Two simple questions arise: (1) who decided to put the two
verses together? and (2) why was this done? The second question
turns out to be more easy than the first: compared to those
older editions, the verses would actually seem to have been put
back together. The very first edition with the still current
system of New Testament verse numbers, Robertus Stephanus’s 1551
diglot, had 51 verses in John 1, just as today, and John 1:38-51
exactly divided as it is now. This observation raises two
additional questions: (3) when was verse 38 first split in two?
and (4) why was this done? To start with the third question:
Stephanus’s 1555 Latin Bible, and Beza’s first major New
Testament edition of 1556/1557 did not split the verse. The
first edition with 52 verses in John 1 that I was able to find
is Beza’s second major edition of 1565. It is hard to say
whether the change reflects a decision by the typesetters or by
Beza. In any case, the split verse on p. 362 (of part 1) is not
an error or accident. Indeed, just as