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The Importance of Visual Communication
Much of the effort spent translating the Bible is concentrated on the
wording of the text. The correct words arranged in the best possible
sentences and paragraphs are critical to communicating the meaning of
the Bible.
Yet, how the words are placed
and arranged on a page is also important. For this reason, English has
rules for arranging words in sentences and paragraphs that show the
reader where words begin and end (spaces), how thoughts within
sentences are arranged (commas, colons, semicolons), where sentences
begin and end (capital letters and periods), and where paragraphs begin
(indentation).
GOD'S WORD®
uses standard English punctuation whenever possible. Capitalization is
used as it normally would be: at the beginning of a sentence or for a
proper noun. Italics are also used as they would be in other printed
English texts: for foreign words or to indicate that a word is used as
a word.
Another feature of GOD'S WORD®
is that it is printed in a single-column format. Most English Bibles
available today are printed two columns to a page. The effect is a
dense, difficult-looking page. Such Bibles resemble reference books. A
double-column format is not a problem for a dictionary or encyclopedia.
Those books are not meant to be read page after page. The publisher
expects the user to look up an entry and read only that entry. In a
reference book a double-column format saves space.
A double-column format also
saves space in Bibles. However, the Bible is not a reference book in
which topics are arranged by entries. It is a book made up of many
books; none of which were meant to be read as a dictionary or
encyclopedia is read.
Single-column format is the
preferred format for most books. Even the widely used scholarly texts
of the Bible in Hebrew and Greek are printed in single-column format.
Like those books, GOD'S WORD® uses a single-column format to produce an open, inviting page.
The translation team recognized
that the page layout of the text is an important part of communicating
the meaning of the Scriptures. Care was taken to ensure that the page
layout of the Bible would encourage readers to read and would enhance
their understanding of its message.
Poetry in GOD'S WORD®
One
of the advantages of a single-column format is that it enables readers
to grasp easily the thoughts contained in the Bible's poetry. Except in
a few rare cases, biblical poetry was not written in rhyme and did not
have an obvious meter. Instead, biblical poetry depends on
parallelism--lines of poetry parallel in thought to other lines.
Since GOD'S WORD®
has the entire width of the page available for poetry, long lines do
not have to be broken. Lines that were broken were broken with care.
The break comes where the cadence of a reader would normally fall. The
result is that the reader can see more clearly the parallels between
lines. For instance, Proverbs 15:17 reads
Better to have a dish of vegetables where there is love
than juicy steaks where there is hate.
Readers can instantly see that a
dish of vegetables is parallel to juicy steaks and that where there is
love is parallel to where there is hate. If this proverb were contained
in a double-column Bible where less space is available for each line,
the result could be
Better to have a dish of vegetables
where there is love
than juicy steaks where there is hate.
While the parallelism still
exists in the words, it is not nearly as obvious because of the break
in the first line. Instead of understanding line 1 as parallel to line
2, the reader is expected to understand lines 1 and 2 as parallel to
line 3. The single-column format enables readers to see parallelism
even if they are not aware of the parallelism of biblical poetry.
Another advantage of a
single-column is the availability of a number of indentations. This
allowed the translation team to communicate a poem's literary style
visually. For instance, Psalm 124 in GOD'S WORD® is
"If the LORD had not been on our side..."
(Israel should repeat this.)
"If the LORD had not been on our side when people attacked us,
then they would have swallowed us alive
when their anger exploded against us.
Then the floodwaters would have swept us away.
An +overflowing= stream would have washed us away.
Then raging water would have washed us away."
Thank the LORD, who did not let them sink their teeth into us.
We escaped like a bird caught in a hunter's trap.
The trap was broken, and we escaped.
Our help is in the name of the LORD, the maker of heaven and earth.
Because of the layout used in GOD'S WORD®,
a number of features of this psalm are immediately apparent to English
readers, as they are to Hebrew readers of the psalm. The repetition of
"If the LORD had not been on our side" is highlighted because it is
flush left with the remaining material indented further. The threefold
"then" is also highlighted because a third indent was available. These
are features readily apparent to scholars who read the Hebrew text of
Psalm 124 in Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia. However, they are not
apparent in most English Bibles because of the limited indentations
available in double-column formats.
Throughout GOD'S WORD®, the translators paid close
attention to the indentation and other layout features of poetry.
Because of this, readers do not have to be conscious of the various
literary features of the poem before they read it. Instead, the layout
visually communicates many of the poem's features.
Lists, Genealogies, and Other Items
Poetry is not the only place where a single-column format is
advantageous. Often lists, genealogies, and other items communicate
better when they are visually organized. For example, Ezra 1:9-11
appears in GOD'S WORD® as
This is the inventory:
gold dishes 30
silver dishes 1,000
knives 29
gold bowls 30
other silver bowls 410
other utensils 1,000
The gold and silver utensils totaled 5,400.
In other cases, layout combined
with boldface type can aid readers in following the flow of a text. For
instance, Matthew 1:1-3 in God's Word is
This is the list of ancestors of Jesus Christ, descendant of David and Abraham.
Abraham was the father of Isaac,
Isaac the father of Jacob,
Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers.
Judah and Tamar were the father and mother of Perez and Zerah.
Perez was the father of Hezron,
Hezron the father of Ram,
The single-column format allows
this genealogy to be arranged as a list. When the list is combined with
boldface type to help readers see the principle ancestor in each line,
the combination of the understandable wording of GOD'S WORD® and its visual communication make the text easy to read and comprehend.
GOD'S WORD® communicates visually with a single-column format as well as through words.
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The Textual Basis of GOD'S WORD®.
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