By Gene S. Foster, M.S.

This lesson is designed for the person who has little or no experience with using the Bible. The more advanced person may want to skip the following information and go directly to the questions to follow. If you miss very many of the questions you need to go back and study the material.

The goal of this lesson is to acquaint you with the books of the Bible in the order of their occurrence so you may use the Bible more proficiently. It will greatly increase your enjoyment of reading and studying the Word of God and decrease your embarrassment of fumbling through the Bible in church when a certain Scripture is called out for you to turn to.
This lesson also has some basic information about the organization of the Bible into sections of particular subject matter. You will also learn how to interpret a written Scripture reference so you can look it up in your Bible.

The Table of Contents
All Bibles have a table of contents that give the page number for the start of each book. It is far better to use this aid than to randomly fumble around the Bible which embarrasses and frustrates you and reduces the benefit of your reading. Be aware that the page numbers where a certain book, chapter or verse is found is different in different Bibles because of variations in the size of the Bible and the size of the print.

THE ORDER OF THE BOOKS OF THE BIBLE

THE OLD TESTAMENT

#
Name
Abbrev.
#
Name
Abbrev.

Pentateuch

Major Prophets

1.
Genesis
Ge.
23.
Isaiah
Is.
2.
Exodus
Ex.
24.
Jeremiah
Je.
3.
Leviticus
Le.
25.
Lamentations
Lam.
4.
Numbers
Nu.
26.
Ezekiel
Eze.
5.
Deuteronomy
De
27.
Daniel
Dan.

History

Minor Prophets

6.
Joshua
Jos.
28.
Hosea
Ho.
7.
Judges
Jud.
29.
Joel
Jl.
8.
Ruth
Ru.
30.
Amos
Am.
9.
1 Samuel
1 S.
31.
Obadiah
Obad.
10.
2 Samuel
2 S.
32.
Jonah
Jona.
11.
1 Kings
1 K.
33.
Micah
Mi.
12.
2 Kings
2 K.
34.
Nahum
Na.
13.
1 Chronicles
1 C.
35.
Habakkuk
Hab.
14.
2 Chronicles
2 C.
36.
Zephaniah
Zep.
15.
Ezra
Ezr.
37.
Haggai
Hag.
16.
Nehemiah
Ne.
38.
Zechariah
Zech.
17.
Ezra
Est.
39.
Malachi
Mal.

Poetry

18.
Job
Jb.
19.
Psalms
Ps.
20.
Proverbs
Pr.
21.
Ecclesiastes
Ec.
22.
Song of Solomon
SS.

39 Total books in the Old Testament

THE NEW TESTAMENT

#
Name
Abbreviation

Gospels

1.
Matthew
Mt.
2.
Mark
Mk.
3.
Luke
Lk.
4.
John
Jn.

History

5.
Acts
Ac.

Epistles

6.
Romans
Ro.
7.
1 Corinthians
1 Co.
8.
2 Corinthians
2 Co.
9.
Galatians
Ga.
10.
Ephesians
Ep.
11.
Philippians
Ph.
12.
Colossians
Col.
13.
1 Thessalonians
1 Th.
14.
2 Thessalonians
2 Th.
15.
1 Timothy
1 Ti.
16.
2 Timothy
2 Ti.
17.
Titus
Tit.
18.
Philemon
Phm.
19.
Hebrews
He.
20.
James
Ja.
21.
1 Peter
1 Pe.
22.
2 Peter
2 Pe.
23.
1 John
1 Jn.
24.
2 John
2 Jn.
25.
3 John
3 Jn.
26.
Jude
Jude

Prophecy

27.
Revelations
Re.
27 Total books in New Testament

66 Total books in the Bible (39 + 27)

SUBJECT MATTER BY SECTIONS OF BIBLE

OLD TESTAMENT

Pentateuch

  • Creation & Flood
  • Abraham
  • Tribes of Israel
  • Law of Moses
  • Israel from Egypt to Promised Land

History

  • Israel’s arrival in Promised Land
  • Wars
  • Good and bad leaders and their effects on Israel
  • Israel’s breakup into northern and southern kingdom.
  • Israel’s captivity and return to Jerusalem

Poetry

  1. Job – suffering saints
  2. Psalms – David, a picture of Christ
  3. Proverbs – Solomon’s wisdom
  4. Ecclesiastes – Solomon’s regrets
  5. Song of Solomon – Lessons about love between man and God

Major Prophets (long prophetic discourses)

  1. Pictures of Christ
  2. Woes to Israel & other nations
  3. Suffering servants of God
  4. Israel in captivity & related history
  5. End time prophecies

Minor Prophets (shorter prophetic discourses)

  • Rebukes from God to Israel
  • Lessons in faithful service
  • End time prophecies
  • Israel’s final word from God

SUBJECT MATTER BY SECTIONS OF BIBLE

NEW TESTAMENT

Gospel

  • Birth, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ
  • Ministry of Christ – events, miracles & teachings
  • Calling and training of future Apostles
  • Each Gospel is named after its human penman

Acts

  1. Early history of the Christian church
  2. Doctrinal operating principles for churches
  3. Ministries of Peter and Paul

Epistles

  1. Letters from Paul, Peter, John, Jude and James to churches or believers
  2. Historical events, especially the missionary journey’s of Paul
  3. Doctrinal principles and details

Revelation

  • Letters of rebukes and exhortations to 7 ancient churches
  • Prophecy of the Great Tribulation; the antichrist; end of man’s rule and Satan’s influence.
  • Second Coming of Christ; Thousand year kingdom of Christ; final judgment of lost sinners; eternal glory.

THE CATHOLIC OLD TESTAMENT

The Catholic Bible contains seven ancient books in addition to the 39 already listed for the Old Testament. The Jews knew about these books but uniformly rejected them as Scripture because they didn’t meet the test of Scripture. God did not witness to their hearts about these books being Scripture so they were rejected by the Jews throughout all the centuries when the Jews were exclusively preserving the Word of God.

The Roman Catholic Church decided to include these books as Old Testament Scripture in 1546. The books in question are:

Tobias

Judith

1 Machabees

2 Machabees

Wisdom

Sirach (Ecclesiasticus)

Baruch

These books are indeed ancient writings but age alone does not determine canonicity (qualified as Scripture). The books do have historical and literary value but they are not Scripture. Therefore these books are rejected by Jews, Protestants and Baptists.

ORGANIZATION OF BIBLE

FLOWCHART…FROM THE GENERAL TO THE PARTICULAR

BIBLE
TESTAMENTS
BOOKS
CHAPTERS
VERSES

FINDING VERSES

  • You should memorize the books in the order of their occurrence in the Bible.
    Yes, it takes effort but this will make your Bible reading and study both enjoyable and efficient. It’s ok to carry a Bible with index tabs at first but if you have been saved for awhile this marks you as a person who doesn’t read God’s Word much.
  • References:
    References are always given in the following order:BOOK –CHAPTER : VERSE—VERSE PORTION
    EXAMPLE: Genesis: 3:14 Matthew 7:7 John 1:1-14*
    *This shows that we are considering verses 1 through 14.
  • If you don’t remember where to look for a book, use the table of contents in the front of your Bible. That is a lot better than fumbling and frustration and it will still help you to learn the location and order of the books.

Questions to Build Your Skills

Answers to Questions

The Study Questions are in PDF format. You will need free Acrobat Reader to view this file. If you do not have Reader, click here to download from Adobe’s site.