Before Chapter and Verse

<p><em>What a </em><strong><em>stimulating</em></strong><em> and </em><strong><em>impressive</em></strong><em> work! Stimulating in the ideas and insights that it advances and impressive in the thoughtfulness around their explication.</em></p><p>Rabbi Dr. David E. S. Stein Bible scholar and editor.</p><p><br></p><p>The Torah (Five Books of Moses) as well as the rest of the Bible</p><p>was not composed in chapters and verses. It was divided into</p><p>chapters only in the thirteenth century CE. It took another two</p><p>centuries before numbered verses were used. How then was it</p><p>composed? Is there any logic to the way its stories and laws were</p><p>assembled? Do its five books have clearly demarcated divisions?</p><p>Can the identification of such divisions lead to deeper</p><p>understandings? These are among the questions that formed the</p><p>basis of an extensive research project.</p><p>Before Chapter and Verse the fruit of that research presents a</p><p>surprising discovery. To read the Torah as it was written the text</p><p>must be arranged in columns and rows as tables or more properly</p><p>weaves. Each of the eighty-six literary units that comprise the Torah</p><p>was constructed as a warp and woof with the stone tablets of the</p><p>Decalogue providing the prototype. In turn these units were woven</p><p>together in the structures that form the five books. The weaving</p><p>analogy applies to both the micro level of the unit and the macro</p><p>level of the books.</p><p>Before Chapter and Verse provides you with the tools to read the</p><p>Torah as it was woven. It includes an English translation of the</p><p>Torah's eighty-six units presented according to their literary</p><p>structures as well as maps showing the structure of each book.</p>