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Before Chapter and Verse

This Rock Volume 18, Number 1   January 2007     Reasons for Hope By Cherie Peacock   A Pope’s Answer to the Problem of Pain By Christopher Kaczor   How to Talk to (and about) a Bishop By Leon Suprenant   Puny Humans, Vast Universe: Does Christianity Make Sense? By Mark Shea   What Does Church Mean? By Anthony E. Clark   Wisdom from the Ages   Should Catholics Go to Non-Denominational Bible Studies? By Steve Ray   Before Chapter and Verse   Bible Resources   Damascus Road A Thirst for Reverence By Karl Bjorn Erickson   By the Book According to Scripture By Tim Staples   Truth be Told Catholic Conspiracy Theories By Robert P. Lockwood   Classic Apologetics Devotion to the Blessed Virgin By Fr. M.D. Forrest   Quick Questions   Last Writes By Karl Keating    Preview (pdf; 3MB)    Subscribe    Permissions

Chapter and verse divisions in the Bible are quite recent. They have proven quite helpful in biblical study and finding our way around. But they can also be a great hindrance if people begin to see the Bible as an unrelated collection of wise maxims listed numerically. It becomes quite easy to pluck a numbered statement (a verse) out of its context and quote it as in independent entity. For the first 1,600 years of Christianity, biblical study was conducted without verse numbers, forcing the reader to see whole texts and not simply lists of unrelated sentences randomly compiled.