Chapters and Verses in the Bible

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{{Bible related}}

Versification is the process by which a text such as the Bible is divided into chapters and verses. The Bible was originally written without these, and thus versification forms part of the Bible's paratext.

=== Versification Schemes===

Each [[Biblical Canon]] includes a different set of [[books of the Bible|books]] of the [[Bible]]. How these books are named, and numbered, depends upon the specific Canon, and, consequently, versification scheme that is used.



that are considered [[Biblical canon|canonical]] number 24 for [[Judaism|Jews]], 66 for [[Protestantism|Protestants]], 73 for [[Roman Catholic Church|Catholics]], and 78 for most [[Orthodox Christianity|Orthodox]] Christians. The Jewish [[Tanakh#Books of the Tanakh|Tanakh]] matches the text recognised by Protestants as the [[Old Testament]], but the latter counts the twelve minor prophets as being twelve separate books instead of one book; divides Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles into two parts instead of one book each; and maintains separate books for Ezra and Nehemiah, which are together in the traditional Tanakh numbering. Roman Catholic and Orthodox Churches also recognise certain [[deuterocanonical books]] as part of the [[Biblical canon]]. In addition to these, many [[translations of the Bible|versions of the Bible]] contain books which have not necessarily been considered canonical by their publishers, called [[Biblical apocrypha|apocrypha]]. All these books vary in length from a single page of modern type to dozens of pages. All but the shortest are divided into [[chapter (books)|chapter]]s, generally a page or so in length.

Each is further divided into verses of a few short lines or sentences - sometimes a sentence spans more than one verse, as in the case of {{bibleref|Ephesians|2:8-9|KJV}} - and sometimes there is more than one sentence in a single verse, as in the case of {{bibleref|Genesis|1:2|KJV}}. ''Pasuk'' (plural ''pesukim'') is the Hebrew term for verse.

The [[Tanakh#Chapters and verse numbers, book divisions|Jewish divisions of the Hebrew text]] differ at various points from those used by Christians. For instance, in Jewish tradition, the ascriptions to many [[Psalms]] are regarded as independent verses, making 116 more verses, whereas the established Christian practice is to count and number each Psalm ascription together with the first verse following it. Some chapter divisions also occur in different places, e.g. {{bibleverse|1|Chronicles|5:27-41|HE}} in Hebrew Bibles is numbered as {{bibleverse|1|Chronicles|6:1-15|NIV}} in Christian translations.

==History==
===Chapters===
The original Hebrew manuscripts did not contain the chapter and verse divisions in the numbered form familiar to modern readers. Some portions of the original texts were logically divided into parts following the [[Hebrew alphabet]]{{Citation needed|date=June 2011}}; for instance, the earliest known copies of the [[book of Isaiah]] use Hebrew letters for paragraph divisions. (This was different from the [[acrostic]] structure of certain texts following the Hebrew alphabet, such as Psalm 119 and most of the [[book of Lamentations]].) There are other divisions from various sources which are different from what we use today.

The [[Hebrew Bible]] began to be put into sections before the [[Babylonian Captivity]] (586 BC){{Citation needed|date=May 2011}} with the [[Torah|five books of Moses]] being put into a 154-section reading program to be used in a three-year cycle. Later (before 536 BC{{Citation needed|date=May 2011}}) the Law was put into [[Parsha|54 sections and 669 sub-divisions for reading]].

By the time of the [[First Council of Nicaea|Council of Nicaea]] in 325 AD, the New Testament had been divided into paragraphs, although the divisions were different from the modern Bible.

An important canon of the New Testament was proclaimed by [[Pope Damasus I]] in the Roman synod of 374. Pope Damasus also induced [[Jerome]], a priest from Antioch, to undertake his famous translation of the entire Bible, both Old and New Testaments, from [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]] and [[Greek (language)|Greek]] into [[Latin]], the official language of the [[Roman Empire]] at the time. This translation is known as the [[Vulgate]]. The Church continued to finance the very expensive process of copying and providing copies of the Bible to local churches and communities from that point up to and beyond the invention of the printing press, which greatly reduced the cost of producing copies of the Scriptures.

Churchmen Archbishop [[Stephen Langton]] and Cardinal [[Hugo de Sancto Caro]] determined different schemas for systematic division of the Bible in the early 13th century. It is the system of Archbishop Langton on which the modern chapter divisions are based.[http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07175a.htm Hebrew Bible] article in the ''[[Catholic Encyclopedia]]''.

