The Protestant Bible has 66 books: 39 in the Old Testament and 27 in the New. The King James Version counts 1,189 chapters and 31,102 verses. Catholic Bibles have 73 books, and Orthodox Bibles have more still. Below are all 66 books in the order of English Bibles, with chapters, verses, and listening time for each, followed by an explanation of where the other numbers come from.
How many books are in the Bible: 66, 73, or more?
| Tradition | Books | Old Testament | New Testament |
|---|---|---|---|
| Protestant | 66 | 39 | 27 |
| Catholic | 73 | 46 | 27 |
| Orthodox (Russian Synodal Bible) | 77 | 50 | 27 |
Protestant, Catholic, and Orthodox Bibles have the same 27 books in the New Testament and share the same 39 books of the Old Testament (the Ethiopian canon, mentioned below, is broader). The difference lies in a few more Old Testament books:
- Catholic Bibles add seven deuterocanonical books: Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Sirach, Baruch (including the Letter of Jeremiah), and 1 and 2 Maccabees, plus Greek additions to Esther and Daniel. The Council of Trent (1545–1563) fixed this list.
- Protestants call these books the Apocrypha, and Protestant Bibles usually leave them out.
- Orthodox Bibles include these books and a few more, and there is no single count shared by all Orthodox churches. The Orthodox call them anagignoskomena, “books worthy of reading”; in English they are often loosely called deuterocanonical. The Russian Synodal Bible, for example, is printed with 77 books: the 66 plus 11 others, including 3 Maccabees and two books of Esdras, with the Prayer of Manasseh and Psalm 151 inside the canonical books.
The largest canon belongs to the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, with 81 books, including 1 Enoch and Jubilees.
The English translations in the free Bible Garden app for iPhone and iPad contain the 66 books of the Protestant canon; the Apocrypha is not included.
Old Testament: 39 books
Chapter and verse counts follow the standard numbering used by the King James Version and the Berean Standard Bible (BSB). Listening times are from Bob Souer’s BSB recording, without music.
Ruth, Lamentations, and Daniel appear among the history and prophetic books here; in the Hebrew Bible they belong to the Writings, and Chronicles comes last. The books are the same, arranged differently.
Law (Pentateuch)
| # | Book | Chapters | Verses | Audio, min |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Genesis | 50 | 1,533 | 199 |
| 2 | Exodus | 40 | 1,213 | 157 |
| 3 | Leviticus | 27 | 859 | 115 |
| 4 | Numbers | 36 | 1,288 | 160 |
| 5 | Deuteronomy | 34 | 959 | 137 |
History
| # | Book | Chapters | Verses | Audio, min |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 | Joshua | 24 | 658 | 95 |
| 7 | Judges | 21 | 618 | 91 |
| 8 | Ruth | 4 | 85 | 13 |
| 9 | 1 Samuel | 31 | 810 | 123 |
| 10 | 2 Samuel | 24 | 695 | 103 |
| 11 | 1 Kings | 22 | 816 | 121 |
| 12 | 2 Kings | 25 | 719 | 115 |
| 13 | 1 Chronicles | 29 | 942 | 115 |
| 14 | 2 Chronicles | 36 | 822 | 132 |
| 15 | Ezra | 10 | 280 | 39 |
| 16 | Nehemiah | 13 | 406 | 56 |
| 17 | Esther | 10 | 167 | 29 |
Poetry and Wisdom
| # | Book | Chapters | Verses | Audio, min |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18 | Job | 42 | 1,070 | 96 |
| 19 | Psalms | 150 | 2,461 | 258 |
| 20 | Proverbs | 31 | 915 | 89 |
| 21 | Ecclesiastes | 12 | 222 | 30 |
| 22 | Song of Solomon | 8 | 117 | 17 |
Major Prophets
| # | Book | Chapters | Verses | Audio, min |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 23 | Isaiah | 66 | 1,292 | 199 |
| 24 | Jeremiah | 52 | 1,364 | 218 |
| 25 | Lamentations | 5 | 154 | 19 |
| 26 | Ezekiel | 48 | 1,273 | 198 |
| 27 | Daniel | 12 | 357 | 59 |
Minor Prophets
| # | Book | Chapters | Verses | Audio, min |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 28 | Hosea | 14 | 197 | 29 |
| 29 | Joel | 3 | 73 | 11 |
| 30 | Amos | 9 | 146 | 22 |
| 31 | Obadiah | 1 | 21 | 3 |
| 32 | Jonah | 4 | 48 | 7 |
| 33 | Micah | 7 | 105 | 17 |
| 34 | Nahum | 3 | 47 | 7 |
| 35 | Habakkuk | 3 | 56 | 9 |
| 36 | Zephaniah | 3 | 53 | 9 |
| 37 | Haggai | 2 | 38 | 6 |
| 38 | Zechariah | 14 | 211 | 32 |
| 39 | Malachi | 4 | 55 | 9 |
New Testament: 27 books
English sources group Hebrews differently. Its author is not named, so we list it with the General Letters, as many reference lists do; others count it with Paul’s letters, and English Bibles place it right after Philemon. Russian Synodal Bibles use a different order, with the General Letters right after Acts, but the books are the same.
