To begin, let’s look at the Bible’s structure. The Bible is divided into two sections: the Old Testament and the New Testament.
39 books total, by a variety of authors, make up the Old Testament. Over a period of about 1,000 years, authors from various parts of the world wrote these books, but they all had one thing in common: God’s love for people.
The New Testament is also made up of 27 books, which were written over a period of about 50 years. In these books, Jesus Christ appears as a human being in order to show us how to live according to God’s wishes.
How Many Pages In The Bible
The Bible is a collection of sacred texts and scriptures that are considered to be divinely inspired by many religious traditions. One common question people ask is, “How many pages are in the Bible?”
The answer to this question can vary depending on the edition and the size of the text. However, on average, most Bibles contain around 1,200 pages.
Despite the number of pages, the Bible is divided into two main sections, the Old Testament and the New Testament. Each section contains a number of different books, chapters, and verses that are central to the teachings of Christianity.
Some key verses and stories in the Bible that relate to the question “How Many Pages In The Bible” include:
- Psalm 119:105 – “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.”
- Joshua 1:8 – “This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it.”
- 2 Timothy 3:16-17 – “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.”
These verses emphasize the importance of the Bible as a guide for living a righteous life and following the teachings of God. The number of pages in the Bible may vary, but its significance and impact on millions of individuals across the world remain constant.
The most succinct answer to that question is: It depends. What does it depend on? This article will answer that question and hopefully provide additional information on the reasons why Bibles differ in length.
To begin, the Bible is not composed the same way for everyone. Different faith traditions can and do use different versions of the Bible. This practice of using different Bible versions has gone on for many centuries, even as far back as the 3rd century CE.
An early Christian named Marcion began a branch of Christianity that used a version of the Bible that excised all of the Old Testament and much of the New Testament. Marcion could not reconcile the violence of the God of the Old Testament with Christ’s teachings of love and peace. Eventually, Marcion was excommunicated and his version of Christianity was branded heretical. Thomas Jefferson put together a version of the Bible. His bible only contained portions of the New Testament and, like Marcion, removed any reference to religious violence.
How Many Pages Does the Catholic Bible Have?
With the added apocryphal books, a reader can expect approximately 1,600 pages (which will take about 50 hours to read). If someone is Catholic, the bible to be used will include the books of the Old Testament, the books of the New Testament, as well as several books defined as Apocrypha. In the Apocrypha, one can find books such as 1 and 2 Esdras, Tobit, Judith, Ben Sirach, and 1 and 2 Maccabees. Some of these apocryphal texts are allegorical in nature, while others are more historical in nature.
Additionally, there are different translations available of the Catholic canon. For example, one can read the English Standard Version (ESV) or the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV), or the Harper-Collins Study Bible.
How Many Pages Does the Protestant Bible Have?
The Protestant canon of scripture contains approximately 1,200 pages (which will take about 30 hours to read). The Protestant denominations use a different version of the Bible. Protestant faiths generally use a version of the Bible that does not have the Apocryphal books. This version of the Bible is read in many translations.
The King James Version (KJV) translation is a popular translation, yet other translations are gaining popularity. Translations such as the New Inspired Version (NIV)have been available for several years. Other translations appear, as well. Many of these newer translations attempt to offer the bible in modern, updated language in the hope the bible will appeal to more readers.
How Long Is the Jewish Bible?
Another version of the bible is used by those who practice the Jewish faith. The Hebrew Bible produced by the Jewish Publication Society has 2032 pages. The Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia version has 1574 pages.
What Christians call the Old Testament, is called the Hebrew Bible by Jews. The Hebrew Bible is divided into three sections: The Torah, the Prophets, and the Writings.
Jews refer to these sections as Torah (the Law), Nevi’im (the Prophets), and Ketuvim (the Writings).
The Torah section contains the first five canonical books of the Old Testament: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. The Prophets section is subdivided into two sections: the four historical books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings.
The second subsection consists of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekial, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi.
The Writings section contains Psalms, Proverbs, and Job, Song of Songs, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, and Esther, Daniel, Ezra and Nehemiah, and Chronicles. It is interesting to note that the Hebrew Bible does not end with Malachi, as Christian bibles do. The Hebrew Bible ends with Chronicles.
As one can see, many variables come into play with the bible. As this article has noted, a bible’s length is affected by the number of books contained in the accepted canon of a religious tradition. The length of the bible can also be subject to change depending upon the various translations available. Even different publishers can change the length of the bible.
How Long Does It Take to Read the Bible?
As noted above, the amount of time depends on which version of the bible. In general, it will take about 30-50 hours to read the bible at an average reading pace of 300 words per minute.
Conclusion
So far, all of the bibles discussed so far fall into a category of scripture called a closed canon. Canon is merely a word describing the works of scripture that are accepted by a religious faith tradition.
In the case of a closed canon, it means the scripture that is accepted as authoritative and valid cannot be added to or changed. There are some faith traditions that believe in an open canon of scripture. These faith traditions believe in the bible as the word of God and typically use the Protestant form of the bible. Some faiths which have an open canon accept other writings as scriptural. These non-biblical writings are referred to as extracanonical writings and go beyond the scope of this article. So when the question is asked, “How many pages does the bible have?”, the right answer is, “It depends.”