the acknowledgment page. Presumably that is to enhance their search for the Bible’s meaning, as Adam Lewis Greene says he hopes these volumes bring about. It will certainly enrich the experience for Mr. Greene.
Which is fine by me — I totally support anyone trying to earn a living selling good books. Unless you are Amazon, that is, which has already more or less destroyed bookstores and is now working on publishers.
Roberta Medford
Atheist
Montrose