The story of how divisions and punctuation were added to the Hebrew, Greek, and English Bible is fascinating and complex. All chapter and verse divisions were added centuries, even millennia, after it was originally written. (Punctuation was also added long after the original authors were dead.) Chapter numbers were created in the early 1200s by Stephen Langton, a University of Paris professor and Archbishop of Canterbury. Arabic verse numbers (e.g., 1, 2, 3) and verse divisions were added to printed Bibles in 1551. These divisions were added to aid readers in locating texts. Imagine trying to find where Jesus healed the blind man or Isaiah prophesied the destruction of Leviathan without chapter or verse divisions! Or think of creating a concordance without such references! Here’s the basic story of these divisions in the Hebrew Bible, the Greek New Testament, and the English Bible.
The Hebrew Bible (OT) was composed between 1400–400 BC. In Dead Sea manuscripts dating to 100 BC, we find only paragraph divisions. Blank lines were sometimes added between paragraphs to indicate breaks in thought. Scribes called Masoretes added “periods” to the end of each “line” by the AD 900s. Around 1330, Rabbi Solomon ben Ismael used the chapter numbers created by Stephen Langton in the margin of the Hebrew Bible he produced. Verse numbers weren’t added until 1571 when Arius Montanus added Arabic numbers into the text of his printed polyglot Bible known as the Antwerp Bible or Plantin Polyglot. Most modern Hebrew Bibles continue to follow these chapter and verse divisions (which are different from our English divisions in over 40 places).
The Greek New Testament was composed between AD 45–100. Originally, it had no chapter or verse divisions. Neither did it have punctuation, capitalization, or even spaces between the words (example)! Early in the life of the Church, the gospels and epistles were broken into various sections called pericopes or lections for reading in churches. However, these sections do not correspond to modern chapter divisions. In 1516, Erasmus included Stephen Langton’s chapter numbers in the margins of his first printed Greek New Testament. By 1535, he had marked verses with an asterisk in the text and placed Greek letters as numbers in the margin. Arabic numbers were first used to mark verses in Robert Estienne’s 1551 Greek-Latin New Testament.
The Greek New Testament did not have punctuation, capitalization, or even spaces between the words!
The English New Testament was first printed by William Tyndale in 1526. He included Stephen Langton’s chapter numbers and separated each chapter with a blank line and chapter title. The text of each chapter was arranged in paragraphs, without verse numbers of any kind. In 1535 Miles Coverdale added capital letters to the margin of every two paragraphs for easier reference. In 1560, the Geneva Bible was the first English Bible to have separate numbered verses that each begin a new line. The 1568 Bishop’s Bible and 1611 King James Version both adopted the Geneva Bible’s layout with divided chapters and separate numbered verses.
The benefits of these divisions are well-known; the dangers are less so. Dividing the text by verses has led many to treat each verse as a stand-alone unit. The Book of Proverbs has stand-alone sentence sayings (Prov. 10–21). Yet, not all proverbs are single sentences. Proverbs 2 is one sentence in Hebrew that has been divided into 22 lines. Ephesians 1:3–14 is one sentence in Greek. Beware assuming verses are separable truth nuggets and taking them out of their context.
Chapter divisions break up long texts into manageable reading units. But, beware thinking that the “end of a chapter” is the end of a thought unit, or that reading a “chapter” has special spiritual significance. Sometimes a chapter contains two or three thought units (e.g., Isaiah 30). Other times chapter divisions occur inside a thought unit. For example, verse one of 1 Corinthians 11 belongs with the previous thought unit (1 Cor. 10:23–11:1). Finally, remember, all punctuation was added by editors and is not inspired.
Adapted from the God’s Revivalist. Used by permission.
