diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index 0718e50..cc1eb57 100644
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -11,6 +11,8 @@
         (srobbins99: Issue #68 Comment 1)
       - bug fix: fix for memory error is the required-field check fails.
         See Issue #63 for demo (w/ nice test case by dror.harari).
+      - add PROTOBUF_C_{MAJOR,MINOR} for compile-time checks and
+        protobuf_c_{major,minor} for checks about the running library. (Issue #53)
 
 0.15:
       - make protobuf_c_message_init() into a function (Issue #49, daveb)
diff --git a/Makefile.am b/Makefile.am
index 903dbec..3658de1 100644
--- a/Makefile.am
+++ b/Makefile.am
@@ -5,6 +5,9 @@ EXTRA_DIST = scripts pkgwriteinfo.in CMakeLists.txt LICENSE
 pkgconfigdir = $(libdir)/pkgconfig
 pkgconfig_DATA = libprotobuf-c.pc
 
+dist-hook:
+	scripts/assert-version-numbers-match
+
 # --- packages ---
 DEBARCH = `dpkg --print-architecture`
 deb:
diff --git a/scripts/assert-version-numbers-match b/scripts/assert-version-numbers-match
new file mode 100755
index 0000000..b510558
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scripts/assert-version-numbers-match
@@ -0,0 +1,47 @@
+#! /usr/bin/perl
+
+my $srcdir = $ENV{srcdir} || ".";
+
+# get numbers from ChangeLog
+open IN, "<$srcdir/ChangeLog" or die "error opening $srcdir/ChangeLog";
+my $line = scalar(<IN>);
+if ($line =~ /\d+\.\d+ \((NOT.*)\)/) {
+  die "ChangeLog still bears $1 (line 1)";
+}
+if ($line !~ /^(\d+\.\d+):\s*/) {
+  die "ChangeLog parse error (line 1)";
+}
+my $changelog_version = $1;
+
+# get numbers from protobuf-c.h
+open IN, "<$srcdir/src/google/protobuf-c/protobuf-c.h" or die "error opening $srcdir/src/google/protobuf-c/protobuf-c.h";
+while (<IN>)
+{
+  if (/^\#define\s+PROTOBUF_C_MAJOR\s+(\d+)\s*$/)
+    { $c_major = $1; }
+  if (/^\#define\s+PROTOBUF_C_MINOR\s+(\d+)\s*$/)
+    { $c_minor = $1; }
+}
+if (!defined $c_minor || !defined $c_major)
+  { die "missing PROTOBUF_C_MINOR or PROTOBUF_C_MAJOR in protobuf-c.h" }
+$c_version = "$c_major.$c_minor";
+
+# get numbers from configure.ac
+open IN, "<$srcdir/configure.ac" or die "error opening $srcdir/configure.ac";
+my $line = scalar(<IN>);
+die "first line of configure.ac did not match our expectations"
+     unless $line =~ /AC_INIT\(\[protobuf-c\], \[(\d+\.\d+)\]\)/;
+my $configure_version = $1;
+
+
+if ($c_version ne $configure_version || $c_version ne $changelog_version)
+{
+  print STDERR <<"EOF";
+Versions mismatched:
+  from configure.ac      $configure_version
+  from ChangeLog         $changelog_version
+  from protobuf-c.h      $c_version
+EOF
+  exit(1);
+}
+exit(0);
diff --git a/src/google/protobuf-c/protobuf-c.c b/src/google/protobuf-c/protobuf-c.c
index c8e84b5..20e7d8b 100644
--- a/src/google/protobuf-c/protobuf-c.c
+++ b/src/google/protobuf-c/protobuf-c.c
@@ -75,6 +75,9 @@
 
 #include "protobuf-c.h"
 
+unsigned protobuf_c_major = PROTOBUF_C_MAJOR;
+unsigned protobuf_c_minor = PROTOBUF_C_MINOR;
+
 #define MAX_UINT64_ENCODED_SIZE 10
 
 /* convenience macros */
diff --git a/src/google/protobuf-c/protobuf-c.h b/src/google/protobuf-c/protobuf-c.h
index a36710b..731abca 100644
--- a/src/google/protobuf-c/protobuf-c.h
+++ b/src/google/protobuf-c/protobuf-c.h
@@ -59,6 +59,14 @@
 #define PROTOBUF_C_DEPRECATED
 #endif
 
+/* The version of protobuf-c you are compiling against. */
+#define PROTOBUF_C_MAJOR                0
+#define PROTOBUF_C_MINOR                14
+
+/* The version of protobuf-c you are linking against. */
+extern unsigned protobuf_c_major;
+extern unsigned protobuf_c_minor;
+
 /* Define int32_t, int64_t, uint32_t, uint64_t, uint8_t.
 
    Usually, just include <inttypes.h> to do the work.