How the Bible's Formatting Can Shape the Bible's Reading

Written by Daniel B. Wallace

Matthew 9.36–10.3 in
Beza’s Greek-Latin New Testament (1588)

Did you know that verse numbers were not added to New Testaments until 1551? The first New Testament to have them was Stephanus’ fourth edition of the Greek New Testament. His text had two Latin versions and one Greek. He put in verse numbers so that readers could keep track of how the texts lined up. The first New Testament translation (based on Stephanus’ fourth edition) to use verse numbers was the Geneva New Testament of 1557, then the Geneva Bible of 1560.
 
The verse numbers added a new wrinkle to Bibles, however. Each new verse was indented as though it started a new paragraph. This created a problem for readers because seeing the verses in their contexts was now more difficult to do. The practice of indenting each verse continued with Theodore Beza’s Greek New Testament, which the King James Version (1611) was translated from. In turn, one or two of the KJV’s descendants (most notably, the NASB) also employed the verse-indentation scheme. Not only did this format make the context harder to discern, it also gave rise to illegitimate ‘proof-texting.’ Most modern translations now indent only the paragraphs, listing the verse numbers within each paragraph. What started out as a tool to help readers compare versions became a device to keep people from understanding scripture in its context. The lesson learned from this is that the very formatting of the word of God can shape how people read the Bible.

CSNTM