The Bible's chapter numbers were added in the 1200s
Did you know the Bible's chapter numbers are credited to Stephen Langton, a Paris teacher who became an archbishop?
Isaiah 53 opens with a question: "Who has believed our message? To whom has the arm of Yahweh been revealed?" (53:1). The question sounds like a response to something already said, yet it is the chapter's first line.
The answer sits three verses earlier. A poem about a servant begins at 52:13: "Behold, my servant will deal wisely. He will be exalted and lifted up, and will be very high." In 52:15, kings fall silent before this servant, "for they will see that which had not been told them." The question in 53:1 picks up from there. Most scholars read 52:13 to the end of chapter 53 as a single poem, and the chapter break falls three verses into it.
The break is there because chapter numbers are late. The books of the Bible were written without chapter or verse numbers. Earlier systems of division existed, but the chapters in most Bibles today are usually credited to Stephen Langton. He taught in Paris in the early 1200s and later became Archbishop of Canterbury. His chapters spread through the Latin Bibles copied in Paris. Printed Hebrew Bibles later adopted them for ease of reference.
Verse numbers came later still. In 1551 the French printer Robert Estienne numbered the New Testament's verses, in an edition printed in Geneva. His son later wrote that much of the work was done on a journey from Paris to Lyon. In 1560 the Geneva Bible became the first complete English Bible with numbered verses.
Other breaks fall in odd places too. The seventh day of creation (Genesis 2:1-3) sits in chapter 2, apart from the other six days in chapter 1.
Where to see it: read Isaiah 52:13 through 53:12 as one poem. Then read Genesis 1:31 into 2:3, across the chapter break. Estienne's 1551 New Testament survives in research libraries, and digitized copies are online.
Sources
- Chapter and verse divisionschapters commonly credited to Stephen Langton, Paris, early 13th century (earlier division systems existed, and the attribution rests on medieval testimony); New Testament verse numbers in Robert Estienne's Greek-Latin edition, Geneva, 1551; Henri Estienne's account of the work done on a journey; Geneva Bible 1560, the first complete English Bible with verse numbers (its New Testament of 1557 already used them); Isaiah 52:13-53:12 as a single poem is the standard reading, with 53:1 answering the kings of 52:15
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