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Results from: Answered Bible Questions, Answers, Unanswered Bible Questions, Notes Author: DidymusMB Ordered by Date |
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Results | Verse | Author | ID# | |||
1 | Is John 6:66 the answer to 666 riddle? | John 6:66 | DidymusMB | 587 | ||
The present chapter divisions in our Bibles were invented in 1205 by Stephen Langton, a professor in Paris (he later became Archbishop of Canterbury), who put these into a Vulgate edition of the Bible. These chapter divisions were first used by the Jews in 1330 for the Hebrew Old Testament in a manuscript and for a printed edition in 1516. This system of chapter divisions likewise came into the Greek manuscripts of the New Testament in the 1400s. It was Robert Stephanus, a Parisian book printer, who added the verse divisions we use today. He took over the verse divisions already indicated in the Hebrew Bible by the soph pasuq (these were gaps in the text to help scholars find their place) and assigned numbers to them within the chapter divisions already assigned by Stephan Langton. While riding on horseback from Paris to Lyons he affixed his own verse divisions to the New Testament and numbered them within Langton's chapter divisions. Consequently the quality of his work was not the best... From this brief survey of the history of the Bible's chapter and verse divisions it is very apparent that these are nothing more than a handy method of reference. They do not necessarily represent those units of composition present in the author's mind as he strove to impart his thoughts. ... There is no doubt that the chapter divisions which we have inherited from Langton leave much to be desired. These divisions do not rest upon a comprehension of the literary structure of the Biblical books. ... All that we can do is to realize that this system falls far short of doing justice to the inherent units of Scripture. (The above is exerpted from the web site "Chapters and Verses -- Late Comers" by Daniel P. Fuller; www.fuller.edu. Text restrictions in the answer format prevent me from listing the complete web site address - it won't allow the backslash character.) |
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