What do the footnotes and references next to a verse mean?
A verse can have two kinds of marks next to it: footnotes and references to other places in the Bible. They do not change the verse text; they help you understand it.
A footnote is marked by a small letter in brackets right in the verse text. You can see one, for example, in John 14 in the New American Standard Bible.
- Find the small letter in brackets in the verse.
- Point at it or press it.
- Read the note in the pop-up window.
- Press anywhere else on the page to close the window.
A parallel passage is another part of the Bible on the same subject. On a wide screen, references to such passages stand in a column to the right of the text, and the number before a reference is the verse number. On a phone, the reference appears when you press the verse.
- Press a verse.
- Look at the references for this verse.
- Press a reference to open that passage.
The setting hides only footnotes; references to parallel passages stay.
- Press the gear in the site header; on a phone it is in the menu .
- On the “Bible” tab , turn off “Show footnotes”.
- Close the settings window.
A footnote is a short note from the publisher of the translation: another way to render a word, or a clarification. A reference leads to another place in the Bible. A verse can have both, or neither.
Footnotes are written by the publisher of the translation, and the site shows them as they appear in the edition. In John 14, for example, the King James Version has no footnotes, while the New American Standard Bible does.
On a narrow screen the column does not fit, so the reference appears under the verse once you press it. The same happens on a computer if the browser window is narrow or the text size is set to “Large” or “Very large”.