GRACE AMBASSADORS
MINISTRY UPDATE

Chapters and Verses

Chapter headings and verse numbers are not inspired.

The system of chapters and verses in our Bibles was not widely adopted until the 16th century.

The chapters and verses help us considerably when studying and talking about the Bible.

However, if you are reading the Bible thinking that the chapter headings are God’s division of the material, you may be selling yourself short.

Sometimes the thoughts of the previous chapter carry over into the next. Often a single verse does not equal a single sentence or thought.

The chapter and verse numbers are necessary, but respect the text by reading the chapter before and after to get the context.

It may be that answers to troubling passages are found in the very next verse separated only by an uninspired chapter number (Matthew 16:28, as just one example).

Don’t let the numbers hinder your study.

For his glory,

Justin Curtis Johnson