Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

VERSE

The division of the biblical books into numbered chapters and verses is not a part of the original texts. There are, however, precursors to this step.

The primary evidence for early division of the Hebrew text into smaller units is Masoretic, but there is pre-Masoretic evidence for similar activity, as early as Qumran and the Mishnah. The Masoretes divided the text into what may be termed “chapters” (parashoth) and “verses” (pasuq). Furthermore, the Masoretes marked off sections by leaving a line blank (thus an “open” section) or by skipping some spaces within a line (a “closed” section). That the Masoretes were dividing the text into what amounted to verses is seen in their use of the accent silluq to mark the end of a sense unit. The division of the Hebrew text into numbered chapters and verses as we now have them was accomplished under the influence of the Vulgate tradition after the 13th century.

Chapter divisions in the NT go back at least as far as the 4th-century Codex Vaticanus, and other divisions of the texts are traceable through lectionary development. The division of the NT into verses occurs for the first time in the edition published by Robert Stephanus (Estienne) in Paris in 1551.

Bibliography. B. M. Metzger, The Text of the New Testament, 3rd ed. (Oxford, 1992); E. Tov, The Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible (Minneapolis, 1992).

Michael L. Ruffin

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

VERSE

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)