Friday, September 23, 2022

Same Text, (Slightly) Different Format

Yesterday I completed a re-formatting of all of the files associated with The Christian Scriptures. These were originally created using Microsoft Office XP 2002, but I have recently been making the transition to the Linux Mint operating system, and have employed the WPS Office suite to convert the original .doc files to the current standard of .docx files. WPS Office's native .pdf creator has helped me eliminate my most nagging formatting issue: footnotes whose anchors appear on one page, but whose text is placed on the subsequent one.

The only significant change in the text of The Christian Scriptures is the placement of footnotes indicating the divergent numbering of the Psalms in the LXX, the MT, and the common English versions. These footnotes used to be attached to the first line of each Psalm. This often resulted in lines with more than one footnote anchor; when these occurred on the last line of a page, it regularly caused the aforementioned footnote text discrepancy. The footnote anchors are now placed at the end of each Psalm title.

Because the .pdf files are now larger, I no longer have space on my Angelfire account to host the complete English Versions Format text. Instead, that web page now links to my Google drive account, permitting anyone who visits the Angelfire page to access the original version of The Christian Scriptures and its underlying Greek text in addition to the English Versions Format.

I note that yesterday was the anniversary of Joseph Smith's alleged discovery of the golden plates, which were the basis for the Book of Mormon. One can only wonder whether the widespread practice of supplementing the original Christian Bible with additional documents, church traditions, and private revelations would cease if more people could read an accurate translation of the original text. I continue to hope and pray that my efforts may contribute in some small way to that end.

Tuesday, May 24, 2022

The English Versions Format

The previous edition of The Christian Scriptures presented, at the end of Exodus, 3 Kingdoms, Proverbs, and Jeremiah, alternate versions of those chapters of the Septuagint whose versification significantly diverges from the Masoretic Hebrew text and English renderings of the latter. I now offer the text of the entire Bible in two versions: one according the Septuagint's versification, the other according to the common English versification. This is especially helpful in the Psalms, where the Greek, Hebrew, and English versifications rarely coincide.

The English Versions Format, whose documents have "evf" near the beginning of their file names, may be found at the following link:

https://avtattenai.angelfire.com/tcs/tcs.html

Both versions are available on Google Drive:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1rOC93ShWFzkWvV46DGf4M3EEmhSWlpUD?usp=sharing