How to read the Bible

If you've never seen or picked up a Bible before, you'll probably be confused on how it is organized when you first turn the pages.  It is not an easy book to read, and sometimes even harder to navigate.  Here is a help to get you started when you see the Bible.

The Bible is organized into two different sections, the Old Testament and the New Testament.  The Old testament is mainly about the nation of Israel, and God's people before Jesus.  The New Testament is mainly about Jesus and his apostles after him.  In these testaments, there are three more categories:  Book, Chapter, and Verse.  Here is how it would look:

The word at the beginning is the name of the book that the passage is in, the first number is the chapter, and the second number is the verse.

How do I find a passage?

There are three easy steps to finding a passage in the Bible. John 3:16 will be our example:

• Find the table of contents (it's usually in the first few pages of the book) and look for John. When you see what page John starts at, turn to that page:

• Turn the pages of John until you get to a big number 3.  This is the beginning of the third chapter

• Scan your eyes in chapter three until you see a small number 16.  This is the beginning of the 16th verse: