🔑 Abbreviations

The Bible contains two main parts:

• Hebrew Bible (or Old Testament, see table 1)
• New Testament (see table 3).

Occasionally, the Daily Office Lectionary also includes readings from extra sources called “deuterocanonical works” (or Apocrypha, see table 2).

Each part contains several books. The books further divide into chapters, and chapters into verses.

When referring to an entire book of the Bible, the book name is usually spelled out.

When referring to a specific section of a book, the abbreviated book name appears first, followed by a chapter number.

When referring to verses within a chapter, the chapter number is followed by a colon, then one or more verses. Consecutive verses are connected with an endash (–). A comma followed by a space separate nonconsecutive verses. Sometimes a semicolon followed by a space separate references to different chapters.

Most references are simple. For example, Matt 6:7–15 refers to the gospel of Matthew (from the New Testament), chapter 6, verses 7 through 15.

For a more complex example, Zech 12:9–11; 13:1, 7–9 refers to the book of Zechariah (from the Hebrew Bible), chapter 12, verses 9 through 11, then chapter 13, verse 1, then verses 7 through 9. Again, most references are simple.

Any reading may be lenthened. Suggested lengthenings are shown in parentheses.

Brackets show psalms which may be omitted. In general, the psalms are arranged so you can read all 150 of them every 30 days. If you want to follow that pattern, then don’t skip the bracketed psalms.

The Lectionary.app also uses several emoji (see table 4). They’re fun. Like abbreviations, they save space. But a key is invaluable for understanding what we want them to symbolize.