It always looked so weird to me, like, who not just read the Bible like a proper book instead of having all of those numbering?

I guess it’s because it makes easy to find some specific line? But that is from an academic perspective instead of something you would put in a faith book?

When did that started and why they put all the numbering?

  • Lvxferre
    1·
    1 year ago

    I don’t know where the Bible’s numbering in particular comes from

    1560 Genevra. Before that, only the chapters were numbered. Probably a consequence of Protestantism, but even Catholic bibles adopted it.

    It helped with navigating long works before the printing press gave us exact pagination.

    It’s still helpful, even nowadays. For example if I told you to find in Sermones the quote at 1.2.69-71 (1st book, 2nd part, lines 69 to 71), you could easily do it. Note how the numbering system is similar in spirit to the one in the Bible - except that the books get an abbreviation instead of a number.