Chapters and verses of the Bible

{{Short description|none}} [[File:John 1.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|The [[Gospel according to John]] – a text showing chapter and verse divisions ([[King James Version]])]] {{Bible-related |AD}}

The original Jewish and Christian Bibles did not have chapter and verse divisions—such divisions forming part of the [[paratext]] of the Bible. Since the early 13th century, most copies and editions of the Bible have presented all but the shortest of the [[books of the Bible|scriptural books]] with divisions into [[chapter (books)|chapters]], generally a page or so in length. Since the mid-16th century, editors have further subdivided each chapter into verses – each consisting of a few short lines or of one or more sentences. Sometimes a sentence spans more than one verse, as in the case of [[Ephesians 2:8]]–[[Ephesians 2:9|9]], and sometimes there is more than one sentence in a single verse, as in the case of [[Genesis 1:2]]. The Jewish divisions of the [[Hebrew Bible|Hebrew text]] differ at various points from those used by [[Christians]]. For instance, Jewish tradition regards the [[Psalms#Superscriptions|ascriptions]] to many [[Psalms]] as independent verses or as parts of the subsequent verses, whereas established Christian practice treats each Psalm ascription as independent and unnumbered, resulting in 116 more verses in Jewish versions than in the Christian texts. Some chapter divisions also occur in different places, e.g. [[Hebrew Bible]]s have [[1 Chronicles 5#Verse numbering|1 Chronicles 5:27–41]]<ref>{{bibleverse|1 Chronicles|5:27–41|HE}}</ref> where Christian translations have [[1 Chronicles 6#Verse numbering|1 Chronicles 6:1–15]].<ref>{{bibleverse|1 Chronicles|6:1–15|KJV}}</ref><ref>[https://www.biblica.com/bible/?osis=niv:1_Chronicles.6:1%E2%80%936:15#footnote-10456a Footnote to 1 Chronicles 6:1]</ref>

==History== ===Chapters=== [[File:Isaiah Wall.jpg|thumb|"...they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks: Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more."{{pb}}—[[Isaiah 2:4]] (KJV), inscribed in a wall across the street from the [[Headquarters of the United Nations]] in New York City]] Early manuscripts of the biblical texts did not contain the chapter and verse divisions in the numbered form familiar to modern readers. In antiquity Hebrew texts were divided into paragraphs ([[parashot]]) that were identified by two letters of the [[Hebrew alphabet]]. ''[[Pe (Semitic letter)|Peh]]'' ({{lang|hbo|פ}}) indicated an "open" paragraph that began on a new line, while ''[[samekh]]'' ({{lang|hbo|ס}}) indicated a "closed" paragraph that began on the same line after a small space.<ref>Ernst Würthwein, ''The Text of the Old Testament'' (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1998), p. 20.</ref> These two letters begin the Hebrew words open ({{tlit|hbo|patuach}}) and closed ({{tlit|hbo|satum}}), and are, themselves, open in shape ({{lang|hbo|פ}}) and closed ({{lang|hbo|ס}}). The earliest known witnesses of the [[Book of Isaiah]] from the [[Dead Sea Scrolls]] used parashot divisions, which differ slightly from the [[Masoretic Text|Masoretic]] divisions.<ref name="Würthwein">Würthwein, ''The Text of the Old Testament'', n. 28.</ref>

The [[Hebrew Bible]] was also divided into some larger sections. In Israel, the [[Torah]] (its first five books) were divided into 154 sections so that they could be read through aloud in weekly worship over the course of three years. In Babylonia, it was divided into 53 or 54 sections ([[Parashat ha-Shavua]]) so it could be read through in one year.<ref name="Würthwein" /> The [[New Testament]] was divided into topical sections known as ''kephalaia'' ('chapters, divisions') by the fourth century.<ref>Singular κεφάλαιον, see under {{LSJ|KEFA/LAIOS|κεφάλαιος|longref}}</ref> [[Eusebius of Caesarea]] divided the gospels into parts that he listed in tables or canons ({{langx|el|κανών}}, {{transliteration|el|kanōn}}). Neither of these systems corresponds with modern chapter divisions.<ref>Kurt and Barbara Aland, ''The Text of the New Testament'' (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans and Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1989), pp. 252 ff.</ref> (See fuller discussions below.)

