How to Do Bible Verse Mapping for Beginners

What’s Inside: How to Do Bible Verse Mapping for Beginners

One of the definitions of a map according to the Cambridge dictionary is: the activity or process of creating or diagram that represents something.

When I was a young soldier in the Army, we used maps for our land navigation exercises and we were familiar with all of the terrains on the map in detail. We learned how to plot grid coordinates using a map and protractor.

Maps serve a purpose.

• They provide us with the safest direction to get to our destination.
• They help us calculate the distance we needed to travel to our goal.
• They help us to see the most efficient route that we must take to get to our destination during different types of weather.

Maps could very well save a life but we have to be familiar with them. We have to know how to read them.

The same holds true for our Christian faith, Sweet Sister. Our Bibles are our spiritual maps and we need them to arrive at our final destination, heaven.

Well Lil, we don’t use maps any more. We have GPS devices and Google maps on our phone nowadays and maps are obsolete.

You’re right. We do have devices to simplify traveling from point a to point b.

But what would happen if we no longer could access a GPS device, an app, or Google Maps? We still would have a need to go back to the source, the old fashioned map and learn how to read it!

It’s the same with our Bibles. People might tell us how to get to heaven, but can we really trust them?

That’s exactly why we need to know our Bibles.

Our Bibles are our spiritual maps and we need them to arrive at our final destination, heaven.

As Christians, the Bible is our map. If we don’t break out our map on our spiritual journey and use it to benefit our safety, our direction, and the most efficient route to get to heaven, then we might find ourselves injured, lost, or even at the wrong destination.

God help us!

In light of the Cambridge definition above, today we are going to learn about the activity or process diagramming Scripture, or how to do Bible Verse Mapping.

Sounds pretty amazing, right?

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Introduction to Bible Verse Mapping

What is Bible verse mapping?

Bible Verse Mapping is a verse by verse bible study tool that helps you dig deeper in to your Bible. It’s more than just a typical reading of your Bible. It is a unique study technique that shows you the true meaning of each verse in the original language. Scripture verse mapping for beginners is similar to sentence diagraming with a twist.

It’s not about diagraming the components in a sentence, it’s about diagramming, dissecting and studying Scripture.

When you do Scripture verse mapping, you can use an ordinary dictionary to look up the definition of key words, but the real beauty happens when you dig into the Hebrew/Greek words and learn their meaning.

It literally makes the Bible come alive.

Is there another name for Verse Mapping?

Yep! It’s also known as Bible verse mapping, Scripture mapping, Bible study mapping, mapping Bible verses, Bible charting, or Bible diagramming.

It’s definitely one of my favorite bible study methods.

What is the purpose of Bible study mapping?

Bible study mapping is a more engaging and meaningful method of studying the Bible.

The Benefits of Bible Verse Mapping

There are many benefits to Bible verse mapping, but the top three are:

• gaining a deeper understanding of the this new .
• memorizing Scripture and it’s key facts
• enhances your spiritual growth
• improved Bible study skills.

I mean, who doesn’t want all of those amazing benefits from an easy to do, amazing type of bible verse study, right?

Bible verse mapping is a powerful tool because it illuminates the Scripture, helps the student retain information and encourages spiritual growth

Bible Verse Mapping is a Powerful Tool for Bible Study

Bible verse mapping for beginners is a powerful tool for Bible study because it:

• Illuminates the Scripture-reading alone is fantastic, but delving onto the Hebrew and Greek meanings of the words in Scripture makes it more understandable.
• Helps the student retain information-When you actively connect with Scripture, you improve your retention of it.
• Encourages spiritual growth- Bible verse mapping promotes deeper spiritual growth by fostering reflection and practical application of God’s word.

How to Get Started with Bible Verse Mapping for Beginners

I’d like to think of this blog article as a type of comprehensive verse mapping 101, so, let’s learn about this new way on how to get started with verse mapping for beginners.

Choosing a Bible Scripture

There are so many that you can choose from but whatever Bible passage you choose, take these things into consideration:

• Personal interest: Pick passages that are relevant to you and speak to you personally.
• Pick passages that are consistent with your personal Bible reading, personal Bible study or a passage from a church sermon that spoke to you that would like to flesh out your understanding of it’s meaning.
• Consider passages that you are familiar with or that you would like to learn more about.

