You’re a first century Christian and reading through Matthew and come across the phrase, “it is written, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God,” (Matt. 4:4). You ask yourself, where is that written? The early manuscripts of the Bible did not contain chapter or verse divisions. So, unless you were very familiar with the Old Testament, chances are it would take you months of reading through the entire text to find that portion of Scripture. Even if you knew it was in the book of Deuteronomy, it would still take you some time to locate it.
Interesting side note: early manuscripts of both the Hebrew Old Testament and Greek New Testaments were written not only without divisions of chapters and verses but also without word separation. So, you might see: “haveyoueverseenabundanceonthetable” which could be translated “Have you ever seen abundance on the table,” or, “have you ever seen a bun dance on the table.” The translators would need to be able to read the passage in context to understand the meaning and translate it accurately.
Back to divisions. At the time of the writing of Dead Sea Scrolls, it appears it was common to divide books up by paragraphs. The Hebrew letter Peh (open) was placed at the beginning of a paragraph and the Hebrew letter samekh (closed) was placed at the end of each paragraph. This at least divided up the text into usable portions but did not help identify one passage from another.
Over the centuries which follow a few other divisions were made. The Jews divided the Torah (the first five books of the Old Testament) into 154 sections so they could be read one each week over three years. Eusebius of Caesarea (c. 260 – 339 a.d.) divided the gospels into more manageable portions. These and other systems were introduced over the years but are not the divisions we use today.
Archbishop Stephen Landgon (c. 1150 – 1228 a.d.) came up with the modern chapter divisions we use.
So, now we had somewhat manageable portions of Scripture we could study and share more easily. Imagine, though, trying to point out a sentence in Psalm 119 which is longer than some complete books of the Bible. A usable system of still smaller divisions was needed.
Not until the 16th Century was a widely accepted verse division of the New Testament accepted. Robert Estienne developed a verse system which he published in his 1551 edition of the Greek New Testament. In 1571, Estienne issued a verse system for the Old Testament, and we use his verse division system for both the Old and New Testaments today.
While none of the chapter and verse systems we’ve seen over the years are in any way inspired, they do make study and communication of the passages much easier.
So, next time you’re reading through Matthew and come across Matthew Chapter 4:4, “But he answered, ‘It is written, “‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”, look at your reference list. Some editor has most likely listed Deut. 8:3, and Langdon and Estienne have made it easy for you to find it.
AnswersAZ 