The "perakim" (chapters) of tanach were established by non-Jews. Why do we continue to use them? Many of the chapter breaks do not correspond to our petucha/setumah paragraph system, and they often seem arbitrary.
If the answer is simply they are helpful and we've had them for a long time, wouldn't it have made sense for Jews to set up a better system of chapters by now?
Why do we still use the non-Jewish way of delineating chapters in tanach?
BS"D
I asked the same question to a local Rabbi not to long ago and he gave me an answer along these lines of
To change the numeration of the Miqra at this point in time would be a costly and troublesome thing to do. Costly because every sepharim publisher would have to stop all their printings in every language and redo all their master copies. Troublesome because it would invalidate (academically speaking) literally hundreds of thousands of sepharim that have references, in many cases it would make cross checking nearly impossible (for example in Shamu'el).
But all that is not to say that it won't happen: in fact it already has. There is the Shiva Le'Bitzaron which seeks to return to the ancient mesora of the text and not the adopted xtian counting. Here is an article and video about it.
Hope that helps.
The first Jew to use chapter/verse was probably Rav Shlomo ben Yishmael (c. 1330), who did it so that the Jews would be able to quickly reply to any argument the Christians made when they quoted chapters and verses in order to do their missionary work.
The non-Jew Daniel Bomber (author of Mikraos Gedolos, 1518) used the chapter/verse system as well. Its editor, Chacham Yaakov ben Chaim, says that he was basing it on another early text and needed to use it so that people would know which pasuk he was referring to. Because of the popularity of Mikraos Gedolos, it has lasted even until now.
Incidentally, Rabbi Pesach Finfer condemned (1903) the system, and insists that it be removed.
Koren Tanakhs print both the Christian-derived chapters and the ancient Jewish system of sedarim. It's interesting to see where the sedarim break up differently than the chapters (once a teacher told me that the number is such that if you read one a day, exempting Shabbat, Yom Tov [I think counting one day for Yom Tov as it's an Eretz Yisraeli system] and Tisha B'Av, it takes you throuh Tanakh in one year). However, the presence of both reference numbers on the page is extremely confusing and difficult to follow.
It says in the beginning of Chapter 4 of Pirkei Avot that a wise person who is a person who learns from all other people (not just from rabbis). It is therefore wise to acknowledge the positive aspects of Christianity, and perhaps the Biblical chapter divisions is one of the wisest of these aspects. This is also known as "nullifying the kelipot." It is possible sometimes to find good wine in bad vessels.
The Jews used to have a very well designed way, but in Europe when the non-Jews and sometimes the Maskilim would debate with the Jews, the Jews were lost because a priest might call out "Deuteronomy 8:13," and the Jew would have no idea what that meant. So they learned the non-Jewish way and the original version was forgotten. The non-Jews of course had no idea about when the Torah should be broken up, so their system came out crooked. And it is true, some people have tried making their own versions but they have never been accepted by most if not all Jews. I have heard that some Gedolei Hador wanted to make their own but they never got around to it.