Choosing a Bible Translation

If you’re learning how to get started with verse mapping, the first thing you want to do is to choose a Bible translation. But, I say, why choose one? With an app like Bible Hub, you can have many translations at your fingertips on one page to compare your Bible passage with. More about that later!

Verse Mapping Scripture Supplies and Tools

The verse mapping supplies you will need are probably things you already have.

• pen and paper- these are the most rudimentary of supplies and are great to star with
• your favorite pens- I love Papermate Flairs and Papermate Inkjoys which both come in lovely colors.
• Highlighters– make easy work of highlighting and grouping base words and their Hebrew/Greek counterparts.
• I would recommend some type of ring bound journal that you could use strictly as your verse mapping journal. It can have lines or blank pages

It is my strongest conviction in saying that you don’t need a Bible verse mapping template or a Bible verse mapping worksheet PDF. Here are the reasons why:

• Creative freedom allows you to include your own thoughts, insights and reflections rather than following a template or worksheet.
• Flexibility-Your verse mapping needs to be flexible where you can adapt your verse mapping style to suit your individual needs and learning style. A template can’t do that for you.
• Personalization- When you create your own personalized verse map, it becomes more meaningful to you. Your verse mapping is original and a cookie cutter template won’t benefit you.
• New Insights- If you follow a constructed template, you might miss out on new thoughts and perspectives.

Trust you me, sweet Sis, if I thought a template would be beneficial for you, I would make you one and offer it in my store. I do believe the best avenue for your personal growth for Scripture mapping is the road to simplicity-using a pen, paper and some highlighters.

Choosing a Method-Handwritten or Digital

Verse mapping can be done in both analog and digitally in Goodnotes. I prefer handwriting my mapping on paper as, for some reason, it helps me retain more.

How to Choose a Biblical Passage for Bible Verse Mapping

Here are three things to consider on how to choose a Passage to verse map:

• You can choose a verse that is special to you, holds personal meaning to you or resonates with you at this point of your life
• Choose a verse that you are currently studying in your daily Bible study or one of your churches Bible studies.
• Choose verses from your personal or corporate topical study

How to Do Scripture Verse Mapping

Steps to do Bible Verse Mapping

The process of Bible mapping is an easy one and there are basically 5 steps in Bible verse mapping

• Pray
• Choose a Bible Verse
• Compare Bible translations
• Context
• Keyword study

Let’s verse map Colossians 3:16a together

Let’s verse map Colossians 3:16a together. Here are the steps:

Pray-Ask God to reveal the truth of His word and to create a spiritual foundation for your study time with Him.

Choose a Bible Verse-We’ve already covered choosing a Bible verse above, but in summary, choose a passage of personal interest or from your personal or corporate Bible study.

I’ve chosen Colossians 3:16a for today’s example. Write down your verse at the top of your page. Don’t write too tightly. You want some space to circle and write so leave some room.

Compare Bible Translations-Have you ever used Biblehub for your Bible study or reading It’s an amazing website and they have an app, too) and is a great resource for all believers.

I love how Biblehub makes comparing Bible translations so easy! Type in your Scripture passage and you’ll have many translations at your fingertips!

Seen below is Colossians 3:16.

Compare translations and see the differences that stand out to you. Write those notes underneath the Scripture.

Context-Finding the context of a verse, and ultimately the Bible book, will take a bit of research. You can find many commentaries at Biblehub to explore these major questions of context:

• Who wrote this book?
• Who was it written to?
• What is the main theme/purpose of the book?
• What is the main theme of each chapter?
• What is the historical context?
  What is the cultural context?
  What location was the book written from?
• What location was the book written to?
• When was the book written?
• Why was the book written?

I realize these questions might seem difficult. Try to get the main gyst of each book so you know the context of the verse you are studying. The first four questions are the most important in my opinion and give you a quick and concise context. Context matters.

Biblehub has a ton of resources on their home page and you can also find any commentaries to help with context.

