Navigating the Bible: Tips for Understanding Scripture References

Hey there. So you're new to reading the Bible and you're not sure how to navigate it. Well, you're not alone. I haven't taken a class on this either, so let's go through it together. The good news is that the Bible has a system and with practice you'll get the hang of it. If you've been struggling with this, stay tuned to this episode of the Bible Basics Podcast for answers to these and other issues related to navigating the Bible. Well, welcome everyone. I'm your host, Jacqui Adewole, and this is the Bible Basics Podcast, where, weekly, we break down the basics of the Bible into understandable, bite-sized chunks.

When you open your Bible, you might be overwhelmed and not know where to start, but don't worry, let's start at the beginning. Let's take a look at your Bible. Most Bibles have a variety of resources on the first few pages before you get to the first book of the Bible, Genesis. These resources may include notes, charts, maps and indices, to name a few. There may also be additional resources at the back of the Bible, including concordances and maps. Some Bibles just have a table of contents. The one thing they all have in common, however, is any of the resources that may be in the front or the back are numbered with Roman numerals. The 66 books that make up the actual text of the Bible do not use Roman numerals. They are numbered starting with the book of Genesis on page one. In those beginning pages. The most important resource is the table of contents, or the index of the 66 books of the Bible and their associated page numbers. I highly recommend that you mark it with a sticky note or piece of tape so you can quickly access it when you want it. You'll want to access this page often until you become familiar with where all the books are And, trust me, with time you will. We plan to do a future podcast episode to help you memorize the order of all the books of the Bible, but for now you should know that the first book is Genesis and that starts on page one. The last book is Revelation and you can find that all the way at the back of your Bible. If you put your finger in about half, at the halfway point of your Bible, you should land on the book of Psalms, or at least in the vicinity. Let's continue to look at that index or a table of contents. We can see that the Bible is divided into two primary sections the Old Testament containing 39 books covering the time before Jesus, and the New Testament containing 27 books, which covers the period during and after Jesus' life. The Old Testament takes up about three quarters of the Bible and the New Testament about one quarter. The book of Psalms is approximately in the middle of the Bible.

Now that you know how to find a book, let me describe how you'll use that to find scripture references. The two testaments and the books aren't the only divisions in the Bible. Each book is further divided into chapters and chapters are divided into verses. If you look at any page of the Bible, you'll see a large, often bold number. That is the chapter number. Looking further, you can see that there are many sentences or portions of sentences that have a smaller number. That's the verse number. We use those to find a particular passage in the Bible. A scripture reference or passages are like an address that tells you where the verse lives in the Bible. It's better than a page number, because different Bibles place the text on different pages.

Let's look at an illustration, James 1:5. That is written James, space, number one, colon and number five. James is the name of the book. The one refers to the first chapter in the book and the verse number is five. So first you want to look up James's page number in your Table of Contents. Then turn to that book of James. Notice the first chapter, numbered 1. Go down to the verse that you see, that's numbered 5. By the way, that is one of my favorite verses In the NIV translation of the Bible. It reads. "If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all, without finding fault, and it will be given to you. Interesting fact chapter and verse divisions were not present in the original manuscripts of the Bible. They were added many centuries later to help readers navigate the text and find specific passages more easily. Now let's try another one Proverbs 15.1. Look up Proverbs in the Table of Contents. Hint, it's right after Psalms. Turn to that book. Let's turn to it. Flip over to chapter 15 and look for the first verse. Yes, you've got it. So read along with me. It reads, "A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.

It's important to note that sometimes the scripture reference may include more than one verse. For example, 1 Corinthians 13:4-7. It's written four, hyphen 7. And it tells us to consider not just verse 4, but also the verses between 4 and 7. So it's 4, 5, 6, and 7. Additionally, it's worth pointing out that in the Table of Contents, 1 Corinthians is written as number 1 Corinthians. However, we don't say "one Corinthians, we say first, because it's the first letter that the apostle Paul wrote to the church at Corinth. The same applies to 2 Corinthians, which is pronounced 2 Corinthians, not 2 Corinthians. This also holds true for 3 John, which is not pronounced 3 John.

Sometimes a teacher or writer may want to reference only part of a verse rather than the whole thing, and these cases, a lower case 'a' can be used to indicate the first portion of a verse, while a lower case 'b' can be used to specify the second portion of a verse. For example, psalm 1:1a refers to the first half of Psalm 1:1. Lastly, when referring to a particular chapter in Psalms, use the singular Psalm, as in Psalm 23, not Psalms 23. The word Psalms refers to multiple chapters, but if you're referring to an individual chapter, you should use the singular word Psalm. Remember that a scripture reference may include multiple verses, and the correct pronunciation of the book names is also important. When indicating only part of a verse, lowercase letters are used, and when referring to a specific chapter in Psalms, use the singular Psalm.

I hope these tips help you to navigate scripture references with more ease and accuracy. Thank you for listening. If this has been beneficial to you, please subscribe or follow and tell someone else about the Bible Basics Podcast, and we'll talk again soon.