===Verses===

It is presently unknown how early the Hebrew verse divisions were incorporated into the books that comprise the [[Biblical canon]].{{Citation needed|date=June 2011}} However, it is beyond dispute that for at least a thousand years the [[Tanakh]] has contained an extensive system of multiple levels of section, paragraph, and phrasal divisions that were indicated in [[Masoretic]] vocalization and cantillation markings. One of the most frequent of these was a special type of punctuation, the ''sof passuq'', symbol for a full stop or sentence break, resembling the colon mark (:) of English and Latin orthography. With the advent of the printing press and the translation of the [[Bible]] into English, Old Testament versifications were made that correspond predominantly with the existing Hebrew full stops, with a few isolated exceptions. A product of meticulous labour and unwearying attention, the Old Testament verse divisions stand today in essentially the same places as they have been passed down since antiquity. Most attribute these to Rabbi [[Isaac Nathan ben Kalonymus]]'s work for the first Hebrew [[Bible concordance]] around 1440.Moore, G.F. [http://www.jstor.org/pss/3259119 The Vulgate Chapters and Numbered Verses in the Hebrew Bible] at [[JSTOR]].

The first person to divide New Testament chapters into verses was Italian Dominican biblical scholar [[Santi Pagnini]] (1470–1541), but his system was never widely adopted.{{cite book|title=The Bible: A History|author=Miller, Stephen M., Huber, Robert V.|year=2004|publisher=Good Books|isbn=1561484148|page=173}} [[Robert Estienne]] created an alternate numbering in his 1551 edition of the Greek New Testament [http://www.biblestudymagazine.com/interactive/chaptersverses/ "Chapters and Verses: Who Needs Them?,"] Christopher R. Smith, Bible Study Magazine (July-Aug 2009): 46-47., which was also used in his 1553 publication of the Bible in French.

The first English New Testament to use the verse divisions was a 1557 translation by [[William Whittingham]] (c. 1524-1579).
The first Bible in English to use both chapters and verses was the [[Geneva Bible]] published shortly afterwards in 1560. These verse divisions soon gained acceptance as a standard way to notate verses, and have since been used in nearly all English Bibles.

==Jewish tradition==

The [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]] [[Masoretic text]] of the Bible notes several different kinds of subdivisions within the biblical books:

===Verse endings===

Most importantly are the verse endings. According to the [[Talmud]]ic tradition, the division of the text into verses is of ancient origin. In masoretic versions of the Bible, the end of a verse is indicated by a small mark in its final word called a ''silluq'' (which means "stop"). Less formally, verse endings are usually also indicated by a two horizontal dots following the word with a ''silluq''.

===Parashot===

{{main|Parashah}}

The Masoretic textual tradition also contains section endings called ''[[Parashah|parashot]]'', which are usually indicated by a space within a line (a "closed" section) or a new line beginning (an "open" section). The division of the text reflected in the ''parashot'' is usually thematic. Unlike chapters the ''parashot'' are not numbered, but some of them have special titles.

In early manuscripts (most importantly in [[Tiberian vocalization|Tiberian]] Masoretic manuscripts, such as the [[Aleppo codex]]) an "open" section may also be represented by a blank line, and a "closed" section by a new line that is slightly indented (the preceding line may also not be full). These latter conventions are no longer used in Torah scrolls and printed [[Hebrew Bible]]s. In this system the one rule differentiating "open" and "closed" sections is that "open" sections must ''always'' begin at the beginning of a new line, while "closed" sections ''never'' start at the beginning of a new line.

===Sedarim===

Another division of the biblical books found in the masoretic text is the division of the ''[[Seder|sedarim]]''. This division is not thematic, but is almost entirely based upon the ''quantity'' of text. For the [[Torah]], this division reflects the triennial cycle of reading that was practiced by the Jews of Babylon.

===Absence of chapters===

The current division of the Bible into chapters and the verse numbers within the chapters has no basis in any ancient textual tradition.{{Citation needed|date=June 2011}} Rather, they are medieval Christian inventions. They were later adopted by many Jews as well, as technical references within the Hebrew text. Such technical references became crucial to medieval rabbis in the historical context of forced debates with Christian clergy (who used the chapter and verse numbers), especially in late medieval Spain.See [[Spanish Inquisition]].

The earliest extant Jewish manuscript to note the chapter divisions dates from 1330, and the first printed edition was in 1516 (several earlier masoretic Bibles did not note the chapters).

Since then, all printed Hebrew Bibles note the chapter and verse numbers out of practical necessity. However, ever since the 1961 [[Koren Publishers Jerusalem|Koren]] edition, most Jewish editions of the Bible have made a systematic effort to relegate chapter and verse numbers to the margins of the text, as an indication that they are foreign to the masoretic tradition.

==Christian versions==

The Byzantines also introduced a form of chapter division, called ''kephalaia'' (literally meaning ''headings''). It is not identical to the present chapters. Unlike the modern chapters, which tend to be of roughly similar length, the ''kephalaia'' divisions varied greatly in length both within a book (the [[Sermon on the Mount]], comprising three chapters in the modern system, was but one ''kephalaion'', while the modern chapter 8 of the [[Gospel of Matthew]] was divided into several ''kephalaia'') and from one book to the next (there were far fewer ''kephalaia'' in the [[Gospel of John]] than in the [[Gospel of Mark]], even though the latter is the shorter text).

