The Bible Is Divided Into Chapters

The first person to divide the bible into chapters was probably stephen langton, archbishop of canterbury. The new testament was only divided into verses by the french printer, robert estienne in 15 50. English language jewish bibles change the chapter and verse numbers from christian bibles. For both jews and christians, there was no way, for centuries, to accurately pinpoint a section of the bible. They had secret knowledge denied to any of their laity. It was a powerful tool that could be used to silence questioning by throwing doubt on the questioner's reading.