How are verses referenced?
score:21
The Bible is made up of many different "books", or documents, compiled into a single volume. The traditional Protestant Bible has 66 books. The Catholic Bible uses 73. Some other Christian groups also use a few other religious texts, that are usually referenced in the same way.
Each book is divided into chapters (apart from the very short ones, where there is only one chapter) and each chapter is divided into verses.
So Revelation 21:5 (NIV) refers to the book of Revelation, the 21st chapter, the 5th verse, in the NIV (New International Version) translation.
You will most commonly (at least in the U.S.) see verses referenced as:
- [Book] [chapter]:[verse] for a single verse
- [Book] [chapter]:[verse]-[verse] for multiple verses
- [Book] [chapter] for an entire chapter
- [Book] [chapter]:[verse]-[chapter]:[verse] for a selection spanning multiple chapters
A small number of books in the Bible have only a single chapter, so then the convention is:
- [Book] [verse] for a single verse
- [Book] [verse]-[verse] for multiple verses
Often, the name or abbreviation of the translation used will follow, often in parenthesis. This is most customary when quoting the verse that is referenced.
A few other less commonly used notations are:
- [Book] [chapter]:[verse],[verse] to reference multiple, non-consecutive verses
- [Book] [chapter]:[verse][a,b,c..] to reference the first (a), second (b), etc, sentence of the verse. This addition can be imprecise, as the original greek and hebrew lack punction, so sentence breaks must be inferred by translators, with varying results.
- [Book] [chapter]:[verse]ff to indicate "this verse, and following"
Also note that you will occasionally see, in place of a colon (:), a period (.) or the lowercase letter v. As in:
- Revelation 21.5
- Revelation 21v5
Upvote:9
The verse reference you show as an example is made up of three parts.
- The book name
- The chapter and verse
- The translation
The Bible is made up of 66 books (for the Protestant canon, a few other books are included by Catholics). The first one is Genesis and the last one is Revelation. Thus to find the verse you show, you would turn to the last section of your bible and find the book of Revelation.
Next up is the chapter and verse, usually delineated with a semicolon. In your example, you would be looking for the 21st chapter, 5th verse.
Lastly in parenthesis you have the translation. NIV is the standard abbreviation for New International Version, a fairly commonly English translation. You will often see verses referenced without this and you can look it up in your own preferred translation. When a verse is quoted, it is customary to include a note about which translation was quoted so that it can be can be looked up and examined in context.
More post
- 📝 In Catholicism since when did willfully violating Sunday Mass obligation become mortal sin?
- 📝 Did God create the coronavirus?
- 📝 Why do Greek Orthodox venerate icons and Roman Catholic statues?
- 📝 Baptism in the New Testament
- 📝 According to LDS teaching, Does God have a God?
- 📝 Why is hell more prominent in the NT and not the OT?
- 📝 Why is it not that a state divorce is actually an argument AGAINST a church annulment petition rather than a necessary condition for such petition?
- 📝 Which Christian denominations believe Jesus is buried in Japan?
- 📝 Does the Catholic Church teach where Lazarus’ soul was before being resurrected?
- 📝 Why use Yeshua instead of Jesus?
- 📝 In Trinitarian theology who created the world?
- 📝 What is the Protestant argument against Immaculate Conception?
- 📝 Can punishment for unintentional sins be reconciled with Christians knowing they have eternal life?
- 📝 Can a Christian marry his deceased brother's wife?
- 📝 Help in calculating cousin degree according to Catholic Church
- 📝 Should a priest refuse communion to the inappropriately dressed woman when she approaches to receive it?
- 📝 Are the words in the Lord's Prayer "Hallowed BE Thy Name" or "Hallowed BY Thy Name"?
- 📝 Who was the first person condemned to death by a Christian bishop?
- 📝 Are Job's seven sons and three daughters in Heaven?
- 📝 For whom did Solomon write Proverbs?
- 📝 What are the core differences between Protestants and Eastern Orthodox Christianity?
- 📝 According to the Bible where exactly did God create Adam?
- 📝 How do Calvinists go from "X is Sinful" to "X is unable to accept Christ on his own?"
- 📝 How common are manifestations of charismatic gifts among saints venerated in Orthodox and/or Catholic Churches?
- 📝 Did any other philosophical systems have as much influence on the early Church as Platonism and Stoicism?
- 📝 Does hatred protect us and make us strong?
- 📝 Is there an authoritative resource that spells out the differences and similarities of most major denominations?
- 📝 According to Catholicism, would it be allowed for Jews to stone a woman caught in adultery after the scenario in John 8?
- 📝 What is the Difference Between ROCOR-MP and ROCOR-A (ROCA)
- 📝 Where can I find a simple but complete taxonomy of churches?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 How are verses referenced?
- 📝 How verses from OT are selected for Jesus
- 📝 Are there any statistics that show how many scientists are Christians or otherwise believe in a personal God?
- 📝 How are the Calvinist, Arminian and Lutheran conceptions of Total Depravity different?
- 📝 How do Trinitarians explain verses where Jesus claims to have a God?
- 📝 How are Catholic priests chosen and assigned to specific parishes?
- 📝 How do Jehovah's Witnesses respond to the charge that they are false prophets (because their end-of-the-world predictions didn't come true)?
- 📝 Are these Bible verses referencing UFOs?
- 📝 In evangelicalism, how are Christians free from sin?
- 📝 Why are some verses missing in the NIV?
- 📝 Are there any conflicts between how Jesus is described in the Book of Mormon vs how He is described in the Bible?
- 📝 How many distinct Biblical canons are there?
- 📝 How are emendations to the Masoretic Text viewed within the doctrine of inerrancy?
- 📝 How do you know that you are reborn of Spirit?
- 📝 How many witnesses are there who physically saw and/or touched the golden plates from which the Book of Mormon was reportedly translated?
- 📝 In the NPP, if Paul's "works of the law" are only circumcision and diet, how is Galatians 3:10 interpreted?
- 📝 Do we answer the arguments of fools or not? How are Proverbs 26:4-5 to be understood?
- 📝 How is the belief that Christians are both adopted and begotten sons of God reconciled?
- 📝 How are prayer and asking the saints to intercede distinguished?
- 📝 Do Jehovah's Witnesses have membership fees or how are they funded?
- 📝 How do Theistic Evolutionists who are Christians reconcile these Scriptures with the adoption of evolutionary theory?
- 📝 How are doxologies formed for common prayers?
- 📝 Are there any real statistics on how many people fall away?
- 📝 If the dead are already in heaven, how do they rise at the second coming?
- 📝 How sound are the arguments that Melchizedek invoked a Canaanite deity when he met Abraham?
- 📝 What is the source of the count of 40000 denominations, and how are they classified?
- 📝 How do those who deny Jesus' pre-existence explain the large number of verses suggesting it?
- 📝 How are passages vetted for inclusion in officially sanctioned liturgical readings?
- 📝 How comparable are the concepts of the Teaching Magisterium in the Catholic Church and the Jehovah's Witnesses view of their Watch Tower society?
- 📝 How are first-grade relics prepared?