Gospels and Acts
| # | Book | Chapters | Verses | Audio, min |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 40 | Matthew | 28 | 1,071 | 132 |
| 41 | Mark | 16 | 678 | 81 |
| 42 | Luke | 24 | 1,151 | 142 |
| 43 | John | 21 | 879 | 109 |
| 44 | Acts | 28 | 1,007 | 130 |
Paul’s Letters
| # | Book | Chapters | Verses | Audio, min |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 45 | Romans | 16 | 433 | 57 |
| 46 | 1 Corinthians | 16 | 437 | 55 |
| 47 | 2 Corinthians | 13 | 257 | 35 |
| 48 | Galatians | 6 | 149 | 19 |
| 49 | Ephesians | 6 | 155 | 17 |
| 50 | Philippians | 4 | 104 | 13 |
| 51 | Colossians | 4 | 95 | 12 |
| 52 | 1 Thessalonians | 5 | 89 | 11 |
| 53 | 2 Thessalonians | 3 | 47 | 6 |
| 54 | 1 Timothy | 6 | 113 | 14 |
| 55 | 2 Timothy | 4 | 83 | 10 |
| 56 | Titus | 3 | 46 | 6 |
| 57 | Philemon | 1 | 25 | 3 |
General Letters
| # | Book | Chapters | Verses | Audio, min |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 58 | Hebrews | 13 | 303 | 39 |
| 59 | James | 5 | 108 | 13 |
| 60 | 1 Peter | 5 | 105 | 14 |
| 61 | 2 Peter | 3 | 61 | 9 |
| 62 | 1 John | 5 | 105 | 14 |
| 63 | 2 John | 1 | 13 | 2 |
| 64 | 3 John | 1 | 14 | 2 |
| 65 | Jude | 1 | 25 | 4 |
Prophecy
| # | Book | Chapters | Verses | Audio, min |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 66 | Revelation | 22 | 404 | 65 |
How many chapters and verses are in the Bible?
The Bible has 1,189 chapters: 929 in the Old Testament and 260 in the New. It has 31,102 verses: 23,145 in the Old Testament and 7,957 in the New. These are the counts for the King James Version; the BSB keeps the same verse numbers. Some modern translations, including the BSB, leave a few New Testament verse numbers without text, such as Matthew 17:21, because the earliest manuscripts do not contain those verses.
Chapters and verses were added long after the books were written. Stephen Langton divided the Bible into chapters in the early 13th century, and Robert Estienne numbered the verses of the New Testament in 1551.
- Longest book: Psalms, with 150 chapters and 2,461 verses.
- Longest chapter: Psalm 119, with 176 verses.
- Shortest chapter: Psalm 117, with 2 verses. It is also the middle chapter of the King James Bible, number 595 of 1,189.
- Shortest book by verses: 2 John, with 13 verses. By words in Greek, 3 John is shorter.
- One-chapter books: Obadiah, Philemon, 2 John, 3 John, and Jude.
How long does it take to listen to the whole Bible?
Bob Souer’s BSB recording of all 66 books runs about 69 hours: roughly 52 for the Old Testament and 17 for the New. Winfred Henson’s recording of the World English Bible (WEB) takes about 84 hours. Spread over a year, that is about 11–14 minutes a day; our Bible in a year plan divides the reading into even days.
Bible Garden marks your reading for you. A chapter counts as read when you have listened almost to the end or scrolled to the end of its text. The chapter list shows which chapters you have finished, and the progress screen shows how much you have read in each book and in the whole Bible.
There is no need to hurry through the list. Reading one book slowly is better than skimming ten: progress in the app is not a race, just a way to keep your place and see how far you have come.
Slow down: pauses while you listen
Hours of audio can easily become background noise: the voice keeps going while your mind drifts. To help you listen rather than just press play, Bible Garden offers pauses.
- Timed pause. After each verse, paragraph, or section, add anywhere from a fraction of a second to a minute of silence. A short pause after a verse lets it settle; a longer one after a paragraph gives you time to think.
- Stop until you resume. Playback stops after each verse, paragraph, or section and continues only when you press Play. This works well for reflecting on each passage or memorizing it.
- Pause between chapters. The end of a chapter does not slip by unnoticed, so it is easier to stop where a thought ends.
To go back to a phrase, the previous and next verse buttons jump to the exact start of a verse. One book heard slowly, with pauses, stays with you longer than ten played in the background.
Where to start
You do not have to read the Bible straight through from Genesis to Revelation. Many people begin with the Gospel of John; see how to start reading the Bible. If you want to cover all 66 books, try the Bible in a year plan: it offers both a straight-through order and a parallel reading of the Old and New Testaments.
Bible Garden is currently available for iPhone and iPad. Listening on the website and an Android app are in our plans.
Frequently asked questions
How many books are in the Catholic Bible?
73: 46 in the Old Testament and 27 in the New. Compared with Protestant Bibles, Catholic Bibles add Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Sirach, Baruch, and 1 and 2 Maccabees, along with longer versions of Esther and Daniel.
How many books are in the Orthodox Bible?
There is no single number: Orthodox churches differ, and editions vary. Orthodox Bibles contain the 66 books, the Catholic deuterocanonical books, and several more, such as 3 Maccabees and the Prayer of Manasseh. The Russian Synodal Bible, for example, is printed with 77 books. The Ethiopian Orthodox canon has 81.
How many books of the Bible did Paul write?
Thirteen New Testament letters carry Paul’s name, from Romans to Philemon. Hebrews does not name its author; some traditions have linked it with Paul, but many readers treat it separately.
How many chapters are in the Bible?
1,189 in the King James Version and other Protestant Bibles: 929 in the Old Testament and 260 in the New. Catholic and Orthodox Bibles have more because they include additional books.
How many chapters of the Bible should I read a day?
About three or four chapters a day takes you through the whole Bible in a year, or 11–14 minutes of audio. If that feels like too much, one chapter a day is a good start: the Gospel of John takes three weeks at that pace.