Understanding Chapter and Verse: The Bible Has Guidelines, Not Inspired, But To Guide

THE QUICK: Bible references are written in a specific pattern:

BOOK NAME CHAPTER: VERSE, i.e. Job 2:10.

Job 2:10 is then the Book of Job, the second chapter, and the tenth verse.

Job 1:1-2:10 is then the Book of Job, with a passage beginning with the first verse of chapter one and ending with the tenth verse of chapter two.

           In the movie “Pirates of the Caribbean”, Elizabeth Swann, daughter of the governor, is kidnapped by-you guessed it-pirates. After initially hiding herself, she goes almost willingly, feeling that she is prepared to deal with them. She knows the ‘pirate code’, which she feels to be the inspired code of conduct for pirates. Thus the term ‘parley’ is supposed to grant an immediate protected status, something akin to being in ‘sanctuary’ within a religious compound.

          As she comes to find out, aside from not being a pirate and therefore not bound by the code, they are not so much the inspired word of pirate behavior as simply guidelines.

          I use this as an example because we in the Christian faith also have our inspired text. It is not inspired by pirates, but it is inspired by God. There have been books written that seek to unpack what that means, but that is another blog.

          I am asking people to read the book of Job, one section of the Book as inspired by God. For people unfamiliar with it, there are guidelines built into the text, a numbering system. For those of you familiar with chapter and verse, walk with me. I am so used to the system, I do not even see it anymore. But it is significant.

          Job is divided into 42 chapters. Each runs about a page or two, although there is one less than half a page long. Each chapter is then subdivided into verses. If you follow the reading guide from our previous post, you will see that most of the readings begin and end with chapter openings and closings. But not all.

          Because the Word is inspired by God, devout Christians devised these guidelines, these chapters and verses, so that any specific portion of the Bible could be accessed quickly and consistently. However, those numbers are NOT inspired. They were put in place after the fact.

          To pick an example, Paul writes a couple of letters to Timothy that are included in the New Testament. He did not pick up his quill and write, “Chapter One, VERSE ONE, Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, according to the promise of life that is in Christ Jesus, VERSE TWO…To Timothy, my dear son: Grace, mercy, and peace…” No, he wrote "Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, according to the promise of life that is in Christ Jesus. To Timothy, my dear son: Grace, mercy, and peace…"  What he wrote is considered among the inspired works of God, with the system of chapter and verse imposed later for ease of study. 

    And, in fact, he did not write in English, but in the everyday Greek language of the Roman Empire which, unlike English, has no punctuation. But that is another blog post.

          In general, the rules of the guidelines seem to be that each verse is one idea and a chapter a section within the flow of the entire book. But that is by no means absolute.

          The importance of understanding this comes in the danger of chapter and verse as our guide to the Bible. These are artificial impositions on the text for the convenience of study. Just because someone decided a chapter stops at a certain point does NOT mean that the idea or the discussion topic concludes at that point. It may, and often does. Because the text of the Bible is inspired, it is important to understand these guidelines are not inspired.