Sunday, November 05, 2006

TNIV - Headings and Subheadings

Is it just me or does the TNIV appear to have sub-headings under some of the titles. I have only noticed this in the Old Testament and only in the minor prophets. Here is a very clear example:

Zephaniah 2:1
(View it here - http://www.tniv.info/pdf/TNIV_NewTestament.pdf on p.642)

Main Heading (bigger font) - "Judah and Jerusalem Judged Along With the Nations"
very next thing in the print - Subheading (slightly smaller font than previous - same font size as text but in italics and not part of the text) - "Judah Summoned to Repent"
= 2 headings in a row
Then you see this...
2:4 - Subtitle - "Philistia
2:8 - Subtitle - "Moab and Ammon"
2:12 - Subtitle - "Cush"
3:1 - Subtitle - "Jerusalem"
3:6 - Subtitle - "Jerusalem Remains Unrepentant"
3:9 - Main section title (bigger font) - "Restoration of Israel's Remnant"

I thought that would sure be nice in the NT and starting looking through some places where chapter disctinctions totally throw off many readers - like 1 Cor 6-7 to see if they used subheadings to keep things more coherent rather than all big titles. They didn't. It seems strange to me to use a totally different formatting tool in so few places. This would be very useful elsewhere in the TNIV.

2 comments:

Josh said...

I wonder if it has something to do with the original translation?

I'm not too familiar...

Thanks for stopping by Gabbatha... Take care!

preacherman said...

Matt,
Thank you for this very interesting post. It has been very informative. And thank you for your encouragement on Mike's blog. I appreciate it. God bless you brother.

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