How to Find a Scripture Verse

1 Bible = Two “Testaments” = 66 Books

The Bible looks like one book when you pick it up, but actually, it is a compilation of 66 different “books,” written by many different people over more than 2000 years!  Here are some general observations that might help you find your way around the Bible:

The Old and New Testaments

  • The Bible is divided into two “Testaments”—the Old Testament and the New Testament. 
  • Briefly, the meaning of the word “testament” is similar to the word “testimonial.”  The purpose of gathering a series of writings together into one “testament” is a little like listing customer recommendations and feedback. Taken as a whole, a “testament” is like saying, “All the people who wrote these things believe in God, and they heartily recommend God to you too.” 
  • The “Old Testament” tells about the Jewish people in the centuries before Jesus, and includes many famous things they said or wrote. Today both Jewish people and Christians consider the books of the Old Testament to be “scripture.”
  • The “New Testament” tells about Jesus and the early church, and again, includes the letters and their other writings. Christians added the books found in the New Testament to what the Jewish people have always considered to be scripture…therefore the names “Old Testament” and “New Testament” are terms that Christians use to describe each part of the Bible.

Understanding Books, Chapters, and Verses

  • Each testament contains numerous separate “books” (39 in the Old Testament, 27 in the New Testament). Some biblical writers, such as the Apostle Paul, wrote several different books in the Bible. Other writers, such as James, only wrote one “book” in the Bible. But it helps to learn who wrote each book, and why they wrote it…was it a letter to people who were arguing with each other, or was it a collection of poetry or songs used in worship, or was it intended to be a book of laws and regulations? Knowing a little bit of background about each book’s original writer and purpose can help you understand more as you read that book of the Bible, just like it would help to know whether you are reading a copy of “The Rules of the Road” by the State of Illinois, or a collection of recipes by the Pampered Chef, or a play written by Shakespeare.
  • Centuries after the Bible was written, for convenience the church added a numbering system to the Bible. They divided each book into “chapters,” which are typically about a half-page long.  When you are looking at a page of the Bible, you will see that the chapter numbers are larger sized numbers than the verse numbers.
  • Each chapter is further divided into “verses,” which are typically a sentence or two long. The verse numbers are printed in a smaller size, sometimes slightly raised above the written text, and sometimes even placed between words mid-sentence.

Decoding Scripture References

  • If you see a scripture reference, such as James 3:1-5, this refers to the third chapter of the book of James, verses 1-5. If it just said, “James 3,” then it means the entire third chapter of the book of James.
  • A few Old Testament books have a “1” or “2” in front of them, like 1 Samuel and 2 Samuel.  This is simply because most Old Testament books were originally written on handwritten scrolls.  If the book was too long to fit on one scroll, then the two scrolls required to copy it were numbered 1 & 2, and that number appears before the name of the book. So “1 Samuel 3:1-5” means to read verses 1-5 of chapter 3 of the first book of Samuel. But if it said “2 Samuel 3:1-5,” you would find that chapter and verse in the book of Second Samuel instead of First Samuel.
  • A few New Testament books also have numbers written in front of them, like “1 John,” “2 John,” and “3 John.”  Since many of the “books” in the New Testament were originally written as letters, this number means the first, second, or third letter to the same person or group. So these four are all different books in the New Testament: John, 1 John, 2 John, and 3 John, and just like in the Old Testament, the chapter and verse are written after the name of the book.