advantageously in English, and the introduction of the new words is very happy. In a very few cases it might be an improvement to introduce italics where our Authorized Version gives us Roman letters; thus the italicizing of the word it in 1 Cor. xv. 44, would obviate a possible misconception of the meaning of the text, which reads literally, "A natural body is sown, a spiritual body is raised," or "There is sown a natural body, there is raised a spiritual body."

REVISION OF THE ITALICS IN OUR VERSION.-The italics in our Authorized Version have not been left without several revisions. The inconsistencies in their use in the edition of 1611, (or more properly in the use of the small Roman type which served the same purpose when the Bible was printed in black letter,) are not the least striking among the many indications of the haste and carelessness with which that edition was brought out. Thus in Hebrews x, 38, the words "any man" were printed in the same type as the rest of the verse. This oversight, with many others, was corrected in the carefully revised edition published at Cambridge, in 1638. Further modifications were made by Dr. Scattergood in 1683,* and particularly by Dr. Blayney, in the much esteemed Oxford edition of 1769, which he superintended. Dr. Adam Clarke, in his edition and commentary in 1810, complains of gross corruptions in the italics of Dr. Blayney's editions, "particularly where they have been changed for Roman characters, whereby words have been

* Also by Dr. Lloyd, in 1701, and Dr. Paris, in 1762. The typographical perfection of our Authorized Version, in conformity to its own standards, has been gradually achieved by the patient labor of many hands.

attributed to God which he never spake," and introduces many "corrections." Dr. Scrivener, in his Cambridge Paragraph Bible of 1870, has endeavored to make the use of italics uniform and consistent; a work in which he found, as he says in his preface, that "not a little remained to be accomplished."

I have already intimated my own opinion that some of the italicized words in our English Bible are gratuitous interpolations, and that a very considerable reduction may be made in the remaining number without depriving the reader of any information concerning the original text which would be of real value to him. But the question of their retention or dismissal is sometimes a delicate one; and wherever it is not easy to decide that they are of no use, they should have the benefit of the doubt.

PARAGRAPHS, CHAPTERS, AND VERSES OF

THE BIBLE.

BY PROFESSOR JAMES STRONG, S.T.D.,
Of Drew Theological Seminary, N. J.

THE DIVISION OF THE BIBLE into chapters originated with the commentators of the Middle Ages as a convenience. Cardinal Hugh, of St. Cher, adopted it in his Concordance to the Latin Vulgate, about A. D. 1244, and it was thence transferred to the Hebrew and Greek originals. The division into verses, in the Old Testament, is found in the Hebrew manuscripts of the earliest date. In the New Testament it was hastily made by the printer, Robert Stephens, for the fourth edition of his Greek Testament, published in 1551. The chapters and verses in the common English Bible differ in but a few places from those now generally indicated in the printed editions of the Hebrew and Greek texts. They constitute the paragraph marks or breaks in the lines in King James's version. In the Hebrew Bible, however, the numerals for the chapters and verses are placed in the margin, and the text is broken into large sections for the synagogue lessons, and smaller ones of a more arbitrary character. This has been partly imitated in some editions of the English Bible, by placing a paragraph mark (¶) at the head of verses supposed to begin a new subject; but in neither case has the division been convenient, uniform, or logical. In the original edition (1611) of the Authorized Version this mark is prefixed, in the Psalms, to the special titles only; in the other books it is interspersed most capriciously. In the new AngloAmerican revision the marks of chapter and verse

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will be retained for reference; but the text will be divided into sections, on some plan not yet fully settled. It is earnestly hoped that neither the Masoretic nor any other conventional mode of division will be implicitly followed, but that the paragraphs will correctly indicate the changes of topics. The parallelism in the poetical books will be shown by printing in verse-form, which will be an immense gain in the clearness and force of meaning. For example, the earliest specimen of poetry extant (Gen. iv, 23, 24) illustrates itself if arranged in some such way as this:

"And Lamech said unto his wives,

Ye wives of Lamech, Hearken unto my speech:
For I have slain a man to my wounding,

And a young man to my hurt.

If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold,

Truly Lamech seventy and sevenfold."

CHAPTER AND VERSE DIVISIONS. The present division into chapters and verses is manifestly injudicious, and some of the advantages of a just paragraph system are the following, which we will illustrate by a few examples:

1. The sense is greatly injured by the one method, and improved by the other. - Oftentimes the closest connection of thought is broken up by the present division, which is purely accidental; and, vice versa, a connection is falsely suggested where there is really a break in the subject. Thus, at the very outset, the account of the general creation, in Gen. i, properly includes verses 1-3 of Chapter ii, as every indication in the text shows; while verse 4 begins the narrative of man's trial in Eden. So, in the last chapter of Revelation, verses 1–5 belong to the description of the heavenly city preced

ing, and the remaining verses contain an entirely distinct topic. Similar instances are innumerable, as any judiciously arranged "Paragraph Bible" will show. In like manner, the verses frequently interrupt a sentence, sometimes very strangely, as in Ps. xcviii, 8, 9, "Let the hills be joyful together-before the Lord;" and so Ps. xcvi, 12, 13. The mere fact of beginning a new verse with a capital letter, after a comma, or some other of the lesser punctuation marks, is calculated to mislead the reader, and induce a defective and erroneous habit of quoting Scripture. Probably this has been a fruitful cause of the prevalent practice of perverting proof-texts, by neglecting the context. On the contrary, how much more beautiful would the description of charity, in 1 Cor. xiii, become if read in immediate connection, as exemplifying the "more excellent way" of the last verse of the preceding chapter, and as enforcing the exhortation to "follow after charity," in the first verse of the following chapter. Proper paragraphing is a sort of analysis of a book or chapter, so as to be evident at a glance. How would a modern history, or poem, or epistle look, if the printer should chop it up in the fashion of our common Bibles? It greatly impairs the significance and dignity of the sacred volume.

2. The present arrangement is a loss in every respect.— For convenience of consultation the verse and chapter numbers are certainly preferable in the margin, where the eye can rapidly run down them in single file. There is surely no economy of space in losing part of a line at the end of nearly every verse. There is little beauty in the ragged-looking page that these frequent and irregular blanks make. The double columns which this method of typography almost necessitates shorten