How to Find a Scripture in the Bible

Last Updated: August 29, 2019

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

1
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]
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2
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.

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3
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).
4
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.
5
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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Method 1

Method 1 of 1:
Bible Research on the Internet

1
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.
2
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.
3
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

Question

Where do I find the scripture that begins "When two or more gather together..."?

SmartAZ

Community Answer

Matthew 18:20 "For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them."
Question

How do I connect with my angels?

Community Answer

God 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.
Question

How do I understand the Bible better?

Community Answer

Get 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.
Question

Where can I find where Jesus said "I am the door"?

Acrocanthosaurus

Community Answer

John 10:9 ("door" is translated as "gate" in many versions).
Question

Where is the scripture that says God will deliver those who are not innocent because of the cleanness of our hands?

Community Answer

Job 22:30.
Question

Where in the Bible does it say that a disabled child will go to Heaven when they don't understand anything?

Acrocanthosaurus

Community Answer

Luke 18:16. There are also verses that say that a person cannot believe on their own, it is the Holy Spirit that allows them to believe, therefore newborns and the mentally disabled will go to heaven (1 Corinthians 2:14).
Question

Where can I find references to music being either good or evil in the Bible?

Acrocanthosaurus

Community Answer

You won't find anything specifically addressing music, but you will find verses that say you should do everything for the glory of God (Colossians 3:17).
Question

Is there a scripture related to not visiting people too often?

Community Answer

Yes: "Don’t visit your neighbors too often, or you will wear out your welcome." - Proverbs 25:17
Question

How do I find the verse that tells us to call no man father because we have a heavenly father?

Community Answer

"And don't address anyone here on earth as 'Father,' for only God in heaven is your spiritual Father." Matthew 23:9.
Question

What passages in the Bible might have information about eating fats?

Jordan Newberry

Community Answer

Leviticus 7:23 "Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, Ye shall eat no manner of fat, of ox, or of sheep, or of goat." Note that this is part of the Law of Moses, which was replaced with the Higher Law given by Jesus Christ. Therefore, it is no longer explicitly forbidden.

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.

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