EARLY 1200s
Chapters arrive
The modern chapter divisions are based on the scheme of Stephen Langton, who lectured at the University of Paris and became Archbishop of Canterbury in 1207.
See the timeline
A HISTORY OF THE PRINTED PAGE
Numbers added
much later.
The oldest texts had no numbered chapters or verses.
Chapters arrived in the early 1200s and verse numbers in a printed New Testament of 1551. This independent guide tells the book-history story of how a citation like 7:1 came to work, with no religious teaching.
7:1 chapter, then verse
Trace a reference- Chapters c. 1200s
- Verses 1551
- In English 1560
- A reference system, built by scholars and printers
THE SHORT ANSWER
Three steps,
three centuries apart.
Chapters, then verse numbers, then a Bible in English with both.
Each step came from scholars and printers, not the original writers.
1551
Verses get numbers
The Parisian printer Robert Estienne numbered the verses in a Greek and Latin New Testament printed in Geneva in 1551. The numbers sat between the columns.
See the numbers
1560
Both, in English
The Geneva Bible of 1560 was the first English Bible to use the verse numbers, in a portable octavo format suited to home reading.
Read a citation
HOW TO READ A REFERENCE
Book, chapter,
then verse.
A citation is a finding aid, like a page and line number. Once you know the order, any printed or online edition will take you to the same place.
Start with the book
The name comes first, sometimes with a number in front, as in 1 Chronicles.
The first number is the chapter
This is the part that goes back to the early 13th-century chapter schemes.
After the colon comes the verse
These numbers follow Robert Estienne's 1551 system in almost all modern Bibles.
Check the edition
Jewish and Christian editions can number some passages differently, so note which one a reference uses.
TWO NUMBERS WORTH KNOWING
One system,
not quite one count.
How far the numbered Geneva Bible spread,
and why the same text can number differently.
140 editions
Editions up to 1644
The University of Glasgow says the Geneva Bible went through 140 editions up to 1644. It was also the first English Bible printed in roman rather than black-letter type.
GENEVA BIBLE · UNIV. OF GLASGOW
116 more verses
Extra verses in Jewish editions
Jewish tradition counts many Psalm headings as verses, while Christian editions leave them unnumbered, giving Jewish versions 116 more verses.
DIFFERENT COUNTS · REFERENCE
Some chapter breaks differ too: Hebrew Bibles number one passage 1 Chronicles 5:27–41 where Christian translations number it 1 Chronicles 6:1–15.
A QUICK TIMELINE
Which kind of
division is it?
Pick a way of dividing the text to see roughly when it appeared. The bar shows how close it is to the numbered chapter-and-verse system most printed Bibles use today.
Book history only. This page describes how texts were divided and printed; it takes no view on religious belief.
THE PRINTER ON HORSEBACK
A story told
by his son.
Estienne had moved from Paris to Geneva after Sorbonne theologians criticised his 1550 Greek New Testament. A later account by his son says he worked out the verse numbers while travelling, on horseback.
Emory University's Pitts Theology Library notes the joke this inspired: that some odd verse breaks fell where the pen landed as the horse moved. In his 1555 Latin Bible the numbers moved from the margins into the text itself.
Questions
Questions people ask
Did the original writers number chapters and verses?
No. Early manuscripts did not have numbered chapters or verses. Chapters were added from the early 13th century and verse numbers from the mid-16th century.
Who divided the Bible into chapters?
Two scholars, Stephen Langton and Hugo de Sancto Caro, drew up different schemes in the early 1200s. The modern chapters are based on Langton's system.
Who numbered the verses?
The printer Robert Estienne, also called Stephanus, in his 1551 Greek and Latin New Testament printed in Geneva. His system became the standard still used today.
Which was the first English Bible with verse numbers?
A 1557 English New Testament by William Whittingham was the first to use them, and the Geneva Bible of 1560 was the first complete English Bible with chapters and verses.
Are there Bibles printed without the numbers?
Yes. Some editions divide the text by theme or literary sense instead, from John Locke's 1707 paraphrase of the Epistles to several modern reader's editions.
Sources
- Wikipedia: Chapters and verses of the Bible
- Wikipedia: Stephen Langton
- Pitts Theology Library, Emory University: Pitts acquires 1551 Estienne New Testament
- University of Glasgow Archives & Special Collections: The Geneva Bible
- King's College London, King's Collections: The Geneva Bible
Updated