Bibles with confusing verse numbers

At first glance, all Bibles have the same chapters and verses, but actually there is a bewildering variety of small differences that can occur in any Bible. This often results in different verse numbers, and sometimes even different chapter numbers. Two  editions of the same Bible sometimes divide up their chapters differently, resulting in masses of confusing verse numbers. So, if you look up a verse in a commentary, it may refer to a completely different verse in your Bible. The Repository of STEPBible.org now has the data to standardise any Bible with a completely new and simple method. 

Imagine that you are sending a letter of condolence to a Catholic friend. As you finish, you want them to find strength in the words “Even though I walk through the valley…”, so you add at the end of your letter “Psalm 23:4”. However, when they open their Bible, they read: “The innocent in hands, and clean of heart, who hath not … sworn deceitfully to his neighbour”. This is Psalm 24:4 in most English Bibles but it is Psalm 23:4 in traditional Catholic Bibles (use "look inside" at Amazon.co.uk/dp/1935302051). Your friend might conclude that you are hinting at some old grievance!

We tend to think that all Bibles have the same chapters and verses, because most English Bibles do. The standard popularised by the King James Version is widely used, but non-English Bibles display a bewildering variety of numbering. We might dismiss these as irrelevant till we try to follow a commentary. Even commentaries not written in English tend to follow English standard numbering, for commercial reasons. So when a reference is given, in which Bible should we look up the text? Bible scholars have a related problem: whenever they cite a Bible reference, they need to add the Hebrew or Greek reference if it is different.

A recent article by Peter Williams in THink magazine  (see tyndalehouse.com/magazine) summarises the long history of adding verse and chapter numbers to Bibles, from the rabbis who determined where verses ended, to Estienne who divided up the New Testament while riding on horseback. Marking a text while on a bumpy ride may explain why Beza had to make so many corrections in his edition. This means there are about 100 places where Bibles disagree about where precisely a verse divides. However, these differences are minor compared with the Old Testament.

In Hebrew, the tradition about where verses divide was well preserved, so there are only seven verses where versions differ. However, some much bigger problems occur for other reasons: chapters can start in a different place and the titles to Psalms can be given a verse number of their own – both of which mean that every subsequent verse in that chapter or Psalm is different. This affects almost 2,800 verses in the Hebrew Bible. For example, the last verse in most Old Testaments is Malachi 4:6 but in Hebrew Bibles (and some translations) Malachi ends at 3:24, because chapter three continues, instead of ending at v.18.

These Hebrew differences are minor compared with those in Greek and Latin Bibles. Their numbering is important to modern readers because many translations follow the traditions of these ancient translations. Catholic Bibles have traditionally followed the Latin verse numbering, and the Bibles of Orthodox churches tend to follow Greek traditions.

The Psalms are particularly problematic, because Greek and Latin Bibles merge together Psalms 9 and 10. This is sensible, because they do appear to be parts of the same Psalm, but this means that all subsequent Psalms are numbered differently. However, all Bibles end up with 150 Psalms because Bibles that merge Psalms 9 and 10 also split Psalm 147 into two. This means you can’t identify the numbering simply by counting the Psalms. More differences occur within the Psalm because their titles (such as “A Psalm of David”) are often numbered “v. 1”. This means that the contents of the first verse of the actual Psalm becomes “v. 2” and so one. This extra verse occurs in 63 Psalms, though in four of them, the title is long enough to create two extra verses.

If every Bible followed just one tradition — Hebrew, Greek or Latin – we wouldn’t have much of a problem, because there would be only three or four different versions of versification. Unfortunately virtually no Bible follows one particular tradition of numbering throughout the Bible – they all pick and mix.

