It always looked so weird to me, like, who not just read the Bible like a proper book instead of having all of those numbering?
I guess it’s because it makes easy to find some specific line? But that is from an academic perspective instead of something you would put in a faith book?
When did that started and why they put all the numbering?
So many verses. When will it get to the chorus?
Firstly, the Bible, as we know it, is a collection of books and sections that were written over several thousand years.
I guess it’s because it makes easy to find some specific line? But that is from an academic perspective instead of something you would put in a faith book?
You have this backward. It’s very important for texts of proselytizing religions to be easy to navigate and repeat.
As for when/why it started, this article from BibleOdyssey.org does a good job of explaining that in detail.
So, if I wanna start a 1 billion people religion, gotta write my shit like:
The Lost Apples
- And it came to pass that I went to the park with my apples, But I was so focused on TikTok that I did not heed where I placed them.
- And I wandered the park, watching video after video, And when I finally looked up, my apples were gone!
- I searched high and low, but they were nowhere to be found. I asked the squirrels and the birds, but they had not seen them either.
- And I was filled with great sorrow, for I had lost my apples. I sat down on a bench and began to weep.
- But then I remembered the words of the wise: “Do not despair, for all things are in the hands of the Lord.”
- And I knew that my apples were safe, even if I could not find them. So I stood up and went on my way, trusting that the Lord would provide.
- And as I walked, I saw a little girl sitting on a swing. She was eating an apple, and it was the most delicious-looking apple I had ever seen.
- I approached the little girl and asked her where she had gotten the apple. She smiled and said, “A nice man gave it to me.”
- And I knew that the Lord had provided. I thanked the little girl for the apple and took a bite.
- And it was the most delicious apple I had ever tasted.
I can’t tell if you’re trying to be clever or not but do you really view that any different than referring to poetry by stanza/line? Or books by page number/paragraph/line? The Bible has been written, rewritten, and edited thousands of times, it makes no sense to say “page 121, paragraph 3” when quoting from it
It also facilitates two things. First, hermeneutics. Which is the art of overanalizing text ad nauseam until you can manufacture new meaning that wasn’t put there by the author in the first place, by sheer force of dubious rethoric. And secondly taking individual lines out of context to support fringe and contradictory statements.
I imagine if your book got translated into hundreds of different languages, eventually people would add numbers to the verses. Sometimes the translated version is not a great translation to the original languages intent, so it’s easy to reference the verse number across other translations or compare it across languages
Your guess is spot on. It makes it easy to reference. If you look at Wikipedia, with articles and such it cites them by ISBN and page number. Since the Bible is so widely translated into not only different languages, but different versions within languages, as well as printed with varying font sizes, etc, page numbers for such an important book simply wouldn’t happen. Surprisingly, numbering was only introduced as late as 1555. As for the books, they are generally separated into what they were found as. So Matthew is the Gospel written by St Matthew the Evangelist, John is the Gospel written by St John the Evangelist, 1 Corinthians is St Paul the Apostle’s first known letter to the church in Corinth, etc.
I don’t know where the Bible’s numbering in particular comes from, but it’s common in ancient texts. It helped with navigating long works before the printing press gave us exact pagination.
I don’t know where the Bible’s numbering in particular comes from
1560 Genevra. Before that, only the chapters were numbered. Probably a consequence of Protestantism, but even Catholic bibles adopted it.
It helped with navigating long works before the printing press gave us exact pagination.
It’s still helpful, even nowadays. For example if I told you to find in Sermones the quote at 1.2.69-71 (1st book, 2nd part, lines 69 to 71), you could easily do it. Note how the numbering system is similar in spirit to the one in the Bible - except that the books get an abbreviation instead of a number.
It sure makes it easy for religious people to pick out tiny experts and use them out of context.
