Early Christians remembered the Bible by the first few words of a passage or by the name of the book or letter. They knew their Bibles very well, with many memorizing large portions.
To facilitate the ease of study of the Bible, the system of the division of the text into chapters was devised in 1238 by Cardinal Hugo de Caro. The numbering of the text within the chapters into verses was introduced in 1551 by a Protestant, Robert I. Estienne, who was a printer and classical scholar.
Showing posts with label chapter. Show all posts
Showing posts with label chapter. Show all posts
Saturday, October 22, 2011
Friday, July 9, 2010
Chapter and Verse
Stephen Langton (b. ca, 1150, England - d. 1228), the Archbishop of Canterbury, was the first person to divide the Bible into the chapters which it carries to this day. Before that, there were no breaks or subdivisions in the text, which, originally in the Greek and Hebrew/Aramaic, also had no punctuation or spaces between words or letters.
The printer and classical scholar, Robert Estienne (b. 1503, France - d. 1559) was the first to print a Bible with numbered verses.
The innovations of Langton and Estienne made the Bible more accessible for study, reference, and memorization by the general population.
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