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Psalm 118:8 is NOT the cerntre of the Bible.
The Psalm 118:8 "centre" comes from someone incorrectly identifying 118 as the centre chapter and then asserting that verse 8 as the centre verse of the centre chapter. However, on the first point, it is easy to see that someone miscounted. 117 is actually the centre chapter in the Bible.
Secondly, 118 has 29 verses, making 8 the incorrect "centre of the cantre."
There are two reasons why these incorrect numbers are so widely reported. One is that an e-mail with this information became widely distributed a long time ago, in a way that is similar to how virus hoaxes are perpetuated (i.e., "pass this along to everyone you know"). It has been shown repeatedly that people will forward information without verifying its validity. The second reason is that other "statistics" were included in the e-mail, supposedly showing a general pattern of "1188" comes through counting chapters. The claim is that this pattern shows the "perfection" of the Bible. Unfortunately, all of this is based on faulty maths!
Ironically, Psalm 118:8 speaks to trusting God rather than man. We can only guess about the person who sent the original message. If someone attempted to "prove" the validity of Scripture through numerology, they only proved this verse by coming up with the wrong answer through human error.
Of course, the correct proof of Scripture is in the historical facts, the present changed lives, and the future fulfilment of the remainder of prophecy, not the supposed symmetry of Scripture.
Such faulty logic is further compounded by remembering that the original text did not have chapters or verses. On the other hand, if the person was malicious, they probably set out to "prove" that Christians are gullible. I doubt that Christians are any more gullible than anyone else, but perhaps it shows that we are not as careful with information about our most important book as we could be. It might also show that we focus too much on trivial information
If we wish to use chapters and verses to establish the centre point of the Bible it seems that Psalm 103:1 (the 15551st verse) "Bless the LORD, O my soul, And all that is within me, bless His holy name." is the centre verse and Psalm 117 (the 595th chapter) is the centre verse of the Bible.
The Psalm 118:8 "centre" comes from someone incorrectly identifying 118 as the centre chapter and then asserting that verse 8 as the centre verse of the centre chapter. However, on the first point, it is easy to see that someone miscounted. 117 is actually the centre chapter in the Bible.
Secondly, 118 has 29 verses, making 8 the incorrect "centre of the cantre."
There are two reasons why these incorrect numbers are so widely reported. One is that an e-mail with this information became widely distributed a long time ago, in a way that is similar to how virus hoaxes are perpetuated (i.e., "pass this along to everyone you know"). It has been shown repeatedly that people will forward information without verifying its validity. The second reason is that other "statistics" were included in the e-mail, supposedly showing a general pattern of "1188" comes through counting chapters. The claim is that this pattern shows the "perfection" of the Bible. Unfortunately, all of this is based on faulty maths!
Ironically, Psalm 118:8 speaks to trusting God rather than man. We can only guess about the person who sent the original message. If someone attempted to "prove" the validity of Scripture through numerology, they only proved this verse by coming up with the wrong answer through human error.
Of course, the correct proof of Scripture is in the historical facts, the present changed lives, and the future fulfilment of the remainder of prophecy, not the supposed symmetry of Scripture.
Such faulty logic is further compounded by remembering that the original text did not have chapters or verses. On the other hand, if the person was malicious, they probably set out to "prove" that Christians are gullible. I doubt that Christians are any more gullible than anyone else, but perhaps it shows that we are not as careful with information about our most important book as we could be. It might also show that we focus too much on trivial information
If we wish to use chapters and verses to establish the centre point of the Bible it seems that Psalm 103:1 (the 15551st verse) "Bless the LORD, O my soul, And all that is within me, bless His holy name." is the centre verse and Psalm 117 (the 595th chapter) is the centre verse of the Bible.