Even different editions of the same Bible can be divided up differently. For example, most editions of the Spanish Reina-Valera Antigua (i.e. the traditional version which is still popular, like the KJV) is printed with two different sets of verse numbering. This version followed the Hebrew text closely but the verse numbers often departed from it. Sometimes it followed the Latin (as at Job 40:1-19; 1Sam 20:43), or it followed the combined tradition of Hebrew, Latin and Greek when they disagree with the English standard (as at Num 29:39; 1Sam 24:23; 1Ki 22:43; Jon 2:11); and in one place it has completely idiosyncratic numbering (Job 38:38 — 40:6). Fortunately, in most places it follows the English standard, even when this is different to all the ancient traditions (e.g. all through the Psalms, Neh:3:32; 4:23; Ecc 5:20). However, in modern printings of this version, the numbering often conforms to the English standard throughout — though the only way to discover this is by investigating the divergent passages. Both sets of versification are usefully displayed here.

The existence of an English standard for verse numbering has saved us from total confusion. Although it was popularised by the KJV and can be regarded as a “Protestant” tradition, it has been adopted by virtually all modern Bibles. Even modern Catholic and Orthodox English Bibles have abandoned their traditions to join the majority.  The Catholic Jerusalem Bible has a small “V 24” next to Psalm 23 to remind traditional readers that this is Psalm 24 in the Vulgate, but the Catholic NRSV doesn’t even have that. Some Orthodox Bibles (such as Nelson’s Orthodox Study Bible, do follow traditional Greek numbering, but this is now an oddity. However, in the non-English world there is still a great deal of variety.

Till now, the main way to find out what the reference is in a different Bibles was to look it up! Electronic resources often have systems for aligning texts. Some (like BibleWorks) produce separate data for every Bible, while others (such as Sword-based software) produce data for groups of Bibles. However, Bibles can’t be divided into neat groups, so this kind of data is often approximate.

STEPBible.org aims to be available for Bibles in any language or tradition, and seeks to line them up accurately. So we searched for a new solution and developed a powerful though simple new method. We didn’t want to assign Bibles to an approximate group, and we don’t have time to analyse every one of hundreds of Bibles in languages we don’t know. So instead, we compare each Bible to four sets of tradition: the ancient Hebrew, Greek and Latin and the English standard; and we use simple rules to discover which tradition is followed in each chapter.

Bible translators don’t simply make up differences in chapter and verse numbers, but follow an existing tradition. Some will be more influenced by one tradition than another, so when a translation is made by a committee, different sections can end up following different traditions. A modern committee will, of course, be subject to conformity checks, but this wasn’t so easy in previous centuries. As a result, many mixed traditions (as described above for the Spanish RV) were created. Whenever one of these versions became popular, then that peculiar tradition was perpetuated. As a result, many German Bibles have numbering based on Luther’s translation. This means that each Bible tends to have verse numbers which are based on one of those four traditions, though not necessarily the same tradition throughout.

A quick way to analyse Bibles was needed, so we created a test for each section where renumbering can occur. So, for example, if Numbers 17 ends at verse 28, we know that it is following the Hebrew tradition that starts a new chapter after 16:35 instead of continuing to 16:50. So the simple question “What is the last verse number in Numbers 17?” can tell us how to number every verse in those two chapters. Sometimes we have to compare the length of two verses, such as in Psalm 13 where all Bibles have six verses. Hebrew Bibles give the title a verse number, but also merge the last two verses into one, so that the total number of verses remains the same. In that case we can ask “Is verse 1 longer or shorter than verse 3?” If it is longer, then it follows the English standard tradition of including the text of the title within verse 1. Based on the answer to this question, all the verses in the Psalm can be numbered accurately. The specific question is important because the two verses must have sufficiently different lengths for this rule to work in any translation.

These tests and the resulting verse numbering, are now available on the STEPBible Data Repository so that any software can incorporate them. Actually, STEPBible still relies on the Crosswire-invented method at present, which works fairly well. This means that Tyndale House is offering this data in the realisation that other Bible projects may implement it first. This data took a long time to compile and test, so we are making it publically available to save others the work of duplicating it. The repository is on Github because this provides a public forum where improvements can be suggested and monitored by anyone. Any errors or gaps can be reported, so that the data remains accurate and gradually becomes the work of a wider community.

David Instone-Brewer, 

Tyndale House, Cambridge