Bible Without Chapter or Verse Divisions

abcaines said:
instituteforbiblereading.org

Why You Need a Bible Without Chapters and Verses

Chapters and verses can be helpful, but in many ways they actually make Bible reading harder. Here's why you need a Bible without them.
instituteforbiblereading.org instituteforbiblereading.org
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i have been reading it that way for years... .not with a bible lacking the divisions but just by paying no attention to them when i read.... ...in fact i get irritated...(sometimes without good reason)... when someone quotes a single scripture.... or two or three... and then stops short of where the original paragraph or thought would have... or when they begin a quotation several sentences into a paragraph or thought.... ...i always want to say... "tell the whole story!.. not just a snippet!..."....

but most of my bible reading lately has been in a hawaiian bible... ..to where if i get confused on something i have to cross reference it with an english or spanish bible and compare it to what it says according to the numbers..... different languages seldom translate from one to the other word for word... or even in the same word order..... being able to cross reference is vital.....
 
ALAYMAN said:
If the KJB was good enough for the Apostle Paul it's good enough for me!









😉
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well..... it;s actaully my favorite version too...... always has been..... but don;t tell the ones who are starting to think i;m a liberal compromiser.... they will go back to calling me a hyper-ifb...... :sneaky:
 
aleshanee said:
i have been reading it that way for years... .not with a bible lacking the divisions but just by paying no attention to them when i read.... ...in fact i get irritated...(sometimes without good reason)... when someone quotes a single scripture.... or two or three... and then stops short of where the original paragraph or thought would have... or when they begin a quotation several sentences into a paragraph or thought.... ...i always want to say... "tell the whole story!.. not just a snippet!..."....

but most of my bible reading lately has been in a hawaiian bible... ..to where if i get confused on something i have to cross reference it with an english or spanish bible and compare it to what it says according to the numbers..... different languages seldom translate from one to the other word for word... or even in the same word order..... being able to cross reference is vital.....
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I totally get. My bible app verse of the day feature put up Ephesians 4:2 by itself. That verse is not even a complete sentence. It made me want to contact the developers and ask them if they even put any thought into their version of the day. There is a video devotional accompaniment to the verse who's I hope gives better context but when I look up the verse of the day, I'm just looking for the Word. I often go to the passage where the verse resides and read everything in context. That often makes for a nice morning devotional; good first thought for the day.
 
abcaines said:
I totally get. My bible app verse of the day feature put up Ephesians 4:2 by itself. That verse is not even a complete sentence. It made me want to contact the developers and ask them if they even put any thought into their version of the day. There is a video devotional accompaniment to the verse who's I hope gives better context but when I look up the verse of the day, I'm just looking for the Word. I often go to the passage where the verse resides and read everything in context. That often makes for a nice morning devotional; good first thought for the day.
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my first bible was a red gideons bible someone had stolen from a hotel.... i knew where it was in the room we used as a junk storage room.... but had never read it until the day i got saved.... .after that i went in that room and found it and started reading..... ..i carried it around for a year or so until i was pulled from that house.... .... i didn;t get another bible of my own until i joined the family i am in now...... . . but i had no idea the chapter and verse divisions had not always been there from there beginning... i didn;t find that out until i was reading something else about the original manuscripts many years later and started studying to learn about it... ... but there are many people out there who have been saved for decades... yet still don;t know the chapter and verse divisions are not original...... they treat the starting of one verse and the stoppage of another as though the bible was inspired that way and as if that is how it supposed to be read and studied..... .it;s really sad, but it;s just that they have never been told anything different.... ..they don;t include that information in the preface of many bibles... .. but maybe they should.....
 
While I agree with many of the statements of advantage in reading the Bible without the chapter and verse divisions, especially his point about not grabbing a verse in isolation, I would take a slightly critical approach to his idea expressed in the following quote...
The book of Acts has 6 natural sections, each of which ends with some iteration of the phrase, “…and the word of the Lord continued to spread and flourish.” The number 6 in the Bible represents incompleteness or imperfection, and is always in striving toward 7, the number of completeness. The book is crafted with 6 sections to signify that the work of spreading the gospel is incomplete. It is the responsibility of those following the acts of the apostles – followers of Jesus in future generations – to be the 7th “section” of Acts.
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The hermeneutical approach he implies here is that there will be a better understanding by the reader that witnessing is the conclusion to the book of Acts. While that is a reasonable (and correct IMNSHO) conclusion, I think it is abundantly clear to the casual Bible-believing born-again reader that throughout the book the central point of the narrative is the life of the church and how it is grown by the Spirit through the witness of the church body throughout the world. So my contention is, that even though I do believe his tips may aid the reader in a more natural reading and understanding of the text, without the assistance of the gifts of the church (teachers, preachers, etc) a wrong interpretive hermeneutical scheme (even with no unnatural Biblical divisions) is equally likely to lead to erroneous understanding and application as trying to read the Bible with a false sense of divisions.
 
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ALAYMAN said:
While I agree with many of the statements of advantage in reading the Bible without the chapter and verse divisions, especially his point about not grabbing a verse in isolation, I would take a slightly critical approach to his idea expressed in the following quote...


The hermeneutical approach he implies here is that there will be a better understanding by the reader that witnessing is the conclusion to the book of Acts. While that is a reasonable (and correct IMNSHO) conclusion, I think it is abundantly clear to the casual Bible-believing born-again reader that throughout the book the central point of the narrative is the life of the church and how it is grown by the Spirit through the witness of the church body throughout the world. So my contention is, that even though I do believe his tips may aid the reader in a more natural reading and understanding of the text, without the assistance of the gifts of the church (teachers, preachers, etc) a wrong interpretive hermeneutical scheme (even with no unnatural Biblical divisions) is equally likely to lead to erroneous understanding and application as trying to read the Bible with a false sense of divisions.
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This casual Bible believing born again reader never gave any thought to the fact that Acts or any other book for that matter, has X number of natural divisions. I think that a lot of scholars find great satisfaction in reading God's mind by assigning significance to such observations. I'm too simple for that. Not long ago, our pastor preached through Acts and nary a mention of the natural divisions let alone any significance to their number.
 
abcaines said:
.... I think that a lot of scholars find great satisfaction in reading God's mind by assigning significance to such observations....
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Lol, well said.
 
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