In the Bible there are 1,189 chapters in the Old and New Testaments. In a little over three years, a person could make an intensive study of the whole Bible, taking a chapter a day. Here are some practical steps to studying chapters of the Bible. Adapted for this article.
- Read through the chapter carefully– Seek to find its main subject or subjects.
2. Give each chapter a title that suggests its main content– If you are reading the Gospel of John, for example, you might give each chapter titles like this:
– ch. 1 “Jesus Christ, the Word of God”
– ch. 2 “The Wedding at Cana”
– ch. 3 “The New Birth”
3. Reread the chapter and make a simple outline– Including its main thoughts. For example, for John 1, you might make an outline like this:
“Jesus Christ, the Word of God”:
a. Jesus Christ was the eternal Word of God, 1–9
b. Jesus Christ came into the world, 10–18
c. John witnesses that Christ is to come, 19–28
4. Take note of any practical or theological problems in this chapter– Then, using a concordance, look up the key words in those verses and find out what other portions of the Bible say about this question or problem. Compare Scripture with Scripture to find its true meaning. Usually, to understand a Bible chapter, you must study it together with the preceding or following chapters.