Original Texts

Hebrew and Aramaic Scriptures

Christian Greek Scriptures

Codex B19^A

• Title Page

• Text of the Old Testament

Sigla and Abbreviations

Table of Variances in Book Names, Chapters and Verses

Table of Parallel Passages

Chart of Hebrew Characters and Their Encoding

WH Volume I

• Title Page

• Text of the New Testament

• Names of the Books

• Authors' Postscript

• Notation

• Summary of Contents of Introduction

• List of Readings Noticed in the Appendix

• Quotations from the Old Testament

Sigla and Abbreviations

Table of Variances in Chapters and Verses

Table of Parallel Passages

WH Volume II

• Title Page

• Contents of Introduction

• Introduction

• Appendix

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About this site

This site presents the Holy Scriptures in their original languages.  The division of the Hebrew and Greek texts into paragraphs, as well as the indentations of the Greek text, is according to the printed text of NW.   

At present, this site contains the Greek text established by Westcott and Hort (Vol. I, 1881 edition). In the near future, hopefully, the postscript in Volume I, as well as the Introduction and Appendix contained in Volume II, will be added.

The Hebrew text is based on Codex B19^A (1008 C.E.), the audio files for which were obtained from another site on the internet and for which no copyright was claimed.  These audio files were incomplete in many instances and patches have been made to perfect the narration. Extensive work is presently underway to correct the instances where the Meteg Right is not placed properly in the text.  Please check this site frequently for amendments and additions.  A progress chart is being provided so that you can follow our progress. 

An enormous effort has been made by the contributors to this site to ensure that the texts are reproduced as accurately as possible. It would be greatly appreciated if the reader would draw our attention to any errors which may be discovered in the texts.

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General background of the Holy Scriptures

Originally, the books of the Hebrew Scriptures were usually written without titles. The first five books were named after their opening word(s). Samuel, Kings, Chronicles, and Ezra/Nehemiah were each one book.

Division into Chapters and Verses in the Printed Texts

Printed Hebrew Text

During the times of the Masoretes the Hebrew text was divided in verses, but these were not numbered. The first printed Hebrew text to introduce the division into chapters and verses was the second Polyglot at Antwerp, 1569-72, and this division was used in the subsequent editions, including BHK and BHS.

Printed Text of Greek Septuagint

The Sixtine edition of 1587 divided the Greek Septuagint into chapters only. Subsequent editions divided it into chapters and verses, but these editions are widely at variance in this regard. On this site the Greek Septuagint refers to "Septuaginta. Id est Vetus Testamentum graece iuxta LXX interpretes" edidit Alfred Rahlfs, editio octava, Stuttgart, 1935.

Printed Greek Text of the NT

Robert Estienne (Stephanus), a printer and editor in Paris, used the division into chapters and verses in his edition of the Greek New Testament printed in 1551 (with the Latin translation of Erasmus and the Latin Vulgate). All  subsequent editions of the Greek text (including WH, NA, and UBS) are based on this division.

Printed Text of the Latin Vulgate

The division of the entire Bible into chapters and verses was used in the Latin Vulgate printed in 1555 at Geneva by Stephanus. This division was used in the second Polyglot Bible printed at Antwerp, 1569-1572, and adopted in the Clementine edition, 1592, and in subsequent editions of the Latine Vulgate. On this site the Latin Vulgate refers to "Biblia sacra iuxta Vulgatam versionem" prepared by Robert Weber, 3rd edition, Stuttgart, 1983.

Printed Text of the English Versions

The division into chapters and verses used by Stephanus in 1551 for the Greek and Latin New Testament and in 1555 for the entire Bible of the Latin Vulgate was adopted for the NT printed in English at Geneva in 1557 and for the entire Bible printed in English at Geneva in 1560. This division into chapters and verses has been used since that time for subsequent English versions, including RSV and NW. However, variances occur in the divisions of the chapters and verses between the English version and the Hebrew, Greek, and Latin texts, and such are indicated in the Tables of Variances.

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Fonts

Fonts for the Greek Text

To view the content pages a Unicode compliant font which includes the extended Greek characters (1F00–1FFF) is required. The Arial Unicode MS font, which comes with Microsoft Office 2000, was used to prepare this site for the Greek text. Microsoft no longer offers this font as a free download. However, if you download Titus Cyberbit or Cardo or Porson, you can set it as the default font for Internet Explorer by going to Tools > Internet Options > Fonts and setting one of these as the default font for your Web Page Font. Cardo and Porson are free to download. Titus Cyberbit is available for free download if you are intending to use it for your personal, non-commercial use.

Fonts for the Hebrew Text with Cantillation Marks

The normal Hebrew fonts supplied by Microsoft with the Internet Explorer browser do not support cantillation marks or even some of the standard non-cantillation marks of Hebrew. If you see outline blocks between the letters instead of cantillation marks, you need to install a special Unicode font that does support Hebrew fully. The font that was used to prepare this site for the Hebrew text is the Ezra SIL SR font which is available for download at:

http://www.sil.org/computing/fonts/silhebruni/index.htm.

Upgrading the USP10.DLL

The normal versions of the Unicode Script Processor (usp10.dll), also referred to as Uniscribe, do a poor job of rendering some passages of Hebrew with cantillation marks. However, you can download a much better version for free from http://www.mechon-mamre.org/c/c.htm#usp10.dll, along with installation instructions.  It is also very important that usp10.dll be placed in your browser's folder.

Hebrew Support in Internet Explorer

To see all of this site as it is intended to be seen, we recommend Microsoft's Internet Explorer version 5.0 (IE5) or later for Windows 95 or later, for which fine Hebrew support is supplied either on installation or as an update. If you have IE5 or later, but it does not show our Hebrew correctly, first check that you have set the browser to choose the right encoding automatically: click on View on the menu at the top of the screen, and then on Encoding, and ensure that Auto-Select is checked; if it is not, do check it. If that still does not work, you presumably need to download the free Hebrew support package: click on Tools on the menu at the top of the screen, and then on Windows Update; when you get to the Windows Update site, click on Product Updates, and when you finally get the list of possible updates (which may take a long time), scroll down to the Hebrew support and get it. 

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None of the material available on this site may be used in any form without the express permission of holy-scriptures.org.