Chapter divisions, with titles, are also found in the 9th-century Tours manuscript Paris Bibliothèque Nationale MS Lat. 3, the so-called [[Bible of Rorigo]].<ref>{{cite web |url=bibleversehub.org |title=Europeana Regia - Paris Bibliothèque nationale de France MSS Latin 3 |first=Europeana Regia |last=Consortium |date=21 September 2025 }}</ref>

Cardinal archbishop [[Stephen Langton#Chapters of the Bible|Stephen Langton]] and Cardinal [[Hugo de Sancto Caro]] developed 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.<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia |title=Hebrew Bible |url=https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07175a.htm |access-date=2023-05-09 |encyclopedia=Catholic Encyclopedia}}</ref><ref name="Moore" /><ref>{{cite book |first1=Bruce M. |last1=Metzger |author-link1=Bruce M. Metzger |title=The Early Versions of the New Testament: Their Origin, Transmission and Limitations |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1977 |page=347}} Cited in {{cite book |url=http://www.roger-pearse.com/weblog/2013/06/21/stephen-langton-and-the-modern-chapter-divisions-of-the-bible/ |title=Stephen Langton and the modern chapter divisions of the bible |translator-first=Roger |translator-last=Pearse |access-date=21 January 2013}}</ref>

While chapter divisions have become nearly universal, editions of the Bible have sometimes been published without them. Such editions, which typically use thematic or literary criteria to divide the biblical books instead, include [[John Locke|John Locke's]] ''Paraphrase and Notes on the Epistles of St. Paul'' (1707),<ref>London: Awnsham and John Churchill, 1707</ref> [[Alexander Campbell (clergyman)|Alexander Campbell's]] ''The Sacred Writings'' (1826),<ref>1826; repr. Nashville: Gospel Advocate Restoration Reprints, 2001</ref> [[Daniel Berkeley Updike|Daniel Berkeley Updike's]] fourteen-volume ''The Holy Bible Containing the Old and New Testaments and the Apocrypha,'' [[Richard Green Moulton|Richard Moulton's]] ''The Modern Reader's Bible'' (1907),<ref>New York: Macmillan, 1907</ref> [[Ernest Sutherland Bates|Ernest Sutherland Bates's]] ''The Bible Designed to Be Read as Living Literature'' (1936),<ref>New York: Simon and Schuster, 1936</ref> ''[[The Books of the Bible]]'' (2007) from the [[International Bible Society]] ([[Biblica]]), Adam Lewis Greene's five-volume ''[[Bibliotheca (Bible)|Bibliotheca]]'' (2014),<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.bibliotheca.co/ |title=Bibliotheca Multivolume Readers' Bible Homepage |website=BIBLIOTHECA |access-date=2017-10-22}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.theverge.com/2014/7/22/5922855/bibliotheca-bible-kickstarter-campaign-adam-greene-interview |title=The Bible's a mess, but a designer is fixing it |work=The Verge |access-date=2017-10-22}}</ref> and the [[English Standard Version|ESV Reader's Bible]]<ref>{{cite book |url=https://www.crossway.org/bibles/esv-readers-bible-none-tru/ |title=ESV Reader's Bible |date=30 June 2014 |isbn=9781433544125 |last1=Bibles |first1=Crossway |publisher=Crossway}}</ref> (2016) from [[Good News Publishers|Crossway Books]].

