The Bible is a compilation of many shorter books written at different times and
later assembled into the biblical canon. All but the shortest of these books
have been divided into chapters, generally a page or so in length, since the
early 13th century. Since the mid-16th century, each chapter has been further
divided into "verses" 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. As the chapter and verse divisions were not part of the
original texts, they form part of the paratext of the Bible
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