A Little Bible Handbook
Online Version
For the Absolute beginner...
Some people on their first foray into Bible study get lost because they don’t know the standard method of locating specific passages. It is a very simple method, involving “Book,” “Chapter,” and “Verse” references. The easiest way to learn it is to try a specific example:The Ten Commandments may be found at “Exodus 20:1-17.”
First we locate the book called “Exodus.” Its page number will be given in the Contents section at the front of the Bible.
Each section of Exodus will be marked with a large and distinct number. This is the “Chapter” number. Our second step is therefore to flip through the pages of Exodus until we find chapter “20.”
Once in chapter 20, look for very small numbers in almost every line of the text. These are “verse” numbers, corresponding to the physical lines of Hebrew letters (or, in the case of the New Testament, lines of Greek letters) when the Bible was in handwritten form long ago. In this example, we will want verse “1” which is right at the beginning of Chapter 20. Read it and you will see the first line of the Ten Commandments, “Then God spoke all these words:” Keep reading until you get to verse 17.
Here is a more complex reference: Genesis 1:1 - 2:4. The number to the left of a colon always indicates a chapter, the number to the right of the colon indicates a verse. Because there are two colons in this reference, this reading covers more than one chapter. The book is “Genesis,” and the first chapter to find is chapter 1. The reading starts with verse 1 but it continues into chapter 2 and proceeds to verse 4.
With this little lesson under your belt, you should be able to locate and read any Bible reference, both in this guide and whenever you come across one anywhere.
