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How Do I Find Articles in EBSCO?

This guide contains resources to assist you in utilizing EBSCOhost journal databases.

ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials, New Testament Abstracts, and Old Testament Abstracts all have a Scripture Search function.  This page will demonstrate how to use Scripture Search in these databases and how to search by Scripture in Christian Periodical Index.

ATLA Religion Database Scripture Citation Index

ATLA Religion Index with ATLASerials offers a Scripture Citation Index which browses scriptures cited in an article citation. 

Click on Scriptures in the EBSCOhost menu bar.  The Scriptures link is between Publications and Indexes here.

Database: ATLA Hierarchical Scripture Authority will display. Each book of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation is listed in Biblical order. Click Next to go to the page listing the needed book.

Click on the name of the Biblical book to view all articles containing references to this book or click Expand to view a list of chapters in the book.

Click on a specific chapter, such as chapter 2, or click Expand again to view a list of verses to select.

Select any verse which appears in the passage you are studying to view articles referencing that specific scripture. For example, selecting Philippians 2:7 will include articles referencing the whole passage of Philippians 2:5-11.

Scripture Search in Old Testament Abstracts and New Testament Abstracts

Old Testament Abstracts and New Testament Abstracts offer a Scripture Citation Index which browses scriptures cited in a particular article citation.

Click Scripture in the EBSCOhost menu bar.  It appears between New Search and Indexes at the top.

The following screen will appear.

Browsing: New Testament Abstracts -- Scriptures. Enter a book of the Bible and click Browse, or move through the alphabetical list by clicking Next.

Search Scripture: This search displays all scripture citations for the entered book of the Bible. Click Next to go to the next page of results or resubmit your search with a chapter number. In the result, you might notice that 1:1 is followed by 1:10. The alpha-numeric order of these databases places any number beginning with 1 such as 10 and 100 before the number 2, any number beginning with 8 before the number 9, and so on.

The Jessie C. Eury Library recommends searching for the book and chapter you are studying and then selecting each scripture citation which includes any portion of your passage in order to locate the most articles.

Searching for the chapter followed by a colon, such as Isaiah 6: will take you directly to Isaiah 6:1. 

After selecting specific scripture passages, click Search at the top of the page to view article citations containing these scripture passages.

Search by Scripture in Christian Periodical Index

In Christian Periodical Index, exact Bible references may be used in an Advanced Search.

Click on Advanced Search under the regular search bar.

When searching Christian Periodical Index enter Bible subject headings in the following format:

Bible. N.T. Book of the Bible. or Bible. O.T. Book of the Bible.

To search for a specific chapter, enter the chapter number using Roman numerals as in the example below.

Christian Periodical Scripture Search: bible n.t. Philippians II in SU Subject (Pull down the right-hand box to select SU Subject as your search type.)

Combine Scripture Search and Subject Search

Sometimes a scripture search may produce a large number of results or you wish to focus on a specific subject as covered in a specific passage.  Combining a scripture search with a subject or keyword search allows you to do that.  There are two ways to do this. 


1.  Complete a scripture search as described in any of the databases described on this page.

After completing the search, look to the left of the search results and click the link Subjects.  Click the link Show More to view all the subjects.

Check the box before one or more subjects to combine them with the scripture search and click Update.

2.  Complete a scripture search as described on this page.  Click Advanced Search to enter the scripture search in the Advanced Search form.  Then you may enter the subject or keyword of your choosing in the additional search boxes. 

Advanced Search Combining Scripture and Subject: SR "Philippians 2" AND preaching Click on the down arrow to select the Boolean operator AND, OR, or NOT.