Let me add some detail to George's response. The Septuagint has the books
of the Old Testament in the order familiar to us, but then adds the
apocrypha. However, our Psalm 118 is LXX 117. This is because our 9 and
10 are combined, but out 147 is split. Also, another Psalm is added.
Having tried to find some passages, I also know that the chapter and
verse order can be different. This should mess up any verse count.
As for the Hebrew scriptures, They begin with the Books of Moses and the
historical books through II Kings. The major prophets, Daniel excepted,
and the minor prophets follow. The rest, in order, are Psalms, Proverbs,
Job, Song of Songs, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, Esther, Daniel,
Ezra, Nehemiah, and, finally, I and II Chronicles. Burgy's friend may
figure out what comes in the middle in these arrangements, which are
likely older than the arrangement we know.
As for the numeration, 1118 becomes, in the usual ancient Greek
numeration, low stroke alpha, rho iota eta high stroke. The strokes
indicate numerals. Drop low stroke alpha to get 118.
Dave
On Sat, 28 Oct 2000 16:02:55 -0400 george murphy <gmurphy@raex.com>
writes:
>
>
> John Burgeson wrote:
>
> > I was sent the numerology below by a good friend. My response
> follows.
> > I think I was not too skeptical.
> >
> > Burgy
> > ----------------------------------
> > >>
> > 1 Psalm 118 is the middle chapter of the entire Bible.
> > 2 Psalm 117, before Psalm 118, is the shortest chapter in
> the
> > Bible.
> > 3 Psalm 119, after Psalm 118, is the longest chapter in
> the Bible.
> > 4 The Bible has 594 chapters before Psalm 118 and 594
> chapters
> > after Psalm 118.
> > 5 If you add up all the chapters except Psalm 118, you get
> a total
> > of 1188 chapters.
> > 6 1188 or Psalm 118 verse 8 is the middle verse of the
> entire
> > Bible.
> > 7 Should the central verse then not have an important
> message?
> > >>
> >
> > An interesting interplay of numbers. I wonder if the person who
> assigned
> > verses
> > to the scriptures (I think in the Middle Ages) did this on
> purpose?
> >
> > Items 4 and 5 are a restatement (quantification) of item 1. No
> significance
> > that I can see to the number 594.
> >
> > Items 2 and 3 don't seem all that significant. And items 5 and 6
> are
> > significant only if you use the
> > decimal system of counting. Not all civilizations have used that.
> >
> > Still -- interesting phenomenon. I really think the greatest
> probability
> > lies in attributing it to the verse inventor.
> > But I could be wrong.
>
> I believe that the assignments of verse numbers in the Old
> and New
> Testaments were done
> at different times, but I too could be wrong.
> Perhaps more to the point is the fact that while the books
> in the
> Hebrew canon are the same as those of the protestant Old Testament,
> their order
> is different & more coherent.
> & in any case the verse (& in fact often the chapter)
> divisions are
> artificial & sometimes make little sense. I can't see that any
> argument based
> on these numbers could have any real significance.
>
> Shalom,
>
> George
>
>
>
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