Well, happy Labor Day to you listening in the States. I hope you are enjoying some well-deserved

rest today. And today on this holiday, we ask, why are the Bible citations in the Bible so sloppy?

It's the question today about a text in our Bible reading later in the week, and Jesse wrote in to ask it.

Pastor John, hello to you. I have always been intrigued and a little confused by Hebrews 2.6,

where the writer quotes the question, what is man that you are mindful of him or the son of man that you care for him?

But doesn't directly attribute it to Psalm 8-4.

It almost sounds like the author is saying, I remember reading a verse somewhere, but I'm not

exactly sure where it's from. I'm left wondering, did the author genuinely forget the source,

or is there something deeper going on here? This phrasing feels odd because it seems to undercut the credibility of referencing

scripture if the author can't remember exactly where a quote comes from.

Does that mean the reference isn't trustworthy?

Or is this just a casual impromptu way of handling scripture?

Or is there something more intentionally happening that we might

be missing? As a reader, I'm trying to understand the author's purpose and phrasing it this way.

Does it challenge the precision we expect in citing scripture ourselves, or is it a subtle way

of showing a deeper trust in the scriptures itself? Not as isolated texts, but as part of a larger

interconnected story. I'd love to hear your thoughts on what we can learn about handling scripture

ourselves. What's most impressive about this question is that it contains some pretty good answers.

And this happens a lot. People think about their questions and they chip in possible

answers. So let me try to see what I can add here. I think it's helpful to keep in mind that

the chapter divisions that we have in our Bibles did not exist until the 13th century after Christ. They were added by Stephen Lankton,

a lecture at the University of Paris, like in the early 1,200s. And the verse divisions were added

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