Chapter

The division of the biblical books into chapters is a relatively modern convention with no basis in the original manuscripts. The Old Testament books were divided into sections (Hebrew parashiyyot and sedarim) for synagogue reading, but the familiar chapter numbers were introduced to the whole Bible by Stephen Langton, Archbishop of Canterbury, around AD 1227, working with the Latin Vulgate. These were then applied to Hebrew and Greek texts. Verse numbers were added to the New Testament by Robert Estienne (Stephanus) in 1551 and to the Old Testament by Rabbi Nathan in the fifteenth century. The chapter and verse system, while convenient for reference (Acts 13:15), was not part of the original structure of any biblical book.