SUMMARY
Bibles do not all have the same verse/chapter headings.
ANALYSIS
Some might be startled to learn that not all Bibles have the same chapter/verse designations in their texts. The English Bibles most commonly used – NIV, NRSV, etc. – are, for the most part, similar to each other. Reading a Bible from the Jewish Publication Society (JPS), however, demonstrates some of these marked differences. The fourth chapter of 1 Kings contains one such variation. Mainline Christian translations continue 1 Kings 4 through v. 34; the JPS, however, ends the chapter at v. 20, and marks 1 Kings 4:21 as the first verse of chapter 5. This “discrepancy” between these two Bibles stems from two different ancient manuscripts. In the ancient Hebrew text of the Old Testament (the Masoretic Text), 1 Kings 4 ends at v. 20. The JPS Bible follows the Masoretic verse structure. In the ancient Greek text of the Old Testament (the SeptuagintThe Septuagint is a pre-Christian (third to first century BCE) Greek translation of the Jewish Scriptures. It is believed that the term Septuagint derives from the number of scholars-seventy (or seventy-two)-who reputedly did the work of translation. More), 1 Kings 4 extends to v. 34. Most Christian Old Testament Bibles follow the verse structure (versification) of the Septuagint, hence the differences in versification here.
