Understanding the Holy Bible which is a very large volume containing 66 books within two major parts--the Old and the New Testament can be difficult. At first, the Bible could seem a little hard to navigate, but with some basic knowledge on how it is organized and practice, you will be able to quickly find any scripture to check for accuracy of what people say or that you need for any other reason.
Steps
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Learn how the bible is organized. It is divided into Book Chapter:Verse . For example, if you wanted to look up John 3:16, first you would turn to the book of John. You would then turn to the 3rd chapter (the number before the colon is the chapter.). You would then find the 16th verse.- Verses are usually arranged with small numbers within the text. Some Bibles are formed into paragraphs and only have the number of the verse that begins each paragraph.
- The first part of the Bible is called the Old Testament (Tanakh -- Jewish) Bible of the "books of Moses" and other ancient prophets' writings and second the New Testament of Christian books starting with the four Gospels of Christ written by Christian Jews -- and as many as fourteen (or as few as seven, some say) books all ascribed to one Greek Jew, the Apostle [Saint] Paul (born Saul of Tarsus), more on his contributions to the Bible Christianity in the "Tips" section. [1] X Research source
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Look in the back of your Bible; it may have a Bible concordance (index) which will direct you to a few verses that contain each word that you find in the concordance.Advertisement -
Study with a much larger, separate concordance including a dictionary of Bible and Holy Land atlas of maps, all in one volume, spanning various times in the history of the eastern Mediterranean Sea region, Middle East -- or find a set of Bible commentary books -- all available at bookstores (especially Christian, Jewish and Western-commercial booksellers). -
See whether or not there is a cross reference in your Bible --which is usually setup in two text columns, and then the cross reference may be found in the middle of the page in a very narrow column. It serves as a kind of footnote section to list other places you find the same, a similar/related topic in the Bible. -
Inspect the bottoms of most pages or above the beginning of each chapter, or in subtopic headings between groups of verses to see if your Bible has selected comments about the subject, meaning and/or history of the material in that chapter.
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Search for a Bible subject/verses on the Internet that refer to your topic. Bible subject:marriage or try Bible verses:marriage for example to find several websites that may contain your reference. Some will be sermons, others commentary and some will be arguing or discussion pages.- For easy access to Bible verses and study tools, consider using the Bible App. This free app offers various translations and Bible study plans right on your smartphone.
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Find a Bible quotation on the Internet like Bible quote:for God so loved the world . If you have several of the words from a verse but want its chapter and verse location in the Bible, this is used like a concordance. -
Find many language translations of the entire Bible with various, different versions (older or more modern language usage, etc. ) on the Internet.
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Community Q&A
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QuestionWhere do I find the scripture that begins "When two or more gather together..."?SmartAZCommunity AnswerMatthew 18:20 "For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them."
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QuestionHow do I connect with my angels?Community AnswerGod knows you like you know yourself. All you have to do is talk to God. You can talk formally, informally, whatever you like. God likes to hear from you, and talking to him to connect to your angels will help you find inner peace. Secondly, do some research on the angels' names in specific that you'd like to connect with. God can sometimes be "an operator" while we are "on hold" for "the phone call" with our guardian angels.
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QuestionHow do I understand the Bible better?Community AnswerGet a historical background so that you can better understand the context. Much of the Bible is allegorical rather than literal, and it helps to understand the times in which it was written.
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Tips
- Paul, who wrote in Greek language to the Greek Christian churches, became an early Christian missionary to the Gentiles (non-Jews), largely Greeks, and to Greek Jews, using scriptures to contend daily whether Jesus of Nazareth fulfilled the prophecies of the Jewish Messiah . As a remarkable theologian, he was writing books (voluminous letters to Churches) for years during house-arrest in Rome, while appealing to Caesar's Court. As a Roman citizen, he had appealed his arrest (and probable, impending, summary execution) by Israel's Roman rulers as an alleged Jewish-Christian zealot/"troublemaker", i.e.: serving a Lord/ruler other than Caesar. He was held in Caesarea of Judea for about a year and a half. Finally, Paul and his followers sailed under guard for Rome where Paul was to stand trial. Acts states that Paul wrote and preached in Rome for two years from his rented home while awaiting trial (in about the time of "trials" of Christians in the Roman Coliseum): there is no known report of or means of death. Several early Church, extra-biblical sources said he had gone west from Rome and taught extensively "to the extremity of the west" and "Spain" (the Romans ruled England, the "extreme west"). [2] X Research sourceThanks
- The book of Acts written by Jesus' disciple (the Apostle) Luke wrote that Paul the Apostle (c. AD 5 – c. AD 67), reportedly the major writer of the New Testament, was born a Roman citizen in Tarsus of Cilicia (Armenia, part of south-central Turkey) then part of greater Grecian territories, though he never said he was native Roman (some people purchased citizenship). [3] X Research sourceThanks
- Some Muslims study both parts of the Bible along with their Qur’an (Koran). As the prophet Mohammad, peace be upon him, instructed to study the Injeel (Bible) in case of confusion in understanding the Qur’an.Thanks
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Warnings
- Be careful of some books having names that are very similar. For example, there are four books with the name John. They are the larger [Gospel of (Saint)] John, and his three smaller books: 1st John, 2nd John and 3rd John.Thanks
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Things You'll Need
- The Holy Bible (contains both the Old and New Testament)
- The Tanakh (Jewish Bible/old testament)
- The New Testament (contains only the Christian books)
Expert Interview
Thanks for reading our article! If you’d like to learn more about christianity, check out our in-depth interview with Mark Russell .
References
About This Article
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