You will sometimes have to decline the names of Bible books such as when saying “an incident from Genesis”. To do that you will need to know their genders.
Names of Bible books can be masculine, feminine, neuter, or even plural.
For most Hebrew Scripture books the gender can be determined from the last letter. Thus Бытые is neuter. Исход is masculine.
Numbers is Числа which is the plural of число. “From Numbers” would be “из Чисел”.
Judges is Судей which is the genitive plural of Судья. This is because it is the Book of Judges. It cannot be declined further, so “from Judges” is “Из Судей”
Летопись is of the third declension. Thus, “From First Chronicles” is “Из первой Летописи”.
Psalms is Псалмы in the New World Translation. A Psalm is Псалом.
The book of Proverbs is “Притчи” which is the plural of “притча”. “From Proverbs” is “из Притч”.
Acts is Деяния which is the plural of деяние. “From Acts” is “из Деяний”
In the Greek Scriptures the short names of the gospels and the letters are indeclinable. This is because the word which would be declined (such as “good news” or “letter”) is omitted leaving only a modifier. In the examples below the indeclinable short name is underlined:
Благая весть в изложении Матфея
Первое письмо коринфянам
How to Read Chapter and Verse Citations
If the name of the book starts with a number, it must be pronounced as an ordinal. Its gender should match that of the word it modifies in the full title of the book (as shown on the title page of the book).
The chapter number may be stated either as a cardinal or as an ordinal. If it is an ordinal it must be feminine because the word глава is feminine.
If however you use an ordinal number to refer to a Psalm (rather than calling it a chapter), you must use to masculine form of the ordinal because the word псалом is masculine.
The verse number may also be either cardinal or ordinal. If it is ordinal it must be masculine to match стих.
Verse ranges should be stated using ordinal numbers and the prepositions с and по. For example: “с первого по десятый стих”.
Examples
Зачитайте Исход пятнадцать три.
Зачитайте первую Летопись главу 5 стих один.
Зачитайте второе Тимофею главу семь с первого по третий стих.
Из Чисел главы тринадцать мы знаем...
Вы помните случай из первой Летописи двадцать первой главы?
Chapter and Verse Numbering
The New World Translation in Russian, like the English edition, uses the chapter and verse divisions of the King James Version. The division of the Russian Synodal Bible differs in a few places. In particular the Psalms are divided differently. A few simple rules will help you to find the desired verse:
The chapter numbering is the same for Psalms 1 through 8.
Psalms 9 and 10 are combined as Psalm 9. After that you must subtract one from the chapter number to get the chapter number in the Russian Synodal Bible.
Psalm 147 is split into Psalms 146 and 147. After that the chapter numbering is the same again.
If there is a superscription, it will be verse 1. Most of the time verse 1 will become verse 2, but sometimes it will be combined with the superscription as verse 1.
Book Order
In the Russian Synodal Bible the letters of Paul come after all of the other letters rather than before them.
Book Names
There are some differences between the way books are named in the Russian New World Translation and in the Russian Synodal Bible.
< Grammar 23—Bible Citations