[Esip-preserve] A Final Check on the Origins of "Chapter and Verse"

[Bruce Barkstrom]

Being still a bit curious, I checked two references on the origins of "chapter
and verse" from the Web:

The person credited with dividing the Bible into chapters is Stephen Langton,
the Archbishop of Canterbury from 1207-1228. While Langton’s isn’t the only
organizational scheme that was devised, it is his chapter breakdown
that has survived.

But while chapters are a useful organizational tool, the ability to refer to

specific phrases within those chapters would make the system even more usable.

Robert Stephanus (aka Robert Estienne) created a verse numbering system in the

mid-16th century and was the first person to print a Bible with verse numbers

in each chapter.

[http://www.biblegateway.com/blog/2010/10/bible-trivia-where-did-chapter-and-verse-numbers-come-from/]

The books of the Bible that are considered canonical number 24 for Jews, 66 for

Protestants, 73 for Catholics, and 78 for most Orthodox Christians. In addition

to these, many versions of the Bible contain books which have not necessarily

been considered canonical by their publishers, called 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 chapters, generally a page or so in length.

Each is further divided into verses of a few short lines or sentences. Pasuk

(plural pesukim) is the Hebrew term for verse.

The 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. 1 Chronicles 5:27-41 in Hebrew Bibles is numbered as 1 Chron
6:1-15 in Christian

translations.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chapters_and_verses_of_the_Bible]

I'll grant that using Wikipedia isn't regarded as definitive
scholarship.  However, it
seems useful for at least a quick grounding in the subject.  I suppose
I could check
the 1898 version of the Encyclopedia Britannica that has come down to us from
my grandparents if I really want to pursue this further (which I don't).

Bruce B.