To begin, think about the Bible not as a book but rather a collection of small books put together with one binding. �I don't quite understand the ordering of them, either. �The Old Testament ordering makes a lot of sense up until the end of 2 Chronicles because it's--in its most basic form--a historical account of the Jewish faith: �faith in the One, True, and Living God. �Judaism lays the foundation upon which Christianity is built. �After 2 Chronicles until the New Testament, it seems as if the books are just kind of haphazardly thrown together. �I'm sure there is a purpose to their ordering, I've just never explored it because I don't lose sleep over it.

The New Testament starts off with the gospels, or good news, of Jesus Christ's life and ministry on earth. �This makes sense because the rest of the Bible rests upon the life, death, resurrection from the dead, and ascension of Jesus into heaven--all contained within the Gospels. �There are four of them, and I've even heard some theologians say five because the book of Acts is actually a continuation of Luke. �This is also unimportant, really, but I include it just in case you've heard something different. �There are four(or five) of them, because each one was written for a certain group of people. �I'd tell you who each was written for, but I can't think of it at the moment. �Not important right now, anyway.

Now we start the apparently random ordering again. �For one, if Acts is a continuation of Luke, why isn't Luke the last gospel in the order of four? �Beats me, and I don't really care. �Most of the New Testament is written by Paul. �You can read about him beginning in Acts 9, but let me give you a little background first. �Paul was first known as Saul of Tarsus and he was one of the Jewish religious leaders shortly after Jesus' life on earth. �Saul(Paul) was responsible for the stoning of at least one Christian(there is only one recorded in the Bible) and was sent by the rest of the Jewish leaders to have Christians arrested and thrown into jail. Sounds like a really nice guy, hey? �Well, God had different plans for him and that's what begins in Acts 9.

Now, having said all that, I'm going to revert back to Luke 20:3 since it's the verse you used to ask your question. Like I said, the Bible is a compilation of books, and each of the books has a name. �In this case, the name of the book is Luke. �Most of the books have more than one chapter in them, and the chapters are numbered. �Using your example, we're looking at the twentieth chapter of Luke. �Now, all the chapters have more than one sentence in them, so they're also numbered for quick reference. �Technically speaking, the sentences aren't exactly numbered to the sentence beginning. This is another mystery that I haven't quite figured out because I haven't been concerned. �Now, they call these numbers verses probably because to call them sentences would be lying. �Again, looking at your example Luke 20:3 could be read allowed as any of the following: �the 20th chapter of Luke, verse 3; Luke, the 20th chapter, verse 3; Luke 20, verse 3; 20 Luke and verse 3; etc.

How you say it isn't important. �What is important is to know what it is pointing you towards. �Let me give an example. You need to go to Oconomowoc, Wisconsin(I use my home town because I've heard it mispronounced so many times), and you're looking at a map. �If you can read the map, you can find the town regardless of whether or not you can pronounce it. �That's exactly what the verse numbers are--they're a road map to the Bible so that you can quickly reference and find something contained therein. �Back to your example once more. �To find it, first you find the book of Luke; then you would locate the 20th chapter; once you've found the chapter, you scan through all the verses until you've found the one you're looking for.

Now, let's say you find something you want to come back to later. �This is equally, if not more important. First of all, mark the page so you don't have to find that again. �And to write it down, just do the opposite of what you would do to find it. �Look at the verse, work backwards to the chapter number, and then, all the Bibles I've ever seen will at least tell you what book you're in at the top of the page.

It's that simple.

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