Re: The centre of the Bible

> "However, does anyone know if the above assertions [about the longest, the
> shortest, and the central chapters, etc. in the Bible] are indeed correct
> -
> at least in the NKJV translation (how about NIV?), and how might one
> downplay
> the apparent pattern? Also when was the Bible delineated with verses and
> passages?"

117 and 119 are certainly the shortest and longest chapters; however, apart
from Psalms the chapter divisions are fairly arbitrary, and even in poetic
passages there would be various ways to number verses (each line, each
couplet, etc.).

The original KJV had apocryphal books as an appendix between the OT and NT,
which would move the middle chapter a good deal later. Hebrew usage has a
different order for the OT books. Septuagint and Dead Sea Scrolls preserve
more or fewer verses in various passages than the standard Massoretic text (
e.g., thorough rearrangement and abridgement of Jeremiah). Along with the
points made in other posts, this suggests that there's not much basis for
making much of verse numbers. The process of making chapters and verses was
just as much under God's guidance as everything else. Patterns like the
middle verse or the high number of memorable verses that are 3:16 are handy
mnemonics, but should not be used to claim that those verses are more
special than others.

Psalms, as the longest book, has a fairly good chance of being in the
middle, and as liturgical poetry it has a fairly high proportion of verses
that are reasonably coherent and edifying out of context, whereas some of
the historical or prophetic passages provide verses that are not as suitable
for quotation in isolation, e.g., "Finger rings, nose rings".

The middle verse of the Bible is going to be of significance because it is
between Gen. 1:1 and Rev. 22:21 rather than because it is between Ps. 117
and 119.

-- 
Dr. David Campbell
425 Scientific Collections
University of Alabama
"I think of my happy condition, surrounded by acres of clams"