Monday, November 16, 2026

It is the 16th of November 2026. Welcome to the Christian History Almanac, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org; I’m Dan van Voorhis.

A very happy Monday to you- barreling through November- halfway through already… As is our custom, we head to the mailbag, and we have a question from Joshua in Wichita, Kansas- he says it’s the “Air Capital of the World”- Clyde Cessna’s hometown. Joshua also notes that it was the home of Kirstie Alley, Don Johnson and Barry Sanders. Also the home of both Dennis the Menace and Ted Lasso. Home of the Wichita Shockers. It’s where they leave corn for Santa’s reindeer and of course, Chili with the Cinnamon rolls.

 

Joshua wrote, “Let's say you're St. Jerome and want someone else to read a particular passage; how did they reference that? I mean you couldn't just say "Look at page 437", or "See here on scroll 82, column 39", right? So what did they do?” and then he asked why sometimes verses are broken up awkwardly?

 

Joshua- I think our modern brains have been so accustomed to chapter and verse it might have done us a disservice. This isn’t your question- but I can’t help but think that our “proof-texting” comes from our slavish attention to breaks made much later. It’s worth noting that the Old Testament did have breaks- often spaces by scribes delineated sections- so you could say “when Moses came across the burning Bush” and people would know where to find that section of Exodus because it would have spaces.

 

The Hebrew Bible was also broken up for reading in the synagogue- so while numbered verses weren’t used, it was broken into sections which later would be given verse numbers.

 

The early church did use things like the Eusebian Canons for the Gospels- it was a reference table that used a numbered reference for the various stories and teachings of Jesus. From this table you could see which stories and teachings were in which Gospels- so, from the 4th century we have people breaking down the larger text into smaller sections for ease of reference.

 

The real modern work began in the 1100s with Stephen Langton in Paris, where he began marking chapter divisions- but not verses. Latin Bibles from then have chapters to help you break apart teachings and stories in a way similar to the blank spots used by Jewish scribes. Versification comes to us with Robert Estienne in 1551 with his Greek Bible that used them. The Geneva Bible of 9 years later is the first English Bible to then use both chapters and verses. The King James would follow decades later.

 

How would people before this find chapter and verse? Well, only the educated and literate elite had access- if they had access. Oftentimes a church would have a collection of readings but not a whole Bible. But since the invention of the printing press and the proliferation of the Bible in the vernacular, we’ve had chapter/verse breakdowns. But the part about the awkward splitting up is worth noting- because there was debate as to how the chapters and verses should be split up. Should it be based on ideas or length?

 

In those early days of versification, people were less concerned with making “John 3:16” easily recognizable and memorizable- rather that 3 and 16 worked like the coordinates on a map (I hate to date myself, but have you ever used a Thomas guide? The verses were to give you a general location like a map- not a single verse from which to argue.

 

I wonder if there is a novel or other book that you know really well? Can you find a section if you need to? For me, this is the bummer with ebooks- as convenient as they are for working on the run, I miss knowing where on the page something is- and we can imagine that most Bible teachers and scholars had their favorite texts known like this. We see this in statements from Jerome, but also in Jesus, where we’ll read “you’ve read it where….” Or “you’ve heard it said”… and these biblically literate people usually did!

 

I’ve mentioned before I use a bible that has no versification, and it’s really helped me read Scripture with new eyes- there are a few versions I believe- I use the Lectio Bible- it's like 25 bucks… Thanks for the question, Joshua! You can send me your questions at danv@1517.org.

 

The Last word for today comes from, well, somewhere in Romans- near the beginning:

You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge another, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things. 2 Now we know that God’s judgment against those who do such things is based on truth. 3 So when you, a mere human being, pass judgment on them and yet do the same things, do you think you will escape God’s judgment? 4 Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, forbearance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance?

 

This has been the Christian History Almanac for the 16th of November 2026 brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org.

The show is produced by a man with a deep-seated suspicion of Kansas… mostly because of the chili on cinnamon rolls… he is Christopher Gillespie.

The show is written and read by a man happy Kansas is going to get the Kansas City Chiefs… Missouri once stole my team and maybe shouldn’t have their own… I’m Dan van Voorhis.

You can catch us here every day- and remember that the rumors of grace, forgiveness, and the redemption of all things are true…. Everything is going to be ok.