Troy,
The assumption you make, for the KJV and for the NASB, is that the
translators and typesetters simply had no clue what they wanted or
completely failed to express it. It's the assumption that they were
completely incompetent. But they weren't.
Typesetters have a variety of methods of expressing new paragraphs in
different environments including one or more of: pilcrows, indentation,
blank lines (or just slightly increased leading), dropped caps (of the
text or of, e.g., verse/chapter numbers), etc.
In both the KJV and its genetic descendant, the NASB, every single
chapter, without exception, begins a new paragraph. Even Rev 13.1. And
yes, the first paragraph of Rev 13.1 is half a verse long. This isn't
even a remotely novel way of handling paragraphing around the Rev 12-13
boundary. VERY few printed works actually represent the final paragraph
of Rev 12 as extending into Rev 13, and they do so by putting the Rev 13
verse numeral before the start of Rev 13.1b, not at the beginning of Rev
13. So, even there, it's generally safe to assume every chapter mark
indicates the start of a new chapter. (Note: This is not a blanket
statement that every Bible starts a new chapter with a new paragraph; I
only assert that that holds for the KJV and NASB.)
--Chris
Troy A. Griffitts wrote:
Yes, <p/> is meant to be a paragraph marker, as is <milestone
type="x-p">. I don't think <pb/> matches appropriately.
Chris and I disagree on this one a bit. I disagree that every chapter
in the KJV should be considered a new paragraph. There are serious
interpretation errors implied with chapter/verse markers, as I think we
all agree. Placing a <p> at the start of each chapter implies the
translators of the text truly agree that the paragraph does begin at the
chapter start. He may be correct about the KJV printed Bible. Maybe
they do imply with whitespace that they think a paragraph marker begins
at each chapter. Maybe not. Maybe their use of the pilcrow, ΒΆ,
paragraph symbol ma-thingy is their 'markup' for showing where they
believe a new paragraph begins. I just don't know, but I would be
hesitant to imply SOMEONE thinks each chapter starts a new paragraph. I
believe this discussion first came up when looking at markup received
from Lockman for the NASB. In my conversion, there was NO WAY to
logically deduce where paragraph marker began. Sometime they were
implied by start of chapter. Sometimes they were very much NOT implied
by start of chapter (e.g. Rev 13:1, which has a paragraph break midway
through verse 1). I wanted to stay true to the text, so I use paragraph
milestones. I would rather stay true to the author's intent for the
Biblical Text than have well-formed compliant markup. I could try to
make educated decision, but it is not my place to usurp authority to
make decision regarding their text-- especially when it might carry the
weight of the Lockman translation committee if given to someone else.
These are the equivalent of modern day scribal errors done with the same
honest motives as ancient scribes.
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