King James Bible Dictionary

The several books of the Old and New Testaments were from an early time divided into chapters. The Pentateuch was divided by the ancient Hebrews into 54 parshioth or sections, one of which was read in the synagogue every Sabbath day (Acts. 13:15). These sections were afterwards divided into 669 sidrim or orders of unequal length. The Prophets were divided in somewhat the same manner into haphtaroth or passages.

In the early Latin and Greek versions of the Bible, similar divisions of the several books were made. The New Testament books were also divided into portions of various lengths under different names, such as titles and heads or chapters.

In modern times this ancient example was imitated, and many attempts of the kind were made before the existing division into chapters was fixed. The Latin Bible published by Cardinal Hugo of St. Cher in A.D. 1240 is generally regarded as the first Bible that was divided into our present chapters, although it appears that some of the chapters were fixed as early as A.D. 1059. This division into chapters came gradually to be adopted in the published editions of the Hebrew, with some few variations, and of the Greek Scriptures, and hence of other versions.

CHAPTER, noun

1. A division of a book or treatise; as, Genesis contains fifty chapters. Hence the phrase, to the end of the chapter that is, throughout; to the end.

2. In ecclesiastical polity, a society or community of clergymen, belonging to a cathedral or collegiate church.

3. A place where delinquents receive discipline and correction.

4. A decretal epistle.

CHAPTER, verb transitive To tax; to correct.

CHAPTER-HOUSE, noun A house where a chapter meets.

CHAPTREL, noun The capitals of pillars and pilasters, which support arches, commonly called imposts.

P'ARCHED, participle passive Scorched; dried to extremity.

(Isaiah 35:7), Heb. sharab, a "mirage", a phenomenon caused by the refraction of the rays of the sun on the glowing sands of the desert, causing them suddenly to assume the appearance of a beautiful lake. It is called by the modern Arabs by the same Hebrew name serab.

P'ARCHEDNESS, noun The state of being scorched or dried to extremity.