Each book of the Bible is made up of a range of different chapters. The Bible is a large book, with 66 books and 1,189 chapters. The Old Testament alone contains 397 chapters and the New Testament has 260 chapters.
The books of the Bible were written over a period of many hundred years by a variety of people from all walks of life, in different circumstances and places. There are basically two ways to count chapters: either its structure or the flow of their content. The number named for each book doesn’t always correspond with their actual number of chapters.
list of how many chapters are in each book of the bible
The chart below is a list of all 66 canonical books of the Bible along with the number of chapters in each book. Most of the books were written for a group of readers. Those which were written to specific individuals are identified with asterisk. This list of Bible books has them in the order in which they appear in Bibles today. The order is more in terms of subject matter — history, wisdom literature, prophecy, gospel accounts, letters and so on — than in the chronological order in which they were written.
For example, Bible scholars say Mark was likely the first Gospel account to be written. However, Matthew is the first book of the New Testament, likely because it makes more references to the Old Testament than any of the other three Gospel accounts. Scholars also think1Thessalonians was the first of Paul’s letters or epistles to be written. However, Romans the first book in the section containing his letters to churches and individuals. The same kind of thing occurs in the Old Testament. Esther, for instance, is about events during the Babylonian exile while books like Psalms and Isaiah, which were written prior to the Exile, appear after the Estther’s story in printed Bibles.
Book of the Old Testament, a.k.a. the Hebrew Bible
Books of the New Testament
*Biblical writings addressed to an individual
| See the Old Testament portion of this outline in a graphic table [ more ] |
What are the longest and the shortest books of the Bible?
Well, there are two ways to measure the books of the Bible. One way is by the number of chapters and the other way is by the number of words. By number of chapters, Psalms is the longest book. In terms of the shortest book, Obadiah, Second John, Third John, Jude and Philemon only have one chapter each. In terms of actual words, Jeremoniah is the longest book and Third John is the shortest./p>
Books of Bible ranked by the number of chapters
From the most chapters to the least number of chapters
- Psalms — 150
- Isaiah — 66
- Jeremiah — 52
- Genesis — 50
- Ezekiel — 48
- Job — 42
- Exodus — 40
- Second Chronicles — 36
- Numbers — 36
- Deuteronomy — 34
- First Samuel — 31
- Proverbs — 31
- First Chronicles — 29
- Acts — 28
- Matthew — 28
- Leviticus — 27
- Second Kings — 25
- Second Samuel — 24
- Joshua — 24
- Luke — 24
- First Kings — 22
- Revelation — 22
- John — 21
- Judges — 21
- First Corinthians — 16
- Mark — 16
- Romans — 16
- Hosea — 14
- Zechariah — 14
- Second Corinthians — 13
- Esther — 13
- Hebrews — 13
- Nehemiah — 13
- Daniel — 12
- Ecclesiastes — 12
- Ezra — 10
- Amos — 9
- Song of Solomon — 8
- FirstTimothy — 6
- Ephesians — 6
- Galatians — 6
- First John — 5
- First Peter — 5
- First Thessalonians — 5
- James — 5
- Lamentations — 5
- Second Timothy — 4
- Colossians — 4
- Jonah — 4
- Malachi — 4
- Michah — 4
- Philippians — 4
- Ruth — 4
- Second Thessalonians — 3
- Second Peter — 3
- Habakkuk — 3
- Joel — 3
- Nahum — 3
- Titus — 3
- Zephaniah — 3
- Haggai — 2
- Second John — 1
- Third John — 1
- Jude — 1
- Obadiah — 1
- Philemon — 1
Bible books ranked by number of words
From the most words to the least words
Which Bible book is the longest? Well, it’s not necessarily the one with the most chapter divisions. Take a look at this list.
The word count given is the number of words each book has in the original languages. That word count would, of course, vary from language translation to language translation
- Jeremiah — 33,002 words
- Genesis — 32,046 words
- Psalms — 30,147 words
- Ezekiel — 29,918 words
- Exodus — 25,957 words
- Isaiah — 25,608 words
- Numbers — 25,048 words
- Deuteronomy — 23,008 words
- Second Chronicles — 21,349 words
- First Samuel — 20,837 words
- First Kings — 20,361 words
- Luke — 19,482 words
- Leviticus — 18,852 words
- Second Kings — 18,784 words
- Acts — 18,450 words
- Matthew — 18,346 words
- Second Samuel — 17,170 words
- First Chronicles — 16,664 words
- Joshua — 15,671 words
- John — 15,635 words
- Judges — 15,385 words
- Job — 12,674 words
- Mark — 11,304 words
- Proverbs — 9,921 words
- Revelation — 9,851 words
- Daniel — 9,001 words
- Nehemiah — 8,507 words
- Romans — 7,111 words
- First Corinthians — 6,830 words
- Ezra — 5,605 words
- Hebrews — 4,953 words
- Esther — 4,932 words
- Zechariah — 4,855 words
- Ecclesiastes — 4,537 words
- Second Corinthians — 4,477 words
- Hosea — 3,615 words
- Amos — 3,027 words
- Ephesians — 2,422 words
- Lamentations — 2,324 words
- Galatians — 2,230 words
- First John — 2,141 words
- Micah — 2,118 words
- Ruth — 2,039 words
- Song of Solomon — 2,020 words
- James — 1,742 words
- First Peter — 1,684 words
- Philippians — 1,629 words
- First Timothy — 1,591 words
- Colossians — 1,582 words
- First Thessalonians — 1,481 words
- Joel — 1,447 words
- Malachi — 1,320 words
- Second Timothy — 1,238 words
- Zephaniah — 1,141 words
- Second Peter — 1,099 words
- Jonah — 1,082 words
- Habakkuk — 1,011 words
- Haggai — 926 words
- Nahum — 855 words
- Second Thessalonians — 823 words
- Titus — 659 words
- Jude — 461 words
- Obadiah — 440 words
- Philemon — 335 words
- Second John — 245 words
- Third John — 219 words
how many chapters and verses are in each book of the bible
When preparing Bible Studies, or thinking about what book to study over the course of a term’s worth of small groups, or just planning a sermon series where you are reading an entire chapter of Scripture and preaching on it, it is helpful to have a list of books of the Bible with the number of chapters they contain.
Of course, this is a blunt instrument – some chapters are longer than others – but given that a faithful preacher can generate a sermon from a single verse of scripture (I’d recommend Colossians 3:17, personally) or even a single word, I wanted to at least for myself collect together a list of the books of the Bible ordered by the number of chapters in each book.