How to look up Bible passages

It’s easy to look up things in the Bible.

For example, you might see this: Luke 11: 2-4. (Or sometimes it is written Luke 11, 2-4.)

• “Luke” tells you the actual BOOK of the Bible.
• “11” lets you know which CHAPTER in that book.
• “2-4” tells you the exact VERSE numbers.

Sometimes the book of the Bible is shortened. For example, “Lk.” for Luke or “1 Sam.” for the first book of Samuel. You can usually find the list of abbreviations somewhere at the beginning of your Bible.

In some Bibles, the verse numbers are mixed in with the text. In others, the verses are shown in the margins.

In some Bibles you will also see little letters (like this: a) or other little symbols (like this: * or ‡). These are ways of letting you know that there is either a footnote to explain something, or another Bible passage that is connected to this one. Look at the bottom of the page to see them.

 

Bible Fun Facts!

• In the Catholic Bible there are 46 Old Testament Books and 27 New Testament Books.
• Originally, the books of the Bible had no chapters or verses. (Imagine trying to find a certain passage!) For a long time, many different people divided the books of the Bible up in different ways, so the sections did not match from one Bible to another .
• In 1226, Stephen Langton, later Archbishop of Canterbury, divided the books of the Bible into the chapters we have now.
• In 1551, Robert Stephanus, a printer, divided the chapters into the verse numbering we use now.