The New Testament was early portioned out into certain
divisions, which appear under various names. The custom of reading it
publicly in the Christian assemblies after the law and the prophets,
would soon cause such divisions to be applied to it. The law and the
prophets were for this end already divided into _parashim_ and
_haptaroth_, and the New Testament could not long remain without being
treated in the same way. The distribution into church lessons was indeed
the oldest that took place in it. The Christian teachers gave the name
of _pericopes_, to the sections read as lessons by the Jews. Justin
Martyr avails himself of this expression, when he quotes prophetical
passages. Such is the case also in Clemens of Alexandria; but this
writer also gives the name of ϖερικόπαι to larger sections of the
Gospels and St. Paul’s Epistles. _Pericopes_ therefore were nothing else
but ἀναγνώσματα, church lessons, or sections of the New Testament, which
were read in the assemblies after Moses and the Prophets. In the third
century another division also into κεφαλαία occurs. Dionysius of
Alexandria speaks of them in reference to the Apocalypse, and the
controversies respecting it. Some, says he, went through the whole book,
from chapter to chapter, to show that it bore no sense. In the fifth
century Euthalius produced again a division into chapters, which was
accounted his invention. He himself however lays claim to nothing more
than having composed τὴν τῶν κεφαλαίων ἐκθεσίν, the summaries of the
contents of the chapters in the Acts of the Apostles and the Catholic
Epistles. In the Epistles of St. Paul, not even these are his property;
but they are derived “from one of the wisest of the fathers, and
worshippers of Christ,” as he himself says, and he only incorporated
them into his stichometrical edition of the New Testament. The chapters
must, therefore, have been in existence before Euthalius, if the father
whom he mentions composed notices of their contents. But how old they
are cannot easily be known. The Euthalian κεφαλαία are distinguished
from the _pericopes_, or reading portions, by their extent. The Jews had
divided the law into fifty-three _parashim_, according to the number of
the Sabbaths, taking into account the leap year. Nearly so distributed
were the Acts of the Apostles, St. Paul’s and the Catholic Epistles,
according to the Alexandrine ritual, which Euthalius follows in his
stichometrical edition, namely, into fifty-six _pericopes_; three more
than the number of κουριάκαι ἡμέραι, Sundays, probably for three
festivals, which might be observed at Christmas, Easter, and
Whitsuntide. The Gospels too had naturally in the same way many
_pericopes_. Such in older times was the practice in Asia also; for
Justin says, that the believers there assemble themselves for prayer and
reading on Sunday only, ἐν τῇ τοῦ ἡλίου ἡμερᾷ. Since then the whole New
Testament was distributed into so few sections, these must necessarily
have been great, and a _pericope_ in Euthalius sometimes includes in it
four, five, and even six chapters. We have spoken hitherto only of the
chapters of the Acts of the Apostles and the Epistles. In the Gospels
there occur to us κεφαλαία of two sorts, the greater and the lesser. The
lesser are the Ammonian which Eusebius rejected, after which he composed
his ten canons in order to point out in the Monotessaron of Ammonius the
respective contents of every Evangelist. He has explained himself in the
Epistle to Carpianus on their use, and on the formation of his ten
canons, where he names his sections sometimes κεφαλαία, sometimes
ϖερικόπαι. Matthew has three hundred and fifty-five of these, Mark two
hundred and thirty-six, Luke three hundred and forty-two, and John two
hundred and thirty-two. The other chapters are independent of these,
which from their extent are also named the greater. Of these, Matthew
contains sixty-eight, Mark forty-nine, Luke eighty-three, and John only
eighteen. There are but very few manuscripts which have not both of them
together. As to the church lessons, to come back to them once more,
various alterations took place in them. As the festival days multiplied,
the old division could no longer subsist, and in many churches the
_pericopes_ were shortened. At last as the ritual of ceremonies was
enlarged, only certain portions were extracted from the Gospels, the
Acts of the Apostles, and the Epistles, which sometimes were very short.
A codex of this sort was termed ἐκλογάδιον; in reference to the Gospels
alone, εὐαγγελιϛάριον; and in respect to the other books, ϖραξαπόϛολος.
