Chapters and Verses of the Bible

Chapters and verses are numbers that identify locations within the text of the Bible. "John 3:16," for example, refers to the Gospel of John, chapter 3, verse 16. These numbers were not present in the original texts written by the biblical authors; they were added much later to make reading and citation easier.

Citation Within the Bible

Because the Bible originally had no chapter and verse numbers, the biblical writers used other means of referring to other passages. In Mark 12:26, Jesus refers to the scene in Exodus 3 as the passage in "the book of Moses, how in the bush God spake unto him." Hebrews 2:6 introduces a quotation of Psalm 8 with the words "one in a certain place testified."

History of the Divisions

• Early section divisions: Even before chapters and verses existed, there were ways of dividing the text. Manuscripts of the Hebrew Bible contained paragraph divisions as well as divisions for synagogue reading. The scholars who transmitted the Masoretic Text marked the places where verses ended. Greek New Testament manuscripts also contained section divisions called kephalaia (meaning "main points" or "headings").
• Chapters: The chapter divisions used today are widely attributed to Stephen Langton, who added them to the Latin Vulgate in the early thirteenth century. Langton later became Archbishop of Canterbury.
• Verses: The Old Testament verse numbers are understood to be based on the traditional verse divisions of the Hebrew Bible. New Testament verse numbers first appeared in a Greek New Testament published in 1551 by the French printer Robert Estienne (Stephanus). According to a popular story, he numbered the verses while traveling on horseback, but this has not been verified.
• Bibles with both chapters and verses: The first complete Bible with both chapters and verses is generally considered to be the Latin Bible published by Estienne in 1555. Among English translations, the Geneva Bible of 1560 was one of the earliest to include both chapters and verses.

Differences Among Translations

Chapter and verse numbering varies slightly among Bible translations.

• Psalms: The Hebrew Bible often counts the superscription of a psalm as verse 1. As a result, its verse numbers sometimes differ by one from those in Korean Bibles.
• Malachi: Malachi 4 in the Korean Revised Version, New Revised Edition corresponds to Malachi 3:19–24 in the Hebrew Bible.
• "Omitted" markings: The Korean Revised Version, New Revised Edition contains verses marked "(omitted)," such as Matthew 17:21. These markings exist because verses absent from the oldest manuscripts were removed from the text while the established numbering system was left unchanged.
• Total count: Based on the sixty-six books of the Protestant canon, the Bible is commonly said to contain 1,189 chapters. The number of verses varies by edition.

Interpretive Considerations

Across denominations, chapter and verse numbers are regarded not as part of the inspired text but as tools of convenience. Accordingly, many commentators point out that where a chapter division breaks the flow of the context, the surrounding passages should be read together.

• The Suffering Servant song of Isaiah 53 actually begins at 52:13.
• In 1 Corinthians, the Love Chapter (chapter 13) is connected to "a more excellent way" in 12:31.

Many in various denominations also caution against lifting a single verse out of its context and using it as the basis for an argument. Statistics such as "the middle verse of the Bible" are frequently repeated, but because the number of verses differs by edition, they are unreliable.

In the Korean Church

In Korean churches, the sermon text is printed in the weekly bulletin in abbreviated form, such as "John 3:16" or "Jn 3:16." During Scripture reading, the chapter and verse are announced first so that the congregation can find the passage together. Scripture memorization cards, quiet time materials, and Bible read-through plans are all organized by chapter and verse.