Keyword Study– This is my favorite part of verse mapping and we are going to use Biblehub again to dig into the Greek, breaking down the first portion of Colossians 3:16.

Go to Colossians 3:16 in Biblehub and click on where it says Greek. (In every Old Testament book it will say Hebrew)

Annnnnnd voila…. here is where you will see a breakdown of that verse in the original Hebrew or Greek.

What a wonderful blessing to have the Hebrew and Greek dictionaries- the original languages at our fingertips. Amazing, right?

Below you see the original Greek word studies of Colossians 3:16.

We’ve already wrote the verse down, so now we are going to pick out, and circle, the words where we want to dig deeper.

For me, those words would be dwell, richly and wisdom.

Circle or box off the words dwell, richly and wisdom and draw lines to their Hebrew/Greek counterparts below. You can find colorful and creative ways to verse map as seen in the examples in this post.

Here’s what the words dwell, richly and wisdom mean in the Greek.

dwell: to live dwell and be settled,

richly: copiously, abundantly

wisdom: with insight, skill

Let’s read that Scripture with the Greek word substitutions we looked up in the Greek using BibleHub.

If we dig deeper into this verse it is sharing:

Let the word of Christ ( live, dwell and be settled)in you (copiously, abundantly) richly in all (wisdom, with insight and skill).

What beautiful insight verse mapping can bring to our personal study! The love of Christ isn’t just dwelling in us richly. It’s dwelling in us with COPIOUS AMOUNTS and is ABUNDANT.

Bible Verse Mapping Examples

Do you need some Bible verse mapping examples to help you visually grasp verse mapping?

I’ve included many examples of bible verse mapping in this blog post but here is a simplified mini mapping I have done in my Bible.

In this example, I was studying Psalm 57:5 and I did a keyword study of the word meaning for exalted.

Here’s another example of a verse mapping from 2 Timothy 1:7 combined with a bit of collage journaling in a lined ring bound journal that can be found in the school supply section.

Tips and Tricks for Effective Bible Verse Mapping

Here are some tips and tricks for effective Bible verse mapping:

• Use several translations side by side
• Take time to meditate and reflect on the Bible text and it’s meaning
• Consider the context of the verse
• Remember that the goal is to gain a deeper understanding of God’s word and grow in God.

Common Challenges and Solutions

1. Difficulty understanding the text- Push through and don’t get hung up if you can’t understand a Scripture. There are others that you do understand, and that’s a good thing!
2. Resistance to a new ways of studying the Bible-It takes time to adjust to a new study habit. Give yourself grace.
3. Feeling overwhelmed by the mapping process- Start simple and choose shorter scriptures.

Best Practices for Bible Verse Mapping

• Start and end with prayer
• Use your knowledge of Bible verse mapping during your Bible study and during your quiet time.
• Don’t get hung up and push through
• Don’t become overwhelmed
• Regularly incorporate Scripture mapping into your Bible study repertoire.
• Make your Bible verse mapping journey your own. Don’t compare your work to others.

How Bible Mapping Can Enhance Your Spiritual Growth

In a nutshell Bible verse mapping can enhance your spiritual growth by helping you gain understanding of the Scripture, strengthen your relationship with God and helps you apply biblical truths to your daily life.

If you’ve read this far, here’s a poem for you about verse mapping:

Verse mapping can be an art,
With challenges that may play a part.
But fear not, solutions are near,
To help you understand God’s Word so dear.

The first challenge is interpretation,
Of ancient texts with no fluctuation,
To understand the Biblical context,
And grasp what is expressed.

Another challenge is comparison,
Of different translations, with declaration,
To find the meaning that aligns,
And sometimes receive chasten.

Solution to these challenges lies,
In studying the text with careful eyes,
Reading commentaries and references,
To deepen your understanding with evidences.

Another solution is to pray,
And let the Holy Spirit guide the way,
As you delve into God’s holy word,
You’ll find the truth, from the Bible you’ve heard.

I hope you have been persuaded how Bible verse mapping is a valuable tool for anyone looking to enhance their Bible study and spiritual growth.

It offers a visual representation of the Scripture and allows for a deeper understanding and appreciation of the Bible.

God bless you as you learn how to Do Bible verse mapping for beginners.