Utility to generate a custom.vrs file

Question

I have to archive on DBL several historical projects that have significant selections and abridgments from the OT. Unfortunately each project is quite different from the other and I am faced with manually creating a custom.vrs file for each of them - Sigh… I was wondering since Paratext can give me a list of missing verses, would it be possible to programatically generate a custom.vrs file from that list? Has anyone done that?

Answer 1

There is no utility or automatic way of creating custom.vrs. There is a way to semi-automatically generate a custom.vrs file from the list. However, you first need to determine if the verses are missing in the sense that

• certain verses were not translated—true missing verse.

or just

• the verse numbering is different—different versification.

or a combination of both perhaps.

Here is a template for custom.vrs that I use for NIV 1984:

# Versification "NIV English"
#
# Modifications to eng.vrs (English RSV versification) for the NIV
# CrazyRocky  09 Dec 2019
#
# This custom.vrs file compensates for differences between eng.vrs and most NIV and NIV-like translations
#
#
#---------------------------------------------------------
# Section 1: Modifications to chapter length
#---------------------------------------------------------
#
#--------------------------------------------------
# Old Testament
#--------------------------------------------------
#
# None
#
#-----------------------------------------------
# New Testament
#--------------------------------------------------
#
# 2CO 13 has 14 verses like KJV. Some modern English versions (NRSV) have 13 verses like  org.vrs
# 2CO 13:13
# 3JN has 14 verses like KJV. Some modern English versions (RSV, NRSV) have 15 verses like  org.vrs.  Verse 15 has been approved for future editions of the NIV.  
3JN 1:14 
#
# REV 12 has 17 verses like KJV. The content of REV 12:18 is included in 13:1 (like KJV)
REV 12:17
# Some English versions (RSV) include the content of 12:18 in 12:17
#
#---------------------------------------------------------
# Section 2: deliberately missing verses in the middle of chapters
#---------------------------------------------------------
# 
# Doubtful verses are usually either moved to footnotes or marked as doubtful in a footnote.
# In NIV84 these verses are in footnotes
# 
-MAT 17:21
-MAT 18:11
-MAT 23:14
-MRK 7:16 
-MRK 9:44 
-MRK 9:46 
-MRK 11:26 
-MRK 15:28
-LUK 17:36
-LUK 23:17
-JHN 5:4  
-ACT 8:37
-ACT 15:34
-ACT 24:7
-ACT 28:29
-ROM 16:24
#
#-----------------------------------------------------
# Section 3: Mapping
#-----------------------------------------------------
# 
# Mappings are required when the text in in a verse (on left) is not the same verse/chapter as org.vrs (on right)
# Mappings allow computer programs to line up equivalent verses of different translations in parallel views
# Mappings also allow cross references to be properly imported from a model project into a project that has a different versification
# (Note: ranges must not span a chapter, e.g. 4:10-5:11 is illegal)
#
# Mapping for 2CO with 14 verses (eng.vrs does not include this mapping)
2CO 13:12-13 = 2CO 13:12
2CO 13:14 = 2CO 13:13
#
3JN 1:14 = 3JN 1:14-15
#
# The content of REV 12:18 is included in 13:1 (like KJV)
# REV 13:1a = REV 12:18   # PT can't handle split verses
# REV 13:1b = REV 13:1    # PT can't handle split verses
# REV 13:1 = REV 12:18-13:1 # this will not work
REV 13:1 = REV 12:18
REV 13:1 = REV 13:1
# 
# If the content of REV 12:18 is included in 12:17 (like RSV)
# REV 12:17 = REV 12:17-18

If you have true missing verses then you can simply copy the list of missing verses that Paratext will provide you, something like
2SA 3:33 #Verse missing: 3:34
and change it to
- 2SA 3:34

You can then just paste that list of verses into Section 2:

#---------------------------------------------------------
# Section 2: deliberately missing verses in the middle of chapters
#---------------------------------------------------------
- 2SA 3:34

Restart Paratext to get it to read the new versification file. All your Verse missing errors should now be gone.

If you have a different versification, then customizing the versification is more difficult. You need to change both

• Section 1: Modifications to chapter length
• Section 3: Mapping

This requires carefully determining how the text corresponds to the versification of the source text in Paratext. You should probably use Original as your base versification in that case.

If it is a combination of both missing verses and different versification, you will need to modify all three sections.

Comments

Thanks CrazyRocky,

Thinking about the text I am currently working on, I suspect I have mainly true missing verses. But what I am not sure of is how to handle is e.g a summary of a chapter where it is obvious that the text is far shorter that it should be. Currently I have just made those sections a large bridge.

\c 29

\s….

\v 1-29

---

This is the same idea I had. You don’t need to list ALL verses in a translation in the .vrs file. (GEN 1:31 2:25 3:24 etc). All you need to add is the few Book/Chapters where the number of verses change. You can get that list by running the Chapter/Verse check and do some editing.

Answer 2

The versification file is not intended to verify the content of verses, much less the content of summaries. For your example, you would not need to make any modifications to custom.vrs. I do not know what would happen if you left out entire chapters, or summarized spans of chapters . I suspect custom.vrs is not designed to handle that.