Tyndale House Podcast S5E8: How did chapter divisions get into the New Testament?
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Mar 6, 2025 Nelson Hsieh, a Research Associate at Tyndale House working on the Tyndale House Greek New Testament, joins Tony Watkins to delve into the fascinating evolution of chapter divisions in the New Testament. They uncover how these divisions shape our understanding of scripture and examine the historical methods scribes used to create paragraph distinctions. From Eusebius's influence to the innovative formatting found in ancient manuscripts, their discussion reveals the complexities and quirks behind how we read the Bible today.
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Refining Paragraph Divisions
- The first Tyndale House Greek New Testament edition used a majority vote from three ancient manuscripts for paragraph divisions.
- The new edition reforms this using 10-15 manuscripts and a more systematic, refined methodology.
Early Manuscript Paragraph Practices
- Early Greek manuscripts often lacked word separations but used spaces and ekthesis for paragraph-like breaks.
- Paragraph divisions were inconsistently applied, as seen in P66's sparse paragraphs over many pages.
Mixed Paragraph Markings in Sinaiticus
- Codex Sinaiticus uses a mixture of indenting (ekthesis) and horizontal margin lines called paragraphos for divisions.
- Different manuscripts show regional scribal preferences for paragraph marking styles, with Sinaiticus mixing methods.