We introduce a general iterative scheme by the viscosity approximation method for finding a common element of the set of solutions of an equilibrium problem and the set of fixed points of a nonexpansive mapping in a Hilbert space. Our results improve and extend the corresponding ones announced by S. Takahashi and W. Takahashi in 2007, Marino and Xu in 2006, Combettes and Hirstoaga in 2005, and many others.