<P> The Bible is a compilation of many shorter books written at different times by a variety of authors, and later assembled into the biblical canon . Since the early 13th century, most copies and editions of the Bible present all but the shortest of these books with divisions into chapters, generally a page or so in length . Since the mid-16th century editors have further subdivided each chapter into verses - each consisting of a few short lines or sentences . Sometimes a sentence spans more than one verse, as in the case of Ephesians 2: 8--9, and sometimes there is more than one sentence in a single verse, as in the case of Genesis 1: 2 . </P> <P> As the chapter and verse divisions did not appear in the original texts, they form part of the paratext of the Bible . </P> <P> The Jewish divisions of the Hebrew text differ at various points from those used by Christians . For instance, in Jewish tradition, the ascriptions to many Psalms are regarded as independent verses or parts of the subsequent verses, making 116 more verses, whereas established Christian practice treats each Psalm ascription as independent and unnumbered . Some chapter divisions also occur in different places, e.g. Hebrew Bibles have 1 Chronicles 5: 27--41 where Christian translations have 1 Chronicles 6: 1--15 . </P>

When was the bible written in chapters and verses