Do you know the bible well? In this article, you will learn about an important statistic of the Bible: The number of chapters – And it may not be what you think.
Number of Chapters in the Bible
The Protestant Bible has 1,189 Chapters. It has two main parts:
- Old Testament: 929 Chapters.
- New Testament: 260 Chapters.
So, if you want to read the whole Bible in a year, you should read 4 chapters a day. You will be done in 10 months.
Here’s the breakdown.
Old Testament
| Genesis | 50 |
| Exodus | 40 |
| Leviticus | 27 |
| Numbers | 36 |
| Deuteronomy | 34 |
| Joshua | 24 |
| Judges | 21 |
| Ruth | 4 |
| 1 Samuel | 31 |
| 2 Samuel | 24 |
| 1 Kings | 22 |
| 2 Kings | 25 |
| 1 Chronicles | 29 |
| 2 Chronicles | 36 |
| Ezra | 10 |
| Nehemiah | 13 |
| Esther | 10 |
| Job | 42 |
| Psalms | 150 |
| Proverbs | 31 |
| Ecclesiastes | 12 |
| Song of Solomon | 8 |
| Isaiah | 66 |
| Jeremiah | 52 |
| Lamentations | 5 |
| Ezekiel | 48 |
| Daniel | 12 |
| Hosea | 14 |
| Joel | 3 |
| Amos | 9 |
| Obadiah | 1 |
| Jonah | 4 |
| Micah | 7 |
| Nahum | 3 |
| Habakkuk | 3 |
| Zephaniah | 3 |
| Haggai | 2 |
| Zechariah | 14 |
| Malachi | 4 |
New Testament
| Matthew | 28 |
| Mark | 16 |
| Luke | 24 |
| John | 21 |
| Acts | 28 |
| Romans | 16 |
| 1 Corinthians | 16 |
| 2 Corinthians | 13 |
| Galatians | 6 |
| Ephesians | 6 |
| Philippians | 4 |
| Colossians | 4 |
| 1 Thessalonians | 5 |
| 2 Thessalonians | 3 |
| 1 Timothy | 6 |
| 2 Timothy | 4 |
| Titus | 3 |
| Philemon | 1 |
| Hebrews | 13 |
| James | 5 |
| 1 Peter | 5 |
| 2 Peter | 3 |
| 1 John | 5 |
| 2 John | 1 |
| 3 John | 1 |
| Jude | 1 |
| Revelation | 22 |
Bible versions
Wait, does the number of chapters depend on the bible version? It generally doesn’t. The King James Version (KJV) has the same number of chapters as the New International Version (NIV). The number of words can be different for different translations but not the chapters.
Canons
You may have noticed that I stressed the Protestant Bible when saying the chapter counts. Here’s why.
There is more than one book called the Bible in the world. So, depending on who you are talking to, it can mean different books. They are called canons. Different canons do have different chapters.
- The Protestant Bible is the Bible used by the Protestant Christians. The Old Testament follows the Hebrew Bible. It does not include the Deuterocanonical books in the Catholic Bible. It is the one I was referring to and has 1,189 chapters.
- The Catholic Bible includes Deuterocanonical books in the Old Testament. Because of the extra books, it has 1,334 chapters.
- The Orthodox Bible can have more chapters depending on the tradition, for example, Greek, Russian, etc. It varies between 1,326 and 1,368.
- The Hebrew Bible, also known as the Tanakh, has the same content as the Protestant Old Testament but is arranged differently into fewer books. Because of this, it has fewer chapters: 869.
By
