Guest Post: Old Testament Verse Numbering Differences

Thanks to Gerald for this helpful post.  This is of interest to me, particularly due to an issue that always pops up when I am teaching books of the OT, most notably the prophets.  The RSV/NRSV follow the Greek verse numbering, while the NABRE follows the Hebrew.  This occurs at various points, for an example compare the chapter and verse differences in the Book of Joel.  This would be one area that I wish the NABRE folks would reconsider before the complete NABRE revision process is completed.  Now, on to Gerald:

One thing that we Bible readers inevitably deal with is the numbering of the Bible verses in the Bibles that we have. Though the numberings are not part of the Word itself, it has been a great help to Bible readers since they were devised from the Medieval times.

But the problem now exists: For instance, when we saw a nice Biblical verse cited on a display, we initially look into its verse numbers so that we can look for that verse that catched our attention in the Bibles we hold.

HOWEVER, unfortunately, Bible verses numbering is not that uniform for all the versions of the Bible, especially in the Old Testament. In this post, I would like to discuss about this matter. Being particularly aware with these differences, comparing across versions will be a lot easier to deal with. You may ask on how I became aware of these.

Being a long-time Bible reader, my reading plan has been entirely Lectionary-based approach. In the case of the US Lectionary, which is based on the New American Bible, following the Mass readings outside of the NAB is a laborious task to settle. Perhaps this occurs to the most of us. For every Bible version I owned, I had always tweaked my list of American lectionary readings, thanks to Fr. Felix's site: http://catholic-resources.org/Bible/OT-Statistics-Compared.htm

(1) So now, let us now proceed to the main topic of this post. Generally, there are two major Bible verse numbering schemes that are present:

*Hebrew numbering - this is the system used in the Hebrew texts and is used mainly by versions made by Catholics.

*Geneva/KJV numbering - this is the numbering that was first used in the Medieval times and was subsequently applied to the King James Version. Most Protestant versions of the Bible exclusively use this system. That being said, Protestants don't often encounter problems in numbering differences.

How to know: Check Genesis 32:1. If you read Laban kissing her grandchildren, then your Bible follows the Hebrew system. Otherwise, your Bible follows the Genevan system.

(2) But not only the two systems are the source of divergence. Psalms, in particular present a very interesting case. Though using both systems the whole Psalter would still yield a count of 150, the divisions of the Psalms differ.

For the numbering of the Psalms itself, there are two systems:
* Hebrew system - the one used in the Hebrew text. This is the system exclusively used by Protestants.

* Greek system - the one used in the Septuagint and subsequently the Vulgate. Most Catholic version in the past and Orthodox versions use this system.

How to check: If the Psalm of the Divine Shepherd is numbered Psalm 23, then you are using the Hebrew system. If it is numbered as Psalm 22, it is the Greek numbering.

In summary, these are the differences in the numbering of the Psalms.

Hebrew numbering	Greek numbering
1–8	1–8
9–10	9
11–113	10–112
114–115	113
116	114–115
117–146	116–145
147	146–147
148–150	148–150

(3) In addition, the individual numbering of the Psalm verses also differs. I have not came across with the technical terms with the two approaches, so I might only give them my personally-devised terms.

* The "Short" approach - In this approach, every Psalm verse begins at 1. All the words after the Psalm number which describe the Psalm are not numbered. This is the system that most Protestant versions use.

* The "Long" approach - In this approach, unlike the Short approach, all the words describing the Psalm are likewise numbered together with Psalms itself. Thus, in this system, you find the Psalm verses starting at number 2 or 3.

How to check: Find the Miserere (Psalm 51 in the Hebrew, 50 in the Greek). If the opening verse, "Have mercy on me..." begins at verse 1, then you have the "Short" approach. If it begins at verse 3, you have the "Long" approach.

Combining the two peculiarities in the Book of Psalms, we find a bewildering array of differences:

Here's how the opening verse number of the Miserere appears:

Hebrew Original [Heb+Long] :                  Psalm 51:3
Septuagint/Vulgate [Gk+Long] :               Psalm 50:3
King James Version [Heb+Short]:             Psalm 51:1

(4) With the different arrangement of the Deuterocanonicals in different versions, either being separated from the Hebrew Protocanon or being integrated in the Old Testament. As a Catholic, I obviously preferred the integrated approach. Having said that, a particular incident affecting these differences is the verse numbering of the Songs of the Three Young Men.

 * The “Separated” numbering – Azariah began to speak at verse 1. This is the numbering you’ll find if the Deuterocanon is separated from the Hebrew Canon (Protocanon, to be exact).