This seems to have taken place among the Latins much earlier than among
the Greeks. There are perfectly credible testimonies, which establish
such an arrangement among the former at the middle of the fifth century,
at which date nothing of the kind is perceptible among the latter. The
expression, ϖραξαπόϛολος, appears indeed frequently in the Typicum of
St. Sabas, who died in the beginning of the fifth century. But the
Greeks do not disavow, that this Typicum or monastic ritual was not by
himself, that it perished in the invasions of the barbarians, and was
composed anew by John of Damascus, with references _memoriter_, [from
memory,] to that of Sabas. He lived toward the middle of the eighth
century, and with an earlier notice of lectionaries among the Greeks we
are not acquainted. Finally, our present chapters come, as it is well
known, from Cardinal Hugo de St. Cher, who in the twelfth century
composed a concordance, and to this end distributed the Bible according
to his own discretion into smaller portions. They are now moreover
generally admitted in the editions of the Hebrew and Greek texts. The
verses, however, are from Robert Stephens, who first introduced them in
his edition of the New Testament, A. D. 1551. His son, Henry Stephens,
was the first to record this for the information of posterity, in the
preface to his Greek Concordance to the New Testament; in which he says,
that two facts connected with it equally demand our admiration: “The
first is, that my father, while travelling from Paris to Lyons, finished
this division of each chapter into verses, and indeed the greater part
of it [_inter equitandum_] when riding on his horse. The second fact is,
that, a short time prior to this journey, while he had the matter still
in contemplation, almost all those to whom he mentioned it told him
plainly that he was an indiscreet man, as though he had a wish to spend
his time and labour on an affair which would prove utterly useless, and
which would not obtain for him any commendation, but, on the contrary,
would expose him to much ridicule. But behold the result: in opposition
to the opinion which condemned and discountenanced my father’s
undertaking, as soon as his invention was published, every edition of
the New Testament, whether in the Greek, Latin, French, German, or in
any other language, which did not adopt it, was immediately discarded.”
It perhaps will not be unedifying to add, that this passage has yielded
mankind another proof that LEARNING is not always synonymous with
WISDOM: for the phrase respecting riding, which occurs in it, has
furnished matter of warm dispute to literary men; some of them
contending that _inter equitandum_ means, that Robert Stephens performed
the greater part of his task while actually on horseback; but others,
giving a more extended construction to the expression, assert that he
was engaged in this occupation only when stopping for refreshment at
inns on the road. Though the first interpretation would probably obtain
the greatest number of suffrages from really learned and impartial men;
yet it is quite sufficient for mankind to know, in either way, that this
division into verses was completed in the course of that journey.
divisions, which appear under various names. The custom of reading it
publicly in the Christian assemblies after the law and the prophets,
would soon cause such divisions to be applied to it. The law and the
prophets were for this end already divided into _parashim_ and
_haptaroth_, and the New Testament could not long remain without being
treated in the same way. The distribution into church lessons was indeed
the oldest that took place in it. The Christian teachers gave the name
of _pericopes_, to the sections read as lessons by the Jews. Justin
Martyr avails himself of this expression, when he quotes prophetical
passages. Such is the case also in Clemens of Alexandria; but this
writer also gives the name of ϖερικόπαι to larger sections of the
Gospels and St. Paul’s Epistles. _Pericopes_ therefore were nothing else
but ἀναγνώσματα, church lessons, or sections of the New Testament, which
were read in the assemblies after Moses and the Prophets. In the third
century another division also into κεφαλαία occurs. Dionysius of
Alexandria speaks of them in reference to the Apocalypse, and the
controversies respecting it. Some, says he, went through the whole book,
from chapter to chapter, to show that it bore no sense. In the fifth
century Euthalius produced again a division into chapters, which was
accounted his invention. He himself however lays claim to nothing more
than having composed τὴν τῶν κεφαλαίων ἐκθεσίν, the summaries of the
contents of the chapters in the Acts of the Apostles and the Catholic
Epistles. In the Epistles of St. Paul, not even these are his property;
but they are derived “from one of the wisest of the fathers, and
worshippers of Christ,” as he himself says, and he only incorporated
them into his stichometrical edition of the New Testament. The chapters
must, therefore, have been in existence before Euthalius, if the father
whom he mentions composed notices of their contents. But how old they
are cannot easily be known. The Euthalian κεφαλαία are distinguished
from the _pericopes_, or reading portions, by their extent. The Jews had
divided the law into fifty-three _parashim_, according to the number of
the Sabbaths, taking into account the leap year. Nearly so distributed
were the Acts of the Apostles, St. Paul’s and the Catholic Epistles,
