The Bible has 66 books, divided into 1,189 chapters consisting of 31,173 verses. The Bible was divided into chapters by Stephen Langton about 1228. The Old Testament was divided into verses by R. Nathan in 1448 and the New Testament by Robert Stephanus in 1551. The first printed Bible divided into verses was an Old Testament Latin edition by Pagninus, printed in 1528. The first complete English version of the Bible divided into verses was the Geneva Bible, printed in 1560.
If it is believed God preserved his word down through history to today, then it is believed that the Bible being divided into verses is of the Lord.
Verses have no grammatical connection with the text. What verses do is divide the Scriptures into individual thoughts. A sentence is a trinity, it must have a subject, a predicate (verb), and a complete thought. The complete thought may be made up of two or more smaller thoughts or a sentence may have a main thought with ancillary thoughts. The Bible should be studied sentence by sentence and then verse by verse. A biblical sentence may be made up of one verse or several verses.
2 Timothy 2:15 Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
The simple sentence above is: Thou study. (Thou being the singular “you”) It is a command to each individual believer. It has ancillary thoughts giving the purpose to study: so that we are “rightly dividing the word of truth.” It gives the reasons to study: “to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed.”
As this is in one verse it is the same when a sentence has more than one verse.
Ephesians 2:8-9 KJV For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
9Not of works, lest any man should boast.
This sentence is made up of two verses. The simple sentence is: Ye are saved. the additional thought producing the complete thought is: Ye are saved by grace through faith and not of ourselves. Additional thoughts emphasize that it is not of ourselves our works: It is the gift of God reinforce by the additional thought in verse (9): Not of works, with a final reason why it is not of works: Lest any man should boast. That is, God should get the glory, not man.
There is at least one sentence in the NT containing 8 verses and 204 words. (Col 1:21–29) If you do not know enough basic grammar to rightly divide it, you will develop, as many have, an erroneous interpretation.
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