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Bible verses, passages, quotes, or quotations?

Posted: Mon Apr 23, 2018 7:20 am
by Kenneth Greifer
I am just curious what is the difference if any between the words verses, passages, quotes, or quotations? For some reason, Bible quotes, as I like to say, are called verses or passages, but never quotes. Why not quotes?

Kenneth Greifer

Re: Bible verses, passages, quotes, or quotations?

Posted: Mon Apr 23, 2018 3:14 pm
by kwrandolph
Kenneth Greifer wrote:I am just curious what is the difference if any between the words verses, passages, quotes, or quotations? For some reason, Bible quotes, as I like to say, are called verses or passages, but never quotes. Why not quotes?

Kenneth Greifer
Dear Kenneth:

I think that there are a few reasons for “verses” and “passages”:

• tradition

• often paraphrased rather than a direct quote

• probably the most important, instead of quoting the original, the verses are referenced in translation.

“Verses” refer to individual verses, “passages” to groups of verses.

Interesting, we carry over “verses” and “passages” from English to Hebrew and Greek where we do quote.

Karl W. Randolph.

Re: Bible verses, passages, quotes, or quotations?

Posted: Mon Apr 23, 2018 9:44 pm
by Kenneth Greifer
Karl,

I am just curious. Do you think it is wrong to say "Hebrew Bible quotes" because a Bible scholar told me I was wrong to use the word "quotes"? I actually read an article that said that the word "quote" is considered to be slang and the word "quotation" is preferred by educated people, even though the word "quote" has been used for 100 years according to that article.

Re: Bible verses, passages, quotes, or quotations?

Posted: Mon Apr 23, 2018 11:59 pm
by S_Walch
Sounds to me like the BS is being somewhat overtly pedantic with that, Kenneth. Or snobbish. Whichever you prefer.

Re: Bible verses, passages, quotes, or quotations?

Posted: Wed Apr 25, 2018 2:41 am
by talmid56
I would agree with S Walch on the term "quotes", Kenneth. And educated people use slang all the time. It depends on audience and the speaker's style. I preach and teach (and write on my blog) in a semi-conversational style for the most part. Using a slang term in that context is often appropriate. Slang is just informal as opposed to formal register. Most Bible scholars are not trained in linguistics, so that one is either unaware of or doesn't understand these issues.

As for "passage", that can include as little as a single verse, or as much as a paragraph or even a whole chapter. Though typically it is used to refer to a block of text longer than a single verse.

Dewayne Dulaney