Question for Bible scholars?

Question

When was our current pagination system added to the Bible?

Pagination refers to the numbering of pages in a document (an in case of the Bible, verse numbers, too).

Answer 1

Versification of the Bible
"In the history of Bible printing the sixteenth century is by far the most important. The time of the Reformation and Counter-Reformation coincided with the time when the printing industry had become well organized, more prosperous than in the succeeding century, and conducted by the most distinguished men in its history. No later printers can compare with Froben, Estienne, Plantin, Forschauer or their peers. Some of these men were scholars in their own right; many of them were active in affairs of the time; they were peculiarly receptive to artistic and intellectual movements; they had the good fortune to work at just the right moment in the development of the trade" (Black 1969:445).

The system chapter and verse references in a modern translation of the Bible were not implemented until the Middle Ages. Prior to that, the Hebrew originals of the Old Testament (Hebrew Bible) included a system of reading guidelines (paragraph and phrasal divisions) carefully preserved in the Masoretic vocalization and cantillation markings.

The French scholar-printer Estienne introduced verse numbering and divisions in his Greek-Latin New Testament in 1551. In 1552 he printed a French-Latin New Testament, also with the verse divisions. And in 1553 he printed a French translation of the Bible with verse divisions throughout. Within the same decade the system of verse divisions spread widely, influenced by the adoption of this system in the Geneva Bibles.

Source
M.H. Black, "The Printed Bible," The Cambridge History of the Bible. The West from the Reformation to the Present Day (vol. 3; eds. S. L. Greenslade; Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1969), 408-75.

Answer 2

Robert Etienne, or Stephanus, was prominent as a printer and editor in the 16th century in Paris. Being an editor, he saw the practical benefit of using a system of chapters and verses for ready reference and so he introduced this system in his Greek-Latin NT in 1551. Verse divisions were first made for the Hebrew Scriptures by the Masoretes, but it was Stephanus' French Bible of 1553 that first showed the present divisions for the complete Bible. This was followed in subsequent English-Language Bibles and made possible the prodicution of Bible concordances such as the one by Alexander Cruden in 1737 and the two exhaustive concordances to the Authorized Version of the English Bible - Robert Young's, first published in Edinburgh in 1873 and James Strong's, published in New York in 1894.

Answer 3

Thats hard to say. Depends on the translations and what people interpreted it to be. Take for instance the King James version it was written and rewritten in the 1600's.

The best thing to start is by opening the front of your bible and read which published version you got? Sorry to tell you there not all the same.

It will list its copyright dates and then list where it got its information. Whether it was the king James or others. Then work you way back wards. eventualy you will hit the Torah :)

Answer 4

Yesterday..me thinks

Answer 5

1554 I believe.

Answer 6

I don't think anyone knows, that's on this sight, except mabe you. Afterwhile answer it in your "add details"

Answer 7

about 1205 - though I did not really read the link
http://www.fuller.edu/ministry/berean/chs_vss.htm

Answer 8

I can't see how this has any bearing on getting closer to God