* The “Integrated” numbering – Azariah began to speak at verse 24. This is continuing the count from the Aramaic Daniel 3:23.

Note: Bible versions also differ on numbering of the parts of Daniel 3 after the Songs of the Three Young Men. Some revert to the Hebrew general system of counting (i.e. Daniel 3 ends at verse 100 in the Integrated count). Some revert to Genevan counting (i.e. Daniel 3 ends at verse 97 or verse 30 in the Separated count)

(5) Esther, also presents a very interesting case. Let me share a bit of history about the two arrangements:

* The Vulgate arrangement - When St. Jerome translated the Book of Esther, he chose to separate the Hebrew parts apart from the Greek glosses, as he initially deemed it non-canonical. But the Greek glosses eventually became canonical anyways. Jerome’s arrangement of Esther is one that we’ll see in the Latin Vulgate, and subsequently the Douay-Rheims, and probably all versions translated from the Vulgate. When the Bible was numbered during the Medieval times, it was numbered according to this layout. In this arrangement, it seems that Esther is misarranged. In this layout, the Greek glosses are numbered continuously from the Hebrew Esther.

* The Original Greek arrangement – In aim to read Esther in its proper and full Greek arrangement, modern versions of the Bible reverted the Greek glosses to its rightful sequence in accordance with the original Greek layout. Final product is, Hebrew Esther is mixed up with Greek Esther arranged according to Greek Esther. In this arrangement, Greek glosses may still be numbered according to Vulgate, (thus, Dream of Mordecai starts as verse 11:2), or the Greek glosses are designated by lettered additions in order of appearance (for instance, the Dream of Mordecai is designated as Chapter A.)

  

How to check:

1.     If your Esther begins at “During the reign of Ahasuerus…”, you’ll probably reading with the Vulgate arrangement.

2.  Otherwise, if it begins with the Dream of Mordecai, you are dealing with the Greek arrangement.

(6) And finally, Sirach is a book that is particularly the most difficult book to handle. There are several arrangements in this book:

* The Greek/Latin layout – In this layout, the full version of Sirach is presented, that is, no verses are missing from the main text. This is the layout used in versions based from the Vulgate.

* The Hebrew layout – Due to recent Biblical scholarship primarily from the Dead Sea Scrolls, it was later found out that some verses in the Greek/Latin Sirach were already glosses to the original Greek/Latin Sirach. In this arrangement, you’ll see some verses left out from the main text.

* The NRSV layout – This is a layout only peculiar to NRSV. This is essentially the Hebrew system, however numbered very differently. If you’ll read the Preface of the NRSV, they said that the numbering comes from Joseph Ziegler as used in the Gottingen Septuagint.

How to check: Look for Sirach 1:5 and 1:7 in your Bible. If you find them, it is the Greek layout. Otherwise, you are dealing with the Hebrew.

To check for the differences, go on this link (this might be copyrighted): http://www.bombaxo.com/vulgatenrsv.html

To summarize, here are the verse numbering schemes in different Catholic versions:

RSV-CE / RSV-2CE:

1)     General Numbering:       Genevan

2)     Psalter:                         Hebrew + Short

3)     Song of Three Youths:  Separated + Genevan

4)     Esther:                          Original Greek (additions numbered from Vulgate)

5)     Sirach;                          Hebrew (2CE returns some glosses)

NAB / NABRE / JB / NJB:

1)     General Numbering:       Hebrew

2)     Psalter:                         Hebrew + Long

3)     Song of Three Youths:  Integrated + Hebrew

4)     Esther:                          Original Greek (NAB: lettered additions / JB: small-lettered additions)

5)     Sirach;                          Hebrew

Vulgate / Douay-Rheims / Knox / Nova Vulgata

1)     General Numbering:       Hebrew

2)     Psalter:                         Greek + Long

3)     Song of Three Youths:  Integrated + Hebrew

4)     Esther:                          Vulgate

5)     Sirach;                          Greek/Latin

Good News Translation

1)     General Numbering:       Genevan

2)     Psalter:                         Hebrew + Short

3)     Song of Three Youths:  Separated + Genevan

4)     Esther:                          Original Greek (Lettered Additions)

5)     Sirach;                          Hebrew

NRSV-CE:

1)     General Numbering:       Genevan

2)     Psalter:                         Hebrew + Short

3)     Song of Three Youths:  Integrated + Genevan

4)     Esther:                          Original Greek (Vulgate Numbering)

5)     Sirach;                          NRSV

Hope you find this post very helpful! Thanks for reading!