[osis-core] Re: [osis-user] Dealing with versification systems

[Todd Tillinghast]

Terry,

In the <work> element in the header of an OSIS document is a <refSystem> 
element.  The intent of this element is to provide the ability to 
declare which reference system a Bible (or other document that has a 
standardized/defined reference system) uses.

One of the major items on the agenda for the next meeting of the OSIS 
core technical committe is define a syntax for defining a reference 
system (and possibly values for predominant reference systems) as well 
as a syntax for declaring a mapping between reference systems.  We have 
wrestled with this issue at several meetings in the past but have 
focused on issues of encoding scripture text as a higher priority.

At present you can encode multiple reference systems in an OSIS document 
but the most common case is to declare a specific reference system and 
default the work prefix on osisID attributes.  If you have questions 
regarding how to encode multiple reference systems please respond with a 
specific question and I will see how I can help.

I hope this is helpful.

Todd

Terry Vogelaar wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> I didn't know if this is the right list to post this kind of  
> information to, so feel free to forward this post if you know a  
> better address to post this to.
>
> Because differences in versification systems are a frustration to me  
> and I couldn't find elegant solutions in dealing with them, I decided  
> to see what I can contribute in this.
>
> I have seen a few attempts, but they are not good enough to base a  
> real solution upon. Mostly because all the attempts I've seen base  
> their conversions on the KJV. Historically, this is the best choice;  
> the KJV was the first Bible with chapter and verse division. But it  
> brings up some major problems. For example in the psalms, the KJV  
> doesn't see the Hebrew titles as part of any verse, while most  
> versification systems do.
>
> So I had to come up with something that could actually work. I  
> figured that it would be easier if I would not convert to any  
> existing versification system, but to a system that neglects chapter  
> numbers. Each text that is seen as separate verse in whatever  
> versification system, should have a unique number. For example,  
> Genesis 1 has 31 verses, so Gen 2:1 would be Gen :32. Gen 3:1 is Gen : 
> 57 and so on. Then Exodus starts with verse 1 again.
>
> The CCEL website gave me a 13 Mb list to work with. The site admits  
> the file is likely to contain errors, but it was good as a starting  
> point. Although I removed several errors, my data is still likely to  
> contain errors. Also I didn't pay any attention to the apocrypha. I  
> am aware that neglecting these is totally impossible when making a  
> system like this. But the apocrypha are often messy in their  
> versification. And for the usage I had in mind, they were not needed.  
> If someone else wants to add these to this system, they are most  
> welcome.
>
> I created a very compact data form to base scripts and programs upon.  
> It is a list with items separated by commas. The first item of each  
> line is the verse number of my chapter neglecting system. The second  
> is the chapter number it should have according to the versification  
> systems mentioned in items 5 to 10. The third is the verse that (part  
> of the) chapter starts with (often 1 of course, but I'll explain the  
> exception later). The fourth item indicates a part of a verse ("a",  
> "b"...)
>
> Here is the list for Jonah:
> 17,2,1,,,LXX,ORG,,
> 18,2,1,,ENG,,,VUL,NAB,NJB
> 28,3,1,,ENG,LXX,ORG,VUL,NAB,NJB
> 38,4,1,,ENG,LXX,ORG,VUL,NAB,NJB
> 49,end,,,ENG,LXX,ORG,VUL,NAB,NJB
>
> You can see that LXX and ORG start 1 verse sooner with chapter 2 than  
> the others. Jonah has 48 verses in total, so the last line indicates  
> that at verse 49 the book has ended.
>
> The Song of Solomon is somewhat less straightforward:
> 1,1,1,a,,,,VUL,
> 2,1,1,b,,,,VUL,
> 18,2,1,,ENG,LXX,ORG,VUL,NAB,NJB
> 35,3,1,,ENG,LXX,ORG,VUL,NAB,NJB
> 46,4,1,,ENG,LXX,ORG,VUL,NAB,NJB
> 62,5,1,,ENG,LXX,ORG,VUL,NAB,NJB
> 78,6,1,,ENG,LXX,ORG,,NAB,NJB
> 79,6,1,,,,,VUL,
> 90,6,13,a,ENG,,,,NAB,NJB
> 91,6,13,b,ENG,,,,NAB,NJB
> 90,7,1,a,,LXX,ORG,,
> 91,7,1,b,,LXX,ORG,,
> 91,7,1,a,,,,VUL,
> 92,7,1,,ENG,,,,NAB,NJB
> 92,7,1,b,,,,VUL,
> 105,8,1,,ENG,LXX,ORG,VUL,NAB,NJB
> 119,end,,,ENG,LXX,ORG,VUL,NAB,NJB
>
> The VUL combines the first two verses. Also in 3 of the 6  
> versification systems, 6:13 is just 1 verse while in the other 3 it  
> is 6:13-14. This illustrates when the third item is not 1.
>
> This is work in progress, but I think it could be valuable for  
> everyone who has to deal with several Bible translations.
>
> If anyone is interested in the complete list of every book, examples  
> of scripts to do calculations with this or see my improved complete  
> list of references, feel free to contact me: tvogelaar at de-mare.nl
>
> Terry
>
>