Find Any Book in the Bible in Under 10 Seconds

You can memorize the books of the Bible to "Jingle Bells", you can put tabs in your Bible, or you can make yourself a book mark cheat sheet. There are several techniques you can learn to becomes speedy at finding every book of the Bible. So find a friend, get out your Bible, and start practicing!

Steps

Memorizing the Books of The Bible

  1. Read through the books of the Bible. Start with memorizing the New Testament, then repeat these steps with the books of the Old Testament. You can follow these steps with any Bible that you want to use. This article describes how to memorize the books of the Protestant Bible, but it can easily apply to any other Bible, as well. [1]
    • Get out a Bible and look at the Table of Contents in the front of the book. You can also go online to see a list of the books of the Bible.
    • Read them a few times aloud at a normal volume to become familiar with the pronunciation of the different books.
    • If you have trouble with pronunciation, you can have your pastor or someone who is familiar with the Bible tell you how to pronounce the names in the Bible. You can also go online and look up the pronunciation for the books of the Bible.[2]
  2. Find a song to memorize the books of the New Testament to. You can set the books of the Bible to a tune like Jingle Bells or Yankee Doodle. Choose a simple song with a strong pattern that you are very familiar with.
    • Find a YouTube videos of people singing the books of the Bible to a song you know. [3]
  3. Chunk the books into groups. When you are singing the easiest way to memorize is to group the books, and then match the groups with the phrasing of the song. [1] For example, chunk the books as follows, and sing it to Jingle Bells:
    • Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, and Romans - Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way
    • First and Second Corinthians, Galatians, and Ephesians - Oh what fun it is to ride in a one-horse open sleigh
    • Phillipians, Colossians, First and Second Thessalonians - Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way
    • First and Second Timothy, Titus and Philemon- Oh what fun it is to ride in a one-horse open sleigh
    • Hebrews, James, First and Second Peter, First and Second Third John- Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way
    • Jude and Revelations the books of the New Testament. - Oh what fun it is to ride in a one-horse open sleigh
  4. Over-learn your song. Practice singing the song, again and again, until it sticks. Sing the books of the Bible so many times that singing them becomes second nature. [1]
    • Practice by writing the books on a piece of paper or on a whiteboard.
    • Erase the books or fold the paper when you think you have a group memorized.
    • Keep practicing until you have all of the books completely memorized.
  5. Recall the books of the Bible. When someone asks you to go to a book of the Bible, think about which group contains the book. This will only take you a few seconds to do in your mind. Start flipping to the section of the Bible you think it is in while you process the book order in your head.
    • For example, for Romans you would remember the group order goes Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, Acts and Romans. You know this chunk is at the very beginning of the New Testament. The New Testament starts around two-thirds of the way through the Bible. So you would flip to two-thirds through, and look for any of those grouped books. Once you find one, keep flipping more slowly until you get to Romans.
    • If you are having difficulty finding a group of books, think about the next group. For example, if you are looking for Colossians and you can't find Philippians, Colossians, First and Second Thessalonians, look for First and Second Timothy, Titus and Philemon. Once you find the later chunk, you can then flip back to find Colossians.

Using Tabs in Your Bible

  1. Buy tabs for your Bible. There are tabs you can buy and put you in your bible. These tabs mark each book of the Bible so that you can easily reference them. You can order them online through Amazon. Additionally, you can buy them from your local Christian or religious bookstore.
    • Follow the instruction guide for how to place the tabs so that they are properly aligned. These tabs are permanent, precut and adhesive. [4]
    • Putting on the tabs will help you become familiar with the order of the books.
  2. Buy a thumb index edition Bible. This is a version of the Bible that includes the tabs already in the Bible. This is easier than putting the tabs in your Bible.
    • You can also buy this kind of Bible on Amazon or from your local Christian/religious bookstore. [5]
  3. Familiarize yourself with the books of the Bible. Look at the table of contents at the front of your Bible. Match each book name with the abbreviation on the tab so that you are familiar with how the two correspond. Keep flipping back and forth from the table of contents to each book. Familiarize yourself with one Testament, take a break, and then work with the other Testament.
    • Write out the books of the Bible a few times, so you can become more familiar with their order. Once again, work with just one testament at a time.
  4. Quiz yourself or get someone to quiz you. Have someone tell you random books of the Bible and see how long it takes you to flip to that book. Choose books from one Testament, and once you get good move onto the next Testament. Once you are proficient at both, try quizzing yourself on books from the whole Bible.
    • Once you get good at getting to the books quickly, quiz yourself with the book and the chapter and verse. See how long it takes you to get there.

Finding Short Cuts

  1. Make or buy a book mark that contains all the books of the Bible. One one side write all of the books of the New Testament, and on the other side write the books in the Old Testament. This will be faster to use than opening to your table of contents.
    • You can also find these for around three dollars online. [6]
    • You can also write the books of the Bible on a small piece of paper and use it as a book mark.
    • If you use a bookmark, this could be a more discrete way of using an index than going to the table of contents or using Bible tabs.
  2. Use the table of contents page. If all else fails, turn to the table of contents page. It is located at the front of your Bible, after the publishers pages. [7]
    • Mark the table of contents page with the ribbon in your Bible or a bookmark.
  3. Use the same Bible consistently. If you are changing Bibles often, it will be more difficult for you to find the table of contents. Once you break in your Bible it will be easier to flip the pages quicker and find those books, chapters and verses!
  4. Learn where some of the major books of the Bible are. Find a few books to use as reference or landmark points to navigate around. Remember that Psalms and Proverbs is in the middle, that the Matthew is about 3/4 into the book! If you know where Matthew is, you'll be able to quickly navigate to the gospels of Mark, Luke, and John.
  5. Use your smart phone as your Bible. There are Bible apps that you can use that will help you easily navigate to any book of the Bible. Find and download a free Bible app online. [8]
    • With a Bible app, you can choose which versions of the Bible you want to use: New King James, New International Version, New American Standard Version, etc.. You can also easily change the version that you are using to match the version that other people are using.
    • Make sure you tell people that you are using your phone for your Bible. You don't want people to mistakenly think that you are checking your phone.

Tips

  • This article is about how to find the books in the Protestant Bible. However, the same techniques can be used with any other Bible or spiritual text!

Sources and Citations

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 https://www.learnthebible.org/memorizing-the-books-of-the-bible.html
  2. ↑ http://inogolo.com/pronunciation/d1224/Genesis
  3. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Oc8mk1nyPg
  4. ↑ http://www.amazon.com/Tabbies-Protestant-Bible-Index-Tabs/dp/B000PKP6B8
  5. ↑ http://www.amazon.com/Holy-Bible-Standard-Thumb-Index/dp/1432105469/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1439514476&sr=1-4&keywords=bible+with+tabs
  6. ↑ http://christianbook.com/books-of-the-bible-bookmarks-25/9780805476460/pd/76466
  7. ↑ http://www.thereligionteacher.com/learning-the-books-of-the-bible/
  8. ↑ https://www.bible.com/app

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