===Verses=== [[File: Elias Hutter 1602.jpg|thumb|[[Isaiah 40|Isaiah chapter 40]], verse 8 in Hebrew, Greek, Latin, and German, with the verse analysed word-by-word. In English, this verse is translated "The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God endures forever." (from [[Elias Hutter]], 1602)]] Since at least 916 the [[Tanakh]] has contained an extensive system of multiple levels of section, paragraph, and phrasal divisions that were indicated in [[Masoretic]] vocalization and [[Hebrew cantillation|cantillation markings]]. One of the most frequent of these was a special type of punctuation, the ''[[sof passuq]]'', symbol for a period or sentence break, resembling the [[Colon (punctuation)|colon]] (:) of English and Latin orthography. With the advent of the printing press and the translation of the [[Hebrew Bible]] into English, versifications were made that correspond predominantly with the existing Hebrew sentence breaks, with a few isolated exceptions. Most attribute these to Rabbi [[Isaac Nathan ben Kalonymus]]'s work for the first Hebrew [[Bible concordance]] around 1440.<ref name="Moore">Moore, G.F. [https://www.jstor.org/pss/3259119 The Vulgate Chapters and Numbered Verses in the Hebrew Bible], pages 73–78 at [[JSTOR]]. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/3259119?seq=3 page 75]</ref>

The first person to divide New Testament chapters into verses was the Italian Dominican biblical scholar [[Santes Pagnino]] (1470–1541), but his system was never widely adopted.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Bible: A History |author1=Miller, Stephen M. |author2=Huber, Robert V. |year=2004 |publisher=Good Books |isbn=1-56148-414-8 |page=[https://archive.org/details/biblehistorymaki0000mill/page/173 173] |url=https://archive.org/details/biblehistorymaki0000mill/page/173}}</ref> His verse divisions in the New Testament were far longer than those known today.<ref name="Pitts">{{Cite web |url=http://tools.pitts.emory.edu/Printer/ |title=Pitts Theology Library Exhibit on the Verses of the New Testament}}</ref> The Parisian printer [[Robert Estienne]] created another numbering in his 1551 edition of the Greek New Testament,<ref>{{Cite web |last= |first= |title=Bible Study Magazine |url=https://www.logos.com/grow/bible-study-magazine/ |access-date=2023-05-09 |website=Word by Word |pages=46–47 |language=en-US}}</ref> which was also used in his 1553 publication of the Bible in French. Estienne's system of division was widely adopted, and it is this system which is found in almost all modern Bibles. Estienne produced a 1555 Vulgate that is the first Bible to include the verse numbers integrated into the text. Before this work, they were printed in the margins.<ref name="Pitts" />

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 by [[Rowland Hill (MP)|Sir Rowland Hill]] in 1560.<ref>{{Cite web |last=dseverance |date=2015-12-01 |title=History of the English Bible {{!}} Houston Christian University |url=https://hc.edu/museums/dunham-bible-museum/tour-of-the-museum/english-bible/ |access-date=2026-03-14 |website=hc.edu |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Hatch |first=Trevan |title=Subject Guides: History of the English Bible: Home |url=https://guides.lib.byu.edu/c.php?g=216347&p=1428422 |access-date=2026-03-14 |website=guides.lib.byu.edu |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=When Was the Bible Divided Into Chapter and Verse? |url=https://stpaulcenter.com/posts/when-was-the-bible-divided-into-chapter-and-verse |access-date=2026-03-14 |website=St. Paul Center |language=en-US}}</ref> These verse divisions soon gained acceptance as a standard way to notate verses, and have since been used in nearly all English Bibles and the vast majority of those in other languages.

==Jewish tradition== {{Main|Hebrew Bible}} The [[Masoretic Text]] of the Hebrew Bible notes several different kinds of subdivisions within the biblical books:

===''Passukim''=== Most important are the verses, or ''passukim'' ([[Mishnaic Hebrew|MH]] spelling; now pronounced ''pesukim'' by all speakers). According to [[Talmud]]ic tradition, the division of the text into verses is of ancient origin.<ref>Babylonian Talmud, ''Nedarim'' 37b</ref> In Masoretic versions of the Bible, the end of a verse, or ''[[sof passuk]]'', 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 two vertical dots following the word with a ''silluq''.

