Robert Estienne

Life

Robert Estienne is also known by his Latin name, Robertus Stephanus. He was born in Paris, France, the son of the printer Henri Estienne; some sources give his birth year as 1499. After learning Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, he carried on the family business and is said to have been appointed royal printer in 1539.

The Faculty of Theology of the University of Paris (the Sorbonne) raised repeated objections to the text and annotations of the Latin Bibles he published, leading to a prolonged conflict. Around 1550 he finally moved to Geneva, where John Calvin was active, and embraced the Reformed faith. He continued his printing work in Geneva until his death in 1559. His son Henri Estienne also made a name for himself as a scholar and published a Greek dictionary.

Work and Achievements

• Publication of the Greek New Testament: Between 1546 and 1551 he published four editions of the Greek New Testament. Of these, the 1550 edition is known for recording variant readings from several manuscripts in its margins. This edition, based on the text of Erasmus, later became an important foundation of the Textus Receptus (Received Text), the Greek New Testament text long used as the standard in Protestant circles.
• Verse division: In the Greek New Testament he published in Geneva in 1551, he numbered the verses for the first time. The chapter divisions had been devised earlier, in the thirteenth century, by Stephen Langton; Estienne subdivided those chapters into verses. His son Henri reported that his father did this work during a journey from Paris to Lyon, though interpretations differ as to what exactly this means. In 1555 he added verse numbers to the entire Latin Vulgate Bible. For the Old Testament, he is understood to have largely followed the verse divisions already in use in Jewish tradition. When the English Geneva Bible adopted this system in 1560, it spread throughout the Protestant world. For details, see the article Chapters and Verses of the Bible.
• Printing of Reformation literature: In Geneva he printed Calvin's writings, and the 1559 Latin edition of the Institutes of the Christian Religion is also said to have come from his press.

Influence on the Korean Church

Estienne had no direct connection with the Korean church. Nevertheless, Korean-language Bibles, including the Revised Korean Version (New Revised Edition), follow the chapter-and-verse system he established. As a result, the everyday devotional life of the Korean church rests on this system: Scripture references such as "John 3:16," sermon texts printed in church bulletins, responsive readings, quiet time devotions, Scripture memorization, and Bible read-through schedules. His 1550 edition is also frequently cited in debates over the authority of the King James Bible and the Textus Receptus.

Assessment

Verse numbering made it possible to locate, cite, and cross-reference specific passages of the Bible quickly. Research tools such as concordances and commentaries also developed on the basis of this system. In this respect he is regarded as a figure who transformed the way the Bible is used.

His work has also drawn criticism. Verse divisions sometimes break sentences in the middle, and critics argue that they encourage readings that rely on a single verse detached from its context. For this reason, many modern translations retain the verse numbers while arranging the text in paragraphs.

Opinions also differ regarding his text. Because his Greek text relied on a few relatively late manuscripts, textual scholarship since the nineteenth century has widely used texts based on older manuscripts. Supporters of the Textus Receptus, on the other hand, emphasize its authority on the grounds that it is the text the church has long used.