Layout of Bible Codices

Back when early codices were being copied down, there was no such thing as printing (obviously), so all scripture was in hand-written manuscript form. In order to save supplies and to make the tedious process of copying scripture go faster, no divisions were placed in the text — there were no spaces between words or sentences. Some "holy words" were even abbreviated, since they were repeated often. There were no chapter and verse divisions at all, just long lines of text. You can find photographs of this in many manuscripts prior to the Medieval period, evident in such texts as the Codex Alexandrinus, Amiatinus, Sinaiticus, and many others.

Scripture typically looked like the text here, taken from Acts chapter 2. As a note, our current chapter divisions were not put in until 1205 AD, under the supervision of Archbishop of Canterbury Stephen Langton. Modern verse divisions were first inserted by Robert Estienne (aka Stephanus) in the 1551 edition of his Greek New Testament.

I personally exhort fellow Christians to find a Bible that does not have any verse divisions and read through a gospel or letter in one sitting; this is the way they were 'meant' to be read, and I often get more out of those books than I do when I just read a short passage. There's not many editions like this out there, but their number is increasing.

Some Bibles without verse divisions:
- The Reader's Digest Condensed Bible (RSV)
- ESV Reader's Bible
- The Books of the Bible (NIV 2011)
- Any historical facsimile of a Bible version from the mid-1500s or prior.