The Extras in your Bible Edition

David Ker is concerned about section titles in your Bible.  And well he should be.

I frequently talk about avoiding reading the “lower half” of your Bible when you study.  What I mean by the “lower half” is the study notes that so many editions put at the bottom of the page.  Now this is something that applies particularly to study Bibles, and it’s not subtle–you can easily tell whether you’re reading the Biblical text or the notes.  One of my pet peeves is people reading a note from their Bible when I ask for their thoughts on a text.

But what David is talking about is much more subtle, and it’s easy to miss.  The fact is that the chapter, paragraph, and verse divisions in your Bible were not created by the original authors, but are part of the translation process.   If you take a text that was not divided into paragraphs and divide it, you will do so based on your understanding of the text.  If you add titles, those will be based on your perception of the way the text should be understood.

Go check out David’s post for a good example of how the meaning might be adjusted in this way.  Then when you study your Bible, give consideration to the possibility that the main point isn’t what the title suggests, or that the text might flow through that paragraph division.