In my vault I have each bible chapter in a separate file. At the moment I do not have YAML data. I would like to improve my vault on this point.
What YAML metadata do you use for your bible files?
It all depends on what kind of “improvement” you’re looking for.
Metadata is really most useful for querying your files. If you are using dataview to sort or group your chapters, then consider by which metrics you would want to sort them.
In my personal vault, I have the Bible converted using the Bible to Markdown scripts. It sounds like you have the same. I use these files simply for easy quoting, and therefore seeing how things are connected through links.
I have a new file for each book, and that file contains most of my thoughts and metadata.
For example, the beginning of my file 01 Genesis looks like this:
---
type: bibleBook
name: Genesis
testament: old
bookNo: 01
---
# Genesis
**Category::** Law
**Author::** [[Moses]]
**Audience::** The Jewish People
I could easily add a ton of other metadata values, like locations, people, themes, etc. And I very well might at a later point, but for the time being I only have values that I query or sort by in dataview queries in other notes.
Another tool I use in other notes, is a nested tag for scripture references. For example, if a note references Genesis 1:1, I use the tag #Genesis/1/1 If it references John 3:16, the tag is #John/3/16. Again, this is to sort and query data in other notes. If I want to see what else I’ve written or read about a specific Book, Chapter, or even verse, I can search by that tag as specifically as I need to.
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I know you didn’t ask, and I can remove it if the mods want, but I’m currently working on a project to standardize Bible related processes within Obsidian. Here is my page about it.
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I just have two metadata fields. The frontmatter usually looks like:
---
read: true
notes: the Pharisees turn the people against Jesus' followers; Paul is stoned for his teachings; sometimes believers must suffer for Christ
---
I have the read field so that I can see which parts I haven’t read yet.
Notes is where I just write down a short summary of what I remember to be the most important points. They’re usually not super detailed, and I write them more to help me remember the chapter than for future reference.
I can already query chapters books using the file and folder names, so I don’t include them as fields. Other than that, I can’t think of other metadata fields to use.
I’ve considered before tagging chapters based on what they’re about. Like, several chapters in 1 Timothy could have the tag #leadership. A chapter in Proverbs could contain the tags #wisdom, #humbleness, and #foolishness, because it contains those topics.