Again, in the preface to Stephens's Latin and French New Test., published at (Jeneva in 1552, which is also thus divided, but which we have never seen cited, he observes : " Et a fin de plus aisement pouoir faire la dicte collation et confrontement, avons distingue tout iceliiy Nouveau Testament comme par vers, a la fa^on et manicre (pie tout le Vieil a este escript et distingue, soit par Moyse et les prophetes compositeurs et au- theurs, on par scavans Hebrieux succedans, pour la con- servation des dictes Escriptures, snyuans aussi en ce en partie la maniere de ceux qui ont escript les premieres exemi)laires Grecs, et les vieulx escripts de la vielle tra- lation Latine du diet Testament, qui de chasque sen- tence, ou chasque moitie de sentence, voire de toutes les parties d'une sentence en faisoj'ent comme des ver- sets. Et en la fin de chasque livre mettoyent le nom- bre d'iceulx versets : possible a fin que par ce moyen on n'en peust rien oster, car on I'eust apperceu en re- trouvant le contenu du nombre des diets versets." Stephens adds that he has also given references to the verses in indexes and concordances, not omitting tbe letters (letlriiies) by which the chapters had been <li- vided bj' his predecessors into four or seven parts, ac- cording to their length, for the purpose of a concord- ance. He makes reference to the chapters and verses in his Hai-m07iia Evanrjelica, taken from the work of Leo Judah, and placed at the end of his edition of the New Test. (1551).
Henry Stephens, in his preface to his Concordance,
VERSE
IQI
VEllSE
states that it was this division which first suggested to his father's fertile mind the idea of a Greek and Latin concordance to the New Test., in imitation of his Latin concordance, Concordantice Bibl. utriusque Test<tmenti (vii Cal. Feb. 1555, fol.) ; in the preface to which he says that he has followed the Hebrew mode of nnmbering the verses. In the title-page he makes an appeal to his brother printers not to "thrust their sickle into his harvest," not that he '• feared such plagiary from well- educated printers, but from the common herd of illiter- ate publishers, whom he considered as no better than highway robbers, no more capable of Christian integ- rity than so many African pirates." " Whether his ap- prehensions were well founded," continues his son, "let the experience of others tell." Owing to Stephens's death, in 1559, his Concordance was published by Hen- ry Stephens in 1594.
But it is far from being true that Stephens, as has commonly been believed, was the first who either fol- lowed the Masorites, or divided the chapters into verses, or attached figures to each verse. This had been done, not onlv, in regard to the Psalms, by James Le Fevre, in his Psalterium Qiiinciiplex in 1509, but throughout the tvhole Bible by Sanctes Pagninus in 1528. The Psalterium was beautifully printed by Henry, father of Robert Stephens, each verse commencing the line with a red letter, and a number prefixed; and we may here observe that the book of Psalms was the first portion of the Scriptures to which numbers were attached by designating each separate psalm by its number. Some ascribe this numeration to the Septnagint; it is, we be- lieve, first referred to by St. Hilary {Prcef.), and is found in the manuscripts of the Sept. Whether they were so numbered at the Christian tera is somewhat doubt- ful. In Acts xiii, 33, the second psalm is cited by its number, but in some of the best manuscripts the read- ing here is the first psalm. In ver. 35 "in another" is said without reference to its number; and Kuinol is of opinion that the true reading in ver. 33 is simply tv \j/a\fii[), " in a psalm."
In the year 1528 the Dominican Sanctes Pagninus of Lucca published at Lyons, in quarto, his accurate translation of the Bible into the Latin from the Hebrew and Greek. This edition is divided throughout into verses marked with Arabic numerals in the margin, both in the Old and the New Test. The text runs on con- tinuously, except in the Psalms, where each verse com- mences the line. There was a second edition, more beautifidly executed, but without the figures and divi- sions, published at Cologne in 15-11. The versicular di- visions in the Old Test, are precisely the same with those now in use — viz. the IMasoretic. Each verse is separated by a peculiar mark ((I).
Masch {Biblioth. Sac), in reference to Stephens's statement that he had followed the oldest Greek man- uscripts, says that this assertion was made by Stephens to conciliate those who were taking all methods of blackening him, whereas the ancient divisions were quite different. The reader will judge from Stephens's preface to his French translation above cited whether this assertion is borne out. Stephens there asserts that the authors of the ancient (stichometrical) division reckoned bj' whole books, and he only professes to imi- tate them in part, as well as the Hebrew copies; which he did by making a versicular division of each chapter, and prefixing a figure to each verse (as in Nathan's Concordance'), instead of adding the amount at the end of each book. Hug observes that it is really true that ancient manuscripts of the New Test, are sometimes divided into smaller sections, which have some analogy to our verses, instancing the Alexandrine, Vatican, and others.