The chapter and verse divisions we see in our Bibles were not part of what the authors originally wrote. These markers were added to the Bible centuries later as navigational aids – just as latitude and longitude lines were added to globes as navigational aids. The last Bible texts written were written in the 1st century, but the chapter divisions were not added until the 13th century, and the verse divisions were not added until the 16th century. (For more milestones in the coming together of the Bible, see BIBLE DEVELOPMENT TIMELINE.) Aren’t you glad we live in the 21st century?
As latitude and longitude lines help mariners communicate with each other about various specific locations on the earth, so chapter and verse divisions help Bible readers communicate with each other about where a certain sentence is located in the Bible. Instead of saying, “The prophet Isaiah wrote a couple of times about the new heavens and new earth near the end of his book,” we can say, “The prophet Isaiah wrote about the new heavens and new earth (Is 65:17; 66:2). Such notations save time, facilitate communications, and foster the spreading of the knowledge and wisdom we find in the Bible.
The Bible is not unique in this regard. Other texts – and not just religious ones – that are widely studied have been similarly overlaid with chapter and verse divisions. The purpose is always the same: to make it easier and more productive for people to share their thoughts on important writings.
Although we benefit greatly from the Bible’s chapter and verse divisions, we must keep in mind that chapter divisions do not communicate anything to us from the author’s mind. It is only natural for minds to assume that a change of chapter indicates that the author is taking a breath before taking his next step in thought – because this is the way modern books are written. But this is not the way that any of the books in the Bible were written. Those who originally determined where the chapter boundaries were to be drawn in the Bible probably tried to follow the perceived contours of the authors’ thoughts. That said, the authors were prophets and apostles – that is, divinely appointed to write – but the chapter divisions were undertaken by regular men like us, and it not always easy to find the “seams” in the writing that would call for a chapter division. In other words, assigning chapter divisions was not a divinely-appointed task like being named a prophet or an apostle; it’s a human judgment call. A prophet or apostle can say “Thus saith the Lord,” but a chapter or verse marker is not the Lord speaking to us.
Why am I focusing on the chapter and verse divisions in the Bible? Though it’s not a frequent occurrence, there are occasions where you or I might divide this chapter from that chapter differently from what we see on the page. For example, I see Matt 3:16-17 being tied as closely in thought with Matt 4:1-11 as it is with Matt 3:13-15. I say this because Satan’s temptations of Jesus described in Matt 4:1-11 are based on the voice out of the heavens identifying Jesus as God’s Son in Matt 3:16-17. The devil was hissing, “If you are the Son of God…” (italics added). The “if” was intended to make Jesus doubt His identity as God’s Messiah. This is a very important point for us because it reveals how Satan tempts us to doubt the Lord. So, I would not have put a chapter division between Matt 3:16-17 and Matt 4:1-8. But this doesn’t necessarily mean the chapter divider put it in the wrong place. Maybe he saw things the same way I did but could find no better place to put the division. Whom am I to try to correct his work?
It’s not practical or necessary for us to revisit the chapter divisions of the Bible. It’s only necessary for us to remember that just as we don’t see latitude and longitude lines on the ground when we walk around on the earth, neither were the chapter divisions we see in our Bible present in the authors’ minds when they wrote. The navigational dividing lines we’ve been given for both the earth and the Bible are very useful and do not need to be altered. They just need to be used for their intended purpose and no more than that.
The conclusion is: Whenever you start reading a chapter of the Bible, simply think for a moment about how its material might connect to material from the previous chapter.
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