Cardinal [[Hugh of St Cher|Hugo de Sancto Caro]] is often given credit for first dividing the [[Latin Vulgate]] into chapters, but it is the arrangement of his contemporary and fellow cardinal [[Stephen Langton]] who in 1205 created the chapter divisions which are used today. They were then inserted into Greek manuscripts of the New Testament in the 15th century. [[Robert Estienne]] (Robert Stephanus) was the first to number the verses within each chapter, his verse numbers entering printed editions in 1551 (New Testament) and 1571 (Hebrew Bible).[http://www.theexaminer.org/history/chap6.htm The Examiner].

The division of the Bible into chapters and verses has often elicited severe criticism from traditionalists and modern scholars alike. Critics charge that the text is often divided into chapters in an incoherent way, or at inappropriate rhetorical points, and that it encourages citing passages out of context, in effect turning the Bible into a kind of textual quarry for clerical citations. The arbitrary division of the new testament into verses in the 16th century is sometimes mistakenly interpreted as if the placement of this verse numbering system were equivalent to a placement of logical pauses (commas) or full stops (periods). Nevertheless, the chapter divisions and verse numbers have become indispensable as technical references for Bible study.

==Statistics==
Except where stated, the following apply to the [[King James Version]] of the Bible in its modern Protestant form, including the New Testament but not the [[Deuterocanonical books]]. The number of words can vary depending upon aspects, such as whether the Hebrew alphabet in Psalm 119 or the superscriptions listed in some of the Psalms and New Testament are included.
;Chapters
* There are 929 chapters in the [[Old Testament]] and 260 chapters in the [[New Testament]]. This gives a total of 1,189 chapters (on average, 18 per book).
* {{bibleverse||Psalm|117|HE}} is the middle chapter of the Bible, being the 595th Chapter.[http://www.breakthechain.org/exclusives/midbible.html The Center of the Bible] at BreakTheChain.org
* Psalm 117 is also the shortest chapter of the Bible.
* {{bibleverse||Psalm|119|HE}} is the longest chapter of the Bible.
;Verses
* There are 23,145 verses in the Old Testament and 7,957 verses in the New Testament. This gives a total of 31,102 verses,[http://www.blueletterbible.org/study/misc/66books.html Number of chapters and verses in each book] at BlueLetterBible.org which is an average of a little more than 26 verses per chapter.
* Contrary to popular belief, Psalm 118 does not contain the middle verse of the Bible. The King James Version has an even number of verses (31,102), with the two middle verses being {{bibleverse||Psalm|103:1-2|HE}}.[http://www.biblebelievers.com/believers-org/kjv-stats.html King James Bible Statistics] at BibleBelievers.com
* {{bibleverse|1|Chronicles|1:25|HE}} ("Eber, Peleg, Reu") is the shortest verse in the Old Testament.
* The shortest verse in the [[Novum Testamentum Graece|Greek New Testament]] is {{bibleverse||Luke|20:30}} ("και ο δευτερος", "And the second") with twelve letters, according to the [[The New Testament in the Original Greek|Westcott and Hort]] text. In the [[Textus Receptus]], the shortest verse is {{bibleverse|1|Thessalonians|5:16}} ("παντοτε χαιρετε", "Rejoice always") with fourteen letters,[http://www.bible.org/page.php?page_id=5585 First Thessalonians 5:12-28], [[John Walvoord]] at Bible.org since [[Robert Estienne|Stephanus]]' rendering of Luke 20:30 includes some additional words.[http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=luke%2020:30&version=TR1550;WHNU Luke 20:30], in the 1550 [[Robert Estienne|Stephanus]] New Testament and the 1881 [[The New Testament in the Original Greek|Westcott-Hort]] New Testament.
* {{bibleref|Isaiah|10:8}} ("''Dicet enim''") is the shortest verse in the Latin [[Vulgate]].[http://www.latinvulgate.com/verse.aspx?t=0&b=27&c=10 Isaias 10] at LatinVulgate.com
* {{bibleref|John|11:35}} ("[[Jesus wept]]") is the shortest verse in most English translations. Some translations — including the New International Version, New Living Translation, New Life Version, Holman Christian Standard Bible and New International Reader's Version — render {{bibleverse||Job|3:2|HE}} as "He said". However, this is a translators' condensation of the Hebrew which literally translated is "And Job answered and said."
* {{bibleverse||Esther|8:9|HE}} is the longest verse in the Masoretic Text. The discovery of several manuscripts at [[Qumran]] (in the [[Dead Sea Scrolls]]) has reopened what is considered the most original text of 1 Samuel 11; if one believes that those manuscripts better preserve the text, several verses in 1 Samuel 11 surpass Esther 8:9 in length.

* Using numbers of pages in the CUV/ESV Bible, the New Testament comprises 22.7% of the Bible.

==See also==
* [[List of omitted Bible verses]]
* [[Parashah]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
*[http://www.crosswire.org/bsisg/download.htm STEP Documentation]
*[http://www.ccel.org/refsys/refsys.html OSIS Documentation]
*[http://www.crosswire.org/wiki/Alternate_Versification Alternate Versification]

{{Books of the Bible}}

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