Chapter and verse numbering in the OT

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Keren

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I lead a Catholic Scripture Study class, and our lessons often ask us to look up passages in the Old Testament that relate to the New Testament passage we’re studying. CSS uses the RSV-CE as its standard text. Recently we were asked to look up Joel 2:28 and Malachi 4:2. Half the people in my class (the ones using the New American or Jerusalem Bible) reported that they couldn’t look those verses up because Joel 2 only had 27 verses and Malachi only had 3 chapters! The verses in question turned out to be numbered as Joel 3:1 and Malachi 3:20 in their Bibles.

There are other differences in chapter and verse numbering between different Catholic Bibles in Psalms and Daniel, and don’t even get me started on Esther!! There may be others that I haven’t run across yet. I have made a chart of all the differences I am aware of; does anyone know if a complete chart of all the differences exists?

More importantly: Does anyone know why all these differences? (I know the differences in Esther and Daniel have to do with the passages in the Greek Septuagint that aren’t present in the Hebrew versions of those books. The Douay, following the Vulgate, lumps all the Greek passages together at the end of Esther, but the modern translations fit them in where they logically belong in the narrative, although they all number them differently.) What I really want to know is why Joel 2:28 and Malachi 4:2 are Joel 3:1 and Malachi 3:20 in different versions!

I’ve been poring through the prefaces to the various Catholic versions, and the only explanation I found was that the Hebrew and Greek texts were numbered differently. That didn’t make any sense to me, because I thought the Hebrew and Greek texts didn’t have any numbers in them; that the chapter divisions were made in the 13th century and the verse divisions in the 16th century. Can anyone explain this to me? I’d love to be able to explain it to my class!

Keren
Tiber Swim Team, Class of '02
 
Keren said:
I’ve been poring through the prefaces to the various Catholic versions, and the only explanation I found was that the Hebrew and Greek texts were numbered differently. That didn’t make any sense to me, because I thought the Hebrew and Greek texts didn’t have any numbers in them; that the chapter divisions were made in the 13th century and the verse divisions in the 16th century. Can anyone explain this to me? I’d love to be able to explain it to my class!

Keren
Tiber Swim Team, Class of '02
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Keren,

I think it would be more accurate to say that the early English-language translations which were based on either the Vulgate or the Hebrew were numbered differently.

We might also enquire of someone who is familiar with the modern critical editions of the Hebrew or Greek OT if those have chapter/verse numbering.
 
I can’t say for sure but I remember hearing somewhere that chapter and verse numbers were not introduced until the middle of the 13th century.
 
I also found a difference in John 5 verse 4. In the NAB version, there is no verse 4…it goes verse 3 then 5. In further reading I found out that verse 4 had been added at a later date to further explain the purpose of the pool that the invalids lay by.
 
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