Using the Bible

This page aims to give a quick introduction to the referencing system of the Bible and how to use it.

The Reference System:  (top)

As discussed in the introduction to the Bible page, the Bible is divided into 66 books (note that invariably 'book' is used even when the 'book' in question is actually a letter). Each of these books also has further divisions within, such as chapters and verses, to help when referring to a particular passage from the Bible.

An example of such a reference is: "Romans 8:1", which refers to the first verse of the eighth chapter of the book of Romans. This is exactly the same as the abbreviated form: "Rom. 8:1".

Each book can be referenced in this way (except some books which only have one chapter and so there are less numbers and no colon in the references - e.g., "Jude 23") and the chapter and verse divisions remain the same across all different translations of the Bible.

Alternate Representations:  (top)

There have been many accepted ways of referring to passages in the Bible over the centuries, using variations on Roman and Arabic numerals, superscript, colons and fullstops. For example:

• Romans 8:1
• Rom. 8.1
• Ro. 8¹
• Romans viii, 1

The above all refer to the same passage.

Also, with those books that are named "the first", "the second" or "the third" "Book of X", "Corinthians" for example, Roman or Arabic numerals can be used as well. For example:

• 2 Corinthians 5:2
• II Cor. v, 2
• 2 Cor. v, 2
• II Cor. 5.2

The above all refer to the same passage.

Book Abbreviations:  (top)

Each Book of the Bible has various abbreviations, so when referencing, you can refer to the book in full or abbreviated form. As seen above, Romans can be abbreviated to "Rom.", and can even be abbreviated to "Ro.".

Below is a list of simple abbreviations used for the Books of the Bible:

A few notes:  (top)

• It is not necessary to distinguish between Old and New Testaments when referencing.
• It is not necessary to identify the author of a book when referring to it.