according to the Alexandrine ritual, which Euthalius follows in his
stichometrical edition, namely, into fifty-six _pericopes_; three more
than the number of κουριάκαι ἡμέραι, Sundays, probably for three
festivals, which might be observed at Christmas, Easter, and
Whitsuntide. The Gospels too had naturally in the same way many
_pericopes_. Such in older times was the practice in Asia also; for
Justin says, that the believers there assemble themselves for prayer and
reading on Sunday only, ἐν τῇ τοῦ ἡλίου ἡμερᾷ. Since then the whole New
Testament was distributed into so few sections, these must necessarily
have been great, and a _pericope_ in Euthalius sometimes includes in it
four, five, and even six chapters. We have spoken hitherto only of the
chapters of the Acts of the Apostles and the Epistles. In the Gospels
there occur to us κεφαλαία of two sorts, the greater and the lesser. The
lesser are the Ammonian which Eusebius rejected, after which he composed
his ten canons in order to point out in the Monotessaron of Ammonius the
respective contents of every Evangelist. He has explained himself in the
Epistle to Carpianus on their use, and on the formation of his ten
canons, where he names his sections sometimes κεφαλαία, sometimes
ϖερικόπαι. Matthew has three hundred and fifty-five of these, Mark two
hundred and thirty-six, Luke three hundred and forty-two, and John two
hundred and thirty-two. The other chapters are independent of these,
which from their extent are also named the greater. Of these, Matthew
contains sixty-eight, Mark forty-nine, Luke eighty-three, and John only
eighteen. There are but very few manuscripts which have not both of them
together. As to the church lessons, to come back to them once more,
various alterations took place in them. As the festival days multiplied,
the old division could no longer subsist, and in many churches the
_pericopes_ were shortened. At last as the ritual of ceremonies was
enlarged, only certain portions were extracted from the Gospels, the
Acts of the Apostles, and the Epistles, which sometimes were very short.
A codex of this sort was termed ἐκλογάδιον; in reference to the Gospels
alone, εὐαγγελιϛάριον; and in respect to the other books, ϖραξαπόϛολος.
This seems to have taken place among the Latins much earlier than among
the Greeks. There are perfectly credible testimonies, which establish
such an arrangement among the former at the middle of the fifth century,
at which date nothing of the kind is perceptible among the latter. The
expression, ϖραξαπόϛολος, appears indeed frequently in the Typicum of
St. Sabas, who died in the beginning of the fifth century. But the
Greeks do not disavow, that this Typicum or monastic ritual was not by
himself, that it perished in the invasions of the barbarians, and was
composed anew by John of Damascus, with references _memoriter_, [from
memory,] to that of Sabas. He lived toward the middle of the eighth
century, and with an earlier notice of lectionaries among the Greeks we
are not acquainted. Finally, our present chapters come, as it is well
known, from Cardinal Hugo de St. Cher, who in the twelfth century
composed a concordance, and to this end distributed the Bible according
to his own discretion into smaller portions. They are now moreover
generally admitted in the editions of the Hebrew and Greek texts. The
verses, however, are from Robert Stephens, who first introduced them in
his edition of the New Testament, A. D. 1551. His son, Henry Stephens,
was the first to record this for the information of posterity, in the
preface to his Greek Concordance to the New Testament; in which he says,
that two facts connected with it equally demand our admiration: “The
first is, that my father, while travelling from Paris to Lyons, finished
this division of each chapter into verses, and indeed the greater part
of it [_inter equitandum_] when riding on his horse. The second fact is,
that, a short time prior to this journey, while he had the matter still
in contemplation, almost all those to whom he mentioned it told him
plainly that he was an indiscreet man, as though he had a wish to spend
his time and labour on an affair which would prove utterly useless, and
which would not obtain for him any commendation, but, on the contrary,
would expose him to much ridicule. But behold the result: in opposition
to the opinion which condemned and discountenanced my father’s
undertaking, as soon as his invention was published, every edition of
the New Testament, whether in the Greek, Latin, French, German, or in
any other language, which did not adopt it, was immediately discarded.”
It perhaps will not be unedifying to add, that this passage has yielded
mankind another proof that LEARNING is not always synonymous with
WISDOM: for the phrase respecting riding, which occurs in it, has
furnished matter of warm dispute to literary men; some of them
contending that _inter equitandum_ means, that Robert Stephens performed
the greater part of his task while actually on horseback; but others,
giving a more extended construction to the expression, assert that he
was engaged in this occupation only when stopping for refreshment at
inns on the road. Though the first interpretation would probably obtain
the greatest number of suffrages from really learned and impartial men;
yet it is quite sufficient for mankind to know, in either way, that this
division into verses was completed in the course of that journey.