Chapters & Verses - Open Scroll

Part I

Who added the numbers

Before A.D. 1000
Jewish scholars mark where each verse of the Hebrew Bible ends. These verse breaks are much older than the numbers.
Early 1200s
Stephen Langton, teaching in Paris, divides the Bible into chapters.
1551
Robert Estienne, a printer, numbers the verses of the New Testament.
1555
Estienne prints the first whole Bible with verse numbers in the text. In the Old Testament he numbers the old Hebrew verse breaks.
1560
The Geneva Bible is the first English Bible with chapter and verse numbers all the way through.

The numbers are useful, but they are not part of the text. A chapter break is not a stop the writer made.
Sources: Catholic Encyclopedia (1913), “Stephen Langton”; New Catholic Encyclopedia, “Estienne”; F. F. Bruce, History of the Bible in English.

Part II

Read past the number

Many verses end in the middle of a sentence. Read the verse before and the verse after.

On Open Scroll the verses are shown without punctuation marks, so a verse will not show you where its sentence ends. Read on into the next verse.

Genesis 2:16 and 17

…Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eatverse 17 beginsbut of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat of it…

The command starts in verse 16 and ends in verse 17.

Open the verse

Exodus 20:1 and 2

…And God spake all these words sayingverse 2 beginsI am Jehovah thy God who brought thee out of the land of Egypt…

Verse 1 ends with “saying.” What God said begins in verse 2.

Open the verse

Matthew 1:22 and 23

…which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet sayingverse 23 beginsBehold the virgin shall be with child…

Verse 22 ends with “saying.” The prophet’s words are in verse 23.

Open the verse

Luke 1:1 to 4

…which have been fulfilled among usverse 2 beginseven as they delivered them unto us…

One sentence runs from verse 1 to the end of verse 4.

Open the verse

Isaiah 52:13 to 53:12

…and that which they had not heard shall they understandchapter 53 beginsWho hath believed our message…

Chapter 53 begins three verses into this passage. Read from 52:13.

Open the verse

Genesis 1:31 to 2:3

…And there was evening and there was morning the sixth daychapter 2 beginsAnd the heavens and the earth were finished…

The seventh day of the creation account is told at the start of chapter 2.

Open the verse

Part III

The older breaks

Long before chapter numbers, the Hebrew text was copied in sections, set apart by blank space. Torah scrolls are still written this way.

An open break

Printed Hebrew Bibles mark it with the letter Pe.

The scribe leaves the rest of the line empty. The next section starts at the beginning of a new line. Its Hebrew name is petuchah, “open.”

A closed break

Printed Hebrew Bibles mark it with the letter Samekh.

The scribe leaves a gap inside the line. The next section starts after the gap, on the same line. Its Hebrew name is setumah, “closed.”

The Torah has 669 of these sections, open and closed. It is also divided into 54 longer portions, one read in the synagogue each week.
The portions do not follow the chapters. The first portion, Bereshit, runs from Genesis 1:1 to 6:8, so it ends partway through chapter 6.
In Genesis 1 and 2, each day of creation is its own section, set off by an open break. The seventh day, 2:1 to 3, is a section of its own. The chapter number falls between the sixth day and the seventh.
Sources: Maimonides, Mishneh Torah, Laws of Torah Scrolls, chapter 8 (the list of open and closed breaks Torah scrolls follow); Ismar Schorsch, “Meaning in the Torah’s Layout,” Jewish Theological Seminary (1999).

Part IV

Where the numbers differ

Hebrew Bibles and English Bibles do not always put a chapter break in the same place, so the same verse can have two numbers. Open Scroll uses the English numbers.

Why they differ. Chapter numbers were made for the Latin Bible in the 1200s. Hebrew Bibles took them up later, through printers in the 1500s, and in some places the Hebrew chapter break was set in a different spot.
The Psalms. Many psalms have a title above them. Hebrew Bibles count the title as verse 1, and sometimes verses 1 and 2. English Bibles give it no number. So the Hebrew verse numbers in those psalms are one or two higher.
How to find a Hebrew reference here. Look up the book below and read across. If a Jewish book cites Malachi 3:19, open Malachi 4:1 here. If it cites Jonah 2:1, open Jonah 1:17.

Book	English BibleOpen Scroll numbers	Hebrew Biblethe same verses	The first moved verse begins (ASV)
Genesis	31:55then 32:1–32	32:1then 32:2–33	“And early in the morning Laban rose up…”
Exodus	8:1–4then 8:5–32	7:26–29then 8:1–28	“And Jehovah spake unto Moses Go in unto Pharaoh…”
Leviticus	6:1–7then 6:8–30	5:20–26then 6:1–23	“And Jehovah spake unto Moses saying…”
Numbers	16:36–50then 17:1–13	17:1–15then 17:16–28	“And Jehovah spake unto Moses saying…”
Deuteronomy	12:32then 13:1–18	13:1then 13:2–19	“What thing soever I command you…”
2 Samuel	18:33then 19:1–43	19:1then 19:2–44	“And the king was much moved…”
1 Kings	4:21–34then 5:1–18	5:1–14then 5:15–32	“And Solomon ruled over all the kingdoms…”
Nehemiah	4:1–6then 4:7–23	3:33–38then 4:1–17	“But it came to pass that when Sanballat heard…”
Psalm 51	Titlethen 51:1–19	51:1–2then 51:3–21	“Have mercy upon me O God…” (English 51:1 is Hebrew 51:3)
Ecclesiastes	5:1then 5:2–20	4:17then 5:1–19	“Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God…”
Song of Songs	6:13then 7:1–13	7:1then 7:2–14	“Return return O Shulammite…”
Isaiah	9:1then 9:2–21	8:23then 9:1–20	“But there shall be no gloom to her that was in anguish…”
Jeremiah	9:1then 9:2–26	8:23then 9:1–25	“Oh that my head were waters…”
Daniel	4:1–3then 4:4–37	3:31–33then 4:1–34	“Nebuchadnezzar the king unto all the peoples…”
Hosea	1:10–11then 2:1–23	2:1–2then 2:3–25	“Yet the number of the children of Israel…”
Joel	2:28–32then 3:1–21	3:1–5then 4:1–21	“And it shall come to pass afterward…”
Jonah	1:17then 2:1–10	2:1then 2:2–11	“And Jehovah prepared a great fish…”
Micah	5:1then 5:2–15	4:14then 5:1–14	“Now shalt thou gather thyself in troops…”
Malachi	4:1–6the whole chapter	3:19–24the end of chapter 3	“For behold the day cometh it burneth as a furnace…”

Tap an English reference to open it. Pairs from The SBL Handbook of Style, 2nd edition (2014), Appendix B, English/Hebrew/Greek Versification. Psalm 51 shown as one example; many other psalms differ the same way. Why they differ: George F. Moore, “Chapters and Verses in the Hebrew Bible,” Journal of Biblical Literature (1893).