When investigating anyone or anything, select background knowledge can be quite helpful in viewing the subject matter through a sound perspective. As the Bible is the subject of our life-long investigation, you may find the following facts helpful:

• The original format of the Bible did not have chapters and verses! Archbishop Stephen Langton created the chapter system in the 13th century. He was writing a Bible commentary and needed a way to reference portions of Scripture.
• In the 16th century, French printer and scholar Robert Estienne followed Langton’s lead. He created a Bible concordance to reference even smaller portions of passages by adding verse numbers.
• While chapters and verses are not 100% harmful, there are believers who don’t realise the ways in which the format actually makes reading the Bible harder.
• For example, originally, Matthew’s gospel did not have 28 chapters. It had 5 natural sections, which he intentionally crafted to show his Jewish audience that the gospel of Jesus was a new ‘Torah’ (The Law of God as revealed to Moses and recorded in the first five books of the Hebrew Scriptures… known as the Pentateuch).

Friends, to discover the true meaning of a passage or verse, it’s vital we know the intention of the writer in writing the whole book! Chapters and verses make it all too easy to grasp onto tiny Scripture nuggets and use them for our own ‘proof text’ purposes without considering the wider context. The danger? A text out of context becomes a ‘pretext’ (distorted meaning)! For example, the best-known verse of the Bible by Christians, world-wide, is John 3:16. But, but most believers are ignorant of verses 15 and 17! These two verses give context to the intended meaning of verse 16.

To discover more of God’s truths from His treasure chest of silver, gold, and gems, choose today to be an investigator of ‘whole Books’ of the Bible, not just chapter and verses. First establish the context of the book that is under investigation then the Holy Spirit will reward your efforts with satisfying truths.

Finally, when you put into action the eight verbs found in Proverbs 2:1-4… Then you will understand what it means to fear the Lord, and you will gain knowledge of God. For the Lord grants wisdom! From His mouth come knowledge and understanding. He grants a treasure of common sense to the honest (v 5-7).

Best wishes
Bill Joukhadar