===''Parashot''=== The [[Masoretic Text]] also contains sections, or portions, called ''[[Parashah|parashot]]'' or ''parashiyot''. The end of a ''parashah'' is 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 Bibles. In this system, the one rule differentiating "open" and "closed" sections is that "open" sections must ''always'' start 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 into ''[[Seder (Bible)|sedarim]]''. For the [[Torah]], this division reflects the triennial cycle of reading that was practiced by the Jews of the Land of Israel.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Eisenberg |first=Richard |title=A Complete Triennial System for Reading the Torah |url=https://www.rabbinicalassembly.org/sites/default/files/2023-09/eisenberg_triennial_updated-1.pdf |publisher=[[Committee on Jewish Law and Standards]]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Moore |first=G. F. |date=1893 |title=The Vulgate Chapters and Numbered Verses in the Hebrew Bible |url=https://scholarlypublishingcollective.org/sblpress/jbl/article/12/1/73/194585 |journal=Journal of Biblical Literature |volume=12 |issue=1 |pages=73 |doi=10.2307/3259119|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Ginsburg |first=Christian D. |url=https://archive.org/details/introductionofma00ginsuoft |title=Introduction of the Massoretico-critical edition of the Hebrew Bible |publisher=[[Trinitarian Bible Society]] |year=1897 |location=London |pages=32–65 |language=en}}</ref>

==Christian versions== Christians also introduced a concept roughly similar to chapter divisions, called ''kephalaia'' (singular ''kephalaion'', literally meaning ''heading'').<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.thetextofthegospels.com/2016/04/kephalaia-ancient-chapters-of-gospels.html |title=Kephalaia: The Ancient Chapters of the Gospels |last=Snapp |first=James |date=15 April 2016 |access-date=31 March 2018}}</ref>

Cardinal [[Hugh of St Cher|Hugo de Sancto Caro]] is often given credit for first dividing the [[Latin Vulgate]] into chapters in the real sense, 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 16th 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 1553 (Hebrew Bible).<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803095504230;jsessionid=3C7543969D4E0D73661D5EA32AA11DF2 |title=Oxford Reference}}</ref>

Several modern publications of the Bible have eliminated numbering of chapters and verses. [[Biblica]] published such a version of the [[NIV]] in 2007 and 2011. In 2014, [[Crossway Books|Crossway]] published the [[ESV]] Reader's Bible and ''[[Bibliotheca (Bible)|Bibliotheca]]'' published a modified ASV.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Zylstra |first=Sarah Eekhof |title=Introducing the Bible! Now with Less! |journal=[[Christianity Today]] |date=25 July 2014 |access-date=23 August 2014 |url=http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2014/july-web-only/bibliotheca-readers-bible.html}}</ref>

==See also== {{Portal|Bible}} * {{annotated link|Bible}} * {{annotated link|Bible citation}} * {{annotated link|List of New Testament verses not included in modern English translations}} * {{annotated link|Parashah}} * {{annotated link|Surah}}

==References== {{Reflist}}

==External links== * [https://holyword.church/miscellaneous-resources/how-many-words-in-each-book-of-the-bible/ How Many Words In Each Book of the Bible] Sortable table of data about chapters, verses, words, and other info on each Bible book * [http://www.crosswire.org/bsisg/download.htm STEP Documentation] * [http://www.ccel.org/refsys/refsys.html OSIS Documentation] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121014205114/http://www.ccel.org/refsys/refsys.html |date=2012-10-14 }}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chapters And Verses Of The Bible}} [[Category:13th-century introductions]] [[Category:Bible chapters| ]] [[Category:Bible verses| ]] [[Category:Referencing systems]]