Except for the Book of Psalms, the original manuscripts of the Bible books were not divided into chapters and verses. “The Psalms are, by their structure, naturally divided into verses” (McClintock and Strong, “Authorized Version”). Other Hebrew poetic books and Hebrew poetry in the prophets, for instance, may have been arranged in verses, too.
The apparent motive for the division of Scripture into chapters and verses was to improve navigation throughout the inspired volume. “The division of the Bible into chapters and verses is altogether of human invention, designed to facilitate reference to it” (Easton). However noble those intentions, sometimes the uninspired division of Bible books into chapters and verses hinders rather than aids comprehension. “We must not forget that the Bible was divided into chapters some twelve or thirteen centuries after it was completed, and the men who made the divisions sometimes put asunder what God had most assuredly joined together, and at other times joined together what God had put asunder” (Barnhouse).
The several books of the Old and New Testaments were from an early time divided into chapters. The Pentateuch was divided by the ancient Hebrews into 54 parshioth or sections, one of which was read in the synagogue every Sabbath day (Acts 13:15). These sections were afterwards divided into 669 sidrim or orders of unequal length. The Prophets were divided in somewhat the same manner into haphtaroth or passages.
In the early Latin and Greek versions of the Bible, similar divisions of the several books were made. The New Testament books were also divided into portions of various lengths under different names, such as titles and heads or chapters.
In modern times this ancient example was imitated, and many attempts of the kind were made before the existing division into chapters was fixed. The Latin Bible published by Cardinal Hugo of St. Cher in A.D. 1240 A.D. is generally regarded as the first Bible that was divided into our present chapters, although it appears that some of the chapters were fixed as early as A.D. 1059 A.D.. This division into chapters came gradually to be adopted in the published editions of the Hebrew, with some few variations, and of the Greek Scriptures, and hence of other versions.
(Easton)
Robert Stephens is credited with having divided the New Testament into numbered verses in 1545 (McClintock and Strong, “Verses”). Other historical information, though, credits others about the same time or even a little earlier of doing the same. Initially, these numbered verses appeared in Greek, Latin and French New Testaments. The Geneva Bible, published in 1560, was the first English translation that divided Bible books into chapters and verses (Smith).
As long as one is aware that the chapter and verse divisions are not divine in origin, those divisions assist Bible readers and students of the Bible in navigating the Holy Book. Special care must be exercised in biblical interpretation, though, to guard against misunderstanding God’s revealed will due to chapter divisions or even verse divisions.
Works Cited
Barnhouse, Donald Grey. “Chapter 11 – The Charge Against the Orthodox.” Romans: Expositions of Bible Doctrines. CD-ROM. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1966.
Easton, M.G. “Chapter.” Easton’s Bible Dictonary. CD-ROM. Seattle: Biblesoft, 2006.
McClintock, John and James Strong. McClintock and Strong Encyclopedia. CD-ROM. Grand Rapids: Baker, 1981.
Smith, William. Smith’s Bible Dictionary. CD-ROM. Seattle: Biblesoft, 2006.
